With All Due Respect

I will probably forever loathe John McCain for so thoughtlessly, recklessly, and self-interestedly siccing the persistently ignorant, empty-headed, self-promoting Sarah Palin on the nation.  That alone is enough to disqualify him from being described as a “patriot”. 

Therefore, I love and applaud Paul Slansky’s remarks at the Huffington Post today in reaction to McCain’s seethingly disrespectful use of the term “with due respect” in addressing the president at Thursday’s health care “summit”.  

How significant can a “summit” be when so many attending were unevolved mole-hills?  What exactly is the view from the top of a mole-hill? John McCain is definitely no moral K-2.

John McCain & Sarah Palin

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Slansky on McCain (with all due respect):

“…a man whose overriding need to be president – and whose delusional belief that his spluttering,
unprincipled essence qualified him for it – led him to choose as his running mate a preternaturally
ignorant, demagogic harpy whose entire platform turned out to be unearned umbrage. John McCain’s
casual willingness – while unironically touting his slogan “Country First!” – to risk placing this rabid
witch one cancer-ridden 73-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency makes him, to me, not the
patriotic hero he likes to paint himself as, but rather more of a traitor.
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“Exactly!
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That’s bad for America and bad for you

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Now here’s a good idea. 

It comes from a TPM reader.  It’s simple but it’s smart and potentially effective, which is why it will probably never see the light of day as a strategy for Democrats.  The political whimpiness of Democrats seems to have an inverse relationship to the ruthlessness of Republicans.  You wonder what it will take to make Democrats understand that they are not dealing with reasonable, patriot Americans when  they’re dealing with Republicans.  They’re dealing with the equivalent of loan sharks who will break legs if you don’t vote right.

Anyway, the simple strategy can be found here at TMP.  Simply put, it’s a simple sound-bite technique: repeat over and over after me: “That’s bad for America and bad for you.” 

This statement is to be appended to some simple truths such as:

“Republicans want to allow health insurance companies to sell insurance like credit card
companies sell credit cards — to their advantage, not yours. That’s bad for America and
bad for you.”

“Republicans want to keep our dependence on oil, you know “drill baby, drill.” This means
we have to rely on the middle east, Russia, and Venezuela for oil. That’s bad for America
and bad for you.”

“Republicans want to scale down Medicare and privatize Social Security. Leaving seniors
unprotected is bad for America and bad for you.”

“Republicans want to give rich people tax breaks instead of spending that same money to
put people back to work. That’s good for multimillionaires, but bad for America and bad for you.”………………….
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or how about? :

Republicans would like us to forget about science and constitutionalize religious doctrine and
drive policy by adherence to superstition and Biblical edicts.  That’s bad for America and bad for you.

Perennial Argument:

“The earth revolves around the sun!”
Galileo said.

“No,” said the Pope,
“and if you say it again
you’ll be cut off from the benefit
of my infallibility and exiled
to the wilderness of reason
and lose all hope of hope.”

“Ok, maybe not at the moment,”
the miffed voyeur said,
and sheathed his telescope.
But trust me, it will
when you’ve turned your head.”
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OK, OK, so it’s a smart idea, but what’ll probably happen if Dems seriously consider it is that a Democrat such as, say, Ben Nelson will insist it read: “That’s bad for Democrats, but it’s not that bad for you.”
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The Pedulum Swings

The pendulum swings. 

Sometimes Democrats are bigger liars than Republicans, sometimes it’s the other way around. But now (as in the most recent past) Republicans are pushing the envelope of mendacity to new horizons and are up for the Oscar for Best Lying-Sacks-of …you guessed it.  

Republicans have dropped all pretense of governing and have come down squarely on the side vehement inaction –of not doing anything to help the nation if there’s the slightest possibility Democrats (especially Obama) will get credit for it.  The GOP wants a Republican overseen, wild west, red meat, money-centered, maximally-armed, anti-compassionate, oligarchic, free-republic-in-name-only. A belligerant, militant, clawing, grasping, merciless nation which, ironically, they see as being guided by God.  If God approves of that agenda Jesus was a misguided loser.

If they ultimately get what they’re after even the Tea-partiers will wish they’d not been so gullible.  They won’t recognize the place after ideologs like Boehner, McConnell, Hoekstra, and DeMint are through with it. Not to mention rabid bullhorns like Limbaugh and Beck, and shameless self-promoters like Sarah Palin —I will loathe John McCain till the day I die for sicking that pretty, empty head on the country. 

Even tea-partiers love their SS and Medicare, both of which Republicans have hated from their inceptions, and which they’ve been trying to kill for decades.  Why are Republicans reluctant to sit down and discuss what needs to be done to get us fiscally on track?  Paul Krugman has a suggestion:

“Because,” he says, “they would then be forced to put up or shut up. Since they’re adamantly
opposed to reducing the deficit with tax increases, they would have to explain what spending
they want to cut. And guess what? After three decades of preparing the ground for this moment,
they’re still not willing to do that.”

They major programs Republicans would pounce on and eviscerate if they’re given the chance? …you betcha’ :
SS and Medicare.

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What We Is

The earth’s a marvallous place

the place to breathe
if you breathe air

But there are some who
do not understand that
the vitality of the globe
is their vitality too

They’re absorbed in
I-is without a clue
to what We is:

the earth and me
and you

—Spirit Level and Glen Beck

Spirit Level
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I’ve been a carpenter most of my life
and so have had occasion to use
what used to be called a spirit-level
but which we today call a level
–ditching spirit for the sake of efficiency
baby-with-bath-water-like as we’re
known to do well past what’s necessary

but the hole heaps up

this level is used to set things straight
with the plane of the horizon as with a beam
or plumb as with a stud to make sure
structure’s right by spirit

you breathe deep and easy and hold the level
so the spirit bubble floats in the small arc of a glass flask
dead center which if placed upon a joist would say,
this floor is level

being on the level
good way to be
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it appears the spirit level of the USA is out of whack.  Since we started operating on the principle of fear our spirit has not been the same.  At 9/11 the top of the heap realized (reawakening the fear of 1941) they had their Pearl Harbor and an excuse and opportinty to bend the trajectory of the USA their way, so they put their noses to a grindstone and their shoulders to the wheel.

Following Pearl Harbor Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to camps to keep us safe.  Since 9/11 we’ve had war, guantanamo, torture, and consequent debt for the same reason they say.

Fear’s a hard and powerful tool.  And fear enhanced by the demonizing of the-other has been a lethal combo. Enter Glenn Beck, the newest inciter, who annoints his church with fear; he flings fear as if it were holy-water over his flock like a dark priest. 

People politically incite for two reasons, money and power.  With Beck it’s probably both.  Beck would not feel uncomfortable in an SS uniform.  Beck is worse than O’Rielly in that O’Rielly, odious as he often is, may have his limits.  You don’t get that with Beck.

Resist the inclination to call Beck a clown. 

Beck is Iago.  He’s wonton, amoral, and reckless.  With the serious intent of a waterboarder Beck floods lies into ears for the sake of the lie, the money it can make him, and the  feel of power his lies give.  If he keeps it up Desdemona is toast.

Beck may be beyond setting straight with a spirit level.

But where are the people on Beck? 
His ratings are inversely proportional our economic trend.

American Socialist Bank!

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There’s a socialist bank in North Dakota! 

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I’d not heard that North Dakota was a commie socialist enclave, but there you have it.  There’s a successful state-run bank (even now when, here and there, tanking banks are everywhere) here! right here in the USA. 

Maybe Obama won’t produce his birth certificate because he’s really from the SSND –the Socialist State of North Dakota.

……….The Bank of North Dakota serves as an economic development agency and “banker’s bank”
……….that lessens the loan risks of private banks and helps them finance larger projects.
……….It offers cheap loans to farmers, students and businesses. —The HuffPo

Once Sarah Palin writes this on her hand and the Tea Party gets hold of it it’ll probably be all over for the SSND.  Too bad for farmers, students, and businesses; we’re running a free-market here!  Love it or leave it.

……….The bank had almost $4 billion in assets and a $2.67 billion loan portfolio at the end
……….of last year, according to its most recent quarterly financial report. It made $58.1
……….million in profits in 2009, setting a record for the sixth straight year. During the
……….last decade, the bank funneled almost $300 million in profits to North Dakota’s treasury.
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It’s a kind of collective!

……….The bank has the advantage of being the repository for most state funds, which can be
……….used for loans and occasional relief for private banks that need a jolt of cash during
……….sluggish credit markets.

Here’s something from the “about” page of the Bank of North Dakota’s website.  Be sure to note some of the most anti-American policies of the bank you’ll find there such as:

1.  All deposits of North Dakota are guaranteed by the state
2. It’s primary deposit base is the State of North Dakota
3. All state funds and funds of state institutions are deposited with the BND, as required by law 
4. The state Industrial Commision oversees the BND
5. The 7-member Advisory Board is appointed by the Governor

Scary shit: mandated to serve farmers, students, and businesses, bring in the Republican Guard!

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Pecan Pie?

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I wonder how many “lone nuts” it takes to make a pecan pie? 

Digby wonders too.

……….“I realize that this is just one guy. But I just recently read the
……….galleys of Dave Neiwert and John Amato’s new book and there
……….have actually been an astonishing number of these ‘lone nuts’
……….discovered since the election of Obama.”
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Me, I expected it to happen
I knew he'd lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
                --Bob Dylan; Stuck Inside of Mobile
..................with the Memphis Blues Again
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A Crisis of Momentum

by Jim Culleny


They may as well be named Mitch McConnellwich and John Boehnerski since the strategy of those Republican senators is frighteningly like the legislative procedure of the Polish government of the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Paul Krugman  informs us that that the Polish legislature “…operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting ‘I do not allow!” which is comparable to the way our senate operates these days –Republicans being the party of “No!”  As can be easily imagined, a nation trying to operate on the principle of unanimity cannot govern. And a nation that can’t govern cannot stand.

We Americans don’t do unanimity, we’ve survived and prospered on compromise which by another name is known as democracy.  Whatever the Republicans are up to it’s not democracy.

By the way, according to Krugman, the result for the Poles of that time was that in their ungovernable weakness, “… neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared for more than a century.” 

Do we think we are so special we cannot disappear?  Well, maybe not soon, but we can quickly decline –you betcha’.  China and other foreign entities already own a big piece of us.

Maybe a two-hundred-thirty-plus year run is our limit. “Our government is old and broken and dysfunctional, and may even be beyond repair,” says James Fallows.  Yet, there may be hope.  Although Fallows says some fairly gloomy things he titles his piece How American Can Rise Again, which, if not exactly ecstatic is minimally positive.

The trouble with us as a nation, Fallows says, is not the American people or our society (although I’m not sure I entirely agree with him on that); the problem is our government.  But it’s not government trouble in the Tea-Party-Reaganish-Palinesque sense. It’s not that our government is too big.  After all, big is not necessarily bad; pro hoop players are big, swift, and effective.  The problem is that our government is big, slow, fractured, and stupid. The trouble with us governmentally is that our system  is caked with barnacles —so many of which have coagulated along our keel during the last half of the last century that (for an impartial observer) there’s not much difference between our progress and dead stop.

What we have is a crisis of momentum.

Republicans, not having a single idea other than: don’t tax the rich, government is bad, belligerence is best, torture is good, and Obama is a socialist, have slowed the operations of government to practically zip. Think of the GOP as a giant brain aneurism resulting in a national paralytic stroke.  That section of congress on the far right of your TV screen which sat on their hands pouting, texting, and rolling their eyes during 95% of Obama’s State of the Union address are not so much bumps on a logs, but are more like lethal clogs in arteries  —obstructions that have only one thing in mind: to cut off oxygen to the democratic left side of the brain before the next election.  Unfortunately they’re flat-lining the USA in the process.

The way a representative democracy is supposed to work is summed up by David Michael Green.  Green says democracy’s core principle is “… the quid pro quo that is supposed to govern the relationship between the representative and the represented.  The (congress-person) gets to serve in high office, provided (he or she) reflects the political sentiments of his or her constituents.  The problem with American politics today … is that the real constituents of members of Congress are … the special interests who fund their campaigns to fool the voters in their districts and states.”  This idea has become more than political rhetoric, it’s a fatal truism.

Right now the majority party, rather than take a principled stance against its Wall Street constituents, dances around the fringes of reform using the excuse of failed bi-partisanship, while the GOP, in the name of democratic capitalism, is screwing the American people by giving sanctuary to the thieves of Wall Street who are their constituents by building penthouse-high roadblocks around them and salting the road to reform with political IUDs.

A pox on both their houses.

They remind me of Captain Ahab’s crew in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.  Early in the story each man of Ahab’s crew swears an oath with their captain to kill the great white whale.  Then, at the end, just two chapters before they all (but one, Ishmael) religiously follow Ahab to the bottom of the big drink, they passionately pursue their obsession oblivious to the dangers of their stubbornness.  Melville writes, “Ah! How they strove through that infinite blueness to seek out the thing that might destroy them.”

That, my friends, is our congress in A.D. 2010: a gaggle of Ahabs leading a crew of Queequegs, Tashtegos, Starbucks, and Stubbs into the jaws of Moby Dick; may there be a few democratic Ishmaels among us in the final chapter clinging to flotsam still alive to tell the tale.

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