By Manifesto Joe
Here's the latest on the party of "family values." That is, if your family consists of 50-year-old right-wing skanks who love to be flogged by dominatrixes while wearing diapers.
This is from McClatchy Newspapers:
WASHINGTON — Under fire from both right and left, the Republican National Committee is investigating how and why it spent nearly $2,000 for "meals" at a bondage-themed strip club in West Hollywood featuring topless dancers simulating lesbian sex.
The party confirmed Monday that it reimbursed a California consultant for $1,946 spent at Voyeur, a high-end bar/lounge that's described on one Web site as "classic slutty" where "you might not be completely shocked at the almost naked women writhing on each other, but you will undoubtedly be in awe."
Here's the whole story, if I get the link html right this time.
And here's yet another link.
GOP: Dancing With the Whores?
My wife, morally a very conventional person, has opined in irreverent moments that there's nothing wrong with these right-wing pickle butts that a couple of weeks with a good whore wouldn't cure. I suspect that recent revelations have proved her theory wrong. I think such experience has long been there, and it hasn't yielded good results yet.
According to jezebel.com, Republicans and nerds (am I being redundant?) make the best customers for those practicing the oldest profession. Here's a link there.
On the Question of David Vitter
Mr. Vitter is a U.S. senator from Louisiana who is running for re-election in 2010. According to his Wikipedia bio:
In early July 2007, Vitter's phone number was included in a published list of phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, a company owned and run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, also known as the "D.C. Madam", convicted by the U.S. government for running a prostitution service. Hustler identified the phone number and contacted Vitter's office to ask about his connection to Palfrey.[21][22] The following day, Vitter issued a written statement:
“ This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible. Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.[23] ”
The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included in phone records dating from his days as a member of the House of Representatives.[10] Phone records show that Vitter's number was called by Palfrey's service five times, the first on October 12, 1999, and the last on February 27, 2001.[24] Two calls were placed while House roll call votes were in progress.[25][26]
On July 16, 2007, after a week of self-imposed seclusion, Vitter emerged and called a news conference. Standing next to his wife, Vitter asked the public for forgiveness. Following Vitter's remarks, Wendy Vitter, his wife, spoke. Both refused to answer any questions.[27][28][29]
As background, several news outlets reported that in May 1999, Vitter replaced Congressman Bob Livingston after Livingston resigned due to an adultery scandal.[5][30][31] Vitter said about Livingston's decision to resign, "It's obviously a tremendous loss for the state. I think Livingston's stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess", referring to Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky scandal.[32]
Oh, and by the way, Vitter has also been named as a client of New Orleans prostitutes when he was home. He reportedly liked for the hookers to make him wear diapers.
Damn, all this kinky shit makes me feel so straight-laced. I thought it was liberal Democrats who were supposed to be sleazy!
That leads me to a thought I've had a few times: Repression only represses; it doesn't eliminate the thought. I think right-wingers often grow up in homes that repress sexuality, and we're merely seeing what tends to emerge from that milieu when the people decide to "act out."
So, the next time you hear somebody call Obama a socialist, don't just think in terms of ideological foolishness. But -- it probably wouldn't be wise, either, to ask this Republican what color of silk panties he's wearing.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
With Health Care And Appointments, Obama Has Told GOP: I'm Not Jimmy Carter
By Manifesto Joe
I hope he's not LBJ, either, with the two foreign quagmires he inherited from Il Doofus. But he seems to have put the Republicans on well-deserved notice. He genuinely tried to work with them, and they are quite determined not to let it happen.
So, Obama decided to use the current congressional recess to put through 15 stalled appointments that are holding up the wheels of government. Here's the story from Yahoo! News.
The Republicans are, ironically, braying like jackasses about this, even after they have threatened the filibuster in many unprecedented ways to hold up routine nominations. I think they need to reconsider their choice of animal mascots. The elephant is a noble creature, famous for its memory. Nothing could be further from the current Republican reality.
Jimmy Carter is arguably the best former U.S. president -- a man unquestionably ethical, and of very high intelligence. Unfortunately, he wasn't prepared for the kind of partisan games he encountered in Washington, perhaps because of his lack of experience in the Beltway. He will always wear the albatross of "ineffectual" in retrospectives on his presidency. I think Obama, after a sincere period of bipartisan efforts, has concluded that this is not going to be the way to get things done in the current climate.
I worried about Obama at first, and confess that I voted for Hillary Clinton in the March 2008 Democratic primary here largely because of concern about Obama's relative inexperience. It would appear though, that a few years in the Senate, plus the expert background in constitutional law, prepared him much better than widely expected.
He hasn't delivered entirely on the promise, but something is better than nothing. I'll take something.
Hit 'em again, Barry.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
I hope he's not LBJ, either, with the two foreign quagmires he inherited from Il Doofus. But he seems to have put the Republicans on well-deserved notice. He genuinely tried to work with them, and they are quite determined not to let it happen.
So, Obama decided to use the current congressional recess to put through 15 stalled appointments that are holding up the wheels of government. Here's the story from Yahoo! News.
The Republicans are, ironically, braying like jackasses about this, even after they have threatened the filibuster in many unprecedented ways to hold up routine nominations. I think they need to reconsider their choice of animal mascots. The elephant is a noble creature, famous for its memory. Nothing could be further from the current Republican reality.
Jimmy Carter is arguably the best former U.S. president -- a man unquestionably ethical, and of very high intelligence. Unfortunately, he wasn't prepared for the kind of partisan games he encountered in Washington, perhaps because of his lack of experience in the Beltway. He will always wear the albatross of "ineffectual" in retrospectives on his presidency. I think Obama, after a sincere period of bipartisan efforts, has concluded that this is not going to be the way to get things done in the current climate.
I worried about Obama at first, and confess that I voted for Hillary Clinton in the March 2008 Democratic primary here largely because of concern about Obama's relative inexperience. It would appear though, that a few years in the Senate, plus the expert background in constitutional law, prepared him much better than widely expected.
He hasn't delivered entirely on the promise, but something is better than nothing. I'll take something.
Hit 'em again, Barry.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Friday, March 26, 2010
It's Hard To Imagine, But Somehow The Republicans Just Seem To Get More Stupid
By Manifesto Joe
If there was ever a time NOT to do this, this is exactly it. But, it's probably very good, in the vast scheme of things, that today's Republicans are not exactly masters of timing.
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., decided here and now, of all times, to use his authority to block a bill and hold up jobless benefits for a lot of desperate people out there. Here's the story.
My hopes and dreams for this country are somehow, in the long run, renewed. As ineffectual as Democrats have been, and for so long -- when they have pathetic cretins like this as their opposition, that is encouraging.
More on Coburn, by the way -- one of his "amendments" to the health care bill was to deny coverage of Viagra for rapists. Yep, that's sure going to stop a lot of rapes. Great that we have such moralists as Sen. Coburn up there at bat for us.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
If there was ever a time NOT to do this, this is exactly it. But, it's probably very good, in the vast scheme of things, that today's Republicans are not exactly masters of timing.
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., decided here and now, of all times, to use his authority to block a bill and hold up jobless benefits for a lot of desperate people out there. Here's the story.
My hopes and dreams for this country are somehow, in the long run, renewed. As ineffectual as Democrats have been, and for so long -- when they have pathetic cretins like this as their opposition, that is encouraging.
More on Coburn, by the way -- one of his "amendments" to the health care bill was to deny coverage of Viagra for rapists. Yep, that's sure going to stop a lot of rapes. Great that we have such moralists as Sen. Coburn up there at bat for us.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
If You Needed Any More Proof That Many Republicans Are Contemptable Goons ...
By Manifesto Joe
I confess that I own a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook (1971). It's an interesting curiosity of the time. There's even a section on hand-to-hand combat that offers good tips for anyone who might find himself/herself facing a younger, stronger opponent.
But I own a copy of that book, as I said, mainly just as a curiosity of the period. I have firm moral convictions against the needless taking of life.
It appears that many of our "friends" on the political right wing, right now, do not share such convictions. The thugs and kooks who comprise much of the grassroots support for the Republican Party have responded to the passage of watered-down health care reform by smashing windows, making death threats, sending envelopes with white powder in them, making the ugliest phone calls imaginable, etc., etc.
Here's a rundown of what's been happening since the passage of health care "reform," with focus on a facedown between bellowing Fox "News" telegoon Bill O'Reilly and Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.
On the right, there have been specious comparisons of these extreme reactions to those on the far left during the Vietnam War era. I'm old enough to remember the differences. The far left of 40 years ago was considered, and treated as, a lunatic fringe. Not so with Tea Partiers -- the Republicans have courted and encouraged them. Now, "suddenly," they're a problem, and the so-called mainstream of the GOP isn't sure what to do with them.
But they're still trying to spin the incidents to their advantage. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the second-ranking House Republican, accused Democrats of trotting out the various threats and vandalism to their political advantage -- "fanning the flames" was how he put it.
Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of such pigshit. Who the hell has been "fanning the flames" of the Tea Party bozos since they got started?
Keep it up, Republicans. We real, working Americans might even be able to get a public option soon if you do.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
I confess that I own a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook (1971). It's an interesting curiosity of the time. There's even a section on hand-to-hand combat that offers good tips for anyone who might find himself/herself facing a younger, stronger opponent.
But I own a copy of that book, as I said, mainly just as a curiosity of the period. I have firm moral convictions against the needless taking of life.
It appears that many of our "friends" on the political right wing, right now, do not share such convictions. The thugs and kooks who comprise much of the grassroots support for the Republican Party have responded to the passage of watered-down health care reform by smashing windows, making death threats, sending envelopes with white powder in them, making the ugliest phone calls imaginable, etc., etc.
Here's a rundown of what's been happening since the passage of health care "reform," with focus on a facedown between bellowing Fox "News" telegoon Bill O'Reilly and Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.
On the right, there have been specious comparisons of these extreme reactions to those on the far left during the Vietnam War era. I'm old enough to remember the differences. The far left of 40 years ago was considered, and treated as, a lunatic fringe. Not so with Tea Partiers -- the Republicans have courted and encouraged them. Now, "suddenly," they're a problem, and the so-called mainstream of the GOP isn't sure what to do with them.
But they're still trying to spin the incidents to their advantage. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the second-ranking House Republican, accused Democrats of trotting out the various threats and vandalism to their political advantage -- "fanning the flames" was how he put it.
Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of such pigshit. Who the hell has been "fanning the flames" of the Tea Party bozos since they got started?
Keep it up, Republicans. We real, working Americans might even be able to get a public option soon if you do.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
GOP = Grand Old Psychoputzes: Poll Says 24% of Republicans Think Obama May Be The Anti-Christ
By Manifesto Joe
That's according to a newly released Harris Poll. That's right -- nearly one-fourth of Republicans in the sample think President Barack Obama may be the anti-Christ.
Where's the theme from The Twilight Zone when you need it?
Here's the story -- from The Raw Story.
Among the other responses: Two-thirds of Republicans think Obama is a socialist. Some 57 percent think he's a Muslim. And, 45 percent agree with Birthers that Obama wasn't born in the U.S. and therefore isn't qualified to be president.
I will concede that, during my years as a progressive/liberal blogger, I have seen examples of kookiness on the far left. But I've also noticed that it generally occurs in a very tiny "out-there" fringe group. Among Republicans, we're talking about 2 out of 3 who are so ignorant and/or psychotic that they told pollsters that they think Obama is a socialist. The genuine socialists out there have gotten good laughs out of that one. For those who might be reading this from a contrasting view, please pick up a Webster's dictionary and look up the definition of the word "socialism."
It's hard to gauge whether this is a product of ignorance or some sort of mass lunacy. I think it's some of both. John Avlon of The Daily Beast, who has written extensively about the Republican lunatic fringe, wrote about this survey:
The poll, which surveyed 2,230 people right at the height of the health-care reform debate, also clearly shows that education is a barrier to extremism. Respondents without a college education are vastly more likely to believe such claims, while Americans with college degrees or better are less easily duped. It's a reminder of what the 19th-century educator Horace Mann once too-loftily said: "Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge."
OK, so a hell of a lot of these people are simply old-fashioned dumbshits. It reflects the vintage John Stuart Mill thought: Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
But there are some eerie parallels to other times and places where a sort of mass madness has occurred. I seldom watch Fox "News," because it's bad for my blood pressure. But when I've watched it, it looks a lot like a far-right version of what Soviet state TV must have looked like to the people of the former Soviet Union. It's a version of "facts" that's absolutely through the looking glass, and darkly. Yet, I've been in situations like in hospitals, convenience stores, etc., where the TV authorities had nothing but Fox "News" on, 24/7.
People are being indoctrinated in this manner each and every day. And not all of them are classically stupid, or bad people. Members of my wife's extended family are almost all Republicans. Many have good hearts. Where their heads are is another matter. Some do indeed believe that Obama is a Muslim, and that the Democratic Party has been dominated by "socialists" ever since the New Deal. And, if the poll results from Harris are a good indicator, they believe many other mentally disturbed propositions as well.
Mass stupidity, sadly, has always been with us. Mass madness comes and goes. I'm very worried that we're in one of those mass-madness periods. I really hope I'm wrong.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
That's according to a newly released Harris Poll. That's right -- nearly one-fourth of Republicans in the sample think President Barack Obama may be the anti-Christ.
Where's the theme from The Twilight Zone when you need it?
Here's the story -- from The Raw Story.
Among the other responses: Two-thirds of Republicans think Obama is a socialist. Some 57 percent think he's a Muslim. And, 45 percent agree with Birthers that Obama wasn't born in the U.S. and therefore isn't qualified to be president.
I will concede that, during my years as a progressive/liberal blogger, I have seen examples of kookiness on the far left. But I've also noticed that it generally occurs in a very tiny "out-there" fringe group. Among Republicans, we're talking about 2 out of 3 who are so ignorant and/or psychotic that they told pollsters that they think Obama is a socialist. The genuine socialists out there have gotten good laughs out of that one. For those who might be reading this from a contrasting view, please pick up a Webster's dictionary and look up the definition of the word "socialism."
It's hard to gauge whether this is a product of ignorance or some sort of mass lunacy. I think it's some of both. John Avlon of The Daily Beast, who has written extensively about the Republican lunatic fringe, wrote about this survey:
The poll, which surveyed 2,230 people right at the height of the health-care reform debate, also clearly shows that education is a barrier to extremism. Respondents without a college education are vastly more likely to believe such claims, while Americans with college degrees or better are less easily duped. It's a reminder of what the 19th-century educator Horace Mann once too-loftily said: "Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge."
OK, so a hell of a lot of these people are simply old-fashioned dumbshits. It reflects the vintage John Stuart Mill thought: Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
But there are some eerie parallels to other times and places where a sort of mass madness has occurred. I seldom watch Fox "News," because it's bad for my blood pressure. But when I've watched it, it looks a lot like a far-right version of what Soviet state TV must have looked like to the people of the former Soviet Union. It's a version of "facts" that's absolutely through the looking glass, and darkly. Yet, I've been in situations like in hospitals, convenience stores, etc., where the TV authorities had nothing but Fox "News" on, 24/7.
People are being indoctrinated in this manner each and every day. And not all of them are classically stupid, or bad people. Members of my wife's extended family are almost all Republicans. Many have good hearts. Where their heads are is another matter. Some do indeed believe that Obama is a Muslim, and that the Democratic Party has been dominated by "socialists" ever since the New Deal. And, if the poll results from Harris are a good indicator, they believe many other mentally disturbed propositions as well.
Mass stupidity, sadly, has always been with us. Mass madness comes and goes. I'm very worried that we're in one of those mass-madness periods. I really hope I'm wrong.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thank You, Democrats: Health Care Reform Passes, 219-212 And 220-211
By Manifesto Joe
No, it's not the bill I would have wanted. I've advocated universal single-payer for decades. But, thanks to 220 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives (first cast as 219, with 220 on a companion bill), soon I probably won't have to worry about losing my health insurance if my employer were to lay me off.
Nor will I have to worry about being turned down for any new insurance because of my pre-existing conditions. Nor will I have to worry about a dollar limit on my coverage.
As I've said before, something is better than nothing. True, there will be no public option, so the mega-insurers will continue to siphon 30 percent of premiums for "administrative costs." They certainly don't stand to lose anything from this deal. But soon, there will probably be certain ruthless things that they cannot legally do, and that represents progress.
There may be more good developments now that action on the bill has gone this far:
It's clear now that the Tea Partiers are largely racist, homophobic goons.
For those who didn't read the reports, on Saturday, a Tea Party protester in Washington spat on Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., and Tea Partiers chanted the n-word repeatedly at Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Lewis, who was brutally beaten during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, said he had not heard or seen anything like that since the bad old days. Tea Partiers also shouted "faggot" and "homo" at Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
The next day, as the House vote neared, Tea Party leaders tried to distance their "movement" from such behavior. But the general silliness couldn't all be contained. Some Tea Partiers suggested that the incidents didn't occur, were fabricated by the black congressmen, or that Democrats had placed plants in the crowds to stir people up.
It's possible that such behavior isn't representative of Tea Partiers -- but not probable. There have been a number of past incidents, such as one recent episode captured on video in which Tea Partiers taunted a man apparently suffering from Parkinson's disease, telling him, "No more handouts!" and such.
The Tea Party "movement" looks more and more like a bowel movement to me. Let's just hope that eventually our system has the plumbing to dispose of such excrement.
Kooks and thugs aren't just on the streets. Some of them are House members.
This just in from Yahoo! News:
Last night, as the clock approached midnight and the long House debate on health care reform was finally winding down, Rep. Bart Stupak stepped to the microphone on the floor of the chamber to deliver his remarks. As the famously anti-abortion congressman was denouncing a measure to kill the deal he'd struck earlier in the day for President Obama to issue an executive order reiterating that no federal funds would pay for abortions, a voice suddenly shouted "Baby killer!"
Today, after a flurry of media questions about the identity of the shouter, GOP Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer stepped forward as the offending shouter—though he stipulated he actually shouted, "It's a baby killer," in reference to the unamended health care bill, and has since apologized to Stupak for any suggestion that he personally was responsible for the killing of babies. Neugebauer's confession will help speed the episode's exit from the news cycle—particularly once President Obama signs the health care bill into law and Congress moves on to fresh controversies. But the "Baby killer furor" highlights a far more serious, long-term political dilemma for the Republicans: how to appear to be a respectable Party capable of governing while also providing political shelter for the highly motivated, though vocally disruptive, protest wing of the party associated with the Tea Party movement.
Here's the complete story.
It would appear that the childish arrogance of South Carolina's Joe "You Lie" Wilson wasn't necessarily an aberration.
Another of Texas' many GOP tantrum-throwers, Rep. Joe Barton, predicted that this bill won't last. I'm old enough to recall similar forecasts about Medicare and Medicaid from the 1960s. I'm not old enough to remember those about Social Security from the 1930s, but the Republicans of the time largely said the same kind of things.
This is just one battle, not the war. Now it's got to pass the Senate and get to Obama's desk before some psychopath shoots him. Then the Democrats are going to have to successfully run on this in the fall. If the Grand Old Putzes manage to regain control of the House and make big gains in the Senate, they may try to block funding for this bill. At least that's what former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested during a recent Dallas stop on his book tour.
But, history was made Sunday night -- and the right kind of history, for a change. As ineffectual as Democrats have been over the past four decades, they've mostly been on the right side of socioeconomic issues in this country for at least a century. Wanna guess who's mostly been on the wrong side?
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
No, it's not the bill I would have wanted. I've advocated universal single-payer for decades. But, thanks to 220 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives (first cast as 219, with 220 on a companion bill), soon I probably won't have to worry about losing my health insurance if my employer were to lay me off.
Nor will I have to worry about being turned down for any new insurance because of my pre-existing conditions. Nor will I have to worry about a dollar limit on my coverage.
As I've said before, something is better than nothing. True, there will be no public option, so the mega-insurers will continue to siphon 30 percent of premiums for "administrative costs." They certainly don't stand to lose anything from this deal. But soon, there will probably be certain ruthless things that they cannot legally do, and that represents progress.
There may be more good developments now that action on the bill has gone this far:
It's clear now that the Tea Partiers are largely racist, homophobic goons.
For those who didn't read the reports, on Saturday, a Tea Party protester in Washington spat on Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., and Tea Partiers chanted the n-word repeatedly at Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Lewis, who was brutally beaten during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, said he had not heard or seen anything like that since the bad old days. Tea Partiers also shouted "faggot" and "homo" at Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
The next day, as the House vote neared, Tea Party leaders tried to distance their "movement" from such behavior. But the general silliness couldn't all be contained. Some Tea Partiers suggested that the incidents didn't occur, were fabricated by the black congressmen, or that Democrats had placed plants in the crowds to stir people up.
It's possible that such behavior isn't representative of Tea Partiers -- but not probable. There have been a number of past incidents, such as one recent episode captured on video in which Tea Partiers taunted a man apparently suffering from Parkinson's disease, telling him, "No more handouts!" and such.
The Tea Party "movement" looks more and more like a bowel movement to me. Let's just hope that eventually our system has the plumbing to dispose of such excrement.
Kooks and thugs aren't just on the streets. Some of them are House members.
This just in from Yahoo! News:
Last night, as the clock approached midnight and the long House debate on health care reform was finally winding down, Rep. Bart Stupak stepped to the microphone on the floor of the chamber to deliver his remarks. As the famously anti-abortion congressman was denouncing a measure to kill the deal he'd struck earlier in the day for President Obama to issue an executive order reiterating that no federal funds would pay for abortions, a voice suddenly shouted "Baby killer!"
Today, after a flurry of media questions about the identity of the shouter, GOP Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer stepped forward as the offending shouter—though he stipulated he actually shouted, "It's a baby killer," in reference to the unamended health care bill, and has since apologized to Stupak for any suggestion that he personally was responsible for the killing of babies. Neugebauer's confession will help speed the episode's exit from the news cycle—particularly once President Obama signs the health care bill into law and Congress moves on to fresh controversies. But the "Baby killer furor" highlights a far more serious, long-term political dilemma for the Republicans: how to appear to be a respectable Party capable of governing while also providing political shelter for the highly motivated, though vocally disruptive, protest wing of the party associated with the Tea Party movement.
Here's the complete story.
It would appear that the childish arrogance of South Carolina's Joe "You Lie" Wilson wasn't necessarily an aberration.
Another of Texas' many GOP tantrum-throwers, Rep. Joe Barton, predicted that this bill won't last. I'm old enough to recall similar forecasts about Medicare and Medicaid from the 1960s. I'm not old enough to remember those about Social Security from the 1930s, but the Republicans of the time largely said the same kind of things.
This is just one battle, not the war. Now it's got to pass the Senate and get to Obama's desk before some psychopath shoots him. Then the Democrats are going to have to successfully run on this in the fall. If the Grand Old Putzes manage to regain control of the House and make big gains in the Senate, they may try to block funding for this bill. At least that's what former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suggested during a recent Dallas stop on his book tour.
But, history was made Sunday night -- and the right kind of history, for a change. As ineffectual as Democrats have been over the past four decades, they've mostly been on the right side of socioeconomic issues in this country for at least a century. Wanna guess who's mostly been on the wrong side?
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Let's Buy Hannity And O'Reilly Blackboards And Have Proof That They're Crazy, Too
By Manifesto Joe
Glenn Beck plays the crying game, from multiple perspectives:
Keith Olbermann is in the habit of calling Glenn "Lonesome Rhodes." (For those unfamiliar, "Lonesome" is an Arkansas hayseed who rises to TV talk-show fame and soon becomes a megalomaniac, played superbly by Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd (1957).)
I'm a bit worried that he's more like a fascist version of psycho TV anchorman Howard Beale in Network (1976). Beck has made the comparison himself. I'm not making it in any flattering manner. Is he or ain't he nuts? And which way is he more dangerous? We report. You decide.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Glenn Beck plays the crying game, from multiple perspectives:
Keith Olbermann is in the habit of calling Glenn "Lonesome Rhodes." (For those unfamiliar, "Lonesome" is an Arkansas hayseed who rises to TV talk-show fame and soon becomes a megalomaniac, played superbly by Andy Griffith in A Face in the Crowd (1957).)
I'm a bit worried that he's more like a fascist version of psycho TV anchorman Howard Beale in Network (1976). Beck has made the comparison himself. I'm not making it in any flattering manner. Is he or ain't he nuts? And which way is he more dangerous? We report. You decide.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Monday, March 15, 2010
History Is Written By The Winners: Texas Schoolbook Flap Nothing New
By Manifesto Joe
The old story goes like this: In Texas in the late 1940s, two Hispanic men walk into a restaurant and sit, waiting to order. The wait person comes up and tells them, "We don't serve Mexicans."
One of the men replies, "I don't want to eat a Mexican."
Thankfully, it's been illegal since 1964 for Texas restaurants to exclude Hispanics. Not so, however, with our state's public-school textbooks.
On Friday, the State Board of Education, now dominated by "conservatives," voted 10-5 to preliminarily adopt a social studies curriculum that, according to the dissenting minority, fails to recognize the achievements of minorities in Texas history.
Among other things, the board rejected a proposal to have the books mention that Hispanics were among the fallen heroes of the famous 1836 siege of the Alamo. That doesn't seem like much to ask -- I recall that Seguin, a town in the South Texas region where I'm from, is named after Juan Seguin, one of the great Hispanic heroes of the Texas Revolution. There were others besides him, and the men at the Alamo.
Things got a little ugly the day before. One of the minority members of the board, Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, walked out of the session Thursday, accusing her fellow board members of "whitewashing" the social studies standards.
"I'm leaving," Berlanga told The Associated Press. "We can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don't exist."
One place I'm not going to go is -- how Texas became part of the U.S. It's often been characterized as an outright theft from Mexico. Judging from what all I've read, it was a multifaceted, messy clash between two cultures that would have produced grievances had it gone either way.
The point is, one of the basic facts pushed by the minority board members is that there were quite notably Hispanics among those who rebelled against the dictatorship of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Refusing to recognize them does indeed seem like a cheesy, Anglocentric whitewash.
When I think of all the cities, towns, rivers and such here with Hispanic names -- San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Amarillo, San Angelo, Agua Dulce, Port Lavaca, Gonzales, Del Rio, Palacios, Padre Island, the Rio Grande, the Brazos River, etc., it leaves no doubt as to the huge imprint that Hispanic culture has had here. Our indigenous cuisine, known as Tex-Mex, is a blend of food from two cultures. Yet, the whitewash continues. The "English only" movement is alive and well, and there remain many "Minutemen" chapters who have immigrants with Hispanic surnames in the crosshairs.
But, sadly, this is nothing really new. "History" by omission has left gaps in Texas schoolbooks for generations.
In high school, my best subject was history. I won two academic awards, and placed out of 6 college hours of U.S. history by taking a CLEP test. Yet, I've learned more history in some ways through independent adult reading than I ever did in school. To wit:
-- The U.S. basically picked a needless fight with Spain in the 1898 Spanish-American War, and seized the European country's colonies. A "pacification" of the indigenous population followed in the Philippines, one which, during the first years of the 20th century, led to the deaths of about 1 million Filipinos. The Turkish slaughter of Armenians about a decade later is often referred to as the first great genocide of the 20th century. Wrong -- that describes what the U.S. did to the Philippines years before. None other than Mark Twain was a leader of the opposition to the "pacification." "Thirty thousand killed a million," referring to the size of the U.S. military force and their victims, was a slogan of the opposition.
-- Now we get into an area long known to CIA insiders as "blowback." The former Spanish colony of Cuba became an American puppet state for decades. The U.S. turned the island into a big plantation/casino/whorehouse, at the expense of the indigenous population, and then acted shocked, shocked, when communist rebels overthrew the Batista regime and remain in control 51 years later. Hey, how did that happen?
-- The U.S. had a long history in Nicaragua before the modern Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. The Somoza family led a succession of puppet governments for decades after American soldiers chased Sandino and his rebels around the Central American countryside. Our Marines were down there so many times, they should have just renamed the place Camp LeJeune South.
-- In Iran, the CIA, with a contingent led by Teddy Roosevelt's grandson, overthrew a legitimate nationalist government in 1953 and set the Shah back up in power. In 1979, the situation blew up in "our" faces, and a militant anti-American government has been in power there ever since. Hey, how did that happen, too?
I could go on, but that would make this post too long. Suffice it to say that "official" history has always been written by the "winners," or at least the majority. The real stories are often only available from unofficial sources. Those who have somehow managed to learn better, well -- they shouldn't be the least bit surprised that it's still going on.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
The old story goes like this: In Texas in the late 1940s, two Hispanic men walk into a restaurant and sit, waiting to order. The wait person comes up and tells them, "We don't serve Mexicans."
One of the men replies, "I don't want to eat a Mexican."
Thankfully, it's been illegal since 1964 for Texas restaurants to exclude Hispanics. Not so, however, with our state's public-school textbooks.
On Friday, the State Board of Education, now dominated by "conservatives," voted 10-5 to preliminarily adopt a social studies curriculum that, according to the dissenting minority, fails to recognize the achievements of minorities in Texas history.
Among other things, the board rejected a proposal to have the books mention that Hispanics were among the fallen heroes of the famous 1836 siege of the Alamo. That doesn't seem like much to ask -- I recall that Seguin, a town in the South Texas region where I'm from, is named after Juan Seguin, one of the great Hispanic heroes of the Texas Revolution. There were others besides him, and the men at the Alamo.
Things got a little ugly the day before. One of the minority members of the board, Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, walked out of the session Thursday, accusing her fellow board members of "whitewashing" the social studies standards.
"I'm leaving," Berlanga told The Associated Press. "We can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don't exist."
One place I'm not going to go is -- how Texas became part of the U.S. It's often been characterized as an outright theft from Mexico. Judging from what all I've read, it was a multifaceted, messy clash between two cultures that would have produced grievances had it gone either way.
The point is, one of the basic facts pushed by the minority board members is that there were quite notably Hispanics among those who rebelled against the dictatorship of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Refusing to recognize them does indeed seem like a cheesy, Anglocentric whitewash.
When I think of all the cities, towns, rivers and such here with Hispanic names -- San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Amarillo, San Angelo, Agua Dulce, Port Lavaca, Gonzales, Del Rio, Palacios, Padre Island, the Rio Grande, the Brazos River, etc., it leaves no doubt as to the huge imprint that Hispanic culture has had here. Our indigenous cuisine, known as Tex-Mex, is a blend of food from two cultures. Yet, the whitewash continues. The "English only" movement is alive and well, and there remain many "Minutemen" chapters who have immigrants with Hispanic surnames in the crosshairs.
But, sadly, this is nothing really new. "History" by omission has left gaps in Texas schoolbooks for generations.
In high school, my best subject was history. I won two academic awards, and placed out of 6 college hours of U.S. history by taking a CLEP test. Yet, I've learned more history in some ways through independent adult reading than I ever did in school. To wit:
-- The U.S. basically picked a needless fight with Spain in the 1898 Spanish-American War, and seized the European country's colonies. A "pacification" of the indigenous population followed in the Philippines, one which, during the first years of the 20th century, led to the deaths of about 1 million Filipinos. The Turkish slaughter of Armenians about a decade later is often referred to as the first great genocide of the 20th century. Wrong -- that describes what the U.S. did to the Philippines years before. None other than Mark Twain was a leader of the opposition to the "pacification." "Thirty thousand killed a million," referring to the size of the U.S. military force and their victims, was a slogan of the opposition.
-- Now we get into an area long known to CIA insiders as "blowback." The former Spanish colony of Cuba became an American puppet state for decades. The U.S. turned the island into a big plantation/casino/whorehouse, at the expense of the indigenous population, and then acted shocked, shocked, when communist rebels overthrew the Batista regime and remain in control 51 years later. Hey, how did that happen?
-- The U.S. had a long history in Nicaragua before the modern Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. The Somoza family led a succession of puppet governments for decades after American soldiers chased Sandino and his rebels around the Central American countryside. Our Marines were down there so many times, they should have just renamed the place Camp LeJeune South.
-- In Iran, the CIA, with a contingent led by Teddy Roosevelt's grandson, overthrew a legitimate nationalist government in 1953 and set the Shah back up in power. In 1979, the situation blew up in "our" faces, and a militant anti-American government has been in power there ever since. Hey, how did that happen, too?
I could go on, but that would make this post too long. Suffice it to say that "official" history has always been written by the "winners," or at least the majority. The real stories are often only available from unofficial sources. Those who have somehow managed to learn better, well -- they shouldn't be the least bit surprised that it's still going on.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
DeLay Brings Yet More Shame Upon Texas -- Those Shiftless Unemployed
By Manifesto Joe
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay embodies a chapter of Texas history that I wish could be forgotten. But, he keeps resurfacing in all sorts of repulsive ways, including his embarrassing turn on Dancing With the Stars. Then on Sunday, he goes on CNN's State of the Union and basically says that people are unemployed because they want to be.
Here's the Huffington Post report on this, including a brief transcript.
DeLay, while he was out and about making an ass of himself, also voiced admiration for senile Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning for tying up the Senate and screwing around hundreds of thousands of people, federal employees as well as the jobless, for days before finally backing down.
Mr. DeLay obviously needs to be enlightened about a few things. Let's just start with my own situation.
If I were to lose my job tomorrow, catastrophe would soon follow. Unemployment benefits generally run about $300 a week. That's not exactly an incentive to stay jobless. With the mortgage payments I've got to make, and the debt I have to service because of past illnesses in my family, and my own chronic health condition stemming from severe allergies, that wouldn't go far at all. Job loss for me, now, would likely mean bankruptcy, and probably having to sell my home for much less than it's worth.
Mr. DeLay also has obviously never known any common person who has endured a prolonged period of unemployment. I know a man who went through this ordeal, and he's a Type 1 insulin-dependent diabetic, too. He went through months of sleepless anxiety over his situation. And, ever since rebounding from this job loss, he's been scraping by on part-time jobs. He's never had money to retrain for something else -- not on the bare subsistence that unemployment benefits provide.
Leaving office in a cloud of scandal apparently wasn't enough to shame Mr. DeLay into private life. He seems to feel a compulsion to make a fool of himself again and again, years after his initial disgrace.
Texas has already had plenty of people, including one of the worst U.S. presidents ever, to make us look bad. Put a sock in it, Mr. DeLay.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay embodies a chapter of Texas history that I wish could be forgotten. But, he keeps resurfacing in all sorts of repulsive ways, including his embarrassing turn on Dancing With the Stars. Then on Sunday, he goes on CNN's State of the Union and basically says that people are unemployed because they want to be.
Here's the Huffington Post report on this, including a brief transcript.
DeLay, while he was out and about making an ass of himself, also voiced admiration for senile Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning for tying up the Senate and screwing around hundreds of thousands of people, federal employees as well as the jobless, for days before finally backing down.
Mr. DeLay obviously needs to be enlightened about a few things. Let's just start with my own situation.
If I were to lose my job tomorrow, catastrophe would soon follow. Unemployment benefits generally run about $300 a week. That's not exactly an incentive to stay jobless. With the mortgage payments I've got to make, and the debt I have to service because of past illnesses in my family, and my own chronic health condition stemming from severe allergies, that wouldn't go far at all. Job loss for me, now, would likely mean bankruptcy, and probably having to sell my home for much less than it's worth.
Mr. DeLay also has obviously never known any common person who has endured a prolonged period of unemployment. I know a man who went through this ordeal, and he's a Type 1 insulin-dependent diabetic, too. He went through months of sleepless anxiety over his situation. And, ever since rebounding from this job loss, he's been scraping by on part-time jobs. He's never had money to retrain for something else -- not on the bare subsistence that unemployment benefits provide.
Leaving office in a cloud of scandal apparently wasn't enough to shame Mr. DeLay into private life. He seems to feel a compulsion to make a fool of himself again and again, years after his initial disgrace.
Texas has already had plenty of people, including one of the worst U.S. presidents ever, to make us look bad. Put a sock in it, Mr. DeLay.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Mr. Greenjeans For Governor Of Texas
By Manifesto Joe
Last week, Texas' long-suffering Democratic Party overwhelmingly voted for Houston Mayor Bill White as the nominee to challenge Gov. Rick "Governor Goodhair" Perry in November.
Even though White looks remarkably like Mr. Greenjeans from Captain Kangaroo, and is perhaps even less telegenic, he's believed to be the first Texas Democrat since Ann Richards to have a realistic chance at upsetting a GOP opponent for governor. But it's hard to tell that when one talks to many Anglos around here -- almost all members of my wife's large extended family are Republicans.
White has the image of a bald, bland, moderate technocrat, which should play to his advantage in a conservative state. Of course, the other side is painting him as a flaming closet liberal. That's not surprising, though I would give some Texas Republicans credit for being a shade to the left of Mussolini.
Another thing that may work in White's favor -- a surprising number of independent Texans, after more than nine years, are sick of having a laughingstock for governor. Perry had three challengers in the 2006 general election, and won with less than 40 percent of the vote. He could be vulnerable this time as well.
But Perry, for all his surface buffoonery, has something in common with fellow buffoon George W. Bush -- he somehow keeps winning. He's already Texas' longest-serving governor, and if he wins again, he'll be on his way to 14 years in office. In purely vote-getting terms, he must be doing something right. In trouncing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and wingnut Debra Medina in last week's GOP primary, he certainly seems to have kept his base among the Republican right wing.
Here's a sample of the kind of silliness Texans can expect if they have the poor judgment to elect Perry for another four years. During the primary campaign, Governor Goodhair proposed a sort of cyber high school for those at high risk of dropping out. In other words, high school by computer for those whose family situations make it hard for them to be in class five days a week.
This is a harebrained idea straight out of Highland Park, where they must think everybody has a battery-powered laptop and a smart phone. It's certainly out of touch with the realities of the barrio, the ghetto and the colonia. It's even out of touch with the circumstances faced by many working-class Anglo kids.
For starters, America has already become largely divided into two groups: people who have personal computers, and those who don't. The latter group tends to be either very young or very old, and above all, poor. How likely is it that a minority teenager, perhaps being raised by a working single mother or a grandmother, will have easy access to a Web-connected personal computer? These days, there would be some. But the computer-less among us would include a heavy concentration of youths who are probably at the highest risk to become dropouts.
Ah, but can't they get cheap computers for teens whose families can't afford them? And wouldn't that be no more expensive than having the kid attend school in the conventional way?
OK -- now, what happens when the computer crashes? One of the big reasons yours truly is posting for the first time in over 10 days is that my computer was infected with a "rootkit." I wrestled with that for days, running anti-virus software that was ineffective. Finally, I had to pay a tidy little sum to a geek service to get my machine disinfected. In cyber high school, where is that money going to come from?
Anyway -- I don't know much about White or what he advocates for the state. I suppose we'll learn more about that in coming months. But I'm already for him. I'll take the bland technocrat over the laughingstock any day.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Last week, Texas' long-suffering Democratic Party overwhelmingly voted for Houston Mayor Bill White as the nominee to challenge Gov. Rick "Governor Goodhair" Perry in November.
Even though White looks remarkably like Mr. Greenjeans from Captain Kangaroo, and is perhaps even less telegenic, he's believed to be the first Texas Democrat since Ann Richards to have a realistic chance at upsetting a GOP opponent for governor. But it's hard to tell that when one talks to many Anglos around here -- almost all members of my wife's large extended family are Republicans.
White has the image of a bald, bland, moderate technocrat, which should play to his advantage in a conservative state. Of course, the other side is painting him as a flaming closet liberal. That's not surprising, though I would give some Texas Republicans credit for being a shade to the left of Mussolini.
Another thing that may work in White's favor -- a surprising number of independent Texans, after more than nine years, are sick of having a laughingstock for governor. Perry had three challengers in the 2006 general election, and won with less than 40 percent of the vote. He could be vulnerable this time as well.
But Perry, for all his surface buffoonery, has something in common with fellow buffoon George W. Bush -- he somehow keeps winning. He's already Texas' longest-serving governor, and if he wins again, he'll be on his way to 14 years in office. In purely vote-getting terms, he must be doing something right. In trouncing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and wingnut Debra Medina in last week's GOP primary, he certainly seems to have kept his base among the Republican right wing.
Here's a sample of the kind of silliness Texans can expect if they have the poor judgment to elect Perry for another four years. During the primary campaign, Governor Goodhair proposed a sort of cyber high school for those at high risk of dropping out. In other words, high school by computer for those whose family situations make it hard for them to be in class five days a week.
This is a harebrained idea straight out of Highland Park, where they must think everybody has a battery-powered laptop and a smart phone. It's certainly out of touch with the realities of the barrio, the ghetto and the colonia. It's even out of touch with the circumstances faced by many working-class Anglo kids.
For starters, America has already become largely divided into two groups: people who have personal computers, and those who don't. The latter group tends to be either very young or very old, and above all, poor. How likely is it that a minority teenager, perhaps being raised by a working single mother or a grandmother, will have easy access to a Web-connected personal computer? These days, there would be some. But the computer-less among us would include a heavy concentration of youths who are probably at the highest risk to become dropouts.
Ah, but can't they get cheap computers for teens whose families can't afford them? And wouldn't that be no more expensive than having the kid attend school in the conventional way?
OK -- now, what happens when the computer crashes? One of the big reasons yours truly is posting for the first time in over 10 days is that my computer was infected with a "rootkit." I wrestled with that for days, running anti-virus software that was ineffective. Finally, I had to pay a tidy little sum to a geek service to get my machine disinfected. In cyber high school, where is that money going to come from?
Anyway -- I don't know much about White or what he advocates for the state. I suppose we'll learn more about that in coming months. But I'm already for him. I'll take the bland technocrat over the laughingstock any day.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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