Just when you thought it was all over, that the right-wing crazies had packed it in (after purchasing a new gun) and were hibernating until they could elect Sarah Palin their queen in 2012… we hear that not only are bloggers and FOX news still calling Obama a socialist, etc. but now an actual live congressman, Georgia Representative Paul Broun is bringin’ the McCarthyism:
“It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force,” Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. “I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.”
Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.
“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun said. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.” (AP Link)
It’s interesting that he would pick up this because, in fact, Obama:
“was talking specifically about expanding AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and the USA Freedom Corps, which is the volunteer initiative launched by the Bush administration after the attacks of 9/11.”(empahsis added, Link)
The point here is, how many times do we have to listen to hypotheticals about the disaster Obama would bring about the US, when we are in the middle of an actual crisis brought upon in part by our current President? These internet trolls and fearmongerers don’t care that Hank Paulson seems to have no plan about what to actually do with the giant chunk of taxpayer money, that we are already involved in socialism in some of deepest sectors of our economy (via the bank bailout plan and looming auto-industry buyout), and that the present adiminstration is seemingly running out of ways to screw us over on the way out the door.
“Did you see how gracious President Bush was when Obama came to the White House?!” they cry, as if Pres. Bush was going to cage match for a third. We’re lucky he didn’t just sneak out the back and let B. O. get stuck with the whole mess.
I don’t even think that this is a distraction technique for some of these people any more… They just are caught in some sort of alternate reality, and the only way that they won’t be disappointed is if this election cycle has somehow opened a portal into another dimension, where everything they think is magically true.
“I think that if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about Nafta, and about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context,” Ms. Palin said. “And that’s cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks, if they came away with it taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It is not fair and not right.” (Link)
And against the claims against “diva”-like behavior and that she went on a spending spree (she insists those clothes have been donated to charity), this:
“As for the allegations of wild spending, she insisted: “I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr Pepper once in a while.”” (Link)
Nicolle Wallace, a senior McCain campaign aide who worked with Ms. Palin, defended her… “She is perhaps the most un-diva politician I’ve ever seen,” Ms. Wallace said. “The only thing I’ve ever seen her ask for is a diet soda.” (Link)
Now despite the fact that even her defense sounds like a talking point, this sounds fishy: the attacks are coming from a well-known douchebag and are completely unverified. It sounds like Fox News is trying to cook up a story that will scapegoat someone; it will help people believe that the Republican Party isn’t increasingly feeble and about to blow apart.
We all know that she was underqualified and over-hyped. What we don’t really know is how, in the end, John McCain felt about all of this. Their relationship was obviously strained from the beginning and only got worse (you can actually watch this decline happen through their body language) and ended in her going “rogue” and offscript.
His concession speech was very dignified and the pain off loss was very apparent on his face and in his voice; it remains to be seen what he will tell us about this episode. I’m guessing that he won’t tell us what I assume is the real story: how John McCain, touting himself as a warrior on the side of truth his entire life, ended up shackled by his own ambition and fell in with the very people who tried to destroy his character and reputation in the 2000 race. And then, how the hatred they instilled in the conservative base coupled with the contempt of moderates who saw him crumble to the right worked to force him to pick Sarah Palin. We all know the rest of this story…
The Rest of US lived Happily Ever After (fingers crossed).
The election is drawing near (here in Oregon we get to vote early, something I will be doing TONIGHT), as is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year….
No, not Xmas, the purported return of BSG to our teevee sets!!! I needed something to do with myself (besides working and paying too much attention to the election)so I made these Tshirts, in the style of the Obama campaign…
I will be selling these shirts until Xmas time, with the added bonus that any shirt ordered between now and Nov. 4th will see all proceeds going to directly to the Obama campaign. Therefore, all of you who think that BSG is some sort of simplistic parable for American hegemony and the righteousness of a blind, flailing “War on Terror” can consider buying later, when all proceeds will go to wherever I see fit. Maybe I’ll send it to ACORN. HA!
all shirts printed on America Apparel Tshirts. Please refer here for sizing info.
My home state does not disappoint… When we’re not bearing the brunt of other people’s stupidity (as when the Ohio flag was taken by some morons as an “Obama Flag”: “The blue field has been changed to show an Obama seal” remarked one internet troll ), we are generating some stupidity ourselves. We have some of the most awesomely unabashed racism out there.
I think I remember John McCain saying something about, “proud of the people that come to our rallies,” right before he said he had been upset about some of the t-shirts at Obama’s rallies. As if someone selling t-shirts at a rally is the same thing as the candidate himself validating some front-row wing-nut’s point (speaking of t-shirts, check out mine here).
So, here are some more people who were at a rally in Ohio:
Of course, maybe because it’s footage from Al-Jazeera, and all of those Ohioans were captured surreptitiously on camera via a Gotcha-Journalism tactic, or perhaps they are just robots programmed to say those damning phrases…
I guess I, erm, am glad that McCain, um, took the microphone away form that woman, and that people didn’t boo McCain (for once) when he defended Obama. Forgive me for drawing unnecessary parallels, but since when did the defense to the attack of “He’s an Arab” become “No, he’s a decent, family man…” Oh, because… uh. Fuck it. Is there any reason to keep talking about this race-baiting horseshit? Are we to constantly dumb ourselves down by responding to inane attack lines? Ugh.
