The GOP showed Obama who's running the plantation

WELL, REPUBLICANS really showed that socialist kid Barack Obama who was in charge of the the plantation. There were jeers and sarcastic laughter and Rep. Joe Wilson shocked his brethren by shouting that the president is a liar. He later recanted when he became a household word for incivility, but we all know what he was thinking, don't we? The GOP House minority leader John Boehner sat stoically through the speech with his dyspeptic fixed scowl as if to question why his valuable time was being wasted on someone accused of being born in Transylvania. And every time I saw his second in command, Rep. Eric Cantor, the minority whip from Virginia, he seemed distracted by something else. Cantor did hear enough, however, to complain later that Obama offered "nothing new," which should be taken seriously, I suppose, because if anybody knows something about "nothing newness" in policy it's the Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Finally, the Republicans chose a drab Louisiana congressman - Charles Boustany Jr, a retired physician by trade - to respond to the speech. (The immediate conversation turned on whether he was martyred simply as a sacrificial lamb who, unlike Bobby Jindal, could not destroy a promising career with the party's TV response.) Still, it should be noted that this guy was from Louisiana, too. He has also nailed more than $1.2 million from health insurance providers. What could the party's handlers possibly be thinking to send this poor guy to the gallows for his nothing-new deer-in-headlights speech that was DOA.

But in case you are scrapbooking TV responses, you should also know that Boustany was taken for a $50,000 investment back in the 90s by two British con men when he tried to access nobility by buying the title of "lord". Yep, Lord Boustany. The perps were found guilty of defrauding him, which means he is living out his remaining years simply as a commoner. He impressed me as a September rookie call-up from the low minors to fill out a team roster.

Back to the unruly Joe Wilson: His real name is Addison Graves Wilson Sr., but as a Good 'Ol Boy from South Carolina, he prefers to go by Joe. Ok, I'll go along with that. So, can we now say, Goodbye Joe?

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On political non sequiturs, Saxby Chambliss et al

MIDWEEK ROUNDUP:

Non sequiturs are not uncommon in politics, even fashionable, but there was one that stood out for me following the report by a New Orleans newspaper that Gov. Bobby Jindal flies off to church on most Sundays in a state helicopter. A Hindu who converted to Catholicism, Jindal appears to be concentrating on extremely conservative churches in northern Louisiana while avoiding New Orleans for his Sunday "worship". Critics accuse him of politicking at taxpayer expense. And one national church leader, the Rev. Dr. Welton Gaddy, the president of the Interfaith Alliance, has challenged him to stop "politicizing" churches and to return the $45,000 taxpayer costs of his helicopter tours. But a Jindal aide countered the critics by noting that they are for same-sex marriage! Huh? Is that also a valid argument against the infield fly rule?

While we are rooting around down South, there arrives a warning from Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia that President Obama should be "humble" in his speech to Congress tonight. Chambliss, a right-wing Republican, has a way with words. Did he mean that a president with dark skin should not be uppity? Coming from a pol with Chambliss' deeply cultivated roots, the answer must be YES. Remember that this Medicare-eligible white southerner who vigorously opposes Obams' s health care plan, managed to worm into the Senate in 2002 by defeating incumbent Democrat Max Cleland, a decorated triple amputee Vietnam veteran by charging that Cleland was soft on homeland security.(Like so many of the uber-congressional hawks today, Chambliss managed to avoid military service, in his case, with a "bad knee".) Will the Civil War never end? Maybe Chambliss is trying to get a free shoeshine from Obama.

Circle the calendar: Sept. 26. That's the day Bud Norris, the mayor of Mt. Vernon, Wash, has designated as "Glenn Beck Day," complete with a key to the city. Beck is a native son, but fortunately for the city and the nation, they're not all like that. Beck, in case you have not been paying attention, has lost a pile of sponsors on Fox after describing President Obama as a racist who hates all white Americans. Protests has already occured against the mayor - with some signs urging the city to "change the locks." Six of the city's seven councilmen have opposed the idea and city business people are worried that Mt. Vernon will draw negative attention to it. Times have changed since we identified Mt. Vernon solely with the father of the country.

Saving the best for last: The washout of the so-called "reform" ticket in Tuesday's primary election in Akron prompts me to offer a slightly altered bit of hackneyed wisdom:

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but sometimes, not that many...

The closed minds of those who want to close them

"As the superintendent of schools, I am not comfortable with school district resources being used for this purpose; therefore Prescott Unified School District will not carry the speech either via television or via computers in our schools." --- Kevin Kapp, superintendent of schools, Prescott, Ariz.

Countless public school students were subjected to darkness at noon Tuesday through the combined efforts of an uncontrollable and scarily unaware right-wing mob abetted by a gaggle of spineless school officials. The object of their disdain was President Obama's televised pep talk to students channeled into class rooms across the country. Some of these politicized officials, a majority in Republican Red State school districts, were not even honest enough to concede their personal bias against Obama - the first president to be denied access to classrooms. Others, with wilting knees, merely passed the buck to teachers to decide whether they wanted the students to hear what Obama had to say.

My, my! The cry against the speech ranged across the spectrum from top-serving educators to alley cats. Arizona's state superintendent of schools, Tom Horne, argued against the speech (before hearing it) because he felt it would be "worshipful" of the president. To be fair, the daily temperature around Phoenix these days is in the blistering three figures. It can do strange things to sanity. We hope he's recovered his senses now that the upbeat motivational speech is history.

On the other hand, one mother who spoke out against the event on CNN, tried inexplicably to explain: "I'm against gay marriage and I'm against abortion and I don't want that stuff shoved down the kids' throat." Others continued to raise the specter of Big Brother, who derives from a book that I have a hunch most of them never read.

The problem faced by the schools that succumbed to a foul bath of hogwash is that their retreat will not satisfy the alarmists. They will try to build on their winnings by returning for still greater control over the classrooms. That's how it works, particularly in a nation where the education system is in a deep slump and where, say in Kentucky, only 51 pct. of the people believe Obama was born in America. America? Where's that on the map?

Tuesday was not one of the country's better days.

Florida Chairman Greer in slow retreat

JIM GREER HAS been blindsided by President Obama's speech to school children. If you don't already know, Greer is the bloated chairman of the Florida Republican Party who last week was ripping the yet undelivered speech on grounds that it would promote a socialistic message to kids and should be banned from the schools. Even after he read the text, Greer retreated no more than an inch or two. He told CNN on Monday that although Obama said all of the right things, Greer was satisfied that the protest had had an effect on the text. The chairman (!) concluded that the text had been changed in response to the outcries against the unread original. Did he have proof that the text had been altered? the interviewer asked him. "No," Greer conceded. He had no proof, only suspicion because Obama wants to run the schools. As for me, I suspect that Greer is an imbecilic pol.

Falls riverfront project: impressive & tax worthy

WE READ with interest the big spread in Sunday's Beacon Journal about the impressive riverfront project in Cuyahoga Falls that will be an important amenity in the city's quality of life. For this, Mayor Don Robert should take a deserved bow. But before his head strikes his shoes, I believe he should host another Tea Party at the riverfront pavilion to remind his anti-tax friends that the handsome project is costing $1.8 million, with $640, 000 coming from the state, i.e., your taxes and mine. Without taxes there would be no riverfront showpiece in the Falls, no reason for the mayor to take a bow and no reason for the anti-tax crowd to rant. Trouble is, too many politicians won't admit how taxes - and only taxes - often make them look good.

Two Ohio schools hear from anti-Obama ranters

THE DOOMSDAY rant of the unwashed opponents of President Obama's planned TV speech to schools across the country has echoed through two Central Ohio school districts. The Dublin district will ban the speech in its schools in a scandalous assault on what, after all, is nothing more than a presidential pep talk on achieving higher goals in education. The Hilliard school district first banned the speech, then changed its mind after what Superintendent Dale McVey described as a "divided community outcry."

The anti-Obama network has laid down a new challenge to Republicans with a tad of respect for the difference between right and wrong. TV host Joe Scarborough, a Republican, has called on others in his party to stand up and be counted against this right-wing outrage. I'll do the same: If there are any Republicans reading this who feels a twinge of guilt about this latest spectacle, there is a little box at the bottom to add your comment. Unfortunately, I doubt it will happen. Too socially risky. As Rousseau once said: "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains."

To those who are accusing Obama of trying to brainwash students (Reagan et all had the same classroom opportunities and nobody screamed!) I would say it takes a brainflooded Republican to remain silent in these times of increasing madness on the right.

Operators are standing by. I dare you.

UPDATE: Saturday's newspapers are reporting that the ban on Obama's speech is spreading rapidly in our distressed Bogeyman State of Ohio. Among the latest schools to opt in favor of the aginners are Medina , even though superintendent Randy Stepp said the calls reaching him are "evenly split". That's the rule of Las Vegas blackjack, where a tie means you lose. Other school districts reporting bans are Parma and Brecksville-Broadview Heights. There will be more. as parents with no recollection of history, overlook similar speeches from Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. This is a disgrace as tails keep controlling the dogs.

Still one more crusade by the classless Dimmies

ANOTHER DAY, another crusade by the southern strategists (with assistance from the oil states and Grand Canyon). The latest uproar by the Dimmies was ignited by President Obama's scheduled TV speech to school kids on Sept. 8 in which students, parents and educators will be urged to work together in providing kids a stronger education to face a tattered world. In Education Secretary Ame Duncan 's words: an education that would lead to "good jobs and productive lives as American citizens."

That would seem to be so noble an effort that even the most partisan of GOP Dimmies would step aside and let the president of the most powerful nation on the globe have his say. But Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, says he's "infuriated" (it doesn't take much these days!) by the thought of Obama's attempt to propagandize the kids by going over the heads of their parents who, Greer assured us, believe otherwise. "An invasive abuse of power," Greer stomped. For all in loco parentis advocates, I have one word, duck. There's an absolutely LOCO politician in Florida trying to steal the scene.

Meantime, the hysteria in Texas could force some school districts to ban the speech in their schools. And a Dimmy Conservative talk show host, Tammy Bruce, is urging parents to make Sept 8 a Parentally Approved Skip Day. Tammy raised the bar on intellectual vacancy by telling parents that they should be "your child's tutor, not that shady lawyer from Chicago."

Well,there is an easier way to counter Obama's supposed bid to control the kids' minds, His opponents should gather up copies of "My Pet Goat" and pass them out as the students enter their classes on Sept, 8. There are still copies of it floating around on Amazon, and as we learned from Obama's predecessor, the story can be totally engrossing..

GOP Deep Southerner coming to Akron

NEWS FLASH: Summit County Republicans will get an ample supply of Deep South politics at their annual finance dinner on Oct. 19. The featured speaker, says County Party Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, will be Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Barbour is the former GOP national chairman and I would be surprised if he didn't have something to say about all of those "socialists" across the aisle.

A call for Republicans to slit their wrists

THE REPUBLICAN opponents of a health care reform seem to have taken their cues from a Class D minor league pitcher in firing wild pitches: curve balls aimed at the electorate, stray sinkers in the dirt, fast balls at the chin of Barack Obama, knock-down sliders that force the umps to warn of ejections.

It is disgraceful behavior by a group that calls itself a national political party without apology.

And it has only gotten worse in the past several days as that segment of the GOP that was once the home of the the fringe has now spread to the party's "leaders" who washed out of the mainstream of political discourse. Some samples, if you are sitting down:

• The Republican National Committee circulated a fund-raising letter that claimed an Obama style medical care reform would deny Republicans access to coverage! Here is a direct quote from the letter:

"It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person's political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system. Does this possibility concern you.?"

What concerns me is that the RNC employs people who can come up with that sort of crap. And by the way, who, in your words, suggested it?

OK, so after it placed such idiocy before its jury, it stepped back from it, with an RNC operative saying the letter was "inartfully worded" while denying it was intended to scare people. But it obviously was quietly pleased that the message made it to a friendly jury before it was stricken from the record.

• Michele Bachmann, the Republican c0ngresswoman from Minnesota , again rose from the ashes of her many earlier self-immolating utterances to explain the intensity of her opposition to reform. This one has taken her to new heights as the party's uncontested ding-a-ling:

"This [health care reform] cannot pass...What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't pass" .

Covenant? Michele, be sane for once in your life. If you slit your wrists there's no way you can reach the summit of Mt. Sinai alive.

• Finally, credit Rep. Joe Barton, Republican, Texas (what is it about Texas!) with counting his chickens before they cross a heavily traveled road. Barton believes Democrats will lose the House in 2010, allowing him to return to his former role as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. And if health reform becomes law, he says, Repubicans will simply repeal it with him in the driver's seat.

Joe has yet to say whether he will join Michele up to the top of Mt. Sinai.

This is an incredible chapter in the life of a desperate political party. And a promise: I'll stop nailing it when its soldiers stop acting like infantile soldiers.

Sex & hypocrisy, South Carolina style

YOU WOULD think that by now, South Carolina would postpone any efforts to become a theocratic state and simply dedicate itself to keeping the sunny strip at Myrtle Beach well-sanded for the northern tourists. It would help the economy of a state that is shaking its piggy banks these days and spare its leading politicians and other public officials of having to explain how they were drawn through the dark valley of sex.

We all know about the state's top executive, Gov. Mark Sanford, a devout Christian conservative who is now being forced to cry about his witless exchange of the Appalachian Trail for Argentina. (As my family used to scold me when they heard I was dating a young Irish woman (read: American girl). They reminded me that the daughter of a Lebanese car dealer in a nearby town was perfectly qualified for the altar, advising without consent: "There are lots of our kind right here you could marry instead." ) So much for Argentina.

Now we learn that Kristin Maguire, the chair of the South Carolina State Board of Education, resigned after she was outed as the source of a pornographic internet blog, authoring under the pseudonym of "Bridget Keeney." The same Kristin Maguire had been lobbying long and hard for Christian virtues that included abstinence-only sex education, the banning of teaching evolution and other ideas that fit her profile as a soldier of the religious right.

Don't' go away. There's more. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who has called for Sanford's resignation, is being touted in news stories as a closet gay, which he denies, of course, because, if true it would put a big dent in his political ambition in South Carolina. It is, after all, the home of Bob Jones University.

To make life more miserable for him, a lesbian politician down there named Linda Ketner has challenged Bauer to step out of the closet, adding:

"We have more gay people serving in South Carolina than probably in any place in the United States."

She didn't hesitate to add Sen. Lindsey Graham to the list. And who can forget John Edwards' escapades, except that he didn't spend a helluva lot of time warning his constituents about sexual transgressions. He apparently just set out to have some adulterous fun.

I'll stop right there. It is another chapter in the hypocrisy of right-wing politicians who swear their allegiance to family values and other good stuff. If this keeps up, the time may come when Ft. Sumter will have to fire on South Carolina.