Tea Partiers

"This bill is the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the nineteen years I have been here in Washington"

John Boehner
November 5, 2009

The greatest threat to freedom in nineteen years? Oh, dear!

I derive a great deal of pleasure from doing what I do. But there are a few points of extreme unpleasantness to be sure. One of these is the fact that I am forced to spend a lot of time thinking about people like John Boehner. The greatest threat to freedom in nineteen years? Where was this asshole on September 11, 2001? Or when the Patriot Act was passed for that matter. Where was this fool in 2000 when the Supreme Court put a stop to the vote counting in the state of Florida and installed the Bush Mob in the White House? The greatest threat to freedom in nineteen years? Have another sip, Mr. Faux Tan Man.

Another convention of half-witted, pissed-off and clueless white people stormed into Washington, DC yesterday determined to destroy the type of health care reform that - if it goes into effect - will surely save the lives of most of the protesters who were in attendance (or their loved ones). It was the sort of weird, indescribable spectacle that makes the train-wreck of American politics (not to mention the got-busting stupidity of so many Americans) such a perverse delight to behold these days. Let's face it: crazy people are always loads of fun to watch - and the jackasses who showed up in Washington yesterday didn't disappoint.

At least one person held up a huge sign that showed a pile of bodies, victims of the European holocaust of the thirties and forties. Above this gruesome reminder of humanity's capacity for evil were the words:

NATIONAL SOCIALIST HEALTH CARE - DACHAU, GERMANY, 1945

Isn't that sweet? That seems to be quite a popular thing to do these days - equating anything connected with this administration and this president to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. It kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? But the highlight of the day (for my money anyway) was Congressman John Boehner. He held up a copy of what he claimed was his own personal copy of the Constitution and proceeded to quote from "it":

"We hold these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal."

That's not from the Constitution, Johnny. That's from the Declaration of Independence - which was written thirteen years earlier! Were we able to go back in time to 1966 - when I was in the third grade - I could have told you that then, too. When we've gotten to a point where our elected representatives can't even get basic American history right, we're in, as Harry Truman liked to say, "one hell of a fix."

"KILL THE BILL! KILL THE BILL!"

The crowd (which was invited to the event by everyone's favorite extremist poster girl, Michele Bachmann, during an appearance on FOX Noise) could have been hired form Central Casting for all anyone knows. Although some of the signs they held up were crude, homemade affairs, a number of them were professionally made and more-than-likely distributed by the politicians who planned the event. The size of the crowd was estimated by the police to be between three and four-thousand people. Examining all of the news footage I could, I did not see any African American faces among the protesters. That is not meant to imply that there were none there - I am most certain that there were a handful of token Uncle Toms placed in strategic locations throughout. There always are:

"Hee! Hee! Hee! Oh, Mistah White Folks, you sho' is sly!!!"

"I would love to have every one of your viewers join me so that we can go up and down through the halls. Find members, look at the whites of their eyes and say, 'Don't take away my heath care.'"

Michele Bachmann
October 30, 2009

"The whites of their eyes"??? As in: "Don't shoot until you see...."??? What the hell is it with this imbecilic woman and her penchant for violent language? This is the same idiot who less than a year ago said on national television that she wanted to keep people "armed and dangerous" on the subject of taxation. Nice!

What is happening (just in case you failed to notice) is that many of the far-right extremists - within Congress and without - are inciting the brainless masses to violence. Does that sound overly alarmist on my part? As Eliza Doolittle said in My Fair Lady, "Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait." Given the current explosive atmosphere which certain Republican members of Congress have made possible with their irresponsible, inflammatory rhetoric, another domestic terrorist incident akin to what happened in Oklahoma City in 1994 is not only possible - it's damned-near inevitable.

When that happens - Oh, brother! - watching the Republican spin machine surge into overdrive will be quite amusing to say the least. Mark my words: there will be more-than-a-few sleepless nights at Rupert Murdoch's media corporation. Trying to pin the blame for something like that on the Liberals is going to be a tad tricky to say the least. But so brazen are these people you can be sure that they'll give it the old college try. I can see it now....

A small organization of disgruntled Birthers decide that they are going to save their beloved nation from the Big, Black, Bolshevik Bogeyman. They concoct a scheme to blow up a government building in - South Bend, Indiana; Davenport, Iowa; Goshen, NY - take your pick. They make their move just when people are arriving for work. Over one-thousand men, women and children perish in the massive explosion. All of this is done in the name of Jesus Christ, by the way. Go figure.

That night Glenn Beck will look his viewers in the eye and say:

"My friends, can't you see how the evil left wing is driving the good citizens of our beloved country CRAZY?"

The following afternoon, Rush Limbaugh will literally be foaming at the mouth - a side effect from psychopathic, righteous indignation and habitual narcotics abuse:

"I lay the carnage of yesterday's massacre at YOUR DOORSTEP, Liberals! You did this to the good people of [South Bend, Davenport, Goshen]! Their blood is on YOUR hands!"

Would something as horrible as another homicidal attack on our government by a Tim McVeigh wannabe spell certain doom for the loony right wing? More than likely. When that happens, the American people will finally have had enough - which once again proves the old adage that behind every dark cloud there is indeed a silver lining.

As Uncle Bobby Zimmerman once said in a slightly different context, a hard rain's a-gonna fall, baby.

Tom Degan
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:

I apologize for the lag between the last posting and this one. I have been in the process of moving to a new location and have been consumed by the effort. Between the years 1989 and 1996, I moved at least once a year. In 1993 I moved twice! I don't know how I found the strength to do it.

This is my first piece written from my new home - smack dab across the street from an adult book store and a tattoo parlor - a perfectly lovely location. I moved into the place and property values actually went up - that's how bad the neighborhood is! The house is very nice, though. 2590 Route 17M, Goshen, New York. Stop by sometime.

A Plea from Tracy Murphy

Tracy Murphy has a smile that literally radiates love - love of life, love of humanity, love of animals - everything. It is a smile you can read at night by. She is an animal rights activist from Cheektowaga, NY, which is just outside Buffalo. Recently this good and decent woman became incensed at the presence in that city of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus.
`
You would think that by the first decade of the twenty-first century, human beings might have evolved to the point where we would be able to share the planet with the animals that were also placed on this earth by God. I believe that they were not put here merely to amuse us or to feed us. Tracy Murphy shares that belief - passionately - and in an articulate voice which I won't even attempt to paraphrase.

The following is a composite of two different letters she recently wrote. One was to Mayor Byron Brown and the city council of Buffalo, the other was on the website, wnymedia.com:
`
The Ringling Circus has left town, and I am here dumbfounded as to why we allow a business to perform in Buffalo that is clearly abusive to Asian elephants, an endangered species, as well as many other exotic and domestic animals. The inhumane treatment toward animals with whips, blow torches and bull hooks has been documented for years by many animal welfare agencies. Currently there is a Federal lawsuit against Ringling for illegal abusive treatment toward a protected endangered species, the elephants.

The animals are clearly kept in bondage and suffer greatly every day of their lives. Why can we not reach into our sense of common decency and ban these circuses with animals? I ask all of you this question and so do many others:

http://wnymedia.net/wnymedia/brianzabka/2009/10/peta-protests-the-circus/

I care deeply for these elephants, as well as all the animals that are exploited in these circuses. I am not ashamed to stand up for every one of them, and if it takes standing on the street corners of Buffalo to collect thousands of petition signatures to help these animals, I will peacefully and proudly do that. I cannot think of any other way I would want to spend the rest of my life.

As Martin Luther King, Jr said, "One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Unfortunately, many people do not know who how brutal elephants and bears and other animals are treated in the Circus. During the show, everyone is smiling and happy. The animals seem like they are enjoying themselves with their trainers and having fun as well. This is the image that Ringling wants us to see. However, there is a dark side to the Ringling circus. The Asian elephants are chained for 19 hours a day where they can only lean forward and stand in their own urine. The bears have it just as bad and are kept in tiny cages, hardly having enough room to even turn around. These animals do become neurotic and it is evidenced in undercover video footage taken by many animal welfare agencies. Signs of neurotic behavior (going mad) are elephants and bears swaying their heads back and forth.

All of this is documented and can be viewed at the website:

http://www.circuses.com.

When not in their prisons or bonded to heavy chains, they are being trained with the most cruel methods imaginable. Elephants are violently struck with a long handle with a sharp hook on the end. This is called a bullhook, and it tears into the sensitive skin of the elephant. The beatings are violently repeated until the elephant does the trick its trainer wants to be performed. Even after the training session, the trainers continue to beat the elephant with the bullhook to “keep them in line.”

There is no special bond between a trainer and an elephant as Ringling would want you to believe. There is only pain and suffering between a slave holder and slave. The bears do not have it any better. They are struck as well so they can perform tricks. But for a bear to jump through a hula hoop takes special effort. So the trainers burn the bottom of the bears' feet so they jump. This is the kind of suffering we indeed support if we go to the circus.

This is not about tradition. As Albert Schweitzer once said, “The thinking person must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another...."
`
Let freedom ring for these animals. Let freedom ring.

Tracy Murphy

Wish I'd said that, Lady Tracy! Animals cannot speak for themselves. They are damned lucky they have you speaking out on their behalf.

Love and Peace,

Tom Degan

TRACY MURPHY'S REQUIRED READING:

Animals, Properties and the Law
by Gary Francione

In an e-mail I received this afternoon, Tracy told me:

"Gary is a distinguished professor of law at Rutger's University - a very smart man. I think this would be a good book to help open everyone's eyes to the little (or should I say "no") legal protection animals have. He bases that on the moral reasons animals should have rights and must not be considered property. If we continue to view animals as property, then we will never change our mindset toward them. Much like slavery and how slaves were once considered property. I still cannot believe we once did that in this country."

Something to Think About

They're actually starting to say it! The amazing thing to me is that they're saying it with faces as straight as a two-by-four! I paraphrase:

"We [the GOP] will take the House of Representatives back from the evil 'Democrat' party next year."

Note to Michael Steele: It's the evil "Democratic" party, you simmering twit!

Their hope to regain control of the legislative branch is beyond mere wishful thinking, it is delusional. So far removed from the main stream of political discourse has that party moved since 1964, it is in serious danger of falling off the face of the earth. As someone remarked not very long ago, "That's not a political party; that's a cult." In a recent newsletter written by Michael Moore (link below) he presented an action plan called, "Fifteen Things Americans Can Do Right Now". When it was published this morning on AlterNet, I offered a sixteenth thing we can do: "STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN!"

I then posted something I wrote on this site over three years ago. Here it is again with only minor editing:

TWENTY REASONS NOT TO VOTE FOR THE GOP

1. They have cut the throats of the poor and the middle class.

2. They have looted our national treasure.

3. They have abandoned their constituency in favor of a multi-national corporate behemoth and an out-of-control military industrial complex.

4. They have created a global, geo-political catastrophe in the Middle East that will take at least a century to remedy.

5. They have shoveled a generation of American children into an untenable slaughterhouse in Iraq.

6. They have engendered an economic nightmare so immense that generations yet unborn will still be bearing its burden.

7. They have sold our nation's soul to the highest corporate bidder. They have made a mockery of the First Amendment.

8. They have squandered a trillion-plus dollar surplus with a tax cut for a class of people who didn't need it.

9. They have gutted vital social programs that aid the poor and the elderly which have been in place for over seventy years.

10 They have gutted laws meant to protect working men and women.

11. They have plundered the environment.

12. They have depleted our educational system.

13. They have hijacked this nation's political dialogue.

14. They have ruined our international reputation.

16. They have handed our domestic agenda over to religious fanatics.

17. They have stolen two national elections.

18. They have trampled on our constitution.

19. They have denied voting rights to people of color in at least two states in the last nine years.

20. They have sent our Bill of Rights through the sausage grinder....

They must never - EVER - be allowed to govern our country again.

The grand old party is over.

And to think it used to be known as "the party of Lincoln"! Sheriff? Looks like we got one dead elephant here. And why are the Democrats acting so damned complacent? Don't they realize that they're next? The time is coming when we will have a real "party of the people". When that day dawns, the Dems and the GOP will be just an unpleasant memory - like a long ago New Year's morning hangover.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Here is a link to Michael Moore's call to action:

http://www.alternet.org/action/143444/michael_moore%27s_action_plan_15_things_every_american_can_do_right_now/?page=2

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Our friend Kitty Bruce, the beloved daughter of my favorite comedian, the late, great Lenny Bruce, is holding an auction of her father's personal possessions in order to raise money for Lenny's House, a shelter for women with a history of substance abuse issues. The last day of the auction is October 28. Here is a link to her official site where you can view the items up for bid:

http://www.lennybruceofficial.com/

You can also make a donation to help support Lenny's House by sending a check to:

The Lenny Bruce Memorial Foundation
PO Box 1089
Pittston, PA 18640-5802

"I am not a comedian and I am not sick. The world is sick and I'm the doctor. I'm a surgeon with a scalpel for false values. I don't have an act. I just talk. I'm just Lenny Bruce."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/keep-going-republicans-yo_b_329160.html

Health Care and Woe

"Wonderful. The 13 Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee get one faintly rational Republican to join them in a meaningless stab at health care reform and it throws the media into a titillated frenzy about what it all means. It means very little."

Very little indeed. That was the first paragraph of an article that was posted on AlterNet this morning by Robert Scheer. This isn't reform. This is merely an early Christmas present to the insurance companies. Once again you and I have been sold down the river by our elected representatives. Are We the People going to take this lying down? The answer to that question is - sadly and most probably - yes.

Home of the brave? Please.

And incredibly the Democrats are still contently walking around under the delusion that they remain the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Their shameful and disgusting behavior this week is yet another reminder (as if another reminder was really needed) that that pathetic party needs to be completely overhauled - or destroyed. In homage to Matt Taibbi's book of four years ago, that donkey needs a good spanking - or maybe it needs to be shot. Let me think this over....

Were you aware of the fact that in countries like England, France and Canada, people over the age of sixty-five are advised not to vacation in the United States because if they get sick or injured over here it could cost them everything? That is the nasty little reality of the America of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Don't believe the Conservatives when they try to make you believe that they hate our guts Over There. Europe doesn't hate America. Actually they love the contributions the US has made to the rest of the world. Let's face facts here: how dreary would this poor old planet be without good old rock 'n' roll, James Dean and Billie Holiday? They really do love America and the American people - it's our government that they can't stand. In fact - and I'm going to go out on a limb here - they hate our government almost as much as the Conservatives do.

My younger brother Jeff is the shame of the Degan family. He not only lives in France, he actually likes it there. He has a French wife and two gorgeous little French daughters (Je vous, les enfants!) Honestly I think the guy is a closet communist. He wears a goatee that is similar to Lenin's - shameful. Back in August, in a letter to his fellow countrymen and women regarding the sorry state of the American health care system - or "Hell Care" as he referred it it (What a card!) - he summed it up by saying:

"In short, in the US, you pay more, get less, and die younger than we do in Europe. What part of that don't you understand?

Well, hey there! That's a danged good question! What part of that don't we understand? Why is it that so many of us have to be dragged, kicking and screaming like half-witted little preschoolers, into the brave new world of change? What the hell is the matter with us anyway? How can it be that such a huge number of Americans cheerfully join movements of mass stupidity and salivate on cue to the sound of Dr. Glenn "Pavlov" Beck's bell?

Once again our representatives in Washington have demonstrated to us that they are far more susceptible to the limitless resources of cash that are pouring in from the insurance and pharmaceutical companies than to the needs of the American people. They don't give a flying fuck about us. Again, to quote my France-loving, commie brother: "What part of that don't you understand?" You say you want a revolution? Well, you know....

As long as they are able to keep us distracted and divided - left against right, black against white, day against night - they'll only continue to do the will of their highest corporate bidders. You and I don't even have a goddamned dog in this fight any longer. For the first time in our history, we could have had the kind of national health insurance that has kept the good people of merrie old England healthy and happy for sixty-three years now! But the only contribution to the discussion from far-too-many Americans is to jump up and down and scream about Socialism. Does it surprise you that the rest of the Industrialized world can only look upon us with a combined sense of pity and amusement? It shouldn't, you know. It really shouldn't.

Bed Knobs and Death Panels

I was struck with a profound sense of optimism almost a year ago when the people sent to the White House an intelligent and qualified man who happened to be an African American. Lately, though, that hope has been dwindling. What needs to happen is this: we, the Haves, need to start educating the Have Nones (I am referring to intellect here). Sooner or later it has to dawn on these nutty people that their "leaders" only care about what benefits the obscenely wealthy. That is their constituency. They're just looking out for Number One.

"And Number One ain't you
You ain't even Number Two"

Frank Zappa

One of these days our ideologically challenged brothers and sisters will wake up from the right wing coma they've been snoozing under for the last thirty years and realize that they've been getting screwed. I think it's safe to say that Liberals and Conservatives both hate the government. The stark difference is this: Liberals want to fix it. Conservatives want to destroy it. Never forget the often quoted goal of Conservative strategist and guru, Grover Norquist: their aim is to shrink the government down to the size where they will be able to "drown it in a bathtub." At a time when our population has exceeded the quarter-of-a-billion mark, the very idea of doing away with government is beyond ill advised - it's nuts. In the good old days they were called "Anarchists'. Today they go by the name, "Republican".

Big government? It's a big country. Think about it.

I don't know what kind of health care reform will come out of this session, but I strongly suspect it won't be much. There is, however a silver lining behind this very dark cloud. I am reminded of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Don't be embarrassed if you've never heard of it, there really isn't a hell of a lot to remember about it; a mere pittance, really - a scrap of leftovers tossed out to "American Negros" (in the parlance of the age) in order to appease them. But it made the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - the one we remember - all-the-more easier seven years later.

We'll live to fight another day.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:

My friend Veronique Marchal and some of her like-minded friends have started a new website. Veronique is French-born (Just what is it about those people?) The site's motto is: "We provide the WHEN, WHERE and HOW to address social and political issues. You provide the WHO and WHY". Here's a link:

www.andactiononline.com

The site, which is called And Action....Now! is in the developing stages at the moment but shows great promise. C'mon, folks! Be the first one on your block to sign up!

TERRORIST BOMBS MOON!

By the light of the silvery moon
I want to spoon to my honey
I'll croon love's tune
Honeymoon, keep a'shining in June
Your silvery beams will bring love's dreams
We'll be cuddling soon
By the silvery moon

THIS JUST IN: The moon - that nocturnal inspiration to poets and lovers for centuries - was suddenly and deliberately attacked two hours ago by the notorious Muslim terrorist, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, and his co-conspirators within THE GOVERNMENT.

A clear message has been sent by this radical jihadist to good and decent people everywhere. There is no room for misinterpretation: if they can target the moon - THE MOON! - in such a ghastly and unprovoked matter, it proves - conclusively - that Main Street is not safe. All of us are vulnerable to their insidious wickedness and villainy. Our children must be protected from the radical, hideous agenda of this man and his vile administration. Mark my words, my fellow Americans - today the moon, tomorrow Anytown, USA. OH, THE HUMANITY!

Where will it all end? What sinister plans does he have in store for Christendom? Don't say you weren't warned, America! Don't you dare say you weren't given ample notice of this Kenyan-born extremist's evil intentions for us. I can see it now: Death Panels! Communist Medicine! An abortion clinic in every public school! Generations of innocent American schoolchildren forced to memorize entire paragraphs of the autobiography of Malcolm X! I have seen the future, my friends. It is bleak. Very, very bleak.

Who did this to this grand and glorious land of ours, you may well ask? THE DEMOCRAT PARTY DID THIS TO US! Teddy Kennedy wasn't content to leave this earth without a final assault on the sensibilities of good Conservatives everywhere. He and Barack HUSSEIN Obama concocted the planned attack on our precious moon in a conspiracy so heinous it staggers rational belief. Almost at the moment this lunar holocaust was getting underway, it was announced in Oslo, Norway (OSLO, NORWAY!) that this illegitimate, Barbara Streisand-loving, french fry-eating, birth certificate-concealing Chicago politician had received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Coincidence? I wonder....

Let us stray till break of day
In love's valley of dreams
Just you and I, a summer sky
A heavenly breeze kissing the trees
So don't let me wait
Come to me tenderly in the June night
I stand and I wait
For the touch of your hand in the moonlight
I bring you and I sing you
A moonlight serenade

The moon - that brilliant, seemingly-eternal beam of heavenly solace; that wondrous and mystical light from which has illuminated the nighttime voyages of travelers for untold millennium - has fallen victim to the agenda of Barack HUSSEIN Obama and his compatriots in the far Left Wing. This group will only be happy when they have destroyed all that is kind and gentle about the nation we love so dearly; the nation that an entire generation of Confederate soldiers laid down their lives for. No one is safe from their dastardly intentions - not you; not I; not our children; not their cute little pets with names like "Fluffy" and "Rascal" - no one, I say.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the Republican party. We must seize our nation from the grasp of these naughty evil-doers. The mid-term elections are only thirteen months away. These nasty, cretinous mongers of Liberalism must be defeated in November of 2010 - at all and any costs. One-hundred years from today, our great-grandchildren - who will never even know our names - will get down on their knees and thank Heaven above that we who live in these perilous times acted boldly and decisively against the humanistic onslaught of Liberalism. We owe it to them, my fellow countrymen. At the very least we owe that to them.

You're all dressed up to go dreaming
Now don't tell me I'm wrong
What a night to go dreaming!
Mind if I tag along?
If I say I love you
I want you to know
It's not just because there's moonlight although
Moonlight becomes you so....

The Moon - that celestial wonder that has touched the heart of humanity since the dawn of time; that timeless beacon in the night, forever stirring the artist and vagabond alike; that gentle light in the darkness that guides us home from our endless journeys - has been violated. VIOLATED, I TELL YOU! We must see to it for the sake of generations unborn that Barack HUSSEIN Obama and his ruthless cabal of nattering, negative nabobs are punished - beyond the limits of the law - for their crimes against Americanism, motherhood and apple pie. There is nothing these heathen haters-of-America will stop at in order to bring us to our knees before the alter of their Socialist cathedral. Heed my warning, fellow citizens. You ignore me at your own mortal peril.

So I stood with a knot in my stomach
And I gazed at that terrible sight
Of two youngsters concealed in a barrel
Drinking Monkberry Moon Delight

But seriously, folks....

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

Goodnight Moon
by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Happy birthday in Heaven to John Lennon who would have turned sixty-nine-years-old today. Imagine.

AFTERTHOUGHT 10/13/09:

And to the late, great Lenny Bruce, who would have turned eighty-four today. YADDAH! YADDAH! YADDAH, WARDEN!

The Great White Joke

Eric Cantor is planning on making a run for it in 2012. Of course it goes without saying that he's never going to get the nomination. That is beyond a foregone conclusion; that is as much of a no-brainer as saying that the sun will set this evening in the west. The religious bigots that now control the Republican party - the so-called "base" - will never - EVER - nominate a Jew as their standard bearer. You can bet next month's mortgage on that. Pigs will fly, the earth will fry and David Duke will be made president of the NAACP before that ever happens.

I get a really uneasy feeling whenever I see Eric Cantor being interviewed on television. The main goal of the GOP these days is to insure that President Obama's administration is a complete and utter failure. They want to see as many Americans as possible suffer in the next three years, ensuring that they will be able to seize control of the executive branch in 2013. If the president succeeds in making life better for his countrymen and women, they fail. It's as simple as that. Mitch McConnell, to his credit, always looks quite uncomfortable when he is forced to justify policies as atrocious as those being put forward these days by that hideous party. But Cantor always has a serene, angelic smile on his face whenever he is forced to defend the morally indefensible - sort of like last week, at a Town Hall meeting when he told a woman whose mortally ill relative had been left bankrupt by her medical bills that she should rely on charity. He seemed so content with himself. Quite strange really.

Here's something that makes Congressman Eric Cantor quite unique among Republican politicians: he's not an idiot. Is he merely going through the motions in order to appease the Right Wing assholes who seriously thought that placing Sarah Palin on the ticket as John McCain's running mate was a really nifty idea? Is his ultimate goal to move the "party of Lincoln back toward the center? My gut-feeling is that he doesn't really believe half the bullshit that he is forced spout, like a half-witted myna bird, day-in and day-out. In that respect he is just like all the rest of them. They have a direction they want to take this country. It is a direction that you and I do not want to go. Trust me.

Almost nine months ago the worst administration in American history mercifully ended. Prior to the judicial coup d'etat that installed George W. Bush in 2000, the biggest nightmare for all progressive-minded people was the extreme right controlling the three branches of our government. Well, for six long and miserable years (2001-2007) they did. And what did it get us? A trillion-plus dollar deficit. Seriously, do we really want to put those people in charge again? I didn't think so.

If you think about it for a moment or two, Eric Cantor would be the ideal Republican nominee in '12. The Semitic Ronald Reagan! He's good looking, he has a really nice speaking voice, perfect manners, a lovely wife, three well-behaved children - and all the substance of a hot air balloon. The guy is made to order, are you kidding me? And just think of the marketing possibilities for the GOP spin doctors:

WE MADE HISTORY FOUR YEARS AGO BY ELECTING A BLACK GUY AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. LET'S DO IT AGAIN BY ELECTING A JEWISH GUY!

I can see it now.

You would think that the Republican National Committee would be working overtime to ensure that this nitwit get the nomination three years from now. You would think that they would be foolish not to have the Cantor-for-President machine in overdrive at this very moment, wouldn't you? Ah! We have hit on the crux of the problem, my friends: THEY ARE FOOLS! They and a whole lot of folks who tend to vote in Republican primaries (especially in the deep south).

Consider this: In 2008 the GOP's most impressive candidate, in every respect, was Mitt Romney (which isn't saying much, but there you have it). Who did they end up nominating? Sleepy ol' John McCain - with nuttier-than-bat-shit Sarah Palin thrown in just to keep things interesting. Had they been smart (I know what you're thinking - me, too) they would have nominated Romney. Like Eric Cantor, he's got the Ronald Reagan thing happening for him - only this time it's the Mormon version. Had that happened, Mitt - not Barack - would be sleeping in the Executive mansion at this very moment. How could they be so stupid to let such a good thing get away, you may well ask? What prevented Romney from getting the nomination last year is the same thing that will prevent Cantor from getting it three years from now - his religion. It sort of makes ya wonder why these two became Republicans in the first place, doesn't it?.

My purpose is not to imply that if the GOP are sinners, the Dems are necessarily saints. That's so far from the case that it's barely worth commenting on. One of my missions in the next year is to see to it that every one of those miserable "Blue Dog Democrats" who voted against the Public Option are beaten senseless in the next primary season. The party of Franklin Roosevelt needs to be sanitized.The point I am trying to make is that unlike your average Republican politician, when a Democrat says something hysterically funny, that's usually their intent.

Did you happen to catch Michelle Bachmann's stand-up routine this week? There she was on the floor of the Congress, warning her fellow Americans that if health clinics come to American schools, it would mean mass abortions for hundreds of thousands teenage girls across the country. It was an absolute scream!

Like all people on the extreme Right, Eric Cantor is unintentionally funny. Part of the fun of watching him is the fact that at times he seems not to know what the hell he is talking about. On more than one occasion (and I am hardly the first person to point this out) he has seemed to possess little - if any - real knowledge of more than a few points of the health care debate. Like Reagan before him - handsome face; clueless mind. He is the made-to-order Republican candidate. In the present, to be telegenic is to succeed in politics. Intellect means nothing anymore. In today's atmosphere Jefferson and Lincoln wouldn't stand a chance against the likes of Michelle Bachmann and Eric Cantor. As the Moody Blues used to sing, isn't life strange?

It's a great time to be alive. It really is! The horrific train wreck that we euphemistically refer to as "the American political system" is so interesting and indescribably amusing. I am up every morning before the crack of dawn just so I can be at the Kwik Stop grocery store down town when the papers arrive (There's a shameless plug for you, Ben. I'll expect a check in the mail). After a mere ten minutes with the New York Daily News or the Times, I look up to the heavens with profound gratitude and quietly say, "Thank you." For someone who makes his or her name by writing about politics, these people can only be described as a celestial gift. And while we're on the subject, is it just me or have you noticed lately that C-SPAN is starting to look more and More like Comedy Central? I was just wondering.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:

This might be nit picking on my part but it really bugs me. Every time I type the name, "Obama" the good folks at Spell Check inform me that I have gotten the spelling wrong. Here are their suggested corrections:

Obadiah
Obadias
Bamako
Alabama

Right. I've got a fifth suggestion for them: Ob-la-di! Ob-la-da! Life goes on - BRA!

Their suggestions for my "misspelling" of the name "Barack" are almost as amusing:

Ba rack
Ba-rack
Barrack
Bareback
Barabbas

I just got through typing up a list of all forty-three men who have served as chief executive. Spell Check tells me that I got every name right (or, in the case of Martin Van Buren, half right) with one exception. You guessed it: "Barack Obama". The guy has been in the public eye for over five years now. He's been president for nine months! You would think they might have fixed that by now, wouldn't you?

That reminds me. Can anyone please explain to me just what the hell an "Obadias" is? It's not in Webster's Dictionary.

America The Pitiful

"I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

James Baldwin

"You cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot."

Frank Schaeffer

Yesterday, in an OpEd published in the Huffington Post, Bill Maher wrote a piece which decried the dumbing down of the American people in in recent years:

"We weren't always like this. Inert. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law and 11 months later seniors were receiving benefits. During World War II, virtually overnight FDR had auto companies making tanks and planes only. In one eight year period, America went from JFK's ridiculous dream of landing a man on the moon, to actually landing a man on the moon."

While I admire Bill Maher a great deal, I am forced to take issue here. This pitiful America of which he speaks is very real - of that there can be little doubt to anyone who has bothered to pay attention. But like a lot of people on the Left (I am sorry to say) he totally ignores - whether by accident or design - the undeniable advantages of living in the America of the first decade of the twenty-first century.

For example:

I never finished High School. In fact I dropped out at the very beginning of my Junior year. In spite of this unfortunate fact, the I.Q. of my country has dropped to such a horrifying degree in the last thirty years, whenever I arrive at a gathering of, say, two or three-hundred people, I am reasonably confident that I am the smartest person in the room.

Do you have any idea how utterly cool that is? Lighten up, Bill.

I shall illustrate this nasty point by telling a tale of two marches on Washington. One took place in the late summer of 1963, the other in the late summer of 2009. One was promoted by a preacher from Georgia named Martin Luther King, the other by a former "shock jock" from the state of Washington named Glenn Beck. Ouch! Even mentioning the two of them in the same paragraph is somehow disconcerting.

In 1963, the the people were singing, We Shall Overcome.

Forty-six years later, the chant was, We Shall Undermine.

In 1963, a vast and varied demographic of the American people - all races and religions - descended on the nation's capitol to peaceably and nonviolently protest an injustice that was occurring in certain areas of the country to people of a certain skin pigmentation.

Forty-six years later, a Convention of Pissed-Off White People - united only by the fact that they were all habitual viewers of a single cable news channel - rolled into Washington to hurl invective at an African American president for creating a mess that he had absolutely nothing to do with creating.

In 1963, the signs people held up were optimistic: "With Liberty and Justice for All."

Forty-six years later, the signs were ominous: "We Came Unarmed - THIS TIME!"

On August 28, 1963, the hearts of people who marched on the city of Washington DC were filled with love and hope.

On September 12, 2009 they were just full of shit.

Let us boil the comparisons down to their juicy essentials, shall we? Martin Luther King had a dream. Glenn Beck has a scheme.

"Stupid is as stupid does."

Forrest Gump

THE SELLING OF STUPIDITY

In the America of 2009, "STUPID" is a valuable commodity. "STUPID" sells. A couple of years ago, one of the highest rated cable television programs for people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five was a show that was dedicated to stupid people doing really stupid things. The program was called, "Jackass". It was so successful, its producers were confident enough to make it into a full-length movie!

"STUPID" sells.

A few months ago, an African American named Michael Steele had a plan to bring other African Americans into the fold of the Republican party. How did he plan on accomplishing this damned-near-impossible feat, you may well ask? He was going to offer them watermelon.

"STUPID" sells.

In 2008, a Minnesota congresswoman declared that an investigation should be initiated against every Democratic member of congress for "un-Americanism". Less than a month later, she was reelected.

"STUPID" sells.

Last week at a Town Hall meeting, a woman confronted Eric Cantor with the plight of a close friend whose illness had left her destitute. With a straight face, the congressman suggested to the woman that her friend rely on charity.

"STUPID" sells.

Nearly half-a-century ago, there really wasn't much of a market for "STUPID" in most regions of this once-great nation:

"The energy, the faith, the devotion - which we bring to this endeavor - will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world."

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961

"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."

George W. Bush, 2002

No doubt about it: In the first decade of this new century, "STUPID" has a corner on the market.

How did the country that put a man on the moon a mere forty years ago become so jaw-droppingly dumb? There are loads of reasons for this, to be sure. Not the least of which is the fact that since the dawn of the so-called "Reagan Revolution" a generation ago, the education of America's children is no longer a priority. You see, Ronald Reagan's revolutionaries are not merely content to do away with the Department of Education, these assholes want to obliterate public education in this country all together! That is not merely my opinion, that is their stated, published goal. Do the research if you think I'm exaggerating.

This is not your father's America. Come to think about it, this ain't even your older brother's America. The dumbing down process of recent years has been that swift. If you're not seriously alarmed by what is now happening, you're probably getting up every morning with FOX and Friends. C'mon! Admit it!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

Trivializing America: the Triumph of Mediocrity
by Norman Corwin

This brilliant essay by Mr. Corwin was written in the late eighties and has been out of print for a number of years. Try finding it on Ebay. It's worth the effort.

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Have you ever been to Elaine's Place? It's a nice place indeed:

http://www.elainesplace.net

AFTERTHOUGHT 10/1/09:

When I first made this posting, I referred to Norman Corwin as "the late Mr. Corwin". I have just been ever-so-gently chastised by a reader named H.M.Covert that Norman Corwin celebrated his 99th birthday on May 3. Not only is he still very much alive, he is still writing. God bless him.

Rabid Blue Dogs

As we watch the party of Theodore Roosevelt skipping merrily down the road of utter and permanent self-destruction (TRA-LA! LA-LA-LA!) I think the time is long overdue that we have a blunt and serious discussion about the future of the party of TR's distant cousin, Franklin Delano. The tangible cockiness that has been emanating recently from certain quarters of the Democratic party is, to be polite, somewhat misplaced and extremely premature. Although they now have a substantial majority in both houses of congress, it would seem to me that they're not in control. What the hell is going on here?

Here's what's going on: Over fifty conservative Democrats in the House and Senate - the so-called "Blue Dogs" - are hellbent on sabotaging President Obama's plans to make life better for the people of this country.

Hey, Democrats! Although I left your silly party over a decade ago, my heart is still essentially with your platform and agenda. That being said, I would ask all of you to think of me as Dr. Degan, your loving and trusted family veterinarian. After a complete and thorough examination of your beloved pets, it grieves me to offer you this final diagnosis:

Your Blue Dogs must be put to sleep.

Let's stop kidding ourselves and face some serious and uncomfortable facts here, okay? Any chance of serious health care reform is about as dead as the nails the GOP has spent the last nine years hammering into their own coffin. And the biggest irony? It was killed by a coalition of "Conservative Democrats" - or DINOs: Democrats In Name Only - which begs the musical question: With donkeys like these, who the hell needs elephants?

The Democratic party has been plagued by their conservative wing from the time they were formed in 1828. It must be remembered that the Republicans were formed in 1856 as the anti-slavery alternative to the Democrats, many of whom were southern slave owners. For almost one-hundred-and forty years, the "Solid South" was committed - although at times reluctantly - to the aspirations of the Democratic party. The conservative southerners were known as "Boll Weevil" Democrats. To be sure, for most of the Twentieth Century it was an uneasy alliance which existed between northern progressives and southern racists. For all the social and economic progress of the Roosevelt/Truman years, the half-wits that comprised the southern wing of the Democratic party just could not bring themselves to join the party of Abraham Lincoln, "that nigger-lovin' bastard that freed the slaves!"

Look away, Dixieland.

Then in 1964 and 1965 respectively, two earth-shuddering events occurred that forever destroyed the Democratic hold on Dixie: the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. That did it, Bubbah! The very idea of equality with NEGROS was just too much for these assholes to bear. When President Lyndon Johnson signed those two laws into existence, he told his aids, Bill Moyers and the late Jack Valenti, "We've lost the south for at least a generation." It was an understatement. The "Solid South" has been solidly Republican ever since.

In a recent interview, former Mississippi senator Trent Lott said that the great migration to the GOP in the mid sixties was all about economics and had not a thing to do with race. Bullshit. It had everything to do with race. There had been a revolt once before, in 1948 when President Truman courageously told the Democratic convention that he would refuse to accept the nomination unless a comprehensive civil rights plank was included in the party platform. That was all the southern delegation needed to hear. They stormed out of the convention en masse to chants of, "Goodbye, Harry" and organized their own convention which nominated legendary jackass, Strom Thurmond, as the "States Rights" or "Dixiecrat" candidate.

In spite of this and a fourth party uprising on the far left (Henry Wallace and the Progressives) Harry Truman won the election of 1948 simply by showing courage and doing the right thing. It's an example of statesmanship that many present-day Democrats would do well to aspire to.

Fast forward sixty-one years and we find that the party of FDR's major headache is no longer the Boll Weevil racists but the Blue Dog corporatists. They have no intention whatsoever of seeing meaningful reform placed into law for their constituents. Max Baucas, the leader of the Democratic opposition to President Obama's proposed health care bill, is in the pockets of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. He and his gang of Republicrats are determined to do the bidding of their corporate masters - you and I be damned. A reader who goes by the name of "Kat" just made an astute posting in the comments section of this piece which I think needs to be quoted:

"If I wanted [Republican] obstructionism, I'd have voted for it."

Indeed. This is certainly not the type of change I can believe in. It's time for the suits at the Democratic National Committee to get off their asses and work to defeat these worthless Blue Dogs at the primary level next year. Barack Obama's goals for the American people have been thwarted at every turn by these jackasses and their allies within the the extreme Right Wing of the GOP. They need to be brought down. The only way that is going to happen is via an uprising from within. There are enough progressive (LIBERAL) Democrats in the purplest of purple states (and even a handful of red states) to make this happen.

Sit, Blue Dog, sit! Good, Blue Dog! Nice, Blue Dog! Now be a good little doggy and lie down and play dead! On second thought, lie down and stay dead! GOOD boy!

What gives here anyway? I grew up believing that the Democratic party was the "party of the people"! I was reminded of this again last weekend when I made a little pilgrimage to the FDR Library in Hyde Park, NY. President Roosevelt ushered regular people like you and I into the twentieth century. He brought electricity to the rural south! The middle class that we all now take for granted - which hadn't even existed prior to the New Deal - is now in serious danger of vanishing. Look around you. The signs - ominous and disturbing - are all there. The entire reason for the existence of the Loony Right Wing since 1964 has been to roll back the advantages gained by the New Deal and the civil rights movement. Do you think I'm being an alarmist? Fine. Just keep sending these Right Wing extremists and these Blue Dog Democrats to Washington and see what happens.

The Democrats are not going to distinguish their party by trying to sell themselves as Republican Lite. They're not going to turn America around by foolishly preserving the policies of the last thirty years. They need to educate their constituency by showing them the folly of their abhorrence of things "Left" and "Liberal". Three-quarters-of-a-century ago, American democracy was saved by a government that was decidedly left-of center in all but a few areas. It can happen again. But it's only going to happen if WEEDA PEEPOLE refuse to turn right at the next crossroad. It is only down the road.

Now if you'll excuse me, Dr. Degan has some Blue Dogs on his table that need to be put out of our misery.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

The Defining Moment
by Jonathan Alter

This extraordinary book is the story of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first hundred days. It's also as good an example as any I can offer as to how the Liberals once saved this country. They can do it again.

Still MORE Right Wing Lunacy

Ever heard of Lou Pritchett? I had never heard of the man before Saturday afternoon when my friend, Yvonne, e-mailed me me something he wrote that has been making its way through cyberspace in recent months. The piece, which is called "An Open Letter to President Obama", is so stupidly written that under normal circumstances I would have dismissed it as a hoax - or the type of satire made famous by the late Lenny Bruce. But these are not normal circumstances and these people are anything but "normal". As Tom Lehrer once observed ,"Satire died the day they gave Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize."

According to a google search, he is "an acclaimed author, teacher and speaker." Acclaimed by whom is not made clear. He is also, if I'm to believe what I read, a former executive with Proctor and Gamble, a company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, whose contribution to the American marketplace ranges from Puffs facial tissue to Old Spice aftershave. The twenty-one paragraphs in his letter are mercifully brief. I am presenting the complete text here with my naughty comments sprinkled within. The guy is a laugh riot:

"Dear President Obama: You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me."

Woooooh! The Big, Black, Bolshevik Boogieman's gonna git'cha!

"You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you."

I'm sorry, Lou, but the question is just screaming to be asked: Have you been reading the newspapers in the last three years? I was just curious.

"You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support."

Lou! You caught us red-handed!! His education was funded by Democracy Now, The American Communist Party and Ed Asner. Call it a hunch, but I have a funny feeling that the very thought of a successful, upper class black man doesn't sit too well with you. I'm not far off the mark, am I? Not that it's any of my business, but who the hell paid for your education, Lou?

"You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American."

Sure, Lou, he's a Kenyan born Arab terrorist. And I'm Carlos the Jackal. Medications, please!

"You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll"

You've got a valid point here, Louie boy! The same could be said of John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and George Washington - and we all know how disastrous their administrations turned out to be. NEXT....

"You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core."

True. We need a man in there with the military experience of George W. Bush. You're a scream, Lou!

"You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others."

This statement is so unbelievably moronic, I'm not even going to bother commenting on it.

"You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail."

Radicals who wish to see America fail? Who are you talking about, Lou? Oh! You must mean Teddy Kennedy and Arlen Specter! Good point, Lou. Let's move on, shall we?

"You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad."

Are you referring, perchance, to Obama's official apology for the CIA-fueled overthrow of the sovereign, democratically elected government of Iran in 1953 - which heralded the birth of the organized Islamic extremism that is our biggest headache today? You're absolutely right, Lou! Obama should not have apologized for that shameful chapter in our history. That apology should have come from President Eisenhower a half century ago.

"You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector."

Yeah, Lou, and he's going to force our teenage daughters to marry BLACK LESBIANS! Be afraid, Lou. Be very afraid.

"You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one."

Just like the ones in England and Canada that have worked pretty well for over fifty years? OH, MY GOSH! HEAD FOR THE HILLS!!!

"You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves."

Again, this one is just too damned nutty to even dignify with a comment.

"You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world."

Wrong again, Lou. Like FDR in the thirties, he is trying to save capitalism by "tempering it's excesses". Nice try, though.

"You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations."

You mean the same banks and corporations that have been looting the American economy for almost thirty years now? SHAME ON YOU, BARACK OBAMA!

"You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals."

An ironic statement if ever there was one, Lou. He and his political party scare the hell out of me for their failure to challenge wild and irresponsible clowns like you.

"You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people."

Are you speaking of his failure to consider the opinions of "intelligent people" like yourself, Lou? What is he thinking?

"You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient."

Omnipotent and omniscient??? Have another sip, Lou.

"You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do."

Obviously you don't watch FOX Noise or listen to AM radio, Lou. That's a very good sign.

"You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view."

When has he demonized any of these fools, Lou? How has he tried to silence them? Give me one example. I'm waiting.

"You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing."

How has President Obama attempted to control you, Lou? Forgive me for pointing this out in so public a forum, but you sound just a wee bit paranoid, Buster.

"Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years."

Yeah, Lou. Just keep it up and I promise you this: you'll end up in one of the many Left Wing Gulags that we're building - at this very moment - at President Barack HUSSEIN Obama's orders. Have a lovely day, Lou!

I will offer no further comment. Lou Pritchett's silly comments speak for themselves.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT: A reader (and dear friend) who goes by the name Carolyn K, just posted this message in the comments section. I'll let her have the last word. It's perfect:

"Reality Check: God bless the fact that we live in a country where we are allowed to criticize the government and to have an open, intelligent discourse between opposing views. There are no demons here, Lou, except for maybe the ones in your head."

AFTERTHOUGHT, 9/18/09:

I just received the news that the "Mary" of the legendary folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, passed away the other day. Now there was a life well lived! A dragon lives forever, but not so Mary Travers. God rest her sweet soul.

Mr. Wilson Goes Town Hall-istic

Isn't Joe Wilson a hoot-and-a-half? I'm not referring to the Joe Wilson who was married to Valerie Plame, the CIA operative whose cover was blown by Karl Rove and company in an act of cynical (and illegal) political revenge. The Joe Wilson I refer to in this piece is the ideologically challenged congressman from South Carolina who interrupted President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress the other night in words that will be in the first sentence of the first paragraph of his obituary:

"YOU LIE!"

If this knucklehead lives to be one-hundred-and-twelve, his outburst Wednesday evening will be the only thing he will be remembered for - much like Preston Brooks, another reactionary, half-witted South Carolina congressman from a bygone era - who today is remembered for no other accomplishment except nearly beating abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner to death in that very chamber over a century-and-a-half ago. What drove the Honorable Mr. Brooks to attempt murder in that hallowed setting? It was Mr. Sumner's heroic stance against the evil institution of slavery that nearly cost him his life at the hands of a fellow lawmaker. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

David Letterman put it well: Joe Wilson did Governor Mark Sanford a great service on night of September 9. Sanford is now only the second most embarrassing politician to hail from that nutty state.

This really is an amusing thing to behold. In case you've been having a difficult time trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Wilson in general and the Grand Old Party in particular, here are the Cliff Notes: The extreme right wing is at the moment having a collective, massive nervous breakdown. They just refuse to accept the nasty little fact that a black guy is now the most powerful human being on the face of the earth - and it is killing them. As they did ten years ago when Bill Clinton was president, their plan is to go to any and all extremes to thwart the administration of Barack Obama.

Here's what's happening, boys and girls: The "party of Abraham Lincoln" (Imagine that!) has forever been exposed as morally and ethically bankrupt, and they are now in the process of implementing their "scorched earth" policy. In other words, if they have to go down, they have every intention of bringing the rest of us down with them.

If you thought for one minute that the loony right wing had lost all the marbles they could possibly lose - OH, BROTHER! - As the late Al Jolson used tiosay, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" It really is kind of funny - to a point. Here's the part that's not so funny, in fact it's a very ominous development indeed: Wilson and his compatriots within the vast right wing conspiracy are urging on the less enlightened of their constituencies into a violent fury; a rage born of lies and propaganda.

Do you remember what it was that Barack Obama said that caused Wilson's wrath? The president was patiently trying to explain to the country that his proposed health care bill would not cover the treatment of illegal immigrants. It wasn't a lie; it was the truth. The bill does not cover those in this country illegally. But - politically speaking - that inarguable fact does not work very well for Joe Wilson. It is essential that his constituents believe that "Obamacare" is merely a taxpayer-funded Christmas gift to dark-skinned people.

There are certain truths we need to come to terms with about the state of South Carolina and the people there who identify themselves Republicans. In order to do that we need to turn the old clock back nine years.

Early in the 2000 GOP presidential campaign, John McCain gave George W. Bush a serious and unexpected thrashing in the New Hampshire primaries. When the Bush Mob arrived in South Carolina the following week, they knew they had to take drastic measures if they were survive to the convention later in the summer. So they raised the issue that has been a sure bet hit in that state since Reconstruction: Race. It works every time down there. Go figure.

The Bush campaign initiated a phony "telephone poll" which asked the musical question:

"How would you react if you were to find out that Senator McCain fathered an out-of-wedlock child with a black prostitute?"

It worked. McCain, who had arrived in the state with a decided lead in the polls, was soundly defeated. But for the stupidity of the Republican voters of South Carolina, this country might have been spared eight years of the worst administration in American history. How's that for irony?

This is all about the underlying, hideous factor of the racism that is so deeply ingrained in the American character. The attempt to portray this president (Of all people!) as a socialistic, left wing extremist doesn't even pass the giggle test for people who have bothered to pay attention to their times and their history. Let's face it - Franklin D. Roosevelt, he ain't! They can't obstruct his agenda with a manufactured scandal regarding his personal life, as they did with Bill Clinton. eleven years ago. Their only hope is for enough of the American people to become really frightened by the Big, Bad Negro Commie. An ironic description when one takes into consideration how boringly moderate Obama really is.

Think about this: In the last presidential campaign only one of the nominees of the two major political parties was born in the United States - Barack Obama - John McCain was born in Panama. Do you find it as revealing as I do that it was the black guy had his citizenship called into question? How much more proof do we need of the overt racism that is inherent in that party - or in our own country for that matter? Honestly, this isn't rocket science, folks!

Joe Wilson and the nincompoops on the far right have opened a Pandora's Box that may very well prove difficult to close. What they are now doing - consciously or unconsciously - is prompting their brain-dead masses toward violence and intimidation. And let's not forget the untidy little truism that a lot of these folks are armed and dangerous. Who can forget the asshole who showed up outside one of the president's Town Hall meetings in New Hampshire last month with a gun strapped to his leg? My biggest worry is that that little incident is merely a small illustration of worst things to come.

Listen, I really hate to be the bearer of bad tidings here, I really do. But if you can't foresee some kind of Timothy McVeigh-style domestic incident somewhere down the pike, you're a hell of a lot more optimistic than I am. Also, if you are not seriously alarmed by what is now happening to our beloved country, you're not paying attention.

And now Glenn Beck is all set to become the Martin Loony King of the Far Right with his stupid March on Washington today.

Isn't life interesting?

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Hey, Kids! Meet The Beatles!

John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr

Let them take us down....

I realize that the times we live in are just too damned weird to focus any degree of attention on a rock 'n' roll band that released its final recording forty-years-ago last month - two of whose members are gone from our midst. Think about it. In 1969, at the height of all that was then going on, any columnist who would have devoted a entire page to the greatness of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra would have been laughed out of the business. But this isn't just any band we're talking about here. With the exception of the President's address to a joint session of Congress last night, I didn't spend much time yesterday dwelling on affairs of state. September 9, 2009 belonged to the Beatles.

Yesterday marked the long-awaited release of a box set containing every commercial LP and single made by the lads from Liverpool between the years 1962 and 1970. What makes this package different from what has previously been available is the fact that the engineers at EMI (the studio in London where they did most of their work) have digitally remastered the recordings from the original multi-track tapes. It was like listening to them for the first time all over again. The Beatles have never sounded better - To tell you the truth, I never dreamed that was possible.

To the best of my knowledge, I was the first person in Orange County to purchase the set. I was there bright and early at the FYE store in Middletown, NY. They were ten minutes late in opening and I'm afraid my impatience got the better of me. You should have seen me, rattling the closed gate, yelling only half in jest, "I WANT MY BEATLES, DAMMIT!!!" Nothing worked; not even when I threatened to write a letter to my congressman in protest would they budge an inch. Fortunately, the people who run the place are all-too-familiar with my little eccentricities and did not feel threatened enough to phone the authorities. Their restraint was truly impressive.

After purchasing the package, I wandered aimlessly on the back roads that separate the mall from where I live, listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - from beginning to climactic end. The songs have a clarity that is indescribable. The miracle of recorded sound will be bought home once again in the next few weeks to the millions of people who purchase any of these recordings. Those incredible voices, eternally young, forever alive, resonate across the decades. Close your eyes. You're back in Studio Two at the Abbey Road Studios, sitting in with the lads on a long-ago recording session. In the classic song, Strawberry Fields Forever, John Lennon told us that nothing is real. I would beg to differ. The sounds emanating from these new mixes are very real.

To most people over the age of fifty, the Beatles have a special place in our hearts. Fellow Baby Boomers: Can you even IMAGINE your childhood without the Beatles? Not me! There had never been a band like them before. The likes of the Fab Four are not likely to pass this way again. They arrived on our shores at just the right moment - two-and-a-half months after the assassination of a beloved president. We were not only ready for the Beatles in February of 1964, we needed them like a tonic.

We all have our personal memories of the phenomenon that was Beatlemania. I remember the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember seeing A Hard Day's Night at the movie theater around the corner from where I grew up. I remember being at my cousin Mike Cullen's home when I first saw the Sgt. Pepper cover ("Mike! They're wearing mustaches! What's that all about???") I remember exactly where I was standing in the summer of 1968 when I happened upon a girl from the neighborhood who was listening to the new Beatles record, Hey Jude, on a small transistor radio. I remember my reaction to the news that they had broken up. It wouldn't last, I thought. Someday they'll Get Back to where they once belonged. I really believed it - for an entire decade I believed it. You may say I'm a dreamer. That dream ended forever on a horrible night in December of 1980 when John Lennon was forever taken from us due to an insane act of cold-blooded murder.

"Nothing to do to save his life, call his wife in."

"I read the news today, oh boy!"

"The dream is over."

Two years ago, on the fortieth anniversary of the release of the landmark Sgt. Pepper LP, I wrote a piece on this site called, Why the Beatles Still Matter:

"Late one night, not very long ago, I had a dream that the Beatles were still among us, making us laugh and sing in the same way they did when they were the undisputed princes of the Planet Earth all those years ago. That's what was so wonderful about the Fab Four; they not only sang like the scruffy angels they were, but they were so damned funny! All one has to do is view the films, A Hard Day's Night and Help, and you're once again reminded that they were a great comedy team - one of the greatest. When I awoke from that dream - thinking it had been real - the blunt realization that the Beatles are gone forever was too depressing to even contemplate.

"In 1995, the night the video Free As a Bird premiered on national television (the first "new" Beatles song in over a quarter-of-a-century) I watched it with a young woman who was born in 1970, the year they broke up. Hearing them sing together again - Paul and George sounding strong and clear; John, by that time long-dead, his voice transferred from an old and faded cassette tape, sounding as if he were singing from far, far away - was a very moving experience. When she noticed my reaction, she laughed and said, "Oh, Tom! What's the big deal?" I told her that no one who did not live through that turbulent era could possibly understand what that band meant to their troubled generation."

BREAKING NEWS:
Music industry officials are now predicting that by the end of 2010, the Beatles will prove to be the best-selling band of the first decade of the twenty-first century. People who should know better are blaming the utter implosion of the record business on downloading and bootlegging. This is not a laughing matter, they're telling us. Oh really? Tell that to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Tell that to the heirs of John Lennon and George Harrison. They're laughing all the way to the bank, baby! Maybe - just maybe - there is a certain creativity that is somewhat lacking today. That's just a harmless little theory of mine. Pay no attention to it.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known
There's nothing you can see that isn't shown
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
It's easy!
All you need is love....

All you need is love. I believed it then; I believe it still. It's a fairly safe bet that in the next week or so, I'm going to be just a tad distracted by the magic and mystery of John, Paul, George and Ringo. When I'm done writing this latest screed of mine, I have a long drive to take. En route, I plan on listening to the new mix of Abbey Road in its entirety. Last night before I retired for the evening, I had a glass of wine and listened to Harrison's Here Comes the Sun. Beautiful! In the words of another one of his songs, "It's all too much for me to take". If your budget precludes you from buying the entire package (Times are tough, I know) you can purchase each album separately. It really is an incredible listening experience. The Beatles are back.

Unlike so many today, the Beatles stood for something. Decades of biographical scholarship now tells us that they were four very flawed and imperfect men, not unlike you and I. But the recorded legacy they left the human race is incalculable. Let me attempt the impossible and sum up the Beatles' message in one sentence: We are the makers of our own dreams. That works for me.

Dream. Dream away....

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:

Shout!
by Phillip Norman

The Beatles
by Bob Spitz