What the Heil?

By Mustang Bobby

Richard Iott, the Republican candidate for Congress from Toledo, used to have a rather interesting hobby:

Mr. Iott appears dressed in a Nazi uniform, along with several other men, in a photo that accompanies the lead item on theatlantic.com.

The headline is “Why's a GOP Candidate Dressed as a Nazi?”

The online article by Joshua Green begins, “An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one: Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio's 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned a German Waffen SS uniform and participated in Nazi re-enactments.”

So, in other words, he used to spend his weekends having a Nazi Party.

Mr. Green writes that Mr. Iott's name appears on a roster as early as 2003 of a group that re-enacts the Nazi's 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. Mr Iott told the writer that his interest in the group is “purely historical interest in World War II.”

Joining was a “father-son bonding thing,” Mr. Green quotes Mr. Iott. But he quit three years ago when his son lost interest, and so his name and photos were removed from the Wiking site, Mr. Iott told Mr. Green.

Far be it from me to offer parenting advice, but if you want to bond with your son, how about joining the Boy Scouts?  Little League?  Build a soap-box derby car?  Those are the classic father-son kind of things people think of, not conquering Eastern Europe with tanks.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that Marcy Kaptur, the Democratic incumbent, is assured of re-election.

(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Exhaustion

By Mustang Bobby.

Following up on Creature's post below....

President Obama held a town hall meeting earlier this week where he took unscripted questions from the audience. Some the questions were rather pointed, and he also heard from a woman named Velma Hart who told the president that she was exhausted.

Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the man for change I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I’ve been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting, sir, I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet.

She's not alone, and if the polls are to be believed, it's showing up as the "enthusiasm gap" between the Democrats and the Republicans in the run-up to the mid-terms. And as Digby says, it's not really new.

Those of you who went through the 90s will recognize this phenomenon. It's when the right's ferocious attacks are so vicious and relentless that they eventually wear down average, common sense people with normal lives to lead --- and even scare them a little.

In Clinton's case it was defending him from the non-stop personal attacks that was so wearying. It took a brave soul with a taste for political combat to keep fighting in the face of that onslaught. It was called Clinton Fatigue, the sense that even people who were sympathetic to the president's political plight and understood that his enemies were rabid and insane, just wanted it to end. Many analysts think it was the reason why Gore had such a hard time even though the economy was roaring --- normally the country would have not wanted to rock that boat. It was the prospect of four or eight more years of wingnuts shrieking and howling that made at least few people say "whatever... give it to them ... anything to shut them up."

In Obama's case it's this moribund economy vs the outsized expectations that form the substance of the Democratic base's complaint. And there's good reason for people to be disappointed and worried. But the exhaustion at defending him, at least some of it, comes from the same place as that Clinton Fatigue. The right's non-stop attacks eventually just wear people down, sap them of their enthusiasm, make them question their own judgment, especially in the face of a negative and less than hopeful future. You have to be pretty committed to want to wallow in this toxic mud every day and most people have better things to do with their time.

This is where it gets difficult. It's not easy fighting the relentless and the trivial; it's like being pecked to death by ducks. And don't think for an instant that the attackers don't know this; it's the basis of their strategy. Don't go after the big things like how to rescue the economy or fix healthcare; they've shown that not only do they not have any ideas, even if they did they wouldn't put them out there because that would both raise the argument to the level of a real discussion about things that matter -- which is the last thing that they want -- and take the attention away from the silly and the insane such as the conspiracy theories about birth certificates and Luo tribal anti-colonialism.

The thing to remember is that this fight cannot be about one person. President Obama or Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich are, in the long term, temporary figures and at some point they will leave the scene, so focusing on them diverts our attention from the ideas, and those are the things that matter. That is why the right wingers label the healthcare reform "Obamacare"; they latch it on to a person and attach all the personal baggage that he brings with it rather than focus on the benefits that healthcare reform brings with it. It's an old tactic and it works.

Ms. Hart is right when she says she's exhausted by defending President Obama. But what about the ideas that she believes in that made her vote for him and support him to the point of her exhaustion? Is she ready to give up on them? Is she ready to concede the points of the opposition; that healthcare reform and the stimulus package are socialism and that the president is secretly a Muslim born in Kenya? Forget about Mr. Obama; is she -- are we -- too exhausted to fight for the things we believe in?

I'm not. I've been fighting for what I believe in all my life and I've faced some pretty steep and tough obstacles, and I have some scars to prove it. It can be exhausting. But if it wasn't, it wouldn't be worth fighting for.

(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Obama fatigue

By Creature

Sure I'm disappointed in the way Obama's first two years have played out, and yes he is to blame for some of that, but it's the crazy coming from the other side that really has me down (and probably is why I'm having a hard time blogging lately). As Digby explains, it's Clinton fatigue all over again. Hell, part of the reason I didn't support Hillary in the primaries was simply because I couldn't live through the crazy of the '90s all over again. Yet here we are, only more so, and I'm exhausted.

Quote of the Day

By Creature

"We keep on hearing from the far right that America is Germany in the 30’s. It may be coming true only there won’t be brown shirts, they’ll be wearing red, white and blue and carrying crosses." -- GregB, commenting over at Balloon Juice.

There is no Ground Zero Mosque

By Creature

It's a damn community center and it's blocks away. I really need to stop hearing about this bogus story and I'm going to do my best to not blog about it from this point on (I hope). So, in that light, I'll give Keith the last word:

Muslims hate dogs

By Capt. Fogg

Shortly before I left the Midwest for Florida, a local Methodist Church with a largely Korean congregation was spray painted with the message: "Chines go home." Swastikas were spray painted on sidewalks and a leader of a self-styled Evangelist Church murdered a black Football coach and shot up a car containing two local Korean-Americans in protest of the growing ethnic diversity of America. Yes, it was an upscale suburb of Chicago and yes, most people were appalled. Since then, we've become more inured to such things, and since then, major political groups have become indistinguishable from what was a demented, lunatic fringe. The largest news disseminator in the country has become a preacher of the same kind of rage -- and we listen as disciples at the feet of wisdom.

I can't act surprised to see a similar fear and loathing phenomenon pervading my Florida neighborhood. No shots are being fired, but it's hard to come away from any social gathering without that sick, sinking feeling in my stomach resulting from some offhand remark about Mexicans. What must they be thinking of me? Is anyone really a bigot as concerns only one group? I think not. Is such bigotry confined to the uneducated? Hardly: the Beck Brigade contains the majority of millionaires I know and none who have anything to worry about from some undocumented day-laborer hanging around the Home Depot parking lot. Yet they do. They worry themselves sick that our government is being taken over by Black people who will make sure that no other black people will have to work for a living any more. They worry themselves sick that American Muslims will somehow institute Sharia and set aside the constitution, while they themselves see that tattered document as an impediment to Christian sovereignty.

"Islam is not a religion. It is a worldwide political movement meant [sic] on domination of the world. And it is meant to subjugate all people under Islamic law...."

reads an anonymous e-mail tied to a California Tea Party group. Where I live, such a thing is likely to be as sermon to the converted. It's a tenet as firmly adhered to as that "Obamacare" depends on "death panels" to keep costs down and that the US constitution is meant to subjugate all people under Christian law. But there are no Mosques here, no Islamic community centers as there are in other parts of the country. In California, in Tennessee, in New York and elsewhere, the bigoted scum that is America is being called upon to disrupt prayer with loud protest and being encouraged to bring dogs: because Muslims "hate dogs."

When I was a young man, traveling and studying in Europe, I heatedly defended my country against pervasive charges of racism and bigotry and imperialism, pointing to the strides being made in the 1960's. I was wrong, I was a fool and I wish I had not been. We have been jailing people for their political thoughts since the beginning, we replaced slavery with repression and subjugation, we've had laws reducing the rights of one ethnic group after another. We've denied entry and we have expelled citizens for their racial origins. We whine about invasive government while we use it to invade the lives of millions. We've made a straw devil out of those who have worked to undo the intrinsic hatred that is American culture. We have, save for a few glorious moments, been cowards, bullies and barbarians as likely to tear our own countrymen apart as the enemies, real and imagined, from without. There is no patriotism, no sense of a common goal, only flag waving and warriors at war -- and fear, always the fear.

Have we forsaken our ideals or did we ever really have any beyond "every man for himself" and "fuck you?"

(Cross posted from Human Voices)

Hatching hypocrisy

By Mustang Bobby.

Via the inimitable digby we learn that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is introducing an amendment to the 2005 Stolen Honor Act that would make it a crime to lie about serving in combat in order to win an election.

My amendment would add to this existing statute, making false statements regarding participation in combat operations. It appears to me that individuals make these false claims in order to obtain honorariums, employment, elected office or other positions of authority.

If convicted of this misdemeanor offense, the perpetrator could face 6 months in jail and/or a fine. This is the same penalty for falsely obtaining and wearing awards or medals.

Gee, I wonder who he's going after with that? (Hint: Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic Senate candidate in Connecticut.)

However, this could have some unintended consequences. There are several people who have, to be charitable, stretched the truth about their time in combat. People like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who claims to be "an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran" when he never left the U.S.; George W. Bush, who said that he "learned some good lessons from Vietnam"; and of course there was Ronald Reagan himself who told people that "as a young soldier in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, he had filmed the liberation of Nazi death camps." Reagan never left the U.S. during World War II.

I have a counter proposal for Mr. Hatch: make it a crime to lie about someone else's service in combat in order to win an election. I think he might be able to get John Kerry to co-sponsor that one.

(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

You can't make this up

By Mustang Bobby.

Sarah Palin is at it again:

"[O]ur Constitution, of course, essentially acknowledging that our unalienable rights don't come from man; they come from God. So this document is set up to protect us from a government that would ever infringe upon our rights to have freedom of religion and to be able to express our faith freely."

As Steve Benen notes, the concept of "unalienable rights" comes from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, and nowhere in the Constitution is God or the bible cited as a source for anything. Anyone who was paying attention in Grade 5 history class could both tell the difference between the two documents and tell you what is and what isn't in them. And you can't make this stuff up.

Her defenders will say, "Oh, well, she just misspoke; she does know the difference." No, apparently she does not, because she went on to rhapsodize:

"I think we should kind of keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They're quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 Commandments. It's pretty simple."

Aside from the glaring misinterpretation of reality, what boggles the mind is that a lot of people actually take Sarah Palin seriously and consider her to be a viable candidate for President. Of the United States.

The question then becomes not how stupid are the people who would consider such a possibility without falling down, but how the hell can anyone in their right mind even let this sort of discussion take place? Sarah Palin can blather on with her gross and willful misinterpretation of history, and she's entitled to whatever opinion she wants, but the idea of taking her seriously as anything other than an ignorant laughingstock is deeply disturbing for the future of our country.

(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Dumbass of the Week

By Carl

They grow 'em stoopid in Tin-ass-cy:

SO HERE’S A QUESTION: Would a default on Treasuries accomplish what the Balanced Budget Amendment was supposed to achieve, by forcing the government to spend no more than it takes in?

I dunno, Glenn... would shoving a stick in your ass make you smarter than wood?

Bruce Bartlett goes over the reasons this latest moronic trope floated by the Right Wing Talking Trash Elmo doll won't work:

1. The Treasury can never default on the debt.

[...]

2. Even if the Treasury somehow defaulted—that is, failed to make a timely interest payment—it would not achieve what Reynolds and other conservatives wish: an end to all federal borrowing and de facto imposition of a balanced budget by cutting all spending in excess of revenues.

[...]

3. The disruption to financial markets, commerce and the well-being of all Americans from a Treasury default are really beyond my ability to fully describe. But here are a few points to ponder. Interest rates would skyrocket to unprecedented levels, which would cause a collapse of private borrowing and massive capital losses for all bond holders, which include pension funds, insurance companies and foreign central banks, among others. It might be impossible for pension funds to make payments to millions of individuals depending on them for life itself.

Bartlett goes onto mention that the cost of borrowing for the United States would skyrocket, since our Treasuries are back by "the full faith and credit" of the US government, which of course would default as quickly as the bonds.

Reynolds, of course, backpedals in the face of such an exhaustive and detailed analysis of what one can only hope was an opiate nightmate.

But since this has become a fairly common trope among the chattering monkeys on the right wing porch as it ties in neatly with the Teabaggers and the Paulists, you need to be aware of it.

First off, we've already been through a dry run of an American bankruptcy: the stagflation of the late 1970s, early 1980s, caused in large part by the OPEC nations holding the rest of the world hostage: de facto, we were operationally bankrupt as a nation.

How? When the Fed tried to loosen up the economy, there was no proportionate increase in economic activity. The money went to oil. This created an inflationary spiral and next thing you know, we've raised interest rates (the prime reached not only double digits, but approached 20%, a rate usually associated with third world military juntas).

Which only served to dampen down the economy.

By the way, we are currently in the middle of yet another stagflationary period. Oil, again, played a large part in it. Remember $5 a gallon gas? It wasn't that long ago.

Odd, considering we had two oil men running the country at the time it kicked off.

Monetary policy hasn't worked this time, either, as the money supply was pretty much dried up going in, due to low interest rates and the availability of cheap mortgages drying up investable cash reserves.

But I digress into territory not suited for a blog devoted to snarcasm.

Too, defaulting on national obligations is not like going to bankruptcy court because you can't pay your mortgage anymore. China (which has started dumping Treasuries, so beware) isn't about to accept pennies on the dollar in exchange for a clean bill of health.

We will be forced to pay it back in some form or other. If you don't believe me, just think of how we've bullied and badgered third world nations to repay their debts to us, funds that could have been used to improve infrastructure, or for economic development.

You'll note the Bushies only got involved because they wanted Iraqi war debts forgiven, and Iraq sits on the second largest oil reserve in the world.

If anything, defaulting on American treasuries would force even more spending on domestic social programs, while forcing the United States to cut back on its defense programs.

Hm. Maybe it's not such a bad idea, after all!

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Toxic Tea

By Capt. Fogg

It's the "liberals" and the "lefties" that have destroyed the black family, says the absurdly right-wing man of color. The resident blogger agrees, as he always does when anyone ascribes yet another evil to his shooting gallery of straw targets -- or Commies, Marxists, far-left Liberals, "pussies" or Homosexuals as he terms them interchangeably.

They're both educated people, if you can grant any credibility to what passes for education in the United States, but of course these are Tea Party people, proclaiming articles of faith to one another and in protected sanctuaries where the comments of the reasonable, the informed, the sincere are not permitted to be heard and the vilification of the more or less innocent is the flesh and blood in their Psychotic sacrament. Only in America can someone long for a future of miraculous anarchy, concentration camps, forced deportations and even mass murder -- and insist he's not only speaking for everyone, but is a conservative.

No, Godot will arrive, spend his two week vacation at my house and depart before anyone can explain how the emancipation of slaves, the restoration of civil rights and integration of the schools was an insidious Liberal plot against "black families" regardless of the length of time it took, in part because of the political and sometimes the armed resistance from conservatives. The question of why the end of race-based housing and employment discrimination broke up families; why the end of restricted hotels, separate but unequal restaurants, swimming pools, beaches, bathrooms, drinking fountains and public transportation was a vicious act designed to harm African American families, can only be explained by people who can't tell a tax cut from an increase when seen through a tea bag.

No, I won't link to that blog, since I've had long experience with rabid death threats to me and my family. I've had many long tirades threatening Liberals with deportation to North Korea at gunpoint or even extermination after "the producer class" stages their armed revolution, when I've attempted reasonable, respectful and sincere communication with people like the college professor who runs the place, and I don't want to attract such things to The Reaction. But be aware, they're out there in both senses of the phrase. You may not know of them, you probably don't read them and odds are ten to one you don't agree with them, but from such ugly sores, horrible diseases grow - and they're out there believing that 2012 marks the end of our world and the beginning of theirs.

A Cement Pond of Trouble

By J. Thomas Duffy

There have been growing reports, the past few days, on the upcoming Teabagger Convention, a seething unrest that it is turning into a shit train.

A Tea Party convention billed as the coming together of the grass-roots groups that began sprouting up around the country a year ago is unraveling as sponsors and participants pull out to protest its expense and express concerns about “profiteering.”

[snip]

The convention, to be held in Nashville in early February, made a splash by attracting big-name politicians. (Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech.) But some groups have criticized the cost — $549 per ticket and a $9.95 fee, plus hotel and airfare — as out of reach for the average tea partier. And they have balked at Ms. Palin’s speaking fee, which news reports have put at $100,000, a figure that organizers will not confirm or deny.

Interesting ...

After all, so far, all these feces-throwing, flying monkey Teabaggers have had to do, is show up at public spaces, with their own, hand-made, racist, slurring, defaming signs, at rallies supported by Faux News, and other PartyofNoican shadowy operations, and, on-cue, start foaming at the mouth, and make noise.



Boy, these Teabaggers sure don't get around.

Have they never attended a convention before? For work, as members of a trade association, and such?

As a former producer of trade shows, which included managing shows for associations, the fee structure for the Teabagger bash were not so far out-of-line.

And this faux outrage that the producer of the event is going to make a profit?

That's the entire reason for producing a show, whether you are a "For-Profit" entity, or a "Non-Profit" entity!

The producers' hard costs would include the renting of the exhibit space, breakout rooms, large hall/auditorium for keynotes, and dinner, which go in the range of anywhere from .50-cents, to $2, or $3/per square foot (typically, the more space your rent, the lower the cost).

Then there's the decorating company, to manage the logistics of said space, exhibit space booths, setting up, and cleaning, the breakout rooms, servicing the exhibitors, drayage, etc (this could also be done by the hotel, as a package deal). Also, depending what city (and/or venue) you are in, you may be mandated to use Union labor for this work, which adds a bit to bill.

And the hotel, as to per/night cost for attendees, the producer has to book/guarantee, X-number of rooms, to get the lowest rate. The size of the Room Block will determine the fee (and, depending what city you are in, there could be additional fees, surcharges, that cities like to levy, to raise revenue).

The dinner doesn't just magically appear, either.

The producer, based on what they are serving, can, pretty much, plan on a price range of $5-to-$10, per plate, which may, or may not, include beverages, coffee, etc (some halls, that is a separate deal). And, if you are serving alcohol, more fees, and, possibly, a insurance charge with it.



And, it varies, from show-to-show, as to the presenters, speakers, getting paid.

Frequently, it is done via an honorarium, or "corporate gift", but, as we all know, "celebrities" charge.

The bigger the "celebrity", the bigger the fee (we produced a show, where, for just a 15-minute video welcome from Tom Peters, cost us in the neighborhood of $75K).

So the Teabaggers are sagging that Mommy Moose is milking the event for a, reportedly, $100,000-plus.

Surprised?

Why do they think The Wasilla Whiz Kid, abruptly, abdicated her office, to go out and do charity work?

Pretty weak tea, to find out your hero is not much more than a greed-head.

As to getting to the event, some producers may, or may not, work out a deal with a specific airline, to offer a discount, usually done on an "Early-Bird", time-limited basis.

The way to lower the cost for the attendees, is via Sponsorships, everything from Presenting Sponsors, your various levels of "Gold, Silver, Bronze" deals, signage, Registration area, attendee badges, Show Bag (and charging exhibitors to have their items placed in bag), room key/other special deliveries to room, Breakout Room sponsorship, Program Guide advertising, early mailings to attendees, the above-referenced dinner, and, just about anything and everything you can think of, or, that has a flat surface.

Some of these sponsorships cover your hard costs, others are pure profit-makers.

So, while the feces-throwing flying monkey Teabaggers are feeling ripped off, it goes more to their unenlightened view of the real world, which, considering their ideology, doesn't have you falling down in disbelief.

The producer of the event has just done a shitty job in selling it, not knowing his audience.

He's got Beverly Hills dollars in his eyes, while his attendee base is, intellectually, a step, or two, below the Clampetts.

No Claude Raines moment here, of the PartyofNoicans exploiting a situation.




(Cross Posted at The Garlic)

The Unbearable Liberalness of Truth

By Capt. Fogg

Rush Limbaugh may get his wish and what used to be a viable, if flawed democracy may just disappear into the kind of thing that used to go on in Michael Vick's back yard. Barking, snarling bared tooth and bloody clawed madness is everywhere, in the wild, outraged e-mail I got last night showing Barack Obama "refusing" to salute the flag on Veteran's day, to a new attempt to propagandize small children into supporting mad-dog mentality and bigoted mockery against liberal political figures, Jews, and gays. Even Geraldo Rivera, of all people, is calling Fox and Gretchen Carlson "preposterous and irresponsible" for insisting that trial by jury is dangerous. That may be the first time I've caught him in an understatement.

It doesn't help any more to refer the hoax spreaders to Snopes.com or FactCheck.org, since there are ten thousand web sites telling us that these sites and the facts they cite are wildly biased against the Gospel of Obamahate and never mind the unimpeachable sources they reference. Fox news? The voice of God, of course and we never question it. I don't think we have any chance to survive it.

It's chic to disparage American products. We can't make cars Americans say, but in China? They'd really rather have a Buick and the US is seen as an innovative technological leader with a competitive advantage over the rest of the world. We have the best health care we insist although our nation's capitol has a higher infant mortality rate than Sri Lanka. Socialism and terrorism are our biggest fears yet acetaminophen alone kills many times more people in a year than have ever died in all the terrorist attacks on our country while the healthiest, happiest, most prosperous, free countries offering the most opportunity for advancement are described as socialist, third-world hell-holes by people who can't find Denmark on a map.

The nativists are restless, the bigots are howling like banshees, and the Christianists are speaking in tongues while we roll our eyes and babble about birth certificates, about our Muslim president and Sarah the Rogue Palin who wants to lead us into a future although she insists the end is coming any day and traffic accidents are the result of witchcraft. Millions of my countrymen are as out of touch with reason and objectivity as anyone languishing in a padded cell ever was and I'm without hope. There is a tide of hate and madness in the lives of men and countries and I'm beginning to think we're surfing it straight to hell.

(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)

Sweeping the clowns away

By Carl

Kermit the Frog. Bert & Ernie. Big Bird. Grover. Elmo.

I mention those names, and what image appears in your head? Soft, fuzzy puppets, the Muppets, who teach pre-schoolers and elementary schoolchildren, some of whom cannot afford books and can't get to the (now shut) libraries of the inner cities and rural counties, how to read, and how to do basic math.

Oh. And give them tools and teach them good Judeo-Christian messages of peace and harmony, of getting along in your community. Of how you don't need to fear differences, because underneath it all, we're all just people.

For forty years, these messages have been brought to you courtesy the Children's Television Workshop.

You think, "How can anyone find fault with the basic messages inherent in any church service?"

You'd need to think again. Meet Adam Baldwin:

Our tax dollars by the $tens of millions$ have been redistributed to the CPB/PBS for decades to ‘help’ its social change agents reach into our homes and preach the gospel of multiculturalism.

It is both ironic and hypocritical that the folks producing and airing such socially conscious segments for “Sesame Street” would certainly be among the very first to intolerantly decry the holy leftist “separation of church and state!” political canard.

In fairness to Alec Baldwin and that family, this is not a family member, but is desperate to hang onto the coattails of his in-name-only family.

Baldwin goes onto to point out that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is never sung on Sesame Street, nor is God Bless America. Nevermind that the message it teaches, without referencing any church, is precisely identical to the secular messages he received while wearing his "big boy panties" in Sunday school at Our Lady of Whateverthehell.

Nope. Sesame Street, because it is publicly funded, MUST be part of the Islamofascistcommiepinkohippiefaglesbowymnist movement.

Well, Bert & Ernie DO live together, after all.

I guess Ol' Adam missed this while wearing his (faux) uniform, filming Independence Day:



And indeed, I pointed this out to him in comments and challenged HIS patriotism, since Sesame Street has been to military bases around the world.

But I digress...

Not every patriotic effort has to be borne in with flags waving and guns blazing, or morons in red, white, and blue clothing shouting "USA! USA!" at a sporting event or concert.

Sometimes, a patriotic effort is a matter of teaching a fellow countryman a fact he did not know before. How to count. How to read. How to look at the family down the street wearing yarmulkes and understanding that it's no different than the cross your daddy or older brother wears.

I admit, when Sesame Street started devoting a portion of its show to teaching in Spanish, I got a little uneasy.

Until I thought about it: how do you reach a kid who's parents may not even speak English, yet have thrust him into an English language school system?

And notice, this isn't about illegal immigration. Foreign language students have been in school systems for the past century and more. And we're fortunate here in America that much of the world, much of the wealthier parts at any rate, teach English in their school systems too.

But it's the poor that need our help, it's the poor that need to be given the tools to compete in society, to fully engage in the American dream of getting a job and paying taxes and buying a home and building a life.

It's sad to think that Baldwin, himself just one or two generations away from being a "filthy Irisher" doesn't understand this. A chicago native, a truck driver, and a representaitve of the target audience of Sesame Street, an inner-city working-class kid, he apparently has forgotten the lessons of the street: pick on someone your own size.

It even appears that in his cups, Baldwin has forgotten the lessons of his own movie debut My Bodyguard. Sometimes, kids in scary situations need a hand from a friend, no matter how tough they think they are.

Even if that friend is a fuzzy little puppet.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Armed and crazy

By Mustang Bobby

We've had the "birthers," the "deathers," and the "tenthers." Now we have the "oathers":

Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia.

In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find.

Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution.

More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years.

It's a Cold War-era nightmare vision with a major twist: The occupying forces in this imagined future are American, not Soviet.

"The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them.

"We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you."

This is the same mentality that spawned the likes of Timothy McVeigh and the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995, although this time they like to say that they're not really that crazy. Yet they view President Obama as "the domestic enemy the Constitution is talking about."

This is the same kind of rhetoric that you heard from the neo-Nazi and White Power movement back in the 1990s: that the United States government is in the hands of interlopers and is headed for a dictatorship. Appreciation of irony does not seem to be their strong suit. But when you have conservatives like Little Green Footballs saying that the right wing is losing touch with reality, you pay attention. (It should be noted that LGF has also incurred the wrath of some fellow conservatives by being the grown-up in the room and dissing the birthers.)

Is it any wonder that the Secret Service has reported an increase of 400% in threats against the life of the president since he took office?

(Cross-posted by Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Round Up of Reactions to Nobel Peace Prize for President Obama

By Carol Gee

My sentiments exactly -- The first thought of many of us was that this will drive the Republicans crazy. Matt Yglesias tweeted: "They should institute a Nobel Prize for driving conservatives crazy." As a matter of fact it is making the Right Wing even crazier than they were before. With a HT to Matt Cooper for this link, showing typical arrogance, The Weekly Standard invites you to "meet the people who were passed over for Obama." Politico quoted several very critical conservatives including RNC Chairman Michael Steele and strategist Craig Shirley. The publication also quotes Rush Limbaugh's reaction: "'greater embarrassment' than losing Olympics." To quote further,

"This fully exposes the illusion that is Barack Obama," Limbaugh told POLITICO in an e-mail. "And with this 'award' the elites of the world are urging Obama, THE MAN OF PEACE, to not do the surge in Afghanistan, not take action against Iran and its nuclear program and to basically continue his intentions to emasculate the United States."

Limbaugh continued: "They love a weakened, neutered U.S, and this is their way of promoting that concept. I think God has a great sense of humor, too."

Later more sane reactions -- The Huffington Post linked to President Obama's Nobel speech, and provides more analysis of the selection of Obama, headlining that "Twitter explodes in response to the Obama Nobel win." New York Times "The Lede" gathered world reaction "to a Nobel surprise." McClatchy gives out "more updates." Matt Cooper spoke of President Obama's "elegant remarks" from the White House rose garden.

Earlier items -- The White House was surprised by the announcement, according to NPR. Taegan Goddard at the Political Wire reported on Twitter that "Obama will make a statement on the Nobel prize in the Rose Garden at 10:30." (It was just been delayed until after 11:00). Goddard also provided a round up of reactions to the Oslo announcement. Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic rounds up some fascinating opinions on why Obama should turn down the prize.

In conclusion -- Those who would disparage the Committee's award as merely honoring the President's "aspirational" sentiments dismiss it too lightly. One cannot be a peacemaker without engendering hope for peace in those who are in conflict. Those who dismiss the award as "not George W. Bush -- thank God he's in Dallas," diminish the strength of Obama's influence over people who do not live in the United States. Those who dismiss the award because we are still fighting in Afghanistan should take note of how much trouble the President is taking to figure out how to narrow the conflict and find ways to build bridges to the people of Afghanistan, including reconcilable members of the Taliban. Those who feel the President does not deserve the Peace Prize because of his civil liberties shortcomings should take note of his long commitment to denuclearizing the world. Those who dismiss the award because the President has yet to fulfill his campaign promises should take note of the unusually long list of serious problems he inherited from the previous administration. Sometimes it is enough to be hopeful, respectful of others, inspirational and willing to tackle anything. That is the elemental stuff of which real peace can be made.

Reference to the Nobel Committee announcement that President Barack Obama is their selection for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)

Bully pulpit

By Carl

Interesting poll was put out yesterday by the Associated Press, one that warms my heart a little that maybe this nation is paying attention after all:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Most people still think the country is headed in the wrong direction but a new poll says there are more optimists than before and President Barack Obama's numbers are also on the upswing.

An Associated Press-GfK poll says 56 percent of those surveyed in the past week approve of Obama's job performance, up from 50 percent in September. It's the first time since he took office in January that his rating has gone up.

And those who disapprove of Obama are down to 39 percent, down from 49 percent last month.

While a majority of those surveyed remain pessimistic about the direction of the country, the poll found 41 percent now believe the U.S. is headed in the right direction, compared with 37 percent in September.

Of course, that being a FOX affiliate, you still haven't read the good news:

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll has found that opposition to Obama’s health care remake dropped dramatically in just a matter of weeks. Still, Americans remain divided over complex legislation that Democrats are advancing in Congress.

The public is split 40-40 on supporting or opposing the health care legislation, the poll found. An even split is welcome news for Democrats, a sharp improvement from September, when 49 percent of Americans said they opposed the congressional proposals and just 34 percent supported them.

Anger about health care boiled over during August. Lawmakers returning home for town hall meetings faced outcries that the government was trying to take over the system, ushering in higher costs, lower quality — even rationing and euthanasia.

The key, of course, is that last paragraph.

During the month of August and early September, the astroturfed "Tea Bagger Party" movement made significant inroads in the public dialogue about healthcare by making asses of themselves publicly.

Utilizing the rusty saw "the squeaky wheel gets the grease," these whiny cogs stalked and harassed public officials and raped the public dialogue.

This created an atmosphere where people were not only afraid to speak out in opposition to this brutal patriarchal behavior, but to even agree to abide with it, much like a kidnap victim eventually admires her captors.

No longer, and while I suspected this might turn around, the fact is, it happened so suddenly and with so little reaction from the Obama administration that I began to be concerned if in fact he was getting the point.

I guess he did. Strategically, he must have felt that no one was going to pay attention to him when they were going to the beach or the mountains, but that once he could command a prime time fall television audience, he'd begin to win back the folks who in their hearts want to see the country do better by doing good.

The key to this turnaround has been a full-court press to persuade older Americans that Medicare will not be endangered, and that an extension of Medicare-like coverage to all Americans would not be a bad thing.

Amen.

Too, there's an energy aspect to this strategy: rage usually burns out quickly, leaving a deep-seated sense of embarrassment. Here, I think, is the underpinning to the turnaround in Obama's polling numbers, which sunk as low as Bush's in August 2001.

People just got tired of being angry. Anger is fear and fear is exhausting, and people want Obama to do well (despite the reprehensible and disgraceful cheer that arose when Chicago was eliminated by the IOC).

Too, I think middle Americans watched Glenn Beck all but spew venom with respect to Obama, watched as Tea Baggers all but lynched Obama in effigy (haven't seen that yet, so some credit has to be given the racist contingent), and watched the silliness over Obama's slightest move to relax, and just remembered the Moron-In-Chief who preceded him and said, "Hmmmmm, this is not the side I want to be on."

Kudos, Mr. President. You've done well.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Uncivil war

By Mustang Bobby

Media Matters totes up the number of Republicans and moderate conservatives who are worried that the public might get the wrong idea about them because of the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh:

As Eric Boehlert pointed out earlier today, a significant fissure is opening up on the Right. The increasing influence of extremists like Fox News' Glenn Beck and radio host Rush Limbaugh has shaken more mainstream conservatives who are searching for a new set of leaders -- and the conservative establishment is lashing out. Consider some of the recent comments from prominent conservative media personalities and elected officials:

* Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks describing Beck, Limbaugh, and radio talker Mark Levin as "loons" who are "harmful for America."

* Former Bush and McCain adviser Mark McKinnon denouncing Levin's "jaw-dropping hate language about the president."

* MSNBC commentator and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough blasting Limbaugh's cheers after Chicago lost its Olympic bid: "Republicans have gone off the deep end"

These are just a few examples of a serious trend. Right-wing media figures are now routinely attacking each other's tactics and relevancy. On Friday, Brooks (nonsensically) dedicated an entire column to explaining why conservative media leaders like Beck and Limbaugh are not worthy of attention. He argued that we are once again witnessing "the story of media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche -- even of the Republican Party." It's a point he made several weeks earlier, when he said that "[i]f the Republican Party is sane, they will say no to these people."

Much as I would like to agree, I think it's a little much to describe this as a "serious trend" for the conservatives; not that they're not over the top on their attacks on President Obama (and I'm still not buying Joe Scarborough's usual tactic of saying that the Democrats were just as bad to President Bush), but that this sort of distancing by the more grown-up members of the conservative community of their misbehaving miscreants is a sign of a fissure in the right wing. It's both a little tepid and a little late, and leaves the impression that they're doing it more out of a sense of obligation rather than a real sense of revulsion for some of the more hateful stuff that gets out there. Of course they're going to say that neither Mr. Beck nor Mr. Limbaugh speak for the party; that would affirm that they don't have anyone in the party that does. But they were all too happy to welcome Rush Limbaugh as an honorary Member of Congress when it suited them.

What I think is really going on here is typical CYA so that when either Glenn Beck goes completely off the deep end or some viewer of his takes up the notion that it is his God-given duty to do something evil to the first black man elected as president, they will be able to say "Hey, we warned you about this and we had nothing to do with it." It's not that they really care about how rotten and uncivil the discourse has gotten; they just don't want to get blamed for it when it leads to an inevitable and tragic climax.

(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

More puny poutrage

By Carl

Glenn Beck ought to try poutine. It might make his memory better:

Last night Fox News continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration's efforts to win the Olympics for the United States. In the past, hosting the Olympics has been a source of pride and unity for the country, but once again Fox News' Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings.

At the White House blog, there is a list of misstatements and outright lies Beck told just Tuesday night.

Let me add one more: Beck, aided and feloniously abetted by the rest of the rubber-lipped goon squad (e.g., Michelle Malkin, among others), has been outraged that Barack Obama would go to Copenhagen to make the case for the Olympics to come to Chicago, his hometown.

Yet, strangely silent he was when George W. Bush was vacationing in Crawford, TX (I hesitate to say he was ranching) in August 2005 when Katrina hit and 250,000 people were stranded for days without adequate food, water, or shelter.

Even more strange, he had nothing to say about Bush's extended vacation in the summer of 2001, when he was shown a PDB warning that Al Qaeda was imminently to attack Americans on American soil, likely using commercial aircraft.

Indeed, he came to church on Bush in the last few months of the Bush term, finally speaking out against the massive bank bailout... which he supported just days earlier!

The sense I get from the right wing this month is, they've lost the battle on healthcare reform, lost the battle on economic stimulus, lost the battle on government aid for banks and the auto industry, and are faced with having to find some way to attack what appears to be a rock-solid wall around the Obama castle.

By flinging mud, or worse.

And when you fling mud, two things happen to a large wall:

1) Nothing.

2) It back-splatters back all over you.

The past few years have seen the decline of the heavyweights of right-wing punditry: Rush Limbaugh was shown to be a power-craved madman who would tear apart the GOP for his own ego. He was quickly muted. Ann Coulter was shown to be a whiny-voiced harridan who would attack anyone for a buck. She was quickly muted. Michelle Malkin was shown to be a hypocritical fussbudget with a counter-top obsession and a need to punish innocent children. She was quickly muted.

Into the void has stepped Glenn Beck. He will undoubtedly meet the same fate.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Military coup

By Creature

For a party that likes to promote democracy they really do seem to have issues living under one. When it comes to democracy, it's all lip service for the Right.

Fear factor

By Mustang Bobby

One of the excuses used by the GOP when explaining the teabaggers and the nasty rhetoric from the right wing is that a lot of Americans are scared about what's happening to the country and that people do extreme things when they're scared. That may easily be, but it's also pretty easy to say that when you have been the ones doing the scaring. Just a few examples:

- Dick Cheney, the former vice president, is going on TV and saying the current president isn't keeping the country safe.

- Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate for the Republican ticket in 2008, makes up the concept of "death panels" in the healthcare bill out of thin air. (And she's the one who admonished the media to "stop making stuff up.")

- Glenn Beck calls the president a racist, and he's second only to the biggest mouth in radio saying the same thing.

- Members of Congress are on the record as saying that they aren't sure the president is a native-born citizen and therefore may not really be the president.

- Governors and members of Congress are telling rallies that healthcare insurance reforms -- unlike Social Security, Medicare, the interstate highway system, the FDIC, the FCC, the Defense of Marriage Act, and the ban on late-term abortions -- are unconstitutional intrusions of the federal government into states' rights and therefore they should secede from the union.

Did I leave anything out? And then they are preaching this to a cultivated audience of a portion of the base of their party that they know already has a tenuous grasp on reality, including those who cannot accept the fact that the world might be more than 6,000 years old and the earth revolves around the sun. They get them chanting slogans and using terms like "socialist," "communist," and "fascist" interchangeably, and then they do what they are best at: making people afraid. To quote President Andrew Shepherd from The American President, they are "interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections."

And that, ladies and gentleman, is all they care about. If the Republicans were truly interested in reforming healthcare, they would have been out there with a 1,000 page bill last spring. If they were truly interested in fixing the economy, they would have come up with a budget that was more than four pages of talking points with no dollar amounts. And if they were truly interested in having a civil discussion about bipartisan solutions and putting an end to the vitriol at their town hall meetings, they would have distanced themselves from the birthers and the deathers and the gun-toting whack-jobs with the same amount of full-throated denunciation that they demanded from Mr. Obama over Rev. Wright and Van Jones. But when you've got nothing to offer, fear and loathing is the easy way out, and it works so well. Be afraid of the new, the different, the unknown, the Other. It makes for great news coverage -- not to mention science fiction -- and it sometimes wins elections.

To continue on with President Shepherd's theme, we've got serious problems and we need serious people to solve them. Showing up at the debate with a rodeo clown and former governor who decided she'd rather make more money on a book tour than lead her state is not serious, and it takes an amazing amount of cynicism and perverse pride to think that the American people are gullible enough to buy it.

(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)