…while Fox worries that the liberal Utopians will press the country toward a civil war, ABC has a different concern.

-Balancing Reality With Hope

Obama’s presidency has been marked
by a conspicuous absence of hope.

From the man who ran a successful presidential campaign on a message of hope has come a more sobering tone less than two months after taking office…has Obama become too negative?

This is really annoying. This has gone past being amusing because the right is hammering on this hysteria non-stop: the world is coming to an end. We are all about to die. They’re absolutely serious: the faltering of the American economy and the government’s Stalinist liberal fascist tactics put the nation on the road to inevitable insurrection, all-out carnage, civil war. Armageddon.

What’s scary isn’t the future, it’s these right-wing spasms. If the networks do enough of this stuff, someone will start to believe it. Soon enough, people will scream bloody murder if the government so much as sneezes.

The truth is that loons are obsessed with power, and when it’s not theirs, it’s a mortal threat. If they don’t call the shots, the shots that are being called must be aimed at them. Why, I don’t know, probably just narcissism.

George W. Bush can put together a tax-cut bill that costs $1.2 trillion, and that’s a good idea. Obama can put together a tax-cut-and-infrastructure bill that costs $800 billion, and you better join a militia because someone is coming to cut your head off.

The tip-off to the stupidity is right up front, in the initial scenario:

—————————-FINANCIAL MELTDOWN—————————
——————————–THE YEAR IS 2014——————————-
———–ALL U.S. BANKS HAVE BEEN NATIONALIZED————-
———————–UNEMPLOYMENT AT 12-20%————————-
———————THE DOW IS TRADING AT 2800———————–
—————REAL ESTATE MARKET HAS COLLAPSED—————-
—-GOVERNMENT AND UNIONS CONTROL MOST BUSINESS—

Liberal steroetypes and the disintegration of society are exactly the same thing. Notice that ‘bad for business’ is also equated to The Apocalypse, pretty telling. I suppose when you’re this touchy, once a Democrat gets elected you’d better retreat to the War Room.

Barack, incidentally, has been president for 39 days.

Boy, that was fast: ‘brilliant’ southern state Governor President-to-Be one minute, red-headed stepchild of the political world the next. You know you’re cooked when ‘Kenneth the Page’ is discussed more seriously than you.

Travis Barker gets in a little snare work.

But plenty of creepy, right-wing style: 13 year-old Jonathan Krohn wows the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Somehow, I don’t see a 13-year-old philosopher/pundit bowling over, say, an ACLU conclave. Wonder why…

Michael Steele is the GOP’s new national party chairman, and he is one funny dude. Me, I love the guy because every time he steps up to a microphone, another ‘whack’ thing comes flying out of his mouth.

Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, in an interview with the Washington Times, says he’s planning an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract young blacks and Hispanic voters…

“We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

He thinks that he can renew the Republicans’ image and popularity by pimping the party. He’s gonna re-make the House of Reagan into a political ‘crib’, a place where young, rap-lovin’ hipsters can hang. And rip Barack Obama all day, presumably, between cucumber sandwiches and bong hits.

The idea, of course, is freaking hilarious. Check it:

“…some slum love out to my buddy–Gov. Bobby Jindal is doing a friggin’ awesome job in his state…”

Unless I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew, ‘wingnuts’ and ‘slum love’ go together like wood chippers and Egyptian mummies. But, hey, Louisiana Governor Jindal, Steele is feelin’ you. Which is a change from previous times where, if you were a New Orleans hooker, on any Saturday night a Republican Senator clad in a diaper would really be feeling you. More:

Steele told Politico after the town hall that the whole economic recovery package “is just a wish list from a lot of people who have been on the sidelines for years … to get a little bling, bling.”

Is it me? I don’t recall any earmarks for kingly jewelry. Shoot, he’s just trying too hard. C’mon Michael, you don’t really have to use the lingo all the time, why not just try some when it’s appropriate…

…loudly announcing at CPAC that they messed up, and pledging to do better now…

…like here, where something pithy might go a long way in taking responsibility for the party’s ruining the nation…

“Tonight, we tell America: we know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad,” said Steele.

Well, at least that’s honest, straightforward. Gotta admit it, that’s a new sound for the Republicans. As is that whirring under your feet: William F. Buckley turning his coffin into a high-speed auger. That old coot might not appreciate this ‘urban’-ing of his people, might object to it all with some rhetorical dagger like “You, sir, are buggin’.”

Oh well. Times have changed, it’s true, and people have to change along with them. Thank god, though, the party isn’t on-board with this hipster makeover because that means there will be plenty more of this brazen hilarity to come.

But then, y’know, crazy people can be pretty easily convinced of almost anything; perhaps Steele’s new attitude will catch like wildfire in the weedy right fields of conservatism. So be it, I can echo kiss-a-loon Michelle Bachman’s props and say “Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man!”

What a great guy, no wonder he’s famous.

Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot ‘em. And there’d be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xXSKCH7oJE]

People think this sort of talk is patriotic.

just like it says

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEHY_Xfk7No]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTfBpKzu6XA]

…how good the Pat Travers Band was around ’80?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6JA6X25g9M]

The denial’s a joke, the front is keeling. Tasers flat kill people: the cops were suckered, were badly trained. The weapon is dangerous.

Taser victim Iman Morales’ kin file
$10 million suit against city, cops

The family of a Brooklyn man who died after police Tasered him is suing the city, a cop and the estate of another officer who killed himself for $10 million.

Relatives of Iman Morales, 35, want the money and a review of police protocols and training in the use of Tasers.

“He didn’t deserve any of this,” said Morales’ mother, Olga Negron, 55, who was at the scene when her mentally ill son was struck and then fell headfirst from a ledge onto the concrete 10 feet below. “It was horrible.”

We live in strange times. The wingnuts actually think it’s cute to be openly racist. Over and over, they keep saying “c’mon, it’s just funny.”

Mayor is criticized for White House
watermelon patch e-mail

LOS ALAMITOS – The mayor has sent an apology for an e-mail sent to a local businesswoman and community volunteer that she says is racist and offensive.

Keyanus Price, an African American, said she was appalled when she received an e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose’s personal account that showed a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden.

“I was horrified when I read that e-mail,” Price said. “What I’m concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?”

Being a public official, Price said, made the matter worse…

Grose’s e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, “No Easter Egg hunt this year.”