Armstrong's words won't resonate in Tampa; Husted again

The week end called our attention to  events that  contrasted two visions of the American experience.   The laudatory remembrance of  the late Neil Armstrong told of the optimism of the first astronaut to walk on the moon, who spoke to the entire planet of Earthlings  when he said:

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

The words came back to haunt us with a different  vision, that of the Republican Party arriving in Tampa with plans for no steps for man and a giant leap backward for mankind.

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Update:  Secretary of State Jon Husted made a last-minute cancellation as a speaker  at the True the
Vote Summit in Columbus, sponsored by a right-wing outfit known for  supporting voter suppression and other questionable policies.  You can find the full report on Plunderbund.com, which includes a report from NBC News.  Husted has been busy these days dodging critics of his own voter handiwork in Ohio.   We wonder if he'll ever get it right. Also, we wonder why he didn't vet the group before he agreed to be programmed as a speaker along with former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and other.

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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.

Rove's GOP: The Grand Opposition Party

HOW ABOUT that fellow Karl Rove. While we were busy finding fault with him as a slippery back-alley dealer, he pops up at a fund-raiser in Utah to deliver an honest assessment of his party. The statement, which should be bronzed:

"This year is going to be defined by Republicans and conservatives by what we oppose."

That ringing endorsement of the Party of No comes awfully close to what Groucho Marx once asserted:

"Whatever it is, I'm against it."

CPAC ordains Limbaugh as GOP leader

NOW THAT THE CPAC revelers have scattered from their gleeful Maypole dance around the living shrine of Rush Limbaugh, can we now all agree that Rush is standing taller (and ever wider) as the soul of the  Republican Party as well as its loudest voice?   It is the commanding role  that he has won by default in the absence of any other GOP captive with the slightest presence as a leader.  Limbaugh is unchallenged. To those who say the crowd who populated the Conservative Political Action Conference in D.C. doesn't truly represent the Republican Party, anyone taking attendance would  soon conclude that the speakers included the party's First Team,  such as it is.  There was even an effort to make it look like a legitimate party by releasing a CPAC straw poll of the potential 2012 presidential candidates (The four-year campaign is well underway!)  that was meaningless, although Mitt Romney, who led the pack with 20 pct., is doubtless stowing it for further political benefit.  

Still the tone was set with the slashing hard-right posters.  I saw a few on the conference slide show. Two examples:        

   I love animals.  They're delicious.

   Evolution is science fiction. 

Standard weird stuff from the wingnuts.

What isn't standard is the adoration of  a carnival hustler as glibly tasteless as R.L. to speak for a national (?) political party fumbling around in the South.  To repeat, who in good conscience could salute a person who has ridiculed Parkinson's Diesase,  who has called upon the troops back in his armory to wish for President Obama's failure, who escaped serious drug charges that might  have sent others to prison, who escaped military service because of a cyst on his tailbone (full disclosure:  I had a bad one, but the military doctors told me, shucks, they'd take care of it after  I was in uniform.)  

He has lived a shameful life.  And now what's left of the Republican Party shamefully  looks to him for supreme guidance.