EverythingYouKnowIsWrong

The Catholic Church has weighed in on the faux controversy and in a fit of incredible rational clarity has stubbed ID in favor of its support for the theories of Charles Darwin. Amazingly, the church not only supports Darwin but actually seems to claim credit for the theory of evolution before Darwin. Check it out here.

Great summary history of the conflict and the missed opportunities leading to the mess we have today and what it might take to solve it – here.

That one word makes for a very nice exclamation point coming at the end of a long campaign for President of the United States.

After Obama was declared the winner, John McCain appeared before a group of supporters to give his concession speech and “Bullshit!” was the first word that came from that group (followed by a very loud chorus of booing), as McCain described his congratulatory telephone call to Obama. (Interestingly, during Obama’s victory speech the first mention of McCain’s name brought respectful cheering and applause from his supporters.)

“Bullshit!”

Nothing better symbolizes what McCain was left with at the end of that long campaign – a small group of angry supporters fueled by hate, prejudice, and Sean Hannity. The stark contrast between McCain’s incredibly gracious and heart-felt concession and the angry, hateful audience he spoke to paints an interesting contrast between who John McCain really is and what he had become in the last months of the campaign.

Somewhere along the way McCain completely abandoned his true self and sold his soul to the far right-wing of his party. His slogan was “Country First” but actions speak louder than words and his actions said “Me First.” It became sadly clear in the last months of his failing and flailing campaign that McCain willingly abandoned his integrity and pandered to the small, but vocal, contingent of the party that really is “still clinging to their guns and religion” – all in the hope and belief that such a move was his best shot at getting to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January of 2009.

McCain executed his deal with the devil sometime during the first week of September in St. Paul Minnesota? We can nearly identify the exact moment the deal went down – it happened with the decision to name Sarah Palin as his running mate. That one act doomed his chances of winning. He did it to mollify the far right-wing of his party. A group that, we now know, has become nearly completely irrelevant as a meaningful force in Republican politics. The great conservative experiment, that started with the Goldwater candidacy in 1964, reached its zenith under Ronald Reagan, and solidly met its demise during the last term of George W. Bush was over. They had their shot. They tried their “plan” and it turns out their theories and beliefs are just flat-out wrong. The country has finally figured this out. By picking Sarah Palin McCain demonstrated that he was, indeed, completely out of touch … just as his statement “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” as we plunged into the biggest economic disaster the country has ever seen demonstrated how truly out of touch he was.

The far-right loved Sarah and John was blinded by the cheering crowds (the same crowds that called out “terrorist!” and “kill him” at the mention of Obama’s name…… the same crowds that yelled “Bullshit!” as McCain gave his concession speech). He picked a woman who had not been vetted and who turned out to be as dumb as a stump and unable to put together simple sentences and even simpler coherent thoughts on nearly any topic. A woman who demonstrated a chilling ability to lie at the drop of the hat – insisting that she never supported the “bridge to nowhere,” exclaiming that the Alaska Troopergate report that found she had committed ethical violations had “completely exonerated” her. A woman so ignorant of geography (she does not know that Africa is a continent) and science (she believes humans inhabited the earth along with the dinosaurs) that she would have a hard time passing basic middle-school classes in those subjects. A woman who could rant on and on about Obama being “un-American” and who regularly questioned his loyalty and patriotism to this country while she herself had provided vigorous support to a group campaigning to have Alaska Secede from the United States.

On election night – as McCain gave his concession speech calling on all Americans to come together to support its new president – we saw the “real” John McCain returning from the dark side. He has left it behind and should return to his “maverick” and “straight-talk” leadership role in the Senate. Hell, Obama may even tap him for a role in his cabinet. But make no mistake about it – those who dwell in that “dark side” that was exposed in this campaign are still there…..even as their numbers shrink and their cry’s of outrage become shrill and urgent…..and they wait and scheme and hope to have Sarah back to lead them “next time.”

The only problem is – there will not be a next time. It’s over. Finally we can look at this dangerous failure and call it for what it always was (in the hands of the petty, the fearful, and the angry): “Bullshit!”

I found this one fascinating – take a look at the animated gif below to see how the red and blue states have changed every 4 years since 1856:

John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. (Ed. Note: Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and was Editor of the Harvard Law Review.)

Palin attended several community colleges and one universities (Idaho) where (after several years or aimless wandering from school to school) she got a degree in Journalism.

Sean Hannity has only a high-school education. He dropped out of college.

Rush Limbaugh has only a high-school education. He dropped out of college after flunking everything he tried to study.

It was the first day of December, 1955 in Montgomery Alabama;  a bus driver named James Blake ordered a woman named Rosa Parks to give up her seat to a white man - a common and ordinary request that, on this day, would have a very extraordinary outcome. Parks, a small unassuming black woman decided that on this day she was "too tired of giving in." She refused to give up her seat and changed the world forever.

53 years later, as we approach the 2008 presidential election and slog through the early stages of the biggest economic crisis the world has ever faced together, one feels (one hopes) that this time it somehow matters more; this time there are real consequences, this time the rules are going to be different - must be different. This time - if we do the same thing we always do - we will do real, substantial, and very long-term damage to ourselves, our country, and our world. This is no longer a game. This time it is for real.

America - our chickens have come home to roost. 

This morning, when Colin Powel endorsed Barack Obama, our problem and our challenge was crystallized like never before. Watching Powell explain his endorsement I thought about Rosa Parks and what happens when someone is "tired of giving in." As a Republican of consequence, Powell could have kept quiet for the good of the part. But like the growing ranks of other Republican leaders and pundits of late - one has the very real sense that Powell was "tired of giving in." "Better late than never" the old saying goes - and many of us would have preferred that Powell would have refused to give in before he agreed to be the spokesman for Bush's Iraq invasion at the U.N. where, we now know, his credibility was essential to the Bush administration's case for war and it is safe to say that had Powell refused - we may have seen a different outcome. Listening to Powell list his reasons for his endorsement - it is clear that the McCain campaign strategy of late - to pursue irrelevant tactics of racism and the politics of personal destruction - was a key factor (perhaps the only real factor) that prompted Powell to go public with his endorsement. Powell had been an early and key financial supporter of the McCain campaign. You have to listed to Powell's reasons for going from financial contributor to Obama supporter. What are those reasons:

Listening to the early reaction is a depressing experience. To be sure, we can count on the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity and other republican blowhards will say this does not matter - it is just what one black man will do for another black man - no big deal, right? Wrong. Instead of addressing Powell's comments on the merits - they will work hard to discount and diminish. That is sad. This is an opportunity that they will, no doubt, miss as they often do. They rail about their fear that an Obama administration will set out to silence right-wing talk radio. They are wrong about that as well. Why bother? Right-wing talk radio is already irrelevant and will slowly fade into that "dark, dark night" all on their own. Let's be honest - right-wing talk radio has had no discernable impact on any issue or decision of consequence (with the possible exception of getting the Harriet Myers nomination withdrawn). They are going to miss a real opportunity to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. They are uniquely positioned to leverage the power of their platform to help move us toward solutions. They are clearly not interested in solutions however.

All of this feels eerily familiar. I went to my library to consult my favorite doctor: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson to see if I could figure out why this was so familiar and I did find what I was looking for.

(Note to reader: I am replacing references to "Nixon" with "Bush" (while marveling that the essential points of the original are not at all lost by doing so) - my apologies to Dr. Thompson for edits to his original works)

Maybe, just maybe, the answer to the good doctor's question is that we do not have to wait much longer now. I don't know about you, but I am "just too tired of giving in" and believe that we are at a turning point and our vote matters more than usual - and choosing correctly matters most. It is time to move on from the "same dim collection of burned-out hacks. . . who have been "fouling our air with gibberish for the last twenty (note - you can add 30 years to this statement given the passage of time) years."

This is a great country - let's put "country first" NOW and stop choosing based on our deepest unstated "fears". Sorry Rush and Sean - it is no longer good enough to base your strategy to get us out of our challenges on appealing to fear and loathing.

(You go Joe)

The "ship" in this analogy is real conservatism and the "rats" are true conservatives who actually believe in core conservative principles.

Those who "claim" to be conservative clearly are not. Ronald Reagan raised taxes. Ronald Reagan did the "cut and run" thing with our troops in Lebanon. It took a Democrat president following Reagan to balance the budget and turn Republican deficits into a real surplus. It took another Republican/Conservative to increase spending, wipe out the surplus and preside over the largest increase in the size of the federal government we have seen and increased spending to levels heretofore unknown (since Ronald Reagan at least).

Then in the 2008 campaign Republicans nominate John McCain and true conservatives despaired. As David Frum pointed out "Mr. McCain is widely distrusted within his own party." The race was supposed to be about judgement and experience and, according to McCain: putting "country first." He actually was making great headway against Obama by hammering the "experience" argument......then he picked Sarah Palin and lost his most valuable weapon in fight for the presidency and demonstrated that he had lost his integrity and independence and was now pandering to the far-right conservative base of the Republican party.

This was, as they say, the beginning of the end:

Here is what one of the most respected conservative pundits (Peggy Noonan) has to say about Sarah Palin:

"In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism."

Another respected conservative voice (David Frum) added his thoughts:

"But the selection of Sarah Palin invites the question: How serious can he be if he would place such a neophyte second in line to the presidency? Barack Obama at least balanced his inexperience with Mr. Biden's experience. What is Mr. McCain doing?"

And yet another (Kathleen Parker):

"If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

And finally, the voice of all true conservatives, George Will:

"Palin is "obviously not qualified to be President,"

And the list goes on. While FOX News and the right-wing punditocracy blames it all on the left-wing media, the truth is that they are not willing to face the truth. They know this has nothing to do with the liberal media. For proof - compare the article cited above from Peggy Noonan with this column she wrote after Bush won in 2004:

She told the truth then and she is telling the truth now. Only difference is that now the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, and Ingraham do not like what she is saying and so, as they say....off with her head! Integrity matters to some, clearly it is a liability to others. That my friends (as John McCain would say) is the real problem we have. Look what happened to Christopher Buckly when he spoke out truthfully:

"This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that?"

Buckly was attacked. Noonan will be attacked. What would it be like if, instead of "killing the messenger" they actually listened to the message. It is powerful and it is important and failing to listen will mean that it will be dark days for Republicans for a very, very long time to come - indeed.

“My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”

The Palins' un-American activities | Salon

 John McCain's dishonorable campaign - Joan Walsh - Salon.com

No need to editorialize on this one - the man and is campaign are a disgrace.