It's a scary and surrealistic spectacle. The most powerful nation on earth being held hostage by a group of fanatical teabaggers, who are dragging the President, the country, and the global economy towards the abyss. And acting like the Taliban.
"We now have a group of US politicians seeking political purity, who seem to have much in common with the Taliban. They are Tea Party members; and because of blind adherence to smaller government, they seem intent on risking destroying what American political leaders have constructed in more than two centuries of hard, often painful work..."
And the scariest thing is when you read the latest so-called compromise.
Officials close to the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both Republican and Democratic sides were now discussing a plan to raise the debt limit by about $2.4 trillion, as well as enact slightly larger cuts in spending, to be carried over two stages.
It's pretty clear that the Teabagger Taliban are winning. And that Obama has surrendered to the tyranny of simple solutions, and political expediency. Agreed to savage cuts that will hurt the poor and the elderly. And failed to make the argument that taxation is the foundation of a civilized society. And that the rich can and should pay more taxes.
The world is watching in fearful —and sometimes gleeful — fascination as the Tea Party drives a Thunderbird off the cliff with the president and speaker of the House strapped in the back. The Dow is hiding under the bed with a glass of single malt. Can it get more excruciating? Apple has more cash than the U.S. government.
Because that's so true you could die laughing. And this needs to be said:
Democratic lawmakers worry that the Tea Party freshmen have already “neutered” the president, as one told me. They fret that Obama is an inept negotiator. They worry that he should have been out in the country selling a concrete plan, rather than once more kowtowing to Republicans and, as with the stimulus plan, health care and Libya, leading from behind.
As one Democratic senator complained: “The president veers between talking like a peevish professor and a scolding parent.” (Not to mention a jilted lover.) Another moaned: “We are watching him turn into Jimmy Carter right before our eyes.”
Now I don't want to be too harsh on Obama because nobody can reason with fanatics who take their instructions directly from their God.
“Where’s the chapel?” Rep. Tim Scott (S.C.) asked as he emerged from an arm-twisting session with Majority Leader Eric Cantor Thursday night. The freshman lawmaker explained that he wanted to “go to the divine source.
”As it happens, the Lord gave Scott the wisdom to oppose Boehner. “I think divine inspiration already happened,” Scott said. “I was a ‘lean no’ and now I’m a ‘no.’ ” And he’s not much worried about default, saying: “I hope the Lord blesses our nation in a way that is measurable.”
And Obama must surely know that these Teabagger Taliban also believe that they have a divine mission to destroy the first black President, by whatever means necessary.
Which is why I find this blast from the past so chilling.
Mix rabid ideology, crazy religion, guns, a weak President, a decaying empire, a naked class war, and you have all the elements for a real disaster.
So how bad will this movie get?
Gawd. I don't know eh?
But at least as bad as this one...
But one way or the other be very afraid.
Because the Teabagger Taliban are torching America. The craziness is out of control.
Well I suppose it was inevitable that Rob Ford's City Hall would turn into yet another Con version of Animal Farm.
With the hero of the Ford Nation morphing into another bully Napoleon, who waddles around on his hind legs, sucks back Red Bulls, and can't take no for an answer.
He said he could find close to $2 billion in the city budget without the average citizen noticing. He could do it without cutting services. “Guaranteed,” he said.
Turns out he can’t find vats of savings. Easy money. The KPMG consultants he brought in to sniff out the fat have filed their findings and the savings would have to come from real services that people use and cherish.
In short, Mayor Rob Ford’s credibility is shot, shredded, blown to bits — victim of his excessive rhetoric and unsubstantiated claims.
Golly. What a horrow show. But you've got to admit it's quite an ANIMAL story eh?
The other day the Fordzilla was accused of flipping the bird at a woman and her young daughter. Today he was accused by another woman of suggesting she's a female dog.
And now his penguin Budget Chief is suggesting that Hogtown might raise some money by harvesting the animals at the city's tiny children's zoo.
The politician in charge of Toronto’s finances is unwilling to take any cost-cutting options off the table, suggesting there is money to be found in unexpected places, including the pigs and chickens at Riverdale Farm.
OMG. Since they already sell eggs at the farm, will the poor petting cow be next?
Will the old horse be sent to the glue factory...or worse? I mean can you IMAGINE what a Ford Burger might look like? I can. *Shudder*
One pound of cow/horse beef, between two slabs of pork, floating in half a bucket of gravy. Because nobody ever called him classy eh? Just crass, vulgar, and DUMB.
Like all those people who voted for him. The ones we now call Ford's fools. Because if they lose anymore I.Q. points we are going to have to water them. Thanks a lot IDIOTS.
Oh boy. It's not easy to live on Fordzilla's Farm.
But this too is true. The day we get our act together and drive that homophobic hog from power, the people will be dancing in the streets. And down at the children's zoo.
And the anwer seems obvious. Nobody could have imagined somebody would want to murder such fine young people. And Norway wasn't a police state, and doesn't want to become one.
The prime minister of Norway acknowledged yesterday that his country had fundamentally changed as a result of the attacks on a youth camp and government complex last week, but he vowed to protect the culture of openness that is a source of Norwegian pride. “I think what we have seen is that there is going to be one Norway before and one Norway after July 22,’’ he said. “But I hope and also believe that the Norway we will see after will be more open, a more tolerant society than what we had before.’’
But still it's so hard to accept. And for some reason I can't help thinking of a video I saw recently.
And wonder why couldn't someone, anyone, or anything, have stopped that right-wing Christianist monster?
And where was the porcelain unicorn when we needed one so badly?
There was no porcelain unicorn. Nothing could have saved them from that fascist beast.
But at least those noble, idealistic, young progressives didn't die for nothing.
The right-wing threat has been exposed for all to see.
OMG. I knew Stephen Harper was spending his summer trying to be transformed from Great Ugly Leader into Mr Nice Fuhrer.
After forgetting himself at the Redneck Stampede, and revealing his ball crushing plans for total Canadian domination.
“Under our Conservative government, Canada is more united than it ever has been. My friends, I think something has changed. I believe the long Liberal era is genuinely, truly ending. As with disco balls and bell bottoms, Canadians have moved on,” he said to applause and laughter.
“Conservative values are Canadian values. Canadian values are Conservative values.”
Great eh? It's on Boing Boing !!!! So now even if you don't belong to his Google + inner circle i.e. John Baird, Robert Mugabe, and Jason Kenney, people all over the world will think he's a nice guy.
I must admit that I'm finding it hard to blog these days. I'm not sure where I want to go. I don't know where this country is going.
There are a lot of stories out there, but after this story.
So many flowers cut down so savagely. They all seem so trivial.
And then there's summer...
It's so short I want to enjoy every minute of it. Soak up the sun, feel the gentle breeze in my face.
Smell the flowers...
Before they are gone.
Because what happened to Jack Layton reminded me that for everything there is a season. Life is so fragile. And I can't get his parting words out my head.
We WILL replace the Conservative government, a few short years from now.
And we WILL work with Canadians to build the country of our hopes
Of our dreams
Of our optimism
Of our determination
Of our values...
Of our love.
Because they sound so much like an epitaph.
But since I don't know to what dark place Stephen Harper is going to take this country...
I don't know how we can stop him. Nobody wants to talk about that because its summer. And since defeating the Cons means everything to me, the progressive blogosphere seems strangely hollow, and more of an echo chamber than ever.
Or the personal sandbox of a small group of gigantic egos, who can't write enough posts, and suck up all the oxygen in the blogosphere, competing against each other for votes.
JJ is an amazing blogger, a feminist warrior, and a very old friend who was one of the first to encourage me when I set out on this blogging journey six years ago.
I missed her terribly, and the progressive blogosphere has never needed her free spirit more.
You know I was thinking tonight if only the blogger Bruce MacDonald could come back it would be like it was before. But of course he can't, and maybe that's why I find his great friend's return so comforting.
I don't know where this summer is taking me. Or where Stephen Harper will take this country.
It seems like they are everywhere these days. Con apes on a rampage. Smelling their armpits, and shocking the world.
In Norway they are still counting their losses after one right wing monkey killed dozens of people. While his foul furry trainers lick the blood off their fingers, and run for the trees.
As they learned that their ideas had formed the ideological basis for one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in recent European history, these writers and leaders have delivered responses that range from denunciation to denial to awkward arguments that the killer was correct in his motives, but his actions damaged their common cause.
In the United States the RepubliKong gorillas are holding their country hostage.
Demanding tax breaks for the rich, no food for the poor, or medicare for seniors.
Or they'll eat the economy. Even if it kills them.
In Britain the Cameron chimps are beating their hairy chests, boasting that their savage cuts have saved the economy. Even as it stalls.
Chancellor George Osborne yesterday boasted his austerity measures have turned Britain into a safe haven from the storm just hours before figures are expected to show UK economic growth has ground to a halt.
Me Tarzan. You idiot. Me mankey. You Murdoch.
But wait, it gets worse.
Here at home, in the land of the Monkey King Harper, his Con apes are praising the Norway killer.
The good news is that people all over the world now know how incompetent and dangerous these Con apes are. And the Con brand has been seriously damaged
And the bad news?
If we don't organize, unite, defeat them, tame them and if necessary cage them.
As Norway mourns its dead. And sorrow turns to anger.
The right-wing monsters of this world continue to try to turn tragedy into triumph, by blaming Muslims for the massacre.
Or condemning the killer for damaging their bigot cause.
During the hours when I thought that Oslo had been attacked by jihadists, I wept for the city that has been my home for many years. And I hoped Norwegian leaders would respond to this act of violence by taking a more responsible approach to the problems they face in connection with Islam. When it emerged that these acts of terror were the work of a native Norwegian who thought he was striking a blow against jihadism and its enablers, it was immediately clear to me that his violence will deal a heavy blow to an urgent cause.
Great eh? From the man who did more than most to inspire the monster's bloody rampage. Never mind the dead kids, it's all about THEM.
Who after tying himself up in knots concludes...surprise...surprise... that the Mooslims made him do it:
Breivik’s rampage would likely never have taken place if Islamic terrorism wasn’t so ubiquitous. If we didn’t need to breathe that sigh of relief that al-Qaeda didn’t attack Norway, the attack probably wouldn’t have happened at all, since dangerous fanatics in Central Asia wouldn’t have inspired a dangerous fanatic in Norway.
Only to have that steaming turd attract some ghastly flies.
Like this one:
And this one:
The bigot bastards. Now can we call them ROACHES?
Oh well. At least the light of the world is shining on their Roach Motel.
The man accused of the killing spree in Norway was deeply influenced by a small group of American bloggers and writers who have warned for years about the threat from Islam, lacing his 1,500-page manifesto with quotations from them, as well as copying multiple passages from the tract of the Unabomber.
And they can run but they can't hide:
Mr. Spencer wrote on his Web site, jihadwatch.org, that “the blame game” had begun, “as if killing a lot of children aids the defense against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, or has anything remotely to do with anything we have ever advocated.” He did not mention Mr. Breivik’s voluminous quotations from his writings.
The Gates of Vienna, a blog that ordinarily keeps up a drumbeat of anti-Islamist news and commentary, closed its pages to comments Sunday “due to the unusual situation in which it has recently found itself.”
Yup. Poor decent little Norway will survive. Which more than I can say for the bigots.
He fought so bravely against one cancer, leading his party into a gruelling election campaign, even though it was clear that some days were harder than others.
My battle against prostate cancer is going very well. My PSA levels remain virtually undetectable.
However, these tests, whose results I received last week, also indicate that I have a new, non-prostate cancer that will require further treatment.
So, on the advice of my doctors, I am going to focus on treatment and recovery.
Whether they support his party or not, most decent Canadians must surely recognize a great leader and a good human being.
The ghastly Cons, and their accomplices in the MSM, tried to slander and debase him. But they couldn't because he's so much better than them.
So I have to admit that this moved me to tears:
If I have tried to bring anything to federal politics, it is the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart.
We CAN look after each other better than we do today. We CAN have a fiscally responsible government. We CAN have a strong economy; greater equality; a clean environment.
We CAN be a force for peace in the world.
I am as hopeful and optimistic about all of this as I was the day I began my political work, many years ago.
I am hopeful and optimistic about the personal battle that lies before me in the weeks to come.
And I am very hopeful and optimistic that our party will continue to move forward.
We WILL replace the Conservative government, a few short years from now.
And we WILL work with Canadians to build the country of our hopes
Of our dreams
Of our optimism
Of our determination
Of our values...
Of our love.
But it will also inspire me. Because I so believe in that. That hope keeps me alive. And all the young Canadians I know, even the Liberal ones, absolutely love him and Olivia.
Fight this new enemy like you fought all the others Jack. Give the bastard cancer hell.
Get better and come back soon.
Because we miss you already.
And this country never needed you so badly...
-----------------------------------------------
P.S. I made a video about Jack just over a year ago, when despite his weakened condition he braved the brutal heat to take part in the Gay Pride Parade.
It's a humble little video, but I think you can feel the love, and the song is one of hope.
A monster so cruel and evil he would use dum dum bullets on helpless children.
Dr. Colin Poole, head of surgery at Ringriket Hospital in Honefoss northwest of Oslo, told The Associated Press the gunman used special bullets designed to disintegrate inside the body and cause maximum internal damage. Poole said surgeons treating 16 gunshot victims have recovered no full bullets.
"These bullets more or less exploded inside the body," Poole said. "It's caused us all kinds of extra problems in dealing with the wounds they cause, with very strange trajectories."
And this is his deeply disturbing video...
I made some screen caps of that video in case it's taken down for whatever reason.
(click pics to enlarge)
So you can at least get an idea of the hideous ideology behind his murderous act.
But here's the thing eh?
I also made a screen cap this morning of a comment left on the blog of a member of the Blogging Tories.
To his credit, the blog owner sharply criticized that comment. But he spends much of his time mumbling darkly about the Mooslim Threat. It does show you what kind of hate is out there.
And I know that if I visited other conservative sites, like the sewer called Free Dominion, I would find more and much worse.
Now I hate violent Muslim extremists exactly as much as I hate any other kind of violent religious fanatics, bullies, bigots, and thugs.
But the fact is in certain right-wing circles, bashing peaceful, decent, Muslim Canadians, and their religion, has become far too common. It's wrong, it's evil, it's nonsense. It can only create the conditions for some act of murderous violence.
And however flawed this country may be, or whatever our democratic differences, it's still a peaceful place to live.
I can only hope that our Con government, and our security services are monitoring potentially violent right-wing terrorists as closely as they are monitoring any others.
And that the Cons aren't blinded by their own foul ideology, or the ghastly grunts of their rabid Christianist base.
Because the beast that would tear our beautiful country apart is surely among us.
And it must be tamed or caged, before it destroys us ALL....
Lordy. If it wasn't for one glorious day at the beach, I don't know how I would have made it to Sunday.
Because these days only the wind, or a wave, or a board in my face, can make me forget that I live in Harperland. Or the suffocating heat, the old lady with her head in the fridge, the tragedy of Norway.
Or the long announced death of Amy Winehouse. Which is also a tragedy because she was a huge talent who changed the music scene forever.
She was sharp; had a way with words, as well as song. And, oh boy, the songs – the accolades, the awards and the artistic attention was all justified too. Back to Black, her second album, with its six Grammy nominations and five wins when she was only 24, changed the music scene for ever, with its lyrical musings on cold, dead broken hearts, illicit sex, and chips and pitta and gin.
And nobody could save her from her demons and her drug addiction.
There were many subsequent attempts to quit herself of drugs and booze for ever. She tried in the UK, she tried overseas. Her stays in these places never lasted long, because Winehouse's real problem was self-belief, an insecurity only compounded by the extraordinary worldwide success of Back to Black, which left her less sure of herself than ever before.
It's such a waste. But she did live her short life to the limit.
While we walk back and forth like ants in the barren desert of Harperland, measuring out our little humdrum lives like cough mixture. Putting ties on our straitjackets, and making a virtue out of boredom.
Yup. History will be much much kinder to Amy Winehouse than her short life was to her.
In the end, long after people have stopped telling stories of drink and excess, they will talk about Amy Winehouse's voice and her music.
