The Birthers' Bazaar - they say timing is everything...

Prior to President Obama's publication of his birth certificate, last Wednesday (27th April 2011), this book is/was due to be published on 17th May 2011

As you can see from the book's cover, its author, rabid Republican and doyen of the US 'Birther' movement, is one Jerome Corsi - he an habitué of that Birthers' bazaar and stridently conservative website, World News Daily (WND) - a site so right wing that Attila the Hun would be considered a dangerous pinko liberal.

Like his fellow WND stalwarts, Corsi (pictured left)'s a man who has a curious relationship with facts and reality - so curious, in fact, that it embraces being downright tenuous. Indeed, Wikipedia describes Corsi's output as being prone to "numerous factual errors" - but why submit to facts when you've an allegedly factual book to promote?

As with many things in life, they say timing's everything: and were the WND Birther Borg and Corsi to be considered actual journalists, then they themselves might have shown some journalistic integrity and admitted defeat on this score - alas, they're both from the lunatic fringe of the Birther movement and won't let facts (like the production of Obama's birth certificate) get in the way of a 'good' story. Expect to see this publication out on its due date next month.

That being the case, here's the email I've just sent to Corsi, WND Editor-in-Chief, Chairman & CEO, Joseph Farah, and his wife(?) and WND's Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Elizabeth Farah:

 

From: Bren Tierney
Sent: 29 April 2011 17:23
To: 'jcorsi@worldnetdaily.com'
Cc: 'elizabethfarah@worldnetdaily.com'; 'jfarah@worldnetdaily.com'
Subject: Pulped Fiction

My Dear Mr Corsi,

Just a quick note regarding your entire-print-run-about-to-be-pulped ‘Birther’ tome: ‘Where’s the Birth Certificate? – The Case that Barak Obama is not Eligible to be President.’

I’m guessing that right about now that your publisher, WND [what’s that, ‘Weapons of No Destruction’?] Books, are ruing the day they agreed to your manuscript?

Never mind, I believe your two other works of fiction can be found in the penny bins at gas stations the length and breadth of the US, so that must come as some comfort, eh?

In naval parlance, and what with Wednesday’s announcement and publication of his birth certificate,  Mr Obama has well and truly spiked your guns – what with your book due to hit the stands on 17^th May. Oops…

What you and your Birther backers at WND fail to understand, in your ceaseless exertions at self-promotion (regardless of the veracity and provenance of your collective output – I can’t call it ‘journalism’), is that you make the US look like a backwards nation: one where mere personal opinion and fact-free, bumper-sticker rhetoric is confused and conflated with what we, outside the US, know as ‘facts’. Indeed, with very little effort on your part, you’ve managed to secure equal billing with that other rampant lune, Orly Taitz.

Apropos the new book, there may be some immediate consolation: if it’s not pulped as now being proven both wrong and redundant, people can buy it in bulk and not have to worry about running out of toilet paper for at least six months. You may get one or two rye comments as to the properties of its absorbency and lack of quilting, but hey, at least it’ll be cheap and readily disposable – especially as the only way you’ll be able to shift it from the shelves is to give it away free.

So, what’s next for you? A book on how Nelson Mandela supported the Apartheid regime? No? How about one on how Lavrentiy Beria and Joseph Stalin were both merely ‘misunderstood care givers’? Still not grabbing your fancy? OK, how about one on ‘The Functional Illiteracy of GW Bush’? Actually, thinking about it, that would mean straying from your usual fiction genre and be too much of a stretch in credulity – even for you.

Anyhow, it’s been a gas watching you and WND making public poltroons of yourselves. Do keep up the good work – satirists on this side of the herring pond do so treasure the opportunity for good source material.

Chin-chin!

Bren Tierney

The Birthers' Bazaar - they say timing is everything...

Obama - according to the Confusedniks of the Tea Party

So, according to the Tea-hadists, Obama's a ...

And thanks to Kevin Karsten, and his amazing photo-stash of political satire!

Obama - according to the Confusedniks of the Tea Party

History - as Taught by The Tea Party

Rupert Murdoch is now funding educational materials in the US. Strap in for the ride!

With thanks to Armchair Patriots for their amazing catalogue of political and other satire

History - as Taught by The Tea Party

You might be a Republican if...

1) You believe that Bush's redistribution of middle-class tax cuts to the top 1% of tax-payers was good for America, but Obama's plan to return it to the middle class is 'socialism.'

2) You believe stem cells are living human beings, but thousands of Iraqi children are 'expendable collateral damage.'

3) You believe tax cuts for billionaires is a great idea, yet you wonder why the economy has stalled, your job just got outsourced to India, and oil company executives receive $400,000,000.00 retirement packages as they cut pensions for their labour force.

4) You believe that the surge worked because the violence in Iraq is back to 2006 levels, which is only horrible, compared to what it was in 2007; intolerable. Besides, Brit Hume said so.

5) You think trial lawyers are harmful to America, but you support prosecuting some guy in Muncie Indiana who burned his 99¢ American flag that was made in China by forced child labor.

6) You're all for the 'rule of law' when it's applied to Bill Clinton for lying about his infidelity, but not for prosecuting Karl Rove and Scooter Libby for committing treason.

7) You think George W. Bush is actually a really smart guy, but his folksy mannerisms just makes him seem dumb.

8) You believe that those privileged from birth achieve success all on their own, and that those who are born to poverty and never have opportunities for advancement, got what they deserved.

9) You believe Ronald Reagan was a great president who had complete control of all aspects of government, and that Iran-Contra Affair was an insignificant scandal that went on without his knowledge.

10) You believe Democrats tax and spend, but George W. Bush was a fiscal conservative.

11) You believe Oliver North, who was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, destroying evidence and accepting bribes is a patriot, but John Kerry, who saved a man's life while under enemy fire in Vietnam is a coward.

12) You believe George W. Bush has kept us safe from terror, and that the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks were Clinton's fault.

13) You actually believe Fox News is fair & balanced.

14) You still believe Saddam had truckloads of WMDs, and that he somehow managed to sneak them into Syria, right under our noses.

15) You believe Terri Schiavo was sentient all along, and that Bill Frist had the ability to diagnose her condition by watching a 5 second video of her sleeping.

16) You're in favor of stronger prison sentences for drug abusers, yet your favourite radio personality is Rush Limbaugh.

17) You complain about having to press 1 for English, yet you hire illegal Mexicans to mow your lawn because they're cheaper than hiring the kid next door.

18) Homosexuality is abhorrent to you, except when a Republican senator, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and a planted White House journalist all turn out to be gay, then you suddenly feel sorry for them.

19) The war in Iraq makes perfect sense to you, but any suggestion by Barack Obama that we target al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan is 'dangerous and reckless.'

20) You don't mind that president Bush tortured men who were never charged with a crime, yet you're horrified by the barbarism of al Qaeda when they capture one of our guys.

21) You believe the 1/10 of 1% of scientists who claim global warming is a hoax, and reject the 99.9% who say it's real, because Sean Hannity and his sponsors from the oil industry have convinced you that science is a liberal conspiracy.

22) You believe patriotism means you should support your government right or wrong ... unless a Democrat's in power, then it's your patriotic duty to call him a closet Muslim, a Marxist, challenge his birth certificate, expose his sex life and impeach him.

23) You're proud of your party's 'culture of life.' Yet you support the death penalty for minors, you believe 600,000 dead Iraqis is justified because one of them was Saddam Hussein, and you oppose confronting the genocide in Darfur (after all, they don't have oil).

24) You support prayer in school, as long as your kids aren't subjected to any prayers other than the ones you hear in your own church.

25) You think Darwin's theory of evolution is a loony fairy tale, and that mankind actually began with two naked teenagers, a magic apple and a talking snake.

26) You think $35 billion spent on health care for children is a waste of taxpayer's money, but $2.5 TRILLION spent on a catastrophic war that has isolated us from our allies, decimated our economy and made us less safe was money well spent.

27) You believe embargoing communist Cuba is sound foreign policy, but trading with China is just good business.

28) You believe Bill Clinton was an immoral cad, but Newt Gingrich and Henry Hyde were faithful husbands -- and that Larry Craig just has a wide stance.

29) You fervently defend the Constitution, but when president Bush got caught monitoring 200 million phones without a warrant, politicizing our justice system, hyping evidence for going to war and commuting the sentence of a convicted perjurer who just happened to be on his staff, then it's okay, because he was 'protecting America.'

30) You were outraged when a gallon of gasoline went from $1.29 to $1.40 during the two terms of the Clinton presidency, but you didn't seem to mind when prices tripled under George W. Bush, the "oil man."

31) You were furious when Bill Clinton pardoned international commodities trader Marc Rich, who was convicted of tax evasion, but applauded when George W. Bush exonerated Scooter Libby for obstructing justice to protect Dick Cheney from a treason indictment.

32) With no evidence whatsoever, you complained of 'voter fraud,' and demanded that thousands of blacks be scrubbed from voting lists during the 2004 election in Ohio, yet when Rush Limbaugh asked his audience to illegally claim to be Democrats and vote for Hillary Clinton during the Ohio Primary in February to "stir up trouble", a felony, you were okay with that.

33) You believe that Barack Obama should be held accountable for every sermon that Jeremiah Wright ever gave, but John McCain, who sought the endorsement of anti-Semitic, xenophobic, openly racist and homophobic pastors should be given a pass.

34) You believe that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, was actually born in Kenya, and his parents forged a fake birth certificate back in 1961 - just in case he should ever run for president of the United States, and that his father's nationality disqualifies his son from being president, all because you read that on the Internet.

35) You believe that the 8 consecutive years of prosperity and strong economic growth from 1993 - 2001 was due to the work of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, but today's recession is all Clinton's fault.

36) You laugh at how much better Barack Obama speaks with a TelePrompTer than without one, yet you never mention the fact that even with a TelePrompTer, every time George Bush opened his mouth, gibberish tumbled out. Bush couldn't construct a coherent gaff-free sentence even when Karl Rove was whispering in his ear via a wire.

37) You still believe Barack Obama is lying about being born in Hawaii, and has somehow succeeded in fooling every government and independent examination with his "obviously Photoshopped" documents. Instead, you rely on Internet blogs, WorldNetDaily and Jerome Corsi as your sources for "truth."

38) Your conservative media spent more air time discussing Michelle Obama touching the queen than on the economy, the environment, terrorism and health care combined.

39) You believe Barack Obama is "nation building" in Afghanistan, yet for eight straight years of Bush's bumbling incompetence there, you kept mum. Therefore, attacking Iraq makes sense, even though they never threatened us, but finishing off the job of finding Osama bin Laden; the terrorist who killed 3,000 Americans -- Bush's original task -- is a dumb idea because it's nation building. Got it!

40) You were furious that Barack Obama admitted in France that Americans had in the past been "arrogant, dismissive and derisive," yet you cheered them on for eight years while Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were arrogant, dismissive and derisive.

41) You believe that Obama's $3.6 trillion budget is an outrage, but never once complained that George Bush turned Bill Clinton's $300 billion surplus into a $1.3 trillion deficit. And it never once occurred to you that Bush deliberately omitted the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from those statistics, which means Bush's true deficit was over $3.1 trillion.

42) You supported Gov. Sarah Palin, partly because you believed that she kept a good Christian home. This, despite the fact that her seventeen year old unmarried daughter was knocked up, her son was accused of vandalizing 44 school buses (cutting the brake lines - HELLO!!?) and was given the choice of going to jail or join the military, and Palin herself was found guilty of abusing the power of her office. But Barack Obama can't possibly be a true Christian, because his father was a Muslim, and his middle name is Hussein. (Besides, he's black, and everybody knows that Jesus was a blond haired, blue eyed white man.)

43) You believe that the only solution to gun violence is to make sure everybody packs heat. That way, when some crazy person goes on a killing spree, right-thinking people will take out the killer, and tranquillity will prevail throughout the land.

44) You believe the mainstream news anchors are crazy and filled with hate, but Glenn Beck, Terry O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are rational, accurate and informative.

45) You defend Rush Limbaugh's right to wish for Obama to fail, and therefore, the failure of our republic, yet you call Democrats the "blame America first crowd."

46) You believe the economic crisis is the fault of liberals, but never mention that it was the Reagan administration that massively deregulated the banking industry in 1982, and it was Phil Gramm - McCain's choice for economic advisor - who completed the task for his pals in the banking industry in 1999.

47) You believe the failure of the US automobile industry is primarily the fault of the unions, and not because management of the three corporations insisted on producing vehicles that nobody wanted. And you're angry with the $28.00 per hour average wage of the work force, but you believe that the multimillion dollar salaries of the men who bankrupted the industry are perfectly reasonable.

48) You think this list is mean-spirited and biased, and even though you privately acknowledge to yourself that it's all true, you believe the Democrats are just as bad. Here's a bulletin: Nobody has ever been this bad.

***************************************

Thanks to Bruce Lindner for the write-up!

You might be a Republican if...

The Gulf Spill: A Study in American Double Standards?

Quick question: given all the current American ranting opprobrium over the Gulf spill, can I please ask where that same venom was when we consider that US oil companies have been (and still are) pissing oil into the homes and eco-system of the Niger Delta for the last 20+ years? 

Oh, and let's not forget the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India, where a US company, Union Carbide, managed to kill 15,000 people in one fell swoop - the single largest civil disaster in recorded history? 

And whilst the US appears perfectly happy to judge and hang BP in the media, prior to any court case or enquiry,  both of which will surely come, Union Carbide high-tailed it out of India without making any attempt at recompense, or cleaning up the poison it left behind, and offered zero assistance to the survivors. Indeed, whilst no one would debate that what has happened in the Gulf is a disaster, the signal attribute, which has been noticeable in the US media and in US opinion on the internet since the Gulf spill, and then only by its complete absence, is perspective - to a tragicomical degree.


Further reading - click on the article titles below:

BP's behaviour in the Gulf is appalling. But our thirst for oil is the real issue

Science will solve this crisis, but the real cause is America's demands and our refusal to pay oil's true price

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it

The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades

The Gulf Spill: A Study in American Double Standards?

US Right Wing Paranoia digs new holes

You couldn't make it up. The rule here seems to be, "If in doubt, just fabricate it and give the impression that down-town Jeddah has been transplanted to any-town in America."

You can see just how easy it is to agitate the Teabagging contingent without really trying. And why? Because they're only to ready to believe it, what with the sky falling on their heads, Obama being being Muslim Communist and having no birth certificate and all... Mind you, you it loses all credibility with the first use of "Obamacare".

Some barking mad nutter wrote...

Subject: FW: Dhimmitude - Another hole in ObamaCare

I recommend you go to Snopes, Fact Check, or any other service, and read up on this. It's not a fact yet......but knowing our corrupt politicians and some unethical religious practices taking place in this country I would not put it past any of them to make this a reality.

WOW!!  An important read for all AMERICA
 
Dhimmitude

Interesting........

*Had never heard the word until now---Type it into Google and start reading…Pretty interesting.  Note that Muslims and certain other religions may be exempt from the Obamacare penalties and it is supported by law. We are surrendering from within! The boy is leading us right down the path to  total control!*

Word of the Day: Dhimmitude

Dhimmitude is the Muslim system of controlling non-Muslim populations conquered through jihad. Specifically, it is the TAXING of non-Muslims in exchange for tolerating their presence AND as a coercive means of converting conquered remnants to Islam.

The ObamaCare bill is the establishment of Dhimmitude and Sharia Muslim diktat in the United States . Muslims are specifically exempted from the government mandate to purchase insurance, and also from the penalty tax for  being uninsured. Islam considers insurance to be "gambling", "risk-taking" and "usury" and is thus banned. Muslims are specifically granted exemption based on this. How convenient. So I, Ann Barnhardt, a Christian, will have crippling IRS liens placed against all of my assets, including real estate, cattle, and even accounts receivables, and will face hard prison time because I refuse to buy insurance or pay the penalty tax. Meanwhile, Louis Farrakhan will have no such penalty and will have 100% of his health needs paid for by the de facto government insurance. Non-Muslims will be paying a tax to subsidize Muslims. Period. This is Dhimmitude. Dhimmitude serves two purposes: it enriches the Muslim masters AND serves to drive conversions to Islam. In this case, the incentive to convert to Islam will be taken up by those in the inner-cities as well as the godless Generation X, Y and Z types who have no moral anchor. If you don't believe in Christ to begin with, it is no problem whatsoever to sell Him for 30 pieces of silver. "Sure, I'll be a Muslim if it means free health insurance and no taxes. Where do I sign, bro?"

I recommend sending this post to your contacts. This is desperately important and people need to know about it - quickly.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/exemptions.asp  
I checked out this article on snopes...see what you think.
It reports results as 'Undetermined'
This should really scare every single American!!!

US Right Wing Paranoia digs new holes

"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.

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

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

Arizona legislature admits to being run by Conspiracy Theorists

It's all a matter of image...

It's all a matter of image...

Twitter quote of the week

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

@KeithOlbermann

Twitter quote of the week

Cartoon of the Day

Thanks to the great gals at The Political Carnival for the image!

Cartoon of the Day

How Did So Many Republicans End Up Believing Falsehoods About Obama?

 

 

Thanks to Media Matters for America for this clip

 

How Did So Many Republicans End Up Believing Falsehoods About Obama?

The Party of the Past: Republican Obstructionism

The latest fevered attempt to use the courts to block and/or then repeal the healthcare reform bill is simply the latest tired throw of the dice by the Republicans in their strategy of obstructionism.

Their current rote rhetoric is based around two points:

1. "Obama's going against the will of the American people."

Bullshit: an Obama election campaign pledge was to try and introduce something as close to universal healthcare as he could get passed in Congress - he's now done precisely that. Apart from the Americans having had a belly-full of the Republicans, after eight disastrous years of GW Gump Bush, healthcare reform was the chief reason Obama won the presidential election. So how can he be accused of "going against the will of the American people" when he was voted in on that very ticket?

I know this may come as a shock to some folks, but the Fox News Borg, The Teabaggers and self-interest-only Republicans do not represent 'the will of the American people'.

2. "It's unconstitutional to require citizens to spend money on goods and services."

Again: bullshit - so how do they explain no Republican complaints when their taxes go towards their public highways, their military, their public schools, their drinking water, their public libraries, their ... the list goes on. And yes not a peep out of them.

So why whine like a cut snake specifically on healthcare - especially when it's for the greater good of the American public (and specifically 32+ million of them who are currently denied any healthcare cover)?

The only reason the Republicans bitch about healthcare reform can be boiled down to two things: selfishness and self-interest. This "constitutional" angle's just a smoke screen and will lose in the courts. LBJ had to go through this nonsense with Civil Liberties reform - and the opposition then came from the same crowd right-wing mentality.

Let them waste their time theorising: healthcare reform is now law. Time for the party of the past to deal with and get over it.

And last night I watched Michael Steele, RNC Chairman, being 'interviewed' on Faux News - he was embarrassingly inept and full of sour grapes at failing to 'kill the bill'. Tragic. Back-peddling like a JAMF when asked, by Greta Van Susteren, "so, this 'strategy' of just saying 'no' to everything and refusing to work with the Democrats on anything - how's that working for ya? Success or suicide?"

I doubt he'll be keeping his job for much longer - for the head of an organisation to screw the pooch so badly, in terms of having delivered no more than rancour and decisiveness, even the Republican village elders must see that their ship needs to change course if it is to re-engage with the mainstream American public.

And in a playground move of epoch-redefining proportions, if you go to the GOP's website, your session is hijacked by a captive portal and you're taken, instead, to a site they've knocked-up called "Sack Nancy Pelosi". Just pathetic. Though it's amazing what you can achieve in lieu of any actual or meaningful policies which might serve 'We The People'.

Here, try it for yourself: www.gop.com

And finally, as if the Republicans haven't spent enough time tossing their toys out of their prams, because they're not getting their own way, they're now punting the line that for the bill to pass the US Senate, and instead of a simple majority (i.e. 51 of the 100 available seats, which the Dem's have), instead they'll now need 60 seats! Talk about making the rules up as you go along to suit yourself.

The GOP are designing themselves into irrelevance at a rate of knots - but give them their due: they're also providing some of the best unintentional political comedy I've seen since GW Gump Bush was in power.

The Party of the Past: Republican Obstructionism

After Healthcare Reform passes: a scary new GOP poll

Opinion: Scary new GOP poll

by John Avlon – Tuesday March 23, 2010 - 12:58 am ET - The Daily Beast

NEW YORK – On the heels of health care, a new Harris poll reveals Republican attitudes about Obama: Two-thirds think he's a socialist, 57 percent a Muslim—and 24 percent say "he may be the Antichrist."

To anyone who thinks the end of the health-care vote means a return to civility, wake up.

Obama Derangement Syndrome—pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism—has infected the Republican Party. Here's new data to prove it:

67 percent of Republicans (and 40 percent of Americans overall) believe that Obama is a socialist.

The belief that Obama is a “domestic enemy” is widely held—a sign of trouble yet to come.

57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim 45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president" 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did" Scariest of all, 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist." These numbers all come from a brand-new Harris poll, inspired in part by my new book Wingnuts.  It demonstrates the cost of the campaign of fear and hate that has been pumped up in the service of hyper-partisanship over the past 15 months. We are playing with dynamite by demonizing our president and dividing the United States in the process. What might be good for ratings is bad for the country.

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."

The full results of the poll, which will be released in greater detail tomorrow, are even more frightening: including news that high percentages of Republicans—and Americans overall—believe that President Obama is "racist," "anti-American" "wants the terrorists to win" and "wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one-world government." The "Hatriot" belief that Obama is a "domestic enemy" as set forth in the Constitution is also widely held—a sign of trouble yet to come. It's the same claim made by Marine Lance Corporal Kody Brittingham in his letter of intent to assassinate the President Obama.

This poll is the latest and most detailed evidence of the extent to which Wingnuts are hijacking our politics. It should be a wakeup call to all Americans and a collective reminder, as we move past health-care reform, that we need to stand up to extremism.

John Avlon's new book Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America is available now by Beast Books both on the Web and in paperback. He is also the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.

For More of The Daily Beast, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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After Healthcare Reform passes: a scary new GOP poll

What's 40 years between great leaps forward?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What's 40 years between great leaps forward?

Health Reform Makes US More Like Europe - Thank Goodness

By Richard Cohen, March 22nd, 2010 - Real Clear Politics

Mitch McConnell is right. The Republican Senate leader, a man whose vision is to deny others theirs, told The New York Times that President Obama's health care proposal was part of an attempt to "turn us into a Western European country," which, the good Lord willing, is what will now happen. I, for one, could use a dash of Germany, where there are something like 200 private health insurance plans and where everyone is covered and no one goes broke on account of bad health. It's great to be healthy in America, but for too many Americans, it's better to be sick somewhere else.

I would also take France or Switzerland, but mostly I'd like Japan, which I move to Western Europe for the sake of argument, and where medical care is as good (or better) than it is here and much less expensive. What all these countries have in common is the recognition that health care is, like food or education, a universal right. The United States, to McConnell's evident chagrin, is now moving this way.

Do not underestimate the importance of Sunday's House vote. It was momentous and it will not be repealed by the results of the November elections. Against the hopes and insistence of the GOP, America did not reverse Social Security (as late as the Eisenhower administration, that was the fervent wish of the party's right wing) or Medicaid. The worth of these programs became evident and thus politically sacrosanct. When Americans figure out that insurance companies can no longer deny them coverage because, as it happens, they urgently need it, and when they discover that their kids can remain covered until age 26 and when they can for the first time afford health insurance themselves, this law will become untouchable.

Self-interest usually trumps ideology.

This battle was never entirely about health care. The fury of the opposition -- not a single Republican vote -- is as historically significant as the passage of the legislation itself. There is something cleaving this country, something represented by the election of Barack Obama -- the very change he either promised or threatened, take your pick -- and the hyper-exaggeration of the ideological threat the man represented. Caricatured as a socialist, a radical, a hard-left liberal and even an alien, he is actually the very soul of center-left moderation, cautious to a fault.

It is the same with the health care package itself. Whatever it is, it is not socialism. For all the fulminations about the American free enterprise system, private insurance companies are retained. The government will not do what governments all over the world do -- provide either health insurance or health care itself. Does the legislation provide for a government role? Yes. But there is a government role in virtually everything -- or haven't you noticed the tag on your pillow?

The reason this fight took so long is that the culture is about evenly divided. It's not that the political system is broken. On the contrary, it's not supposed to work without consensus. It did as designed -- marched in place and bided its time until Sunday it moved just a bit. Consider how long it has taken. Harry Truman wanted this bill.

Anger comes from fear. What was once a white Protestant nation is changing hue and religion. It is no accident that racial epithets were yelled at black lawmakers on Saturday in Washington and a kind of venom even gets exclaimed from the floor of the Congress: "You lie!" "Baby killer!" The protesters were protesting health care legislation. But they feared they were losing their country.

Ever since the New Deal, the GOP has been the Party of The Past. It said no to the New Deal. It said no to Social Security. Important leaders -- Barry Goldwater, for instance -- said no to civil rights as they now are saying no to gay rights. The party plays the role of the scold, the finger-wagger who warns of this or that dire outcome -- not all of it wrong -- and then gets bypassed by progress. The GOP then picks itself up and resumes its fight against the next innovation. Usually, it wins some battles; usually, it loses the war.

McConnell had his point. Europe is way ahead of us [the US] in compassion for the sick. Its systems, though, are hardly perfect and government debt is always a concern. Still, we now know which way we are going. The culture wars will continue, but the outcome, Mitch, is no longer in doubt.

cohenr@washpost.com

Health Reform Makes US More Like Europe - Thank Goodness

Healthcare: Teabaggers go to the Circus

Again, the Teabaggers long on hearsay, confusion and Fox News disinformation, but so short on any details or actual facts.

Healthcare: Teabaggers go to the Circus

Republicans in penis envy débâcle!

Just when you need the services of a good sub-editor!

Republicans in penis envy débâcle!

Limbaugh threatens to flee the US if Healthcare is passed

As regulars here will know, the chaotic, manifestly unjust and selective refusal system, which attempts to pass for 'healthcare' in the US, is a topic to which I return to quite regularly - especially when those who are so vocal in seeking to deny equal rights to ALL US citizens, when it comes to gaining access to any meaningful healthcare-at-the-point-of-need, decide to make pronouncements on it and seek to bill it as 'the best healthcare system in the world'.

Such is the case, today, when those two dysfunctional stalwarts of putting the 'fun' back into fundamentalism, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, hit the news - after they opened their mouths, apparently only to change feet.

To the rapture of the lucid and sentient, El Rushbo has threatened to flee the US if President Obama's much needed healthcare reforms are passed into effect. By contrast, there's no doubt been much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst his supporters - perhaps because, at least for the period which he's away (apparently poste restante in Costa Rica), they'll be denied their daily fear fix from Limbaugh's bully pulpit. Any way, here's the part in Herr Limbaugh's daily histrionics where he gives hope to those who'd gladly pay his airfare:

Thing is, you can't help but think that Limbaugh's not really given his knee-jerk 'threat' much thought, as I was reminded earlier today, as most countries tend to have strict no-entry policies for well publicised and known drug abusers. It also begs the question as to by how much Costa Rica's national drugs bill might sore were Limbaugh to pitch up there? After all, it must take a hangar-load of drugs to keep him in his usual apoplectic state.

So, speaking of fleeing the US to seek medical treatment abroad, and with no small irony, it's also come to my attention that the darling of the moose conservation movement, Sarah Palin, has also been "zooming" over the border into Canada to receive treatment for herself and her family.

But frankly, should we really be surprised at this glaring double standard, certainly when we consider Palin's credentials? After all, here's a woman who spent 312 nights, during her first 19 months in office, charging the beleaguered Alaskan taxpayers a "per diem" totalling $16,951 for staying in her own home -- an allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses whilst travelling on state business...

And yet, even with this apparent habit of embezzlement whilst in public office, there are still those out there who'd vote for her to be president?

'Flexible accounting' notwithstanding, were she to be installed as president, it rather makes you wonder what kind of impression some Americans (at least those who'd willingly vote for her) would like the rest of the world to have of it, and certainly its head of state - especially after eight disastrous years of GW Gump? Who or where would she invade first?

You can just see the diplomatic "Out of Office" messages being readied all over the rest of the Western world at the very prospect of it.

Limbaugh threatens to flee the US if Healthcare is passed