Karloff, Gods and Monsters, and the Horrors of War

You know how I like horror movies and Arthur ties it into war itself.

"The films added a mythic layer to the stories -- of course, Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein is a modern retelling of an ancient myth (remember the full title: Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus) -- but the impulse to tell these stories anew in that particular time arose in significant part from the transformed world that resulted from The Great War...read on"

He's also having a donation drive because his health has been so bad that he can't work. It forced him to leave blogtopia for a while.

World Net Daily has done it! They've finally proven that President Obama was, in fact, born in Kenya:

The document lists Obama's parents as Barack Hussein Obama and Stanley Ann Obama, formerly Stanley Ann Dunham, the birth date as Aug. 4, 1961, and the hospital of birth as Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya. Read on...

There's just one teensy little problem here -- The Republic of Kenya didn't exist until 1964 -- three years after Obama's birth. Right wing blog Little Green Footballs is calling this a hoax, but leave it to the nutbags at Free Republic to take the debunked myth to a whole new level. See, the whole thing ties into the divorce of President Obama's parents!

Judge Samuel P. King who granted the divorce – last I heard was retired and alive (for now) in his 90s in Hawaii -- MAY or MAY NOT have asked to see the Marriage Certificate. BUT, I bet Judge King asked to see Obama JR's Birth Certificate to confirm Ann's claims that Obama SR was in fact the father. That is “standard” policy to have a Birth Certificate in case the mother asks for child support from the father (or Welfare) later after the divorce. Judge King probably told Ann to produce a birth certificate before or at trial, which would have been sometime in mid- to late-February 1964 HAD Obama SR answered his notice that was sent to Cambridge.

When Judge King wrote the order on Jan. 23, he had his clerk notify Obama SR via what's referred to as a "knock and nail". That is, the postman leaves the notification on the door for (generally) 10 days and retrieves it after that time passes -- signed or unsigned. That order was sent on Jan. 23 via airmail from Hawaii and was probably posted on Obama SR's door Jan. 27-28. Read on...

Nevermind the fact that Barack Obama's birth announcement appeared in two Hawaiian newspapers in 1961. Hell, even Karl Rove says it's likely a forgery. You can be sure the Fox News gang will be running with this story, but will CNN's Lou Dobbs continue to go down the Birther path that's killing his ratings and embarrassing the entire network?

Wait, isn't President Obama the Antichrist? My brain hurts. If I could speak directly to every Birther face to face, this is what I would say.

Mandate Indeed

Geez. The way these conservatives talk, you'd think they won by 30 points instead of 3.

Even Bush himself has been telling the press that he has "the people at my back" (or is that backside?) -- in the process of making clear to everyone considering crossing those bridges they say they're building what the reality is: It's "my way or the highway."

But the entire press corps has bought into the myth of Bush's "mandate." Indeed, it's all any of them can seem to talk about.

Now, just as an experiment, I went back and checked, because I thought I remembered that Bill Clinton cleaned Bob Dole's clock in 1996 by a substanitally wider margin. Sure enough, the final figures were:

Bill Clinton 47,402,357 49%
Bob Dole 39,198,755 41%

Ross Perot 8,085,402 8%

In other words, Clinton won by a margin of of 8 percent of the popular vote -- 8.2 million.
Did the "liberal media" declare that Clinton had a clear mandate from the people?

Well, no.

The mainstream press instead proclaimed that Clinton had been given "a message, not a mandate".

Conservatives have been claiming that there's no such thing as racism anymore. Right-wing op-eds abound claiming that racism is a myth.

Heck, this caller is just angry that black callers are getting through.

No racism there.

A caller to C-Span this morning, who identified himself as a Republican from North Carolina, accused the network of taking too many phone calls from black people.

"You have black folks calling in on the Republican line, independents. And you have so many of 'em I can't believe this is just an accident. If you keep on with the way you've been programming, you should change your name from C-Span to black-span," he said. "I know they have an opinion but I wish that they would be honest and call in on the right line."

Remember this Rush Limbaugh rant? Rush Limbaugh Attacks Black Katrina victims and praises Whites as the Floods hit.

Limbaugh: I want to know. I look at Iowa, I look at Illinois---I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff that happened in New Orleans. I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois that dwarfs what happened in New Orleans. I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property...

I don't see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don't see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people on the street. I don't see a bunch of people doing everything they can...whining and moaning---where's FEMA, where's BUSH. I see the heartland of America. When I look at Iowa and when I look at Illinois, I see the backbone of America.

The NRO's Jay Nordlinger wrote the most farcical claim that racism is dead that I've ever read.

Barney Frank took the gloves off on the floor and called John Fund out for making up a story about a phony bill and then he outlined how the right wing noise machine works as a propaganda arm of the republicans to push that narrative into the mainstream.

Frank: You are entirely wrong about me and in the absence of your being able to show any basis which you made such a statement to ask you to acknowledge that fact. He's not only a liar, he's a coward. He wouldn't do it. My staff member asked him, called him up and said, what was this based on? Well, I made a mistake. Well, have you made a retraction? Oh, yeah, he said. Can we see it? "I told a couple of people." Mr. Fund makes it up. It's a lie, it's a myth. There was nothing there and it's to discredit all democrats.

His right-wing cohorts echo it and echo it. The next thing is it will be on the floor in the next two weeks. This is the democrat disregard for the electoral process. And when we call Mr. Fund's attention to the fact that this was a lie, what does he say? Whoops. but he's not going to tell anybody about it. Mr. Speaker, this is not the only case of this and I know this has happened before. But because I was directly involved here, I was in position to document this. It begins with a lie from this editorial writer from "the Wall street journal." it is then a lie repeated by his right-ring colleagues. He refuses to do anything about.

It doesn't get any clearer than that. Frank posted the entire story on the web.

Frank responded to fabricated accounts of his supposed plans to introduce a bill on “universal voter registration.” The story began in November at the conservative Restoration Weekend conference in Palm Beach, Florida, where for $1,700 per person activists were able to hear talks by conservative opinion leaders on the theme, “Defending our Country and Culture.” At one session, John Fund, a writer for the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, claimed that Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chuck Schumer had hatched a plan to game the election system by registering felons, illegal aliens and others to vote:

Democrats were very rattled by the November 3rd election results. What do liberals do when they lose elections? They change the rules. In January, Chuck Schumer and Barney Frank will propose universal voter registration.

What is universal voter registration? It means all of the state laws on elections will be overridden by a federal mandate. The feds will tell the states, “Take everyone on every list of welfare recipients you have, take everyone on every list of unemployed you have, take everyone on every list of property owners, take everyone on every list of driver’s license holders, and register them to vote regardless of whether they want to be.”

The allegation against Congressman Frank is absolutely false and has no basis in reality. The Congressman in fact heard about it for the first time after the story was launched in the conservative media.

Continue reading »

Opinions You Should Have: Democrats To Actually Vote For Own Bill

Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!: Progressive Expectaions

The Bobblespeak Translations: Meet the Press - December 19, 2009

Sen. Fritz Hollings: They're all against jobs

Majikthise: COP15: Obama's high-handed pseudo-deal

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Share The Damn Road, Ketchup Is A Vegetable, Santa Claus Blog

Some Guy's Blog: Happy Thanksgiving!

James Fallows has been posting on how our myopic media manufactured a failure out of Obama's China trip

Angry Bear: Another Reagan myth bubbling back to the surface

cab drollery: They Knew

The Sardonic Sideshow: Has the American Dream drifted north?

onegoodmove: The Right Side of History (h/t reader Geoff)

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(All 24 minutes of his Blogger call. I've been updating the post.) President Obama and David Axlerod hosted a conference call with liberal bloggers today on the whole health care issue. The audio contains the entire call with the President. You know we're heading for the home stretch in this debate and I thought it was a good idea that the President reached out to the blogs and acknowledged the work that we've done so far. Here's a quick recap of the points he made. Other bloggers will have more details about the call.

President Obama wanted to tell us directly what's going on..

He wants the bill to be strong with an excellent public option.

The status quo is unacceptable for Americans as premiums are skyrocketing....

Doing nothing is defending the indefensible

Opponents are offering up nothing and admit that they are just trying to stop it. He mentioned Jim DeMint and Bill Kristol as examples of obstructionism.

Liberal Bloggers have done an excellent job of debunking right wing myths...

Bloggers have played and will play a critical role in passing legislation...

Record deficits is a myth. He inherited this deficit and it's not an excuse for inaction...

It's important to keep pressure on members of Congress...

Sam Stein of Huff Po: Obama Calls On Bloggers To Keep Health Care Pressure On Congress "I know the blogs are best at are debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets," he said. "And that is why you are going to play such an important role in our success in the weeks to come."

Very pleased that Bloggers have been letting Congress know all about the desperation Americans are feeling and that's been critical.

And he wants us to keep up the pressure on Congress and the media.

Doesn't want to wait.

He talked for about four minutes and then opened it up for questions. And I was the first one in line. Since the goal of the opposition is to defeat the bill, a key way to do that is by delaying the process. I asked the President if he would demand that Congress work through their cushy vacations in August if they try to delay the bill. While they are on their magical holidays, millions will suffer in August over their petty tactics. I wanted to ask a question that required an answer.

John Amato: Good afternoon President Obama, thanks for having us on.

President Obama: You bet.

Amato: My question is, now we have these, we'll call them conservative democrats joining with some republicans in wanting to delay the bill and saying that they need more time to go over it and actually read it. My question to you is will you ask Congress to forgo their August recess and work this bill out because while they're taking a vacation, millions of Americans are either losing their health care or are about to go bankrupt because of health care issues.

So if they're going to whine about not having enough time then they should act like real Americans and work during August.

President Obama: Well, here's what I've said. We cannot delay any longer. If people keep on saying"what's the rush? We've been debating this for fifty years. We've been talking about health care reform throughout the campaign. The day after I was elected we started contacting key leaders in Congress about the fact that this was going to be #1 domestic priority. All these committees have been meeting, all the experts have been talking and knows the time to make tough decisions. I understand that people want to put off tough decisions, but ultimately we can move the process forward in which all the options have been considered and we go ahead and make smarter choices that provide the American people with more security, greater options as well as bending the cost curve over the long term and I'm confident that we can achieve that on the timeline that I put forward.

I think it was telling that some of you may have seen. A Republican Senator saying thi weekend saying. "we're just going to delay and delay because if we can stop Obama on this, this is going to be his Waterloo. We'll break him." That was a quote. And IU think it indicates to me in which a lot of folks may sincerely think that the more time we take the better off we're going to be, but I also think that some who deliberately want to delay this process because they know the longer the special interest have to run negative ads or lobby members of Congress, the more difficult it becomes to get this done and I think the time for talk is through. It's time for us to go and act.

John Amato: I agree, will you then make them give us a bill before the August recess?

President Obama: We are working as hard as we can and I've told Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that it is critical that we see serious forward motion before people leave. Alright?

He dodged the question, but in doing so he made it clear that he does not want any delays. Stalling cannot be an option so I want to make the case that if Joe Lieberman wants more time to read the bill then he should stay at work doing so. Health care has been in the works for 65 years and Congress knows all there is to know about the process. Ted Kennedy has been writing opinion pieces now to force the issue and that's been his mission for forty years now. The Cause of My Life’ Inside the fight for universal health care.

I'll have David Axlerod's audio a little later...Please feel free to write up a transcript for the full piece so I can add it to the post.

Here's more from Sam Stein:

In a roughly 25-minute session with a handful of prominent progressive bloggers, the president also asked for help combating disinformation about his health care plan.

Continue reading »

Prose Before Hos: The Myth versus the Reality of Adam Smith's political economy

The Reid Report: 'Complexion' conscious swim club wants campers back...sort of

Democratic Strategist: Should wavering or wayward "centrist" Democrats be disciplined through the threat or reality of primary challenges?

Kiko's House: "We have met the enemy and he is us"

Zandar Versus The Stupid: Liz Cheney, Russia expert

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: WTF Is It Now?!?, Culture choc, Mental Detritus, Where's The Outrage?

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A couple of weeks ago Will Bunch, our blogging friend from Philly and the proprietor of Attytood, visited with John Amato in L.A. for a bit while on the road promoting his new book, Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future.

Will has a rundown of the book's contents at Attytood, and provided an excerpt for Salon.

Of special note, I thought, was this bit about Grover Norquist's role in shaping the Reagan Legacy project:

One of the more down-to-earth tributes was written by Norquist, who said: “Every conservative knows that we will win radical tax reform and reduction as soon as we elect a president who will sign the bill. The flow of history is with us. Our victories can be delayed, but not denied. This is the change wrought by Ronald Reagan.” Norquist all but revealed one of his missions in the coming two years — finding a presidential candidate who would assume the Reagan mantle in a way that neither Bush 41 nor Dole ever could — but not the other. His second big push was practically a guerrilla marketing campaign to make sure that the less-engaged Middle America would get the message that Reagan belonged in the pantheon of all-time greats right next to Lincoln, Washington and FDR. Norquist had learned the lessons of Normandy and of the Brandenburg Gate, which was that powerful symbols can mean a lot more than words (especially in a little-read policy journal), that a motorist under the big Sunbelt sky of Ronald Reagan Boulevard will absorb the message of the Gipper’s greatness without ever pondering if ketchup should be a vegetable in federally funded school lunches or if “the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers” in Central America were drug-dealing thugs, the kind of stubborn things that popped up in those newspaper articles ranking the presidents.

I've just gotten my copy and started reading, but it's an important book -- especially if you want to have some arguments handy for dealing with your Reagan-loving brother-in-law ...