Drive (a dream)

I was riding in the backseat of my Mom’s convertible. Robert Coontz was driving – and fast! Smithka was in the other front seat – or was it Merck? He (whichever) asked me how things are going. I replied, “I’ve been having a lot of dreams lately.” I added, “often transcendental,” wondering if I’d chosen the right word.[*] Robert zipped through generic narrow East Coast streets. I realized he was going the wrong way down a one way street. As the road curved right, Robert yelled, “almost missed it!” and pulled hard left, leaving the road. I thought I was going to die as we crashed through bushes to a stop.

Standing outside the car, I was trying to gather a mess of colorful strings and rags (parachute? hammock?). Michal Patten walked up and said something. I woke up.

[*] Surreal seems more apropos of a dream in which I discuss my dreams – possibly with a dead man.

Stupid Racist

No one with a brain in his head or an honest bone in his body could call Obama “lazy.” That word only could come to the mind of a pure racist. Will the good people of Massachusetts vote for a stupid racist? Stay tuned.

Think Progress » Will Scott Brown Stick By Birther Candidate Who Compared Obama To Osama Bin Laden? 

With Scott Brown’s victory in the special Senate election in Massachusetts on Tuesday energizing conservatives in the state, the Boston Globe reports that “several Tea Party activists are now considering candidacies.” Yesterday, Brown endorsed Boxford Republican Bill Hudak’s campaign against Rep. John Tierney (D-MA).

But Brown’s first endorsement might backfire. As Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy notes, Hudak is a birther who once compared President Obama to Osama bin Laden:

Down the road at 165 Herrick Road, William and Angela Hudak have more of the same anti-Obama signs lined along the front of their property. One large, roughly 6-foot-by-4-foot sign stands back from the road, up against their house, with words – such as socialist, Marxist, and lazy – surrounding the same picture of Obama dressed as Osama Bin Laden. […]

Hudak asserts that Obama was not born in the United States but in Kenya, according to affidavits that he made available to the Tri-Town Transcript. He said that Obama has ties to the Muslim faith through an extremist cousin that is from Kenya.

“There is a lot more going on here than anyone knows,” Hudak said.

Brown has already been criticized for inching towards the birther fringe for speculating in 2008 that then-candidate Obama was born out of wedlock. Brown refused to apologize for his speculation when asked about it by ThinkProgress last week.

In an interview with the Gloucester Daily Times, Hudak said that he and Brown were “very like-minded.” With Hudak’s extreme views exposed, will Brown stand by his endorsement of this birther, whom he claims will help “bring the voice of the people [to] Washington?”

DJ Carella

Think Progress » Will Scott Brown Stick By Birther Candidate Who Compared Obama To Osama Bin Laden?

Update 1/22/10: This isn’t the worst example of Republican revisionism (or lying, if you prefer). That would be Rudy Giuliani claiming there were no terrorist attacks under Duh-duh-duhbya’s reign of terror. Yeah, right.

Think Progress » Brown-endorsee Hudak now claims that he’s not a birther.

Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) had endorsed a Republican congressional candidate, Bill Hudak, who told a newspaper in 2008 that President Obama “was not born in the United States but in Kenya.” Brown’s staff tried to distance him from Hudak yesterday by saying that Brown didn’t approve the endorsement “press release before its release or the quote that was attributed to Scott.” But in an interview with the Gloucester Daily Times today, Hudak said that he and Brown “are really close” and that “there’s no question” that Brown gave him “his endorsement.” Hudak also denied that he was ever a birther:

Regarding the November 2008 article, Hudak said he does believe the president is a U.S. citizen.

“There’s no basis that I’ve been able to find” that calls Obama’s citizenship into question, he said. “No matter what people think, he is the president of the United States. You don’t get to that level without being fully vetted.”

Think Progress » Brown-endorsee Hudak now claims that he’s not a birther.

Now The Mad Hatters Plan to Take Our Ball and Go Home? Or Herd Us Back into Free Speech Zones?

I don’t care that Mad Hatter Jeff McQueen (see below) is guilty of sedition or treason. I’m more concerned at the implication of taking up arms against one’s fellow citizens. But mostly, I’m fucking tired of these lunatics who pay empty-headed lip-service to The Holy Founders and The Sacred Constitution but want to rip the country to shreds one year after a clear majority voted for change – after 14 years (or 24 of 26 years) of the mean-spirited lunatics running the show. Stupid, selfish bastards. Cry babies. Sore losers. Grow up and vote for change – change back to the nonsense of the past 30 years that clearly has served us all so very well.

Think Progress » Brown victory party featured flag calling for a ‘second’ revolution, tea party-inspired civil war. 

McQueen, a tea party organizer, has repeatedly used tea party websites to call for a revolution. In one of his posts, he explains that the country would be better served by splitting states between Democratic and Republican:

We are now as divided as America was in the 1860s. When two people find they can no longer communicate, while living under the same roof, they often split apart and go there seperate ways. So what if . . . we took the United States and just split it in half . . . 24 states become The United States of the Democrats and 24 states become The United States of the Republicans (including Ron Paul supporters and Libertarians etc . . .). California and New York can be split in half and go the the side they choose.

Think Progress » Brown victory party featured flag calling for a ‘second’ revolution, tea party-inspired civil war.

And here’s a new basketball league for the Confederate States of Republicans:

Think Progress » New basketball league open to whites only, to get away from the ‘street-ball’ played by ‘people of color.’ 

A new professional basketball league called the All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA) sent out a press release on Sunday saying that it intends to start its inaugural season in June, with teams in 12 U.S. cities. However, the AABA is different from other sports leagues because only players who are “natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.” AABA commissioner Don “Moose” Lewis insists that he’s not racist, but he just wants to get away from the “street-ball” played by “people of color” and back to “fundamental basketball.” Lewis cited the recent incidents of bad behavior by NBA players, implying that such actions would never happen with white players:

“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.” […]

Think Progress » New basketball league open to whites only, to get away from the ‘street-ball’ played by ‘people of color.’

And if the Mad Hatters haven’t taken to the streets to prevent fall elections from taking place, then, maybe, there still room for hope:

Think Progress » After Brown’s Win, Steele Still Pessimistic About GOP’s Chances To Win House And Senate Majorities In 2010 

Despite the backlash from his colleagues on the Hill, and in the wake of Scott Brown’s (R-MA) victory in the Massachusetts, Steele still proclaims pessimism about the GOP’s chances in 2010. “You just can’t stop and think, ‘well OK now we’ll win in Maryland, we’ll win Delaware and we’ll win everywhere in the country because we won in Massachusetts.’ Every place is different,” he told a local Maryland radio show today. And on ABC this morning, Steele again said the GOP probably won’t win back the House and Senate:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts. Does this mean that the Republicans are going to take the House and Senate in November?

STEELE: Oh, I think we are very well on our way at this pace to certainly narrow the margin in the United States Senate as we will in the House and we’ll see how the rest of it plans out.

Think Progress » After Brown’s Win, Steele Still Pessimistic About GOP’s Chances To Win House And Senate Majorities In 2010

Of course, Steele isn’t eligible to play in the AABA, so maybe he no longer speaks for the Grand Old White People’s Party.

Throw Those Scrappy Repugs a Bone – But Keep a Rolled Up Newspaper Handy

Update: I saw a sign that said, “Now it’s our turn for a change.” Really? I endured 8 years of Duhbya and 14 years of a Republican Congress — and galling arrogance and meanness every moment of that time. Now, barely a year after Obama and the Dems inherited all the shit that went down, some people demand change? It sickens me.

Let’s hear it for the good people of Massachusetts, who have near-universal health care and same-sex marriage: Thanks for denying that to the rest of us, MA! That tumbling sound may be Ted Kennedy or the Founding Fathers in response to the Mad Hatters. Let’s hope this little bit of extra rope is all it takes for the Radical Wrong to hang themselves before the Fall.

You think “it’s the economy, stupid”? Then how in the hell can anyone vote for a Republican? From Hoover to Raygun to Duhbya, the Republicans are for the rich getting richer and corporations getting freer. “A rising tide lifts all yachts.” — Warren Buffett. And all it takes to make galley slaves of the rest of us is the mistaken belief that anyone can become rich / win the lottery / win American Idol / become President (Duhbya, Palin).

[I’m reprinting the following from last fall.]
– – – – –

Enjoy yourselves, my dear conservative friends. Yes, you were victorious in one race on Tuesday. Savor. But, please, mind the crowing and gloating – it underscores how desperate you are for any positive sign.

Read the info at the following link, which includes more than one progressive victory [last fall], as well, while missing the progressive sweep in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Think Progress » ThinkFast: November 4, 2009

Remember, even in yesterday’s races, Republicans were tearing at each other for this bone. The movement to exterminate the RINOs is alive and well. This is a shrinking, hardening, increasingly ugly “party” not likely to court anyone the least bit open-minded. Harsh? Read the philosopher king of conservatives, calcified Cal Thomas.

Cal Thomas 

The Left has put aside the original Constitution in favor of a "living document" that they believe allows them to do whatever they want and demand more tax dollars with which to do it.

Can they be stopped? …

Lawyers are busy writing language only they can understand which seeks to circumvent the intentions of the Founders. But it will be difficult to circumvent the last four words of the Tenth Amendment, which state unambiguously where ultimate power lies: "…or to the people."

Americans who believe their government should not be a giant ATM, dispensing money and benefits to people who have not earned them, and who want their country returned to its founding principles, must now exercise that power before it is taken from them. The Tenth Amendment is one place to begin. The streets are another. [mjh: Don’t forget your guns and hateful signs!] It worked for the Left.

Cal Thomas

Give me your paranoid, your loony. The nation isn’t united by the Constitution – according to Cal – instead, the majority hates the Constitution and will destroy the stalwart True Believers, who must take to the streets and water the Tree of Liberty. (No, no, don’t pee on it!)

Lash Lush Limbaugh

A Letter to Rush Limbaugh :: rogerebert.com :: Opinion 

To: Rush Limbaugh
From: Roger Ebert

You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation.
Having followed President Obama’s suggestion and donated money to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, I was offended to hear you suggest the President might be a thief capable of stealing money intended for the earthquake victims. …

Tens of thousands are believed still alive beneath the rubble. You twisted their suffering into an opportunity to demean the character of the President of the United States.

You have a sizable listening audience. You apparently know how to please them. Anybody given a $400 million contract must know what he is doing.
That’s what offends me. You know exactly what you’re doing.

A Letter to Rush Limbaugh :: rogerebert.com :: Opinion