Eisenhower's nightmare come true . . .

There's an article in today's NYT from Bob Herbert about how China is racing ahead of America in the solar and wind energy technology fields, with Herbert lamenting that it should be the United States leading that charge. Anyhow, I was perusing the comments section of the article and ran across this gem:

"Oh, jeeehz, where's your sense of fun?

Of course the Chinese -- and the Europeans -- are by-passing the U.S. in developing green and fast rail futures. America itself has no workers left -- their jobs have all been off-shored to 3rd-world cheapest labor sites. This has given U.S. CEOs and those atop high finance mega bonuses for their smarts -- but, hey, come on, let's have a sense of humor for the America and Americans left behind.

Look at today's headlines. America is opening a New and Improved front in one of its global wars -- one of the "stans." This is great -- it just goes to prove that all those teen boys playing their computer war games -- they know what's up -- they know America's real, true future -- war everywhere, constant war, war open to enlistees even today, all across America. And the Chinese are happy to pay for it -- they've got a productive economy -- of course they're happy to pay for the U.S. to be klutz police bully and nothing more.

It's hilarious. It's America. And this country has got nothing else for the future -- zilch -- nada -- but scenarios of adolescent explosions. What a laugh."

And I thought to myself -- my god -- that's it! It isn't pretty or eloquent, but it explains quite succinctly in a nutshell what it is that progressives like myself are railing and battling against! The never-ending war economy, corporations can do no wrong, isolationist, regressive mindset.

This country is doomed to the fate of the Roman Empire if it believes, as right-wing neo-cons and conservatives do, that our economy and democracy can flourish and endure solely on the basis of allowing the corporate, financial, and military industrial complexes to run amok. It's myopic thinking to put it politely. Its plain fucking stupidity to put it bluntly.



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The Fox Fraudcasting Network . . .

I mean really - enough is enough. Somebody very famous and credible who has the cojones to do it, and without regard for the expected recriminations, should just go on a very highly watched live television show and tell Fox to go fuck themselves. Tell Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck to eat shit and die. Tell Roger Ailes to stick his right-wing propaganda media machine (I refuse to call what they do "News") so far up his ass he can taste the tepid turdiness of it on the backside of his tongue.

Fox, single-handedly has done more than any other media outlet to cheapen the tone of public discourse in this country over the past several years. Combined with their deliberate penchant for misinforming and lying to their viewers, I cannot fathom why these fuckers still have a public broadcasting license, and one that allows them to call themselves a "News" channel to boot. Can you even begin to imagine the stuck-pig squealing the conservatives would be doing if the folks in ABC's, NBC's and CBS's news divisions went on the airwaves every single day and does what Fox does to their political opponents. They'd never get away with it. I dare anyone to prove me otherwise.

Fox is an outright disgrace to the news and journalism professions. Their brain-dead viewers who sit around every day mindlessly lapping up the Fox version of "News" are themselves a disgrace to the honorable practice of critical thinking.

I've made the offer before --- I'll shut up about Fox the day they stop calling themselves a "News" organization and change their name to the Fox GOP Promotional Network. It's a simple and straightforward offer. Doubt I'll get any takers, but it is what it is.



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GOP: "It's an evil Obama trap! Run for your lives!"

It's a horrific commentary on the sad-sack state of the media in this country when it takes a comedian performing a comedy sketch on a comedy show to highlight the bombastic hypocrisy, idiocy and cowardice of Republicans in the debate over Health Care Reform.

If I had the power, I'd gladly replace the nightly news hour broadcasts on NBC, CBS, and ABC with Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show.' At least the American people would be getting a semblance of truth in their daily dose of news.

View it and weep:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Apparent Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

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The last honest conservative?? . . .

It's comforting to know that it's not just us mean old, elitist, latte' sipping, birkentstock wearing liberals (actually I drink black coffee and wear steel-toe leather workboots) who view the prospect of a Sarah Palin presidency with a combination of stomach churning horror and mind paralyzing disbelief.

Conservative columnist Steve Chapman explains why he's on our side in the debate about letting the "Thrilla from Wasilla" anywhere near the levers of presidential power.

An excerpt from Chapman's op-ed:

The tea party movement started as a welcome protest against the alarming growth of federal spending and federal control. It had a strong anti-statist flavor, or seemed to. But judging from the applause for Sarah Palin at its convention, the movement's suspicion of government power is exceeded only by its worship of government power.

Her keynote address at last week's gathering in Nashville, Tenn., may have been the curtain raiser on a 2012 presidential campaign. "I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country," she told Fox News when asked about that option.

I'm glad it was she and not I who first used the word "absurd" in relation to a possible Palin bid for the White House. Because if her speech made anything clear, it's that the shallow, ill-informed, truth-twisting demagogue seen in the 2008 presidential campaign is all she is and all she wants to be.

Palin openly embraces the lunatic fringe (Birthers, Tenthers, Birchers, communist conspiracy nuts) etc. of the Tea-party movement. Imagine the opposite -- imagine if a leading Democratic candidate for U.S. President was going around giving speeches to and accepting the endorsements of groups like PETA, Greenpeace, the 9/11 truthers and the like? Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue? Such a candidate would be ridiculed into obscurity by not only the right, but also the mainstream media (MSM).

And it goes without saying that Palin is a wholly owned and manufactured political celebrity of the MSM - which also explains their knee trembling fear at calling her to account for her right-wing radicalism and lies. I mean can anyone truly tell me they knew who the fuck Sarah Palin was and what she stood for prior to John McCain's disastrous selection of her to be his VP running mate in 2008? Because if you can, you are a much bigger politics junkie than I am.

Chapman in his article here is simply being deadpan and deadly serious honest. I can respect an honest conservative even if I wholesale disagree with them on most policies and issues. It's the dishonest conservatives I have a real healthy disdain for and I believe most of your conservative leadership and conservative media is being dangerously dishonest when it comes to the issue of Sarah Palin, her presidential aspirations and the potential impact to this country (and the world) should she ever be elected to run the most powerful nation on the planet.


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