Dancing at the Tea Party: How Much Freedon Can You Stand?

Okay. I have to admit there is a germ of appeal to the so-called "tea party" movement. But it's just the smallest germ, a nano-germ actually. I mean, who in their right mind doesn't want to pay lower taxes and have more freedom to live their lives as they see fit?... And that's about where the appeal ends for me.
It ends there because I'm smart enough and experienced enough and educated enough to understand there's a huge difference between dreams and reality. And from what I've seen so far, the same cannot be said for those who populate this so-called movement. Having been fortunate enough to engage a few in discussions, it's clear they have no idea what they want, except for the pie-in-the-sky demands for smaller government, less taxes and no socialism. So, despite clear signs that none of these people can even define socialism, let's begin there and do away with any government program or department that engages in, or promotes any kind of socialist agenda.
First, let's demand that Our Government stop placing all those terrible restriction and rules on those struggling private companies who are just trying to engage in good-old American capitalism. Thing is, that would mean companies like Northrup Grumman, Boeing, Newport News Shipyards, GM, FMC, Raytheon, Honeywell Avionics and countless others , all privately owned but currently controlled by the government, would be unrestricted in defense-related sales to China, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and any other government or private entity who had the money to pay for their products. But wait, you know the Fed's never going to allow that to happen. It would pose too big a risk to national security, and I don't mean some little pissy-assed risk -like a bonehead with a shoe bomb and wet matches - I mean risk like stateless religious fanatics with the money and will to buy and deploy realweapons of mass destruction... NBC weapons. So those companies would either have to close their doors, or move out of the country, throwing millions of high-paying jobs into the toilet and taking tens of billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy. Is that what you mean by ending socialism? Of course not. No Real Amerian Patriot would want to put his nation at risk of destruction. You must mean stuff like ending corporate welfare and bailing out banks that are "too big to fail," right?
If that's what you want, it's further evidence that you don't know what you're talking about. Listen, that whole bank bailout thing happened because the last administration gave you exactly what you're now demanding: no government oversight or imposing rules on private businesses. It's not like there were no laws or government safegards in place to protect people against losses. It just that the Bush Administration believed exactly as you say you believe. Decrease oversight and rules, and let businesses police themselves in the marketplace... Competition will decide the winners and losers. How did that work out for you, and your investments, and your retirement accounts, and your job, and you ability to get bank loans?
So, just tell me, tell all of us who think Teabaggers are (in the most diplomatic terms I can muster) a band of boneheads with not the slightest understanding of what they're asking, exactly what you want and why you want it.

REPIGS LAY CLAIM TO THE 9/11 TRADEMARK

The Double Standard of American Politics

BELOW IS WHAT COMES TO ME BY AND THROUGH A FRIEND AT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. I AM NOT THE AUTHOR, THOUGH I WISH I WERE. I AGREE WITH THE AUTHOR'S PERSPECTIVE.

If a black Democratic presidential candidate was an affirmative action selection (akin to the legacy selection for McCain) at the Naval Academy and graduated 894 out of 899, Fox News and the conservative right would push this story as the basis for his disqualification for the nation's highest office. The rest of the media would then be forced to report on it, giving the story wide exposure.
If a white Republican presidential candidate graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, he would be celebrated as an intellectual giant ready to lead the country in bold new directions. But since we are talking Obama here, his education fits into the "uppity" and presumptuous narrative.
If you're a Harvard and Princeton-educated black woman married for years before having your first child, Fox labels you a "Baby Mama."
If you are a white woman who eloped and had a baby eight months later, you are Sarah Palin.
If you have studied international affairs for several decades, you're inexperienced at foreign affairs.
If you live in a state that is geographically near a foreign country, you have foreign policy expertise.
If you both write and present your own words, you just give good speeches. If you read someone else's words from the telepromptera superstar is born.
If you are Obama, your greatness must be measured by what you've done and its NEVER enough, NOT by any of the profound speeches you wrote yourself, or the repeated grillings you've taken in the press.
If you are Palin, your greatness is measured by just one speech, written by Bush IIs speechwriter, and you will not take any questions from the press.
If you attend two of the top ivy leagues schools in the country, you are surprisingly articulate. If it takes you several colleges to graduate and you deliver a speech with the phonetic new-clear on the teleprompter, you're a poised and eloquent speaker.
If your staff is so dumb they mix up Walter Reed Middle School for Walter Reed Medical Center in your conventions big night, its because you wanted to focus on education & it would have been political to use the soldiers in that format.
If Obama had done that, he would be eviscerated for not knowing the difference between the two, hating the troops/America & would be dangerously unqualified to be CinC.
If your a liberal mayor and you ask for government financing, your a fan of big, tax and spend, corrupt government.
If you're a conservative mayor and wind up on John McCain's worst pork list in 2001, you are disgusted that small towns like yours are dependent on earmarks, even if your town had no earmarks before you became mayor.
A white woman talkin' tough is an advocate of women's rights, a black woman is angry and bitter. A white man talkin' tough is a straight shooter and a conservative, a black man is a angry gangsta rapper.
If you're a GOPer you naturally wouldn't see what the problem with any of this was, even if you slept for 20 years on a dictionary opened20to the word hypocrisy.
If you're a Republican and you talk to America 's enemies, its diplomacy.
If you're a Democrat and you talk to America 's enemies, its appeasement.
If you're a Republican, you swear Jesus is a registered member of your party.
If you're a Democrat, you appreciate that Jesus was a community organizer.
If you're a Republican and you wind up on the cover of People magazine, it's because you're a regular American.
If you're a Democrat and you wind up on the cover of People magazine, its because you're a celebrity.
If you're a black Democratic man who can fill a stadium with 18,000 people (or worse, a German atrium with 200,000), you're a vapid celebrity. If you're a white Republican woman who can get a room full of fire breathing evangelical right wingers to holler, you're a star.
If you are a Democrat, the days are counted down since the last time you have been to Iraq .
If you are a Republican, you have all the foreign policy experience you need because your state is close to Russia .
If you're a black woman, with advanced academic degrees, and you have children while married, you're a baby mama
If you're a white woman who barely graduated from college, and you get knocked up and then get married after you're pregnant, you're a "Super Mom"
If you are black and your daughter is pregnant, unmarried and has an uninvolved baby daddy, you are a statistic, but if you're a white and your daughters baby's daddy has an explicit MY Space page where, in between four-letter words, he exclaims "he don't want no kids," you get to run for Veep.
If you're a black presidential candidate that has wide appeal and the ability to motivate over two million Americans to re-engage in the political process you're an egomaniac with a messiah complex seeking the spotlight.
However, if you're a right wing conservative – you're applauded for your likeability and called a unifier for the Republican base
If you're white, win a beauty contest, attended 5-6 colleges before finally graduating, join the PTA, are voted to be mayor by 1000 people, govern a sparsely populated state for a almost two years now, and randomly get chosen at the last minute to be VP, you've lived the American dream, she's every American.
But if you're black, raised by a single mother, lived on food stamps, help the community, get into Harvard, become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, build a great campaign organization from scratch, and are voted to be the presidential nominee by millions of people, you are just uppity.
If you are a democratic candidate and people around you complain about the MSM vitriole toward you, you're a whiner.
If you are a republican candidate and you wont answer the questions the MSM attempts to ask about your qualifications for the second highest office in the land, you're being victimized.
If you are a white republican mom with a special-needs baby, you are suddenly the advocate of all special needs families in the US .
If you are an Alaskan democrat mom with a special-needs baby, you just saw state funding cut for programs like special-ed. You're "on your own."
If you are a black democrat homeowner that was preyed upon by mortgage companies and your house is in foreclosure, you made bad choices and don't deserve a house.
If you an older white republican who can't keep track of how many houses he has, then he deserves another one.



Larry Williamson
Director, Publications & Outreach
National Urban League Policy Institute
1101 Connecticut Ave, NW
Suite 810
Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone:(202) 898-1604
Fax: (202) 408-1965
lwilliamson@nul.org

HE'S GOING FOR IT: McCAIN'S GONNA JUMP THE SHARK

Score one for Johnny. He was the first one to dive head-first into the wading pool when his lackeys this week pounced on Barack Obama for his talking about putting lipstick on a pig. The phrase, McCain's lackey hatchet men, is a Obama's direct shot at Sarah Palin... being as she used the term "lipstick" in her acceptance speech last week.
Jesus Freaking Christ. I mean, who the hell thought that one up? Does McCain have a couple of 11th grade boys, named Bevis and Butthead, on his staff who make up these half-witticisms? Did no one on that campaign staff ever study semantics, linguistics, or even logic when they went to school? There is no connection between Palin's and Obama's comments. Obama mentioned lipstick on a pig. Palin claimed to be "hockey mom" and said the only difference between a hockey mom a pit bull, which is a breed of dog, is lipstick. Therefore, Palin is claiming to be a dog, or perhaps more precisely, a bitch. I mean they do grasp the differences between a pig and dog, don't they?....Hmmmm. Now that we look that this more closely, we see that Palin claimed that ALL hockey moms are dogs/bitches. Well, that could hurt her in nthe polls with the hockey-mom demographic.
And even beyond that lame-brained association, we could help but notice that the Repigs mounted their umbrage-taking campaign when Obama was talking about McCain's lack of an intelligible economic policy. And that's a sore point for McCain because, by his own public estimation, his gasp of the subject is tenuous, at best.... So maybe he brought in Bevis and Butthead to buy him some time, hoping the focus on a non-issue would keep attention away from his ignorance of a very important facet of the presidency.
And this is no small thing. The past eight years have been an ugly object lesson on the dangers of economic ignorance; Enron went down and took billions of dollars of investments with it; Oil refineries in the Gulf of mexico went off-line when Katrina slammed into the coast, and the price of gasoline doubled. And because our fearless leader, Bush The Dim, neglected to seek short-term nationalization of energy distribution, that set the administration's second recession snowball rolling downhill. Now, three years after Katrina, the price of fuels has tripled and because of that, the cost of food has seen a precipitous rise and the entire nation is paying the price for the President's ignorance. People are losing their jobs because employers are cutting labor costs to offset increased energy costs, and higher unemployment leads to increased home foreclosures, tighter and more expensive bank and mortgage loans. And eventually, the problems gets so severe, that the federal government needs to wrest control of the two mortgage guarantors in the nation to make sure they don't auger into the dirt under the weight of $5 Trillion in mortgages, of which 1 in 7 are reportedly either in default or foreclosure.
Tell me, why in the name of Gawd would we elect someone president who has no more grasp of even macroeconomics than the current dumbass mofo does.
Don't let either candidate deflect legitimate questions by manufacturing a lame controversy about something of no importance. Get informed. Ask questions. Demand answers. This nation cannot afford another four years of buffoonery.

JOHN McCAIN: AGENT OF CHANGE? .... THAT'S GONNA BE A HARD CONCEPT TO SELL.

We see where the Repiglican candidate, John McCain has co-opted the Democratic party's promise of change if he elected to the Whitehouse. Apparently his old message of war-mongering and following the trail that George The Dim has cut wasn't playing as well in the heartland as he had hoped.
But I doubt the new and improved message is going to be any easier to sell to anyone who is even moderately bright. The fact is, McCain is asking voters to elect him to clean up a monsterous cluster-fuck that he bears some responsibility for making. I mean, whether you choose to blame the Congress, the President or the Republican party for a useless war in Iraq, two economic recessions, a disasterous response to Hurricane Katrina, and a 300 percent increase in fuel prices, that fact is that McCain's pecker tracks are all over the policies of the past eight years. ... So why would any sane person want to give him a third bite at the apple, after he's already demonstrated his poor leadership skills.
Here's the thing: Intellectually, McCain's best days are behind him. I covered his west coast primaries in the 2000 cycle and I have to say he impressed me enough to consider voting for him. But that was before he caved in to pressure from Haley Barbour and others in the party leadership to step aside so George Bush could run.
And while the reasons for his decision to step down are now immaterial, the fact is that his ideas and promise of non-partisan politics are now bankrupt. Remenber when he took the so-called "christian" fundamentalists to task for their heavy-handed efforts to control the whitehouse and congress? Yeah, well he changed his mind and bent over for them last year when he begged their forgiveness and their support.
Add that to his vow to stay in Iraq until the U.S. gains "victory" - whatever that hell that means- and we begin to see a man whose appears to be re-fighting a war long lost. But, of course, he can't win the war in Vietnam by committing more troops, money and resources to Iraq and he probably knows that. And he can't reinstitute the Barry Goldwater era of conservatism, and he probably know that too.... Probably. But even if he could, is that the of "progress" we want?

....RATHER LIKE DICK NIXON RECRUITING SAMMY DAVIS, JR. TO HIS CAMPAIGN, TO SHOW HOW HIP, COOL AND GROOVY HE WAS.

Meet the newest face of the John McCain Campaign. He calls himself Daddy Yankee and he's apparently agreed to be the McCain's token young latino. Daddy Yankee, for those of us who have never heard of him, is a self-styled, performer out of Puerto Rico, whose image and musical stylings are aimed at giving legitimacy to the lifestyles of other pretend and real gangsters from south of the border. Great.
The thing is; real gangsters don't vote, because real gangsters.... they're criminals. They're outside the law and outside of society. I can virtually guarantee Mr. McCain that the Bloods, or Crips or MS-13 is not going to take time off from their busy schedule of extortion, drug dealing and whacking one another to go down to the polls and do their civic duty. And pretend gangsters don't vote either, because well, they're pretending to be gangsters. But hey, I could be wrong - what if the McCain camp knows more than I do and they are recruiting the hitherto unknown Mexican/South American Gangster voting block.... Yeah, probably not. It's more likely the campaign just needed a minority face so the party would look quite so much like a loaf of Wonder Bread.
For his part, Mr. Yankee says he signed on the to McCain juggernaut because he likes the candidate's policy on immigration.... whatever that is. But before Yankee delivers the huddled masses from below the border to the feet of McCain, both Yankee and the masses need to realize that whatever McCain's personal policy on immigration was in Arizona nothing more and an academic footnote if he is elected El Presidente. He will no longer be just representing the interests of the Latino vote in Arizona. Instead he'll have to take into account the interests of all demographic groups in all the states. So despite whatever he says now, when he has no power to enact a national policy on immigration, it may be, and likely will be quite different if he does get the power - and obligation - to make policy.

I MEAN, WHAT IS IT ABOUT THESE REPUBLICANS AND THEIR TWISTED SEXUAL DESIRES?

And now, Robert McKee, a Republican Delegate out of Washington County has suddenly resigned and entered "treatment" in the wake of a search warrant served at his house earlier today. And bless the cops' pointy little heads for withholding(WTF!!)the Probable Cause statement in support of their application for the warrant. Nevertheless, both the wire stories and the story in the local paper were not too subtle in pointing up the fact that the Cyber-Crimes cops seized McKee's computer and several images while making clear he has a long history of asociation with the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.
It's beginning to look like a fair percentage of the "family values" party are either closeted homosexuals (not that there's anything wrong with that.....hehehehehe) or just a bunch of tight-asses too repressed to deal with their own sexual orientation......... geez, that would go a long way toward explaining why so many of them want to subjugate everyone else.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Allow us to introduce you all to Marvin E. Holmes, Jr. He's a state delegate from Prince Georges County and the latest graphic illustration that you don't have to actually know anything about federal and state law to be elected to craft those laws. To wit: Marv is pimping a bill, which presumably, he crafted with his own hands and brain, that, if adopted, would require anyone under the age of 21 seeking a driver's license in Maryland to first submit to drug and alcohol testing. ... Let's pause here for a moment to ponder Marv's grasp of constitutional law...
Okay, that's long enough.
Marv, Marv, Marv. Where do we begin with you. Oh, I know, how about the Fourth Amendment. You know, that's the one that prohibits search a search of a persons home, papers, effects and person Without A Freaking Warrant. Then let's proceed to the Fifth Amendment, preventing self incrimination..And let's not forget the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
I mean, holy Gawd, can the man really be this ignorant of basic law? We can only hope this piece of crap was written for him by a legislative aide. Then Marv can fire his ignorant ass. But if Marv actually wrote it.... woe is us.

USING HIS TONGUE FOR THE KISS OF DEATH

Yikes... have you guys seen that pitiful new commercial Wayne Gilchrest is running... the one where he proudly admits to following the party line laid down the First Idiot, George Bush, and at the end of which he actually trumpets the fact that he is endorsed by the president? Okay. I mean, I realize ol' Wayne's been on the correct side on a couple of issues, but Daaaamn, is he now so senile that the can't remember the nightmarish shit-for-brains Bush has been for this country? The only thing preventing me from calling for him to fall on his sword are the two boneheads vying for his seat.

WATCHING WBOC SLIDE DOWN THE TUBES

Rick Jordan, a VP over at WBOC, issued fair warning today that some shows that his station broadcasts will be blacked out on other stations in this market. ... The reason he says is so his station won't continue to lose market-share.
Now, I've never met Mr. Jordon, but already he's coming off like a blind buffoon. Hell, he not losing market-share because of competition. He's losing it because he can't put together a product that anyone wants. For the most part, WBOC is just a funnel into the market for the CBS network. Other than that, what do they do... broadcast their sloppily sanitized version of the local news and cobble together a lame PSA once in a while... That's it... oh, and they make commercials for their advertisers... and even the production values there are amateurish and almost painful to watch.
So here's the thing, Rick: you blacking out Oprah, Jerry Springer, or whoever isn't going to help you, appreciably. If you want to improve your bottom line, then you need to make significant changes in the staff. Start with your news editor and anchor, ol' Steve Whatshisname, his bias for business and government are obvious and offensive. And if what I hear from your videographers and talent is correct, most of them can't get away from his crafting of news stories fast enough.
Then, if you're going to continue to film commercials for your advertisers, find writers, directors and videographers with ideas, talent and ability and then let them do the work without the heavy-handed oversight of the person who's doing it now.
Until you do that, nothing will change and you'll continue to go down the tubes.

JUSTICE FOR THE JENA SIX

I was trying to let this whole "Jena Six" thing slide by without a comment but these dumb bastards just don't know when to shut the hell up. A couple days ago, there was Al Sharpton on Capitol Hill whining about how badly those boys had been treated by the Law, and demanding "justice."
By all means, let's give them the justice and fairness they deserve, but let that justice begin with a loud and public condemnation of the animalistic behavior that brought them to the attention of the Law in the first place.
Yeah. I haven't heard a single word of condemnation out of any of the self-appointed leaders of the black community, only claims that the boys suffered at the hands of the racist white prosecutor who charged them with attempted second degree murder - far in excess of their actual crime. But by their silence on the subject, they are telling every wild young back boy and girl that it's okay to inflict violence on others, because they are victims of racism, or whatever.
I really don't mind if Jackson, Sharpton and Winfrey ride down to Texas to protect the boys' rights. That's a good thing. But they need to tell those boys that their rights do not include the right to beat up someone you don't like. And they need to remind the boys that with rights come responsibilities and consequences. So, if they are found guilty of the beating, then need to "man-up" and accept the consequences for their actions. That would be justice.

IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE...

EMPTY THREATS FROM THE CHRISTIAN JIHADISTS

It seems as if Fred Thompson may not the savior the fundamentalist "Christians" are looking for in nest year's election. ... Already, some are threatening to support a third party candidate if the GOP doesn't come up with a proper brown-shirted goose stepper.
But that threat is both empty and exposes the group's ignorance of the political landscape. First, there is no third party candidate. Oh I suppose they could scrape up a candidate - somebody like Ralph Reed, maybe. But their chances of selling him to voters is about zero. Secondly, and more importantly, the the Republican leadership doesn't give a rat's ass what those nattering nabobs of nutjobbery want in this election cycle, because they're smart enough to know that no matter who they pimp, he ain't gonna win.... not in this cycle and probably not the next one either.
Yo, guys. You had your turn at the podium and you claimed you knew who the best candidte was to lead America. But all choices in the past 27 years have proven to traitorous, no too bright bimbos. You've shot your wad and missed. Now it's time to retire back to the peanut gallery and STFU.

BUTT-FUCKED BY WBAL NEWS

If you look that the post directly below, you'll see pictures that may seem familiar. If so, it's because you saw them on WBAL's newscast. Yup, they stole them from this site.
See, I was lucky enough to to live in close proximity to the raided stores and home, so I got pictures as the feds swarmed the place like cockroaches at a greasey spoon and posted them. I just a matter of an hour or two, I got this:

"I'm a manager with WBAL-TV in Baltimore. I saw the photos you posted
concerning this morning's raids in Snow Hill of two businesses and a home.
I would like to know if we may use these photos on air today as part if our
story.
You may phone me at 410-338-6501 or respond to this e-mail.

Thank you,
Beverly Epstein"

So I called Ms Beverly and we had a nice talk. She wanted to use my photos and I told her they were for sale, and terms of the sale would include a single use for broadcast, photo credit and a prohibition against using, selling or transferring the photos to any other news organization. Okay, she said, she would call me back. Never did hear from her, but on the six 0'clock show, right there under the byline of the Intrepid Investigative Reporter Jane Miller, were my pictures. So I called her ass up to say WTF, over. Well, the Reader's Digest version of the story is that she got real defensive and said I never mentioned the pics were for sale. I assured her I mentioned it at least twice and that we had never agreed to a sale price and that's why she was going to call me back.... Silence on her end of the line indicated were at an impasse. I asked to speak to the managing editor and she told me she is the ME. Who's her boss... that would be Michelle Butt. Three phone messages later and still no response from Ms Butt. ... And this is causing me to feel like I just got Butt fucked by WBAL.
All this is made worse by the fact that five minutes after I fot off the phone with Little Miss Beverly, the first time, their helicopter was hovering over my house taking pictures of the stores where the raids had been.

FBI RAIDS TWO STORES AND HOME IN SNOW HILL

Well, we woke up to silent blue and red strobe lights this morning, hundreds of them, as the federales, along with state and local cops, silently descended like sharks upon two stores at the end of the block. In very short order, the Chicken Man and Your Stop stores were wrapped in yellow tape and agents sporting their trademarked blue raid jackets. Meanwhile, just up Federal Street in a nicely rebuilt William S. Wilson House, the front doors stood wide open, with unmarked cop cars clogging the streets. Neighbors say two men were taken away in handcuffs at the start of the 6:30 a.m. raid.
Local cops are claiming ignorance about the details, calling it "FBI warrant service."

DON'T YOU JUST GOT TO LOVE THOSE BLUES

LARRY'S WORLD BEGINS TO CRACK... NO PUN INTENDED

You remember that girl who marched before the TV news cameras to swear her daddy, Rep. Larry Craig, isn't gay (not that there's anything wrong with that)? Yeah, well take that with a grain or two of salt, as her reliablity was called into question when Boise cops noted she has an an outstanding arrest warrant there, according to the Boise Guardian.
In related news, an unconfirmed report indicates Idaho lawmakers, seeking to distance themselves from Craig, have proposed changing the state's name from Idaho to Hedaho.

STANDING UP FOR JOE

The greatest avelange begins with a tiny pebble rolling downhill.
And so it also is that the most far-reaching court decisions often begin with a neighborhood cat fight.... like the Scopes trial, or the Chicago Seven trial.
And into this mix we might soon add the name Joe Albero.... Let me pause here while I shudder at the very idea the Joe might be right about anything.... okay, let's continue.
The basic facts are that Joe is a firebrand, a loose cannon, a rabble rouser, and he says things that irritate and annoy people. And, make no mistake, it not just public officials that he annoys. He irritates me as well, and I wish he's just take his lithium, take a nap and STFU. That said, however, I have to say that most of what he says about officialdom constitutes what is known as "fair comment."
That doesn't mean his histrionic comments are fair, as in "regular and even," or "free of bias or favoritism." Rather, it means that his political hyperbole largely falls within the confines of allowable political comment in the context of The First Amendment, and if the police chief, the mayor, or any other public official can't stand the criticism then they need to hike up their skirts and tippitoe back into the relative saftey of the private sector.
And every-damned-one of us needs to stand up for Joe, because if the the government is allowed to silence Joe through legal or any other kind of intimidation, then what's to stop them from silencing anyone else whose words they don't like.

HASTA LA VISTA, BABY.... GONZALES IS OUT.... NOW LET'S GET RID OF THE REST OF THE FACIST ASSWIPES

The AP is moving a story that Attorney General Gonzales has resigned.

TODAY VE TAKE IRAQ, UND TOMORROW ZE VORLD