Reposted from Plnderbund
As we're sure you're aware of by now, the White House is in the merciless throes of the NoBama plague that has had everyone on edge. For six years, the president has faced assaults from the NoBama GOP that will feverishly grow for another couple of years. Even the party's newly minted African-American Democrat-turned-Republican , Ben Carson, a doctor from South Carolina of all places, has added to his conservative star power by accusing Obama of presiding over worsening race relations,which takes a lot of white guys off the hook, right?
Keep an eye on him. He's an author, essayist and opponent of Obamacare who figures to get royal treatment by his party. There's already a "Run, Ben, Run" national presidential draft movement under way .
But if you've been too busy to notice the rise of the NoBama phenomenon, the right-wing pundits will hammer it into your consciousness. Up in Cleveland, for example, a VIP Plain Dealer editor/columnist showers NoBama thunderbolts from his aerie high atop the Ivory Tower.
Oddly enough, NoBama Kevin O'Brien's column this week led the reader over a path of direct orders to the NoBamans in Congress to stonewall the president's proposed appointments unless he cancels his immigration plans (as if this crowd hasn't thought of it already!). He wanted to punish Obama for "posterity". I'm sure he knows his own choir well.
But wait, he is only warming up, and what comes next is an astonishing leap of logic from a guy who is offended by a president trying to execute immigration reforms that have long been stalled in the Republican Tea Party House. For this disconnect, he singles out Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, Democrat from Northeastern Ohio, archly accusing her of being "irresponsible" for saying that Ferguson was a "miscarriage of justice".
From his perch, he didn't know how Fudge could possibly reach that conclusion from her district 500 miles from Ferguson.
But since we're only talking about distance here and not of the right or wrong of the grand jury decision, I suspect your draconian dictates to Congress, Kevin, have little force inasmuch as you live 363 driving miles from Washington. So I am a tad impressed by such Palin-like powers that enable you to see Capitol Hill from your front porch.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
'Tis the season to be hustled
If you happen to be reading this, it means you have survived Black Friday in precious time for Cyber Monday. That means some lucky retailers can celebrate Phenomenal Tuesday, and all that follows. Humongous Wednesday? Happy-Go-Lucky Thursday? Friggin' Friday?
'Tis that time of the year, so we ought not to crab about the annual madness to inspire folks to line up in frigid pre-dawn queues to achieve the Golden Bargain. At least, that's what I've been told.
Personally, I have never outgrown my small-town's modest seasonal awakening when the handful of shop owners on Main Street strung tinsel and lights on their windows and then laid out their goods as if it were still July.
But then, we didn't have Santa showing up in TV commercials to sell cars in November nor shopping malls piping the air with Rudolph and his red nose. I'm jolly well ready to scream.
Life in a Retail/Master Card Society has been in overdrive this year. Some stores eagerly opened Thanksgiving night, a thankless task for the workers that I once suffered with a morning newspaper.
Meantime the media reported such frenetic hustling as...jingle cash, BOGO, sale of a lifetime, doorbusters, sale to end all sales, bonus savings, three-days-only offers, special financing, instant savings, and the inducement that required pocket calculators: 30 pct. off 50 pct. off original ticket, and second purchase half-off. Most of these were stressed with exclamation points! ) You tell me.
Naively, I only wanted an Italian ice cream cone with no down payment and 30 years to pay. Come to think of it, I loved by hometown.
'Tis that time of the year, so we ought not to crab about the annual madness to inspire folks to line up in frigid pre-dawn queues to achieve the Golden Bargain. At least, that's what I've been told.
Personally, I have never outgrown my small-town's modest seasonal awakening when the handful of shop owners on Main Street strung tinsel and lights on their windows and then laid out their goods as if it were still July.
But then, we didn't have Santa showing up in TV commercials to sell cars in November nor shopping malls piping the air with Rudolph and his red nose. I'm jolly well ready to scream.
Life in a Retail/Master Card Society has been in overdrive this year. Some stores eagerly opened Thanksgiving night, a thankless task for the workers that I once suffered with a morning newspaper.
Meantime the media reported such frenetic hustling as...jingle cash, BOGO, sale of a lifetime, doorbusters, sale to end all sales, bonus savings, three-days-only offers, special financing, instant savings, and the inducement that required pocket calculators: 30 pct. off 50 pct. off original ticket, and second purchase half-off. Most of these were stressed with exclamation points! ) You tell me.
Naively, I only wanted an Italian ice cream cone with no down payment and 30 years to pay. Come to think of it, I loved by hometown.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
GOP congressmen to respond to Obama with room and... board
Reposted from Plunderbund
My unimpeachable Republican underground source at the next table at Wendy's discreetly told me of a new GOP scheme to shatter President Obama's "royalty" before millions of American TV viewers. "They're calling it the gold standard of character destruction," he said as he washed down a cheekful of cheeseburger as well as every other syllable.
It would happen at Obama's State of the Union Address in January. Here is the plan:
Seated behind him with tall pointed hats, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, both stone faced, will link their cones with a wire that suspends the U.S. Constitution.
All of the other Republicans in the magisterial chamber will arrive student-style in fixed pace to Pomp and Circumstance, each crowned with a mortarboard clearly inscribed with words trashing the president. Some random examples my friend mentioned to me follow:
Sen. Lindsey Graham's will be "Garbage" which is how he described the Republican House Committee report that cleared the Obama Administration of wrongdoing in the Benghazi attack.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, often blankly nodding to the gallery, settled on "Impriesh" (He didn't know how to spell impeach.)
On Rep. Mo Brooks' board: "FELON" to support his call for Obama to be jailed for five years.
You'll identify Sen. Ted Cruz easily with his satanic smile and "Varmint" on his board.
Rep Steve King will feature a cantaloupe with the words "Illegal alien."
Taking a cue from Gov. Kasich's quaint reference to Obamacare, Rep. Jim Renacci will show "Hillarycare" upside down on his board.
Scattered among the proud innovators in the chamber will be boards that read "Kenya," "socialist', "traitor", "monarch." "dog-eared," "Watermelon," and "Uppity" with a rapt gallery and TV audience looking on.
After some agitated discussion, a congressman from Mississippi will be denied a place in the somber procession after showing up with his board containing the N-word.)
So mark your calendar: These marvels want you to have a cameo classroom view of the White House occupant, complete with the words that point to all of the country's ills In an hour or so. Better than a month at Harvard, you might agree!
Almost forgot to mention: The R's will be pretending to twitter and remain silent when Obama arrives. It will be a further contribution to their inglorious history.
My unimpeachable Republican underground source at the next table at Wendy's discreetly told me of a new GOP scheme to shatter President Obama's "royalty" before millions of American TV viewers. "They're calling it the gold standard of character destruction," he said as he washed down a cheekful of cheeseburger as well as every other syllable.
It would happen at Obama's State of the Union Address in January. Here is the plan:
Seated behind him with tall pointed hats, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, both stone faced, will link their cones with a wire that suspends the U.S. Constitution.
All of the other Republicans in the magisterial chamber will arrive student-style in fixed pace to Pomp and Circumstance, each crowned with a mortarboard clearly inscribed with words trashing the president. Some random examples my friend mentioned to me follow:
Sen. Lindsey Graham's will be "Garbage" which is how he described the Republican House Committee report that cleared the Obama Administration of wrongdoing in the Benghazi attack.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, often blankly nodding to the gallery, settled on "Impriesh" (He didn't know how to spell impeach.)
On Rep. Mo Brooks' board: "FELON" to support his call for Obama to be jailed for five years.
You'll identify Sen. Ted Cruz easily with his satanic smile and "Varmint" on his board.
Rep Steve King will feature a cantaloupe with the words "Illegal alien."
Taking a cue from Gov. Kasich's quaint reference to Obamacare, Rep. Jim Renacci will show "Hillarycare" upside down on his board.
Scattered among the proud innovators in the chamber will be boards that read "Kenya," "socialist', "traitor", "monarch." "dog-eared," "Watermelon," and "Uppity" with a rapt gallery and TV audience looking on.
Oh, not to be disrespectful to the King of Ohio (after LeBron), the GOP caucus will tap Kasich, a self-described evangelical Christian, as chaplain pro tem to give the invocation as well as the benediction.
After some agitated discussion, a congressman from Mississippi will be denied a place in the somber procession after showing up with his board containing the N-word.)
So mark your calendar: These marvels want you to have a cameo classroom view of the White House occupant, complete with the words that point to all of the country's ills In an hour or so. Better than a month at Harvard, you might agree!
Almost forgot to mention: The R's will be pretending to twitter and remain silent when Obama arrives. It will be a further contribution to their inglorious history.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Let me have a word with you, Mr. Speaker
OPEN LETTER TO SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER:
Dear John:
Permit me to interrupt your howling at President Obama for his action on immigration reform. Your darkest views on releasing millions of illegal immigrants from the bondage of practiced anonymity have reached into my own ancestry. And as the President reminded us, they didn't all cross borders but came by planes and ships, too.
Mine came on ships from the Mediterranean (that's the enormous freshwater sea, John, that provided some of the routes for the tidal waves of immigrants seeking a better life on our shores - although many were deceived by the cynical transporters and debarked instead in the West Indies and South America!).
My parents were born in a relatively short span after their parents arrived from a small town near Beirut. To be perfectly up front about it, I was too young to learn whether they ever became American citizens, nor did I care much about it as I grew older and they had passed on. In fact, I only got to know my by dear siti, my father's mother. My paternal grandfather, Abe - surprised that he and my father had the name that Dad passed on to me? - was a burly bald man who died when I was quite young. He opened a small fruit market in the tiny coal-mining town of Mt. Pleasant, Pa.
Dad said he didn't know why they chose to finally settle there, and it really didn't seem important enough to the family to find out. On my mother's side, her parents took root in Conemaugh, a gritty attachment to Johnstown (where I was born). They died before I met them.
So that left siti, a gracious woman who never learned to read nor write English, but managed to speak enough to get by while she read her Arabic newspapers and burned tiny pyramids of incense. We lived a block away and on Saturday nights I would escort her to a nearby restaurant for her favorite treats: a hotdog and a Coke for a quarter. She would smile with each bite and say, "Good".
I also shopped for her groceries, careful that the canned goods had pictures of peas or beans on the wrappers so she would know what the can contained.
So here's the best part of the story, John. She had five sons and a daughter. Dad and his brother George opened a small garage where they sold a few cars each month but spent most of their time as grease monkeys . Together they built our house 25 feet from the garage, separated only by a small side yard and a slick path where they dumped drained crankcase oil. (An outhouse across the street from our house absorbed the awful smell of the oil.)
As life and wallets improved, the brothers became pool sharks and opened a dingy smoky pool room in a dungeon-like setting under a food market and took on all drifters bearing cuesticks. It was not the type of ordered existence that would impress most of your donors, John. But it did work out reasonably well for Dad and Uncle George.
Two other sons, one with assistance from Uncle Sam, went on to become quite successful surgeons. Aunt Della and Uncle Dan each ran small restaurants and did quite well. Aunt Della's husband George (there were at least six Georges in the family) began in Altoona with a hotdog grille facing his sidewalk window where passersby couldn't resist stopping in for a 10-minute lunch and maybe an hour's worth of fussing.
That was a long, long time ago, John, and what I've told you is as best as I can remember it. Attention to the details of family history was not something any member of this tribe cared about.
But these folks were all success stories, Mr. Speaker. And I unapologetically remind you again that whether the grandparents became citizens, which I doubt, they produced the American dream without being familiar with that overused term.
Successful in America, John! Wouldn't it have been a bloody injustice if my grandparents had been deported? So I ask: How cold-blooded can you be in the interest of your own political schemes?
Abe Zaidan, grandson
Dear John:
Permit me to interrupt your howling at President Obama for his action on immigration reform. Your darkest views on releasing millions of illegal immigrants from the bondage of practiced anonymity have reached into my own ancestry. And as the President reminded us, they didn't all cross borders but came by planes and ships, too.
Mine came on ships from the Mediterranean (that's the enormous freshwater sea, John, that provided some of the routes for the tidal waves of immigrants seeking a better life on our shores - although many were deceived by the cynical transporters and debarked instead in the West Indies and South America!).
My parents were born in a relatively short span after their parents arrived from a small town near Beirut. To be perfectly up front about it, I was too young to learn whether they ever became American citizens, nor did I care much about it as I grew older and they had passed on. In fact, I only got to know my by dear siti, my father's mother. My paternal grandfather, Abe - surprised that he and my father had the name that Dad passed on to me? - was a burly bald man who died when I was quite young. He opened a small fruit market in the tiny coal-mining town of Mt. Pleasant, Pa.
Dad said he didn't know why they chose to finally settle there, and it really didn't seem important enough to the family to find out. On my mother's side, her parents took root in Conemaugh, a gritty attachment to Johnstown (where I was born). They died before I met them.
So that left siti, a gracious woman who never learned to read nor write English, but managed to speak enough to get by while she read her Arabic newspapers and burned tiny pyramids of incense. We lived a block away and on Saturday nights I would escort her to a nearby restaurant for her favorite treats: a hotdog and a Coke for a quarter. She would smile with each bite and say, "Good".
I also shopped for her groceries, careful that the canned goods had pictures of peas or beans on the wrappers so she would know what the can contained.
So here's the best part of the story, John. She had five sons and a daughter. Dad and his brother George opened a small garage where they sold a few cars each month but spent most of their time as grease monkeys . Together they built our house 25 feet from the garage, separated only by a small side yard and a slick path where they dumped drained crankcase oil. (An outhouse across the street from our house absorbed the awful smell of the oil.)
As life and wallets improved, the brothers became pool sharks and opened a dingy smoky pool room in a dungeon-like setting under a food market and took on all drifters bearing cuesticks. It was not the type of ordered existence that would impress most of your donors, John. But it did work out reasonably well for Dad and Uncle George.
Two other sons, one with assistance from Uncle Sam, went on to become quite successful surgeons. Aunt Della and Uncle Dan each ran small restaurants and did quite well. Aunt Della's husband George (there were at least six Georges in the family) began in Altoona with a hotdog grille facing his sidewalk window where passersby couldn't resist stopping in for a 10-minute lunch and maybe an hour's worth of fussing.
That was a long, long time ago, John, and what I've told you is as best as I can remember it. Attention to the details of family history was not something any member of this tribe cared about.
But these folks were all success stories, Mr. Speaker. And I unapologetically remind you again that whether the grandparents became citizens, which I doubt, they produced the American dream without being familiar with that overused term.
Successful in America, John! Wouldn't it have been a bloody injustice if my grandparents had been deported? So I ask: How cold-blooded can you be in the interest of your own political schemes?
Abe Zaidan, grandson
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Benghazi: Bipartisan House committee said what?
Not a good day for all of those conservative Facebookers who stuck "Benghazi" on their names to scandalize the Obama Administration, particularly Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, on the hollow charges that she was at fault (cover-up conspiracy!) in the bloody 2012 attack on the U. S. diplomatic mission. Republicans had already filled several silos with fodder to diminish Hilary on the trail to 2016.
But I see in the Plain Dealer (Benghazi theories debunked) an Associated Press report that, well, here is the opening paragraph to tell you where this is going:
Game, set, match? Not quite. Superhawk Sen. Lindsey Graham still has doubts and is pushing the idea that the Senate ought to investigate, too. And Fox News suggests it isn't satisfied that all of the facts were turned up in the long bi-partisan House study.
For these fringies, they will have to delay their schemes to blame Obama for the six-foot snowfall in Buffalo.
P.S. Why wasn't the Benghazi story in the BJ, too, for the benefit of those folks who read nothing else? Hurrrummmppph!
But I see in the Plain Dealer (Benghazi theories debunked) an Associated Press report that, well, here is the opening paragraph to tell you where this is going:
A two-year investigation to the Republican controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly{in its response} and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.
Game, set, match? Not quite. Superhawk Sen. Lindsey Graham still has doubts and is pushing the idea that the Senate ought to investigate, too. And Fox News suggests it isn't satisfied that all of the facts were turned up in the long bi-partisan House study.
For these fringies, they will have to delay their schemes to blame Obama for the six-foot snowfall in Buffalo.
P.S. Why wasn't the Benghazi story in the BJ, too, for the benefit of those folks who read nothing else? Hurrrummmppph!
Friday, November 21, 2014
Roll in the U-Haul for these GOP crocks
You needed a U-Haul to deliver all of the crocks that Republicans have exported to the public to slander President Obama for one reason or another, especially after his immigration rollout. Both Lords of the Fleas - McConnell and Boehner - were at the top of the batting order in swinging wildly at Obama's decision to rescue millions of illegal immigrants from non-personhood. As if they hadn't already done enough to cripple the government that pays their salaries anyway.
The anti-Obama Republicans in Congress have already filed costly suits savaging Obamacare. Rep. Steve King of Iowa wants to impeach Obama. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama proposes to jail the president for five years, vaguely referring to authority in a federal statute that he can't cite. Joe Arpaio , the nototorius Arizona sheriff , sued the president before Friday sunrise.
Etc.etc. Folks, these guys are so much smaller than their shadows. It's awful to realize that the dumbed-down version of the Laurel and Hardy hijinks, McConnell and Boehner, will plague us for two more years.
Although I seldom find much reason to agree with John McCain, I do think of his snarky assessment of Republicans that was reported in Game Change, the virtual diary of the 2006 presidential campaign by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
In one of his darker moments on the trail, McCain blurted:
"Why would I want to be the leader of a party of such assholes?"
The anti-Obama Republicans in Congress have already filed costly suits savaging Obamacare. Rep. Steve King of Iowa wants to impeach Obama. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama proposes to jail the president for five years, vaguely referring to authority in a federal statute that he can't cite. Joe Arpaio , the nototorius Arizona sheriff , sued the president before Friday sunrise.
Etc.etc. Folks, these guys are so much smaller than their shadows. It's awful to realize that the dumbed-down version of the Laurel and Hardy hijinks, McConnell and Boehner, will plague us for two more years.
Although I seldom find much reason to agree with John McCain, I do think of his snarky assessment of Republicans that was reported in Game Change, the virtual diary of the 2006 presidential campaign by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
In one of his darker moments on the trail, McCain blurted:
"Why would I want to be the leader of a party of such assholes?"
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Fussy McCain trusts next congress to do something
John MCain, the dyspeptic senator from Arizona, had another bad day on Wednesday in his response to President Obama's immigration plan. Why, he fussed , couldn't Obama have waited until the new session of congress next year to see what it planned to do?
Please.
What Congress would do? History tells us that group would have as much positive force as simulated sex.
McCain has never gotten over the fact that he was vanquished by Obama in 2008. And I have never gotten over the fact that he placed this country at awful risk when he chose Sarah Palin, a woman he hardly knew, as his running mate.
Please.
What Congress would do? History tells us that group would have as much positive force as simulated sex.
McCain has never gotten over the fact that he was vanquished by Obama in 2008. And I have never gotten over the fact that he placed this country at awful risk when he chose Sarah Palin, a woman he hardly knew, as his running mate.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Kasich may be heading for his own megachurch
The frequent photos of Gov. Kasich with outstretched arms suggest that he might consider one of those megachurch arenas for his base before he wanders into the wilderness of a presidential campaign. Voters would be expected to respond not only to the preachy profile but also to his recurring references to how he and the Lord get along so well. As he told us on election night, God had put his hand on him.
In the old days, ii was called mysticism, a one-on-one conversation with God. Today it woudn't be a stretrch to say that more politicians than ever are finding it quite convenient to bring their God into the reverential sphere with voters.
Several presidential candidates in the last election tried to convince us that they were running with the best wishes of the Lord as well as the Tea Party. Texas Gov. Rick Perry of Texas even went so far as to claim that God told him to run. So did Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum and Herman Cain. Earlier, George W. Bush was certain that God had wanted him to be the commander-in-chief.
And so there he was, of all things, on the aircraft carrier decked out as a military pilot, declaring MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Today's practitioners of the religious art are so much less imaginative than the days of dog rentals as props for the candidates. Edwin O'Connor gave us a lively account in The Last Hurrah of the role of a rented Irish setter as a homey prop by Kevin McCluskey against Mayor Frank Skeffington to complement the billboard and painting of the Pope for the eyes of the Catholic electorate.
There. Religious outreach as well as that big irish setter. Oh, and the infancy of TV ads that captured the warm relationship between the candidate and the hired Irish setter. He won!
Have yet to see Kasich with a rented dog. But it's early.
(Re-posted from Plunderbund )
And so there he was, of all things, on the aircraft carrier decked out as a military pilot, declaring MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Today's practitioners of the religious art are so much less imaginative than the days of dog rentals as props for the candidates. Edwin O'Connor gave us a lively account in The Last Hurrah of the role of a rented Irish setter as a homey prop by Kevin McCluskey against Mayor Frank Skeffington to complement the billboard and painting of the Pope for the eyes of the Catholic electorate.
There. Religious outreach as well as that big irish setter. Oh, and the infancy of TV ads that captured the warm relationship between the candidate and the hired Irish setter. He won!
Have yet to see Kasich with a rented dog. But it's early.
(Re-posted from Plunderbund )
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Ohio's two Republican apostates on same-sex marriage
If you've heard of situation ethics, allow me to add a slight twist: Situation morality. That occurs when a member of one's family is the decisive element in shaping the moral code of, say, a prominent politician against the restrictive social universe of conservatism. As in same-sex marriage.
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, for example, a Republican, has nothing good to say about the state's ban on same-sex nuptials. Oh? Well, he has a lesbian daughter who, with her partner, have two children. In an interview with the Associated Press, Pfeifer clearly explained the dilemma imposed on his daughter and all others by his party, asserting:
"Gay and lesbian couples who sit down, plan to take on the awesome responsibility of having or adopting children, go see a lawyer and draft up all of the documents you can think of, they still don't establish parenthood and they can't because of the constitutional prohibition."
He's the second Ohio Republican, where most social guidelines are defined for political convenience. You have to take a deep breath in the false hope that the party still is tolerant enough to forgive an apostate or two.
Sen. Rob Portman, who describes his ideology as "constructive conservatism," has broken faith with his party on same-sex-marriage, explaining that he has a gay son. Good for Dad!
Interesting don't you think, when so-called moral choices come down to the personal level of familial concerns? Situation morality?
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, for example, a Republican, has nothing good to say about the state's ban on same-sex nuptials. Oh? Well, he has a lesbian daughter who, with her partner, have two children. In an interview with the Associated Press, Pfeifer clearly explained the dilemma imposed on his daughter and all others by his party, asserting:
"Gay and lesbian couples who sit down, plan to take on the awesome responsibility of having or adopting children, go see a lawyer and draft up all of the documents you can think of, they still don't establish parenthood and they can't because of the constitutional prohibition."
He's the second Ohio Republican, where most social guidelines are defined for political convenience. You have to take a deep breath in the false hope that the party still is tolerant enough to forgive an apostate or two.
Sen. Rob Portman, who describes his ideology as "constructive conservatism," has broken faith with his party on same-sex-marriage, explaining that he has a gay son. Good for Dad!
Interesting don't you think, when so-called moral choices come down to the personal level of familial concerns? Situation morality?
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