Damn you Muslims, get off my lawn

If it's Wednesday it must be Morford,

This much we know: America needs its demons. We need our enemies, our menacing and dark-eyed nemesis, that foreign and terrifying thing we do not understand and against which we must rally and wail, push and pule, fight and destroy.

Communists. Arabs. The Japanese. Blacks. Native Americans. Hippies. Gays. "Gooks." Immigrants. Chinamen. The poor. Women. Teenagers. Vegans. Science. What's the problem with this nation? What's really eating at our soul and threatening our honest love of an angry God, apple pie and giant homoerotic firearms? It ain't us. It's them. They're trying to mess with our heads, steal our freedom, impregnate our virgins, poison the water supply. Damn them to hell, and where's my shotgun?

The sentiment has since grown in fits and farts and boozy burps, fanned by Rush Limbaugh's moron Dittoheads, Glenn Beck's gullible simpletons, and of course, the Tea Party, perhaps the first significant political movement entirely dependent on our failing educational system to survive (my em). Truly, the Tea Party might just be the dumbest gaggle of humans ever to rally around a nonsensical, as-yet-unstated worldview no one can quite spell out. Because they have no clue what the hell it is.

Wait, did I say this enemy-invention thing was an American tradition? Far from it. Demonization of the Other as a means to boorish, violent nationalism is universal to nearly all cultures, all nations worldwide. We are, you can say, a planet of self-righteous, petulant tribes, claiming this or that strip of dirt, crying that God chose us as his most favorite, flinging feces at each other like deranged monkeys, signifying nothing. Ain't it grand?

Yeah, just fuckin' peachy.

The Confederate Party ...

It boggles the mind ...

God bless the Tea Party ...

Our local Tea Party nuts nominated themselves an idiot to run for governor against Andy Cuomo. Heh ...

NEW YORK -- Political novice and tea party ally Carl Paladino has beaten the Republican designee in the race for the party's nomination for New York governor.

...

Rick Lazio (he ran against Hillary for her Senate seat) is level-headed and not crazy. He would have given Cuomo a tough run but instead they put up a nut who Cuomo, should he not fuck up, should defeat handily.

Remember the 'Nader Days' when Ralphie would siphon off votes from the Dems? It's nice to see the Rethugs dealing with it for once.

Update:

The nuts won in Delaware too. Heh ...

"Do you make ...

$250K a year?"

When I hear somebody kvetching about Barry raising taxes, that's what I ask 'em.

If they say "no", I ask 'em why they're so worried about it. Heather explains:

...

And if you're making that much a year you can afford for your taxes on your income over the $250,000 household threshold go up a little. Speaking of which, that's another thing I get tired of while hearing these guys cry about how those tax cuts expiring are going to harm the ones right on the edge so badly. They act like the higher rates are going to affect their entire income. If you made $250,100 for the year after your deductions, the only part of your income that's going to be affected by the higher rate is that last $100, not all of it.

Someone needs to explain the concept of tax brackets to these clowns and the media needs to quit allowing any of them who are confusing the public about just how much more a year anyone that's just above the $200,000 a year individual income of $250,000 a year household income would actually see their taxes rise if the Obama administration's proposals end up being enacted.

It's a shame the conservative "base" is so stupid and gullible, or, maybe at this point, in denial that they've been played for fools for so long.

"...harrumphing in his armchair..."

Eugene Robinson asks the burning (the stoopid - it burns) question:

Is Newt Gingrich just pretending to have lost his mind, or has he actually gone around the bend?

What in the world is "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior" supposed to mean? That Obama is waging a secret campaign to free us from the yoke of British oppression?

I always thought anti-colonialism was what got the United States started way back when, but Neut makes it sound like a bad thing. Oh wait - white colonists throwing off white oppressors is one thing, blacks doing that is uppity because white men know what's best for them and they should bow their woolly little heads at all the help they've received from superior human beings, like oppression, slavery, and poverty, not to mention christianity ("pie in the sky bye and bye when you die! On your knees and shut the fuck up!"), in the service of profit to said whites, the damn ingrates. I get it.

Mostly he's trying to scare white people into voting against their best interests. Typical, and it's worked before, but way over the top this time.

Gingrich seems to believe that our culture and values are also threatened from within -- by black and brown people who demand that they, too, be given a voice in defining that culture and those values. He really needs to get out more. But, hey, it's a free country. If he wants, Gingrich can imagine himself a retired British colonel in 1963, harrumphing in his armchair about who lost Kenya. A diverse and multicultural America has long since moved on.

Most of it has moved on. The Dead End Quarter is running along in the exhaust fumes behind the bus, brain cells dropping like flies, trying to stop it and get it to back up.

Road sign for Repugs

Hard right and pedal to the metal!

Thanks to HuffPo. More silly signs.

Headline of the Day

Australian lawyer smokes pages of Bible and Koran, asking 'Which is best?'

Puppies!

As you know (being I haven't let you forget, heh ...), this weekend we're going to pick up the pups. Kathy the breeder sent me this video yesterday of the litter (our little Ziva is in there somewhere) and their mom chasing a scooter.

Backlash in the Age of Obama

Another headline from BuzzFlash:

The Backlash from the Election of Obama and 9/11: The Barbarians are Inside the Gate. Excerpt from Book by Will Bunch on the New Right, Built on a Foundation of Hysteria, Racism and Islamophobia.

I read Will Bunch (Attytood) every chance I get.

“ . . . I have a birth certificate here from the United States of America saying I am an American citizen, with a seal on it . . .” She briefly turns toward the paper, as if to make certain of what she just said, then continues:

“ . . . signed by my doctor and a hospital administrator stating my parents, my date of birth, stating the time, the date. I wanna go back to January twentieth”—the day that Barack Obama became president, the day that changed everything—“and I wanna know why are you people ignoring his birth certificate?!” The mention of the birth certificate gets a big roar and a couple of full-throat-and-belly cheers, and the uproar only grows in volume as the woman in red picks up verbal steam.

“He is not an American citizen!!! He is a citizen of Kenya!” Hands in front of the woman in red now smack together in fervent applause. “I am here because my father fought in World War Two with the Greatest Generation in the Pacific Theater for this country, and I don’t want this flag to change!

“I want my country back!”

I've seen Obama's birth certificate and so have you. Sometimes I wonder what part of "Certificate Of Live Birth" doesn't say "Birth Certificate" to the birther faction of the Dead End Quarter? Maybe they can't read. More likely, the truth doesn't fit their narrative.

You oughta see my Birth Certificate. It looks like something you'd give a Cub Scout at the annual awards dinner for helping the most little old ladies across the street. It has the name of the hospital in big letters and the birthee's name (mine) and the date and time of the blessed event and "Mr. & Mrs. G's dad's name" printed in fountain pen (no ball points back then). The back is blank except for my weight and length, same fountain pen.

No official seal, no fancy filigree around the edges, no footprints, no mention of ethnicity, no nuthin'. I'm lucky I had the original when Social Security time came around because I had to send it to them. I hadn't seen it in probably fifty years and had to look around for it a little. A little. Heh. Getting a copy of the o-fish-ul Los Angeles County Hall Of Records one (I think there is one) would have been a time-consuming hassle. They sent it back and started sending me money every month, so I guess it was good enough to prove I'm who I say I am.

Pardon me for going off like that, but I did all that after this birther shit came up, and I was dazzled by the lack of officiallookingness on my own birth certificate in the wake of all the phony brouhaha about Obama's.

That's just one segment of Mr. Bunch's excerpt. Please read the rest. I might haveta get the book.

Palin-Beck 9/11 DeathFest Crowd Haunted By Weird Protesters

Wonkette, with Pictures You Should See.

But the average anti-Palin/Beck protester was 50 years younger than the average Palin/Beck supporter, so that’s something.

Our correspondent has punctured the defenses and is now inside the stadium:

In the 10 minutes it took for me to go to my car and send the last batch of photos, Beck/Palin (peace be upon them) gave up on their TSA plan and only screened Suspect People. Only white people=no suspects. The hall is full. The stage is nearly barren of decorations, only two old-timey blackboards and an A’merkin flag can be seen.

…. Long line for booze: I’m beginning to understand how Beck’s psycho ramblings take root in the teabag mind.

It's amazing what these nutbags will pay $200 for, especially with nine days to go before SSI payday...

The Anti-AARP

Headline at BuzzFlash:

Anti-AARP group set for launch. First Requirement of Membership Should be That All Supporters Refuse Medicare, Pay Their Own Medical Bills, and That They Return Their Social Security Checks to the Treasury. Fair Enough.

Their motto could be "Run Outta Money And Die! We'll Show 'Em!". Heh.

"Fear the Secret African Obama"

El Rude-o

The problem, you see, is that Barack Obama is not the kind of nigger they're used to, so they have to turn him into another kind of nigger. Obama just doesn't conform to what the right sees as the various kinds of American niggers they're used to either manipulating for their purposes or deriding as lazy/arrogant/violent ("uppity" sometimes sticks). And he certainly ain't the wannabes, the power-seeking blacks who align themselves with the right, like Michael Steele, like Clarence Thomas. No, all the attempts to turn Senator-Candidate-Nominee-President Obama into a regular ol' nigger just failed. So they have to turn him into another kind. They have to make him into the exotic nigger, the Hottentot, more attuned to the nature of the savage white-conquering Africans than to that of the Zip Coons and Jim Crows. For many on the far and not-so-far right, Obama is Othello, the black Muslim from faraway dark lands ready to fuck and strangle your white daughters.

Why are the mad rantings of Dinesh D'Souza in any way significant? Because they were supported and echoed by Newt Gingrich this weekend, who said in an interview with the National Review that D'Souza's article offers "stunning insight" into the President. "What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior," said the bloated reminder of the decadent overreach of a power-drunk Republican party. This is the man who is the intellectual heart of conservatism in this country.

Isn't this convenient? One no longer has to argue about whether or not Obama was born in Kenya. One only has to say that he's turning the United States into Kenya. Now that's a scary-ass nigger.

And Neutie's scary-ass lyin' white trash with a following of same. Go read the rest.

Update:

From Politics Plus:

So the Republican mantra that only white is right goes on. [...]
...

Of course the reason for such tactics is clear. Republicans have nothing on which to run other than hate and lies. Their new plan for America is the same as the old plan: More tax cuts for the rich and corporate welfare, less services for the poor and middle classes, and zero regulation of corporate criminals.

Every Republican in office is one Republican too many!

Amen.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

First Medical Marijuana Ads Air in California
Paid for by Fritos, Chips Ahoy! and M&M's.

Study: Employers Less Likely To Hire Applicants They Associate with Alcohol
So don’t list “drinking” under “hobbies.”

??? - News Quiz - ???

Obama has proposed a corporate tax break exactly like Republicans in Congress have been demanding. Therefore, they will:

A ) vote for it.
B ) vote against it.
C ) pray.
D ) run around in circles, barking like dogs.

Hint: woof, woof.

Quote of the Day

Dr. Attaturk:

Remember

Only 363 more shopping days until the next Hatemberfest. Another national day of mourning turned into xenophobe porn.

Heaven forbid ...

We worry about the health of our infrastructure. If this would have been a terrorist bomb, we would have been at war by now. I wonder if it'll take as long to find who's responsible as it has to find Osama bin Laden.

Nunya:

...

Why do we have billions to make neighborhoods in other countries look like this, but we can't replace gas main lines that do this type of damage in our own country?

...

History* ...

Coincidentally, we were in Berlin a few weeks back and visited the Bebelplatz:

Wiki:

...

The Bebelplatz is known as the site of the infamous Nazi book burning ceremony held in the evening of May 10, 1933 by members of the SA ("brownshirts"), SS, Nazi students and Hitler Youth groups, on the instigation of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. The Nazis burned around 20,000 books, including works by Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and many other authors. Today a memorial by Micha Ullman consisting of a glass plate set into the cobbles, giving a view of empty bookcases, commemorates the book burning. Furthermore, a line of Heinrich Heine is engraved, stating "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" (in English: "Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people"). Students at Humboldt University hold a book sale in the square every year to mark the anniversary.

...

Click to make lots bigger

Now go read D-cap:

...

I will say that Newt's little movie does have nostalgic value. There was a time not too long ago when a corporal in the German Army running for Chancellor made a lot of the same type of claims against another religion group - the Jews. We all know how that turned out. I am surprised Newt's wife number three isn't hawking canisters of Zyklon B with Sharron Angel as 2nd amendment remedies during the trailers in the beginning.

Newt isnt' the only potential Presidential nominee leading the charge of Muslim-hate. Teabagger Queen Sarah Palin (who spends as little time as possible with her children, including the special needs child Trig) has chimed in quite steadily on this subject. Only Naschnook of the North has been a lot more subtle about spreading the hate around. She hasn't outwardly called for a crusade against Muslims like Gingrich - she just keeps hinting that this religion is all about anti-Americanism.

...

Painting other religious groups with the same broad brush we use to paint Muslims, we would never let our children get within a mile of a Catholic Church.

*Inspired by Gord's post below.

Christ ...

So, the Statue of Liberty is really a big "Keep Out" sign?

...

"This Statue of Liberty was gifted to us by foreign leaders, really as a warning to us, it was a warning to us to stay unique and to stay exceptional from other countries. Certainly not to go down the path of other countries that adopted socialist policies," Palin said to cheers from the crowd.

...

Yeah, we're exceptional. We're exceptionally stupid to give self-serving idiots like Sarah Palin a national forum.

Thanks to Watertiger for the link.

Sunday Crazy Redneck Music Blogging

I smoked a joint with Doug Dillard once, in the back room of The Palomino Club. He told me I had a nice grin. That's like Jesus telling you you've been good.

I love their arrangement of this Eric Anderson classic. Those harmonies are so sweet and so is Ginger's lead vocal.

Doug Dillard, banjo
Ginger Boatwright, lead vocal
Kathy Chiavola, bass
Jonathan Yudkin, mandolin

Doug Dillard Band ~ Close The Door Lightly When You Go

Thanks to bannedjoe, Canada.

After The Gold Rush*

*A Neil Young song, here done by Dolly, Emmylou, and Linda..

Digby on 9/11:

The people of New York deserve a lot of credit for keeping their wits about them on that day. It's too bad the government didn't stay as cool and instead decided to use it as an excuse to bring their neocon wet dream to life.

9/11 may go down in history as a cautionary monument to right-wing political opportunism that brought down our nation.

Nothing to say ...

About 9/11.

We lived it.

We saw what was done to this nation, using 9/11 as an excuse, exploiting our loss for political and monetary gain.

We remember this day privately.

That is all.