Jabba the Rush–LOL!

Ok, so I can’t sleep anymore, and have been numbly browsing the web. I came across this, and it’s and ROTFL-fest.

Enjoy!

Unraveling?

I sumbled upon the idea during the 2008 campaign…

High RWA followers will grasp at straws to keep this man out of office, even if the change he proposes directly benefits them.
…just the facts…From a Canadian who is just as entrenched in our national behavior as we are, The Authoritarians, is a worthwhile read. (I have to admit it might be offensive even to sensible Christians, but read all the chapter footnotes and he clarifies his research findings about moderate vs. fundamentalist Christians–and there is a difference).’

NPR discussed it this week, and Terry Gross talked with the author of Republican Gomorrah, Max Blumenthal…

…This was a portrait of the Republican Party fully in the grip of its right wing: almost exclusively white, overwhelmingly evangelical, fixated on abortion, homosexuality, and abstinence education; resentful and angry; and unable to discuss how and why it had become this way.’

–from A ‘Shattered’ Republican Party? on NPRs Fresh Air (read about it/read transcript/listen here; link for transcript only is above)

And, unbeknownst to me, a few days prior morelightthanheatpublished this blogpost on ‘Democracy as Specacle’:

It began some years ago and reached a new level last summer, mostly at Palin’s rallies and mostly in rural areas.  At the time I likened it to a new incarnation of McCarthyism, but using today’s fears.  Since the election of Barack Obama, the voices have grown louder and more shrill.  Spurred on by right-wing talk radio hosts, conservative pundits, and corporate public relations departments and their astroturf siblings, it has escalated further in the tenor of the health care debate.  Yet that debate is but one in a panoply of changes that are occurring.’

It also cites an article “that everyone should read” (author’s words, and my sentiment after reading) — “Living in a Culture of Cruelty” although it is reprinted in its entirety in morelightthanheat’s post.

I have been hearing about this phenomenon–this irrational fear, unprecedented hate, unconscionable violence and cruelty, and skewed beliefs–for some time, and lately, the irrational behavior of a few (and the number is growing) has begun to spin out of control. 

This is perhaps the unraveling of the American Dream, and in the loss of our most cherished American ideals (which, by the way, and before anyone throws the constitution at me, our forefathers had the intelligence to realize our democracy would change, and so, set protections in place so that no ideological ‘side’ could gain the upper hand and sole monopoly over the people) we are somehow losing what it is to be a United States of America.  Wow…in my lifetime…I never saw that coming.  We are in for a world of hurt if the trend continues, but at the same time I hope that the damage can be reversed or that we can at least learn a lesson, albeit a painful one. 

Take the time to follow all the links and read the articles/papers. Always be informed about what you take to heart as the truth.  Question what you already believe on a daily basis. And most importantly, constantly ask YOURSELF, “What am I afraid of?” and diligently look for the answer within. 

It may open up a whole new world of understanding.

UPDATE:

Another blog came to my attention; Let it Ride’s most recent post, “The 9/13 Hangover” speaks in general about the “Angry Mob” mentality and also has some pretty good videos embedded (Especially the Rachel Maddows vids–worth a watch). Just a little excerpt:

I have a real problem with this “rally.”  Not because its backers are conservatives and I’m progressive in my political beliefs.  Not because I think conservatives are stupid or evil.

It’s because the rally was in large part organized by Dick Armey’s Freedom Watch and Glenn Beck, both of whom have cynically manipulated some genuine concerns (and some irrational fears) into a furious mob.  This mob doesn’t know what it stands for–only that it stands against Obama.

Why?

Because he’s a Nazi, a socialist, a communist, or sometimes all of them at once.  (Which doesn’t make logical sense–it’s just an attempt to stick the vilest labels to the man in order to demonize him.)

So that’s where we stand today. *sigh*

Left, Middle [East], Right…

I honestly cannot believe those of us on the left that are frothing and chomping at the bit for radical change to the makeup and practices of the United States still do not realize the value in moderacy. We cannot run willy-nilly, pushing our agenda like we’ve only got 4 years to make up for all the lost freedoms, injustices, and societal ills from the past three decades or so.  It looks panicked.  The U.S. has enough going on that just needs to be fixed, or at the very least, stabilized.  An economy in shambles, with nearly every single major  American industry affected, job losses like we haven’t seen in a while, and a war on a distant front (three of them) that is all but forgotten and our medicaland social support systems can’t do much for the wounded and broken young men and women when they get back…the American dream  is weaker than ever. Let’s test out the minds of a younger, more team-solution oriented American workforce to solve some problems in the financial sector.  Let’s see what deadlines do for the car manufacturers, and apply those deadlines (in a more creative way ) to TARP and stimulus funded states on those shovel-ready programs we promised before we were sidetracked.  Let’s take dead US manufacturing jobs and create an in-house green supply industry; working to build the parts that will make green energy attainable, get our best scientific minds finding the best methods,  or fund building the systems that make our wind, solar and geothermal energy sources work for us. If we do well enough at this, we fix the job problem (by creating some), we fix the global warming/dirty energy issue  and save the earth, and we fix the trade issue by creating a product that other countries would invest in or purchase. Let’s also stay away from as many special interest groups as possible.

If our party wants to do the greatest good, we need to first strengthen what we know is broken, win the support of the very people our party is founded upon–even if they are not Democrats–and once the danger of utter collapse is past, then take our newfound support and make America great again by proving that if our ideas are great when we’re working with the “big ticket” items, wait and see what we can do with the emerging ideas, job markets, and concerns.  If we focus on this “strategy”, we may have at least four more years of time. Instead of splitting our energy into a million + one things that liberals have wanted to accomplish for a long time (and feel like Obama’sadministration is the perfect time to do so), we probably need to focus on restoring our image as a party of the people and do the most beneficial work for as many Americans as is possible.  Sure that may sound socialist, but given the alternative…an America in despair…I’d rather sound socialist.

Speaking of that distant war, remember the war in Afghanistan that turned into the war in  Iraq that turned into the war in Pakistan (which, save the border areas, we are largely uninvolved in)?  See if we can name all the countries in the middle east that haven’t made the news for conflict lately.  Let’s see–there’s Oman, which from the lack of fiery reports, sounds like a wonderful country to take a holiday in. I haven’t heard much about Lebanon lately,  or Jordan, or Yemen or oddly enough, Saudi Arabia.  The last one concerns me, since the entire region is suffering through no small amount of instability and they are second only to Iran in size, smack in the middle, but why do we not hear the Saudi voices of concern about the state of their region?  Now, I am not a Saudi Arabia hater–no!–I was just as enthralled by all the cool stuff that Air Force Dad brought back from Saudi as the next military kid, but I just find it so odd that they are so silent. Maybe they’re not talking to us since we crashed the stock market–that was full of their money.  If anyone has any insight or any news from al Jazeera that I may be missing, please don’t hesitate.

Poor Pakistan. Is this the price a country that appearsto be an ally of the US must pay? Pakistan went from a normal country, fairly progressive even, in the Middle East to a warzone in a relatively short amont of time. They were warned, though.  Even the Bush administration had enough sense to warn Pakistan to get their border region in check, but they only half listened.  Our drone attacks haven’t helped any.  I worry about my Pakistani friends’ families and if they’re in an affeccted region, because as bad as it already is, it could get worse relatively quickly.  I feel like the U.S. as “visitors” in the region are at a distinct disadvantage simply because we are in the middle of some really fierce “family feuds” right now and do not adequately understand the culture after all this time, becuase through all the years of the random acts of west-hating terrorist attacts, Iran-Contra and even prior transgressions (such as creating Israel and the ensuing fallout) we never tried to understand who they were, we just assumed they would conform to the ways of the western world and simmer down.  To make matters worse, Iran is poking at the exposed wounds of several countries in the area to provoke…well…I don’t know, but they are certainly provoking some kind of response.  There is no action great enough and no words wise enough to help even a single person in the most embattled parts of the Middle East, and I feel so sad and powerless to make this any better in my lifetime.

Heading back to the Right, I have to say I have had this incredible craving for news radio, and so during my lunch breaks, there is only a 2 minute blurb of the day’s events so far on NPR, and I indulge in the Rushbag’s show.  I have to say, some of his rantings are coherent and well thought out.  but lately he’s been on this “blah, blah…this only shows who Obamais…blah, blah” kick.  Sotomayor proves who Obama is. The auto bailout proves who Obama is. So on, and so on.  I’m not sure what that’s all about, but I do agree with him on the fact that Republican party does not need to “cow down” to every popular opinion.  It makes even the real, good, and conservative politicians seem less real.  I still have a soft spot in my heart for John McCain who is real (he just picked a dumb running mate) and out of every politician in D.C., I’d like to hear more of what he  has to say about the torture memos.  Speaking of those, does Dick Cheney know that he is not in charge of destroying the United States anymore? I don’t want to be scared to death–I want a solution to make the world insurgents live in more stable so that they want to function as a part of the normal  society in their home country, which makes ours more stable as a desireable by-product.

Honestly our country is in a make or break position.  We have some real challenges that cannot be tackled when our pols on the left or right cannot refrain from sensationalizing their displeasure in anything that wasn’t their idea.  This is destructive, and we need to drop the partisanship now.  Especially now that millions of Americans are suffering through the temper tantrums without jobs and homes.

Big Day Today!

Jeez. What wasn’t announced today? The presidential choice for a new/Hispanic/female Supreme Court Justice, and the upholding of Prop 8 w/compromise on what marriages were deemed legal before the vote.  In other news–North Korea tried out two more ballistic missile tests, A Russian company bought about 2% of facebook,  the price of oil went up (apparently over the weekend), the median price of homes went down according to new data, Verizon Wireless reps refused to help police find a missing man–until his past due balance was paid, heartburn drugs now make pneumonia more likely, Rush Limbaugh bashed Gen. Colin Powell for basically saying the Republican party needed to be more inclusive.  What a day.

I am personally excited about Sotomayor as a justice.  If I were a learned woman, and was skilled at obtaining and reading opinions, I would like to read hers. Her colleagues on the federal benches think pretty well of her.  Ultra-Conservative and Über-Liberal (felt the need to differentiate there) factions are outraged…it is as it should be.  And I bet she is just as sensible and just as any other Supreme Court Justice, only lacking in the experience that comes with time. As a side note: I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg ROCKS because she was the only one out of the entire bench to realize that in the strip-search case (a middle school girl was searched because administrators thought she may have stashed perscription strength ibuprofen somewhere on her person) a 13-year old girl, with no prior misbehavior might be humiliated when strip-searched on hearsay, even if by female administrators and a nurse, when searches of her purse and backpack revealed nothing.  Way to go.  I guess my non-experience as a teenage boy would not shed any light on whether this would have been embarrassing to the opposite gender or not. Moving on…

The Prop 8 issue saddens me, but I knew it was coming.  There are too many conservative voters in California that are already plenty mad over the state’s economy that I figured great pains would be taken to avoid uproar.  I also believe that the vote and what the voters decided is constitutional and binding, but not fair at all.  We need a big ‘ol Loving v. Virginia to get it all over with…people are still not ok with interracial dating/marriage/mixed kids (even though I can proudly say that one of those ‘mixed kids’ is our President!), but it’s still legal for people to meet someone of another race and fall in love, decide to spend the rest of their lives together…or not.  This is not currently the case for many homosexual couples, who I think have unions just as loving and faithful–if not more so–than many heterosexual couples. Of course, if some form of same-sex unions were legalized nationwide, just like interracial relationships, they wouldn’t have immediate support, but people would have the choice.

As far as North Korea is concerned, I don’t even know how to feel about their lunatic ranting and raving as of late.  There is such a thing in the classroom as “the child who is starving for attention.”  This is North Korea, right now but the question of why may be very interesting to find out.  In the classroom, the best answer is to discipline this student without giving him/her the attention that they are provoking.  That approach is not so easy when dealing with a country that does underground nuclear tests.   It could simply be that their nation is falling apart, or better still, ripping itself apart since Kim Jong Il is reportedly still in bad health.  They also may be on the verge of setting the stage for disaster at the cost of innocent lives in neighboring nations.   Nobody seems to report on why they would take these actions other than that Pyongyang is mad that we had the nerve to voice our disapproval.  Not the most comforting thought in the world.

As for the other news, take the blurbs for what they are, and for God’s sake, please pay your phone bill before you go missing…

uh…wtf?

Ok, so I really never liked Rush Limbaugh in the first place, but this has obviously gone too far.

For the record I am not a terrorist. I have never trained to fly planes into buildings, mail envelopes filled with anthrax, or strap explosives to my body and stalk public places, etc. I am a little hurt that my 4 1/2 year relationship with a–read–Caucasian man has been an elaborate secret, kept only from his bigoted parents, but that does not make me an extremist.

To further clarify my position: I am a college graduate; I have a well-educated and successful family—where many have served in the armed forces; I pay my bills; I do not live in a housing project or receive welfare benefits; I never heard of Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright until this election. I am basically unemployed, but that is a matter of stereotype, since many Americans are going through the same hardships I am. Simply put, I am your average American citizen.

With that said, I hope that most of “Main Street” America does not share Limbaugh’s sentiments, excerpted below. This is extreme, and almost laughable—except that there are small corners of the United States where I’m sure this myth could grab hold.

I think at least some of these "ladies" might be MEN...

Here’s some of what Limbaugh said:

…it seems that a majority of the black population has remained angry, frustrated, and behind. They’ve been left behind. They are acting like they’ve been left behind, and of course we’ve heard that this is because of racism, natural systemic institutional racism in America, that we are unfair, that this country is just horrible and rotten.

…But as you study more and more of this ACORN stuff, you find that it has been part of an entire movement that has been going on for two, maybe three decades, right under our noses.

We thought that it was just liberal welfare policies and all that that kept blacks from progressing while other minorities grew and prospered, but no, it is these wackos from Bill Ayers to Jeremiah Wright to other anti-American Afrocentric black liberation theologists with ACORN, and Barack Obama is smack dab in the middle of it, they have been training young black kids to hate, hate, hate this country, and they trained their parents before that to hate, hate, hate this country. It was a movement.

…It has been a movement, it has been a religion, and Obama and Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers were all up to their big ears in it.

The only thing I agree (marginally) with is that some African-Americans act as though they’ve been left behind. Consider the rationale that crumbling inner-city schools, poor (often self-created to some extent) living conditions, and a cycle of negativity and neglect at home and in society might make people simply give up hope. But Television is widely available, so my solution is for media to show more rocket scientists and diplomats as more glamorous than movie stars and rappers…fat chance.

Read the entire transcript and/or watch the video here. Usually, at the end of any blog entry, I might make an appeal for you to decide. Not this time; all I’m asking is for America to please prove his views wrong.