Needlenose

After the Repug Congressional victories in 2010, lots of Dems figured Obama was going down in 2012.  Sure, things didn’t break well for the man and his party.  ”But it’s too soon to predict defeat…,” I’ve been telling my liberal buddies, “…let’s see what fur-balls get coughed up by the GOP for 2012!”  And here they are:

Donald Trump!

Does he really thing the GOP base is gonna vote for a loud-mouthed rich New Yorker with bad hair?  You suck as bad as your failed Atlantic City casino!

Mitt Romney

Even more ludicrous – no Fundee is gonna vote for a Mormon, and the Tea Baggers are bound to confuse RomneyCare with ObamaCare.

Sarah Palin

Sarah who?  Your wave crested years ago – that sucking sound you hear is the undertow carrying you back into the depths of political non-entity.

Mike Huckabee

Dude, you suck charisma from the room!

Michele Bachmann

At least Bat Boy was cute!  It never ceases to amaze me that you can keep get *anybody* to vote for you!

Self-delusion is a wonderful thing, but not if you’re a Black man working for Fox News. You think they want you on there, but in actuality you serve a slightly different purpose. Your presence is to justify that your employer can spout all manner of borderline to actual racist content without getting into trouble. Because, after all, they employ minorities.

Fox News’ “Of COURSE I’m not racist! I have plenty of Black friends” excuse got into a scrap with a college professor over his Fear of a Black Planet. The professor, Dr. Caroline Helmand, teaches at Occidental College. Their conversation on NPR began with her agreeing that Juan Williams shouldn’t have been fired by the news agency, even if she felt his comments on Muslims were bigoted. She further stated that “I think that if I were to say that I clutch my purse every time I walk by a black man that might resonate with a lot of Americans. It might be the truth but it’s a bigoted statement.”

Williams did what he is paid to do: He reassured his viewers by insulting me and other Black men. I spent several years in a Red Midwestern county, and several women clutched their purses when I walked by, even though I had no intention of robbing them. So Helmand’s statement is very well worded, and Williams could have run with that and made some valid points about profiling. He could have even worked his actual statement into that, making for an educated discussion from a Black perspective on Fox. Instead, he made a DIRECT pander to the predominantly White audience who watches Fox News.

First, he made a soothing “it’s perfectly OK to think like this, Fox viewers” blanket statement. He said “Let me just tell you, with the amount of black on black crime in America, I get nervous and I’m a black man.” So, every Black man scares Williams, even Steve Urkel and Buppies. After Helmand challenged him again, Williams dug in his heels: “I’m the father of black young men and I’m saying that if you saw a couple guys walking around looking like thugs down the street late at night, you’re saying ‘Oh, I’m not going to think it through.’ Caroline, I think you are way off base.”

Bullshit.

Let’s dismantle Williams’ bass-ackwards statement. Suppose those “couple guys walking around looking like thugs down the street late at night” were Williams’ KIDS. I’m sure they are very nice, respectable young men, but Williams’ statement paints them as potential thugs simply by inclusion. What is the description of a “thug?” To many people, the definition of a thug is “young, Black men.” Williams’ kids, to use the classic racial profiling excuse, “fit the description.” Would Williams be understanding if his children came to him, as I have more than once to my parents, to describe an upsetting racial profiling incident? With my bald head, stern look and—hell, my skin color—I look like a “thug” to some people. I suppose by Williams’ rationale I should mug the shit out of you. Then, since I am college-educated, I can give you a calculus lesson as you crawl down the sidewalk. Calculus is a lot more painful than mugging–trust me.

Williams does what the rest of the Fox pundits do: He blatantly disavows that his statements could offend. They always act stunned when someone calls them on the potential offense, knowing damn well what they are doing. This is cowardice. I state right now that what I am saying in this piece may offend you. I don’t give a shit, but at least I’ve given you the respect of acknowledging that your offense could exist. I can hear you now: In his comedy routine, Chris Rock made a statement similar to Williams’, and he won the Emmy for it! What liberal nonsense! Rock did indeed make this statement, but he surrounded it by 10 minutes of differentiating and absolving Black men who are NOT thugs. And Chris Rock is a COMEDIAN, not a news anchor. Actually, Rock used much stronger language than “thug,” and while Williams didn’t use that particular word, I’m sure Roger Ailes wouldn’t mind if he did.

Sadly, this isn’t the thing that pisses me off most about Williams’ subbing on the O’Reilly Factor. He missed a primo opportunity to ask for some motherfuckin’ iced tea. I would have. That is my biggest disappointment with this episode.

It seems like only yesterday people were screaming “Fission, Baby Fission!”  The Media gushed over a few environmental leaders who had converted to the cause of nuclear power in the face of (or with a face full of) fossil fuel emissions warming the biosphere.   During the BP Oil Spill (anybody still remember that??) I pulled out the old crystal ball and reminded y’all about Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and mused if it would take a similar incident to remind folks of why nuclear power sucks so badly…and sadly, here we are - a couple of explosions at Japanese nuclear reactors following the ‘quake, some venting of radioactive gas, and a strong chance remaining of partial reactor core meltdown.

As a Californian in particular, I can’t help but be concerned as we have 2 similar reactors at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, situated not far from active fault lines.

It’s bad enough that industry and their Capitol Hill whores have been clamoring for new nukes here since the dark years of Bush’s Reign of Error, even stuffing lots of glowing pork in the awful Energy Bill ’03, but what’s worse is that they only plan to create more of the inherently dangerous ‘light water reactors,’ not the somewhat safer reactor models in which other countries are investing.  As we had already learned at Three Mile Island, the light water reactors rely on active safety systems in order to keep from melting down.  If something goes wrong, like say an earthquake forcing the plant to go offline and destroying the diesel backup generators in the process…the reactor core overheats, risking a meltdown.

I’m against nuclear power for a variety of reasons, but if we must have it shoved up our asses, at least let’s go with safer reactors as well as use heavy-metal/fast neutron reactors to burn up a larger % of the fuel and the long-lasting transuranic elements.

 

Looniest wingnut in America du jour goes to New Hampshire Election Law Chairman David Bates, who is pushing a bill requiring primary candidates to submit a birth certificate in order to get on the ballot.

“There’s nothing like a lunatic to brighten up your day
It’s fun for you to look at him and hear the things he’ll say
But never turn your back on him; he’ll sneak up from behind
‘Cause Heaven only knows what’s on his mind!” – Looney Tune, by Montezuma’s Revenge

Wasn’t so long ago when “Town Hall” meetings around the country were dominated by older, angry white reactionaries, yelling something about gubbernmint messing with their Medicare and stalking around the building carrying poorly written signs and firearms.

How times have changed!  Governor Walker’s brazen attempt to kick in the teeth of labor has resulted in angry crowds of liberals at town hall meetings, yelling about reactionary strong-arm tactics and carrying well-written signs.

Good-on ya Wisconsin!  Nice to know that not all liberals are spineless jellyfish – apparently that’s just limited to Democratic Leadership and elected officials!

 

Demonstration today in Austin, bunch of Texan wing-nuts want to secede from the union.  Yee-haw!  What a great idea!  Think of it – 2 fewer Repug Senators, 18 fewer Repug Congressmen (including Gold Standard Ron Paul).  Where can I contribute to the cause?  Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on your way out!

Amid the news of the day, the real business of politics grinds on (via Politico, who else):

President Barack Obama’s 2012 fundraising team has begun nailing down major cash commitments from top donors during a coast-to-coast “listening” tour — the surest sign to date that the vaunted Obama money machine is back in business.

… So far, the embryonic operation is being run out of DNC’s cramped headquarters near the Capitol — and [ex-Obama staffer Jim] Messina’s overnight bag. That will change sometime in the next three weeks, when Obama OKs the creation of his new campaign committee.

Indeed, the president attended a fundraiser (though not his own) in Florida today, where he made sure to regurgitate his already-annoying reelection campaign slogan:

Obama fired up a crowd of loyalists at a Miami hotel by insisting he wants to find common ground with Republicans in a budget fight but is not willing to cut into what he considers needed investments in education, science and technology.

“I’m willing to cut any spending we can’t afford,” he said. “I’m not willing to cut the basic investments we need for winning the future.“

The obsession with this nauseatingly bland phrase is a sure sign not only that Obama and his inner circle are looking ahead to 2012, but also that they’ve been studying Bill Clinton’s old playbook.  It was Clinton in 1996, after all, who gave us “Building a bridge to the 21st century,” a similarly vapid slogan with a shared goal — positioning a politically damaged president as optimistic, forward-looking, and rising above mundane day-to-day issues.  (The thinking in some circles, you see, is that it’s almost always the more optimistic presidential candidate who wins the election.)

But Clinton gave us something else, too — a combative dimension.  Battling his generation’s GOP takeover of Congress (and a threatened government shutdown), he drew a specific line in the sand against cuts to spending on Medicare, Medicaid, the environment, and education… issues where, as now, the public stood behind the Democratic agenda.  And he bluntly said, in public and in private, that he would stake his presidency on not allowing the Republicans to undermine those programs.

Anyone heard anything like that from Obama yet?  Granted, an outright showdown over spending priorities hasn’t quite arrived yet, so there’s still time for Barack to get more detailed than defending an amorphous notion like “the basic investments we need for winning the future.”

So I’m sure he’s just waiting for the proper moment to make his stand.  It’ll probably happen right after he finally comes out swinging in favor of the public option for health insurance.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

Guess Mike Huckleberry decided to channel Tricky Dick and go with the Southern Strategy for his 2012 Presidential Bid…he’s falsely claiming that Obama ‘grew up in Kenya,’ giving him a different ‘world outlook’ then the rest of us ‘Mericuns.  What is he referring to, the lack of Nascar in Africa, or is he merely transforming into Birther Baggins to appeal the uber-wingnuts?

Shame the most respectable guy out of the pack of reactionary 2012 contenders just called dibs on the sewer under the low road!  Jeez, Mike, it’s not like you have a snowball’s chance in the Sahara of winning this, you blew a chance at being the conscience of the GOoPers.  Now you’re just another sorry racist loser.

Tip of the ‘Nose to Film Critic Buddy

The Re-Baggers are busy jumping in their time machine to take us back to their (imagined) golden time.  All they need is a reconditioned DeLorean, a few thousand gigajewels (of unlimited, anonymous corporate funding, courtesy of Chief Justice Roberts) and a Capacity Fox Generator!  How far back will they take us?  Depends on the number of gigajewels they can get!  How far back?  Check it out:

1990 – George HW Bush – Discriminate Against the Disabled!

1979 – Jimmy Carter – Eliminate the Department of Education!

1973 – Richard Nixon – Abolish Abortion!

1973 – Richard Nixon – Drive U.S. Wildlife to Extinction!

1971 – Richard Nixon – Return to the Gold Standard!

1970 – Richard Nixon – Unrestricted Polluting!

1965 – Lyndon Johnson – Ban Birth Control!

1938 – Franklin Roosevelt – Restore Child Labor!

1935 – Franklin Roosevelt – Strip Labor of the Right to Organize!

1935 – Franklin Roosevelt - Screw the Aged!

1918 – Woodrow Wilson - Eliminate Public Schools!

1913 – Woodrow Wilson – Abolish the Income Tax!

1868 – Ulysses Grant - Legally Discriminate Against Women, African Americans and well anybody!