Happy Canada Day (formerly Dominion Day), July 1, and Happy Fourth of July (formerly Independence Day), July 4. Both days celebrate independence from Great Britain, the only difference being we dropped the Brits in 1776 and the Provinces to the North went on bitching about them until 1982.
Sometime in the 60s or 70s I was at my aunt's house singing praises to Queen Elizabeth, thinking that was the polite thing to do, considering I was in Canada and it was Dominion Day. Imagine my surprise when that tiny Italian spitfire snarled "Piss on the queen!" There might have been a hand gesture, too, I don't remember exactly. Well, I was shocked! By the time I came to my senses she was passing salami, prosciutto, mozzarella, Cornetti bread and Dago Red from Uncle Victor's wine cellar so I forgot to ask what she could possibly mean by that. I'm sure she had her reasons. (You know things are bad when whole countries don't want to be you anymore.)
I should ask Michelle Bachmann why we all wanted to be free of England. (She might even know why my aunt was so mean to the queen.) She knows all about the Founding Fathers, those guys who worked tirelessly to end slavery. She tends to confuse founding sons with founding fathers, but I'm not here to pick nits, I'm here to find out once and for all why two out of three countries in North America went out of their way to give up their British citizenship when we're all so in love with the Brits we can't get enough of their music, their movie stars, their accents or their Royal weddings.
Oh, by the way, Glenn Beck said goodbye to Fox yesterday. I know. I don't care, either, but it happened and it's Friday Follies, and I have a happy Holiday houseful so I'm using it to fill space so I can go make potato salad.
Fox News Channel
And speaking of happy, I found this picture at a place called happyplace.com. Thank you, Happy Place!
My moment of sublimely happy: We are Ohio, a pro-union coalition, delivered 1.3 million signatures on petitions to repeal Senate bill 5, the anti-collective bargaining bill republican Governor John Kasich thought he had pushed through without a hitch. Ha!
The coalition leading the effort to repeal Senate Bill 5 delivered a record of nearly 1.3
million signatures to the secretary of state today to place Ohio's new collective bargaining law on
the November ballot.
A parade of more than 6,000, led by a banner proclaiming the "million signature march," rumbled
through Downtown this morning. We Are Ohio, the group leading the referendum effort, organized the march up Broad Street to
Fourth Street, where a 48 ft. semi-truck carrying the 1,298,301 signatures in 1,502 boxes collected
will be unloaded. The parade also included retired fire trucks, a drum line, bagpipes and loud
motorcycles. It took about 15 minutes to pass.
The best part? they only needed 231,000 signatures, so with that many signatures, they made it impossible for the petitions to be challenged, and impossible for the bill to become law before the results of the November elections. Kasich and his bunch can slither, they can rattle, but they can't sink their fangs in. Not this time.
Union supporters march toward the Statehouse to deliver the 1.3 million petition signatures.
I've been thinking for a while now of launching a new feature called "Friday Follies", where each Friday I would post some silly moments of the week past. Just some nonsense to pass the time. Nothing earth-shaking, just a little fun.
So this morning, when I opened My Google and grabbed a look at the top CNN headline, I decided I shouldn't wait any longer. Today was the day "Friday Follies" would begin:
Donald Rumsfeld's new book, "Known and Unknown" came out last week. Howard Kurtz quotes from it:
When Rumsfeld was serving as Gerald Ford’s White House chief of staff, he asked his friend Dick Cheney to serve as his top assistant. Cheney “reminded me about a couple of arrests he had had for drinking and driving after he got out of college and was working on power lines in Wyoming.” Rumsfeld briefed the new president. “Do you think this is the guy you need for the job?” Ford asked. Rumsfeld said he did. “Then bring him aboard.” The rest, as they say, is history.
(Okay, that's not funny.)
And lastly, I stole this from Mario Piperni (who borrowed it from Daryl Cagle), but I plan to put it back as soon as I'm finished:
This is a shortened version because I only just thought about it this morning, but watch next Friday for another installment of FF. I'll be on the lookout for the best of the week, and I'll put them here. If you have any ideas for this, send them on. It's the least you can do. (There's a smile in there.)
I woke up this morning with a mad, radical thought in my head: What if I'm wrong and those damned Republicans really are right? What if, after all their clowning around, it turns out they actually have what it takes to allow us to pack up our troubles in our old kit bag and smile, smile, smile?
It sat me right up, this thought that I've been fighting against that bunch for so long I've completely lost sight of what they might actually stand for. Ye gads, what if Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are just the kind of visionaries it takes to shock us into lasting prosperity?
I can't say my eureka moment energized me enough to cause me to leap out of bed, but around my third cup of coffee it came to me that in order to understand my potential new pals I must go to the source and see what they have in mind for us once they've regained control of congress and have set to work fixing all of the things they so successfully screwed up in the first place.
I went to GOP.com, the one-stop-shopping place for all things Republican, and wasn't a bit surprised to see Sarah Palin waiting for me at the door. I got past her, side-stepping the booth where they're lining up to get on the Get Pelosi Fired bus, then found myself in some pretty nasty alleys and a few dead ends, but I forged on, looking for the magic portal marked "Solutions", the entrance into proof-positive that the Republicans have only our best interests at heart and are working feverishly toward making America the Land of Plenty for more than just the ultra- über- super-rich.
So. You're pretty sure I found it, right? You can't wait to read concrete evidence that the Republicans have actually come up with better recovery plans than anyone could even have imagined--that a miraculous fix is in the works, ready to be implemented as soon as they're in power again.
I'll bet you're thinking I'm going to have to eat a whole field full of crow after all the naughty words I've used against them.
Not so fast, mateys. This is all I found: A six-part section called "Issues".
Issue number 2 is Health Care: "We support common-sense health care reforms that would lower costs, preserve quality, end lawsuit abuse, and maintain the health care that Americans deserve. We oppose government-run health care, which won't preserve the physician-patient relationship, won't promote competition, and won't promote health care quality and choice."
Americans deserve this kind of health care? And this wins you brownie points?
Third issue, Energy: "We believe in energy independence. We support an 'all of the above' approach that encourages the production of nuclear power, clean coal, natural gas, solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, as well as off-shore drilling in an environmentally responsible way. We oppose so-called cap and trade legislation that would impose a national energy tax on families and small businesses that would kill jobs and raise utility prices."
Just kidding about that Green energy stuff. We're not really going to push that.
Education is number 4: "We believe that maintaining a world-class system of primary and secondary education, with high standards, in which all students can reach their potential, is critically important to American's future. We believe in the power of school choice, that giving parents the ability to send their children to better schools--not keeping them trapped in failing schools--is an important way to enable children to get the quality education they deserve."
Okay, public ed, the jig's up. You're outta here.
Issue number 5 is Economy: "We believe in the power and opportunity of America's free market economy. We believe in the importance of sensible business regulations that promote confidence in our economy among consumers, entrepreneurs and businesses alike. We oppose interventionist policies that put the federal government in control of industry and allow it to pick winners and losers in the marketplace."
In other words, carry on, O Leaders of the Pack. Your money is safe with you.
Number 6, the final issue, is the Courts: "Republicans believe a judge's role is to interpret law, not make law from the bench. Judges in our court system, from district courts to the Supreme Court, should demonstrate fidelity to the U.S. Constitution. We trust the judicial system to make rulings on the law and nothing else."
Phew, glad this one was last. Sure stinks up the place, doesn't it?
So that's it. There's nothing else. Notice what's missing? There's not a single solitary mention of the need to protect American workers or the need to create American jobs. Not a thing about the poor and middle classes, who are suffering the most in this depression masquerading as a recession. Nothing about bankruptcies or foreclosures or people lining up at job sites, at food banks, at homeless shelters. Nothing about vets living on the streets. Nada bout kids having their health insurance canceled out of spite. Nothing in there to sully their devotion to the Fat Cat sponsors who count on them to keep the "You line our pockets and we'll line yours" roundelay going.
Okay, they're as bad as I thought they were only just yesterday. But I should sleep well tonight, ready for battle again tomorrow, because I've seen the nightmare and it is them.
But in case you're still leaning toward voting the bums back in because the Democrats just aren't doing it for you, you might want to read "The 'Teach-the-Dems-a-Lesson' myth" by Robert Parry. It's an eye-opener.
(*Boffo box office: Old Variety headline meaning a film, play or performance has raked in the big bucks.)
*
*
". . .There is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone."
Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963
Here it is, the morning after the heralded Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally, held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial inches away from the exact spot where Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a Dream" speech exactly 47 years ago. (Beck claimed it was "coincidence" that his speech was delivered then and there, but we know Beck so we know better.)
So the crowds came and the numbers were relatively "vast", and we're in a tizzy because it just shouldn't be. It's Glenn Beck in charge and he's a mean one, and there's fear of a sullying or a misremembering or a watering-down of MLK's glorious words.
Fear not, oh, please. Crowds are what we have with Glenn Beck but resonance is what we cherish with the Rev. Martin Luther King. When we quote entire phrases from Dr. King, even now, after nearly a half-century, we're uplifted by their goodness and reminded of his courage and his deeds. He brought us around to his way of thinking at a time when there was still so much resistance to the notion of racial equality. We look back now (most of us who lived through it) and wonder how we could have been so blinded for so long, until true leaders--good men and women willing to lay down their lives for the kind of justice that should have been theirs all along--spoke to us in words and actions we could finally understand.
This is what Glenn Beck wants his flock to believe he's doing now. Yesterday's Beck put on his religious cloak and preached goodness and mercy and a back-to-God message that might have brought tears to our eyes, had we not known about the Beck-Before-Yesterday.
That is the Beck he's going to have to live down if we're to believe anything he said at the MLK "I Have A Dream" site. Glenn Beck's history is neither as a peaceful organizer nor as a man of God. He's not even a man of the people. He is a man of the person, an island unto himself. This is his show, his shtick, and tomorrow the matinee will have changed and on the screen will be Glenn Beck, the actor, in yet another role designed to keep his paying audience riveted and agitated.
It's possible that he'll like this role so much he'll do an encore and we'll see him in MLK makeup for a while longer, but Beck is Beck and not that good at the kind of discipline that would require him to maintain the persona.
He is smart enough, however, to know his own people. They're not peacemakers, either, and they won't tolerate this for long. It's all an act, it's all a game, and they're playing because they think there's something in it for them. Their goal is to destroy the "others" (that's us) and "take back" the country (our country--all of ours).
It won't happen.
Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke to a huge crowd of their followers. That was the significance of yesterday. The significance of MLK's "I have a dream" speech 47 years ago to the day is that we still remember it and we still honor the man who gave it. We still believe in the America he dreamed about, and we still understand our roles in preserving it.
Glenn Beck tried to dilute that message yesterday and he failed.
Over the last few days we've heard plenty about former USDA regional director Shirley Sherrod's firing over a speech she gave about an event some 24 years ago which was recently doctored by a Right Wing blogger to appear racist, but turns out to have actually been about reconciliation.
When slimy Tea Party defender and Acorn nut Andrew Breitbart's "expose" appeared on his blog "Big Government", accusing Sherrod of making racist remarks at a long-ago NAACP meeting, heads which should have remained clear in the face of the dubious evidence took to exploding left and right.
This whole process has been fascinating--the doctored tape, the rush to judgment--not just by Sherrod's bosses but by her friends in the NAACP, the complete and total turn-around when the entire tape was revealed, the reluctant then abject apologies, and finally, the icing on the cake: The ludicrously manipulative indignation for the poor woman's plight by the likes of Glenn Beck, whose specter hung like a pall over the entire affair.
I watched Andrew Breitbart apologize to no one, since, as he says, his actions were against the NAACP because they dared to attack the Tea Party.
Here's what bothers me most about the whole thing: Governmental department heads, and possibly the White House, made the decision to fire this woman within three hours of finding out that Glenn Beck was going to talk about her on his show that day.
This Glenn Beck:
And this Glenn Beck:
And this Glenn Beck:
What have we come to, we Americans in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, when even our duly elected government officials, leaders of the most powerful government on earth, stalwart defenders of the Constitution, cower and cave in the presence of a daffy TV bozo?
I don't believe President Obama had anything to do with the firing of Shirley Sherrod, but he has everything to do with the cowardly, doggedly clueless climate surrounding every department under his wing.
Mr. President, please stop trying to act, every minute, like some noble, neutral figure, chairing a government of equal and dispassionate minds, and contemplative scholars. It is a freaking war out here, and the imagined consensus you seek is years in the future, if ever it is to be re-discovered. This false consensus has gotten us only the crucifixion of Van Jones, and a racist gold-shilling buffoon speaking from the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th Anniversary of Dr. King's speech, and now it has gotten us Shirley Sherrod. And your answer is to note a "disservice" and an "injustice." Sir, get a copy of the Michael Douglas movie "The American President." When you get to the line where he says "I was so busy keeping my job, I forgot to do my job" — hit the rewind button. Twenty times. "Fired up?" "Fired up?" Anybody? Anybody?
What does it take for us to be fired up? This perversion of American politics has to come to a screeching halt. We're not all blithering idiots--at least not yet. So who's afraid of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann and the All Powerful Tea Party? Not me and not you, but I'm not feeling any better about it. We don't count. When the government and the press kowtow to the likes of those dangerous buffoons, they become nothing more than powerless sidekicks. That's just nuts.
So really--what does it take for us to be fired up? The media clowns are taking over the country and millions of us are watching with fascination and dread. Our pathetic attempts at dissent are nothing more than annoying flea bites to the all-powerful. It's time for the heavy artillery. It's time for some leadership from President Obama. He has to be made to understand that it can only come from him. He has promises to keep, and we can't let him forget them.
I filled out my first tax return when I was 17 years old and still in high school. My Dad was ready to do it for me, but I wanted to be a grown-up and do it myself. The entire form was on a cardboard third-sheet and it couldn't have taken more than five minutes to fill out, but when I dropped it into the mailbox I felt like I was no longer a child but was now part of the citizenry. (It didn't hurt that I was getting a refund, of course, and when that check came, straight from the government, I almost didn't want to cash it. It was wonderful to behold.)
Every year since that first mid-20th century tax day (then March 15, the Ides of March), I've had occasion to file my income taxes. For the past 53 years my husband and I have filed jointly. So yesterday we filled out our 1040, gave the government a whole lot of personal information, signed our real names with the promise that all of the above is true to the best of our knowledge, enclosed a three-figure check and mailed it in. Then we went back to doing what we were doing before we did it. No protests planned, no signs made, no bullhorns, no teabags hanging off of silly hats. We paid our taxes. That's what we do when we're Americans and we have incomes. (Which--I don't have to tell you--is getting harder and harder to say in this country.)
It's what we did even during the odious Bush years, when the thought of where our hard-earned money was going was entirely too painful to even contemplate. We endured a royal screwing during those eight years--those of us who didn't wear a corporate crown--and still we understood that our nation couldn't survive without our taxes paid. We paid our taxes even when we knew without a shadow of a doubt that those who could most afford to pay theirs weren't doing it. We paid, knowing they would never choose to pay, would never have to pay, and would never have to pay for not paying.
(We sent in our census yesterday, too. It took all of three minutes, 27 seconds to fill it out, and it felt pretty good. Now we're counted.)
So now that I've done my duty, what do I want for my taxes? I want BIG, smart, honest, conscientious government.
I want a government that saves jobs, protects jobs, creates jobs, and thinks rampant unemployment in the Land of Plenty is a mortal sin.
I want a government that takes public education seriously and stays awake nights thinking up ways to educate every American child without having to put them at the mercy of the private sector.
I want a government that thinks safety is pretty damned important, and allows no quarter when it comes to pollution or hazards or human neglect.
I want a government that minds its own business and stays out of wars and remembers who they're here to serve.
I want a government that stands up for the people who voted them into office, and gives their big donors nothing more than the hearty "Thank you" they so heartily deserve.
What I don't want is no government at all. That's just stupid.
So when I wasn't filling out forms I was snickering at those faux-Yahoos mugging their faces off for the TV cameras, pretending that they're mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. Who are they trying to kid? They're mad as hell that Obama is president and then the other thing is that they're mad as hell that Obama is president.
There isn't a person in this country who isn't angry about something the government does. They're the government, for chrissake. They do some of the dumbest damn things.
But come on, Baggers, don't pretend you're angry at rising taxes when, in fact, your taxes are LOWER this year.
Don't pretend your concerns are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. The only thing that would make you happy would be Obama in exile and the liberals traveling behind him in cattle cars.
Don't pretend that things are worse today than they were under George W. Bush. Even on the darkest night under the deepest of covers you can't say that without crossing your fingers.
Don't pretend you're Everyman or Everywoman--just folks. Your heroes are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Mitch McConnell. They HATE just folks. So how about you ask them what they've done for their country, not what their country has done for them? And then ask yourselves: Where am I? How did I get here? Who ARE these people? Why am I dressed this way? What is this sign I'm holding? Am I on Candid Camera?
Ramona
(Cross-posted at Talking Points Memo here and at Alternet here)
You know how, when you're witnessing a personal meltdown--when someone you happen to be near finally reaches the breaking point; when everything they've ever held near and dear is suddenly slipping away, and they try desperately to hang on, either with lies or tantrums or tears--how you just can't look away?
As the drama unfolds, if you're not too personally invested, the polite thing to do is just move along. There's not much you can do for them anyway, and, honestly, they don't care what you think. But you're riveted by the spectacle, and--admit it--fascinated by the sheer craziness of it.
Ever since January 20 that's how I've been feeling about the eerily escalating Right Wing meltdown. It's breathtaking to behold. The scope of it is beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Day after day, I awaken to some new evidence that they've not just lost their way, they've lost their minds.
From Limbaugh to O'Reilly to Keyes to Beck to Shelby to Santelli to Jindal to Steele to Bachmann . . .it's been one nutty thing after another, just in the last week alone. (That might be because it was CPAC week. Everybody from Joe the Plumber to 13-year-old Jonathan Krohn had a moment in the sun at the Conservative's main event. )
Here's Joe the Plumber. (It's 6 1/2 minutes of Joe, so be forewarned.) The ALG Network (Americans for Limited Government) had their crew out there full time at the conference, filming speeches, doing interviews, and just generally presenting those Conservatives in their best light. So I have to assume that sabotage wasn't really in the plans when they filmed and then edited Joe's little talk; I have to assume that this is the BEST of Joe:
Along with some of the usual suspects, ALG also interviewed Jerome Corsi, author of "Obama Nation", and all-around odd ball:
At 5:00 today Rush Limbaugh spoke to the rapt convention crowd (Sorry, no video. He's not on my agenda here) and then, afterward, was the recipient of the "Defender of the Constitution Award".
Honest. (Why am I not laughing out loud? See last paragraph below.)
I spent a few hours today wandering around the virtual halls of CPAC and I'm here to tell you--Alice in Wonderland has nothing on me. Up was down and down was up. In was out and out was in. People said one thing and meant another.
I half expected to see the Cheshire Cat grinning from a limb:
Cheshire Cat: If I were looking for a white rabbit, I'd ask the Mad Hatter.
Alice: The Mad Hatter? Oh, no no no...
Cheshire Cat: Or, you could ask the March Hare, in that direction.
Alice: Oh, thank you. I think I'll see him...
Cheshire Cat: Of course, he's mad, too.
Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here.
[laughs maniacally; starts to disappear]
Cheshire Cat: You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself.
On Thursday, Bob Cesca wrote a piece for the Huffington Post called "The Wingnut Revolution".
. . . accountability (a "day of reckoning" as President Obama called it) is underway in the form of the president's housing proposal, his healthcare plan and, naturally, the recovery act. At the end of the day, ninety-five percent of Americans will benefit from what amounts to the largest tax cut in American history, along with increased access to affordable healthcare and millions of new jobs.
Though, alas, the super rich will have to pay slightly more in taxes.
Yeah, that's a shame.
So they're gathering in their secret war rooms in the Orange County underground and on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, grinding the tips of their Salvatore Ferragamo Pregiato Moccasins into razor-sharp spears and fashioning their Bentley key fobs into makeshift nunchucks in preparation for a supremely ridiculous rebellion led by a cast of far-right characters more freakish than the acid trip monsters from Yo Gabba Gabba.
It's a great piece, done in usual Cesca style, but when he got to this part I was hooked:
For the last year or so, Glenn Beck has been attempting to peg Barack Obama and the Democrats as actual communists, and now he's going all out with, quite literally, a red scare segment on his show -- festooning his set with Soviet flag graphics, a "Comrade Update" logo and a Russian language crawl in the lower-third of the screen.
I have no words. (I did have the red scare clip inserted on this page but it's no longer available. Too bad. It was something to behold.)
On that very same Thursday, Paul Jenkins wrote a piece for HuffPo called, "Worst Week Ever: Republicans Unhinged".
He wrote, In just seven days, Republicans have offered up more amusement and fodder for an election campaign than even the most hopeful among us could have expected. What is especially thrilling is that it comes at little expense: Obama is competently in charge, as are, by and large, Democrats elsewhere, and change is happening at a mind-blowing pace. In the long run, yes, there should be concern that having buffoons in opposition is not healthy, but for now let's enjoy the moment.
Oh, enjoy! Yes, let's! They're a laugh-a-minute, that bunch.
Remember how some of us folks were laughing hysterically when we heard the Republicans had chosen George W. Bush as their (mwa-ha-ha!) presidential candidate?
And remember how we cackled when, after weeks of beating the bushes (Bushes) for a best choice, Dick Cheney appointed HIMSELF the vice-presidential candidate?
And remember the hoots and hollers, the LOLs, the LMAO's, when we got wind of that loony idea to attack IRAQ after 9/11 instead of al Queda-harboring Afghanistan?
And remember how we roared over the idea of those absolute fools running for a second term?
OH, I remember, all right. So I may smirk a little, and I may go so far as to showcase their more memorable loony binges, but laugh out loud? Not on your life.
I laughed at the idea of "preachers" like Pat Robertson or James Dobson or John Hagee pulling so many righteous legs all the way to the bank.
I laughed at the idea of a Rush Limbaugh or an Ann Coulter achieving even a thimbleful of fame and fortune.
I laughed at the idea of Ronald Reagan--a "B" actor if you wanted to be charitable, a dimwit if you wanted to be fair-- running for the highest office in the land. Now look where we are. He's a damned "hero" and we're screwed.
So let me just leave you with this: Tonight they anointed Rush Limbaugh as their fearless leader.
I may think that's odd, but I know better than to think it's funny.
