The health care reform debate is reaching a fever-pitch as both sides dig in their heels for a final battle that will likely end with the dreaded reconciliation vote.  So, the Flying Monkeys are pulling out all the stops.  How low can they go?  It’s a high-speed race to the bottom of the moral bankruptcy barrel for the NeoCons in media as they stoop to mocking and ridiculing American citizens who cannot afford adequate health insurance.

Take Rush “Deaf by Temptation” Limbaugh (please), who during his Friday show mocked a woman who’s predicament he deemed the “sob story of the day” because she was forced to wear her dead sister’s dentures when she could not afford a set of her own:  “What’s wrong with using a dead person’s teeth? Aren’t the Democrats big into recycling? Save the planet? And so what? So if you don’t have any teeth, so what? What’s applesauce for? Isn’t that why they make applesauce?”

Let them eat applesauce?  Is that it?

According to Media Matters, Limbaugh previously told a caller who could not afford the $6,000 it would cost to treat a broken wrist that he “shouldn’t have broken [his] wrist.”  Yeah, and you shouldn’t have eaten all that fried crap and gotten chest pains.  Why’d you go to the hospital in Hawaii?  You brought it on yourself . . . .

Read the rest of this entry »

The self-admitted clown – Glenn Beck – did not disappoint the crowd of kooks as he closed the CPAC convention with his typical brand of hyper-hyperbole and pop-eyed ravings about the state of the union as it exists in the frantic swirlings of his brain.  He even brought his special chalkboard with him for visual aides.

“Progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution . . . . an economic holocaust is coming!” Beck warned with trembling voice in his CPAC keynote speech reminiscent of Howard Beale in Network; a mad man coming unraveled before our eyes.   Uh, Glenn?  It was the last President who took a black marker and exacto knife to what he called “that goddam piece of paper,” not Progressives.  Our Constitutional Rights were either attacked, weakened or eradicated by the Bush Crime Family, regardless of Beck’s batty, baseless  assertions.

But I digress . . . . Beck is clearly mad as hell and not taking it anymore. But, what is the target of his over-the-top-while-under-the-big-top circus performance?  At various moments he shouted, “Stop the liberal oppressors!” adding a large glop of paranoia with “A liberal minority has hijacked this country!” (If he was aiming at the reactionary brainstem of the  average CPAC attendee, he could’ve left out the word “liberal” and gotten bigger applause).  Continuing in schizoid fashion, in the next heaving breath he took aim at Republicans, slapping himself on the forehead and ordering the entire GOP into a 12 step program for “problem spenders.”

Read the rest of this entry »

In a virtual cage match pre-President’s Day Super Sunday smack down on the morning TV talk shows, the battle of  Cheney v. Biden reached a fever pitch.  Never has the office of the Vice President seen such sexy sweaty, oily action as it did on Face the Nation, Fox “News” Sunday, and the Huffington Post.  Blame it on Olympic fervor that spurred the combative VEEP confrontation, or perhaps it’s just that the snowbound nation is frustrated with the frozen gridlock – with the iced-over transportation routes and the frosty Congressional standoffs - and is ready for a little heated  mano-a-mano action to melt the monotony.  Either way, the stand-off did not disappoint.

In this corner, fresh from his box of sacred dirt, wearing the bold black and gold trunks of  Halliburton/Blackwater is “Deadeye” Dick Cheney! Quadruple survivor of coronary arrest, multiple cardiac implants, an attempted attack by his own defective foot, partial paralysis and eight horrific years as acting President of the free world, the Undefeated champion of PNAC, defending his title of Most Feared Politician and Black-Belt Water Boarder, Heeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrssssssss DICK!

And in this corner, wearing the bleeding heart red trunks, with mostly-healed hair implants, armed with government secrets he’s willing to disclose for a tasty orange Danish or keys to the Continental Airlines VIP Lounge, packing more Botox than the entire cast of Desperate Housewives,  representing the second-smallest state of the union and home of the tax-free shopping frenzy, Heeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrssssssss JOE!

Early in the battle, Cheney came on strong, equipped with the powerful mythology that somehow the eight frightening years of the Bush/Cheney cabal actually kept this country safe from terrorist attacks despite the fact that al Quaeda gained in strength 10-fold during their tenure and the only major terrorist attack on this nation in 50 years occurred on their watch, sat wise on the set of  This Week and growled, “It’s the mind-set that concerns me,” making reference to President Obama’s handling of national security, including the decision to try 9/11 suspects in civilian courts rather than military tribunals.

Biden, who once called Cheney the most dangerous vice president in history, countered on Face the Nation, saying that the United States is unlikely to face another 9/11 type of attack: “I always underestimate the way Dick Cheney approaches things. The reason it’s unlikely is because we have been relentless, absolutely relentless in isolating al Qaeda; central al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and al Qaeda coming out of the Afghan-Pakistan region.”

Not to be undone, Cheney brought the heat with an uppercut to the left, stating that notion was “dead wrong. . . . I think, in fact, the situation with respect to al Qaeda to say that, you know, that was a big attack we had on 9/11, but it’s not likely again, I just think that’s dead wrong.  I think the biggest strategic threat the United States faces today is the possibility of another 9/11 with a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind, and I think al Qaeda is out there even as we meet trying to figure out how to do that.”

Biden, still smiling though the pain, rallied with his own brand of precious pummeling: ”That’s Dick Cheney. Thank God the last administration didn’t listen to him at the end, I think his fight seems to be with the last administration. We did exactly what President Bush did. We got the similar result. We are protecting America. And I don’t know, it seems like Dick Cheney can’t take yes for an answer” he countered, in reference to the controversial torture tactic of water boarding that Cheney embraces as the answer to everything from extracting sensitive info from al Qaeda operatives, to the cure for the common cold.

Undaunted, Cheney rallied with this retort to the Obama administration’s taking credit for successes in the war on terror with this: “If they’re going to take credit for it, fair enough, for what they’ve done while they’re there. But it ought to go with a healthy dose of ‘Thank you, George Bush’ up front and a recognition that some of their early recommendations, with respect to prosecuting that war, were just dead wrong.”

Not to be undone, Biden smoothed his hairs and responded from his comfy lounge chair at a Vancouver ski lodge: “We’re not taking credit. We had to take responsibility.  When we took responsibility for the mess that we were handed to us at the end of last year, an awful lot of very informed news people … were wondering whether or not the country could be put together.”

And so it went.  There was the predictable harangue about closing GITMO and trying al Qaeda operatives in US courts. When the video battle of words and charges ended, there were no clear winners, just ongoing racket on what will doubtlessly be a preview of the mid term elections.  Why the irrelevant, unloved former VP seems compelled to continue to blast away with both barrels at the current administration as if it is one of the fated doves scheduled to be released for his scheduled hunting pleasure is a mystery.  No person in his – or any other – party takes him seriously anymore, and it’s only the glaring lack of leadership in the GOP – peppered with a dose of fear – that keeps him headlining on the broadcast circuit.

As for Biden, his 35+ years in the Senate weakens his purported banner of “change” in Washington, and none of his stern-yet-smiley barbs about Bush-era torture tactics “change” the fact that his administration is escalating the unwinnable war in Afghanistan.

Nothing was said on either side about creating jobs in this country, or solving the health care crisis, or the erosion of civil liberties, or the rights of all citizens to marry or serve in the military regardless of their sexual orientation, or the sorry state of educational funding and infrastructure repair, or a host of other issues that are closer to the heartbeat of Americans than the he-said/he-said endless chest-thumping machismo that was displayed on Sunday.

Just two old white guys trash talkin’ while our troops are dying.  Haven’t we had enough of that?

Iran Social Media Facing Serious Obstacles

Iranian Uranium Enriched to Higher Level, Ahmadinejad Asserts

How to Pick The Proper Valentine’s Day Gift

How bout dem SAINTS?!  The Saints v Colts battle last night almost makes you forget about the other significant standoff, the one between the Teabag conventioneers in Nashville and relatively normal Americans. Tea Party Patron Saint Palin wowed the crowd with her folksy one liners and jabs at Obama’s “immoral” budget.  Wow – what does that say about George “Raisin Brain” Bush’s morality, as he turned all the Clinton surpluses into trillion-dollar deficits. Must make him The Anti-Christ by comparison.

One thing Sister Sarah seems to have in common with the Texas Mensa Man is the penchant of jotting down handy crib-notes on various body parts.  Sarah was asked a simple, pre-scripted question: “What are your top three priorities?”  By the time she got to # 2 Simple Sarah was seen reading her own palm for phrase reminders on “budget cuts,” “energy,” and “Lift America’s Spirits.”  That’s the kind of grade-school cheat sheet she needed just  to answer silly softball questions from her adoring fans.  Granted, that’s a step above Dim Son’s scrawling on his arm reminding him to “chew the pretzel before swallowing,”  but think about this – she was just a bump-it updo away from becoming VP and just a few malignant melanoma cells from the Oval Office itself . . .  [shudder] those scribbles could’ve been launch codes for the football . . . think about that the next time you see an old McCain/Palin bumper sticker.

I’m hoping the pit bull in lipstick with the gloves off and the high-heels on stops taking jabs about Obama and the TelePrompTer, unless she’s ready to take hits on invisible ink, highlight markers, and handi-wipes.

As for the rest of the meeting of the mini-minds in Tennessee?  The mass congregation of Birthers, Deathers, Teabaggers, and gun-hugging pseudo-Christians ranted and howled their rally cry for a NEW AMERICA, loudly detailing their agenda to rid this country of all the unsavory elements (Obama) that so offend their very white noses.  The overt racism, homophobia, anti-science-rapture-ready-Red-scare-style paranoia was disturbing in its commonplace acceptability, as The Telegraph reports:

Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman and anti-illegal immigration campaigner, told the audience in Nashville that Obama was elected by people “who could not spell the word vote or say it in English”. If only segregation-era literacy tests had been in place, this “committed socialist” would not have won. Another speaker, Joseph Farrah of WorldNetDaily.com, questioned whether the President was born in the United States and was qualified to hold the highest office. A lifelong Republican who has worked for two presidents, told me that “race is part of it, especially down South”. “These are people uncomfortable with the country becoming more diverse, more mulatto, and Obama represents that.”The Nashville crowd was 99.9 per cent white, and 90 per cent middle aged and above.

If the Teabaggers are this successful at making the hating of minorities so mainstream again, then we should be afraid.

How do you like your Dark Ages?  With or without medieval torture chambers, “Christian” crusades and commie-liberal witch hunts?  Want another funnel cake at the Freedom March and Flesh-Flaying Festival?  How ’bout just the bucket of boiling oil?