Go Read C&L Today

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Must reading at Crooks and Liars this Monday morning.


On Joe Miller, Shades of Gordon Kahl or Tim McVeigh goes to Washington....

And on the cheapidute/greeditude of Ben Stein properly smacked down.
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Lesser Fargo-Moorhead Chamber Lurch to the Right

The following is a letter to the editor I've sent online to my local newspaper, The Forum in Fargo. I'll let you know if it sees the light of print.... because It — The Mainstreaming of Radicalism — Can't Happen Here ... until it does:
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They bill themselves as Greater Fargo Moorhead's Chamber of Commerce, but the actions of the Chamber this past year contradict that "greater." The Chamber's decision last December to announce the hiring of an executive director, Craig Whitney, whose main claim to fame was working for the hapless former vice president, Dan Quayle, signalled the Chamber's eagerness to dive into the cesspool of divisive and partisan rightwing politics.

Fast forward a few months and Whitney announces the Chamber's new "Voices of Vision" speakers series [The Forum, Thursday, Sept. 16), featuring "world thought leaders and cutting edge business visionaries." Who do they pick to exemplify that? Disgraced military merchant of arms to Iran, convicted felon for his involvement in Iran-Contra, longtime spewer of venomous hate on rightwing talk radio, Oliver North.

The man who hid behind his military uniform as he bald-faced lied to the U.S. Congress.

That's the part Craig Whitney wants to airbrush. Hopes you've forgotten. Or thinks you don't care about. Calling North a prime example and fitting person to launch the [Vision] series to honor individuals who personify the chamber's mission to unify and advance business interests is like calling the serpent in the garden a nice little marketer of apples.

While the radical rightwing makes inroads throughout mainstream Republican circles and too many who call themselves moderate Republicans cave to their thuggery, Whitney is leading the Chamber down the same road. As a small business owner and former active member of the Fargo Chamber, put me on record as saying shame. This twisting of history and attempt to airbrush the disgraceful record of Oliver North and hold him up as a model of excellence says much about both Craig Whitney and the Chamber that hired him.

Voices of Vision? Divisive dystopian nightmare, more like.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

Impotent, Limp and Gutless

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No mother gives birth planning to hand her child over to her country, but I gave birth to a combat vet.

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. You gave birth to a juvenile delinquent who had to join the military or go to jail. Just part of the dysfunction of the Palin family on parade. Which you are quick to use to your own self-aggrandizement.

Let's get the context real.

And whazzup with your obsession with penis references? Impotent? Limp?

Really?

Sarah likes to punch hot buttons. And word in the Vanity Fair October issue is, she likes to punch hot buttons offstage, too.

Some say Todd is henpecked, and others see him as the heavy. One person who has been a frequent houseguest of the Palins’ says that the couple began many mornings with screaming fights, a fusillade of curses: “ ‘Fuck you,’ ‘Fuck this,’ ‘You lazy piece of shit.’ ‘You’re fuckin’ lucky to have me,’ Sarah would always say.” (This person never saw Todd and Sarah sleep in the same bed, and recalls that Todd would often joke, “I don’t know how she ever gets pregnant.”) Whatever the nature of the relationship, Todd is now as much a part of Sarah as Hillary Clinton is of Bill. Whether they like it or not, the Palins, like the Clintons, are probably stuck with each other.

And tell people that she has the power to ruin them.

Palin’s former personal assistants all refused to comment on the record for this story, some citing a fear of reprisal. Others who have worked with Palin recall that, when she feels threatened, she does not hesitate to wield some version of a signature threat: “I have the power to ruin you.”

Ruin may start right within the Palin household itself. Where, according to VF, the mother-of-the-combat-vet isn't exactly candidate for parent of the year [tho heaven knows there's bound to be some rightwing group cynical political heavy out there priming that, as well]

There’s a general consensus in town that, at least since the start of the 2008 campaign, Todd has been shouldering the bulk of the parenting and that Sarah’s relationship with her children has grown more distant. The children did not, as Sarah has claimed, have a chance to weigh in on her decision to run for vice president. She did not even deliver the news to them personally; as has been reported, she asked McCain’s campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, to do it for her.

Sarah, your inner Evita is showing. And I bet you've tried out that impotent, limp and gutless line on the First Dude many a time.

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crossposted at firedoglake The Seminal

History, Simpson Style

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First they came for the immigrants,
And then they came for the Moslems,
And then they came for the food stamp families,
And then they came for the seniors,
And then they came for the vets,

And…. startin’ to get down there, now isn’t it?
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Question of Today: Business Model?

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If Big Business demands tax cuts and bailouts and loopholes and outsourcing to feed its hungry greedy maw, destroying [the buying power of] the Middle Class in the process, how is that a successful business model?
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Global Warming? It's Already Here

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Those who pooh-pooh that global warming is a certainty in our future, take note.

It's already here.

In the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. The land of tall pines. A blowdown in 1999 took out huge swaths of those pines. And instead of growing back, trees like red maples are springing up.

The new north woods growing up to replace the millions of blown down trees isn't really a north woods at all but something more akin to the grassland savannahs farther south. Indeed, over the last decade or so, the blowdown has become a giant laboratory for measuring the ecological effects of a warming climate and the role humans are playing in accelerating the change.

Look around your own hometown. I'll bet you'll find changes there, already, too. Or keep your head in the sand and listen to Rush. Yeah, that'll work.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Seminal

Franken on Net Neutrality

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Must reading...Senator Franken's op-ed at the cnn.com website.

Our free speech rights are under assault -- not from the government but from corporations seeking to control the flow of information in America.

If that scares you as much as it scares me, then you need to care about net neutrality.

"Net neutrality" sounds arcane, but it's fundamental to free speech. The internet today is an open marketplace. If you have a product, you can sell it. If you have an opinion, you can blog about it. If you have an idea, you can share it with the world.

And no matter who you are -- a corporation selling a new widget, a senator making a political argument or just a Minnesotan sharing a funny cat video -- you have equal access to that marketplace.

Until you don't.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Seminal