Connections

Yesterday, while in central Iowa, I caught part of Rush Lamebrain's show. And, from what was said, it seems that Barack Obama is a lying monster, bent on destroying our liberties, on creating a totalitarian regime right here in America.

At least that's what the hillbilly-heroin addict would have us all believe.

This is what much of the national political debate has devolved into. These whack jobs can't merely express the idea that they have some disagreements with Obama's policy; instead, they must demonize the man, turn him into something other than human.

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In other news, three different drug-addled morons were arrested Sunday in Colorado after making racially-tinged threats toward Obama. The idiots in question were equipped with scoped rifles, walkie-talkies and a bulletproof vest.

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Whether or not there is a connection between members of the right-wing hate machine and those who wish to turn their bile into action will be left as an exercise for the reader.

What I Believe

I know, I know, I spend a good deal of time on this blog writing about just a few of the Right's many misdeeds. And that will certainly inform you of the things that I am against. But I realized this weekend that it is just as important, if not more so, to make an affirmative statement of the things that I do believe in. Thus, today's post:

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Ultimately, what does it mean to be a liberal? To me, at its most basic level, it is a philosophical disposition toward social justice. I believe in the proposition that our society should provide opportunity for all of its citizens, not merely the wealthy, white and well-connected, that success should be much more a function of individual achievement than the circumstance of one's birth.

Furthermore, I believe that government has a positive role to play in creating such an egalitarian society. Historically, it is not the "default mode" of unrestrained capitalism to create the sort of society in which most people want to live; instead, it usually produces a world of vast inequality and crass, shameless plutocracy -- the type of world into which American society is now backsliding. The exception, of course, is during the period in which the reforms of the New Deal held sway. Government action, it seems, is the only way to blunt the excesses of the market. I take great inspiration from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's assertion that "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

I believe in the necessity of a social safety net -- not a system of handouts that create dependency, but a helping hand that gets families through hard times, creates opportunities for upward mobility, and safeguards citizens in their twilight years.

I believe in the power of the free market.

I believe in the power of regulation, law, and social mores to properly restrain that market. Corporations are neither inherently evil (as many on the left would say) nor inherently good (as many on the right assert); they are utterly amoral entities that exist solely to produce profit. Corporate behavior that benefits the social good is assured only when bad acts result in monetary loss.

I believe in substantive health care reform. Of developed nations, the United States currently spends the most health care dollars per capita, with the worst statistical results and the highest percentage of uninsured individuals. We can, and must, do better.

I believe in the Constitution of the United States -- not as the static document that the Textualists and Strict Constructionists would have us believe (thus rendering it a museum piece from our agrarian past), but as a living document that speaks directly to this post-industrial age.

I believe in the strict separation of church and state. Government has no business either promoting or discouraging any particular supernatural belief system, nor the practice thereof. The First Amendment's "Establishment Clause" is clear on this issue, and remains as relevant today as it was 217 years ago (if not more so).

I believe in fiscal responsibility. It is imperative that government start spending within its means and that our national debt be paid down. The ephemeral pleasure of today's tax cuts does not justify the massive liability that we are passing on to future generations.

I believe in active and strong government oversight. Tax dollars must be seen as a precious resource to be used as effectively and sparingly as possible while still accomplishing those tasks deemed necessary.

I believe in tax code simplification and reform, with new classifications aimed at encouraging small business growth.

I believe that elections must be decoupled from money if we are to save American democracy. In an egalitarian society, the expenditure of currency is not synonymous with free speech, and until the courts are forced (through legislation or Constitutional amendment) to recognize that fact, our nation will remain a place where "the loudest live to trample on the least," to quote Don Henley.

I believe that all children have a right to a sound public education that will prepare them for the rigors of citizenship and the challenges of our globalized economy.

I believe that, unlike now, all U.S. citizens should have a Constitutionally defined right to vote.

I believe in full citizenship and equal treatment under the law for all Americans, regardless of race, religion, age, gender or sexual orientation.

I believe in a military that is strong, efficient, well-trained, well-equipped, and used only when absolutely necessary. The young men and women who serve our country are our dearest asset; they should not be placed in harm's way haphazardly, nor should they be discarded and forgotten when their service is done.

I believe in a foreign policy that is consistent, reasoned, humble, generous, and grounded in reality.

I believe in the sanctity of human life -- not merely those not yet born, but all human life. Far too many of those who call themselves "Pro-Life" nonetheless believe that it should be open season upon the poor, the weak, and the disenfranchised once they leave the uterus.

Lastly, I believe in reasoned debate - the idea that reasonable people can respectfully disagree without questioning each other's patriotism.

Hillary Revisited

This is what I heard yesterday on the radio:

"Our philosophy, whenever we publish a book, is that there will be ten to maybe a hundred times as many people who hear about the book, compared to the number of people who actually go out and buy the book."

"Our approach and our goal is always to make sure that we use a book as a platform for an author to get out his or her message. And, by getting out that message on the media, whether it's TV or radio or print or electronic media, um, I think that gives us a sort of multiplier effect on whatever the message of the book is."

Those quotes come directly from Marji Ross, President and Publisher of Regnery Publishing, the house that gave us such hatchet jobs as Unfit For Command and The Case Against Barack Obama. If you don't believe me, you can listen to her speak those words here.

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In the news: Jerome Corsi, coauthor of Unfit For Command, has recently released a new tome, entitled The Obama Nation, that attacks Barack Obama, in part by citing Corsi's own previous works as well as unsubstantiated right-wing blog posts. The Obama Nation has risen to the top of The New York Times Best Seller List, thanks in large part to bulk sales to right-wing groups that wish to draw attention to the book. The dubious work has been dutifully shilled by the Right's many media outlets.

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From June, 2006: The investigation into the misdeeds of right-wing lobbyist Jack Abramoff shows that conservative think tanks, including Americans For Tax Reform and The National Center for Public Policy Research, helped Abramoff launder his dirty money.

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From January, 2007: Republican Senator Rick Santorum, immediately upon leaving office (after suffering defeat in his 2006 re-election bid), joins the right-wing Ethics and Public Policy Center.


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From October, 2005: Longtime Republican Bruce Bartlett was fired from his position at the conservative think tank, The National Center For Policy Analysis, after daring to criticize George W. Bush in book form, thus showing that no dissension can be allowed in the ranks of Movement Conservatives.

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Fact is, I could go on all day, posting citations that show the interconnectedness of Movement Conservatism's many organs, the rewards that await those who faithfully serve the movement, and the disciplinary actions that will be taken against those who fall off the wagon. But those already cited serve well enough to illustrate my point: Hillary Clinton was right.

Since the then-First Lady talked about a "vast right-wing conspiracy" in 1998, she has been routinely dismissed and ridiculed, but the realities of American politics are impossible to wish away. (Believe me, I tried to discount the idea as mere paranoia, but, ultimately, the links become too obvious to ignore.)

It starts with huge moneyed interests, such as the Koch, Bradley, Olin, and Scaife foundations (to name just a few). That money supports the rest of the movement:

• The conservative think tanks, including The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, The Cato Institute, etc.
• The magazines of the right-wing intelligentsia: The American Spectator, National Review, The Weekly Standard, et al.
• Daily rightist newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times (which is controlled by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon; in the most enjoyable of ironies, the Christian Right is joined to such apostates as the Moonies!).
• Rightist publishers such as Regnery, cited above.
• Electronic media outlets like The Drudge Report, Fox Noise and the Excrement In Broadcasting Network.
• The plethora of crazy fundamentalist churches across the nation that ignore the IRS' rules about involvement in electoral politics.
• And, of course, the Republican Party itself.

This is the massive network that uses its clout to manipulate many of you into voting for a movement that will do nothing to assuage your numerous cultural anxieties, but will ensure that your children are worse off than you economically. And this is what Movement Conservatism is all about.

I've said it before: If this is what you continue to vote for, it is exactly what you deserve.

The Politics Of Conflation

Yesterday, John Edwards finally admitted the truth of a story that had been percolating just under the political surface for several months: He had an extramarital affair in 2006. About the mindset that led to his affair, Edwards stated, in part, "...I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."

Needless to say, John Edwards' political future is now nonexistent.

This is regrettable. Regrettable because Edwards was one of the few candidates actually talking about the vast economic disparities in our nation. Because of the public embarrassment that has been visited upon his already-suffering family. And because we will now see the inevitable Republican tactic in response: The conflation of the message with the messenger.

You see, the GOP would have us all believe that, because John Edwards is human, then the issues that he champions must be bogus. That, since Edwards schtupped a videographer, then people can be convinced that there is no truth to the actual statistics showing the divergence of outcomes between those who must work their way out of the economic hole into which they were born, and those who were born at the top of society's mountain.

Just look at the amount of time and energy that the Right still spends heaping scorn and ridicule upon Al Gore; if Gore can be made to look foolish, then it casts doubt upon the idea of global warming, climatological data be damned. And the ultra-wealthy, for whom the political right works, can then continue reaping the short-term economic rewards of fossil-fuel use.

Yet another illustration is last week's orchestrated ridicule of Barack Obama. You see, Obama made the mistake of stating the simple fact that basic conservation measures, such as all Americans driving cars that have properly-inflated tires and properly-tuned engines, would save us far more oil than offshore drilling could provide. But the Right used its media might to turn reality upside-down, and no one seemed to question the fact that they were, essentially, telling us that it would be a good idea for each of us to under-inflate our tires and cut a couple of spark plug wires.

That is just how stupid the Republicans and their media shills believe us to be. If we continue to vote for the idiot with whom we'd rather have a beer (or, in Dubya's case, snort a line), then a continuation of the current state of governmental incompetence is exactly what we deserve.

Prostitution And The Presidency

So... Yesterday I was crossing the wilds of South Dakota and listening to SDPR when a local report came on, detailing the excitement of John McCain's appearance at the Buffalo Chip Campground during the Sturgis rally. The featured audio clip included a befuddled McCain explaining that he had tried to talk his wife, Cindy, into entering the Miss Buffalo Chip pageant. Hmmm.

As a former resident of the Black Hills area, and as the husband of someone who worked security at the Buffalo Chip, I have some familiarity with the Miss Buffalo Chip pageant. And let's just say that what happens during the contest is something other than Jesus-lovin', GOP-sanctioned fun for the whole family (unless you happen to be David Vitter.) Just the type of stuff you might expect from a biker rally.

Which brings up a couple of thoughts.

1. Eeewwwww! About the last thing that I want to see is that hag (with all her cosmetic-surgery scars) in various states of undress.
2. Wow, John McCain feels so desperate now that he will do pretty much anything to get elected. Even serve as his own wife's pimp.

Yikes.

Rethinking The Hillbilly Gunslinger

The whole, never-ending Brett Favre saga that has unfolded over the past six months has been simultaneously gripping and tiresome, evoking equal parts fascination and nausea. But, I must say, recent events in this drama have certainly made me rethink my position on Ol' Number Four.

Previously, my view of Favre was that he was a singularly talented, but none-too-bright, drug-addicted hick with little respect for the integrity of the game (as witnessed by his record-breaking flop for Michael Strahan). But now, after acting like an utter jackass for the better part of a month, he has somehow managed to maneuver the Packers organization into:

• A) Offering him twenty million dollars, spread out over the next ten years, to remain retired.
• B) Looking like the bad guys in this surreal little scenario by making said offer.

Essentially, the Packers told him publicly: We don't really want you anymore, but we don't want anyone else to have you, either. (Jeez, most guys only hear that sentiment from their wives!)

What can I say? Except, "Bravo, Mister Favre! True genius!" Now, if only I can find a way to finagle some unsuspecting corporate entity into tendering me the same deal...

But there is still a way for Favre to snatch defeat from the jaws of public-relations victory. He is said to currently be considering Green Bay's offer; if he were to accept it, it would further cement his image as a vicodin-addled boob with no respect for the game.

Of course, he'd still be getting $20,000,000.00 for doing nothing. Bastard.