Republicans Play The Fear Card -- Again

Maybe this is the only card these guys have, the fear card.

The latest thing (two things) that America needs to be "verrrrrrry afraid" of are, 1) Putting the terrorism suspects on trial; 2) Moving the Gitmo bunch to a prison in Illinois.

It seems to be like the obvious implication of the fear card is that the Republicans don't believe America is up to any challenge. Whatever we want to do, according to the Republicans, we can't do it. Don't try. Simply stop in your tracks and no nothing. Whether it's health care, climate change, and now dealing with the terrorism suspects in some kind of rational way, it simply cannot be done! It almost makes you wonder why they want to hold office, since they're only message is, No. Stay inside, cover up your head, and shiver in fear.

How we were ever able to keep these guys in Gitmo all these years without them getting loose, I guess there's no explanation for that. It must be luck. Because the Republicans certainly don't think we have any competence. We've been keeping people in prison for centuries -- and the prison technology is improving all the time -- but suddenly it can't be done.

So the Republicans' message is, Since it can't be done, you better be afraid that someone is trying to do it, because they're sure to fail. It's hard to picture them agreeing with Ronald Reagan that it's "Morning In America," because all they see is sunsets. The sun has set on America's ability to succeed, according to the Republicans. Failure is not just an option, it's our only option!

We might wonder, Why would anyone vote for these clowns? I guess they're banking on fear, since it was good in the Bush years for a while. The more afraid we are, the more we'll huddle in close to the Republicans to keep us safe. But since they're doctrine clearly is It can't be done, that's small comfort. We need the Republicans to keep us safe, but the terrorists are going to get us -- like they said, it's not a matter of if but when.

OK, my take on this. I'll take someone a little more optimistic. Like President Obama. Who thinks not only can we maintain the American system of justice, but we can succeed at things we put our mind to.

I don't think these terrorism suspects are 40 feet tall with four arms and an ability to conceal an arsenal up their arsenhole. Since they're people -- this is a big surprise, people just like we are -- we, being people just like they are, ought to be able to handle them, especially given our superior position as the jailER and not the jailEE.

Good grief, Republicans. Please go away and think it over. Americans want an optimistic message. A steady stream of We can't do it doesn't quite cut it.

Ouch! The RNC, That's Gotta Hurt!

I was stunned to hear that the Republicans provided abortion coverage in the insurance plan of their employees. And since 1991.

How exactly that happens, with their staunch opposition to choice, and for that long, I do not know. It seems like someone somewhere would've known about it and mentioned it over the years. That's virtually 20 years!

But it can't do them any good as far as their supporters go. It seems like it would be disheartening to the typical conservative Republican donor. Like, Why should I support them? They're just hypocrites.

I'd like to see a new, purer third party -- the Tea Party set -- really showing the Republicans how it should be. That would go a long way toward making this situation right.

Every Third Person Would Vote For Palin

To me, Sarah Palin is a complete disaster -- a train wreck, a ship wreck, a crashed plane, a kamikaze, you name it, she's no good. I seriously would not vote for her under any circumstances. She is dangerous in the extreme.

So I was interested in this sentence in an article in The Nation about the level of support she would get as a presidential candidate:

While the percentage of Republican voters who say they would seriously consider voting for Palin for president stands at 65 percent, among all voters the figure is mired at 33 percent.

"Mired at 33 percent" of course isn't good enough to win. But that's very bad news on a different level. Every third person we see, among voters, would subject this country to her! Good grief, are we insane?

We've had one moron as president, George W. Bush. It's not a job that just any random idiot can handle.

Tom Coburn Blocking Veterans Insurance

I've heard all the outrage -- and it's been great -- about Sen. Tom Coburn (Republican, of course, of Oklahoma) blocking veterans insurance funding.

He has a "hold" on it and apparently it cannot move forward without him releasing his "hold."

My outrage on this is that there is such a rule in the first place. What kind of moronic rule is it that allows a senator single-handedly block something like this? The whole country comes to a standstill just because one senator says so?

At that point, how is it we get anything done? Put a "hold" on it and nothing happens.

Whatever -- he definitely ought to release his "hold" on this issue. Twerp.

I'm putting a "hold" on the rule in the first place. Get rid of it.

They Executed The D.C. Sniper

Yea! I'm not going to miss him.

He had his chance at life and this is what he accomplished, shooting random people through a hole in his car's trunk. Good riddance.

Stupid Guy Of The Day

The stupid guy of the day is a Marine reservist in Florida who mistook a Greek Orthodox priest for an Arab terrorist and, allegedly, proceeded to beat him with a tire iron.

He then called the police and turned the priest over to the police. Later the priest was treated at a hospital and released.

They have a nice picture of our stupid guy of the day at the above link.

Way to go, Brainiac!

Bob Dylan's Christmas Album

Probably no mention of this album would be complete without asking if Bob Dylan should still be singing.

I love the guy completely. Always have. But really, his throat is absolutely shot.

I got it and sat down with my sweetie to listen to it. She's not quite as reverential when it comes to Dylan as I, and she was very cruel about her quick review of the album. It took some convincing on my part to get her to give it a chance.

I'm going, "But it's Bob Dylan." And yet, she had a point. It doesn't sound that great. Maybe it would've sounded not so bad if the background singers and music weren't so tone perfect. Like if you had it like one of Neil Young's grungier albums, then had Bob Dylan doing Christmas songs.

I don't think this one will go on the iPod. If I ever want to hear it, I'll just put it on the CD player. And keep it turned down fairly much.

Republican Opposition To Health Care Reform

The health care reform bill passed the House. Now it has the bigger hurdle of the Senate, which promises to be an excruciating process.

It's not a perfect bill, of course, like anything that the corporate interests get their greedy paws on. But since we can have perfect, we may as well having something. Certainly they haven't been doing us any favors without reform. It's all cutthroat and it's our throats they cut. If they'd just cut their own and hurl themselves over a cliff that'd be fine.

It ends up with "We The People" sitting here taking the brunt of it. And that's not fine.

Then we have the Republicans, also known as the scourge of the country. Naturally, these crooks voted en masse against the people, except for one lone holdout from Louisiana. They've showed once again -- not that we'd forgotten; we hadn't -- that they are as worthless as they come, and that every one of them, if it were only possible, should be drummed out of office.

It is sickening, very sickening, that we can have these guys just blatantly opposed to anything that might do anyone some good, and get away with it. The big trouble is, not that we couldn't vote them out, but that so many people are fooled into thinking they have their interests at heart. They don't.

Anyone Could Be A Congressman

Being a Congressman has to be the easiest job in the world. Like Steve King, Republican of Iowa, in this video. It's easy because no matter how stupid you are, there's someone out there who thinks you're doing a great job.

Steve King is guilty of one outrage after another -- that in a more refined time would've been called faux pas -- and yet he keeps getting elected. He's in the news all the time, one phony baloney thing after another and there's no penalty to pay.

Who couldn't do this job? Just channel forth your inner stupid, stand back, and people love you!

Chickenhawk Tom Tancredo Pwned -- Must See

Yes! It's great to see the bad guys get it once in a while. Tom Tancredo is among the worst of the worst.

The only problem with this clip is the host invites him back. I'd love to see Tom Tancredo storm off the set and keep on going. Find a cliff somewhere and take a long walk.

Kudos to Kos! We need more of this. Put these chickenhawk Republicans in their place. Speaking for veterans. Ha!

Is Everyone Who Disrupts Things A Hero?

I was reading about the tea party rebellion -- who I think are simply a bunch of nuts, but that's just my opinion. They were incited to show up and "scare" our Congress people today by Michelle Bachmann, a crazy person from Minnesota.

In the course of their tirades, some were arrested, leading them to be instantly given "hero" status and to be likened to Martin Luther King, perhaps the Apostle Paul or Jesus, and who knows what others!

So everyone who shows up at a political meting and disrupts things and gets arrested now is a "hero"? That's a stretch. I wonder if the tea party people would say the same thing about people from the left, like the crazy protesters at the big international meetings, who flood the streets and do disruptive things and get arrested, if they're heroes. Somehow I doubt it.

It's like the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter. (I also heard them labeling themselves freedom fighters.) It depends on which side you're on.

My question remains: Where were these people when George W. Bush was president? He was ruling this country like a madman and flushing the United States down the toilet both at home and internationally. It seems like they might've uttered at least a single peep in all those years. Or perhaps have had a cup of tea.

It still looks to me simply like sour grapes. The Republicans were thrown out. We got a Democratic president. And they can't abide by the results, like we had to with George W.

Annoying Updates

I just had the annoying Windows update today that pops up every five minutes asking if you want to restart now or later. For some idiotic reason there's no option to say "Don't bother me for the next eight hours." They're very insistent and ridiculous.

And of course there's a constant Java update to be hearing about. I swear, I don't know precisely what they're updating, but whatever it is, these people definitely have a steady job. Sometimes I don't think there's really any update at all, that they're just trying to rope more people into installing the Yahoo toolbar. Good grief. How about just doing an update or having an option that says "I Never Want The Yahoo Toolbar"?

No mention of annoying updates would be complete without the constant, steady updates for iTunes. It's never just a tiny patch either. The entire everything has to be downloaded. I have a slow computer. So it slowly plods through the entire process over the course of a light year or two.

All the badgering. How about you guys get it right the first time?

Obama's Lack Of Fight

How can the president just sit there and take this? Why does he have a lack of fight?

WaPo: On the other side, Democratic strategists worry that progressives, disgusted by the big money bank bailout and disillusioned with President Barack Obama's lack of fight on issues such as a government-run health insurance plan, might keep some people from voting. That could cost Democrats seats up and down the ballot. [My bold]

Why doesn't President Obama fight for us? It's bizarre.

Now Harry Reid is suggesting they might not get health care done this year!

The time for extracting one's head from one's posterior is now.

Little Things Mean A Lot

One little inch a year, that's all it takes to make an ocean.

Some scientists -- who perhaps grew up with chemistry sets and boggled everyone's minds -- are saying that there could one day, in a million years, be a new ocean in Africa.

I know, that's a heck of a place to put it, but where else would it go?

The whole thing has to do with the movement of the earth's plates. And since the earth has all the time in the world, even if it barely shifts in its seat once in a blue moon, you multiply that times infinity and little things mean a lot.

Once this plate goes that way a half inch, and this plate goes that way a half inch, a whole buncha times, in a million years you wouldn't recognize the place.

It boggles the mind. It also makes me sad. Because I'm thinking everything I own will either be gone or in a museum in a million years.