Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Kill Hippie, Kill
...may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Are Democrats really violent Nazi-esque Extremists?
The Corporate Republican “Sin to Win” philosophy has reached a nadir this summer.
The Corporate Republican “Sin to Win” philosophy has reached a nadir this summer.
The Republicans willingly allowed health insurance profiteers to lather them into such a frenzy of fear about becoming the new Soviet Union, that they grabbed up their lusty assault rifles and turned America into Somalia instead.
The talking points argument coming out of the GOP airspace last month - that the LEFT is violent, racist and bullying - is a new level of sycophantic mis-reality even for the post Bush GOP. As a line of reasoning it enjoys the same problem as many of their previous and failed versions of make-your-own reality that doomed the GOP: It won't play well in the long view with moderates who can read. The health insurance and services companies are almost certainly behind much of the town hall meeting anger. They don’t want either side to deliver an alternative to the current success of their Clinton-Bush era deregulated profiteering.
The only industry in American history that promises a more dangerous, corruption-driven meltdown for our economy than the banking industry of 2008, is the health care industry of 2009. So, by all means lets allow the extremists to prevent us from slowing a financial and health care disaster that we can already see approaching like four hundred Hurricane Katrinas.
Jesus Was a Door Gunner
We've seen several stories this month about Republican white churches continuing to pray for Obama to fail, or die, or, well whatever. The left has almost never approached the fever of hate-preaching, gun-totting, religious ranting that the right has decided to partake of. Smearing the left as violent is a classic and typical Rovian trick - falsely accusing the left of being as mean and un-Christian as the right. Right wing "Christians" won't even break with party loyalty long enough to pray for the health of the 30 million +/- Americans without any significant access to modern medical science. They'd rather celebrate Jesus the healer's life by praying for Obama and the hippies to die.
We've seen several stories this month about Republican white churches continuing to pray for Obama to fail, or die, or, well whatever. The left has almost never approached the fever of hate-preaching, gun-totting, religious ranting that the right has decided to partake of. Smearing the left as violent is a classic and typical Rovian trick - falsely accusing the left of being as mean and un-Christian as the right. Right wing "Christians" won't even break with party loyalty long enough to pray for the health of the 30 million +/- Americans without any significant access to modern medical science. They'd rather celebrate Jesus the healer's life by praying for Obama and the hippies to die.
.... Yes, Yes Jed, we know... all the liberal hippie-girls, gay people, dopers and college history professors are just chomping at the bit to go to Idaho and Arizona and start killing skin-heads with the piles of Ak-47s and monogrammed K-Bar knives they have behind the Grateful Dead posters in their basements....
The left was totally disenfranchised during the Cheney - Bush - Rove Presidency, yet the closest they came to gun waving, town hall outbursts was to create “The West Wing”, give Al Gore an Oscar and let a disgusting and banal film maker pretend to be their spokesman for a few years.
In their reaction to the Bush years, the left never came close to the level of nutty, armed, violence-espousing racist hate we see every day from the right. There is a simple reason for this – the moderate left would never allow it to continue.
Here’s an idea from the middle for the Great White Hopefuls: Instead of worrying that President Obama might not have been born in the United States, they might start to worry that their most visible members act like they weren’t born on planet Earth. You know, the same earth that Jesus walked on before they killed Him for healing the sick and comforting the destitute.
Teach a Man to Fish Shoot
The new American right hasn’t accepted a moderate voice into their big bloodstained tent since Dwight Eisenhower. Until they change that trend, they will remain the ones who stay behind. The right uses assault rifles the way the left uses bumper stickers - and then they act like it's the same form of "loyal opposition".
The new American right hasn’t accepted a moderate voice into their big bloodstained tent since Dwight Eisenhower. Until they change that trend, they will remain the ones who stay behind. The right uses assault rifles the way the left uses bumper stickers - and then they act like it's the same form of "loyal opposition".
The left is visibly represented by comedians while the right is joyously represented by armed violence-espousing militants. There really is a difference kids. This summer the Republican base crossed a threshold between loyal opposition and agency of provocation.
The only people who buy into the new extremist right’s kill-em-all-and-let-Jesus-sort-em-out fervor are the ones already on board the crazy train. (And, certainly not Bush's Homeland Security Republicans who first penned that controversial warning about violent right wing extremism becoming the next Al Qaeda level threat for the United States.)
Accusing the left of orchestrating this new wave of town hall anger is about as logical as blaming Spielberg for Auschwitz. But if being dumbed down, sexed-up and armed to the teeth is all the GOP has to cling to, by all means get it out of the system now. Because in 2016 the GOP’s entire existence will hinge on an ability to get people like your humble (Ex) Cowboy - a western born, christian minded, college-educated, moderate - back to a voting inclination anywhere near the extremist war dance of doom and hate you now call worthy moral leadership.
Thanks for putting up with me,
Ride For the High Country
Monday, October 05, 2009
The New Rant Form
(Circle one option only from each parenthetical bracket.)
I am a (Republican, Democrat, Steven Colbert).
I am (angry, irate, psychotically broken).
I attribute my joyless worldview to extremist (Republicans, Liberals) and (The Liberal New York Times Media, The Republican Fox-News Media, that Jon Stewart prick).
You people all need to (wake-up, turn the channel, take English 101 at community college)!
For sure, if you disagree with my (opinion, rant, 10,000 word manifesto) then you are a (fag-traitor, godless-miscreant, zealot-bastard) and, you should be (jailed, beaten, taxed) without benefit of a (fair trial, mortgage bailout).
You people all need to (wake-up, turn the channel, take English 101 at community college)!
For sure, if you disagree with my (opinion, rant, 10,000 word manifesto) then you are a (fag-traitor, godless-miscreant, zealot-bastard) and, you should be (jailed, beaten, taxed) without benefit of a (fair trial, mortgage bailout).
The world is full of problems that I can't solve, because I am not actually a (economist, college graduate, trustee here at the prison). I am however a naturally gifted analyst - despite the fact that I only get world news from (Fox, New York Times, Al Jazeera).
I am (particularly gifted, the Chosen One, delusional) when it comes to assessing who else is to blame for my manic joylessness. Further, I genuinely believe that I can become as popular as ( George Washington, Jesus, that Stewart prick) just by (writing un-edited 10,000 word manifestos, writing obsessed incendiary hate-blogs, a mall massacre).
There is just no (joy, hope, chance of getting laid) in my world. This (crisis, disaster, apocalyptic orgy of doom) is clearly and obviously the fault of (George W. Bush, Michelle Obama, The Illuminati). I think that (real Americans, true patriots, Steven Colbert) are justified in fighting this (tyranny, socialism, Mossad conspiracy) using (full-auto war rifles, barrels of ANFO, gerrymandered re-districting).
We will only enjoy (liberty, lower taxes, getting some hootchi-kootchie) after we restore my beloved country to the former greatness of the sentimental past, as captured by such films as (The Sons of Katie Elder, Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars IV –A New Hope).
In the mean time, we have been historically (short-johned, gin-poled, electric banjo-pronged) by the inability of (Congress, ) to provide ethical, non-partisan leadership in these (dark times, strange days, early weeks of the revolution). Yes, until (congress, ) can provide some selfless political sacrifice I am keeping my (gun loaded, bunker stocked, money in oil stocks).
If you are not (with us, against us, half-in-the-bag by noon) then you are obviously (with us, against us, half-in-the-bag by noon) and you really need to WAKE UP.
Ride for the High Country
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Jesus Has Left The Building
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
--1 Timothy 6:10,11
America’s future now depends on nothing more complicated than our ability to treat each other with the kind of compassion that Jesus preached, and to see the world with the quiet and humble optimism that we used to call Christianity.
These are times when democracy has a chance to prove itself to the world.
--1 Timothy 6:10,11
America’s future now depends on nothing more complicated than our ability to treat each other with the kind of compassion that Jesus preached, and to see the world with the quiet and humble optimism that we used to call Christianity.
These are times when democracy has a chance to prove itself to the world.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Requiem For A Year
"If thou hast taken the common clay,
And thy hands be not free
From the taint of the soil, thou hast made thy spoil
The greater shame to thee."
--- Kipling
About Last year: What do want to hear first?
Mean was the new black.
A trillion-idea Socratic deficit, defended by the most overpowered regime in modern world history, was laid waist by 99 cents worth of hope on a stick.
And thy hands be not free
From the taint of the soil, thou hast made thy spoil
The greater shame to thee."
--- Kipling
About Last year: What do want to hear first?
Mean was the new black.
A trillion-idea Socratic deficit, defended by the most overpowered regime in modern world history, was laid waist by 99 cents worth of hope on a stick.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Letter From America
Dear former ambassador of Nigeria for petroleum export excise revenue Mbuoto-wigan,
I am hoping this missive finds you and your battered family in good spirits . I am not writing you (this time) to inquire about the $875.00 which was unfortunately and accidently withdrawn from my wife’s checking account during those troublesome days of the confusing oil tariff revenue transfers last year.
I am hoping this missive finds you and your battered family in good spirits . I am not writing you (this time) to inquire about the $875.00 which was unfortunately and accidently withdrawn from my wife’s checking account during those troublesome days of the confusing oil tariff revenue transfers last year.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Defending A Pro Obama Media
All the rasping noise about the media being biased for Obama is annoying the (ex) Cowboy's whiskey-ringing ears. Listen, they do like the guy more, um we all do. And no one should have to apologize for that. But here is the reason why for the frustrated and pundificatory amongst us. Maybe if we write this down now we can save a few million trees from the op/ed pages next week, and just start the drinking early:
The Biggest GOP Defection to Obama yet?
In a mildly surprising turn of events last night Barack Obama received another endorsement from a defecting Republican.
“I am afraid for the country if we don’t elect this guy as soon as possible..” offered the lifetime GOP Stalwart.
“I can’t see any way past the, really the almost stupid reality at this point. The latest increase in venomous negativism from the Palin McCain Campaign has started to break apart whatever remains of America’s ability to be seen as an ethical center for the world and for main street here at home. I mean, look; the race card? Scmidt and Palin and those guys are just about shoving the race baseball bat straight up America's anus at his point. My friends, well, all of my friends are stunned that we have to face any kind of reality here in the GOP. However, it has just gotten to be un-American, un-christian and un-dignified, the way this campaign is being run by the GOP campaign leadership. ”
“Sure, it’s a bit awkward, but let’s face it, our elephant has become an ass and Obama’s inspiration has turned the Democrat’s donkey into this great, sort of national inspirational elephant in the room. So it’s almost, to paraphrse the bible here lightly, it’s like the elephants have become asses and the asses have become elephants”
“I will be handing out these stickers to show my support for the guy. I really hope he wins, it will just provide us, me and my friends a chance to get out from under our fear.”
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Apre's le Deluge, Tois (Revising Down Bush)
(What did you see at the empire, oh Peggy dear?)
Uber neo-con "statesman" John R. Bolton just came out (on the pages of the Murdoch's WSJ, of course) as the first, in a very long line, of Righties waiting for the freedom to flay George W. Bush.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385733887027383.html
Once the term is over the great Bush Cheney loyalty-of-message gag order will no longer apply to the average Republican's free speech. They will scatter in the night, like wounded coyotes, cackling and darting about, nipping now at each other and now at the flames of media spotlight, as they sort through their own bones and ash to seek a new leader for their pack. (More on that later - it is not Newt but he might be from Arizona.)
Uber neo-con "statesman" John R. Bolton just came out (on the pages of the Murdoch's WSJ, of course) as the first, in a very long line, of Righties waiting for the freedom to flay George W. Bush.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385733887027383.html
Once the term is over the great Bush Cheney loyalty-of-message gag order will no longer apply to the average Republican's free speech. They will scatter in the night, like wounded coyotes, cackling and darting about, nipping now at each other and now at the flames of media spotlight, as they sort through their own bones and ash to seek a new leader for their pack. (More on that later - it is not Newt but he might be from Arizona.)
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
A Day That Will Live in Ignominy
A Day That Will Live in Ignominy
Sin to Win becomes Pray to Stay
The Old Man and the Sea
The Green Flash
The Sound of train not running
Has been keeping me awake…
- Chris Knight w/ Del McCoury: Moneyland
Yesterday, September 29th, 2008 was a day that will live in ignominy.
It was a barrel of bad whiskey for the American soul, a bonfire of the “vanitas”, a rebellion without applause. It was a double-armada of “Big-Bopper” plane crashes hard into the spotted liver of the American Dream. Like all good plane crashes it was caused by a 500 mile an hour mixture of bad weather and deranged addiction.
The addicts are still stumbling through the smoldering ashes like zombies, many are headless or limbless but they all retained a single finger to point. As with all hard-core junkies their words fail to mask their obvious, light of day desperation for another fix. One party in particular, but both to degrees, have burned down main street as they over dosed on that powerful re-election heroin.
It is about the economy, stupid. Mark the (ex) Cowboy’s words, they were wrong and YOU were wrong. We are all in the smoke now. An army of rusted bagpipes are firing up dirges, but this time the flag may well ride down main street inside the pine box.
Nancy Pelosi is getting (justified) blame for bad leadership but let’s be realistic. The Republican Sin-To-Win machine hit is nadir yesterday. They deployed the Vietnam strategy and are stuck now crying that they had to destroy America in order to save it. The complaint that Nancy Pelosi threw gas on a fire cannot escape a greater truth. The fire in question was a dirty nuclear bomb. 65% of the GOP did not hesitate to place their partisan and personal re-election greed so far ahead of our nation’s security that our future stability is not even visible behind them on the horizon.
The Republicans also managed to destroy their core, and I mean really deepest core, ideology. Which is where you complaining GOP voters get to share some blame. Most Americans remain skeptical that the bailout crisis is real. Most voters, conservatives especially, are unable to process the desperate, massive, terrible downside to the Paulson Plan’s failure. The real intel, as they say, is as bad as bad gets, and no average joe can comprehend it in a day or a week.
I heard a GOP guy at the gym say that we should allow the economy to collapse to teach the other party a lesson. That’s everything you need to hear about Republican patriotism in one sentence. This crisis is not about avoiding a few bad years, kids. The BEST CASE scenario is now that we have the hardest decade in any of our lives ahead.
(Consider this: After recent meetings with Paulson the White House confirmed orders that place forward elements of the 4th Infantry Division on alert for “training” under a Northern Command program to control civil unrest inside the united States.)
This is not a celebrity re-enactment of the great depression, with bottled water and fresh sushi to help us stay the course. This is worse than that, this is the civil war; this is Washington drowning in the Delaware River on that fateful Christmas eve. That hard to accept reality is why the Republicans failed so ominously.
They are the party of representative government. All campaign balderdash about Elitists in the DNC aside, Republicans, by historical definition believe that an elite, educated, informed and upper crust layer of society should control the critical power and leadership. They hold that the masses, the temperamental and emotionally charged mob of the citizenry is not qualified to make life-or-death decisions.
In this case, the GOP abandoned that premise like a wounded dog on a rain swept highway. Congressional Republicans bowed, in slavish election year desperation, before an archetypical case study of a shocked, ill-informed, prejudiced, angry and fearful mob. Everyone who voted “no” yesterday was unpatriotic. This regardless of what Nancy Pelosi said to hurt their little feelings; regardless of what your and my main street sentiment is; Regardless of whether they would get re-elected next month.
The sun also sets tough guy.
Yesterday was the end of the Post 9/11 primacy for the Republican Party. Even if they bring the head of Bin laden home as their “October Surprise”, even if they bomb Natanz, Iran. The (ex) Cowboy watched closely yesterday and saw the great burning orb of Republican fire fall down below the horizon. There was a piercing Green Flash and then only an ear-ringing silence remained.
Ignominy:
(n.) Public disgrace or dishonor; reproach; infamy.
(n.) An act deserving disgrace; an infamous act.
Thanks for letting me Share
Ride for the High Country
Sin to Win becomes Pray to Stay
The Old Man and the Sea
The Green Flash
The Sound of train not running
Has been keeping me awake…
- Chris Knight w/ Del McCoury: Moneyland
Yesterday, September 29th, 2008 was a day that will live in ignominy.
It was a barrel of bad whiskey for the American soul, a bonfire of the “vanitas”, a rebellion without applause. It was a double-armada of “Big-Bopper” plane crashes hard into the spotted liver of the American Dream. Like all good plane crashes it was caused by a 500 mile an hour mixture of bad weather and deranged addiction.
The addicts are still stumbling through the smoldering ashes like zombies, many are headless or limbless but they all retained a single finger to point. As with all hard-core junkies their words fail to mask their obvious, light of day desperation for another fix. One party in particular, but both to degrees, have burned down main street as they over dosed on that powerful re-election heroin.
It is about the economy, stupid. Mark the (ex) Cowboy’s words, they were wrong and YOU were wrong. We are all in the smoke now. An army of rusted bagpipes are firing up dirges, but this time the flag may well ride down main street inside the pine box.
Nancy Pelosi is getting (justified) blame for bad leadership but let’s be realistic. The Republican Sin-To-Win machine hit is nadir yesterday. They deployed the Vietnam strategy and are stuck now crying that they had to destroy America in order to save it. The complaint that Nancy Pelosi threw gas on a fire cannot escape a greater truth. The fire in question was a dirty nuclear bomb. 65% of the GOP did not hesitate to place their partisan and personal re-election greed so far ahead of our nation’s security that our future stability is not even visible behind them on the horizon.
The Republicans also managed to destroy their core, and I mean really deepest core, ideology. Which is where you complaining GOP voters get to share some blame. Most Americans remain skeptical that the bailout crisis is real. Most voters, conservatives especially, are unable to process the desperate, massive, terrible downside to the Paulson Plan’s failure. The real intel, as they say, is as bad as bad gets, and no average joe can comprehend it in a day or a week.
I heard a GOP guy at the gym say that we should allow the economy to collapse to teach the other party a lesson. That’s everything you need to hear about Republican patriotism in one sentence. This crisis is not about avoiding a few bad years, kids. The BEST CASE scenario is now that we have the hardest decade in any of our lives ahead.
(Consider this: After recent meetings with Paulson the White House confirmed orders that place forward elements of the 4th Infantry Division on alert for “training” under a Northern Command program to control civil unrest inside the united States.)
This is not a celebrity re-enactment of the great depression, with bottled water and fresh sushi to help us stay the course. This is worse than that, this is the civil war; this is Washington drowning in the Delaware River on that fateful Christmas eve. That hard to accept reality is why the Republicans failed so ominously.
They are the party of representative government. All campaign balderdash about Elitists in the DNC aside, Republicans, by historical definition believe that an elite, educated, informed and upper crust layer of society should control the critical power and leadership. They hold that the masses, the temperamental and emotionally charged mob of the citizenry is not qualified to make life-or-death decisions.
In this case, the GOP abandoned that premise like a wounded dog on a rain swept highway. Congressional Republicans bowed, in slavish election year desperation, before an archetypical case study of a shocked, ill-informed, prejudiced, angry and fearful mob. Everyone who voted “no” yesterday was unpatriotic. This regardless of what Nancy Pelosi said to hurt their little feelings; regardless of what your and my main street sentiment is; Regardless of whether they would get re-elected next month.
The sun also sets tough guy.
Yesterday was the end of the Post 9/11 primacy for the Republican Party. Even if they bring the head of Bin laden home as their “October Surprise”, even if they bomb Natanz, Iran. The (ex) Cowboy watched closely yesterday and saw the great burning orb of Republican fire fall down below the horizon. There was a piercing Green Flash and then only an ear-ringing silence remained.
Ignominy:
(n.) Public disgrace or dishonor; reproach; infamy.
(n.) An act deserving disgrace; an infamous act.
Thanks for letting me Share
Ride for the High Country
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A Party Non- Declarative
The (Ex) Cowboy finds solace in the wind swept prairies of America's less travelled ideological wilderness. There are lonesome nights and cold hard blizzards, but on occasion the (ex) Cowboy remembers why he came out here.
Yesterday, September 29th 2008 was a barrel of bad whiskey for the soul. But it reminded your humble commentator that he chose his political affiliation for a reason. Neither side has lock on being right, or righteous and, neither side is less dangerous when cornered by the ephemeral and ever present greed for election-year success. One side has broken more things lately, yes that us undeniable. But arguing with a sinner, does not make you a saint. Each side is enslaved by the same elective temptations.
Your party is not my church.
Your church is not my religion.
Your religion is not my country.
My country is my Mistress.
My Mistress is not your whore.
My Party is Not Declared.
Thanks for letting me share..
Yesterday, September 29th 2008 was a barrel of bad whiskey for the soul. But it reminded your humble commentator that he chose his political affiliation for a reason. Neither side has lock on being right, or righteous and, neither side is less dangerous when cornered by the ephemeral and ever present greed for election-year success. One side has broken more things lately, yes that us undeniable. But arguing with a sinner, does not make you a saint. Each side is enslaved by the same elective temptations.
Your party is not my church.
Your church is not my religion.
Your religion is not my country.
My country is my Mistress.
My Mistress is not your whore.
My Party is Not Declared.
Thanks for letting me share..
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
What Would Goldwater Do?
Charles V ascended his throne after a monumental religious comprimise. He famously intoned:
"Paris is worth a Mass"
The price for Republicans to continue pilfering marginal electoral victories, under Karl Rove's "Thousand Year Campaign", looks like the exact same sell-out. McCain ignored twenty or thirty million Republican primary voters and succumbed to a blackmail deal. Sarah Palin would join his ticket in exchange for getting Megachurch evangelicals to support his candidacy. McCain has been driven to be the President his entire life. He determined that the only way he could win his election was to sell theirPresidency.
(As if the hard-right christians would have voted for Obama..)
The modern conservative movement began with Barry Goldwater fifty years ago. The guy who took over Goldwater's Senate chair just ended it. The White House Republicans will still use the Goldwater brand, but their claim to Goldater's ideological conservatism went out the window with baby Palin's bath-water.
What would Barry say about Palin's religious end-run around 20 million Republican primary voters?
Barry Goldwater went out of his way to have this entered into the public record:
"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly.
The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate.
I am warning them today:
I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "
Senator Barry Goldwater
Congressional Record, September 16, 1981
The (ex) Cowboy knew Barry Golodwater and Sarah Palin is no Barry Goldwater!
Ride for the High Country
"Paris is worth a Mass"
The price for Republicans to continue pilfering marginal electoral victories, under Karl Rove's "Thousand Year Campaign", looks like the exact same sell-out. McCain ignored twenty or thirty million Republican primary voters and succumbed to a blackmail deal. Sarah Palin would join his ticket in exchange for getting Megachurch evangelicals to support his candidacy. McCain has been driven to be the President his entire life. He determined that the only way he could win his election was to sell theirPresidency.
(As if the hard-right christians would have voted for Obama..)
The modern conservative movement began with Barry Goldwater fifty years ago. The guy who took over Goldwater's Senate chair just ended it. The White House Republicans will still use the Goldwater brand, but their claim to Goldater's ideological conservatism went out the window with baby Palin's bath-water.
What would Barry say about Palin's religious end-run around 20 million Republican primary voters?
Barry Goldwater went out of his way to have this entered into the public record:
"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly.
The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate.
I am warning them today:
I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "
Senator Barry Goldwater
Congressional Record, September 16, 1981
The (ex) Cowboy knew Barry Golodwater and Sarah Palin is no Barry Goldwater!
Ride for the High Country
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Why Sarah Palin #27 ?
Among the 250 million or so citizens that the secretive power-elite of the Republican machine seeks to manipulate?
Sarah Palin is the easiest for them to control.
Ride For The High Country
Sarah Palin is the easiest for them to control.
Ride For The High Country
Questioning The Media
Karl Rove's "J'accusism" belligerence is cheap bully-tactic intended to oppress free discussion.
There's only seven words that are out of bounds for political media:
If George Carlin could say it, or ask it, so can journalists.
There's only seven words that are out of bounds for political media:
If George Carlin could say it, or ask it, so can journalists.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Sin To Win
Well I went to church on Sunday, I was feelin’ blue.
Saturday night sat down beside me, in the very last pew.
- The Ambulance Brothers, 2003
(Cowboy's note: This one was written and published during the 2004 election cycle. Apparently American Christian voters have suddenly had their "philosophical" - hunger and lust satiated. A fulfillment was delivered unto them in the form of a speaking-in-tongues, college drop-out with pretend eye glasses named Sarah "barracuda" Palin. You know, "barracuda", like the little fish embalm on the cars?)
Bush and the Republicans rose to power on a platform of religious fervor. The "values" message has been extremist in it’s zeal, but there is a confusing contradiction between their words and their actions. Almost any unchristian act is acceptable, provided it furthers their power and is backed up by properly coded words extolling "family values". The Reagan Revolution has devolved into a surreal pendulum between Sunday Morning Christianity and Saturday Night Sinfulness.
The Sunday Morning Christians of the GOP go to church once a week and say they believe in Christ’s Path. They refresh their dented faith for an hour, set an example for the kids and show the voters they are “clean”. Once they leave the church, however, they carry their political flag forward using acts and deeds that are the very definition of what Christ died to protest.
Rove’s Republicans take the Jesuit doctrine that “The Ends Justify the Means” one step further into the American Democratic experience: They made it heroic to push the limits of Christian behavior in pursuit of more power, more money and more glory. If the ethos of the Republican Party can be boiled down into one of their own simpleton-minded talking points it would be this:
SIN TO WIN.
It worked well for a time, mostly because nothing unifies like prejudice. Being judgemental against other population groups is as easy as it is unsophisticated. It drives the fearful masses like a blizzard drives cattle across the prairie. Now, however, the Republicans face serious election year blowback from the faithful. They built a national chorus of judgmental speaking but it was to polished. The reality of their actions could never match their promise of perfection. Christians are more than mildly concerned. It is suddenly late in the evening of W.'s Presidency and the date that brought him would like to dance.
… Lest ye be Judged
Under the current leadership Republicans openly proclaimed themselves to be the Party of Christ. But lately they are acting like the Party of Caesar. On Sundays they gleefully rouse the pitchfork and torch crowd, under the guise of Christ’s Path. But on Saturday night they trade, sell, conspire, deal, abuse power and ignore truths in a way that would make even the Romans bow in awe. (See "The Party of Dog" entry below.) They define themselves at every issue and every contrived moral crisis by what they are against. They proudly destroy any people (christian or otherwise) who disagree with them or any idea that threatens their power.
I have enormous faith in my heart. I believe Christ walked the earth. I have only ever wanted to ask him one thing: How can so many intelligent people be so loyal to you with their words and yet so sadly faithless to the key details of behavior that you died to espouse? I see the fish icons and the W. bumper stickers on rows of SUVs at the churches in our neighborhood each Sunday. I see them on the road on Monday and I wonder:
Why don’t you drive like a Christian?
I was raised to believe that Christian ethics are very, very simple: You determine what is right and what is easy. You do what is right and not what is easy. You suffer the discomfort, or rewards, of your choice as God has chosen for you. You move on down the path.
I was a Reagan independent. (I also recall that Reagan defeated a devote Christian.) I am sad that the GOP has grown away from Reagan's gentle but resolute faith in all Americans. They turned the party into a vitriolic marketing machine that brands faith in Christ like pro sports brand cheap beer. The Republicans of this era carry the same great cross of the ages before them in their march. They wave the same large, crisp flag of patriotism. But the only devotion they show in their deeds and works is to make sure that someone else is riding the cross this time up the hill.
Thanks for playing.
Ride for the High Country
Saturday night sat down beside me, in the very last pew.
- The Ambulance Brothers, 2003
(Cowboy's note: This one was written and published during the 2004 election cycle. Apparently American Christian voters have suddenly had their "philosophical" - hunger and lust satiated. A fulfillment was delivered unto them in the form of a speaking-in-tongues, college drop-out with pretend eye glasses named Sarah "barracuda" Palin. You know, "barracuda", like the little fish embalm on the cars?)
Bush and the Republicans rose to power on a platform of religious fervor. The "values" message has been extremist in it’s zeal, but there is a confusing contradiction between their words and their actions. Almost any unchristian act is acceptable, provided it furthers their power and is backed up by properly coded words extolling "family values". The Reagan Revolution has devolved into a surreal pendulum between Sunday Morning Christianity and Saturday Night Sinfulness.
The Sunday Morning Christians of the GOP go to church once a week and say they believe in Christ’s Path. They refresh their dented faith for an hour, set an example for the kids and show the voters they are “clean”. Once they leave the church, however, they carry their political flag forward using acts and deeds that are the very definition of what Christ died to protest.
Rove’s Republicans take the Jesuit doctrine that “The Ends Justify the Means” one step further into the American Democratic experience: They made it heroic to push the limits of Christian behavior in pursuit of more power, more money and more glory. If the ethos of the Republican Party can be boiled down into one of their own simpleton-minded talking points it would be this:
SIN TO WIN.
It worked well for a time, mostly because nothing unifies like prejudice. Being judgemental against other population groups is as easy as it is unsophisticated. It drives the fearful masses like a blizzard drives cattle across the prairie. Now, however, the Republicans face serious election year blowback from the faithful. They built a national chorus of judgmental speaking but it was to polished. The reality of their actions could never match their promise of perfection. Christians are more than mildly concerned. It is suddenly late in the evening of W.'s Presidency and the date that brought him would like to dance.
… Lest ye be Judged
Under the current leadership Republicans openly proclaimed themselves to be the Party of Christ. But lately they are acting like the Party of Caesar. On Sundays they gleefully rouse the pitchfork and torch crowd, under the guise of Christ’s Path. But on Saturday night they trade, sell, conspire, deal, abuse power and ignore truths in a way that would make even the Romans bow in awe. (See "The Party of Dog" entry below.) They define themselves at every issue and every contrived moral crisis by what they are against. They proudly destroy any people (christian or otherwise) who disagree with them or any idea that threatens their power.
I have enormous faith in my heart. I believe Christ walked the earth. I have only ever wanted to ask him one thing: How can so many intelligent people be so loyal to you with their words and yet so sadly faithless to the key details of behavior that you died to espouse? I see the fish icons and the W. bumper stickers on rows of SUVs at the churches in our neighborhood each Sunday. I see them on the road on Monday and I wonder:
Why don’t you drive like a Christian?
I was raised to believe that Christian ethics are very, very simple: You determine what is right and what is easy. You do what is right and not what is easy. You suffer the discomfort, or rewards, of your choice as God has chosen for you. You move on down the path.
I was a Reagan independent. (I also recall that Reagan defeated a devote Christian.) I am sad that the GOP has grown away from Reagan's gentle but resolute faith in all Americans. They turned the party into a vitriolic marketing machine that brands faith in Christ like pro sports brand cheap beer. The Republicans of this era carry the same great cross of the ages before them in their march. They wave the same large, crisp flag of patriotism. But the only devotion they show in their deeds and works is to make sure that someone else is riding the cross this time up the hill.
Thanks for playing.
Ride for the High Country
America's Palin Problem
Senator McCain suddenly looks like he has ten weeks to live eight weeks before the election. That gives American Democracy a bigger Palin problem than anyone has yet figured out how to address without a Karl Rove "J'accusism" attack.
The problem Palin gives America is that she has not ever received a single national vote for any federal office and she has never served in any sworn (military) or Senate confirmed command chain position. If McCain is elected, Palin will have no legitimate claim to having earned any of their ticket's votes specific for her candidacy for the Presidency.
Of all the VPOTUS names in contention now, or nearly every other historical contest since Washington was elected it is un-paralleled for such an inexperienced person to be considered without having a single federal vote or previous peer-reviewed, confirmed or promoted-under-oath command service. The "experience question" people are dealing with in comparing her to Obama is pretty simple, even for an ex Republican to do the math. He has 25 or 35 million votes in his column and she has zero.
That's right I am saying it out loud and Karl Rove be damned. McCain looks like he won't live through his first year, let alone the next eight.
The GOP/ Rove machine has all but admitted that she's dumber than a fish. They announced today that she will not do ANY unscripted media interviews before the election. She's going to be an unelected, unselected, un-vetted, untrained, un-stable, barely educated President from dim-wit Idaho. Her ascendancy would probably be the 4th or 5th most delicate and critical moment in American Presidential history. She would be an unelected President without a single pre-September loyalist in Washington. Not a single Vote. Never been background checked for a basic federal security clearance.
There's outside the beltway, there's outside Democracy itself and there's outside rational balance. McCain's impulsive, age-addled Palin nomination choice is beyond the perimeter fences on all counts.
Thanks for letting me try and share my thoughts...
RIde for the High Country
The problem Palin gives America is that she has not ever received a single national vote for any federal office and she has never served in any sworn (military) or Senate confirmed command chain position. If McCain is elected, Palin will have no legitimate claim to having earned any of their ticket's votes specific for her candidacy for the Presidency.
Of all the VPOTUS names in contention now, or nearly every other historical contest since Washington was elected it is un-paralleled for such an inexperienced person to be considered without having a single federal vote or previous peer-reviewed, confirmed or promoted-under-oath command service. The "experience question" people are dealing with in comparing her to Obama is pretty simple, even for an ex Republican to do the math. He has 25 or 35 million votes in his column and she has zero.
That's right I am saying it out loud and Karl Rove be damned. McCain looks like he won't live through his first year, let alone the next eight.
The GOP/ Rove machine has all but admitted that she's dumber than a fish. They announced today that she will not do ANY unscripted media interviews before the election. She's going to be an unelected, unselected, un-vetted, untrained, un-stable, barely educated President from dim-wit Idaho. Her ascendancy would probably be the 4th or 5th most delicate and critical moment in American Presidential history. She would be an unelected President without a single pre-September loyalist in Washington. Not a single Vote. Never been background checked for a basic federal security clearance.
There's outside the beltway, there's outside Democracy itself and there's outside rational balance. McCain's impulsive, age-addled Palin nomination choice is beyond the perimeter fences on all counts.
Thanks for letting me try and share my thoughts...
RIde for the High Country
Monday, September 01, 2008
Hurricane G. and the Pregnant Pause
suspiscious minds are talking
they're tryin' to tear us apart
they don't believe in this love of mine
they don't know what love is
I know what love is, and baby?
you can leave your hat on.
--Randy Newman (Sung by Joe Cocker)
(On iTunes)
Regarding the Hurricane, McCain was quoted in Phoenix as saying:
"We need to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats"
The Cowboy invites them to stay under their American hats for a while.
Indeed, perhaps if Republicans could put their "American hats" on, for something, anything less political than an election-year, convention-week, post Katrina hurricane hitting Texas and Louisiana, they would not be the most distrusted, unsupported and despised political machine in United States History.
Well, and they might get some down-time to consider this advice, for the next four years or so. Now that their surprising VPOTUS choice has a surprising choice of her own to make by Wednesday:
Does she stay home to help her 17 year old daughter raise the child she is pregnant with. (Said pregnancy Mrs. Palin hid from the GOP investigators.) Or, does Mrs. Palin continue campaigning for VPOTUS and thus demonstrate that her moral high ground is an island. One which doesn't have room for her kids when the dirt hits. It is a tough choice that affects many, many families.
The good christian ones don't hide an underage pregnancy from a front-running POTUS candidate and then pretend it's just another day for a zealous pro-famiy campaigner.
Ride for the High Country
they're tryin' to tear us apart
they don't believe in this love of mine
they don't know what love is
I know what love is, and baby?
you can leave your hat on.
--Randy Newman (Sung by Joe Cocker)
(On iTunes)
Regarding the Hurricane, McCain was quoted in Phoenix as saying:
"We need to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats"
The Cowboy invites them to stay under their American hats for a while.
Indeed, perhaps if Republicans could put their "American hats" on, for something, anything less political than an election-year, convention-week, post Katrina hurricane hitting Texas and Louisiana, they would not be the most distrusted, unsupported and despised political machine in United States History.
Well, and they might get some down-time to consider this advice, for the next four years or so. Now that their surprising VPOTUS choice has a surprising choice of her own to make by Wednesday:
Does she stay home to help her 17 year old daughter raise the child she is pregnant with. (Said pregnancy Mrs. Palin hid from the GOP investigators.) Or, does Mrs. Palin continue campaigning for VPOTUS and thus demonstrate that her moral high ground is an island. One which doesn't have room for her kids when the dirt hits. It is a tough choice that affects many, many families.
The good christian ones don't hide an underage pregnancy from a front-running POTUS candidate and then pretend it's just another day for a zealous pro-famiy campaigner.
Ride for the High Country
Saturday, August 30, 2008
The Price of Tea in St. Paul
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/30/rnc.protest/index.html
police temporarily detained and photographed at least 50 people who were inside the building.
St. Paul Police spokesman Tom Walsh said they were executing a search warrant.
"The cause for the search warrant is not public at this time," Walsh said.
As many as 30 police officers entered with guns drawn, according to witnesses in the building
What young people stand for is generally ill-informed, misguided and meaningless in these affairs, yet no greater threat to our freedom exists than telling them they are not allowed to stand for it.
Freedom of speech used to be real in the United States. It is just a campaign metaphor now, a faded dream of misty plateaus with one horned rainbow goats and Ronald Reagan standing fifty feet tall. Secret terror raid? Guns up, against teenage dissenters?
For freedom to be real, the young must be able to throw the odd egg or two, break a window, yell across the street and then run back home to rejoin their more timid young peers. Indeed, that egg is the vessel in which we deliver liberty to our descendants. When we bar the egg, we trumpet for the musket...
Those peers are the ones who will eventually be judges and scholars, and Reagan-esque leaders. They will know in their maturity, that freedom can only ever be guided by people who have worn an egg on their lapel. Those leaders will never admit how much it empowered their future, when they saw that the geeky little Jones boy, from the back of the class, had a carton of eggs hidden in his locker. And one was missing.
Democracy is born anew, and only sees light during that dangerous, adrenaline-surged moment when the egg cannot be recalled to the hand; when the smoke bomb sizzles; when the miss-spelled banner unfurls before live cameras. Speeches are just poems about freedom - freedom itself is the electric moment when a trembling young man watches as the crates of tea turn, and roll and drift slowly out on the pre-dawn tide.
Ride for the High Country
police temporarily detained and photographed at least 50 people who were inside the building.
St. Paul Police spokesman Tom Walsh said they were executing a search warrant.
"The cause for the search warrant is not public at this time," Walsh said.
As many as 30 police officers entered with guns drawn, according to witnesses in the building
What young people stand for is generally ill-informed, misguided and meaningless in these affairs, yet no greater threat to our freedom exists than telling them they are not allowed to stand for it.
Freedom of speech used to be real in the United States. It is just a campaign metaphor now, a faded dream of misty plateaus with one horned rainbow goats and Ronald Reagan standing fifty feet tall. Secret terror raid? Guns up, against teenage dissenters?
For freedom to be real, the young must be able to throw the odd egg or two, break a window, yell across the street and then run back home to rejoin their more timid young peers. Indeed, that egg is the vessel in which we deliver liberty to our descendants. When we bar the egg, we trumpet for the musket...
Those peers are the ones who will eventually be judges and scholars, and Reagan-esque leaders. They will know in their maturity, that freedom can only ever be guided by people who have worn an egg on their lapel. Those leaders will never admit how much it empowered their future, when they saw that the geeky little Jones boy, from the back of the class, had a carton of eggs hidden in his locker. And one was missing.
Democracy is born anew, and only sees light during that dangerous, adrenaline-surged moment when the egg cannot be recalled to the hand; when the smoke bomb sizzles; when the miss-spelled banner unfurls before live cameras. Speeches are just poems about freedom - freedom itself is the electric moment when a trembling young man watches as the crates of tea turn, and roll and drift slowly out on the pre-dawn tide.
Ride for the High Country
Friday, August 29, 2008
The Cowboy Gets One Right!
Your humble ex-Cowboy blasts his analytical six-guns across the political landscape many times each day, without piercing the beer can so to speak. So when he even nicks a target he is tempted to exaggerate the accomplishment:
There is one prominent idea that has been repeated over and over in these articles for the past two years. This is the analysis that that the candidate who wins the next election will probably have a Western, Red State, Moderate or conservative, Female Governor on the ticket in order to prevail.
McCain has one now. Obama does not. It's a lot less of a gamble than the first wave of punditronic reaction is suggesting it is. It is really one of the most calculated decisions either side has yet made.
Ride for the High Country
There is one prominent idea that has been repeated over and over in these articles for the past two years. This is the analysis that that the candidate who wins the next election will probably have a Western, Red State, Moderate or conservative, Female Governor on the ticket in order to prevail.
McCain has one now. Obama does not. It's a lot less of a gamble than the first wave of punditronic reaction is suggesting it is. It is really one of the most calculated decisions either side has yet made.
Ride for the High Country
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