Time Out for a Rant...

This has literally been the 'perfect storm' week.
I've been housebound with four days of snow, Martin Luther King Day was Monday--with school snow days all week following--and it's been the South Carolina lead-up week.
I'm usually a news hound, but I got an even heavier dose this week--including two GOP debates. I've resisted commenting on the shenanigans of the GOP primary (aka 'weeding-out') process but I just gotta make a brief rant.

Monday was filled with lots of historical media coverage as homage to MLK--most of which I love. Our local NPR station replayed most of the Massey guest lectureships he did after winning the Nobel Peace Prize--so poignant & as timely today as they were almost 45 years ago. Interspersed were the on-the-street news interviews during the zenith of the civil-rights movement. Even after witnessing that daily on the nightly news, the vehemence & violence of the hate-speech is truly shocking.
Fast forward to this week in South Carolina. Although more veiled in double-speak language, the blatant racism & prejudice is truly stunning. And it just keeps coming (...and not just from the Newt.).
I really do live in a thin blue sliver of the country I guess. It's been many months of entertainment but it feels like the humor is abating & the true horror is setting in...and the depression.
Recognition of Mitt as one of "the 1% of the 1%" seems to be a surprise to many as he announced he probably pays 'in the 15% range' of income tax--seriously, you're surprised?!
Rick S. (I still can't utter the last name--he will forever-after be the graphic descriptor pasted on him by Dan Savage) has now been 'given' the Iowa 'win' ('draw' still seems a better term...) & by the way: except for the debates, have you seen him out of his lucky-sweater-vest since Iowa?!

The other Rick--always a great source of comic relief--has finally bowed out & together with the Rogue-Girl, her cape flying, has thrown his (light) weight behind the Newt.
The Newt. Wow.
A standing ovation for his comments on 'you shoot your enemy' & taking on Juan Williams for trying to dig deeper & challenge him on his racist remarks. (Juan-the-amazing-conservative-Williams!!).
Who are those South Carolinians?!
What's happening to us?
All four Republican front-runners have signed on to the 'Personhood' campaign. (Yes, that includes Mitt.) You remember, don't you? The initiative in Mississippi in November that even that very red state couldn't even endorse? Really?! better start hoarding those BCP's just in case...
The fear language is staggering. The 501(c)(4) expenditures are staggering. Spending all that money assaulting each other in the GOP run-up has made for some amusement--but as the dollars start skyrocketing, it's turning mean, & you know by the time it starts aiming across the isle in the summer it will become lethal.
I'm of the mind that the majority-voting Supreme Court justices that passed the Citizens United finding--who then mockingly shook their heads at the President when he said 'shame on you'--should be made to watch every ad that will be run by the super-PACs all year long (I have this vision of Clockwork Orange's approach to 'required' movie watching...).

There have been some little, important flakes of positivity falling though, they just get lost in the roar:

This week Wisconsin voters submitted an over-the-top number of petition signatures to get the Recall Scott Walker campaign started, well before their required deadline.
(Run, Scott, Run!)

The ongoing, hilarious Colbert/Stewart satire on super-PACs has finally reached the mainstream, as Colbert makes a bid for the 'President of the United States of South Carolina'--by having voters vote for Herman Cain (as his name is on the ballot & Colbert's is not!).

The unemployment numbers have continued to show a positive upturn--in tiny increments; the aircraft carrier may be turning. Stay tuned...

Bill Moyers is back with his new series; Moyers & Company.

His interview with Hacker & Pierson should be required watching for every single voter before November (that means you, too!)  It isn't just the 1% vs the 99%.  The 1% income has increased over 250% since the Reagan administration while the 90%  income has actually gone down. The elite of the 1% (like Mitt) are now receiving 1 in every 8 dollars of US income. This is not the effect of global financial issues--this is personal. This belongs to us. Financially, we are much more like Egypt & Mexico & much less like Canada. And the Newt wants to make an issue of such a large number of citizens on food stamps now...
Watch it. Please.
And thanks, Bill! Welcome back!
Okay--rant over....for the time being, at least.

The (R) Beauty Pageant

It's been an interesting month so far... or should we say year?!  
I think maybe we need Moody Blues playing in the background:  "isn't life strange?"
The 2011 Value Voters Summit was this weekend (...and that's creepy enough!). Among other VVS events, Ron Paul won the straw poll vote. Then today the President of VVS goes on the air stating 'don't put too much stock in the poll outcome' (of his own group!); that it doesn't mean that much. (Excuse me?! Just 'cause you don't like the outcome?) 
Straw polling (which really doesn't mean that much in the big picture) has had a variety of surprises so far in this Republican slog-fest. Herman Cain handily won the Republican straw poll vote in Florida the end of September with 37%--more than twice the showing of Perry (15%) & Romney (14%).  Oh, oh, oh, & don't overlook Michelle B's 1.5%!! One of my favorite comments after-the-fact came from Larry Wilmore on a John Stewart show: "...it's kind of like a plot for a new porn flick: the pizza man shows up out of the blue and f----s ya!"
Meanwhile good ol' Herman has been caught in several remarkable sound bytes including: "there isn't really a race problem in this country anymore; the playing field's pretty level."  But maybe what he meant was regardless of your color--the unemployment issue is a nonstarter--go get a job! 

That round of comments surfaced in his disdain of the the Occupy Wall Street events across the country, calling protesters "jealous Americans who play the victim card and want to take somebody else's Cadillac." 
I guess that seems tame, compared to Glen Beck's comments (...yes, he's still around on the radio....): "they will come for you & drag you into the streets & kill you...they're Marxist radicals...these guys are worse than Robespierre from the French Revolution...they'll kill everybody." Seriously?! 
The possibly gentler versions came from Eric Cantor who is "increasingly concerned" about the "growing mobs" and Mitt Romney's description of 'class warfare' currently under way. 
Whichever version du jour, it's very clear the party line now is to marginalize the OWS participants & invoke the fear-factor regarding the teachers and others self-described as the "99%" (vs. the 1% fostering the greed, corruption & corporate power). Although some police, fire, & other public employees have joined in solidarity, they should not be confused with the NYPD officers pepper-spraying and baton bashing people last week. 
While Mitt's talking about the class warfare, the Values Voters speaker introducing Rick Perry this weekend said:  "Rick Perry's a Christian. He's an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. Mitt Romney's a good moral person, but he's not a Christian.  Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity." Wow. Might be news to them.  (Perry was quick to try distancing himself from the comment, but not too far distant, as this group is a solid core of his base...) That broad cult-brush must also include Huntsman, but he's not a contender they need to worry about right now. 
Can you say: "anyone but Mitt?" That phenomenon has fostered other interesting news-bits: reporting that Gov. Christie might still be a contender--even after he resoundingly stated he's staying put in New Jersey, and then of course, Sarah Palin's belated announcement that she will not be running in 2012. That was after she coyly captured one last round of PAC donations based on her letter to followers reporting 'being on the verge of deciding'. It just seems so 'over' & over done: "I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office--from the nation's governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency."  
It all makes for fairly great entertainment--except there's a poorly disguised undercurrent that feels very sinister. Certainly desperate. And fear-mongering, in the face of the latest economic stall (can you say, stimulus money has been used up?!).
P.S. Ken Burn's 3-part Prohibition was well worth the time to watch--but then I'm a long-time fan. Always much to learn while being entertained...

Today's the Day

All bet's are off--but here we go!! 

Let's see how long it takes to get the votes counted tonight.  I'm holding Wisconsin in my heart today, and hoping that today begins the big 'push back' on Scott Walker, Citizens United, the Koch brothers with Americans for Prosperity & incredible dollars being poured into the battle (some projections are in the $40M range & upwards...). This is a test of CU's & AFP's ability to buy the ballot (too bad the war chests won't be exhausted after today!). Look out, Ms. Darling & co... and may the force be with you, Wisconsin!

Meanwhile, the process to sack Scott Walker can't start until January 2012, but the momentum is well under way--hopefully today will help.

Got Your Attention Yet?!

The whole-world-is-watching, Wisconsin.
July 12th: first big hurdle over.
Way to go!

On to August 17th!
Thanks, you guys...

Oh, Pulleeeze!

Let's see: now that we know that she's no good at huntin'..and her poll numbers keep jumping around,
what's a girl to do? 

The cover photo for this Newsweek spread, portrays her as the confident vixen--or is it really just to help her with her new goal of being 'Mericuh's favorite pin-up girl?!

Time better spent might be the Bailey/Morris/Devon volume, Blind Allegiance--for a walk down the other side of the street...   (look out, Arizona...)