A State of Occupation

 This weekend, the growing Occupy Wall Street protests spread to cities around the world. It seems that a large number of people have finally had enough with the crooks & buffoons that have been acting as overlords.

In my opinion, this movement is our country's progressive answer to the misplaced priorities of the Tea Party- which was fueled by fear & anger toward the government, but with a blind eye to Free Market abuses & no realistic approach to generate solutions.

Speaking of the Tea Party, this is an insane video of possibly the most empty-headed teabagger out there, actress Victoria Jackson. She's mingling with people in the Occupy Wall St. crowd & boldly displays her insufferable ignorance. I don't know how anyone can talk to her seriously. Could it possibly be performance art on her part?!? I'd recommend forwarding to about 2 min in. Her voice is hard to take, despite the excellent answers by the people she interviews.

The Tea Party has attracted (rightfully) angry Americans looking for alternatives to the 2 party system. However, that movement has mostly been a pawn of big industry, namely Koch Industries, & big media, namely Fox News. That's why the Tea Party's main stated goals are cutting government programs, lowering taxes & reducing regulations. Their desired policies mostly benefit multinational corporations, not the average person.

However, the knee-jerk reactionaries raising hell in the Tea Party were actually ahead of the curve in openly expressing general frustration with a system gone mad. These Occupy Wall Street protests are the result of everyone else in America finally reacting en masse to the many dysfunctional elements of society that have metastasized into systemic failure.

The driving vision of this recent upwelling is not to just initiate reform, but to fundamentally change in the way society operates. Everything is so screwed up, maybe this kind of organized, widespread nonviolent protest this is the only way to start the wheels turning toward real progress.

After reading through the '99% Declaration' policy points, I think these are definitely the right issues to be focusing on. These groups of people are trying to effectively address the problems at their root cause. This is actually a rational & pragmatic platform... not the stoned ramblings of bongo-playing hippies:

The 99 percent Declaration

Traditional apologists for the elitist tendencies of the status quo are having a hard time adopting the reality of this popular movement into their worldview. America's biggest knucklehead, Fox News' Sean Hannity, is the standard bearer for being wrong on every single issue.

These two U.S. Marines have the right advice for anyone like him, who is foolish enough to dismiss the growing unrest in this country:

Teabagging Election Madness

With mid-term elections coming up & all kinds of political freak-shows going on, the Tea Party factions have added another layer of crazy to the traditional electoral madness.

As an Independent voter, I have no problem with an alternative political party- even what I may personally consider a misguided "conservative" one! However it's disturbing to see the irrationality & childish hysteria many of these Teabagger candidates display toward anything concerning The Government... or history's most notorious marxist black panther muslim terrorist sympathizer -Chairman Barack Hussein Mao-bama.

Socialism!

I also came across an excellent list of general Teabagger priorites to reduce Big Bad Government. Of course, reducing our ridiculously bloated Defense budget would be unthinkable. We all know that Jesus loved unrestrained military spending!

TPM:
"Top Six Established Laws That
Tea Partiers Claim Are Unconstitutional"

Despite their tirades against the federal government, these so-called "conservatives" don't openly provide an accurate portrayal of their alternative solution - unregulated corporate power over society. This is the ultimate consequence of their policies, despite the fact that Wall Street & big business clearly abuse their power when not countered by a strong government. It's bizarre that there's even a possibility that the most extreme right-wing ideologues could gain some power back after nearly sinking this country with unfunded mandates, financial de-regulation, and ungodly expensive wars. Reckless conservative policies had 8 loooong years to dismantle the country, and moderates & progressives are supposed to clean it all up in less than 2 yrs! It's so absurd.

Although the perception is that it's a grassroots movement, the big money and organization behind the Tea Party movement have come from ultra-wealthy right-wing corporatists & organizations.

While lesser known influences like Koch Industries are pouring money into this election cycle, Fox News is the most visible cheerleader for the Teabagger's cause. Like all right-wing agendas, their main objective is to make money. Rupert Murdoch & Roger Ailes are purposely marketing polarizing perspectives to their viewers primarily to enhance their brand... and therefore their profits. Being an avid news consumer, I realize all the news networks do this to some extent, but Fox News is political advocacy on steroids. Even a former Fox personality acknowledged the company is cynically polarizing the American public to financially benefit themselves.

Major Garrett slams Fox:
"They Want to Keep the 'Polarization'
in American Media"

The Tea Party financial ties are illustrated in this chart featured on Crooks & Liars, which is more interesting & accurate than Glenn Beck's incoherent chalkboard scribbles:

The endless stream of bullsh*t flowing through politics & the media who are covering the process is one reason people like me are attending The Rally to Restore Sanity this weekend. It is an expression of the recognition that we are living in an insane world, with the public dialogue being controlled by insane people.

Politics of the 2013 U.S. Shutdown

I still follow national politics very closely, but nowadays I don't write about it as much as I did during the Bush Dark Ages.

However, the ridiculous clown show surrounding the government shutdown, led by the Tea Party mutiny within the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, has literally forced my hand into typing a reaction.

NYT:

 Government Shuts Down in Budget Impasse

My news & perspective comes from a wide variety of sources: the Google News & Pulse News aggregators, TPM, Democracy Now!, CNN, Bartcop, Politico, BBC, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, etc.
One of the problems with today's political climate is that many people only get their news & opinion from limited sources, usually just those that affirm their existing worldview.

As brain-dead as their commentary often is, I often visit FoxNation or other ultra-conservative media outlets, to get a handle on how people (whom I usually don't agree with) see things. Conversely, it's also easy to tell when someone starts sputtering talking points & bizarro facts straight from Fox News, when it's clear they don't understand the reality of the situation.

I've always been an Independent voter, but generally I think the Republican party is wrong on most policy positions. They're ideas are often short-sighted, usually benefiting a narrow set of interest groups. Through endless obstruction & political stunts like this shutdown, they've also shown they simply can't run the federal government effectively. Despite the myth of their superiority on fiscal matters, the modern GOP have a pretty poor record of racking up public debt & governing in a way that does not advance positive solutions for the country.

The staggering incompetence of the Bush administration screwed the country and the global economy over 8 years. Their "Shoot first, ask questions later" cowboy approach to foreign policy left our country mired in *un-funded* trillion-dollar military occupations, which we are still trying to fully extract ourselves from. On the domestic front, they tried their best to give away everything in the public domain to Wall Street - by further deregulating the markets, so people lost their savings to the Great Casino, & by attempting to privatize Social Security.

Since Barack Obama was elected, the stated goal of the political opposition has been to make this President fail, at any cost. (I'm old enough to remember when criticizing President Bush was akin to anti-Americanism & treason, in the eyes of his supporters.) The Republican leaders have been quite open about the fact that their main objective is to oppose ANY progress the President, Democrats, & the reasonable Republicans seek to make.

Anti-Government politicians are the ultimate hypocrites, & they're also the masters of self-fulfilling prophecy... Their constituents are convinced that government does more harm than good, so they vote in these buffoons to prove them right, by causing chaos once in office - eliminating public programs & making the political process dysfunctional.

In fact, many Republicans actually ran on the promise of shutting down the government, as if this was a badge of honor!

Because I'm interested in this political theater for some reason, I was flipping through the cable news channels late last night as the shutdown loomed. Rachel Maddow had a good piece on the overt nature of this destructive political goal, leading to it's culmination last night:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For the 2 years when the Dems had control of Congress, after Obama was elected in '08, there was actually a fair amount of meaningful legislation passed.

Since John Boehner & the GOP have been running the House of Representatives, though, little of note has been advanced by them- except for 40+ failed attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act, ACA, or "Obamacare".

Affordable Care Act:

About the Law

Thanks to the partisan gerrymandering of Congressional districts, Republican candidates in deep red areas have been forced to lurch farther & farther to the right... and, in many cases, lower & lower on the IQ scale. This has given rise to the completely anti-government "Tea Party" faction of Congress, which is responsible for the current state of affairs.

I have no love, or even trust, for the government by any means. However, I do understand that there are hundreds of thousands of public workers providing vital services every day. One of the benefits of being part of an organized society is a working government to keep things running smoothly.

The fringe element of the GOP has wildly miscalculated their strategy by willfully neglecting their basic duty to keep the government running, so the country can function. These ideological Reps. have no sense of responsibility or history, and they have completely ignored what happened last time their party, led by Newt Gingrich, tried to fold their arms & stomp their feet, at the expense of the nation:

Attempts to blame Obama or the Democrats for refusing to go to conference, or negotiate on terms, for a continuing resolution is bullshit. The Republicans in the House could agree to fund the government right now, by advancing the clean CR bill waiting for them. The merits & flaws of the Obamacare law can then be debated through normal procedure. It is a separate issue- one that should have no bearing, whatsoever, on whether government continues to function in a regular manner.

Despite claims by both sides, that it's their opponents who will not come to the negotiating table, it's now pretty obvious that the GOP have wanted to use this lack of a settled budget as leverage to hold the country hostage- in exchange for their demands for blocking the ACA from being implemented. The GOP is trying to twist the normal order of business, so they can hijack the legislative process.

The crazy thing is that the shut down doesn't even affect Obamacare, which is still funded! Also, the fact that millions of people are visiting the Healthcare.gov website, even causing system crashes, shows just how much people need health insurance.

The shut down is frankly a stupid strategy, & it's going to have serious consequences for the Republican party. Conservatives stuck in the Fox News/Right-Wing Radio alternate reality bubble seem to think they're doing the will of the people by shutting down the government. They are going to find out that not everyone is living in their distorted fantasy world, & the scrutiny of the real world is going to judge them harshly.

The often-used description of these conservative hard-liners as "tea-hadists" is completely justified. The Republican Tea party caucus is a small group of fanatics inflicting widespread, real damage on the general population, to force their ideological agenda.

To be clear, I don't think Obamacare, nor the President himself, are without their flaws. He has said himself that there's always room for improvement in the laws.

However, Pres. Obama consistently been the adult in the room, pushing to get important things done, in spite of an obstinate minority party. The petulant right-wingers would rather let the country fail, than allow Obama any perceived victories. He has still been able to advance certain policy goals- by outmaneuvering the Congressional Republicans, who cannot let their base see them doing anything but obstruct the evil Kenyan Socialist.

John Boehner has been pathetically ineffective as a House Speaker. Now he has been totally undermined by the self-serving weasels in his caucus, like Ted Cruz & Eric Cantor. You may not like Nancy Pelosi, but she would not have allowed this kind of subversion when she was Speaker.

Despite the right-wing rebellion in the House, thankfully there are still Republicans who haven't gone way off the deep end.

I don't often agree with the governor from my state, but Chris Christie (R-NJ) correctly calls the GOP shutdown strategy simply "irresponsible":

It's even more rare for me to agree with Rep. Pete King (R-NY), but even his crazy-ass recognized this is going to have a negative effect on his party & the country:

So, it's been almost 24hrs & the standoff is still going on. At some point, the House Republicans are going to have to realize this is a suicide mission & agree to stop this madness.

The irony of the whole situation is that the ACA is actually a relatively conservative health insurance system! It's a product of the Heritage Foundation & "Romneycare" the system implemented by the cyborg former gov. of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. The insurance is still provided from private companies, & now there will be competitive markets for businesses to compete. These are originally conservative ideas.

The people who don't see the necessity of individual mandates, apparently don't understand the concept of "insurance". The purpose is to get the maximum number of people enrolled to create as large a funding pool as possible. It's not that hard to figure out. The idea that people should be left to fully pay their own health care costs is idiotic & selfish.

If dirty, hippy, socialist liberals (like me!) had our way, there would be a single-payer, or Medicare-for-all, system of nationalized health care. The private insurers would be outlawed entirely. Conservatives may gasp or grimace at that idea, but people's health care should not be administered by for-profit private corporations. Those profits are unnecessarily adding to the already exorbitant  health care costs in this country.

I'm always baffled by the argument that the government has no business being involved in health care. 

It's not specifically used as a basis for legal interpretations, but I'd say look no further than the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution. It clearly states the people's government is meant to "...promote the general Welfare". What could be more crucial to the general welfare of the citizens of a country than their health?!?!

One could also look to Article I, Section 8, Clause 1,  the Tax & Spending Clause:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

If people could look past their ingrained aversion to all things government, they'd see that having & funding essential public services, including health care, are essential to improving the standards of living for everyone in society.

Sure there's always potential for abuse & corruption in the various gov't agencies & services, but that doesn't mean we should abandon the idea of a representative government that can work for its citizens. We need people in office who believe that the power of government can be effective, not people who think that government needs to be "drown in a bathtub".

We cannot even have these debates about social policy, until the Congress gets its act together & starts to operate in a normal way. This means the Congresspeople have to stop drinking whatever's making them lose their minds & move forward with the business of the nation.

The onus is on the House Republicans to simply agree to keeping the government running & it's employees working, with no legislative strings attached.

Tea Party Madness

The big primary night news this week was college-hussy-turned-Puritan Christine O'Donnell beating long-time incumbent Mike Castle in the Delaware Republican primary. The Republican Party seems it's being split by the Tea Party ideologues which may or may not cost them in the general elections.

It's pretty bad when George W.'s boys like Karl Rove & former speechwriter David Frum are talking smack on these know-nothing, reactionary Teabagger candidates. The far-right wingers have no truly practical policy positions, only that the government is bad & they have to "take our country back!".... back to the Dark Ages I presume (or at least the 18th century).

Mr. Frum, a Bush Republican, laments:

"Republicans have done insufficient serious policy work over the past half dozen years. The legacy of this inactivity is a party on the brink of power, lacking an intellectual framework for the use of that power."

Why would he say that- about his own party? Because a few of these Teabagger candidates say & believe pure craziness bordering on complete ignorance.

For instance:

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL: "Well, creationism, in essence, is believing that the world began as the Bible in Genesis says, that God created the Earth in six days, six 24-hour periods. And there is just as much, if not more, evidence supporting that."

I try to respect people's heartfelt religious beliefs, & find alot of wisdom in the Bible. However, this kind of thinking about the Universe is Sarah Palin-level retarded.

How can you say 24 hour periods exist- before the Sun & Earth were formed!?!?!

The arbitrary measurement of the 'hour' was created by man based on the periodic solar orbit of the Earth. The idea that God delineated Creation into "24-hour days" is so damn stupid it's scary. Yet, Delaware Republicans voted for her over an experienced, moderate 9-term Congressmen....

Visual Teabaggery

It's strange the "Tea Party" movement is barely a year old...
To me, it seems like they've been throwing their collective temper tantrum for waaaay longer. I've said here previously that all citizens have a right to get all fired up & protest the government or industry. However, that also inevitably includes the sea of idiots who can have their say, too.

There was a much bigger, focused movement behind the anti-war protests during the Bush Dark Ages, & it had it's share of freaks making effigies of Bush & portraying him as Hitler. Those massive world-wide protests did jack shit for ending the Mid-East occupation, despite the specific moral imperative. Therefore, what do these Tea Baggers think their going to accomplish with a incohesive bunch of scared old people & Glenn Beck-fueled ignoramuses with a few guns against the vast power of the Federal Government? I'm sure they think they are battling the Evil Empire- like the immortal legends Luke Skywalker & Ronald Reagan. My biggest problem is the continuing threats & insinuations of personal violence, that only the most ignorant resort to. Besides undermining the movement, it gives the Feds a reason to REALLY take away their precious 'freedom'.

Luckily, there are digital cameras & the Internet to document the creative instincts of some of the Tea Party & The Right-wing's distinguished participants. BoingBoing had two photo sets of exemplary Tea Bagger masterpieces:

"Teabonics"

"200 Examples
of anti-Obama merchandise
2008-2010"

I'm kind of upset my own Obama Socialism! poster didn't make it, but I guess it's because my creation was tongue-in-cheek.

Sarah, Queen of the Teabaggers

I'm a political Independent & would never join a particular party.
Anyone who knows my views would probably lump me into the 'Liberal' category. I prefer the word 'Progressive' (even though infamous albino Glenn Beck is trying to make that a dirty word). Regardless, I think such broad labels usually have a tendency to distract the debate on any given issue.

Politics is - ideally - problem solving for the benefit of society. In our crazy human world of myriad personalities & clashing ideologies, politics is actually a much more grotesque creature that is anything but pragmatic. Despite the obstructionism of Republicans & incompetence of Democrats in DC, the government isn't completely dysfunctional. There are still good Congresspeople trying to get things done.

People claiming that our government is falling to Marxists & Communist Liberals under Obama are pretty much hysterical. These are the same buffoons that gave Bush the benefit of the doubt while his neo-con cabal was bankrupting the nation morally & fiscally with unpaid wars and tax cuts, creating unprecedented federal bureaucracies, and undermining the institutional foundations of the country. Now one year of trying to clean up after the nearly decade-long catastrophic failure of Neo-conservatism, the Obama administration is suddenly guilty of The Fall of the Republic.

Now that my attempt at civil discourse is over & I've started indiscriminate name-calling, let me get to the reason I wrote this post. I'm about to prove this asswipe correct & just be plain condescending. It seems that a fringe of the 'conservative' political spectrum have recently been graced by the presence their Populi$t™ Queen- the insufferable Sarah Palin, whose $100,000 speaking fee screams out, "I'm you're average Joe Six-Pack!"

Although she spoke at the Teabagger convention, the general Tea Party movement is fairly widespread & diverse in their particular views. However, that fringe subset of American culture who adore Sarah Palin have a specific overall identity: Idiots, with a capital 'I'- as in "'I' am an idiot for thinking Sarah Palin can answer America's problems in any meaningful way."

Sarah, aka. "Moosilini", gave the national political scene plenty of material to work with this week. First of all, her beligerent speech was full of absolutely ridiculous political redmeat for her gathering of like-minded cretins. I wonder how Sarah would react to someone making that speech about a conservative President "during a time of war". Since she's the biggest partisan hypocrite in politics, she obviously would say something totally different in that case.

She also claimed in an interview that President Obama should start a war with Iran- because we are not doing enough to help our perpetual aid beneficiary, Israel. Both statements are obviously insane & not worthy of my time to comment.

The coup de grâce, however, was her notes that she was spotted with written on her palm. It was for her Q&A session- where she actually looked down at her hand to read items that should be embedded in that wacked-out brain of hers:

Energy
Cut -----
Tax
Lift Americas Spirits

"Palin's Tea Party Crib Notes"

Forget the predictable content of her scribblings... Who in their right mind writes notes on their hand when they're trying to be considered a serious political figure?!? This is just the latest antic that proves she's just a kook to everyone but her delusional followers.


I subject myself to reading comment boards on political websites of all viewpoints, although I almost never try to converse with the raving masses myself. Most of the discussions seem to be people calling each other Fascist Palin-drones & Socialist Obama-bots. It is particularly mind-boggling, though, how the special breed of doofuses vigorously defending Palin's honor can twist their brains to even defend this 'palm notes' silliness, even to the point of claiming that it makes her superior to Obama who "reads off a teleprompter." This kind of argument is a turd in the cesspool of political ignorance.

I imagine the backwards fools devoted to the Sarah Palin get a kick out of the negative reaction "Elitist" (intelligent) people have to her "Real American" (shitty) attitude. It's not that people like me are intimidated or threatened by her. The problem is more of the fact that she is encouraging an ignorant & regressive mindset among people whose rational faculties are barely functioning as it is. This creates a sideshow distracting from substantial policy debates. I'm more scared of the destructive effects of Teh Stupid among the voters than of Palin herself.

I'll let my hero & the genius of our generation, Stephen Colbert, have the last word on The Teabagging Queen:

Colbert Report:

Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-o-Prompter

Political Infographics

Since I posted about the Death & Taxes chart, 2 more political graphics have caught my eye.

The first one was actually put out by The White House, comparing the proposals in Pres. Obama's Jobs Act to the consequences of the GOP's plan.

I'm no mindless Obama drone, but I think he's clearly a helluva lot better than Dubya was. If you watch speeches by the 2 presidents & you still think Obama's the worse one, then you've got problems. Obama's not nearly progressive enough for me, but I would much rather have him stay office than ANY one of the Republican candidates... even that half-genius/half-idiot Ron Paul.

Some critics would argue that this chart's just another piece of Obama Marxist propoganda, but it seems to correlate w/ the news I've been seeing coming out of Congress.

People could use more graphics like this that outline policy differences in a clear way, as long as they are accurate.

What a Jobs Plan Looks Like

 click for larger

I also saw this well-made infographic on iab.com, outlining the percepual and factual differences of the Occupy Wall Street protests & the Tea Party political movement:

Faceoff: Occupy Wall Street vs. Tea Party Movement

click for larger

Heroes of the Stupid

The Daily Show:
Moment of Zen-
"Glenn Beck Teaches Victoria Jackson"

The Daily Show:
"Lady and the Gramps"

The Daily Show:

"Conservative Libertarian"

As the Health Care Bill passes & civilization continues, national attention has been directed toward the phenomenon of the Tea Party. It is clearly is a movement of many concerned but well-meaning citizens. Unfortunately they are being represented by the most vapid & cynical misinformation peddlers outside of televangelism.

The artist in me tends to prefer the idea of free expression. I also understand the importance of the 2nd amendment as a means of self-defense for citizens. Therefore, it's hard for me to advocate shutting down every 'militant' group just because they are anti-government or full of nutty creeps. Even irrational hate groups like neo-Nazis and the robed hillbillies in the Klan should regrettably be allowed to have marches & spout their crappy ideologies. If anything, it lets the rest of society see how twisted they are.

However, when individuals or groups cross the line into directed threats of personal violence toward others- then, they becoming criminals.

This is what so many people find distasteful about Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. They are national figures, influential with a *highly* suggestible segment of the population, who are subtly suggesting militant insurrection against the government & it's officials. Palin especially likes to give off the impression that's she'd proudly display Obama & Pelosi's heads as hunting trophies. Unfortunately, many Tea Party protesters who are rightly concerned about government are being overshadowed by the facetious hysteria being whipped up by these know-nothing buffoons with TV shows & Hand-O-Prompters.



Just like the 'far-left' activists Code Pink recently trying to arrest 'Turd Blossom' himself, Karl Rove, the freaks of the right-wing are going to cause the biggest commotion. By not outright denouncing the wackiest elements like The "Birthers" & the Glenn Beck Revolutionary Guard, the GOP & entire conservative philosophy is being defined by the most unreasonable fringes of the movement.

Sarah Palin is a personality who is as fascinating as a horrific car wreck. If there is one person who the intelligentsia of this country would overrule free speech to put a muzzle on, it is "Mooselini" herself.

Here is a quick IQ test. Do you find the clip below to be inspiring?......

If yes,
Congratulations! You're an idiot!



If God decides to be a total jerk & damn me for Eternity, that is the voice I'll hear in an endless loop in Hell.

Rand Paul & the Myth of Freedom

Rand Paul's
Ideal Business Model

There has been a major focus of attention toward Rand Paul, the winner of Kentucky's Republican Senate primary.

I've felt that Rand's father, Congressman Ron Paul, has made some valid criticisms of the government & financial institutions like The Fed. Especially in the years of Bush/Cheney regressive Republican rule, Ron Paul seemed like a semi-sane voice from The Right. However, I've also seen him make arguments for his "Libertarian" ideals that just aren't practical or reasonable at all.

The big ideological problem (that his son Rand Paul has seemed to adopt) is the belief that government intervention in almost any matter is negative & should be minimized to practically nothing.

This is the crux of the sudden spotlight following Rand's primary win under the 'Tea Party' banner. He has been on the record repeatedly saying the the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is flawed because it intrudes on personal ownership. His argument is that the Civil Rights Act was good for removing institutionalized discrimination, but business owners should not be told what to do by the government. He contends that the conservative Golden Calf, aka 'The Free Market', will sufficiently affect businesses to prevent social discrimination. This is, of, course, f*cking stupid.

US News & World Report:

"Rand Paul Embodies
the Republican Tea Party Problem"

Rand is already complaining he's "insulted" that people are insinuating he's a racist. Whether or not he's a racist isn't the issue, however. The real issue is his naïve & dangerous political ideology that sees the federal government as only a problem to be eradicated- instead of a possible source of social solutions. Unlike alot of media nitpicking over the controversial statements of public figures, this actually deserves scrutiny because it is representative of the broader political philosophy of Rand Paul & his fellow Teabaggers.

The very sharp Rachel Maddow devoted ten minutes of her show to the visual spectacle of Rand Paul dancing around the direct question, "should the Woolworth's counter have been allowed to remain segregated in 1964?" He could not say "Yes!" because that would have been a historic political suicide. However, his delusional fantasy of personal freedom & property rights prevent him from saying "No" because he seems to feel a business owner should be able to do whatever the hell he/she wants without government intervention. Therefore, he floundered around the TV screen like a fool without the courage to say what he obviously believes- that a business should be able to refuse service to a person for any reason, such as being black, foreign, gay, or Ginger.

Rand Paul on The Rachel Maddow Show

The only problem with Rachel's interview was that she didn't push him enough in defending parallel scenarios. If the government has no place regulating business, than why have health inspectors, building codes, or liquor licenses in restaurants? I guess any place, even Chuck E. Cheese should be allowed to sell booze, build with hazardous materials, & let roaches all over the food. Sure, people may stop patronizing businesses that suck, but the whole system will have devolved into chaos in the meantime with countless people being negatively affected.

Government is not perfect- no human institution can claim to be. However, there are alot of things that the federal government is best suited to deal with. Whose going to maintain public land, invest in infrastructure, & prevent Wall St. mega-banks from preying on consumers?... a bunch of Teabaggers w/ "Obama=Stalin" signs???

This notion of "Personal Freedom" that is so dear to the Libertarian perspective is a silly myth that clouds their worldview. The idea that government doing less will always makes us more "free" is idiotic & counter-productive. No matter what, we humans are always slaves in some way - from birth to death. Freedom is an imaginary concept that has no functional meaning in the real world. If government isn't making us do things against our will, then corporate interests will find ways to enslave us. If we can somehow shake off the shackles of the business & financial world, we will still be inhibited by our environment, other people, or even our own body & mind.

These short-sighted Teabaggers with no sense of social responsibility or ability to reason outside their own narrow & selfish self-interests are hopefully playing their only practical role... winning GOP Primaries. This way, these extreme right-wing dopes can be more easily defeated by more moderate or even progressive Democratic candidates in the general election.

2010 Health Care Bills- H.R.3590 & H.R. 4872

After a year of dramatic struggle and far too little factual information, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: H.R. 3590 has been signed by President Obama. The final reconciled amendment bill H.R. 4872, has been passed by The Senate & The House again, and will be signed by The Long-Legged Mack Daddy tomorrow.

Now that the bill is becoming law & the sideshows of the process are over, actual details regarding the legislation are becoming better known:

CBS News
Health Care Reform Bill Summary:
A Look At What's in the Bill

CNN
Timeline: When health care reform will affect you

Crooks & Liars
Health care reform rollout timetable

As someone who follows current events & national politics constantly, my views on the whole Health Care Reform situation are as complicated as the process itself. I'll start by saying I'm a political Independent. While I try to transcend labels & polarized thinking, like "conservative" vs. "liberal", it is an unavoidable aspect of human society to rally around political ideologies that reflect one's own Reality Tunnel.

Having said that...
Now it's time for polarizing labeling & name calling!!! Wooo-hoo!!!

When it comes to the circus surrounding Health Care, I think the obvious carnival barkers stirring up the crowd who are vehemently against it are the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the other "conservative" personalities. Most neutral observers would agree that their deliberately incendiary misinformation is mistaken for truthful patriotic passion by their listeners, whose collective mental functioning is centered in their amygdalas.

Just one year into his Presidency, anytime someone begins ranting about Obama's Tyranny of Socialism! or his love of Karl Marx or Saul Alinsky (whoever the hell that is) you can be sure the are being fed their B.S. from the Master himself, Glenn Beck. Personally, I can't watch his show for a whole segment. He is just a total turd. There are some things he touches on that deserve scrutiny, like The Fed. Top film director James Cameron was correct, though... like many extremist right-wingers he's basically an asshole, or a pompous jerk, if 'asshole' offends you. I can't understand how any self-aware person can take a man seriously who said that a multicultural, mixed-race Obama is "a racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people." That is somehow more astoundingly retarded than anything even Sarah Palin has ever said!!! Listening to that self-righteous doofus long enough could probably warp anyone's mind.

Speaking of the Alaskan dingbat herself, Caribou Barbie (aka Sarah Palin) has proven herself firmly in the violent right-wing reactionary camp during this 'debate'. Forgetting her ridiculous lies about "Death Panels"... recently her blatantly threatening euphemisms to 'reload' and 'target' Democrats seems to be the dividing line that separates the extreme right from the extreme left in politics.

So-called Liberals and The Left couldn't stand the walking disaster George W. Bush and understood what a horribly destructive administration he ran. The difference is the majority of negative reaction wasn't about killing him, hanging him, & acting out physically against him. Yes, people compared him to Hitler etc., but mostly there was a desire to see him and Cheney held legally or at least politically responsible for their obviously destructive agenda. Activists like MoveOn.org, Code Pink & Cindy Sheehan weren't threatening bodily harm or death toward members of the Bush Administration.

Now, alot of Republicans are stamping their feet saying this Health Care bill is treason! & criminal! & blah blah blah! There's a bit of a difference between trying to reform the Health Care system & waging unnecessary war, killing millions of innocent Afghani & Iraqi people while sacrificing our soldiers under false pretenses.

So, because regressive Republicans ran the country into the ground for 8 years & were voted out, it is now the Democrat's turn to pursue a progressive agenda for the country. Although I don't consider myself a Democrat, I personally agree with many of the Democratic initiatives- as opposed to the Republican agenda which has been tax cuts for rich people & unfunded war spending.

Of course, conservatives and the Republican party in particular will cry & scream over the coming years as Obama and the Dems try to clean up their decade-long mess. Unfortunately, this health care battle is just one of many to which Republicans seem ready to cross their arms and say "HELL NO!" like a bunch of impotent babies. The current crop of dreadfully uninspiring dolts in the GOP leadership should be enough to turn any reasonable person away.

It's okay though, because through the whole process, backing the Republican Party line, cheerleading the Tea Party, demonizing the legislation, and enabling the woefully uninformed masses has been the Fair and Balanced Most Trusted Name in News™, Fox News. However, to be 'fair & balanced' on my part, there has been a general incompetence of ALL the news media in informing the public about important issues like the health care debate. Fox News pundits just routinely cross the line into outright distortion.

Things seemed to have turned the corner for Obama because of this historic victory & now he has the wind in his sails as the Republicans scramble to be relevant in any meaningful way:

Plan A was "Kill the Bill!" which failed.
Plan B is "Sue the Federal Government!" which will also fail.
Plan C is "Win back Congress & REPEAL!" which will (of course) fail... due to a little thing called 'Presidential veto'.

The GOP must think failure on all fronts will somehow get them elected come November.

Not for the sake of the Democrats, but for the sake of the people who need it & are getting reamed by the insurance companies, I hope some of these measures start having noticeable effect on the system soon.

The funniest thing about all the buffoons screaming about 'Socialism!' & 'Communism!' is that Obama is way more conservative than his base would like him to be! Many of his supporters would have preferred to see Obama push for a truly socialist Single-Payer System. While he's at it, he should have also signed an executive order banning health insurance companies completely! This is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. As Congressman Anthony Weiner argued below, why do they even exist?



Americans are so used to their shitty way of doing things that they can't imagine a better way. I think Obama is an intelligent, competent leader who can help our country to a better way of doing things. That's why I voted for him over Grandpa McGrumpy & The Snow Queen. I don't regret my decision one bit.

Bleeding the Country

...and I'm not talking about Iraq - that's more like dismemberment.

Unfortunately, the country that is getting slowly bled is the United States.
When half of our taxes are already used for the goal of state-sanctioned death and destruction, it's pretty horrifying for any rational person to see the War Monkey & his gang making proposals like this:

"US President George Bush has proposed deep cuts
to federal health care, education, and transportation programs,
searching for new money to pay for increasingly costly
defence programs and the war in Iraq."

So Dick N' Dubya have their sights on Tehran, Congress is waiting for more Republicans to wake the hell up and help stop the madmen in the White House, and we taxpayers are throwing money to the wind everyday we are occupying Iraq.

Maybe this guy has the right idea...

"Ed and Elaine Brown were convicted last month of plotting to conceal their income and avoid paying federal income tax for years. They argued the tax is illegitimate and no one is required to pay it. They said they would pay their taxes if the government shows them a law that allows labor to be taxed."

Of course, if anyone were to stage a tax revolt or a protest action like the Boston Tea Party they would be considered a terrorist, as the British overlords considered Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams to be. (Here's an idea: The Houston Oil Party, dump barrels of oil into the Gulf! Just Kidding!(?))

Mad War Party

Well, since I've been ranting about political issues in the last couple posts,
I'll let some awesome pictures by Mark Bryan speak a thousand words in this one...

(click for bigger image)

"Mad Tea Party"

"Dick"

images from
www.artofmarkbryan.com

Hypno-Bachmann

I couldn't help myself...

Despite the dismal field of candidates, I watched the last GOP debate the other night that was sponsored by corporate partners CNN & The Tea Party, Inc. 

I still think the Republicans have no chance to beat Obama if Mitt Romney isn't the nominee. He's the only one remotely electable. Some of the candidates are more far out than others, though. Ron Paul is partially immersed in a Libertarian fantasyland. I completely agree with some of his ideas, but then he goes into illogical extremes with his fictional idea of individual "freedom" which always trumps the good of society.

However, Michele Bachmann, a Congresswoman from a district of crazy people in Minnesota, is out somewhere on her own planet. Besides being one of the most untruthful politicians in DC, she basically wants to eliminate secular government & institute a theocracy based on her own warped view of reality.
It always amazes me how many of these government-hating Republicans want to be career government employees... 

Anyway, I had the image of her iconic Newsweek cover sitting on my desktop, because I knew I could make something crazy w/ it.  ...so, I threw this animated GIF together of "Hypno-Bachmann".  


Don't look at it too long or she will suck out your soul.

Rally to Restore Sanity!!!

No sooner did I finish writing about the craziness of the extreme right-wing ideologues & Tea Party candidates dominating the national political discourse... than I turned on The Daily Show to see the big announcement.

Rally to Restore Sanity

Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert have been hinting at some kind of event, a la Glenn Beck. Tonight, Jon Stewart revealed the planned "Rally to Restore Sanity" which is probably going to make Beck's facetious 'Rally to Restore Honor' look like a little picnic.

This is so great. I am absolutely going if it's humanly possible. The Daily Show's political humor & reverence for The Absurd helped me smile through the years of incompetence/malfeasance of the Bush Administration. I've been watching The Colbert Report since the first episode and now both shows are required viewing for me.

Despite the satirical nature of the event, my fellow Daily Show viewers are actually the most accurately informed news consumers. You have to know the people, facts, & context of current events to understand all the jokes on the shows. It's hard to follow the humor if you're an ignoramus.

Anyway, I'm psyched, & if it goes according to plan it should be an awesome day.

Frontline: The Choice 2012

Last night I was watching a Frontline documentary profiling the 2 Presidential candidates, President Obama & Mitt Romney.

It's an excellent documentary. I found it to be objective, giving accurate looks at the lives of both candidates with no partisan spin.

It should be required viewing for anyone voting this year.

Watch it online or find it on TV when it's on again.

Frontline: 

The Choice 2012

Having watched it with an open mind, there's still no way in hell I'd vote for Mitt Romney. His whole life, his mission has been to save the bottom line- saving money for rich investors at the expense of any other people who may get in the way.

The importance of Profit vs. Humanity is central to this election. If you think rich people should make more money, poor people should be left to fend for themselves in the streets, & public institutions should all be corporatized, then Gov. Romney's your man.

I never thought Obama was going to be a messiah for the country, but do I think he has worked toward improving the country in tangible ways. The problem is, like all Presidents, he's a cog in a soul-crushing bureaucratic machine. He & his most fervent followers were perhaps too optimistic in the hope that the culture of Washington DC could be quickly & permanently changed.

Most of the problems that people ignorant of the political process attribute to Obama are actually the result of an ineffectual Congress. America's low-information voters got whipped into a frenzy during the 2010 midterm elections & were sucked into the corporate-backed Tea Party movement. This faux movement, funded by right-wing special interest like the Koch Brothers, preyed on foolish people's frustrations & blind patriotism.

The Republican majority in the House of Representatives has openly done everything to block Obama's attempts at progress, with shockingly little regard for the effects on the nation.

The first Presidential debate was a snoozefest, with the idiot pundits declaring Romney the winner because he acted like an aggressive a-hole. After everyone fact-checked his bullcrap, it became apparent that Romney is a snake-oil salesman, who will say absolutely anything to get elected. He contradicts himself so much it makes the "flip-flopper" label given to John Kerry in 2006 seems quaint.

All politicians are masters of B.S., but Romney really is shameless in his lying during the quest for power.

There are a couple more debates & a few weeks left before America chooses the person to represent it's vision of the future.

Hopefully it's not handed to the socially-awkward billionaire corporate toolbag, but we shall see...

Election 2010

Nancy Pelosi never shed a tear during her tenure &
this lobbyist-loving goof is weeping during his first speech.

That was quick:

Big Business Makes 'Wish List'
For New GOP In Congress

I've been watching the election results come in this week with the inevitable Republican gains. The Democratic messaging has been phenomenally bad despite some significant accomplishments by the Congress & White House in the past 2 years. You would never know it though by listening to the pundits- from both sides of the political spectrum. The Fox News opinion machine has definitely dominated the political narrative through aggressive conservative opposition.

Even though the House is now a GOP majority, the number of losing Tea Party candidates (especially Sarah Palin's horrible picks) have ended up costing Republicans the Senate.

Republicans blame Sarah Palin,
Jim DeMint for losing Senate

Despite the tears of joy flowing down the orange face of probable Speaker of the House, John Boehner, the GOP are only marginally more powerful. I wonder if, under Speaker Boehner, they will now be freely handing out checks from lobbyists on the House floor. The Senate and the President's veto pen exist to temper their dreams of complete Health Care repeal & permanent tax breaks for the rich.

In fact, it's possible that the government will come to a standstill, or at least a crawl. This will succeed in pissing the American people off more. Who it will affect more in the next election cycle is anyone's guess. Despite President Obama's maddening insistence at bipartisanship & compromise, the Republican leadership has already expressed their self-serving desire to destroy his efforts in order to make him a "one-term President".

2010 Elections To
Usher In Era Of Gridlock

All I know is that the next couple of years will be interesting, as always. The real winners here are the political commentators & comedians. The Daily Show & Colbert are already on fire with the new political conflicts in the headlines.

Stewart Mocks Whitman, Paladino &
The Media's Hyperbolic Election Coverage (VIDEO)

Glenn Beck's Dream... My Nightmare

The figureheads of America's Moron-ocracy.

I was outside eating breakfast at the park & the weather is beautiful. I figured Glenn Beck's rally (starring Glenn Beck & Sarah Palin) was already underway to Restore America's Honor™.

Of course, we've lost our Honor™ to the communist black guy that I & everyone else in the country elected President- in order to stop the slide into Beck's regressive brand of conservatism. Therefore, Glenn Beck feels the need to have a rally on same steps & the anniversary as Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. This way, his suckers... I mean Goldline customers, I mean fans... can "reclaim" whatever the hell they're trying to reclaim from Obama's bloodthirsty tyranny.

NYT:
"Thousands Hear Beck
and Palin at Washington Rally"

I admit it's possible that Glenn has honest intentions that are based solely on concern for the well-being of America's people.
...It's also possible that today I'll get a big tattoo of Glenn Beck's face on one side of my butt & Sarah Palin's face on the other.

Glenn's melodramatic, self-righteous performance art is directed toward the most impressionable, uninformed, & easily incited of Fox News viewers. I try to watch a few segments of the show when I can stomach it & am absolutely astounded that anyone can take that dork seriously. His followers must think The Pasty One is delivering an inspired revelation revealing the hidden secrets of politics & government. However he has been proven repeatedly to either make misleading, nebulous connections or just make crap up entirely.

Media Matters:
Search "Beck+False"

I'm not going to comment any further than agree w/ my brother who texted me yesterday with a simple message, "Glenn Beck is such an a-hole douchebag." He must have been watching a news report about the rally or reading about it. It's the feeling any normal person should get watching Beck's self-serving antics.

The masters of political comedy, Stewart & Colbert, have already whipped this one to death...

Daily Show:
"I Have a Scheme"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
I Have a Scheme
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Colbert Report:
"Glenn-Livid"

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Glenn-Livid
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

Game Review: Bioshock Infinite

I finally got around to playing through Bioshock Infinite, and it was a solid addition to the iconic series.

Previously, I reviewed the first Bioshock, & I've also played the sequel. This was a similarly memorable game, that took the theme in a new direction, but was still consistent with the previous titles.

The Monkey Buddha Archives:

Game Review: Bioshock

The Bioshock games are first-person shooters, but they have deep, immersive storylines that lead the player to question his own perspective and moral judgments.

What I especially like about this series is its look at the shortcomings of different political ideologies, when they are actually applied to society.

In the first two Bioshock games, the setting was an underwater city called "Rapture". This was supposed to be an art deco-style Libertarian utopia, founded by business magnate Andrew Ryan in the 1940's. He & the city's other founders were Objectivists who wanted to escape government control, so the "Free Market" could reign supreme.

As anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the real world could predict, a Libertarian 'paradise' will quickly devolve into a hellhole, as the power of selfishness and greed are allowed to run rampant. The city of Rapture falls apart, due to the scientific discovery of "plasmids" that grant their users superhuman powers. These powers led to class warfare among the inhabitants of Rapture, and a fatal rivalry between Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, another unscrupulous businessman.

In Bioshock: Infinite, the setting is Columbia in the year 1912. This is a city that is literally floating in the sky, due to a powerful anti-gravity technology. 

Columbia was founded by Zachary Comstock, who wanted to break away from the United States, while retaining an ultra-conservative vision of America. The complete merging of religion and nationalism create a right-wing dream world, where today's Tea Party patriots would feel right at home.

In Columbia, "Father" Comstock styles himself as a political leader & religious prophet, the U.S.'s Founding Fathers are revered as demi-gods, patriotic propaganda is everywhere, & the city has a traditional feeling that gives the overall impression of "the good ol' days".

Not far into the game, however, you begin to see through the facade of the image of Columbia that Comstock has built up. It is actually a place of elitism & racial segregation, in which all non-whites are officially recognized as second class citizens, or worse.

The resulting social tensions have manifested themselves in the form of the revolutionary group "Vox Populi" fighting to bring equality to Columbia. At first, it's easy to sympathize with the Vox, in contrast to Comstock's dystopia. However, it later becomes clear that having the Vox Populi take control would also lead to its own disastrous consequences.

The ultimate message here is one that I try to emphasize all the time, when talking about politics & government: No matter who's running things, human society is always going to be f*d up.

You play the game as Booker DeWitt, a detective who has incurred a large debt. To pay this debt, he is recruited to go to Columbia and rescue a girl named Elizabeth. She is apparently Comstock's daughter & heir, and she has the ability to open "tears" in the fabric of space-time. These tears allow observation & interaction with alternate universes.

A sly Star Wars reference, 

as Elizabeth opens a space-time tear into her dream destination, Paris.

This scientific aspect of the game, which deals with multiverse cosomologies, quantum physics, and relativistic concepts, was unexpected and the most interesting for me.

As the game progresses (especially at the end) the idea of infinite parallel universes, with countless versions of oneself, comes to the forefront. It leads to mind-bending plot twists and plenty of points to ponder long after the game is over. The theoretical physics in the plot also answered a question that bothered me before I even started the game: "Why did they call this game 'Infinite'?!?!"

On a functional level, the gameplay mechanics are a continuation of the original Bioshock games. You carry a weapon in one hand & have another hand that can emit various powers you discover as you progress.

Unlike the claustrophobic underwater setting of Rapture, Columbia is an open air city with awesome visual presence among the clouds. In this game, you can hook onto sky rails and soar around certain areas. It takes some getting used to, but is a pretty cool feature. Despite the open setting, the game is fairly linear, with a set succession of missions and limited area to travel through for each stage.

Although the combat on 'normal' difficulty was sporadic and there were some minor issues I had with the game, overall it was very engaging. As is characteristic of major productions like this, the artistic vision and attention to detail in the game is amazing. What really made the game stand out for me, though, was the thought-provoking story elements, dealing with the unlikely combination of political issues and the theoretical physics.

I definitely recommend Bioshock Infinite for a look at the conceptual heights to which a video game can aspire, while maintaining exciting FPS & role-playing elements.

• The Monkey Buddha's official rating: 8.25