Dick Armey Admits the "Death Panels" Are a Lie

I did not think it was possible for me to feel this pissed about politics anymore.

from the New York Times:

Armey prides himself on his intellect and rationality, but his years in Washington have taught him the political uses of irrationality and even outright fantasy. He told me he does not believe some of the most extreme charges that emerged in the debate over health care reform — for example, that “death panels” will tell elderly people when it’s time to die — but he welcomes the energy and passion that such beliefs bring to his side. “You know that expression: The enemy of my enemy is my friend?” he asked. “Are their fears exaggerated? Yeah, probably. But are Obama’s promises exaggerated? I may think it’s silly, but if people want to believe that,” he said, referring to death panels, “it’s O.K. with me.”

This is the main guy behind FreedomWorks - instigators of the Town Hall Hooligans of August. He's just launched a new website called DontKillGrandma.com!

So, Mr. Armey, how exactly does "their fears (are) exaggerated" square with "Dont Kill Grandma . com"?



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DARE them - state-by-state - to "opt out".

Pass the Public Option with an "opt out" - and DARE the Republicans state-by-state...to turn down what will quickly become a very popular program. It's one thing to be "the party of no" before insurance reform is passed. It's something else again to refuse, on principle, to participate after reform is the fact. Any Republican governor or state assembly person who refuses to let their constituents have access to government health insurance which most Americans enjoy will be severely punished for their righteousness.

"Opt-out" is much more than just a compromise to get more Democrats on board. It's the ultimate hammer on those who would "just say 'no'".

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LoveHerLiberally.com

Bigots for Equality!

Last week I posted the comments of a friend, a psychotherapist and reverend, who argued that statements like "Justice Sotomayor is a reverse racist", or that Obama-care will favor blacks over whites, or will give-away medical treatment to “illegals”, or that, as Glenn Beck proclaims, Obama has "a deep-seated hatred for white people", are all demonstrations of psychological projection. “Projection is never conscious”, she wrote, “and so is not deliberate. The person who projects sincerely believes that what they say about the other person applies.” Many here agreed. I believe the opposite.

The most virulent white supremacists have always hailed from the extreme Right, and the from the reddest states, like South Carolina, which Joe (you lie!) Wilson represents. Yet today hordes of politicians of Wilson’s ilk, and right-wing shock-jocks are holding themselves out to be defenders of equal rights!

This is the same conservative movement that instituted slavery and waged the Civil War to defend it. Then they brought us the Klu Klux Klan and Jim Crow, and fought tooth-and-nail against the Civil Rights Act, integration, affirmative action, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Now they itch for a global war against Arabs and demand a wall to keep out Mexicans.

There is nothing remotely subtle about their racism. Here’s Rush Limbaugh on Obama: “We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black, because this is the first black president." During the campaign he called Obama a “halfrican-American” who’s "only chance of winning… is that he's black", and that he’s "an affirmative action candidate". (citations and more quotes. 13 million Americans listen to Rush religiously.)

But now we should believe that they sincerely believe they are defending racial equality? Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity all warned that white males would be excluded from jobs created by the economic stimulus package. Why? Because Obama’s Labor Secretary said the plan should "include women and minorities ". (citation)

One thing – and only one thing - is absolutely consistent with conservative attitudes about race: they have always fought for white male power and prestige against any perceived threat. To believe that their recent warnings of reverse racism are anything but conscious and cynical lies would be foolish. And I’m not buying it.

In honor of their new-found love of equal rights DeadElephant.ORG offers a new slogan:



Click here to print this bumper-strip instantly - free. (opens a printable PDF!) 

Wearing Sandals to a Brawl

by their footwear shall ye know them.

Conservatism is an approach to life in which one’s securityis re maintained through dominance. Conservatives fetishize dominance in every form: of parents over children, men over women,
whites over non-whites, our nation over other nations, humans over animals, over wilderness, over the earth.

Consider the iconic footwear of the conservative: cowboy boots – otherwise known as “shit kickers”.






Cowboy boots were specifically invented for “giving the spurs”
to horses and for “punching cattle”.

In contrast, Liberalism is an approach to life in which
one’s security is maintained through peaceful coexistence.
Liberals believe in strength through peace, and preach
“conflict resolution”, cooperation, and bipartisanship.

The iconic footwear of the liberal is the sandal.



Relaxation is the raison d'etre of the sandal. Sandals are
designed for inaction, for passivity. We wear them when
we want to “kick back” and be “mellow”.

A conflict between boot-wearers and sandal-wearers is like a conflict between wolves and bunnies – more of a massacre than a fight.



(Note the predator’s narrow set eyes, for focusing on the attack, and the prey’s eyes on the sides of its head, so it can watch the attack arrive. Looking over my shoulder just now, my 11-year-old joked that the bunny looks like a “demi-cat”.)

Republicans today do not acknowledge our nation's duly-elected President. They scream that he’s not even a citizen, much less our President. They’re outraged that he would dare speak to our children in school, although Reagan and Bush-senior both did so. And they don’t even accord him the courtesy due any President, to address Congress without being heckled and hollered at.

Do not mistake this for mere criticism, however harsh, nor outrage, however intense. By their actions, today’s Republicans have broken the most essential covenant of any democracy: the consent of every citizen to be governed in accordance with elections.

Remember Al Gore, after the last appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, gracefully conceded the Presidency to George Bush. Despite election fraud. And a margin of just 600 votes.

Democrats don’t GET IT. Politically speaking, this is a fight to the death.

And we wore sandals to the brawl.

"a deep-seated hatred for white people"

Do you wonder what on earth makes paunchy old white guys like Glen Beck accuse our sharp, Harvard-educated consensus-building, moderate President of "reverse" racism against whites. There is NOTHING in his history or his policies that would give evidence for that. In psycho-jargon it's called “projection”. When you have feelings that you can't admit to, you project those feelings onto someone else – most often onto the very person who stirred the unacceptable feelings in you.

Projection is a common dysfunction, and can be observed often in family feuds, such as when an abusive husband accuses his wife of disrespect. What, after all, could be more disrespectful than his own abuse? Projection is not conscious, and so is not deliberate. The person who projects sincerely believes that what they say about the other person applies.

So these old white men have been unconsciously thinking, "Man, if my family and I had been treated the way we've treated Black folks for centuries, I sure would hate us. So here is this black guy with all this power, and well, of course he’s gonna use it for revenge. I would.” Hence the projection: Obama hates white people, because I would hate white people if I were Black.

But Obama is a better man than that, and, I might add, a truer Christian. He has more useful things to do than try to get revenge on anyone today for the injustices of the past. He would rather right past wrongs than continue them. If that sounds more like the Gospel message to you than anything Rush Limbaugh is promoting, take heed. Obama doesn’t hate any group. And neither does God.

---Hunter Roberts

A Close Election Could Open the Gates of HELL

This article origonally posted October 22, 2008



Three forces are driving a fast-approaching political fire-storm:

1) a contested election
2) a wide-spread lynch-mob mentality, and
3) economic collapse

If this election is anything less than a landslide for Obama, if it is not decisive – in fact, if the outcome is contestable to any degree – those three forces will become chaos multipliers, each feeding the others in a rapidly escalating fire-storm.

Contested Election
False hysteria over ACORN is part of a broader Republican effort to invalidate, in advance, an election they now realize they are likely to lose. So this election is already being contested. The Republican strategy abruptly shifted the week following the first debate, when polls of the limited number of remaining independents moved sharply towards Obama. Their new goal is to make the upcoming election as contestable as possible, to widen the margin of victory that can be called “a tie”, and to delegitimize Obama.

Lynch-mob Mentality
McCain and Palin stoke the rage - and calls to violence - that we’ve witnessed at Republican rallies, by their relentless focus on the non-issue of Ayers. Let’s be clear: their charge, that Obama “sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who would bomb their own country” flatly insinuates that Obama is an enemy to the United States - not that Obama is a poor choice for President, or wrong for America, or even that he is insufficiently patriotic, but that he is bent on doing grievous harm to our country. For those who accept McCain and Palin’s insinuations, to block Obama’s assumption of power by any means - including violence - is a patriotic duty. “Country First”, remember. McCain puts his personal anger, and his disdain for Obama, on public display. The crowds he gathers follow McCain’s example.

Economic Collapse
But McCain supporters aren’t the only angry Americans right now. Not by a long shot. Anybody who has a house, or a life-savings, has recently been robbed of half their net worth. On top of that, they’ve been bilked for a Wall Street bailout. People everywhere are pissed.

Our economy is on life-support. If we don’t know who’s going to be our President by, say, three days after the election, the patient will go into cardiac arrest. No one can say how much anger would arise at such a catastrophe. But Rightwing pundits like Rush Limbaugh are already telling us who to blame: black people.

Escalating Fire-storm
Blame black people, like those sub-prime mortgage deadbeats whom Democrats supposedly forced Fannie Mae to lend to. Blame black people who vote overwhelmingly for Obama. Blame black people, like Colin Powell, who’s endorsement of Obama was “obviously racist”. Blame black people in those southern swing states where the angry conservative whites have lots of practice at whipping up lynch mobs.

In the days after the hung-2000-election, Republican mobs descended on Florida to stop any re-count. Picture those mobs in the alarming context of 2008. How could anybody re-count the vote in the middle of a race riot?

Palin’s wistful ode to “the pro-America parts of this country” made clear her belief that those who oppose conservative values and conservative power are, by definition, anti-American. Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Savage, and all the other rock-stars of the Right, repeatedly make the same equation: Liberal = Traitor. So it’s not only Obama that’s an enemy. If you’re not a Republican, then YOU are an enemy. So expect the right-wing lynch mobs to treat you, and your vote, accordingly.

And of course, the Left will rise to the bait. As in 2000, and 2004, there will be loads of dirty Republican tricks on Election Day: caging, non-existent voting machines, extremely long lines for Democrats only, and electronic election theft on a massive scale. We won’t sit by while Republican mobs take control of the State Houses and County Seats where our votes are stored and counted. We’ll rise up to defend the integrity of elections, and to defend our President-elect.

In so doing, we will give George Bush the justification he needs to declare Martial Law. He has the sole authority to do so. He has recently stationed battle-hardened troops inside the US for this purpose. And - as a war criminal - he has every incentive. Indeed, if there were mass riots in multiple US cities during a contested election and an economic catastrophe, Bush would be be irresponsible if he did NOT to declare Martial Law. And, given that situation, the military, and law enforcement would back him up.

McCain’s Personal Responsibility
Losing to a handsome rookie is proving hard on the famously ill-tempered and hard-fighting old man McCain. Obama's race seems to make it harder still. So the recent uptick in “enthusiasm” (otherwise known as rage) at McCain rallies must be intoxicating to him. But McCain seems to have no concept of the conflagration that he is courting. He’s playing with fire, in a parched field of tall grass, on a hot day.

A firestorm, once set in motion, feeds itself. It generates its own fanning winds at hurricane force. A firestorm cannot be put out until it has consumed everything burnable within reach.

For the sake of our precious - if never-quite-perfect - freedom, let's make this election a landslide.




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Saks 5th Ave to introduce new designer clothing line: "Hocky Mom"

psych!