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Blogging to the attention deficit generation |
Homegrown propaganda from way back beats thinking about CEO bonuses and the stimulus package.. at least for today.
Still smarting from across-the-board defeats, the GOP is trying to rebuild itself in radical ways. To start, they elected Michael Steele to become the first black chairman of the RNC (I wonder if he'll get his own "magic negro" song) over a guy who just cancelled his membership to a "whites only" country club. The vote was 91-77. They also launched this website to coordinate a plan of attack to reclaim the power that so quickly slipped away from them. In it they key in on several areas they need to improve upon immediately. The primary focus of this resurgence will be on building a grassroots movement through the internet to rally support for their party:
I find it hysterical that people who scream, "Creationism" at the top of their lungs are now the likely victims of Darwinism. Despite ONE news outlet's claims to the contrary, GOP Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell paints a very grim picture of the state of the Republican Party in which he says that the rich, poor, smart and dumb have by and large "stopped paying attention" to them. He says the Republicans have to do everything they can to attract black and hispanic voters to their party (I wonder what the trouble has been?) He says that people are not putting their party in a very positive light and that they need to alter perceptions:
"Too often we’ve let others define us," McConnell said. "And the image they’ve painted isn’t very pretty. Ask most people what Republicans think about immigrants, and they’ll say we fear them. Ask most people what we think about the environment, and they’ll say we don’t care about it. Ask most people what we think about the family, and they’ll tell you we don’t — until about a month before Election Day."
In saying this, I have to wonder if he knows his party very well at all. You do fear immigrants and promote xenophobia. Didn't the Republicans try to build a 3000 mile wall along the Mexican border? Lord knows every right wing radio show host has said quite harsh things about immigrants, especially the illegal ones. The environment? Are you shitting me? The Republicans reversed a ton of conservation bills Clinton put into effect and eased up on environmental protection laws for manufacturers and energy companies that endorsed them financially. Family, you're fine on Mitch. Ann Coulter has made it very clear that single mothers are a blight on society.
The coffers are empty and the rats are leaving the ship. I'm not predicting the GOP will splinter into a thousand pieces just yet. But it is clear they got beat by a man who rose above the bullshit and played fair to get to the highest seat in our government and the Republicans are in a tailspin refusing to hit the EJECT button. By the time they right their ship, we will be in a much better place (which they will try to destroy).
Preferences can be strange. I am often amazed with how quickly the human heart and mind can get mixed up and shift desires. For example, this morning I let my dog out in the yard and walked through the patio to open the door for her. As I opened the yard door, the backdoor to my house closed and, for reasons I still don't understand, locked behind me. This was at 8am and all I was wearing were pajama pants that have a big hole in the place you don't want a big hole at 8am in 45 degree weather. Good thing I hit the gym last night!
At night, when I lock my doors, I feel safe and I prefer that my house be break in proof. Suddenly, in a flash, my preferences drastically changed and I looked to exploit any opening I could. Fortiently I was able to pick the lock using a grill fork in about 3 seconds. I was glad, but how soundly will I sleep tonight?
This brings me to Limblah and his nonsense. The Internet Tubes have covered his shtick as thoroughly as is necessary and I won't ad to it here. Click the hyperlink in the last sentence if you are lost.
My preferences about this turd shift like Rush's man boobs when he bounces on an elephant trampoline. If we ignore him, he goes away--but if he goes away, who is going to keep the right crazy? Does not a crazy right help the cause of progress? He and his followers remind me of Le Pen in France. He usually has about 20% support of the radical right in his country, but they are such loons that they scare the shit out of the other 80% that vote for anyone not named Le Pen. Behind Rush, the right could literally become a 20% faction that is relegated to holding power only at monster truck events, KKK rallies, and paper doll committees for Sarah Palin's annual Easter party.
However, this is not good for the body politic. The truth is, there should sound opposition to any ruling party for a healthy polis. Yet, the seemingly sensible folks in the GOP are more concerned with sucking Rush's cigar than basing policy on sensible, rational thought. Not to say they are not capable, they are just unwilling.
Lets be honest, how would the Republicans have voted had (former!!!) President Bush brought that same package to the floor? Rush would have put up a fuss, but it would have gotten at least some Republican support.
In closing, for I am not sure I have made any sense here at all, Rush is a turd and if we just ignore him and his clones, they will take their rightful place in the asshole of American intellectualism. If we continue to discuss him, he will get stronger. Just ask Marlyn Manson...
Rush Limbaugh recently said he hopes President Obama fails in bringing about the change he has targeted for the past two years. Obama, far from your average politician, essentially told Limbaugh to "stick it." While speaking with Republican leaders preparing to vote on the stimulus plan, Obama essentially said what I have been thinking for years... Limbaugh is not about providing solutions; he is about fingerpointing, name-calling and twisting around a given situation to boost his ratings. He told Republican leaders to stop listening to Limbaugh if they want to fix this country. And Rush nearly cried. How a disgusting lump of crap like him ever reached the status of "bully" is beyond me. But Obama knows, the best way to stop a bully is to bop him on the nose. (You're next Rove!)
[coolest picture of the year by Dark Black]
If you have never watched the t.v. show Twin Peaks, please lock yourself up for the weekend and watch the whole series. If you have, you will have no choice but to buy these limited edition Nike sneakers inspired by the David Lynch creation. With Black Lodge soles and Owl accents, owning these will surely make you the coolest person in your zip code. Especially if you are seen enjoying cherry pie and a damn good cup of coffee while wearing them.
8 days into his presidency, President Obama is proving to be a man of action. The stimulus bill is moving forward. It's not perfect and the GOP predictably is poo-pooing it. It still needs tweaking, but it passed. Looking back at W's first month as president, I'd say we're off to a good start. In his first month in office, W met with Vicente Fox to help smooth out issues with NAFTA and met with Tony Blair to discuss Saddam Hussein who was most assuredly developing "weapons of mass destruction." I dug up this old interview discussing that wondrously crappy chapter of American history. Al Gore's hangover beard was mere five o'clock shadow and the beds were just getting made in Crawford, Texas for an unearned month long siesta from responsibility. The most telling excerpt from this discussion references Bush's insatiable hard-on for Saddam Hussein and his knee jerk reaction to bomb Iraq.
Regular readers of this site know that we have been tracking the experiments of the Large Hadron Collider with great interest. The pursuit of the Higgs Boson is the modern day Grail quest for physicists worldwide. Sadly, the brainiacs at CERN had a setback when their atom smasher had to be shut down for repairs shortly after their much anticipated trials began.
Is Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich about to be impeached on grounds of
loopiness, obnoxiousness and a bad haircut? Apparently so. In defense of the
Illinois state senators who seem to have already decided the governor's fate,
however, the haircut really does border on the criminal.
But it is unclear
to me what else Blagojevich has done that a duly constituted jury would find
illegal. Even in the matter of his menacing mop, at worst he's a co-conspirator
in a dastardly act committed by his barber.
Unfortunately for the governor,
the Illinois Senate is not bound by the strict rules of evidence and testimony
that constrain a criminal court. And even an observer as biased as I am -- what
columnist wants to see such a colorful and unpredictable figure banished from
the political scene? -- must acknowledge that residents of the
fifth-most-populous state in the union deserve better than to be governed by a
late-night punch line.
It'd be far out if it were a good thing, but today, 71,400 people joined the ranks of the unemployed (including two people from my office). Optimists are predicting the tide will turn by the end of the second quarter, but FOX News claims we will be bashing each others skulls in for food and water by the end of the year. If you want to truly get depressed, don't turn on FOX.. just go to the job boards. Everyone who is actively looking knows there are a hundred competitors that are better and will take the job for less money. It's bedlam.
Somehow.. Geraldo maintains his employment by openly defending known sleazeball, Rod Blagojevich. That interview tormented the souls of Rogaine users everywhere.
...is bullshit. It sucks elephant cock. It sucks worse than a crack-whore's....
I hope you get the point. Either way, check this out:
As I sit in a semi-catatonic state, watching Saturday morning cartoons with my daughter, a foggy memory of the shows I watched as a kid permeates my subconscious and I smile...
Rush Limbaugh is many things; a blowhard, a hypocrite, a narcissist and a narrow-minded prick. None of this is news. And it shouldn't come as a shock that he's trying to steal the spotlight away from President Obama by pandering to his conservative fan base with the proclamation that he hopes Obama fails as a president. He knows, in doing so, he is sure to get publicity and I assist him in this cause by repeating his asinine remarks here. What his words truly convey is quite telling and I feel it's important to read between the lines of this message. In his latest little rant, he deliberately misleads his listeners into believing Obama's ultimate goal is the "absorption of as much of the private sector by the US government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care," drumming up unfounded fears in his listeners. He goes on to say, "What is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what's gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here." This is when I began to think the oxycontin was kicking in. Did liberalism decide to chase Osama bin Laden to Iraq when he was in Afghanistan all along running up a trillion dollar tab on the American people? Did liberalism allow gluttonous corporations to do as they pleased without any checks and balances whatsoever? What the hell is this douchebag talking about? You can blame greed, ignorance and laziness for the mess we've gotten ourselves into, but not a political philosophy or alternative lifestyle. The sticking point (especially for his 99.99% white audience) came in the following excerpt, "Were the liberals out there hoping Bush succeeded or were they out there trying to destroy him before he was even inaugurated? (No, because he stole the election and people were rightfully pissed off.) Why do we have to play the game by their rules? (For the past 8 years, they haven't at all. Where have you been?) Why do we have to accept the premise here that because of the historical nature of his presidency, that we want him to succeed? This is affirmative action, if we do that. (His true colors are showing here. It's a good thing Donovan McNabb wasn't elected VP.) We want to promote failure, we want to promote incompetence, we want to stand by and not object to what he's doing simply because of the color of his skin? (We have promoted incompetence with everything we have done for the past eight years. Deep down inside, Rush wants someone to save what's left of this country he loves as dearly as I. 
He just wants it to be saved by a white man.) Sorry. I got past the historical nature of this months ago. He is the president of the United States, he's my president, he's a human being, and his ideas and policies are what count for me, not his skin color, not his past, not whatever ties he doesn't have to being down with the struggle, all of that's irrelevant to me. (nice save.. almost) We're talking about my country, the United States of America, my nieces, my nephews, your kids, your grandkids. Why in the world do we want to saddle them with more liberalism and socialism?" Oy. These unimaginitive hatemongers keep going to the well with that same tired line of crap. America is not and will never be a socialist state. The message all these clowns have been clinging to is one of division instead of unity. The world isn't changing. It has changed. Just because the methods and solutions of our grandparents will not work today doesn't mean we shit all over the tradition and spirit of the greatest generation of Americans to ever live. We need to dig out of this hole with answers and efforts that transcend party lines, but that would dip into Limbaugh's profits. There is big money to be made in misery and fingerpointing. I hold on to the hope that this new wave of positive energy can fight against all these people who love to TALK so much, so that we are can once again become a country of patriots who remember what it means to actually DO.
