Wednesday 28 April 2010

"The Alinsky Method" - Cartoon of the Day



Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly et all toss around "the Alinsky method" like confetti - and like they know what it is...



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Monday 26 April 2010

So how can the USA fund healthcare...?



Bill Maher gives some options...



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Sunday 25 April 2010

"The Tea Party's Over"


Old Fart tells it like it is. Bye bye Teabaggers - oh how we'll miss your singular spelling! And it's great news for the 99.9998% of Americans who already think you're a tired joke!



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Friday 23 April 2010

"Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" - Tim Wise



"Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" -  by Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters - the black protesters - spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister — who also works for the organization — defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and “going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for “speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?” After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore” whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.



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Thursday 22 April 2010

The Teabagger Boogie





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Arizona legislature admits to being run by Conspiracy Theorists



CNN's Anderson Cooper gives a step-by-step rebuttal of Arizona's utterly partisan 'Birther' bullshit



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Cartoon of the Day

Thanks to the gals at The Poltical Carnival for the image!

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How to 'Teabag' - in words and images





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Wednesday 21 April 2010

Motivational Poster of the Week




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If Jesus returned as Glenn Beck...



Well, Glenn Beck is now claiming to be talking to God - who has apparently seen fit to give Beck a "plan"... (cough)



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Fox News did some 'research' - and they don't lie



Well, not much, any way...



 

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GOP Filibuster the Wall Street finance reform...



... for all the Right reasons...




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It's all a matter of image...




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Tuesday 20 April 2010

Girls just wanna have ... ?




demotivational posters







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Sunday 18 April 2010

Internecine Sqaubbles: GOP/Teabaggers/Conservatives



It would appear that the Republican/Teabagger/Conservative 'family' have familial issues - like whether they like Sarah Palin or not - or whether they're in favour of free speech or whether to boo-off one of their own...



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Friday 16 April 2010

American Tax Dollars at Work - Happy Tax Day!



There's good news....

New  State-by-State  Figures Show that Obama Cut Taxes in 2009 for 98  Percent of Working  Americans - Click HERE

 And bad...






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Tuesday 13 April 2010

The 'Fiscal Conservative' myth debunked



You've perhaps often read (and certainly heard) that Republicans, the Teabaggers and some, ahem, 'independents', all claim to be "fiscal conservatives".

This claim, and their ethos, is predicated on tax cuts (which, ironically results in the gov't generating less tax revenue for spending on the programmes to which they're committed), a reduction in said gov't spending (see previous point), and generally sees them protesting, rather vocally, when any suggestion is made other than the above two chief 'demands'.

You can see why gov't spending could be an issue, certainly if it gets out of control - as without the tax revenues to ensure the provision of it commitments (social services, Medicare, wars etc.) it then runs up a deficit - and 'fiscal conservatives' are avowedly against deficits!

With me so far? OK.

Then, and with no small irony, Reuters have just gone and pissed on the chips of, and given the lie to, these so-called fiscal conservatives, with the following deficit graph. You'll note that Clinton, a Democrat president, actually cleared the deficit and then operated at a not insubstantial surplus, whilst every other recent Republican president grew enormous deficits - most notably Reagan and both Bushs.

And yet, even with this being the case, Republicans, Teabaggers and 'independents' still vote for what they, incorrectly, perceive to be the party of 'fiscal conservatism', the Republicans/GOP?! 




I guess you can lead a horse to water....

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Saturday 10 April 2010

Republicans: "You have to stop making stuff up!"




How could I possibly better what Rachel Maddow says here?



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Twitter quote of the week


Sean Hannity calling Obama a "radical" is almost as absurd as someone calling Sean Hannity a "journalist."

@KeithOlbermann
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Tracing the roots of the Teabaggers...



Teabaggers - circa 1950 - note the liberal (no pun intended) and entirely inappropriate use of the word 'Communism'. As you can see, seems like little has changed, in their minds or vocabulary, since that time...



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The Best George W Bush Impression - EVER!




Just superb!

 
Thanks to Jean Blount for the clip!

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Cartoon of the Day







Thanks to the great gals at The Political Carnival for the image!
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Sunday 4 April 2010

Teabaggers: giving "patriotism" a bad name



The Teahadists

Revisionism, alarmist jingoism, confusion, paranoia, the politics of envy, inexactitude, outright lies, threats and, frankly, an object lack of education combine to illustrate the 'movement' of self-interest.

Just tragic.

Thanks to Larry Halstead and the keen eyes of The Political Carnival for the clip!



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Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones Review



Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones Review (Part 1 of 9):


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Saturday 3 April 2010

Rush Limbaugh: only opens his mouth to change feet




Rush Limbaugh redefines apoplexy whilst proving his terms of reference are suspect at best - apparently “Storefront”, “factory” and “worker” are “Marxist-Leninist Terms”. Who knows, perhaps they are, in the Teabagger Dictionary...

Thanks to Media Matters for America for the clip

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Thursday 1 April 2010

GOP: This is what Sore Losers & Racists whining sound like



As reliable as a broken clock, Fox Fraudcasting's Sean Hannity, and dementia-beset Rush Limbaugh still have trouble adjusting to the real world around them.




Thanks to Media Matters for America for straining the bilge, so we don't have to.
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Organ Parts & Parcels



Mark Fiore's wonderful political satire on the hopelessly out-of-touch Republicans & 'Libertarians' in the US


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'Teabonics': a grammar & dictionary-free zone


These are signs seen primarily at Tea Party Protests.

They all feature "creative" spelling or grammar.

This new dialect of the English language shall be known as "Teabonics." 




 See them all at this THIS LINK




Thanks to Daniel Bukszpan for the Flickr link
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