Cheney-Palin 2012: a dream come true

Florida freshman Democrat Alan Grayson described the Republicans’ health care plan on the floor of the House.

Ohhh… wrong President.

This morning on the Stephanie Miller Show, John Fuegelsang pointed out that when the Dixie Chicks, while in Great Britain, said they were ashamed that Bush was their President, they were called traitors in the right-wing media.
But when Sarah Palin criticizes our President while in Hong Kong, there’s not a peep.
Next to the definition of hypocrisy in the dictionary is a picture of the GOP elephant.
Much better than my Jane Fonda analogy: who remembers her?

Ms. Palin took her show on the road Wednesday, in a speech to CSLA, and Asian investment firm. She criticized the Obama administration’s foreign policy, suggesting it made the US appear weak in the eyes of the world.
In July of 1972, actress Jane Fonda visited Hanoi, North Vietnam.

She harshly criticized the US war effort, saying that we were deliberately bombing the dikes along the Red River to destroy the country.
In 1988 Jane Fonda apologized for her claims and for the photo above, saying she would regret it until she died.
Will Sarah Palin apologize for bad-mouthing our government in time of war?

Saturday, September 12, Dick Armey (or Penis Navy as the Stephanie Miller Show likes to call him), his hearty band of corporate shills and the frightened followers who’ve drunk their Kool-Aid© came out in a smallish force in Washington, DC, fighting to protect us from health care. Actually, they came out to protest against the bailout, against the Federal Reserve, against a Kenyan/Nazi/Socialist/Martian President, and even against a dead Kennedy.

Health care was just a small item on their angry agenda.
I can’t help feeling sorry for a lot of the folks who showed up on the Mall. Every major social change (and remaking our medical care system is majorly major) makes people scared. And sadder yet, those people’s fears are being stoked by Dick Armey, media leaders and others who got their noses deep up the asses of the insurance industry.
These are the spiritual descendants of people who’ve been on the wrong side of every major social change since (and including) the Civil War. Trust-busting, national parks, World War II, public works projects, Social Security, Medicare… whatever it is, they’re against it.
The kid of things they do support, tend to be the kind of things that make a lot of money for them and their friends, and impoverish many of us.
These are the folks who brought you the savings and loan debacle in the late 80s, and our current financial woes.
I don’t think they want to do these things; they’ve just victims of their own greed, or ideology, or both. Dick Armey had plenty to do with getting rid of the Glass Stegal Act, which from its inception in the 30s kept our banking system stable, until it was repealed in the 90s (thanks to Bill Clinton as well).
Now look at your bank. It’s like slot machine; you can put your money in, but you don’t necessarily get it out.
But poor the poor people on the Mall Saturday didn’t realize who was leading them. They just knew they’re frightened and angry, and some guy was pointing a finger at a black President and saying “blame him!”
They’re heading off a cliff.

Somebody makes the point that people like Joe “Liar” Wilson are stalking horses for opponents of health care reform. Like the shouters in the town halls, they intend that no one is talking about health care. They’re talking about the shouting.

Why are Obama opponents freaking out?
I’ve been wrestling with this almost since Obama was first elected. Admittedly, a lot of us really hated Bush, and I suppose there was a fair number of “Bush is Hitler” posters; but people seem really batshit crazy in their hatred of Obama.
We know, the economy, the war, people are worried about health care… but “I want my country back!”?? Come on! Your country voted for the guy. Where were you?
It upsets me to admit it, but I am almost convinced that it’s not about any of the problems we face. It’s about the fact that there’s a Negro in the White House and he isn’t busing dishes.
Yep. Good old racism. As H. Rap Brown famously said, it’s American as apple pie. The fact that — at least according to the news — most of the protesters are middle-aged or old makes me more sure of it. Young people might disagree with Obama’s policies, but they aren’t losing their sanity.
A right wing friend was really upset when Obama was elected, so much so that I thought I’d lost him as a friend (of over 50 years!). I might have added some small voice of reason by pointing out that Obama was very unlikely to be either the Dark Prince (my friend’s thought), or the Messiah (my thought).
But when people think our President (!) is going to hypnotize their children through the TV set, there is some serious nuttiness out there.

The Cheney-Palin 2012 bumper stickers are sellling. I came up with another design and want to collect some feedback. Which Palin is better:

The visionary?

Or the winker (not wanker!)?

I can’t decide.

About half my friends are sure that Obama is in the pocket of big Pharma or big insurance. The other half think that he’s going to surprise us all, because “he’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.”
I agree with both. About half the time per each.
I remember sitting in a friend’s house in Cleveland (where I went to work on the campaign in October) and a few in the room were already coming down on him!
and he hadn’t even been elected yet! I said “Let’s give the guy an actual chance to fuck up. And he will fuck up.”
This may be that time.
Bill Moyers, on the Bill Maher show, suggested that Rahm Immanuel is the villain if the public option goes bye-bye. Immanuel wants to keep those insurance contribution$$ rolling in, and is willing to sell out the majority of Americans to do it.
I’ll be really pissed if that happens.

Here we are, in the midst of crises in Afghanistan, health care, the economy, the final and total breakdown in public discourse represented by the Town Halls, and all I can think about is the yet-to-form tsunami that is the Cheney-Palin run for the White House in 2012.