Another Looney Tunes Throws Their Hat In The Ring

What wears glasses, is known for it's mustache, and isn't averse to throwing their hat in to the ring for the Republican nomination in the 2012 campaign? No, it's not Sarah Palin (electrolysis helped with the facial hair), it's former Bush administration UN ambassador John Bolton.
This is the guy who deemed it perfectly alright for Israel to bomb Iran for it's peaceful development of nuclear energy. What a great president he'd make.
Bolton, who was a recess appointment who resigned after his term was up because he could never get confirmation for the position, is one of many neocons within the Bush administration, although he deplores the term neocon and prefers to be called a "bull-goose loony never nude chicken hawk", not because he, like so many other members of the Bush administration, avoided serving during the Vietnam War which he supported, but because he has a predilection for young boys.
Bolton's one major drawback is that he doesn't have the name recognition of a Romney, Pawlenty, or Huckabee, and people often confuse him with histrionic eighties singer Michael Bolton. Although, like many Republicans who have lost or quit their government jobs, he is an analyst on the Fox News Network. And many people who see his picture often mistake him for Yosemite Sam, especially when he's brandishing his handguns and shooting them in the air while shouting "Yahoo! There's black gold in them thar Middle East countries!"
Of course the 2012 field is filling up fast with failures and quitters such as Newt Gingrich,  Sarah Palin, and a host of other presidential hopefuls, who, like Bolton, don't really have a plan as much as they know they don't like what passes for a plan from President Obama. So we can all look forward to them criticizing the current system while carefully alluding to "change".

Thanks, Idiot, Now Go Be Snarky Somewhere Else (And Check Your Facts)

That annoying squeaky voice. That smug self-satisfied delivery. That errant speech pattern. The complete disconnection from the truth. No, I'm not talking about Glenn Beck, but Sarah Palin who said at the "Restoring Honor" rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, activists must honor King's legacy by paying tribute to the men and women who protect America in uniform.
Huh? That don't make no sense!
You see, Dr. King opposed the Viet Nam War, as well as imperialistic US military action that diverted money and attention from domestic programs created to aid the poor blacks. Civil rights and antiwar are King's true legacy, not the celebration of the neocons imperialistic aim to inflict US based global hegemony.
In fact, it was that opposition to capitalism that led to his assassination by a conspiracy that included agencies of the US government. But Palin would never read that in the history books of the corporate idiocracy. Those tell us Dr. King was a great man, without detailing too much what he was really about, since economic, social and racial equality makes some people nervous.
And since were on the subject, how are our 'men and women who protect America in uniform' (shouldn't that be 'our men and women in uniform who protect America'?) restoring honor to our country? Neither the 34,000 civilians deaths inAfghanistan nor the 1,366,350 civilian deaths in Iraq were any sort of threat to our country. And their deaths have done nothing to 'restore America's honor', in fact, it's just the opposite. And how are they any different than the 'honor killings' alleged to by professional Islamophobe Pamela Geller?
Restoring America's Honor and honoring Dr. King's legacy would be easy. All it would take is a slight shift in our foreign policy. But getting a couple of thousand television watchers off their couch is a good start.

Delusional Paranoia Or Creeping Fascism?

Face it. While the right wing has been demonizing Islam and branding it as a cruel religion, the truth is all religion is cruel, barbaric, and just plain wrong when it's extreme (as in extremely conservative).
Here in the US, extremism takes another shape. I speak, of course, of the political religious zealotry of Sharron Angle. Known in progressive circles for spewing the fear mongering rhetoric of the right, Angle now claims there are domestic enemies in Congress, a claim she twice refused to disavow. Sure there are, Ms. Angle, they're called lobbyists. People to whom money is speech and corporations are people, their agenda is to tilt our system away from the will of the people and towards the will of the Multi-Nationals.
These are not the enemies of which Ms. Angle spoke, obviously. Unaware of the 14 characteristics of fascism, she is proving ample distraction for those whose loyalties lie not with a country, but with it's capital, taking as much as they can for themselves while left and right rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.The second Great Depression is upon us and even a college degree doesn't guarantee a good job.
So you could take Ms. Angle's paranoid delusions at face value, and believe she must have stopped taking her meds, or just conclude that she's just another rodeo clown, distracting bullish Americans from the corporate cowboys who are riding us until we are broken.

The Twenty Four Hour All Anxiety News Cycle

The other day on the way home from work I was passed by a car sporting the old "I Don't Believe The Liberal Media" bumper sticker. I chuckled to myself at the cluelessness of this driver for believing that the corporate media is liberal or, with the exception of FOX NEWS, conservative. What we have is the All-Anxiety American Media, all anxiety, all the time, designed not to enlighten and inform, but rather to keep viewers in a constant state of anxiety, crying wolf, as it were, about things they are ultimately powerless to end.
A prime recent example of this is the "ground zero" mosque controversy, manufactured, for sure, but in the end neither opponents nor defenders have any real power to make a difference. The die has been cast and while people browbeat each other over religious freedom and security issues, I'm sure somewhere they have already forgotten all the other things they threw at you to keep you reaching for your Xanax.
As an example, we were warned of the imminent end of the world when Iran acquired nuclear power, yet they launched their first nuclear power plant, and everybody's okay, except for this guy.
Today I caught a glimpse of a story on the Internet Bin Laden, the next in a long line of Boogeymen that the Anxiety News Cycle has to shake at you once you realize that the real Osama Bin Laden is dead. Once you have nothing to fear, there is nothing to keep you tuned into the news to see how to protect your family and yourself, and every viewer lost is a loss of revenue for them. The meat on that dead horse must be really tender they way they've been flogging it. It's no wonder alleged 'patriots' across the country are protesting the building of new mosques, or that in a desperate move, the RNC sent a tweet saying Obama has confessed to being a Muslim. Fear sells, but what's really scare is the type of people who are buying it.

Do The Republicans Have Any ideas?

With the Gulf of Mexico an ecological nightmare, the economic recovery not going as planned, and the US mired in not one but two endless wars, you'd think there'd be plenty of ammunition for an opposition party to run against the Democratic Party, wouldn't you?
These are real problems, problems that affect every American in one form or another, and yet to listen to the GOP, you'd almost think these problems are either non-existent, or not really problems at all. And what are our problems?
Muslims. Muslims exercising their freedom of religion.
As an example the number of television watchers who think President Obama is a Muslim has doubled. The most confused group is of course, Republicans. And it doesn't help matters when you have some Dick claiming that the "Ground Zero" Mosque will be used to train terrorists on Fox News, that beacon of rationality. Didn't the GOP from the last election cycle that a noun, a verb and 9/11 didn't work for Rudy Ghouliani, do they think it will work again?
All this manufactured hysteria is part of the corporate idiocracy's plan to distract television watchers from the simple fact that people are still losing jobs, and the Republicans and Democrats aren't doing anything to stop it.

Quick! Harry Reid Needs A Spinal Transplant

Ever wonder why, even with majorities in both houses of Congress, that the Democratic Party has been so ineffective in it's attempts to pass legislation?
Look no farther than the Senate Majority "Leader" Harry Reid, who when pressed on the "Ground Zero" Mosque, proved he's a spineless wimp able to be bullied by the likes of Sharron Angle.
Now, I understand, as a politician, there are times when it's wise to break away from the pack and stand up for what is right. This is not one of those times, unfortunately.
Sure, a majority of American television watchers oppose the plans to build a mosque six blocks away from the former site of the World Trade Center, but many Americans, after being fed a steady diet of misinformation about Saddam Hussein most Americans supported that crazy and illegal pre-emptive strike as well. All this means is that given the choice between rational thought and panic driven emotional overreaction that emotion will win out every time. But, given time to calm down, think, and apply rationality, they tend to see things more clearly.
What this means is that instead of approaching this issue as a First Amendment Issue, Reid is allow the Tea Baggers and Right Wingers to create the dialogue, and is caving in on it. That is not leadership. That is pure pandering to the television watching fear factory. And what's more, it's making Sharron Angle look stronger, which is the last thing an invertebrate like Reid needs.

Republicans Reflect Anti-American Ideals

    When the crazy Israeli serial stabber was nabbed last week trying to flee to his homeland, something happened. Nothing. There were no protests outside Synagogues, there were no people lumping together all people of the Jewish faith/race (I'm not really sure which is correct) as hateful racist murderers. Which is good, because I'm not sure if Elias Abuelazam was a practicing Jew, or just an Israeli national, and anyway, it's totally wrong to condemn an entire group for the wrongdoings of one of it's members, isn't it?
   Well, not really, if you're a fear mongering Republican. which is a redundancy, I know, but now the GOP plans to make the plan for a Islamic cultural center at Ground Zero a campaign issue . Those dirty Mooslems along with darker skinned Democratic politicians wish to impose Sharia Law in the US. Unless the Republicans stop them, they'll use their cultural center to impregnate wimmen and force them to squeeze out an army of terror babies! As Republicans and Tea Baggers protest Mosques across the country, it's ironic to note that the group responsible for referring to President Obama as a fascist is adhering pretty closely to many of the 14 characteristics of fascism. So, like the US did to Japanese-Americans during WWII, and like Hitler did to the Jewish people of Europe, the GOP is scapegoating the Muslims of America.
Now, just so you know, I believe all religions are as nutty as the next, from Judaism, to Christianity, to Islam and Scientology. They all wish to impose their will upon us, and the differences between their wills are minuscule at best. By singling out one belief system for persecution, aren't you in fact establishing another as the true faith, which in turn, is unconstitutional? And if you are opposed to the constitution of the United States, don't you stand against this very country itself?
But it's not like they have any real issues to run on. Tax cuts, deregulation and deficit spending on wars helped destroy our economy. They all supported the wars, so they can't run against those. Fear mongering is all the Republicans have, and if they keep the television watchers frightened enough, they'll be too scared to rationalize the truth.And that is the GOP is opposed to America, or at least the part that isn't white Christian conservative and straight.

Keeping The Government Out Of Everything Except Your Bedroom And Your Womb, The Two Places They Should Be In The Least

Wacky! that's the only word I can think of to describe Sharron Angle's way of thinking, with out resorting to such qualifying adjectives as bull-goose, batshit, or other animal-based euphemisms for those people so out of touch with reality that our language has been unable to invent a word that says it succintly.
I mean, really, how better can you describe someone who thinks that a fetus is a person under the Constitution, yet thinks that gays aren't protected by the that same document?
Thankfully, Ms. Angle is unaware that scientists have discovered a "gay gene", because those poor unborn homosexual babies sitting in their mother's womb wouldn't be afforded the same rights as straight babies and may end up being part of some faith-based eugenics program where women found to carry this gene aren't allowed to procreate, while victims of rape and incest are forced to carry their offspring to full term. The mind boggles.

Feeding Your Cancer Sweet!

Are our food companies trying to kill us? It almost seems that way, when you consider that they put high fructose corn syrup in almost everything these days. Already linked to hyper-obesity, HFCS can be found in almost everything out there, from some diet soda drinks and light salad dressings, to even croutons for stuffing chicken. No wonder more than a quarter of Americans are obese.The body processes the fructose in high fructose corn syrup differently than it does old-fashioned cane or beet sugar, which in turn alters the way metabolic-regulating hormones function. It also forces the liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream. MMMM, more fat in the bloodstream.
Obesity can lead to more health issues, such as cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Now HFCS has been found to be the sweet stuff that cancer cells love to eat. In other words, just eating a diet of regularly prepared food increases chances of any cancer cells you may already have to proliferate, especially in your pancreas.
So why is it in everything? Well, one reason is it's cheaper to use than other sugars. Two, the government (those bastards!)policies that aimed to stabilize food prices and support corn production in the 1970s led to a glut of corn and then to high fructose corn syrup. With a cheaper way to sweeten food, producers pumped up the size and amount of sweet snacks and drinks on the market and increased profits. So there you go, making you unhealthy makes some one else richer, and you can probably guess that it's not you. So if you think that the federal government and the FDA are doing their job protecting us safe and coddled in our Nanny Ninny State, guess again. Politics play more of a role than actual food safety. And remember, the FDA are the same people who gave us aspatame!