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Month: March 2010

Wingnut Mail Call

Wingnut Mail Call

by digby

I got this email today. I thought I would share it with you so that you can see the full spectrum of batshit crazy paranoia that’s broken out on the right. I think you’ll find the projection especially fascinating:

Good Americans from sea to shining sea are grappling right now with how to
mentally process what they’re witnessing in Washington, D.C.

The spectacle of a far leftist president literally forcing socialized medicine
down the throat of an unwilling center-right America is reminiscent, perhaps
more than any other contemporary metaphor, of date rape.

A man determined to have his way with a woman may start off seducing her with
lies, flattery and the usual pretense of caring about her. But at a critical
moment, when she says, “Stop, I’m not comfortable with this and don’t want to go
any further,” he has a choice: Either do the right thing and back off, or
abandon all prior pretensions and take her by force.

As president, Barack Obama courted us with sweet talk, but America grew
increasingly uncomfortable with his advances and firmly said, “Stop” – in fact,
screamed bloody murder for months. Yet Obama remains obsessed with forcing
himself on America.

Put aside for the moment the fact that Obama is single-handedly destroying the
Democratic Party for years, perhaps decades, by maniacally pursuing Obamacare as
though it were Moby Dick and he Captain Ahab, leading all the Pequod’s hapless
Democrat crewmen into political destruction.

Rather, let’s focus on how to truly understand what we’re seeing – something
virtually unprecedented in the American experience, at least in our lifetimes.

America is not, after all, a place like Cuba or Zimbabwe where corrupt dictators
get their way through sheer ruthlessness, intimidation and naked arrogance.
We’re accustomed to the rule of law, to civility, to due process, even in the
most difficult and contentious of times. After all, when Hillarycare was soundly
rejected by Americans during Bill Clinton’s first term, he wisely backed off and
stopped trying to force socialized medicine on us. (And Bill was a guy with his
own date-rape problems, but that’s another story.)

Thus, here are a few useful prisms through which we can examine this
disturbingly un-American drama riveting our attention day after day:

The Ideological Prism: Obama is America’s first truly “radical leftist”
president – something worlds apart from merely “liberal.”

Quick review: Abandoned by his father, Obama as a teen was mentored by father
figure Frank Marshall Davis, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA;
at Columbia, he admits (in his book “Dreams From My Father”) to having been
attracted to the “Marxist professors”; after college he went into “community
organizing,” the radical political agitation system created by Chicago Marxist
Saul Alinsky; he later launched his political career in the living room of
another Chicago Marxist (and Weather Underground terrorist) William Ayers; his
pastor and spiritual mentor for 20 years Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a Marxist
(“Black Liberation Theology” is Marxism disguised as Christianity). As
president, Obama appointed as close advisers a self-proclaimed communist named
Van Jones, and Anita Dunn who publicly claimed her hero was communist genocidal
mass murderer Mao Zedong. All this and much more earn Obama the label “leftist
radical” or “socialist” – many say “Marxist.”

And according to Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” (which as I point out in my new
book “How Evil Works” was dedicated to Lucifer!), all the lies, deceit and
corruption in Washington currently marshaled to help pass Obamacare are noble
and moral.

The Psychological Prism: There’s a lot of talk about Obama’s “narcissism” these
days, with everyone from radio giant Rush Limbaugh to Pulitzer-winning columnist
(and former psychiatrist) Charles Krauthammer referring frequently to the
president’s extremely narcissistic behavior.

A few weeks ago I interviewed a top forensic psychiatrist – a medical
professional who makes his living evaluating and providing expert testimony
regarding the mental condition of people in court cases. He asked me not to
disclose his name, but he’s well known and has served as an expert witness in
thousands of such cases. I asked him, “Does Barack Obama have Narcissistic
Personality Disorder?” Mind you, this was not about whether the president is
“narcissistic,” which everyone already knows. Rather, Narcissistic Personality
Disorder is a serious mental illness or personality disorder with a broad and
disturbing symptom picture.

The forensic psychiatrist’s response to my question: “Yes, that’s a fair
assessment, maybe even Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder” (which
crosses over into criminality). We went through a few of the major symptoms,
including: 1) a grandiose view of one’s achievements (everything with Obama is
“historic”), 2) utter inability to handle criticism (everyone criticizing him or
his policies is attacked as a radical or extremist, even Fox News was attacked),
and 3) lack of genuine empathy (in his televised speech immediately after the
Fort Hood shooting – while the entire nation was reeling in shock – he engaged
in small talk and “shout-outs” for two full minutes before mentioning the worst
terror attack on our soil since 9/11.)

The Moral-Legal Prism: Obama is a product of Chicago politics, the most corrupt
political cesspool in the nation, as a recent study from the University of
Illinois at Chicago’s political science department once again attests. The
blatant healthcare bribes (“Louisiana Purchase,” “Cornhusker Kickback,” special
deals for unions and other powerful interests ad nauseam) are the tip of the
iceberg. “Corruption” is synonymous with “business” for the crowd currently in
power.

How do corrupt politicians think and feel? Imagine you just met someone who was
unusually arrogant, greedy and selfish, who considered himself far superior to
everyone else, above the need to be truthful, above the law (and willing to
break any law he could get away with), who was contemptuous of others and
utterly impervious to criticism or self-reflection – and who also harbored an
overwhelming urge not only to take your money, but to control you, to exert
power over your life! You might understandably conclude that person is mentally
deranged or even a criminal. But there’s another group of people that think a
lot like that: our current crop of leaders in Washington.

Now, regardless of whatever level of validity you ascribe to any or all of these
views (they’re not mutually exclusive, far from it), we’re still left with a
haunting question: How can an apparently decent man like Barack Obama – who
undoubtedly loves his daughters and probably reads them bedtime stories, has a
good sense of humor, and is highly intelligent and likeable – justify lying and
deceiving all the time, pretending to care about Republican input, about
transparency, about controlling costs, and so on? Further, how can he justify
using such dishonest means to force his will on an unwilling American public? In
other words, how can he countenance, in effect, date-raping America?

What we need to understand is that, between his hate-based ideology (Winston
Churchill called socialism the “gospel of envy”), extreme narcissism and
long-internalized political corruption, Obama and others like him, literally
drunk on power, live essentially in a state of delusion: Down is up, truth is
cruel and impractical, corruption is just “conducting business,” morality is
repression, lying is a creative force.

Those on the far left regions where Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid dwell
regard free-market capitalism as irredeemably evil, exploitive and unjust – and
therefore in need of destruction to make way for the creation of something more
noble and just. Likewise, they look at influential conservatives not simply as
“old-fashioned,” “selfish” or “religious nuts,” but as evil. (Remember, Dick
Cheney was “Darth Vader” and Karl Rove “the emperor.”) If you think I exaggerate
the monumental, self-righteous rage with which the left abhors conservatives,
watch MSLSD for 15 minutes. I rest my case.

Thus, the left thinks of their constant lying and deceiving the way you and I
might regard lying and deceiving were we German undercover operatives in the
Nazi army plotting to kill Hitler, as in the true-life Operation Valkyrie. Col.
von Stauffenberg and the other courageous patriots in the German army were lying
and deceiving all day long. After all, war is deception, and they were operating
behind enemy lines, trying to slay a monster and end a terrible war. Their
deceptions were indeed noble.

That’s how Obama and company think of their daily depredations that endanger the
very existence of America as a land of liberty and light among the nations.

Any way you slice it – psychologically, ideologically, politically, morally – we
are talking about people in the grip of dark forces and delusion, hell-bent on
leading the rest of us downward, which they see as upward. The fact that they
may not be fully conscious of the evil they do may make it easier for us not to
hate them. But hate is not what we need, anyway. What we need is to vote every
single one of Obama’s congressional collaborators out of office this November,
and to do it so decisively that even “the anointed one’s” gigantic fortress-life
shell of denial is shattered into a million pieces – as the bells of freedom
ring once again throughout America.

Can you say “issues?”

He’s A Leader Cuz He’s Led

He’s A Leader Cuz He’s Led

by digby

Like his predecessor “W”, who famously took the presidency by repeating the line “I know how to lead cuz I’ve led” President Huckleberry is very busy these days. First he laid down the law about terrorist detainees. Now he’s offered to knock some heads together on health care and get this bitch done right:

Graham said Tuesday that a coalition of Republican and Democratic senators could rescue the Senate from an institutional disaster brought on by the use of the parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation to finish the health care bill.

“Many Republicans who were ready to pull the trigger on the nuclear option on judges are now glad they didn’t,” Graham said. “This place would have ceased to function as we know it. If they do health care through reconciliation, it will be the same consequence. So if you are a moderate Democrat out there looking for a way to deliver health care reforms and not pull the nuclear trigger, there is a model to look at.”

Unfortunately the hyperpartisan Ben Nelson refused to cooperate, so it looks like the Prez is out of luck on that. But Huck isn’t giving up on his agenda. He issued a stern warning to “step it up:”

Graham, less than thrilled at the notion of providing the equivalent of a book report to the headmaster in chief, said Obama’s lack of direction on immigration reform is hampering Graham’s efforts to recruit additional Republicans to the cause.

“At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit,” Graham told POLITICO on Tuesday. “One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it.”

I hope Obama heard that and snapped to it. Graham is doing his level best to lead this godforsaken country and that Obama fella is standing in the way with his dilly dallying.

Graham is the perfect choice to become the face of the phony “reasonable” Republican 2.0 the Villagers are rolling out for the fall collection. But in truth he’s an unctuous, sanctimonious con man and always has been. My only surprise is that Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman aren’t jumping at the chance to work with him.

Update: Oh God, this sounds bad.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — the Republican of the moment at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. — was fired up following today’s climate change meeting with President Obama and a bipartisan collection of his colleagues.

He was especially impressed by Obama’s commitment to a comprehensive approach and urged his GOP brethren to follow suit, if everything worked out.

“I’m not going to support some half-assed reform!” he exclaimed.

I hope that anyone in that meeting who cares about the future of the planet checked their backs on the way out to see what might be stuck there.

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Unbelievable

Unbelievable

by digby

More great TV.

Here, Jon Stewart confronts that sadistic hypocrite Marc Theissen on torture. Yes, it’s shocking that this interview had to take place on a comedy network, but that’s the world we inhabit:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive – Marc Thiessen Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Health Care Reform

I have to say quite honestly that this man makes me ill. And ashamed that people like this ever work in the White House. Ugh.

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The New Generation

The New Generation

by digby

Chris Hayes subbed for Rachel Maddow last night and was absolutely terrific. And unlike every other host on cable news, he allowed the pro-choice side of the Stupak logjam to have a few minutes to make the case. According to Denise Degette, they aren’t playing:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I have a feeling that these people understand very well they will be burned at the stake by all the very serious people if they refuse to vote for whatever the Catholic Bishops tell the Democrats to vote for. It’s a price that pro-choice people are expected to pay — and be happy about it.

I do wonder if perhaps the Catholic Bishops ought to spend a little bit less time lobbying congress and a little bit more time dealing with their own problems. Standing in the way of universal health care isn’t going to help them dig their way out of that. And it makes it just a little bit tough for the rest of us to take their moral entreaties seriously. In fact, not very many American Catholics do. I can’t imagine at this point why anyone does.

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Undeserving Humans

Undeserving Humans

by digby

Thank goodness the President has finally stepped in to put all these arguments about what to do with terrorist suspects to rest. President Huckleberry, that is.

Spencer Ackerman:

Two weeks ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in the midst of negotiations with the White House over trading a military tribunal for 9/11 conspirator Khalid Shaikh Mohammed for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, floated a new proposal: “a new national security court” for terrorism detainees. Graham didn’t appear to press the point in interviews since. But his spokesman, Kevin Bishop, said Graham is busy drawing up a proposal for how such a system would work, and gave some detail about its scope. As it happens, this is less a national-security court than it is an indefinite detention system. “There has to be some type of statute– and he’s been clear on that — for indefinite detention,” Bishop said.

Primarily, the system Graham is designing is set up for handling the Obama administration’s so-called “Fifth Category” of detainees that a Justice Department task force recommended against charging and releasing. “What do you do with them? What type of system do you have to hold them indefinitely?” Bishop said. “What type of system do you establish where we can ensure that we’re looking back at their cases; that we are holding them; we still determine that they are enemy combatants; they’re too dangerous to release; but we also aren’t going to try them in either a military or a civilian court. So there has to be a system for that, and that’s why Senator Graham is looking for a legal framework.”

I think this is a terrific idea. In fact, I don’t see why we shouldn’t apply this new category to other people we just “know” have committed crimes but for a variety of reasons we don’t think we can convict in a court of law. Surely you cannot tell me that people suspected of serial murder or child molestation are less dangerous and more deserving of human rights.

I think it’s only a matter of time before this becomes obvious to lots of people. Once you give up the principle of due process and the rule of law it only goes one way.

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Massa

Massa

by digby

I don’t want to write about Eric Massa but I guess I have to. I’ve met the guy a couple of times and admired his strong position on DADT and the wars in raq and Afghanistan. I assumed his opposition to health care reform (for not being liberal enough) was a way to thread the needle in his conservative district. I’m not sure how well that works, but I probably prefer it to having “no” voters use conservative talking points. I actually assumed he was one who might be persuaded to change his vote in the final days.

But that’s all I know except for the fact that he was from a military family, as I am, served in the Navy for decades and seemed to be something of an eccentric iconoclast.

Now he’s in the public eye having a very messy, very personal meltdown. In fact, his actions seem to me to be the work of a very troubled man who is in a lot of emotional pain. I certainly don’t endorse his behavior if it’s true. But I do have sympathy for someone who has to endure such a personal journey in front of the entire world, especially as he hasn’t, as so many do, allowed his own confusion and self-loathing to deny others the equality they deserve.

So, I’ll leave it to others to excoriate him for his erratic and self-destructive behavior. I just don’t have the stomach for it. Howie Klein wrote a moving essay on this today that you might want to read. No excuses. But understanding.

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Stale Cupcakes

Stale Cupcakes

by digby

Susan G at Dkos caught a brilliant illustration of the Village mentality in this New York magazine profile of Liz Cheney:

Fox is a regular pulpit, of course, but Liz is also all over NBC, where she happens to be social friends with Meet the Press host David Gregory (whose wife worked with Liz ’s husband at the law firm Latham & Watkins), family friends with Justice Department reporter Pete Williams (Dick Cheney’s press aide when he was secretary of Defense), and neighborhood friends with Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, daughter of Carter-administration national-security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. When Mika criticized Dick Cheney on her show last year, the former vice-president sent her a box of chocolate cupcakes.[…]

Liz’s friends say she sets the bar for all-American normality: She watches Mad Men and 24 on TV, drives an SUV, attends Girl Scout meetings, and is frequently spotted on the sidelines of soccer fields, trading gossip with people like Terry McAuliffe, Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler, and other power players whose kids go to the Country Day School or the Potomac School.

The fact that these All American folks are also millionaire celebrities with the most powerful people in the world on their speed dials shouldn’t be taken as signs that they aren’t just like you and me. In fact, they are Real Americans in ways that the frou-frou coastal liberal elites will never understand.

And as Susan rightly notes, there is another teensy problem with this confortable arrangement:

This idea that the national press corps can cozy up to sources or people in power they cover during afternoon soccer games or over Saturday night dinners, then turn around and hold their feet to the fire is ridiculous. You know it. I know it. Everyone outside of Beltway zip codes knows that. Hell, anyone who’s ever tried to challenge a neighbor at a local meeting knows it. But the Village? Meh. They have their own rules. And cupcakes.

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La Vida Locavore:: Ex Monsanto Lawyer Clarence Thomas to Hear Major Monsanto Case

The Big Difference

by tristero

From dsnodgrass at La Vida Locavore:

In Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case which could have an enormous effect on the future of the American food industry. This is Monsanto’s third appeal of the case, and if they win a favorable ruling from the high court, a deregulated Monsanto may find itself in position to corner the markets of numerous U.S. crops, and to litigate conventional farmers into oblivion.
Here’s where it gets a bit dicier. Two Supreme Court justices have what appear to be direct conflicts of interest.

Stephen Breyer

Charles Breyer, the judge who ruled in the original decision of 2007 which is being appealed, is Stephen Breyer’s brother, who apparently views this as a conflict of interest and has recused himself.

Clarence Thomas

From the years 1976 – 1979, Thomas worked as an attorney for Monsanto. Thomas apparently does not see this as a conflict of interest and has not recused himself.

Fox, meet henhouse.

And there it is, one main difference between normal Americans and movement conservatives.

If Thomas had even the slightest notion of what American values were, he would have recused himself, as he should have from an earlier decision involving a Monsanto competitor.

Special Note to those who would be foolish enough to argue that 30 plus years is surely long enough: It’s not. I have close friends who I worked with 30 years ago and we’re still in touch. It defies all reason to imagine Thomas has completely cut all his ties to Monsanto or, at the very least, former employees. There is no way even someone who was not suffering from Clarence Thomas’s disturbingly high levels of rage and egomania could be objective in this situation.

Follow the link above for the details on the case.

Government intrusion

Government Intrusion

by digby

Have I found common cause with the most right wing Republicans in the nation? Perhaps so. Think Progress reports:

The Oklahoma legislature is currently locked in a dispute over whether to tackle the state’s divorce rate, the third-highest in the nation. Although some Republicans are pushing the legislation, other conservatives are outraged at the “government intrusion” into their private lives:

Republican members proposed three pieces of legislation imposing new regulations on marriage and divorce in Oklahoma. Two of the measures were defeated, but another — requiring counseling for those planning to wed, and therapy sessions for couples considering divorce — is awaiting action. The issue has produced sharp clashes among conservative colleagues who normally find themselves in agreement. The debates have featured charges of hypocrisy and of betraying Republican principles against government intrusion into private lives. […] “How far do I want government to come into my home and your home about private personal matters?” asked Rep. Leslie Osborn, a Republican from Tuttle, in a debate. She referred to state government as a “huge monster.”

I have always felt that way and I couldn’t be happier to see right wingers finally becoming consistent in their “libertarianism” and objecting to government intrusion in something besides the wallets of millionaires.

Alas, it seems they are just people with unhappy marriages:

[S]ome of these same lawmakers — including Osborn — have had no problem imposing “government intrusion” into women’s “private lives.” Last fall, the Oklahoma passed a law that would have collected personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and posted them on a public website. (The Oklahoma County District Court struck down the law last month because it covered too many topics for one piece of legislation.) McDaniel noted that Republican lawmakers are now putting forth several anti-choice measures once again, as single bills. Just last week, for example, the state House passed a measure “that would require a woman be given a description of ultrasound images of her unborn child and be offered those images before getting an abortion.” Rep. Dan Sullivan (R), the sponsor of the abortion website legislation, opposed the divorce counseling bill in a Feb. 22 vote. Oklahoma also bans same-sex couples from marrying — a clear “government intrusion” into private life that many Republican lawmakers seem to find perfectly acceptable.

Well, that’s completely different. It’s one thing to demand that women give birth against their will, it’s quite another to force a freedom loving Republican to wait to get divorced. Let’s not get crazy.

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Trot Out The big Puppets

Trot Out The Big Puppets

by digby

There is a big health care rally happening today in DC. All the cameras are there, but nobody’s broadcasting it live. But they did get a mention on MSNBC.

Get a load of this report, complete with footage from the previous tea party rally. Tamron Hall:

Tea party activists plan to converge on the nation’s capital to protest president obama’s health care plan. And part of their plan is to target some 50 undecided House Democrats, in a three week blitz to stop legislation from being passed. They say the reforms amount to a government takeover.

But they’re not the only ones weighing in. This morning health care activists called for reform and marched to protest what they call the greedy and abusive health insurance .

Democratic House majority whip Jim Clyburn is here…

That’s it. They cut for about 20 seconds to today’s rally with a close-up of one sign with children on it that said “they deserve better” which as far as I know, could have been at the tea party rally. Hall went on to ask Clyburn about the whip count.

MSNBC covered the teabaggers live. Of course, they had a bunch of “Obama is Hitler” and pictures of Auschwitz on their signs so it made for better TV. But still — this is supposed to be the more liberal cable network and they can’t even be bothered to cover the rally even though they have people there. I guess it just isn’t interesting to them. After all, they have good health care.

This is, btw, why people make those stupid puppets for the big marches. If you aren’t willing to bring on the Nazi imagery, it’s the only way you can get the damned media to show any pictures of the crowd. It’s sad but true.

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