Hollywood Liberal

From one of those "Vanity Cards" Chuck Lorre puts at the end of his productions, like Big Bang theory, Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg, etc.

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #322

If, somewhere in the course of this vanity card, I were to use a monosyllabic, Anglo-Saxon word that sits atop the 'no say' list, my guess is nothing would change in your life. You might form an opinion, have a passing thought, or even choose to be outraged. But, and it's a big but, the choice would be yours. It would not be inflicted on you by the word. The word would be, like Kansas once morosely whined, "Dust in the Wind." And yet, we live in a culture that fears the word. In fact, on broadcast television, the phobia for the word has reached the point where the letter f is, in certain instances, no longer acceptable. F has become a subversive letter. According to our network censor, f is often up to no good. We have been warned. F is being watched! Which brings me to my belabored point. I believe that words by themselves are actually quite impotent. They hardly rise above being noise. Ideas, however, the clever, inane and/or insidious grouping together of words, are dangerous. If history proves anything, the wrong idea at the right time can do unbelievable damage. Bad ideas are what the culture should fear and guard against. Which is why I get spooked watching ox News.

They Need To Get It Together

Boom...Boom. These two items appeared next to each other on my feed reader:

Jim Cramer: President Obama Is ‘Hated Like Jimmy Carter’ By Business Leaders

Republicans accuse Obama of trying to ease regulatory burden on 'job creator' who donated to GOP

Sadly, none of the haters will really see the cognitive dissonance.

That or the really sad news is that no matter how much he tries to appease, cajole, placate, compromise or outright bribe them, the self-appointed Masters of the Universe will ALWAYS hate most any Democrat Harvard Grad Liberal Center-Lefty Northerner Big City Dweller Black Dude.

They Must Be Joking

Monty Python - History of the Joke

Truly inspired thoughts come from all over, more often than not from the lips what Mel Brooks describes as Stand-up Philosophers. That's the job, thinking of the absurdities of life pointing it out in the most devastating way ... while not pissing their audience off (too much).  Laughter is a bonus reaction, the signal that they've hit on something profound startling funny enough to be repeated next time they do their act.

Marc Maron is one such sage, and I've been enjoying his WTF podcasts for some time now. While entertainingly funny the podcasts are profound in that they are not an "act," but a forum where Marc and his fellow comedians discuss the craft of comedy, where it comes from, how it develops.  Like Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcast (which I also highly recommend), what works and what doesn't is what drives the program, but Maron's WTF is a level all its own.

Where political bloggers and activist Tweeters analyze and advocate in often heroic efforts to spread the message of where our society needs to go, and some are even podcasting to great effect (and here I must plug the Best of the Left aggregator podcast and Mr. and Mrs. Driftglass/Bluegal's Professional Left as personal favorites), let's face it -- they mostly are preaching to the choir.

So, when the nature of GOP nihilism is expounded on at some lefty blog in trying to get a grip on the suicide pact conservatives are using to blackmail the nation into accepting their theocratic policy prescriptions -- or else, "we" know what's up. But "we" are folks who care, sometimes too much, about politics.

Republican hue and cry about the current budget "crisis" is intended to force Americans to embrace their vision for the future whether voters like it or not. Their argument at its essence is, you may not like our vision but at this point you don't have any choice.

But when you hear something that on the surface is not political at all, but is so very applicable to the state of the nation even when it's entirely intended for another audience and merely describing an individual's personality, it gives pause. Maybe it's more about what's in my head and this says more about me than the art of the joke, but take this exchange between Marc Maron and Anthony Jeselnik last week on WTF about Jeselnik's experience playing sports in high school and Marc's introspective reaction and see it you too find it perfectly descriptive of how the leading conservatives of the GOP are operating:

Maron: Did you get shit from the football guys?
Jeselnik: Nah, it wasn't like that. No one cared, no one cared about lacross at all. I think it might be better there at my high school now than at the time.
Maron: ... I always think about that in myself. That if someone had tought me some sense of healthy competition I would be better off in life. Like to me losing, is just, like I'm, if I'm losing I would rather ruin the game ... than lose.

Sure, call me PollyAnna, say it's just wishful thinking, but in the long run the extremism of the right stinks of desperation.  They're losing, and they know it.

They're losing at life, and their attempt to destroy the game, our government, our democracy, our economy, our way of life is a symptom of their last gasp attempt to stop what cannot be stopped. Progress. Progress towards social justice, towards fairness and equality cannot be stopped no matter how many road blocks the conservative cry babies throw at us.

It's all they got. And it works to a degree, but only for so long my friends. Tricks and fear mongering only work for so long.  Face it. No matter how some douchebag like Jim DeMint holds his breath and stomps his feet, Barack Obama is our President. An insanely articulate, extremely well educated, urban black man from a northern state is President, and Jim DeMint never, ever will hold that title. That alone is progress.

We will always need more progress and they will always try to slow it down, but generation by generation, we win, they lose, and life goes on.  Our society will advance and even if they try to destroy it from within, "we" will always be "We the People," (even if we have to include corporations or even androids and zombies as "people" too).

You Asked For My Debate Take

Well, maybe not "you" specifically, but I was indeed asked for my opinion.  Well, I was asked if there was any more comedy gold that could be gleaned from Bachmann's performance, but close enough.

Actually, Bachmann did very well on the attack vs. Perry last night. Made him look like a crooked chump.  It's a bit complicated and I can get into the details if you want, but basically Perry required schoolgirls get an anti-cervical cancer vaccine via executive order. The drug was provided by Merk, a campaign contributor his Chief of Staff used to run. Perry acted offended that he could be bought for a five grand contribution when he raises 30 million. (No mention if he really was a whore and was only dickering over price.) Rick Santorum - in his best debate performance to date - pointed out that you vaccinate kids so other kids don't catch what you got and start an epidemic ... and cancer ain't contagious.  (Okay, those were the details.)

Libertarian tea baggers ended up booing Perry ... and also booed their godfather, Ron Paul, for stating the obvious vis-a-vis 9/11 terrorists motives. They liked his stance that "Freedom" means you take your chances, and those have consequences, so if you ain't insured and get sick ... too bad weakest link, you die. Actually got cheered for that one. I weep for our nation.

Huntsman was there, tried to do stand up and failed. Godfather Pizza guy Cain, tried to be serious and looked like a poor man's Bill Cosby.

Later, Patti Davis, Reagan's daughter, was on MSNBC and said that none of these clowns were fit to stand underneath her dad's shadow.

Meanwhile, half-term Governor Mousellini agreed with Bachmann and piled on Perry, who she'd endorsed for Governor in 2010 and for whom shehad nice things to say about, just short of endorsing, last week.  Onlyknock on Bachmann I saw last night on twitter was that her hair didn't look as good as Perry's or Romney.

Winner, Mittens! Stayed above the fray, got some shots in on Perry too, and didn't get picked on.

AND... ppp polls Obama up 49-45 on Romney, 52-41 on Perry, 53-41 on Gingrich, 53-39 on Bachmann

Forgot about Gingrich. He's so funny, so angry, so full of crap.  Twitter is scoring this debate a win for Bachmann, that she breathed new life into her campaign ... which has zero hope of going anywhere but may have earned her the Palin VP spot as designated attack poodle.

For those keeping track at home:
Bachmann: Pro-life mother of 23 and beard to one very up tight closeted white guy is also Pro Cancer.

Perry: Cannot be bought cheaply, pretty dumb on his feet, great hair, authentic swagger, real ranch, bought and paid for by big oil.  Typical GOP Texas politician. (Got booed by tea baggers for compassionate immigration stance similar to his old boss when he was Bush's Lieutenant Governor - booed for his one decent and human act as governor.)

Romney: The robotic GOP equivalent to Al Gore, the RomBot is a quantum candidate, able to be on all sides of an issue at the same time.

Santorum: STILL the most googleable candidate there, but was not frothy enough last night.

Huntsman: Is obviously in the wrong party.

Paul: Is obviously on the wrong planet.

Gingrich: Is obviously on the wrong end of the space-time continuum.

Herman Cain has a 9 point plan which as near as I can remember stands for a 9 item pizza for $9.99 delivered in 90 minutes.

Speaking of Zombie Reagan

Hey kids, guess what STILL doesn't work .... Star Wars. <<cue Imperial Death Star Theme>>

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U.S. Ballistic Missile Intercept Test Fails
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011

A test last week of next-generation ballistic missile intercept technology ended unsuccessfully, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said (see GSN, March 31).

A mock short-range ballistic missile was fired at 3:53 a.m. local time on Thursday from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. A minute-and-a-half later, a Standard Missile 3 Block 1B interceptor was launched from the USS Lake Erie to take down the target. However, no intercept took place.

The SM-3 1B interceptor had not previously undergone a flight trial. The agency said in a press release it would carry out a thorough assessment to identify why the test failed.

For those of you still paying attention, I needn't remind you that the undelivered speech Condi Rice was to give on the ill-fated morning of Sept. 11, 2001, (initially classified to protect the embarassed) was revealed to be a complaint that we were not doing enough to build a missile defense shield, instead of wasting twice as much money on counter-terrorism.

You don't hear as much about Ronny Ray-Gun's SDI anymore. No doubt because the Homeland Security Industrial Scaremongering Complex has supplanted that boondoggle as the preferred cash cow of the Oligarchs.

Tolerating the Intolerant is Bringing Us All Down

Mike Lofgren has written a piece I would consider required reading in any Political Science course that teaches how our government really works and why it doesn't live up to the promise it's institutions inspire when you study them in all your other government classes. Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult:

I have joked in the past that the main administration policy that Republicans object to is Obama's policy of being black.

As they say, Read It All.  Go ahead, I'll wait....

Back in the good old days, like the Summer of 2007, I attempted ever so feebly to make a non-racist, non-sexist argument for John Edwards as a superior presidential contender than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton based in no small part on the innate racism and misogyny of the Republicans in our midst. 

The idea was that Edwards, as a white Southern gentleman, A) was more "electable" and B) almost as an afterthought, that his policies would be easier to get through an otherwise hostile Congress that would constantly filibuster Hillary in a replay of the Clinton Witch Trials of the late 1990s -- and they simply wouldn't be able to deal with a Black guy in the Oval Office emotionally/rationally.

I never actually put that argument to digital paper beyond the flame wars at Daily Kos, and I most certainly did not flesh it out completely. The ability to govern effectively was a throw-away line, a "By the way..." thing since we were immeasurably more obsessed with the idea of insuring an end the nightmarish Bush administration by any means necessary than the difference between a public option and single-payer. 

Others were making that argument anyway, and getting righteously slammed for being intolerant themselves, only making the argument that it was the Klansmen on the right we needed to fear as a mask covering their own bigotry -- on of the most horrific things you can ever call a true liberal.  Treading among those minefields just wasn't appetizing.

Not that it really would have made any difference, and besides ... my crystal ball is a shattered remnant of it's former splendor from whence it told me Jonny E. was someone America should trust.  However, I do wonder sometimes.  We proved that America was indeed ready to elect a black President, and I certainly believe it's past ready to elect a woman to the White House.  We also have proved these last couple of years that, sadly, America is far from ready to be run by a black President. 

And if disaster should occur and Palin or Backman are able to prove that we are okay with electing a woman as Chief Executive, we will also prove that we are in no way a mature enough society to be run by a Female Commander in Chief, and least not either of those two idiots.  Hillary sure, and dozens of other women I could rattle off would be fine Presidents and effective ones too, but not those T-bagger supported screeching harpies.  I just can't imagine.

And that's the problem. I couldn't imagine just how cravenly GOP operatives would manipulate the public's natural xenophobia and authoritarian tendencies.  I mean, I know they do, and will again.  I just lack the evil genius gene that seems required to second guess how low they can go.  That is the very weakness they exploit in all liberals, and short of becoming what we hate, I don't know how to defeat them.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up trying. 

Score: POTUS 0. GOP minus 5, Pro-Left: Disqualified

The Republicans are in complete disarray, have been since George W. Bush let an American city drown, yet neither the media nor the "professional left" smell the blood in the water as they continue to scratch at Obama, hoping he will topple over from the paper cuts.

Just this week, the last week in the notoriously slow news month of August...

1. GOP House leader Cantor insists that hurricane relief only flows if there are cuts, something even the Jersey Bully rejects. 
2. Wassilla Quitta's non-campaign gets into a snit fit when NotAWitch gets invite/disinvite/reinvite/non-invite to Sarah's non-announcements that she's almost/sorta/kinda wantin' ta run for the nomination ... also too.
3. GOP front-runner (sorta), Governor Goodhair, is being outed as a class one crook with a scheme that makes WhiteWater look like a game of Tiddly-Winks. But even blind squirrels can find good ideas among the nuts.
   
4. Dick F@#$ing Cheney squirmed out of his cave and is all over the airwaves again. That's gotta reinvigorate everyone's sense of nostalgia, like the good old days when we prosecuted criminals.
   
5. GOP Speaker Boehner publicly reneges on agreement for the President to address Congress when he finds out the agreed date conflicts with the clown car freak show where Michelle and the Seven Dorks will debate over Saint Reagan's tomb.

... and it's POTUS that looks bad for being snubbed, disrespected as no President has in living memory, accepting the new date to talk about jobs like a fucking grown-up as the public has demanded.  WTF People?

Mitch McConnell's got an approval rating of 16% while POTUS has 42% approving of him.  A sinking ship drowns all hands. We're looking at 9% unemployment during an election year.  The question isn't who will win, but why would anyone want to.

Got it. Another piece of WINNING for John McCain. (Seriously people, get help.)

No, seriously, would you rather we had an executive saddled with a deadlocked Congress who didn't fight back the anti-abortion fanatics or enforce the anti-trust laws?