When I learn of the appalling and pervasive corruption that has overtaken our state and U.S. government, not to mention our society, I have to admit that I feel as if I've been punched in the gut and kicked really hard in the butt.
Just when we think we've heard the absolute worst of the very worst, inevitably something even more awful will emerge.
The recent exposure of the Bush Administration's pervasive corruption, the Bush Administration's lies, the ginned up war in Iraq, Halliburton's criminal overcharges, Blackwater that prides itself on offing innocent Iraqis, and its bribes to the Iraqi government to buy silence, the deregulated banks, sub prime loans, Wall. St. and its U.S. government enabled reckless gambling casinos, at taxpayer peril, thank you, the discovery of FOX News as the undeniable propaganda arm for the GOP, the self-serving teabagging front groups that pretend to be grassroots movements that use and abuse well-meaning and misled teabaggers, and on and on...It is enough to suck all of the breath out of my lungs.
What would St. Ronnie say if he knew? Gee whiz, what happened!? Or, I know it all sounds terrible and really scary, but in the end, all of the above will be really good for the American people. Trust me folks, there will be 25 chickens in every pot next year and a pony in every back yard. Be patient. Work harder. You don't have a job? You are not working hard enough, you lazy, shiftless bum! Go to the mall. Buy a house full of garbage you don't need. Just be happy and all of of our troubles will disappear.
But the grand old actor wizard and the master of deep deception has long since departed. And there is no St. Ronnie today who can sugar coat the awful and the scary.
What truly sends chills down my spine this time is the discovery that a group of Christian Republicans and Democratic U.S. lawmakers, thank you, seem to be on a crusade to turn our U.S. government into one that is "led by God."
Why does this imperative remind me somehow of the Taliban and the so-called God run governments Iran and Saudi Arabia?
It all starts with pro-slavery driven and unfettered corporate imperatives.
Speaking of Honorary Texans (as they are right now on the Big Orange)...our most recent honoree, Mr. Sean Hannity, is proof positive that good solid hypocrisy can only improve Glenn Beck's chances for getting this award:
So, we've been hearing a lot of chatter on cable TV this week about a Fox News/GOP Tea Party Revolution. Fox News and the right wing fringe of the GOP have obviously gone completely bat bleep crazy over something. They are screaming day in and day about something. I am not sure what it is at this point. I've heard rants like "taxation without representation."
Huh? As I've mentioned before, we had an election recently that did not require lawsuits or recounts. This week President Obama has a 66% approval rating. The Democratic Party is at 51% while the Republican Party has a 26% approval rating. A majority of Independents and some moderate Republicans support President Obama's agenda.
So why is there so noise spewing from the right? Is this tea party thing merely a childish tantrum thrown by a bunch of sore losers and clowns?
Let's explore a few events of this past week to try to find an answer.
Please pour yourselves a little glass of your preferred beverage of relaxation, get out the popcorn, if you like, sit back and enjoy the show.
First, the ground rules: Jackass awards are not exclusive to the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh or propagandists for right wing and conservative thought. A jackass is viewed as one who is either arrogant or stupid enough to believe he/she can get away with fooling, lying to and/or willfully misleading others. In other words, any person who holds a position of influence whether one is a politician, elected official, community, or business leader, and this includes all media pundits, anchors and spokespersons for all of the above, who arrogantly or stupidly insults the intelligence of those they do, or hope to influence, is a jackass.
A jackass is also one who refuses to accept or lies about certain realities such as:
The simplest explanation for why America's reality got so distorted is the economic imbalance that Barack Obama now wants to remedy with policies that his critics deride as "socialist" ("fascist" can't be far behind): the obscene widening of income inequality between the very rich and everyone else since the 1970s. "There is something wrong when we allow the playing field to be tilted so far in the favor of so few," the president said in his budget message. He was calling for fundamental fairness, not class warfare. America hasn't seen such gaping inequality since the Gilded Age and 1920s boom that preceded the Great Depression.
This inequity was compounded by Bush tax policy and by lawmakers and regulators of both parties who enabled and protected the banking scam artists who fled with their bonuses and left us holding the toxic remains. The fantasy of easy money at the top of the economic pyramid trickled down to the masses, who piled up debt by leveraging their homes much as their '20s predecessors once floated stock purchases "on margin." Our culture, meanwhile, painted halos over celebrity C.E.O.'s, turning the fundamentalist gospel of the market into a national religion that further accelerated the country's wholesale flight from reality.
Finally, a jackass is also one who wants to revert to the same old failed and stupid policies that got us into this economic meltdown in the first place.
Looks like Karl Rove argued against Tim Kaine for lack of experience just last month.
But now ~ Sarah Palin is the perfect choice for VP because of her experience ~ which just so happens to be much less than Tim Kaine's. If you haven't seen it, this video from last night's Daily Show is hysterical.
And Rove believes her to be a populist, too. He absolutely adores her!
