Lush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Monster

By now, you’ve heard about Lush Limbaugh’s attack against Michael J. Fox. Perhaps you’ve even read Limbaugh’s words. But you haven’t really faced the monstrosity of Limbaugh, the playground bully, until you see him mimic and mock Fox’s physical condition. Limbaugh is odious; he is vile. I cannot comprehend how anyone respects a single turd that falls from his mouth.

TSA – Taming Sheep Agency

Mer flew to Tucson last weekend. Like every good citizen of the fatherland homeland, she carefully thought about her duties regarding carry-on items. She packed her baggie with items of approved size. She contemplated the nature of gels versus ointments, creams and salves.

In Albuquerque, the guardians of safety and compliance put their heads together and recognized the threat implicit in a jar of homemade jam. No matter. Everything else passed scrutiny.

In Tucson, standards are higher — and Tucsonans safer for it, I’m sure. On the return leg, Mer’s little film canisters of face cream would not pass. The physically intimidating supervisor called to rule told her “original containers” are required. Well, in some places, if not others — but, perhaps, inconsistency is a tactic to keep us safe. Still, the original container is 3.5 oz and we all know what a crime against humanity it would be to try to smuggle .5 oz of contraband aboard. If half an ounce were missing from the original container, would it be OK? Or would that constitute unacceptable alteration of the contents? The answer is classified.

Mer was furious and prepared to say she’d never fly again, a threat she can’t keep. I haven’t flown in almost 6 years since I walked past countless men with machine guns fully prepared to kill me to keep me safe.

This is the price we’ve paid for lacking any imagination or real sense. It is the ultimate legacy of 9/11. We are ruled by fear and fear-mongers.

On a lighter note, maybe, I’m reminded of the story my brother, Dan, loves to tell. He and his wife, Sharon — a math scholar who speaks Arabic — lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years. They were returning to Saudi Arabia after a much needed escape to Europe. At the airport, the Saudi TSA — Total Sanctity Agency — found chocolates filled with flavored liquors in Sharon’s luggage. After confiscating her jam face cream chocolates, the Homeland Guardian advised my brother to take Sharon home and beat her for her crime.

The Saudis and the Israelis are our role models, now.

Karl Rove, the Architect of Victory

I heard part of the NPR interview with Karl der Grosse, king-maker. Karl says “stay the course” on the election — keep ’em scared of terrorists and taxes — and the Republicans will hold onto both houses of Congress. He’s sure of it. He’s seen more polls than anyone. It’s a cakewalk. Republicans will be showered with roses on Election Day. Some call him a mad genius — they’re half right.

I look forward to the day, soon to come, when no one remembers who the hell Karl Rove was and everyone spits on the ground if you utter the word Duhbya.

Time to (re-)read my not-necessarily-fictional Left Undone. mjh

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White House Upbeat About GOP Prospects
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Report Warns of Potential Voting Problems in 10 States By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post Staff Writer

Two weeks before the midterm elections, at least 10 states, including Maryland, remain ripe for voting problems, according to a study released yesterday by a nonpartisan clearinghouse that tracks electoral reforms across the United States.

The report by Electionline.org says those states, and possibly others, could encounter trouble on Election Day because they have a combustible mix of fledgling voting-machine technology, confusion over voting procedures or recent litigation over election rules — and close races. [mjh: perhaps this explains Rove’s odd optimism]
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The GOP Leans on A Proven Strategy By Peter Baker, Washington Post Staff Writer

Beset by discouraging polls and division within ideological ranks, the White House is accelerating efforts to woo back disaffected conservatives and energize the Republican base in a reprise of a strategy that succeeded in the last two campaign cycles.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney have given multiple interviews to conservative journalists, senior adviser Karl Rove has telephoned religious and social activists, and the White House has staged signing ceremonies for legislation cracking down on terrorism and illegal immigration. Two weeks before Election Day, Bush aides invited dozens of radio talk show hosts for a marathon broadcast from the White House yesterday to reach conservative listeners. …

To maximize the blitz, the White House set up a tent on the North Lawn yesterday and let 42 radio hosts broadcast live during the day. Because it was on government property, “Radio Day” included outlets such as National Public Radio, but “it’s mostly conservative talk,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said. “This is a chance to talk to people and get heard,” said Snow, a former talk show host who did more than 20 interviews yesterday and has also been dispatched to talk to conservative Web sites such as the Power Line blog. …

Iraq was a subject of discussion as officials tried to explain Bush’s evolving rhetoric. Snow minimized the decision to no longer describe Bush’s policy as “stay the course,” telling Fox that he found only eight times when Bush used the phrase. The liberal Center for American Progress then quickly posted a list of 30 instances when Bush argued to “stay the course.” And Rumsfeld told Hannity that it is “nonsense” to say Bush is “backing away from ‘stay the course,’ ” saying he only wants to avoid confusion. …

Some conservatives said it is too late. “They honestly need a baseball bat against the head,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who helped Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) take over Congress in the 1990s. “Because if they don’t change the lexicon immediately, as bad as this election is going to be, they’re going to lose the presidency in 2008. I’ve given up on 2006. They’ve already made so many mistakes, there’s no way they can fix it in two weeks. But I’m worried now they’re going to lose all the marbles.”

Eugene Robinson: Ending the GOP ‘culture war’

The culture war is supposed to be about morality, but really it’s a crusade to compel Americans to follow certain norms of private behavior that some social and religious conservatives believe are mandated by sociology, nature or God. Republican officeholders have paid lip service to this crusade, all the while knowing that the human family is diverse and fallible. They know that the gravest threat to marriage is the heterosexual divorce rate. They know that Republicans drink, swear, carouse and have affairs, just like Democrats. They know that homosexuals aren’t devils.

Most Americans know all of this too, by the way. Main Street hasn’t been Hicksville for a long time.

But Republicans positioned themselves as our national Church Lady and were rewarded with the support of the staunchest religious conservatives, who now feel betrayed.

No political party has monopoly on morals By Leonard Pitts

So, anybody up for a chat about family values?

The term has been a registered trademark of the GOP — the self-styled Morals Party — for years, a bludgeon against Democrats who, by implication, oppose families and have no values. Like most political language, it’s a code, intended to be understood by those with ears to hear. “Family values” means the pol in question has God on speed dial and can be counted upon to oppose gun control, the so-called “homosexual agenda” and abortion, while pushing schools to teach, as Tina Fey once put it, that Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs. …

Now Foley is in seclusion, sending his representatives out with roughly an explanation a day: Foley is a drunk, Foley was molested as a teenager, Foley is gay. Of them all, that last would-be clarification is the most vexing, playing as it does to the conservative predilection for conflating homosexuality and child molestation — as if Foley’s actions would be one iota less execrable if the pages were girls. Meantime, his party has its knickers in a knot over whether Speaker Dennis Hastert will survive this scandal.

I am preoccupied by different questions: what should we make of the fact that members of the Morals Party have behaved with such an appalling lack of same? How could our self-appointed decency police have been so inert while one of their members practiced perversion against children? Isn’t protecting children a family value?

I make no case for Democratic moral superiority. The Monica Lewinsky, Gary Condit, and Barney Frank scandals are too fresh in memory for anyone to suggest that with a straight face. But at least the Democrats had the good taste not to sell themselves as The Morals Party, never claimed to have God on speed dial.

One feels sorry for those who bought what the GOP was selling. One hopes they will be less gullible in the future.

And the Morals Party? There is no such thing.

I hope you got to see Speaker Denny Hastert’s news conference. Several times during the news conference, Hastert insinuated that Democrats are behind the furor over the Foley scandal. He concluded his damage control with a litany of great Republican achievements — topped by tax cuts — versus Democrats’ lack of plan (so he says). ‘Maybe they’ve got other tactics,’ he concluded.

You know, I don’t mind doddering old men who can’t find their own asses with two hands — I plan to be one, someday. Everyone experiences moments of incompetence. What I can’t stand is an incompetent being belligerent. To be inept and attack others is scandalous — albeit the Rovian Way and the Path of Duhbya. I hope the fall is a mighty one, though I’m sure these fools will blame everyone but themselves. mjh