Will the GOP upChuck on Norris support?

Here we have the GOP's favorite far right wingnut Chucky Norris discussing his wish to destroy America with dreams of a Texas secession where he can reign supreme because he didn't get his way in the last elections with FOX news lunatic, Glen Beck, trying to start a wingnut revolution:

On Glenn Beck's radio show last week, I quipped in response to our wayward federal government, "I may run for president of Texas."

That need may be a reality sooner than we think. (...snip...)

How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution? We the people have the authority according to America's Declaration of Independence, which states:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

When I appeared on Glenn Beck's radio show, he told me that someone had asked him, "Do you really believe that there is going to be trouble in the future?" And he answered, "If this country starts to spiral out of control and Mexico melts down or whatever, if it really starts to spiral out of control, before America allows a country to become a totalitarian country (which it would have under I think the Republicans as well in this situation; they were taking us to the same place, just slower), Americans won't stand for it. There will be parts of the country that will rise up." Then Glenn asked me and his listening audience, "And where's that going to come from?" He answered his own question, "Texas, it's going to come from Texas. Do you agree with that Chuck?" I replied, "Oh yeah!" Definitely.

...snip...

For those losing hope, and others wanting to rekindle the patriotic fires of early America, I encourage you to join Fox News' Glenn Beck, me and millions of people across the country in the live telecast, "We Surround Them,"

Certainly explaining why Chucky was so fond of secessionist Sarah Palin...

When I heard Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was McCain's choice, I knew she was a woman whom Americans could support and trust.

Will Palin renounce him and his lunatic call for secession? This is a woman who has secessionist issues of her own and still has aspirations to be the president. (Maybe president of Alaska?) But you have to remember that her and her families involvement in AKIP is about secession through a vote, not with some call for a violent revolution.

Although, some of her connections to far right wing secessionists are also tied into people with racist/conspiracist whack job extraordinaire Mark Chryson and other crazy militia type ties like "Black Helicopter Steve" Stoll:

During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.

Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."

...snip...

After intense evangelizing by Chryson and his allies, they claimed Palin as a convert. "When she started taking her job seriously," Chryson said, "the people who put her in as the rubber stamp found out the hard way that she was not going to go their way." In 1994, Sarah Palin attended the AIP's statewide convention. In 1995, her husband, Todd, changed his voter registration to AIP. Except for an interruption of a few months, he would remain registered was an AIP member until 2002, when he changed his registration to undeclared.

...snip...

Clark pointed to Palin's political career as the model of a successful infiltration. "There's a lot of talk of her moving up," Clark said of Palin. "She was a member [of the AIP] when she was mayor of a small town, that was a nonpartisan job. But to get along and to go along she switched to the Republican Party … She is pretty well sympathetic because of her membership."

Much like the loony secessionist Sarah Palin in Alaska, Norris is a crazed wingnut that has always been treated as a mainstream representative of the GOP...

1. Chuck Norris roundhouses GOP presidential campaign

   Dec 8, 2007 ... Chuck Norris roundhouses. GOP presidential campaign. Surge of national support for Huckabee triggered by WND column endorsement ...
   www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59090 - 38k - Cached - Similar pages -

2. Chuck Norris Boosts Huckabee | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 ...

   Chuck and Huck: GOP's Delta Force? Now that the Gipper is gone and Charlton Heston is in his 80s, Chuck Norris has emerged as a dream celebrity 'get' on the ...
   www.newsweek.com/id/73272 - 70k - Cached - Similar pages -

3. Chuck Norris (I) - Biography

   A website known as "Chuck Norris Facts" has been created as a parody of his career. ....GOP candidate can be dissected to a point that he is railed for ...
   www.imdb.com/name/nm0001569/bio - 49k - Any Cached - Similar pages -

4. Video results for chuck norris, gop

   Mike Huckabee Ad: "Chuck Norris Approved" 1 min www.youtube.com

   Republican Debate OVER: Where is Chuck Norris? 34 sec www.youtube.com

5. Washington Wire - WSJ.com : Alaska GOP Touts Chuck Norris's ...

   Oct 7, 2008 ... Brad Haynes reports on the 2008 election. A few facts: Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open. Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one ...
   blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/07/alaska-gop-touts-chuck-norriss-endorsement-of-don-young/ - 178k - Cached - Similar pages -

6. GOP's Mike Huckabee campaigns with Chuck Norris in Huntsville ...

   GOP's Mike Huckabee campaigns with Chuck Norris in Huntsville S. Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visits ...
   videos.al.com/birmingham-news/2008/02/gops_mike_huckabee_campaigns_w.html - 38k - Cached - Similar pages -

7. Hotline - Chuck Norris' Tears Could Heal GOP Rift; Too Bad He ...

   Jan 13, 2009 ... Chuck Norris' Tears Could Heal GOP Rift; Too Bad He Doesn't Cry. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009. Large GOP donors are "having to choose" between Gov ...
   nationaljournal.com/hotline/hl_20090113_4120.php - 32k - Cached - Similar pages -

8. CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive ...

   Obvisouly all those cuts in education by the GoP have made a difference over .... Go Chuck Norris…I love finding out whose a republican in Hollywood…there ...
   politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/22/martial-arts-tv-star-picks-presidential-candidate/ - 327k - Cached - Similar pages -

9. Chuck Norris Pictures - CNN And YouTube Host GOP Presidential ...

   Actor Chuck Norris sits in the audience during the CNN-YouTube Presidential Debate at the Mahaffey Theater at the Progress Energy Center for the Arts ...
   www.zimbio.com/pictures/aHV7U6TlYFj/CNN+YouTube+Host+GOP+Presidential+Debate/4oP2iirr8Vo/Chuck+Norris - 17k - Cached - Similar pages -

10. Chuck Norris - the GOP's Oprah - The Daily Breeze

    Chuck Norris - the GOP.
    www.dailybreeze.com/ci_7748032 - 49k - Cached - Similar pages -

Right now, the FOX news sponsored group "We surround them" has not only exposed, yet again, their true allegiance to Republican rule for ever but, also, the violent underbelly of supporters amongst their viewership willing to fall in line for a war against the USA, with literal calls to arms by some of the most extremist Americans:

The call by some right wing leaders for rebellion and for the military to refuse the commander in chief’s orders is joined by Chuck Norris who claims that thousands of right wing cell groups have organized and are ready for a second American Revolution. (snip) Norris claims that; “Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation.” The right wing cells will meet during a live telecast, "We Surround Them," on Friday March 13 at 5 p.m.

Which the rest of the lunatic fringe right wing is already quite willing to do:

Norris and Beck are not the only crazies. Watch this video by a group called "Restore the Republic" calling for soldiers and law enforcement to not only to disobey President Obama but to be prepared to arrest and detain federal officials.

The lit match has always been there in the heart of the crazed GOP and these fanatics are trying to lead their allies into a pool of gasoline, dragging the entire USA into the fire with them.

Will the GOP stand by and watch their own side ignite a war on the USA?

Will Huckabee renounce him? John McCain, whom Norris eventually stood beside? How about WorldNetDaily? Will they renounce these calls to violence? Townhall? The Alaskan GOP and Rep. Don Young? Will Ron Paul, a guy he told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was "the only guy he trusts" in politics kick Norris to the curb?

And How about FOX news? Will they fire Glen Beck and renounce these lunatic calls for a treasonous movement to begin their violence against the USA?

I doubt it because these people are just sick. All of them. Hate, lies, violence and tearing down our own government is all they know.

Christianity as a Lifestyle Choice

That is what it is. You always hear them talking about personal choices and lifestyle choices of others.

For over seven minutes last night, Jon Stewart grilled former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on his opposition to gay marriage. Huckabee is touring the country to promote his new book, “Do The Right Thing.” When Stewart compared gay marriage bans to interracial marriage bans, Huckabee restated his view that homosexuality is simply a behavior choice:

STEWART: Segregation used to be the law until the courts intervened.

HUCK: There’s a big difference between a person being black and a person practicing a lifestyle and engaging in a marital relationship.

STEWART: Okay, actually this is helpful because it gets to the crux of it. … And I’ll tell you this: Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have for religion — we protect religion. And talk about a lifestyle choice — that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don’t choose to be gay. At what age did you choose to not be gay?

Huckabee tried to insist that “60 percent of the American population” opposes gay marriage. Stewart interrupted him, calling it a “travesty” that gay Americans have to plead for their civil rights... (READ ON)

The truth is that being gay or lesbian is not likely a lifestyle choice. The facts would seem to suggest that it is the way you were when you born - in pretty much the exact same way that you are born black, white, whatever, etc. - and environment may only be a factor in how it can effect the genetic code that people are born with. And not just no, but HELL NO! I am not going down that Nazi like road of eugenics to "eliminate or treat" what some of you crazies want to call a disease... That is just sick.

And even if it were a choice?

Who cares... Exercising free will, to make your own choice, is as much a right as it is a personal responsibility. Even according to the Bible, Free Will is a Divine Institution:

1.Free will, 2.Marriage, 3.Family, 4.Government etc.

Yeah... You hear a lot from the religious wing nuts about the "Divine Institution of Marriage" - the second divine institution...

But they conveniently choose to skip the First Divine Institution in their bankrupt arguments.

Free Will - The one God supposedly gave everyone to choose their own destiny.

Religion is quite simply and for certain nothing more than a lifestyle choice...

You aren't born that way. Even if you are a believer - God gave you the free will to choose to believe. In fact some of these religions make a big deal out of converting people into believers. Because. People. Were. Not. Born. That. Way.

They made a choice.

People choose their religions all the time. Often they change their choice of religion on a whim.

Often that religion of choice has clearly bigoted views that they would like to force upon the rest of the world. Anti-Marriage Equality views would be included there. It is no different than other bigoted religious views that have been argued for in the past:

The term "miscegenation" has been used since the nineteenth century to refer to interracial marriage and interracial sex, and more generally to the global process of racial admixture that has taken place since the Age of Discoveries, particularly through the European colonization of the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade. Historically the term has been used in the context of laws banning interracial marriage and sex, so-called anti-miscegenation laws. It is therefore a loaded word and is considered offensive by many.

Today, the word miscegenation is avoided by many scholars, because the term suggests a distinct biological phenomenon, rather than a categorization imposed on certain relationships. The word is considered offensive by many and other terms such as "interracial," "interethnic" or "cross-cultural" are more common in contemporary usage. However, the term is still used by scholars when referring to past practices concerning multiraciality, such as anti-miscegenation laws that banned interracial marriages.

Christians and their ever changing views on traditional marriage...

I am pretty sure most of them have given up the bigoted views against interracial marriages.

Huckabee talks about "5000 years of traditional marriage" based on his own personal lifestyle choice's rulebook - the Bible - but will, no doubt, refuse to accept what that loaded definition actually includes if implemented as law:

A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5)

B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in
addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)

C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a
virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut 22:13-21)

D. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden.
(Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30)

E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10:9)

F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)

G. In lieu of marriage, if there are no acceptable men in your town, it is required that you get your dad drunk and have sex with him (even if he had previously offered you up as a sex toy to men young and old), tag-teaming with any sisters you may have. Of course, this rule applies only if you are female. (Gen 19:31-36)

Added to that list of new laws would be the many forms of rape marriage that are traditionally acceptable according to Huckabee's God and Bible...

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT
If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

Just remember that these are precisely the views and lessons that have formed people like Mike Huckabee's "family values and morals" in the religious lifestyle choice they have made.

History will not be kind to you and yours, Huckster...

Time and time again these family values types have had to be forced to re-define their idea of traditional marriage because of what societies morals have defined as abhorrent practices. This time is no different than any of the other times. It truly sickens me that in a nation where all men are supposedly created equal... That we constantly have to sink down to these morally corrupt and repugnant people's level to argue for the most basic civil rights of other men and women. Their right to choose.

Those of you on the other side of these arguments - and I assure you, they are all the same arguments repeated over and over again - will be viewed in the history books as the bigots and haters that you are. But let's be clear on this...

That was your choice.

Not mine. My choice and belief would be that other people have no right to stick their noses in to the love lives, bedrooms and marriages of other adults. And I never had to ask for Mike Huckabee's or any one else, Gay, Lesbian, heterosexual, religious, atheist or other, for permission to get married - other than my wife-to-be at the time. All of you on the wrong side of this argument have been left with the freedom to choose your religion, your morals, your values and even your spouse.

The LGBT community deserves the same rights, the same freedoms guaranteed to them under the Constitution, to make all of these same choices without your 5000 years of traditionally misguided, immoral and bigoted input.

Did Huckabee Just Jump The Constitutional Shark?

Think Progress reports:

At a campaign stop yesterday, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee recommended — to a cheering audience — that the Constitution be “changed” to fit “God’s standards”:

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.

Rawstory notes that in response, MSNBC’s “Mika Brzezinski was almost speechless, and even Joe Scarborough couldn’t immediately find much to say beyond calling it ‘interesting.’”

Think Progress has some video up on this.

I can't help but think this is a message that will resonate with such a tiny slice of the population. There may be a lot of people in the US that believe in god, but they do not all share Huckabee's Christianist beliefs of tearing down The Wall of Separation, and I am pretty sure that the majority understand how the separation of church and state is what has protected religious freedom in this country. Huckabee does not share my views as a values voter...

Even the establishment Republican power brokers, as powerless as they are becoming in this GOP death spiral, will be alarmed to hear this sort of statement. Mind you, they were already alarmed about his winning in Iowa with a populist message. Populism and hyper-Christianism combined together must be their worst nightmare in a GOP presidential candidate. Traditionally, Republican powers only pander to these types. They aren't supposed to actually want to have any power beyond voting for the GOP like sheep.

Somehow, I am pretty sure that Republican power brokers won't be the only one's alarmed with this message. And I am pretty certain that this will alarm some moderate conservatives even more when they think about the fact that this guy actually won in Iowa. They really have to be left wondering about BOTH the voters and the candidates in the republican party.

Candidate Matchup Test

How do the candidates line up with your views?

I was clicking around the net slightly aimlessly and came across this "Candidate Matchup" diary leading to a test that matches up candidates with your issues... So, being a lazy Saturday I took the test:

95% Dennis Kucinich
93% Mike Gravel
87% John Edwards
84% Chris Dodd
84% Barack Obama
80% Hillary Clinton
77% Joe Biden
77% Bill Richardson
35% Rudy Giuliani
25% John McCain
21% Ron Paul
20% Mike Huckabee
18% Tom Tancredo
17% Mitt Romney
10% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I don't put too much faith in tests like this, in as far as their accuracy goes, because they usually don't cover every possible issue that people may be interested in. In this test's case there is a total disregard of religious issues like the separation of church and state, which is an issue that can provide a huge defining line between party and candidate support. And it does not address the issue of "Single Payer" universal healthcare head on, only universal healthcare ("We need a national health insurance system that makes sure everyone is covered."), but the candidates have never had a chance to vote on that issue so it would be hard to match up a person with a candidate. Nor does this test completely address some of the very real racial and gender issues, which would mark some serious differences beyond just GLBT issues and immigration issues that are highlighted in the media and by candidates, IMHO.

But these tests do give you an idea of candidates that are close to your ideology, as imperfect as they are.

Previously, I had posted on the Political Compass:

How Does Your Candidate Measure up?

Many of us are familiar with the Political Compass. Some at MLN even had their compass score in their signatures for a while, and even took the time to chart some of their own personal scores in March. But do you know where the 2008 Presidential Candidates sit on this political chart?

You should:

My kingdom for a real progressive candidate!

Perhaps you've heard of the Political Compass website, where you can take a test that places you on a grid based on the degree to which you are "left" or "right" on the economic scale as well as how socially libertarian or authoritarian you are.

I'm damn near as moonbatty as it gets: -6.50, -6.67, which puts me in, for lack of a better term, the "deep Southwest" of the grid.

Anyway, thanks to a recent article on London's TimesOnline, we can see how the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates fit on the grid.

This should worry those on the left, and I know that many at MLN scored even further left than I did (I am a Liberal, but I am a moderate Liberal), as they watch the next candidate chosen for the Democratic party who is nothing less than a conservative. That is, if they chose anyone other than Kucinich or Gravel. And right now they aren't even counted in the top 3 contenders.

This is where the Democratic party is failing miserably. They are not really providing any different ideology than the GOP, just a moderate version of it, if they choose any of those conservative candidates on that chart.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden... They are all conservatives, as moderate as some of them may be, they are conservatives nonetheless.

These tests often elicit surprising responses from people:

MattW: "I find it hard to believe that I'm actually 3 times more liberal and libertarian than Dennis Kucinich."

Well Matt? You probably are... The problem is that moderate conservative candidates, and ones that are somewhat authoritarian to boot, have been labeled as "Liberals" for so long by the corporate owned MSM it has skewered the views of the American people to accept candidates that are far more conservative than many of the American people really are.

IOW: People have been conditioned to reject candidates that would better represent their own views through years of propaganda.

This is a direct result of the MSM's incompetence in addressing real issues and, instead, sticking to their scripts of Horse Races, Manipulation of Polling Popularity Contests, Who Smells the Best, The Prettiest Face, Masculintity, The Money Game, Crying Games and a myriad of other exercises in avoidance and misdirection from the real issues that are truly important and could do a lot to shape your support based on what is actually best for you, the voter.

Information is the best weapon you have to fight this propaganda:

Click on Pic to Enlarge

So it is left up to you to seek out the important information, at least, until the media finally meets our demands that they AND the candidates address the issues honestly.

The short version of this post?

"Media: Do. Your. Job."

Because We The People are getting tired of doing all of the heavy lifting.

[update] edited and rewritten a few times - CM1

Chuck Norris Wants to Go All Kung-Fu on Mitt Romney

Typical republican politics at its best:

Introducing Huckabee at a pancake house this morning, Norris jokingly threatened violence. He said if he were Huckabee and someone tried to mischaracterize his record -- as Huckabee said Romney did in last night's Fox News debate -- he'd take him out, kung-fu-style.

"In these debates . . . if you say the wrong thing, they're going to crucify you," Norris said. "Or if a guy says the wrong thing about you and you respond, they'll crucify you anyway. I don't have the skin for it. . . . The first time the guy started saying the things they say to Mike Huckabee, I'd be choking him unconscious. That's what I would have done last night."

Sounds like a B-movie that could become a Republican cult classic.

How is that Republican economy going into the election cycle?

According to the worst president ever in the history of the USA:

“In a marked shift from his usual upbeat economic assessments,” President Bush “conceded…that the nation faces ‘economic challenges’ due to rising oil prices, the home mortgage crisis and a weakening job market.” Though Bush insisted he “recognize[d] the reality of the situation,” the White House has refused to say that the economy might be heading towards a recession.

And according to the calculator toting kind of people:

In a “controversial” report, Merrill Lynch “said that Friday’s employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession.”

Bahhh! What would those financial type idiots know about this anyways? Well... They know they have plenty of money to toss at fighting presidential candidates that want to do something to help the little guy:

“Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said his organization “would spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it spent in the last presidential cycle” to defeat “anti-business” candidates.

Presidential candidates in particular have responded to the public concern. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has been the bluntest populist voice, but other front-running Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, have also called for change on behalf of middle-class voters.

On the Republican side, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee - emerging as an unexpected front-runner after winning the Iowa caucuses - has used populist themes in his effort to woo independent voters, blasting bonus pay for corporate chief executives and the effect of unfettered globalization on workers.

While I would not lump Hillary Clinton into the populist candidate short list in any way shape or form, it is apparent that the Chamber of Commerce is part of a group of idiots that will try and make "Populist" the new "Liberal" smear from the rightards that got us in this mess.

Also, I am glad to see the recession hasn't stopped them from finding the dough to stomp on the poor people in their ongoing class war known as "The Great and Failed Republican Experiment" brought to you by your local and national GOP candidates, aided and abetted by spineless Democrats who had turned their back on the people, over the last 30 or so years...

We have a crippled Economy brought to you by precisely the kind of candidates and policies that the Chamber of Commerce would and do support, but they want to stop candidates that advocate real change?

John Edwards clearly fits into the long tradition of economic populism, and this is clearly a major reason why Versailles has done its very best to ignore him, and if it can't do that, to label him as angry, to write him off as "not serious," in some way. Obama, on the other hand, has repeatedly poked at post-1950s styled "progressives", often along the lines that they are somehow uncouth-a typical progressive complaint about populists. Edwards, in true populist style, is emphatic in demanding change, and stressing the urgency involved. Obama prefers to work incrementally. The two candidates are almost archetypal embodiements of populism and progressivism... except that Obama's followers rally around him like a populist tribune of the people. This is not unheard of. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the main progressive leaders of his day, and was clearly a political rock star. But Roosevelt was the exception that proves the rule. Most progressive leaders are restrained and cerebral, reflecting the normative difference between their tradition and that of the populists.

In fact I would argue the following:

(1) People are suffering from extreme wealth polarization, and related political neglect that has a wide range of manifestations. Edwards is a genuine economic populist speaking to this neglect, and because he is doing so, he is despised by the political establishment.

(2) However, this situation has developed over a long period of time, and has a rather complex and confusing overlay surrounding it, including several decades of distracting political debates, in which the Democrats traditional defense of the work class has largely been obscured, and the normal history of American politics, in which one party or the other dominates for long periods of time, has been forgoten. Barack Obama has taken advantage of this situation to substitute his own version of the elite/progressive narrative, which blames the situation on "gridlock," "polarization," and "politics as usual," casts both sides as similarly (if not equally) to blame, and demonizes populist anger, offering in its place a sanitized dionysian frenzy of ecstatic release.

(3) In short: Edwards is the real populist, but in today's world, you almost need to be a progressive scholar to appreciate just how deeply rooted his populism really is. Obama, on the other hand, is a classic progressive, who is playing the part of a populist to perfection, with none of that icky oppositional baggage that progressives always find so distressing. Obama's victory speech in Iowa was the perfect embodiment of cultural populism-it's model was not William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold," but Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich , more recently channeled by the likes of Tony Robbins.

I am not a member of the Democratic party, not in any way shape or form, and I certainly do not suffer from "GOP delusions" about the differences between the candidates on the left. And I will continue to paint a clear and honest picture of where the Democratic candidates really stand, IMHO, in the hopes that the voters will make an informed choice based on facts... Regardless of whom they should choose as their candidate in the election cycle and, hopefully, with them disregarding the far-right wingnuts spin.

RedState Founder GBCW Diary Rips GOP Candidates

BWAHAHAHA! And from BooMan:

If you are a fan of Goodbye Cruel World (GBCW) diaries you can't do much better than reading RedState founder Thomas Crown's rambling masterpiece where he tells the GOP presidential contenders to 'go Cheney themselves' and also insults many of our friends.

Actually, BooMan... It gets even better when you read his diary from the day before where he rants on why their GOP candidates (and their party) is in pitiful shape:

"And the horses you all rode in on, one at a time, then rotate.

You all have no idea how long I've wanted to write this. For the reasons set forth in my next diary, I can, and am; but I've been saving this up for a while. Pardon the spleen.

Dear Senators Thompson and McCain; Governors Romney and Huckabee; and Mayor Giuliani: You all suck.

Read on to see why. Or don't; I figure only two of you are smart enough to care why a conservative, Mass-going Catholic would personally drive the buggy to take you all to Hell.

Before I go any further, to any outraged supporters of any of these candidates: Toss it. So many of you have spent so much time shilling for your preferred choices, you've lost track of first principles. I have no time for far too many of you, and those of you with the brainpower to actually merit notice have picked the wrong company in which to travel."

Tell us how you really feel about how the "Great and Failed Republican Experiment" got you to where you are now? No... We know you won't admit that part, but that is the horse you all rode in on, then rotate.

Commie Pinko Socialist Blog Radio Tonight

Well, that is what juicebox republican children would call it... I'll stick to calling it "Don't hijack my thread!" ePluribus Media's progressive Blog radio show.

If you are around TONIGHT (Thursday, November 29), please join us for another installment of Don't Hijack My Thread! at 8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific.

This week's topics are as follows:

* "Wrong on torture" but still right for Attorney General?
* Huckabee's surge and "Willie Horton" problem
* Rudy's extramarital affairs at taxpayer expense
* Will Democrats actively support clean money elections?
* CNN - the new FoxNews?

The link to tonight's show is: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/epradio/2007/11/30/Dont-Hijack-My-Thread


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