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What happened to the GOP? Particle physics.

Posted on October 4, 2010 By

GOPhistory

It’s a real shame about the Republican Party.

It was such a Grand Old Party for nearly 160 years. It was the party of Lincoln and led the way to the end of slavery. It was the party of Teddy Roosevelt and let the way toward economic justice and conservation of our natural resources.

Later in the 20th Century the GOP become home to great leaders like Everett Dirksen, Howard Baker, Charles Percy and Nelson Rockefeller.

But after all that great tradition, the Grand Old Party has – apparently – ceased to exist. It is now the Tea Party and they like it like that.

According to a poll released last week by the Wall Street Journal, the staid old organ of the Republican Party, over 70 percent of those identifying themselves as Republicans say they support the Tea Party. Neither Richard Nixon nor Ronald Reagan would be welcomed in today’s Tea Party.

Of course, the GOP itself was on shaky ground to begin with. Since George W. Bush retired as the party’s standard bearer only 20 to 25 percent of Americans were willing to identify themselves as Republicans.

So, really, 70 percent of 25 percent isn’t really that many people.

But, nonetheless, the Republican Party is now officially the Tea Party! Just say NO! To whatever!!

But what happened to turn the GOP into the purely reactionary Tea Party? Did they run out all the moderates and progressives? Well, yes. But that’s not the complete answer.

The answer lies in particle physics: specifically in the theory of mirror matter…which suggests matter exists in the universe that is unseen and opposite currently detectable matter.

Back in the early 1900s Teddy Roosevelt led a progressive Republican Party.

TR knighted William Howard Taft to succeed him as president in the election of 1908 and Taft won easily. But Taft did the unthinkable and led the nation and the Republican Party back toward the corporatists and monopolies of which TR disapproved and against which TR fought.

The Republican Party, thought TR, should be more progressive and fight for the great mass of good, hard-working Americans.

But the progressive core of the GOP was way ahead of TR, rallied by the great progressive Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin.

TR found himself boxed out and bolted to form what would become the Bull Moose Party. (So named because TR’s running mate, California Gov. Hiram Johnson claimed he was “as strong as a bull moose.”)

The Bull Moose Party, formally called the Progressive Party, put out a platform in 1912 called, not making this up, “A Contract with the People.”

The platform called for a national health plan, social security, worker’s compensation, relief for farmers, women’s suffrage, an inheritance tax, a federal income tax, the direct election of senators (who were still at the time elected by state legislators).

The Bull Moose Party also called for citizen initiatives and referenda, strict limits and disclosure of campaign contributions and a “trust busting” plank to end large corporate monopolies.

It took 100 years and lots of southern strategy, hate & race-baiting but the mirror matter, the exact opposite and until recently undetectable matter of the GOP has taken over and converted the bull moose particles into the mama grizzly particles.

The liberal Bush years…

Posted on August 23, 2010 By

ConsvLibs

Here they go, again!

Those crazy liberals, wanting to subvert the laws of the nation and the constitution to keep off private property the practice of religion!

The framers of the constitution made it clear: no law shall be made respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free expression thereof.

But these liberals: Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the rest, want to liberally construe that fundamental right to exclude Muslims from it. Probably Methodists, too, if they thought they could!

They liberally apply hate to persuade the rest of us of their point of view.

Clearly, they are constitutional obstructionists who care little about the literal interpretation of the nation’s original founding framework.

Many of them also, apparently, want to go back to the days of the liberal George Bush Administration.

You remember the liberal Bush Administration, of course. How can we forget? It’s indelibly etched on our check books.

George Bush took a $46 billion budget surplus from the Clinton Administration in 2000 and liberally spent it to once again turn ours into a debtor nation.

Bush took the nation’s budget deficit to $2.2 trillion in just his first three years while liberally increasing federal spending by 22 percent. By the end of his term the budget deficit remain around $1.85 trillion.

George Bush liberally took us to war – twice, against two entire nations – all the while insisting we weren’t fighting Islam but, rather, a small pocket of insane criminals and political ideologues.

George Bush liberally ran up the national debt in doing so.

And if that wasn’t enough, George Bush liberally changed the nation’s tax code to give the wealthiest 1 percent of us a very liberal break on their taxes.

Plenty of people want to continue those liberal policies, especially the liberally benefitted wealthy 1 percent who know hold all the power…and 80 percent of all the money.

With the liberal tax cuts in place, Bush and the liberal Republican Congress went about setting the greatest spending spree in U.S. history, culminating of course in the very liberal and generous $700 billion bailout of a number of financial firms suddenly disintegrating.

The firms disintegrated because of a stark and liberal relaxation of the financial industry’s regulation.

But unhappy with the conservative approach to governance by the Obama Administration, these liberals want to return to the days of free spending, tax cuts for the rich, war and liberally applied doses of religious intolerance and xenophobia.

Newt, Rush, Sarah: we don’t need your liberal ways anymore!

Yes, we can…but should we?

Posted on August 18, 2010 By

Question_Mark2

Forget progressives vs. right-wingers. Forget liberal and conservative.

Forget the Yankees vs. the Red Sox. Forget boxers vs. briefs.

Forget George W. Bush’s world of “haves and have mores.” Besides, the Have-Mores own us all, anyway, grabbed us by the short-sales.

We are now officially a society divided with “Yes, we can” and “But should we”? The Yes people on one hand and the But people on the other.

Yes, the Republicans could nominate Sarah Palin as their presidential nominee in 2012 but should they?

Yes, the Alabama Crimson Tide could repeat as NCAA men’s football champions in 2011 but should they?

Yes, some jack-legged network on the TeeVee Box could start yet another inane reality series filled with half-wits and degenerates but should it?

Yes, the Republicans can base an entire campaign season on fear mixed with xenophobia, homophobia and religious bigotry but should they?

Yes, you can wear a striped shirt with plaid pants but should you?

Yes, two billionaires in Florida can try to buy their way into state and national elective office but should they?

Can the voters of Florida be so stupid as to elect those two billionaires? Yes, yes, we can.

Yes, we can believe Jesus manifests himself on a piece of cheese toast but should we?

Yes, Dr. Laura can repeat the “N” word…over and over in rage…and continue to do her show on the live radio but should she? (Ha-ha-ha! No, by her own admission, she shouldn’t.)

And, while we’re at…yes, Douche Limpbranch and Gin BecksBeer can continue to spew their own versions hatred and lies on the live radio each afternoon…but should they?

Yes, we can pick the Miami Dolphins to win the AFC East and possibly even go to the Super Bowl but should we?

Blago can continue to proclaim his innocence on 23 out of the 24 counts but should he?

News Corp., the parent corporation of the Faux News Channel can give $1 million to the Republican Party but should it?

We can continue to claim it somehow violates…something or other…if gay people get married but should we?

Yes, Brett Favre can play again for the Vikings but should he?

Yes, the Tea Party can attempt a hostile takeover of the Republican Party but should it? (For Democrats, the answer would be, “why, yes, please!”)

Gin BecksBeer can spew his racism and hatred on the anniversary of M.L.King’s “I Have a Dream” speech but should he?

We, as a nation, can continue to eat garbage fed to us by giant, thoughtless corporations and grow so fat that when we sit around the house we really sit around the house but should we?

We can ignore the suffering due to floods in Pakistan but should we? We can forget about Haiti but should we?

We can continue to feign a, “yes, we can,” attitude but, at the same time, question our every initiative and cave in to right-wing fear and hysteria…but should we?

Boom, boom ain’t it great to be crazy? And lazy?

Posted on July 30, 2010 By

Lazy

Karl Rove “hearts” President Obama; Muslim families enjoy amusement park hot dogs; Phyllis Schlafly is still alive; and the South is, apparently, the laziest region in ‘Murka. Who knew?

It’s all part of boom, boom, ain’t it great to be crazy in the land of the free and the home of the raves!

In an op-ed piece published in the Wall Street Urinal, former G.W. Bush hatchet man and puppet-master Karl Rove lets us know he thinks President Obama is doing a pretty darn good job in Afghanistan.

“Mr. Obama has acted impressively so far on Afghanistan,” wrote the man affectionately known as Turd Blossom, by the ever articulate 43rd POTUS.

Either the meds are finally working or this tells us all we need to know about how wrong is our currently policy in the land that time forgot.

Not that we should expect anything different, I guess, but the right-wing nut jobs are all cranked out now over the Six Flags amusement park chain setting aside a special day for Muslim families to be amused by roller coasters and log plume rides.

Hey, wing nuts! Muslims need thrills, too!

But, oh no, not according to Annie Hamilton of the Tea Party Patriots website:

“Muslim Day at Six Flags is inappropriate for a multitude of reasons and I’m saddened and shocked by the ignorance of the corporate folks and by the action that now must be taken by the rest of us,” she wrote.

According to a press release issued by Six Flags, Ms. Hamilton misunderstood.

“We are not celebrating Muslim Day,” said the Six Flags spokesman. “We’re celebrating ‘muslin day,’ and asking everyone to wear for their comfort loosely woven cotton fabric.

No, just kidding. Six Flags really will host – as it as every year since 2000 – a special day for Muslim Families, sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America. This year, Six Flags Muslim Family Day falls on September 12, which is what has Hamilton so upset…for some reason.

“Islam is as Islam does,” wrote Hamilton.

But, according to Hamilton and her Tea Party buddies, what Islam shouldn’t do is be allowed to ride the Medusa or the Titan or the Raging Bull or the Bazarro, the later obviously being saved for Ms. Hamilton and her fellow baggers.

Who knew Phyllis Schlafly was still alive? Or relevant?

Well, apparently, she is; at least alive, not sure about relevant. But that didn’t keep her from pointing out how unmarried women are the single biggest problem in ‘Murka.

“Unmarried women, 70% of unmarried women, voted for Obama, and this is because when you kick your husband out, you’ve got to have big brother government to be your provider,” Schlafly recently told a fund-raiser for her Eagle Forum crotchety old women’s organization, according to Talking Points Memo.

She went on to make some remark about battery-operated-boyfriends but, like her, that’s irrelevant here.

Finally, ever wonder where the laziest people live in the US of A? The answer is not the U.S. Senate – the most timid, perhaps.

The laziest people live in the South, according to Bloomberg Business Week, which ranked Louisiana as the laziest state…you know, when they’re not raking oil off their beaches and marshes.

Mississippi comes in as the second laziest state followed by Arkansas in third. Rounding out the rest of the Top five in order: North Carolina, Tennessee & Kentucky.

Ha-Ha-Ha…but the Yankees at Bloomberg Business Week misinterpret the survey data! These folks ain’t lazy, they’re just getting’ ‘round to it…eventually.

“Moral equivalent of war.”

Posted on June 15, 2010 By

“Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem that is unprecedented in our history,” said the slighting graying man with the soft, South Georgia accent.

“With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge that our country will face during our lifetime.”

The year was 1977 and President Jimmy Carter was just over 3 months in office.

“The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly. It’s a problem that we will not be able to solve in the next few years, and it’s likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.

“We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and our grandchildren. We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.”

He was about to tell us he would within the next couple of days submit to the Congress a comprehensive energy strategy designed to wean us off foreign oil, stimulate production of clean energy, require greater energy efficiency in cars, homes & appliances.

“Many of these proposals will be unpopular,” he said. “Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices. The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation.

“Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern this Nation,” he suggested. “This difficult effort will be the moral equivalent of war, except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy.”

The energy policy he presented was based on 10 principles: 1.government must take responsibility for leading the nation; 2. economic growth must continue through conservation of energy; 3. the environment must be protected; 4. dependence on foreign oil presents security risks to the U.S.; 5. solutions must be fair to all, sacrifices spread evenly; 6. demand for energy must be reduced; 7. the price of energy must be accurate and authentic; 8. government policies must be planed and predictable; 9. scarce sources of energy must be conserved; abundant sources developed; and 10. the use of even more abundant sources of energy (sun, wind) must be developed.

He went on to set goals for the nation to reach by 1985:

—to reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than 2 percent;

—to reduce gasoline consumption by 10 percent below its current level;

—to cut in half the portion of U.S. oil which is imported—from a potential level of 16 million barrels to 6 million barrels a day;

—to establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than a 6-months supply (this happened);

—to increase our coal production by about two-thirds to more than one billion tons a year (this was a disaster, too);

—to insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings;

—to use solar energy in more than 2 1/2 million houses.

“We can be sure that all the special interest groups in the country will attack the part of this plan that affects them directly,” Carter said at the time. “If they succeed with this approach, then the burden on the ordinary citizen, who is not organized into an interest group, would be crushing.

“If you will join me so that we can work together with patriotism and courage, we will again prove that our great Nation can lead the world into an age of peace, independence, and freedom.”

The special interests and their hired politicians sure did attack the plan – setting up in this nation a permanent and professional corporatist right-wing. Reagan, Clinton and George.W. Bush would be the result.

Last night, in his speech from the Oval Office, President Obama told us, “The consequence of our inaction is now in plain sight.”

Peace, independence and freedom remain elusive. Given the immoral state of war – particularly over the last decade – maybe the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico really is the moral equivalent of war.