Why does “Restoring America” make me nervous? Why do words like that, coupled with lots of flag-waving and angry crowds make me more nervous?

Having watched the replays of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring America” rally, let’s start with what we didn’t see. Glenn didn’t bring his chalkboard to the rally this time. He didn’t bring up his conspiracy theories and left his Malia and Sasha impressions back on his radio show. The tea-partiers in the audience played along and left their signs home for the most part, so we didn’t get to see pictures of President Obama with a Hitler mustache. After all, with the amount of publicity this rally generated, Glenn had to keep his act clean.

So what did we see? Glenn Beck has seen religion. That’s nothing new, but he put a lot of emphasis on it in this rally; the subject brought him to tears (I know, shocking.) There was the usual flag-waving and adulation of the military. Also, there were heaping helpings of stories and quotes from the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and other historical figures.

But the thing I noticed the most, which gets the hair standing up on the back of my neck, and should be getting yours standing up as well, was the heavy dose of palingenetic rhetoric.  Follow me to find out why…

» Continue reading “Glenn Beck’s Rally of Palingenesis: Why does “Restoring America” make me nervous?”

This will be a relatively short diary, but I couldn’t pass up sharing what James Zogby wrote on the Huffington Post:

James Zogby: Frightening GOP Behavior

Before dashing off to celebrate a hard fought victory in achieving health care reform, it is important to reflect on a deeply disturbing aspect of the debate that I believe spells danger ahead.

A Republican talking point repeated ad nauseam during yesterday’s debate pounded on the theme that they, and they alone, had the right to speak for “the will of the American people.” This took different forms: “the American people have spoken,” or “you (Democrats) are ignoring/imposing your views on the American people” or “the American people have sent a message,” etc. All making the same point — that the GOP speaks for the American people.

» Continue reading “James Zogby Sums Up GOP Authoritarianism”

And now: a letter, a hotel registration book, and a series of photographs, which could add up to divorce, premature retirement, and possible criminal proceedings for a company director in Bromsgrove.  He’s a freemason, and a conservative M.P., so that’s 3,000 pounds please Mr. S… thank you… to stop us from revealing:
Your name
The name of the three other people involved,
The youth organization to which they belonged,
and The shop where you bought the equipment!

Blackmail! from Monty Python’s Flying Circus

OK, So Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in the Senate knew about the torture going back to 2002. The CIA’s making a point of leaking that information so we know about this. Can I ask a question?

What could Nancy Pelosi or other Democrats have done back when Bush was in charge?

» Continue reading “The Point of Bushie and CIA Briefing Congress on Torture: Blackmail.”

“The Republicans are fascists!” “The Democrats are fascists!” “Barack Obama’s a fascist!” “Newt Gingrich is a fascist!” Fascism is probably one of the most overused pejoratives in politics, and most who use it don’t know its true meaning. You want to know what real fascism is? The actual academic definition? I just read David Neiwert’s new book The Eliminationists, and that book brought up probably the best actual definition of what fascism is.

» Continue reading “Just what the hell is fascism anyways?”

Let’s face it.  The teabaggers Just Don’t Get It.  Right now, the Founding Fathers are all facepalming in their graves.  And they’ve never heard of the double-entendres and sexual references that have us snickering today.  And I’m not even addressing the racism or fascism or any of the other half-baked right-wing nonsense we’re seeing at today’s Teabaggings.

So let’s go over junior high school history again…

» Continue reading “You can’t have a real tea party without property damage!”

OK, I get it.  Letting these nests of vipers collapse under their own weight just isn’t a viable option.  They’re too big to fail.  Letting them go bankrupt would be like crossing the streams and result in total protonic reversal.  I understand that.  But at the same time, is it really too much to ask that all that free money that we, the taxpayers, are giving them come with some strings attached?

To be specific, I want three conditions in exchange for the bailout money.

» Continue reading “Three conditions I want in exchange for the bank, AIG and other bailouts…”

I don’t always do a Democratic Milquetoast every week.  Partially this is because there isn’t always a good candidate, but mostly, it’s because I’m lazy.  At any rate, this week, my winner isn’t even a Democrat.  He’s RNC Chairman Michael Steele!  His utter spinelessness early this week while sparring with right-wing hate jock Rush Limbaugh demands that I award him with the Milquetoast award – it was that epic!

» Continue reading “Not-So-Democratic Milquetoast of the Week: Michael Steele”

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I made this like Mister Jindal photochop.  Call it another one of my minor talents that I’ve cultivated from time to time.  I figure that if Bobby Jindal is going to speak to the nation as if we’re four years old, I’ll compare him to another figure on TV that talks like that (except Mr. Rogers’ intended audience actually was four-year-olds.)

Won't you be my neighbor, Mister Jindal?

Let me tell you a secret.  I wasn’t always as liberal as I am today.  I used to be a libertarian, and I used to vote for Republicans at least as often as I voted for Democrats.  Now I won’t vote for a Republican for dog catcher.  What happened.  What drove me away from the GOP?

» Continue reading “Mr. Jindal’s Neighborhood: What’s gone wrong with the GOP?”

There’s speech you disagree with.  There’s speech you find distasteful, disrespectful, obnoxious.  Everybody finds something out there that they find offensive.  But you get used to it.  On the Internet in particular, there’s little to shelter you from those with sharp tongues, so you grow a thick skin.

And then, just when you think you’re too jaded to take offense at anything anymore, there’s this…

There are just so many things that are wrong with this cartoon.  There’s the flagrant racism.  There’s the veiled call to violence – specifically, a veiled call to assassinate the President of the United States.  What’s most disgusting is that so many people, including influential people in the media and government, think this should be a legitimate part of American discourse, and think we should “go there” all the time.

Let me add to the chorus of Americans who are saying WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!!

New York Post, Sean Delonas, and Rupert Murdoch, you’ve taken vileness to the next level.  This is despicable.