Too paranoid or not paranoid enough?

This past year has seen many strange and unususal events.  Recognizing that something is strange and unusual doesn’t make you paranoid, delusional or a whack-job.  As we progress from infancy to mature adulthood we learn to connect cause and effect, which allows us to both explain and predict events.

We know that what goes up must come down, water runs downhill, alcohol makes you drunk and babies come from having sex.  In fact, if we see the effect we don’t need to observe the cause to know that the cause exists.  A common law school explanation for “circumstantial evidence” is if when you go to bed it is clear and dry outside but when you wake up in the morning everything is covered with snow, you can be reasonably certain that it snowed during the night even though you didn’t see it happen.

But sometimes we see an effect that has no apparent cause, or we see a cause that doesn’t have the expected effect, and when that occurs it’s perfectly normal to consider it strange and unusual.  And when someone gives you an explanation that doesn’t make sense, you don’t have to know what the truth is to conclude that the person is lying to you.

Among the things that are strange and unusual about this election campaign is the way the media has been so completely in the tank for Barack Obama almost from the time he first emerged on the national stage back in 2004.  It wasn’t quite so evident during the primary campaign because the media has hated the Clintons for the better part of two decades, but when the primaries ended virtually the entire media moved in lockstep to support Obama, abandoning John McCain who had been their long-time favorite.

This is a strange and unusual occurrance because the media has been favoring GOP candidates and/or hating Democrats for years.  While there have been numerous stories in the blogosphere discussing the media’s enthusiastic support for Obama, most of them assume that the media is made up of individuals acting independently.

I find it difficult to believe that a large and diverse group of people working in the television and print media as well as prominent lefty bloggers would all join in unanimous agreement practically overnight.  I find it much more likely that a smaller and far less diverse group would do so.  That smaller and less diverse group is made up of the people who own and/or control most of our “free” press.

Rupert Murdoch, Jack Welch, Robert Iger, Ted Turner, Leslie Moonves, Craig Dubow, Bill McClatchy and Arthur Sulzberger Jr. control a big chunk of television, print and radio media.  These individuals, along with the other people who pay the salaries of the talking heads and writers with whom we are more familiar all have something in common: they are very wealthy.  And by “very wealthy” I ain’t talking about Joe the Plumber kinda money, I’m talking about “Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless” stuff.

Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, Maureen Dowd and Bill Kristol are just a few of the bloviating gasbags who make lots of money being inane, puerile and obtuse to reality.  They can’t be ignorant because they are college educated and have far more access to information than most of the general public.  Why would anyone pay them so much money for being so egregiously incompetent unless they were doing exactly what they were hired to do?  It’s obviously not a bug, it’s a feature.

So why do all those wealthy individuals who own and/or control the media want Barack Obama as our President?

I’m guessing it ain’t for the same reason all those African Americans and nutroots progressives supported him.

UPDATE:  The public stoning of Sarah Palin continues:

Uncritically, Carl Cameron and Shep Smith are reporting that some anonymous McCain aides say that Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent; she thought, allegedly, it was a country.

It does not occur to either man to question these anonymous, and quite absurd, claims.

Or to wonder if perhaps these aides are of the Buckley/Parker sort, or if they perhaps have in mind a candidate they prefer in 2012…

Thus even Fox News begins the campaign to irradiate Palin to toxic levels for 2012.

[…]

Here’s a story these staffers tell: Sent to collect Palin from a hotel, she greeted them, straight from the shower (running late, I guess ) dressed (scandal!) only in a bathrobe (presumably a very thick hotel bathrobe).

These staffers called that “uncommon” — Cameron delighted in the word to give it the sound of “whorish, unprofessional.”

Rupert Murdoch owns FOX News.

No We Won’t: Election Wrap-up

Sheri, Darragh and I will be recapping the election and talking about what we need to do to make real lasting effect. That’s Lions Share tonight on No We Won’t/PUMA United Radio (PURrrr), tonight at 8PM EST.

What kind of Pony do you want?

Some people don’t want to worry about their mortgage and gas.  I don’t want to worry about health care. People are laughing at this woman.  But is she really any different than me?

What do you want now that the Democrats are in control?

Thank you

My dearest Conflucians,

How do like that Obama Brand New Car Smell?  No, I’m not thrilled either.

To think we waited 8 years PRAYING for a Democratic President.  Well now we have one and I still feel the same.   But as a true, firebrand, loud and hellacious liberal who endured the Dubya years, my job is to dislike the president and critique anything and everything the president does.   So it’s not like things have changed much.  Instead of a “W” now we have an “O.”   Instead of obsessively myopic Evangelicals, we have obsessively myopic Obamacrats.  Meet the new boss, same as the old.

It took me a long while to be able to formulate some coherent thought without sounding like a lunatic, yet as much as it hurts we now have a President-Elect Barack Obama.    I congratulate his supporters and I wish that Barack Obama and the Brand New Shiny “Democratic” Party proves me wrong.

As a person of cafe-con-leche skinned persuasion, I can acknowledge the historical importance of an African-American president, but as a woman and as a citizen, I feel the ends never did nor never will justify the means.   Our votes were stolen in the 2008 “Democratic” Primary, at the RBC meeting on May 31st and at the DNC Denver Convention.   We suffered and witnessed rampant misogyny and harassment from O-trolls and the mainstream media and were denied Democracy.

The kicker to all this is, despite having a record voter turnout in the “D” column, Proposition 2 in Florida and Proposition 8 in California were passed, and the Brand New Shiny “Democrats” voted for the ban.  I still cannot support a party that does not fight and represent equality for all, nor respect the sanctity of one person = one vote.   Liberalism, Equal Rights and Critical Thinking is dead in the Brand New Shiny “Democratic” Party.

We also have a “Democratic” Congress, with a few changes here and there, but it’s basically the same one since 2006.   What does that mean?   NOTHING.   The Deaniacs and Pelosians have done NOTHING except bide their time until the 2008 election.    They were waiting for a Brand New Shiny “Democratic” President to lead them, or rather they were waiting to lead a Brand New Shiny “Democratic” President, and who better than 143-days of federal legislative experience President-Elect Barack Obama?   I believe and vehemently exhort equality across the human spectrum is vitally essential for this country to evolve into that “America” we know it can be.   Our Founding Fathers (and Mothers!) made sure of that.  But this Brand New Shiny “Democratic” Party doesn’t believe that we are all equal, or that one person = one vote.   If you are gay or a woman, you have no place at the table unless you O-bey the “O.”

But one thing I am EXTREMELY happy about.  YOU.  Everyone here took a stand and defended their right to be heard.  You fought the sexism, the voter fraud, the intimidation, the HAKA, everything.  We may not have won, but I am so grateful to your courage and commitment in maintaining your integrity.   Thanks to YOU, I didn’t feel alone.   I thank Riverdaughter, Just Say No Deal, PUMA Pac, No Quarter and the PUMA/Just Say No Deal coalition for bringing us all together.  We found a cohesiveness that I truly cherish and will carry with me forever.

I don’t know what will happen next, maybe I’ll finish that historical novel that I’m 75% done with.   Regardless of what happens, I’m gonna keep on being loud and hellacious.  I declare myself a LIBERALCRAT,  Believer of Liberal Principles.

UPDATE:  Cross-posted at LIBERALCRAT, I’m not leaving, I started a new WordPress blog to keep the ball rolling.

This is corny – but it says everything I want to say:

Congratulations, President-Elect Obama.

(speaking for me only)

We Are Still Here!

(Note to self: I am too old to do shots of Southern Comfort with PUMAs in New York. Owwwww, my head!)

I understand the nature of the historic moment that many of my friends and family are celebrating. It is indeed a powerful statement about America, that we have finally elected an African-American man to the office of the Presidency. I want to shout out to my stepmother, who worked so hard on Obama’s campaign in Virginia. Knowing her belief and energy, I am quite sure that the massive turnout in her county was largely due to her efforts.

But as a woman, I have nothing to celebrate today; because Barack Obama chose to have his moment at the expense of another historic moment. And he used every nasty, misogynistic, Republican trick in his toolbox to do it.

I desperately hope that I am wrong about what kind of President Barack Obama will be. Based on the evidence of the past 21 months, however, I am not optimistic today.

Yet…there is still PUMA. 

Is this what we can look forward to?

The Obama trolls are out in force today and they’re just as rude, obnoxious and insulting as ever. 

There is an old saying that “Attitude reflects leadership.”  So who is their leader?

How Kings are Made

It is time we discussed how the election of Barack Obama came about. Two things stand out about his election: his race and the electorate’s disgust with the Republican party. The Villagers are already spinning that Americans want more centrism and less partisanship. That’s because the Villagers only speak to themselves. The supreme desire to throw the Bushies out refutes that belief. The problem with the Bushies is that Democrats couldn’t get a word in edgewise when Bush pulled out his veto pen. We shall see if that changes.
No, it’s time we started to think about what characteristics made a less than one term junior senator from Illinois the most powerful person in the world. He isn’t the smartest, most qualified, most concise person around and he wasn’t the best candidate for the job.
But he is incredibly ruthless. Is it possible that the power brokers gave him extra points for his willingness to break rules? They were so desperate for a Bush/Rove combination that they were willing to overlook the fact that they were damaging the Democratic brand? Did they push him in order to pump up the testosterone and image of the party?
They could have won by the rules with Clinton. I think she was capable.
But this inexperienced senator had something the others did not. What did he learn from his mother, the anthropologist? What do anthropologists know about the birth of kings? Every king who wrestled the crown from his predecessor has probably done it by cheating, exploiting, corruption and brutality.
It still remains to be seen whether a man who ran like Genghis Khan can govern like the Dalai Lama. But there is no doubt on my mind that it was the dreams of his mother, a woman unusually ahead of her time, that got him this far.
And no, I still don’t like him and think he will be a disaster, especially for women going forward. But maybe the only way a woman can wrestle the crown is for her to also be willing to break some rules. Who knows what might have happened if Hillary had fought it out on the floor in Denver instead of walking away?

Ease up on Palin

I am watching CNN and they are still hitting on Palin.  There is just no stopping these people.  They can’t put the cudgel down.  They are recapping the chopped up interviews and the SNL skits.  What is *wrong* with the media?  Sarah was a good choice who rejuvenated the Republican ticket.  She wasn’t stoopid and she wasn’t a liability until Obama’s campaign and the media pounced on her and equated a well liked governor into little more than a talkng vagina.

Come on, Obamaphiles, now is the time to stop the misogynism.  Don’t ruin this day with something so ignoble as to making fun of on of the losers.    Call off the dogs.

Wednesday: We Have Overcome

Celebrating in Grant Park

For those of us who grew up in the 60’s and later, this is a moment we have all been waiting for practically all of our lives.  Yesterday, something truly transformative happened.  This country was built by the hands of slaves, wrenched from their homes, stacked into ships, auctioned at markets, separated from their children, subject to beatings, rape, shackles and decades of apartheid.  Martin Luther King Jr. told us about his dream.  A dream where we would be judged by the content of our characters, not the color of the skin.  Last nght, we overcame the color of the skin barrier.  For this, we should all be very happy.

Take time to celebrate this moment in history.  It is as important as Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon.  Today, backs will stand a little straighter and the words of Martin Luther King Jr. will ring throughout the land.  “Free at last, Free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

What the hell do we do now?

Sackcloth and ashes.  Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Head up into the hills or down into the bunkers.  Flee the country.

Seriously, we suck it up and go to plan “B”  This election has been one hell of an experience, and as my uncle Billy Ray jim Bob says, “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”

I’m not going anywhere, at least not until they haul me off to Gitmo.  Blogging is what I have in place of a life.  But the rest of you should relax and get reacquainted with your spouses, significant others, secret lovers, children, parents, pets, friends, neighbors and employers.  Turn off your television, open a book, take a vacation, have an affair, but do something! 

Things will slow down around here for a while, but that’s normal and to be expected.  This is a political blog, and we just had our Super Bowl.  Today starts the off-season but there will always be stuff to talk about.  First there will be the final results wrap-up and post-mortem stories.  Then we’ll get to discuss the transition and the last days of the Cheney – Bush administration.

On my mom’s birthday The Lightbringer will be inaugurated, and he will enjoy a honeymoon period that will last until the first scandal, crisis or major misstep.  I’m gonna predict a very short honeymoon, because we have lots of potential scandals and serious problems waiting in the wings already.