This Post is For All You Birthers Out There

UPDATE: Those delusional birthers are still at it -- six states have 'birther bills' moving through the legislature, include Arizona, Indiana, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Read the Washington Post, Arizona birthers: No clue, but plenty of company.

You might remember that the Grand Poobah of Birthers, Taitz was recently and unceremoniously denied permission to intervene in the health care lawsuit.

I wonder if Pastor Poppins will now rally support for a national 'birther bill.'

Their bitterness blinds them to the truth, Obama was born in the U.S.A.

This one is from the Pensacola News Journal, by a lawyer who makes way too much money, and is worth posting in whole:

July 29, 2009
Grown-ups in GOP fail to control 'birthers"
Mike Papantonio

Several years ago, I tried a case with a Texas lawyer who used a code to track potential jurors that he wanted to eliminate from his jury during courtroom jury selection. Next to each potential juror, he put letters and numbers that described his attitude about that potential juror.

I noticed that next to some names he wrote the words "googly eyes!" Every lawyer uses their special codes in trial, but I had never run across the term "googly eyes." He explained to me that a potential juror with "googly eyes" is someone who probably believes that Elvis Presley is still alive.

They are the ones who have seen a UFO and probably know someone who has been abducted by aliens. In casual conversation, they are likely to tell you that the Apollo moon landings were staged on a Hollywood movie set. Today, it is likely that potential jurors are making it onto that lawyer's "googly eye" list if they attended more than one Sarah Palin political rally or if they dressed up like Paul Revere or Martha Washington during a tea party protest.

People probably qualify for his "googly eye" list if they spend 10 minutes a week watching the Glen Beck crazy hour. Beck, after all, is the King of Googly Eyes.

Here is a standard I'm going to use to add names to my "googly eye" list when I ask potential jurors questions these days. It is this: Are they Obama-birther conspiracy theorists? Do they believe Lou Dobbs, who tells them that Obama is a citizen of Indonesia who has lived in the United States for 48 years with a forged birth certificate?

Do they seriously accept the idea that Obama is not eligible to be president?

Fringe Democrats looked equally ridiculous when they suggested that John McCain was not eligible to be president because he was born in Panama.

Fortunately, the grown-ups in the Democratic leadership put a quick end to that self-humiliation process and the issue disappeared, along with the few wing-nuts who raised the issue.

But there are too few grown-ups left around the GOP House to gain control over the Glen Becks and the Lou Dobbses who now control dialogue for Republicans. Because of that, completely sane Republicans have repeatedly fallen victim to these "googly-eyed" messengers who surface with their political party talking points.

The Obama birth certificate issue originated with a racist anti-Semite named Andy Martin. Martin, who characterizes himself as an Internet populist, has such a creepy background that Fox News apologized for allowing him to appear in its programming.

They were as appalled as anyone would be when they read his blogs characterizing a hugely respected federal judge as a "crooked slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race." So in the end, a head case like Martin launches the "birther" message and a TV personality like Lou Dobbs gives it credibility to where it sounds like a legitimate Republican talking point.

At the same time, you can bet there is a Texas lawyer using his "googly eye" code to make certain that anyone goofy enough to believe it never gets close to a jury box.

The birthers think that Obama's failure to respond is proof that their silly claim(s) are correct. I've tried to warn them that the failure to respond is a shrewd plan on Obama's part to keep the Republi-cons occupied and allow them to discredit themselves with a majority of the public.

But they just won't listen. There is no reasoning with a Republi-con.

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

UPDATE: Meet Susan Frishkorn at the Santa Rosa County Democratic Party Luau, 3-7 p.m., Gulf Breeze Shoreline Park, South, (cost for the luau is $25, Susan will gab with ya about politics for free):
Flier for Santa Rosa County Democratic Party Luau

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

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Topics:

Local and regional: teacher beware, 15-years boys will get ya 15 months, first comes the laswuit, now two graduations, is it better to be a dog than a black man in the South, who's your family?, and

Nation and international: countdown to dismissal, are you ready to protest, Cha-Ching, Baby, Cha-Ching, Justice Hillary Clinton?, Oprah unmasked, is it collateral damage, or murder?, more changey stuff, now it's Scrabble, is there no more respect for tradition anymore, I Wish I Was in Dixie (this after rise up and be counted Confederate Southern Americans (we love our country, we only wish it didn't exist and we still had slaves), does christian fundamentalism threaten world peace? , will it create a 'Communist Chocolate Hellhole', and religious evil or anti-Semitic like bigotry?

But I'll discuss anything. (Disclaimer: the host reserves the right to end any discussion and hang up on you.)

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle some ass kickin' discussion of politics and current events!

Teacher Beware, 15-Years Boys Will Get Ya 15 Months

Two former Jay teachers who had sex with students each were sentenced to 15 months in state prison today. Read the Pensacola News Journal, Ex-teachers get jail

Would a male teacher get more?

The Thelma and Louise of Republi-CON Politics

UPDATE: President Palin? Not likely, she's just a "media psychodrama." Read The New York Times, Who Will Lead the Republican Party?

Read the Washington Post, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann meet Thelma and Louise.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Are Teabaggers the New Liberal Radicals?

UPDATE: Who are the Teabaggers? Angry older white Republican men, generally. Take a look at the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, Polling the Tea Party.

Does the Tea Party rage against the machine echo the 60's radicalism from the opposite end of the political spectrum? Read The New York Times, The Wal-Mart Hippies.

I'm sooooo confused?!?

Everyman For Himself Paradise

Don't like modern society and government. Want to get away from it all. Then read The New York Times, Embracing a Life of Solitude.

The article includes a list of Five Destinations for Solitude Seekers.

Have fun all you antimodernist neo-Luddites, and send me a note (by bottle or bird of course) telling me of the benefits of subsistence living!

Does Christian Fundamentalism Threaten World Peace?

Chuck Baldwin is the pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, and was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.

In his latest column, Army Report Says Christians Threaten US Foreign Policy, Baldwin discusses a paper written at the School of Advanced Military Studies, United State Army Command and Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. An abstract of the paper, titled Strategic Implications of American Millennialism, states:

Since the beginning of the Republic, various forms of millennial religious doctrines, of which dispensational pre-millennialism is the most recent, have shaped U.S. national security strategy. As the dominant form of millennialism in the U.S. evolves, it drives changes in U.S. security policy and subsequent commitment of the instruments of national power. Millennial ideas contribute to a common American understanding of international relations that guide our thinking irrespective of individual religious or political affiliation. Millennialism has great explanatory value, significant policy implications, and creates potential vulnerabilities that adversaries may exploit.

In the simplest usage of the word, millennialism refers to any belief system, religious or secular, which anticipates a purification of society or the world through dramatic and sweeping change. In the U.S. today, the most well-known and influential form of millennialism is a religious variant known in formal, theological parlance as dispensational pre-millennialism. This contemporary form of millennialism took shape during the 1970s and has significantly shaped current U.S. security policy. Dispensational pre-millennialism is loosely based on depictions of battle between the forces of good and evil in the biblical Book of Revelation. In the U.S., dispensational pre-millennialism contends that in the very near future Jesus Christ will ‘rapture,’ or remove his church from the Earth. A period of intense tribulations and battles will follow, culminating with a cataclysmic defeat of Satan. Jesus would then establish an earthly kingdom for 1,000 years – the millennium. Today, the theological doctrines of dispensational pre-millennialism contribute significantly to American culture. This has resulted in a pervasive sense of determinism and pessimism that has significant implications for U.S. security policy around the world.

Military leaders, planners and strategists require greater understanding of American millennial thought. Millennialism shapes both American culture and U.S. government policy. While most Americans are influenced to some degree by the ideas of pre-millennialism, many are unaware of the philosophical or theological underpinnings. Military leaders charged with interpreting policy into strategy and acting on behalf of the nation on the international stage cannot afford to remain ignorant of the effects of pre-millennialism. Due to a general lack of awareness of millennialism and an uneasy reticence to discuss religious factors, understanding and analysis of our own policies and motives is often deficient. Additionally, the cultural imprint that derives from millennialism impairs our understanding of the words, actions and motives of other actors on the world stage. These factors can be problematic for any military leader or planner attempting to achieve U.S. Government policy objectives through strategy, operations and programs.

What do you think?

Foreign Policy By Assassination

"Whether or not drone missile strikes and assassination plots are legal, are they a good idea?" Read The New York Times, The Price of Assassination.

How would you respond if a foreign country was assassinating local people in your community?

I Wish I Was in Dixie

UPDATE IV: "The God of History bounds the Confederacy in its own chains." Read the declarations off secession and the words of the Vice-President of the Confederacy at The Atlantic, The Ghost of Bobby Lee.

Try as they might, Republi-con can't deny history.


UPDATE III: Confederate History Month celebrates the "fight over freedom or the Constitution or states' rights. But the "right" that was being fought over was the ability to own human beings, compel their labor, buy and sell them as if they were livestock, exploit them sexually and torture or kill them if they tried to escape." Read the Washington Post, Haley Barbour's 'diddly' sense of slavery's history.

Confederate History Month -- just more Republi-con revisionist history.


UPDATE II: Read the Chicago Tribune, It’s not hate, it’s hateful history.

I wonder if this will become an issue in the 2010 Arizona and Florida primary elections. Hey McCain and Hayward and Crist and Rubio, will you sign proclamations for Confederate History Month?


UPDATE: Open mouth, insert foot. Read the Washington Post, McDonnell's apology raises questions about what he really believes.

A celebration of heritage or pining for the good old days of segregation and white supremacy. Read the Washington Post, Confederates in the statehouse and Bob McDonnell can't change Virginia's history of slavery.

Bet those nostalgic for slavery can't wait to hear that ol' favorite, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," I'm sure "old darky's heart" miss "old Massa."

First, limos, private jets and night out at a lesbian bondage nightclub, now Dixie. What next, blackface minstrelsy singing at the 'cross lighting.'

No veepstakes for him.

Time to Wake Up?

UPDATE II: With major Tea party rallies planned for April 15th, a new group is preparing to disrupt the movement. "[S]ick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons; who constitute the fake grass-roots movement which calls itself "The Tea Party,"" Crash The Tea Party intends to infiltrate Tea Party groups "in an effort to propagate their pre-existing propensity for paranoia and suspicion . . . [and] exaggerate their least appealing qualities (misspelled protest signs, wild claims in TV inter views, etc.)."


UPDATE: For more on the Coffee Party, read The New York Times, Coffee Party, With a Taste for Civic Participation, Is Added to the Political Menu.

First the Tea Party, now the Coffee Party, for those who want to give "voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them."

Is this just more astroturfing?

And what next, the Milk Party?

How about the NoBull Party, where our motto would be NoBull.

Salty Language

"Uttering a taboo word in public is a great hierarchy-buster." Vice Presidents do it. Even Navy sailors are known to utter a profanity or three. "For those who use them, swear words are linked to emotion in a visceral way."

But have attitudes changed about insulting, rude, vulgar language? Not in California where it is Cuss Free Week. Read The New York Times, Why Do Educated People Use Bad Words?

There is even a No Cussing Club!

Congressman Tickler, The Republi-CON's New Golden Boy

UPDATE III: "[M]ale staffers complained that [he] touched them in a sexual manner, came up with reasons to have staffers travel alone with him on overnight trips, and expressed a desire to have sex with the men in the office."

Name that "The Republi-con New Golden Boy."


UPDATE II: In case you missed the story:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sour Gropes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

UPDATE: From the Washington Post:

Gotta love those Republi-con values, defending a male Congressman who engaged in 'tickle fights' with his male staffers. Read Time, The Massa Circus Takes the Air out of Glenn Beck. and the New York Daily News, Ex-Rep. Massa confesses to 'inappropriate' text messages in bizarre Glenn Beck interview.

When it comes to vilifying the Naive-ocrats, it is hard to leave Beck-zarre speechless.

Justice Hillary Clinton?

Justice John Paul Stevens is retiring. So let the specualtion begin. Read The Atlantic, Hillary to the Supreme Court? and Vanity Fair, Supreme Court Justice Hillary Clinton?

She "has all the makings of a full-throated, strong-minded liberal stalwart on the bench.” And if the Republi-cons blocked a vote, he could threaten to nominate her husband.

But does Obama have the stomach for a confirmation fight?

Power Corrupts

UPDATE: Just how 'bad' is Oprah? Just ask Vernon Winfrey, who raised the future mogul and media queen as his daughter. “She may be admired by the world, but I know the truth. “So does God and so does Oprah. Two of us remain ashamed.”

That's as bad an insult as I've heard in a while.

Even if it just celebrity power.

Read the Washington Post, Kitty Kelley's new book: Oprah has a diva snit in Washington antique store; "does not do stairs."

Just ask The Cheetah.

Cheer Up Monday

From a friend:

The Original Computer:

Memory was something you lost with age
An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano
A web was a spider's home
A virus was the flu
A CD was a bank account
A hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived

And if you had a 3.5 inch floppy.
You just hoped nobody ever found out!?!


For the women:

With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when the re is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.

Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, Holy crap, look how smart I am!

Must be where 'Smart Ass' came from!

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6:00 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line, courtesy of Cyber Smart Computers.

Topics:

Local and regional: welcome to Bubba-ville, where we prosecute the dead, stupid is as stupid does, is it better to be a dog than a black man in the South, who's your family?, and

Nation and international: is he the master of PR, , is it collateral damage, or murder?, more changey stuff, now it's Scrabble, is there no more respect for tradition anymore, I Wish I Was in Dixie (this after rise up and be counted Confederate Southern Americans (we love our country, we only wish it didn't exist and we still had slaves), limos, and private jets and a lesbian bondage nightclub , oh my!, help the weak die, does the pastor condone cop killing?, Tuesday, August 24, 2010, will it create a 'Communist Chocolate Hellhole', and religious evil or anti-Semitic like bigotry?

But I'll discuss anything. (Disclaimer: the host reserves the right to end any discussion and hang up on you.)

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle some ass kickin' discussion of politics and current events!

Prosecuting the Dead

"The Arts Council of Northwest Florida misappropriated funds by paying its expenses with money it was supposed to give to local arts organizations, the State Attorney's Office said.

The State Attorney's Office announced Thursday that it was charging the now-defunct council with two counts of making false official statements. No official associated with the group was charged."

Read the Pensacola New Journal, Arts Council of Northwest Florida faces 2 charges

Read the press release, report (page 2), and information (page 4) from the State Attorney's Office charging the 'council' with two counts for making false official statements:

State Attorney's Office, Press Release Re Arts Council

What is the point of the prosecution. And what if no one appears to represent 'the now-defunct council,' figuratively I mean. Why would anyone hire a lawyer?

Talk about a waste of time. So what is the real purpose?

One local blogger says "Escambia County remains “Bubba-ville USA." (Bubba-ville USA includes other parts of NW Florida.)

So is the meaningless prosecution of a dead organization to assuage the public's anger at the misdeeds of the local good ol' boys?

Who's Your Family?

I thought of the question when I read the following in the Pensacola News Journal, Santa Rosa sets fees for Navarre Fishing Pier:

The Santa Rosa County Commission unanimously approved a schedule of user fees for the new Navarre Fishing Pier this morning. That includes annual passes for: adult, $240; seniors, $225, and youth, $200.

Originally, the proposed fee schedule included a family pass for $500, but pier manager Dorothy Slye pulled that idea off the schedule because of the potential complication such a pass could create, including what constitutes a family.

Not such an easy question to answer anymore?

Tune in tomorrow, and we'll try to help the Commission answer the question.

With Washington Bankrupt, Banksters Now Loot Main Street

The "nation's biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece." Read Rolling Stone, Looting Main Street.

Who needs foreign enemies when ya got the Banksters, with help from their friends the Republi-cons, preying on tax payers and looting the future. Don't you just love deregulation!

And China laughs all the way to the bank.

Is It Collateral Damage, or Murder?

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting a shooting (they called it indiscriminate slaying) of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff. Reuters had been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the shooting (again they say unprovoked slaying) of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.



WikiLeaks calls it collateral murder. What do you think?

What would you think if a foreign country did that in an American city/town? Is it necessary to point out the harm done to world opinion?

Was the Iraq war worth the cost?

P.S. It reminds me of the death of Victor Steen.