Race Baiter

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The Republican saga of race-baiting rightwing bigotry is ratcheting up these days.

John Ridley over at Huffington Post reminds us: there is no context for bigotry other than bigotry.

And there is no bigger propagandist for the Republican bigotry machine than their carefully cultivated rightwing radio talker, Rush Limbaugh.

And certainot, a commenter there, puts it succinctly:

yes... the party of lincoln is now the party of limbaugh. no one represents the morals and priciples of the modern GOP better.

These days, (R ) is a four-letter word.
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UPDATE: On the Sundance Channel, a powerful documentary—Ring of Fire, the Emile Griffith Story. Griffith was beaten within an inch of his life. Coincidence that this happened in the summer as the gay-bashing right was beating their drums during the 1992 campaign?

Bigotry has many targets—the "other"—the person of color, the gay, the Jew, the gypsy...and as Niemoller reminds us...and then they came for me and there was no one left to say anything.

Bush is a four-letter word. Rush is a four-letter word. Rove is a four-letter word.

And so is Evil.
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Push-Blogging, Part II -- Pentagon Propaganda

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Because Tweety ended the first half hour of his Hardball show--ALL WRIGHT ALLA TIME-- with the promise that he'd be right back with *surprise!!!!* MORE WRIGHT ALLA TIME....
[sorry, Tweety, your push-pastoring is as slimy as push-polling, ya lost me, bigtime]

Because the corporate media are so deep in bed with the perps on this story they are too ashamed, scared, intimidated, cowardly, all of the preceding, to report on it....

Because this is endemic to the "news" these days, we're going to offer from time to time a look at stories that are making the blogosphere that you may not necessarily see on teevee...unless they are dragged kicking and screaming and furiously rubbing their Bush Secret Decoder Rings for orders....

The Pentagon's Psy-ops on America--finally someone asks the question of the White House, courtesy Raw Story.

Others said that if they departed from the Pentagon's talking points, their access was cut off, and my question is: Did the White House know about and approve of this operation?

Ms. Perino: Look, I don't...I didn't know...look, I think you guys should take a step back and look at this op...look....

Who you gonna believe? Dana Perino or your lyin' eyes?


UPDATE: Think Progress blogs on the Pentagon's Psy-Ops tactics, also. Get to know your blogs, folks, they may be all the news we have left in the "newsertainment" world.

Blindered Loyalty

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Governor Bill Richardson has been trashed by Clinton loyalists in the wake of his endorsement of Barack Obama, to the extreme that James Carville lashed out and called him "Judas" and persists in that tone to this day.

This whole sorry aftermath of the Richardson endorsement reflects far more on Hillary Clinton and her collection of pitbull minions typified by Carville, Mark Penn and Harold "Ickies" and their ilk than on the opposing "team"...which seems to be Obama and a helluva lot of greater America.

You can read Richardson's response to the self-admitted by Carville personal attack here.

Richardson's closing comment that out of loyalty to country, he chose to endorse Obama is one that resonates. There are a whole lot of us these days whose first loyalty is to this country, not a particular party or candidate, because frankly too many have let us down too many times in the past seven years, on both sides of the aisle.

And I really don't give a rat's ass whether or if he promised to endorse Hillary or not.

Because this election transcends little prick your palm and sqwoosh the blood together buddy-buddy pledges or anything but the need for clear-headed reasoning, sound judgment, and restoration of rule of law and honor to our citizens and the world.

We are of a housecleaning frame of mind.

While skimming the net yesterday, on another blog I read a newsreport that quoted a Republican woman as "Bushed out." That, "Bush-whacked," however you want to describe it, resonates, too.

We have had enough of blind loyalty to one person, of politics by division, of disavowal of reality for blindered loyalty. The Cult mentality that's overtaken too much of political life these days may be attributed to the constant, culpable media assault of "catapulting the propaganda."

But whatever the source, the high turnouts for Obama events, the broad spectrum of people attending, the level of the scurrilous desperation of the attacks against him, whether Carville's public "Judas" comment about Richardson or the whispering campaign to Superdelegates about Rev Wright...all these show a nation hungry for change.

A nation paralyzed by fear, as mentioned in the Sundance Channel documentary about architect Mike Reynolds, is slowly, neuron by neuron, starting to move again.

And the move is away from same-old, same-old. I like to think of the American Voter as Captain Kirk kickin' that Klingon over the side of the Genesis Planet cliff. "I...have....had....enough...of...you...."

Maybe it's a good thing the Carvilles are reportedly packing up and moving outa the Beltway Zone. If they get a big enough moving van there are a lot more pundits and consultants and media mavens and politicians and lobbyists and hangers-on who should crowd right in. Or get on the bus....

Cooked Goose

Long before there were telecommuting and home offices, there were—and are—American Farm Families. No 40-hour work weeks for them. Instead, a routine of daily chores, animals to be fed, a future to be planned for. Farmers are the ants of the economic biosphere.

The rest of us? Mostly grasshoppers.

Well, gather round, grasshoppers, as we contemplate the benefits of foie gras vs. golden eggs.

Foie gras—that oh-so-elegant and pricey paté for the have-mosts, goose liver to the rest of us—is basically force-fed geese forced to give up their lives for a moment’s rest on the tongues of the one percent crowd.

Don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling a lot like those geese for a few—oh, let’s say seven-plus—years now. Force-fed a steady diet of propaganda packaged as public relations on everything from the food we eat to the way the White House spends our money—profligate son, anyone?

The White House Bush Administration practices a kind of economics most of us at the kitchen table wouldn’t recognize. Laissez-faire. Let the capitalists do what they do without restraint. We don’ need no steenkin’ oversight. Cut the funding and the people [that would be jobs] for sensible regulation and monitoring of the [you fill in the blank] industry. The unseen hand—that would be the one up your skirts—will make sure things work the way they should work.

Tell that to the school districts across the country who are gathering up their beef from Hallmark Meat Packing in California. Or tell yourself, but check your Progresso soup can against the recall list before you do it over lunch.

Watching video of downer cows being scooped up by front end loaders to become part of the food supply, well, makes me contemplate going vegan.

Also pretty much sums up the philosophy of how the Bush Administration thinks about government and how little it thinks of ordinary Americans. Just throw everything into the meat grinder, offal included, and serve it up to the people. Hey, if they’re dumb enough to buy it….

For quick, short-term profits and profiteering and crony capitalism, you can’t do better than the Republicans who have run this economy aground the past seven years.

There’s a better way. Instead of killing the geese that lay the golden eggs, let’s sustain the economy and the country, lay the nest-full for future generations, build a strong, thriving flock that will keep our tummies healthy…and our country, as well.

That takes planning, and candor to the American people, and sensible monitoring of where the food supply and the propaganda supply both are coming from…and, yes, each of us thinking thru what’s being served up for us and separating the foie gras from the golden eggs.