Made in America

A few thoughts on a beautiful April afternoon about the state of the union......

I noticed that Sarah Palin is starting to tell her crowds that she is not calling for violence although in response to an Alaska Militia, apparently training to overthrow the US Government, she used the phrase "not at this point." Perhaps the threefold increase in threats against political leaders had something to do with that. She and Michele Bachman got together in Minnesota and didn't have a thought between them...... If nothing else, that one is a former Governor and unsuccessful candidate for Vice-President and one is a Representative in the US Congress proves that in America anything is possible. I still don't get it....... I enjoyed watching Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, but this is ridiculous. And all their militaristic and murder and gun rhetoric - metaphors they say - provide the meta-narrative of their movement.

Nine violent Hutaree Christian Militia members were arrested recently.....tip of the iceberg I suspect. And they are about as "Christian" as Osama Bin Laden is "Islamic." Perverions of faiths are, well, perverted. Joe Conason speculates about a possible US "dirty war" and lists the growing numbers of politically and racist motivated threats against Democratic leaders which have now led to numerous arrests. Perhaps caught up in the "fun" of it all, the mentally disturbed are even threatening Republicans now. And the Tea Partiers continue to be against everything as far as I can tell, but what they are "for" remains a mystery. Even the anti-tax message gets pretty fuzzy when the numbers of Tea Partiers who receive government benefits or subsidies of one kind or another are factored in......... They appear to be mostly against other people getting subsidies or benefits. And a pretty sobering thought: I saw a video of Sean Hannity addressing one of his crowds who cheered when he mentioned Timothy McVeigh "wannabees," you know, that guy who killed 168 innocent people in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. You've got to be kiddingme......

The GOP has it Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans without ever mentioning George W. Bush's catastrophic handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath while Chile's new President Sebastian Pinera studies the failed response of the last Republican Administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina in order to do a better job of responding to the human needs following Chile's terrible earthquake just a weeks ago. "We don't want to make the same mistakes," Chilean Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno said. "The idea is to prevent..... what was done (so) poorly."

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell decides to launch Confederate History Month and forgets to mention slavery......oops. That idea of secession that pops up in Alaska and Texas and Virginia provides such a fun time for the perpetrators of the ever-shrinking pie of Southern Strategy that changed the south from Democratic to Republican a few years ago. Lee Atwater repented, but not many others.

And Barack Obama signed a treaty this week which will reduce nuclear arms in the world by about a third. President Reagan's Secretary of State George P. Schultz praises the treaty and says this is the legacy of Ronald Reagan and Dumb and Dumber mentioned above thoroughly and stupidly trashed the treaty while simultaneously worshiping at the throne of Ronald Reagan. Cognitive dissonance anyone? And something I don't understand is why in the world would President Obama sign off on an assassination order of an American citizen? What happened to the rule of "LAW" which he so eloquently expressed during his campaign? This is for me the biggest disappointment so far with our new President. On the other hand, I guess, if I were a militia plotting the overthrow of the US government, this might make me a bit more nervous.

A dust-up between President Obama and the thoroughly corrupt possibly drug-addicted President of Afghanistan causes Liz Cheney to go ballistic in defense of Afghan President Karzai, who was so completely ignored by her Dad's administration that that country sank into, I fear, an irretrievable drug induced anarchy of corruption and war lords while His Royal Highness Karzai (pun intended) goes about his merry way as Mayor of Kabul. How much Kabullsh** should we take anyway? And I don't get why Ms. Cheney is so upset in general given that our President decided early on not to prosecute her dad for war crimes and has quietly adopted so many of the worst Cheney/Bush policies in regard to enemy combatants, etc., etc...... She should be grateful, not bellicose.

The stock market is hitting new highs every month during the Obama administration, corporate profits are up, but unemployment remains high --jobs remain hard to find, although I personally have four. I do wish I could find one, though.

So there you go.....on this April afternoon.

ps. My son is going to Bellevue East's prom tonight, and boy, does he look good in a tuxedo!