Licking Our Wounds? Try Not To Giggle

While most Americans are still reeling from the "extortion negotiations" which have been unfolding in Washington, the FOXites have been literally ejaculating as they declare victory and supremacy over the White House.  However, when we examine the facts a little more carefully, we see a significantly different picture emerging.

Of course, this could be another posting which amounted to nothing more than MeanMesa's opinion on the subject.  The remainder of this post is a transcript of President Obama's speech on the economy from January 8, 2009.

So, all you grave robbers, derelicts and thugs there in the victory parade, read it and weep.  You have been out classed on such a scale that it will be several months before you realize that you have been had by a pro.

Sorry.

Rupert Murdoch has convinced 50 million Americans that this man is President

(image source)

Transcript

Source: New York Times

Obama's Speech on the Economy

Published: January 8, 2009

The following is a transcript of President-Elect Barack Obamas speech on the economy, as prepared by Federal News Service.

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Everybody be seated. Thank you very much. (Applause continues.) Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause continues.) Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you so much.

Let me begin by thanking George Mason University for their extraordinary hospitality and to thank all the great friends, the governors, the mayors, who are in attendance here today.

Throughout America's history, there have been some years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare, and then there are the years that come along once in a generation, the kind that mark a clean break from a troubled past and set a new course for our nation. This is one of those years.

We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime, a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks. Nearly 2 million jobs have been now lost, and on Friday we're likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II. Just in the past year, another 2.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. Manufacturing has hit a 28-year low. Many businesses cannot borrow or make payroll. Many families cannot pay their bills or their mortgage. Many workers are watching their life savings disappear. And many, many Americans are both anxious and uncertain of what the future will hold.

Now, I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible. If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. We could lose a generation of potential and promise, as more young Americans are forced to forgo dreams of college or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. And our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and our standing in the world.

In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.

This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business cycle, and we won't get out of it by simply waiting for a better day to come or relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past. We arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, D.C.

For years, too many Wall Street executives made imprudent and dangerous decisions, seeking profits with too little regard for risk, too little regulatory scrutiny, and too little accountability. Banks made loans without concern for whether borrowers could repay them, and some borrowers took advantage of cheap credit to take on debt they couldn't afford. Politicians spent taxpayer money without wisdom or discipline and too often focused on scoring political points instead of problems they were sent here to solve. The result has been a devastating loss of trust and confidence in our economy, our financial markets and our government.

Now, the very fact that this crisis is largely of our own making means that it's not beyond our ability to solve. Our problems are rooted in past mistakes, not our capacity for future greatness. It will take time, perhaps many years, but we can rebuild that lost trust and confidence. We can restore opportunity and prosperity.

We should never forget that our workers are still more productive than any on Earth. Our universities are still the envy of the world. We are still home to the most brilliant minds, the most creative entrepreneurs and the most advanced technology and innovation that history has ever known. And we are still the nation that has overcome great fears and improbable odds.

If we act with the urgency and seriousness that this moment requires, I know that we can do it again. That is why I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jump- start job creation and long-term growth. It's a plan that represents not just new policy, but a whole new approach to meeting our most urgent challenges. For if we hope to end this crisis, we must end the culture of "anything goes" that helped create it. And this change must begin in Washington. It's time to trade old habits for a new spirit of responsibility. It is time to finally change the ways of Washington so that we can set a new and better course for America.

There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable. It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes and confidence in our economy.

It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe.

Only government can break the cycle that are crippling our economy -- where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.

That's why we need to act boldly and act now to reverse these cycles. That's why we need to put money in the pockets of the American people, create new jobs, and invest in our future. That's why we need to restart the flow of credit and restore the rules of the road that will ensure a crisis like this never happens again.

And this plan begins with -- this plan must begin today, a plan I am confident will save or create at least 3 million jobs over the next few years. It is not just another public-works program; it's a plan that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment -- the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there's so much work to be done. And that's why we'll invest in priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century. That's why the overwhelming majority of the jobs created will be in the private sector, while our plan will save the public sector jobs of teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services.

To finally spark the creation of a clean-energy economy, we will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. We will modernize more than 75 percent of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of 2 million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills. In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced -- jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings, and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.

To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years all of America's medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won't save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs, it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.

To give our children the chance to live out their dreams in a world that's never been more competitive, we will equip tens of thousands of schools, community colleges and public universities with 21st-century classrooms, labs and libraries. We'll provide new computers, new technology, and new training for teachers so that students in Chicago and Boston can compete with kids in Beijing for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future.

To build an economy that can lead this future, we will begin to rebuild America. Yes, we'll put people to work repairing crumbling roads, bridges and schools by eliminating the backlog of well-planned, worthy and needed infrastructure projects, but we'll also do more to retrofit America for a global economy. That means updating the way we get our electricity by starting to build a new smart grid that will save us money, protect our power sources from blackout or attack, and deliver clean, alternative forms of energy to every corner of our nation. It means expanding broadband lines across America so that a small business in a rural town can connect and compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world. And it means investing in the science, research and technology that will lead to new medical breakthroughs, new discoveries, and entire new industries.

And finally, this recovery and reinvestment plan will provide immediate relief to states, workers and families who are bearing the brunt of this recession. To get people spending again, 95 percent of working families will receive a thousand-dollar tax cut, the first stage of a middle-class tax cut that I promised during the campaign and will include in our next budget. To help Americans who have lost their jobs and can't find new ones, we'll continue the bipartisan extension of unemployment insurance and health-care coverage to help them through this crisis. Government at every level will have to tighten its belt, but we'll help struggling states avoid harmful budget cuts, as long as they take responsibility and use the money to maintain essential services like police, fire, education and health care.

Now, I understand that some might be skeptical of this plan. Our government has already spent a good deal of money, but we haven't yet seen that translate into more jobs or higher incomes or renewed confidence in our economy. And that's why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan won't just throw money at our problems; we'll invest in what works. The true test of the policies we'll pursue won't be whether they're Democratic or Republican ideas, whether they're conservative or liberal ideas, but whether they create jobs, grow our economy, and put the American Dream within reach of the American people.

Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible. Every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their taxpayer dollars are being spent. And as I announced yesterday, we will launch an unprecedented effort to eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending that has never been more unaffordable for our nation and our children's future than it is right now.

We have to make tough choices and smart investments today so that as the economy recovers, the deficits start coming down. We cannot have a solid recovery if our people and our businesses don't have confidence that we're getting our fiscal house in order. And that's why our goal is not to create a slew of new government programs, but a foundation for long-term economic growth.

That also means an economic recovery plan that is free from earmarks and pet projects. I understand that every member of Congress has ideas about how to spend money, and many of these projects are worthy. They benefit local communities. But this emergency legislation must not be the vehicle for those aspirations. This must be a time when leaders in both parties put the urgent needs of our nation above our own narrow interests.

Now, this recovery plan alone will not solve all the problems that led us into this crisis. We must also work with the same sense of urgency to stabilize and repair the financial system we all depend on. That means using our full arsenal of tools to get credit flowing again to families and business, while restoring confidence in our markets. It means launching a sweeping effort to address the foreclosure crisis so that we can keep responsible families in their homes. It means preventing the catastrophic failure of financial institutions whose collapse could endanger the entire economy, but only with maximum protections for taxpayers and a clear understanding that government support for any company is an extraordinary action that must come with significant restrictions on the firms that receive support. And it means reforming a weak and outdated regulatory system so that we can better withstand financial shocks and better protect consumers, investors and businesses from the reckless greed and risk- taking that must never endanger our prosperity again.

No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through regulatory cracks. No longer can we allow special interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales. No longer can we allow the unscrupulous lending and borrowing that leads only to destructive cycles of bubble and bust.

It is time to set a new course for this economy, and that change must begin now. We should have an open and honest discussion about this recovery plan in the days ahead, but I urge Congress to move as quickly as possible on behalf of the American people. For every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs; more families will lose their savings; more dreams will be deferred and denied; and our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.

That is not the country I know. It is not a future I accept as president of the United States. A world that depends on the strength of our economy is now watching and waiting for America to lead once more, and that is what we will do.

It will not come easy or happen overnight, and it is altogether likely that things may get worse before they get better. But that is all the more reason for Congress to act without delay. I know the scale of this plan is unprecedented, but so is the severity of our situation. We have already tried the wait-and-see approach to our problems, and it is the same approach that helped lead us to this day of reckoning.

And that is why the time has come to build a 21st-century economy in which hard work and responsibility are once again rewarded. That's why I'm asking Congress to work with me and my team day and night, on weekends if necessary, to get the plan passed in the next few weeks. That's why I'm calling on all Americans -- Democrats and Republicans and independents -- to put -- to put good ideas ahead of the old ideological battles, a sense of common purpose above the same narrow partisanship, and insist that the first question each of us asks isn't "What's good for me?" but "What's good for the country my children will inherit?"

More than any program or policy, it is this spirit that will enable us to confront these challenges with the same spirit that has led previous generations to face down war and depression and fear itself. And if we do -- if we are able to summon that spirit again; if are able to look out for one another and listen to one another, and do our part for our nation and for posterity -- then I have no doubt that, years from now, we will look back on 2009 as one of those years that marked another new and hopeful beginning for the United States of America.

Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. (Applause.) Thank you. (Applause.)

House Tea Bags After the Fall of FOX

Just an Interesting Question

As we watch the House Republicans careen into an uncertain future, we can imagine that, perhaps, they think that the track under their out of control locomotive actually goes somewhere.  Whatever that dark destination may be, the ties which hold that track are incontrovertibly tied to the now staggering FOX News Leviathan.

The Glorious FOX Route To Congressional Fame (image source )

Previously a stalwart, bed rock foundation for the Republican reactionaries, we now see FOX gleefully dodging the soft bullets of the British Parliament, perhaps a temporary respite before further onslaughts by US authorities and the "nice folks" in its Board of Directors.  Let's just say that FOX is occupied right now, too busy to produce its normal glacial cover for the crooks and other miscreants it managed to elect in 2010.

MeanMesa remains confident that the FOX instructions, orders and talking points still flow in a daily stream to their indentured politicians in the Congress, but when such a petulant, adolescent fascist suddenly realizes that what used to be "Nazi-like efficiency" has cascaded into a divided house, priorities can slip and confusion can set in where there was once mind-numbing order.

This dismal forecast holds just as much for the tea bag in the House as it does for the now wandering bigots, hill billies and other "FOX heads" who used to listen to the rubbish for hours on end.

Without the unifying flow of hate and lies, all these education challenged folk have now become "lost souls."  Using one of their own talking points, the situation can be described as a desperate "crisis in leadership."

Darn.  This always seems to happen when the "leadership" is having their feet cut off at the ankles.

FOX stock is crumbling.  Crowds are cheering.  Murdoch is lying even faster than ever before as he panics, throwing his "colleagues" into the meat grinder, two at a time.

GOPCon House Caucus "Strategy Session" Without FOX ( image source)

A Not So Bright Future for Tea Bags

The moment everyone has been dreading as this whole "crisis in the pig sty" has been unfolding is that last, glorious belch from Murdoch himself.

"Unleash the hill billies!"

Unhappily for the now global "bait and switch" fraud which has been the "Murdoch Media Empire," the hill billies will almost immediately revert to the aimless wandering which characterized them before the FOX sham began.  Bearing their banjos and luke warm cans of Blue Ribbon, they will, once again, congregate in unruly burping clutches at the nearest American Legion bar.

The ultimate effect could reach far beyond the FOX Reich bunker and the stock market, beyond the train wreck at Downing Street and beyond the puzzled, pan handling faces of unemployed "talk whores" such as Limbaugh and Hannity.

The tea bags in the House, previously quite comfortable and secure with Dick Armey's 1,300 strong tea bag movement standing squarely behind them, will find themselves without a constituency.  Coming to its senses, the US electorate will gradually begin to ask themselves "What were we doing, again?  Was there some reason we elected these throw backs in the first place?"

Worse, in the smoky back rooms of the Congress, previously unrepentant tea bag savages who used to march only to the sound of fiscal blood, will find themselves desperately seeking the advice of the old Wall Street banksters who comprise the traditional "looting branch" of the Republican Party.

The tea bags will begin to wear $1,000 dollar suits with red "power ties,"  start to avoid meet and greets at Erma Lou's Grits and Pork Chop Diner and adopt the dour, threatening "frown smiles" we are accustomed to seeing only on the old crooks like Hatch, McConnell and other old school Republican fascists.

It might be a dark day for FOX, but it will herald a promising new sunrise for America.

Okay, Americans -- Now Kiss Your Kidnapper

GOPCon Ransom as a "Garden Industry"

The situation reminds MeanMesa of the similarity to other civilizations when they were threatened by brigands.  In each case, given time, prevailing "social distaste" arose about kidnappers, grave robbers, protection extortionists and pirates.  As conditions worsened, that is, as the crimes became more and more egregious, societies responded, not always in a manner entirely consistent with the higher ideals they might have held in quieter times.

Hostage Taking, GOPCon Pirates (photo: Chris Bennion - source)

House Tea Bags Think That Hostage Taking IS Statesmanship

Oh dear, is MeanMesa careening off the tracks again? Blasting out overly dramatic epithets, exaggerated, inflammatory rhetoric, about "hostages," "ransom" and "kidnapping" and the like?

Maybe. Particularly if claims about such criminal enterprises must cross above a certain metric before becoming legitimate. So, exactly where do such complaints ascend from routine "bitching" to the level of actual crimes? How about reviewing the nature and amounts of the ransom payments?

The Tea Bags Snatch the Children

During the lame duck, GOPCons were holding unemployment benefits hostage. The ransom price was a $125 Bn tax cut for their billionaire masters. If the oligarchs were not to be satiated with another nice, economy wrecking, gigantic tax cut -- an extension of those first established in the original Bush "looting festival" -- millions of Americans would be denied unemployment checks. The petty GOP criminals sent out to follow these orders were able to report back that tax payers were "sitting ducks."

The billionaires took it from there, immediately formulating a whole series of further repetitions of the crime. This time, a craven Republican leadership could be counted on to "run scared" before the tea bags all around them in the House Chamber. The "gloves were off." The newest bunch of tea bag thugs obviously didn't mind running their racket in broad daylight.

Traditionalist Boehner, always accustomed previously to handling such matters cloaked in the shadows of back rooms filled with lobbyists, was predictably nervous about so much glaring transparency. Still, fortifying himself with a few dozen "Rob Roys," the shivering Speaker bravely hoisted the flag and sounded the attack.

A "rolling media circus," (not a problem when one owns the media, that is, if one's bosses own the media) the continuing scheme would migrate little as the tea bag strategists formed a giant pincer movement around the shell shocked Democrats remaining in power.

On one side, the GOPCons would unleash the imaginary tea bag horde -- all 1,300 of them -- demanding "spending cuts" in the fetid wreckage of a quagmire of obstructionist sabotage to all recovery bills and the resulting, sickening paucity of job creation. On the other side, the bags would "salt" every spending cut with another selection from their rabidly unpopular "social policies" which could not be sold under any other circumstances to either the Congress or the American voters otherwise. 

So, what exactly was the scheme going to be?  MeanMesa can offer a speculative version of conversations in the famous, smoked filled, whiskey "aromatique," GOPCon back rooms.  What do we think the crooks were saying to each other?

Stinky GOPCon Back Room Conversations

"If they want jobs so badly, we'll give them spending cuts and a relentless, overly broadcast myth that the two are the same thing."

"If they want to government to keep running, we'll give them last decade's policy disasters and call that the price to be paid. You know, the ransom."

"We'll start right away saying over and over that Americans blame both parties for the shut down. Call all the networks and give the order."

"We'll attach 'illegalizing abortion,' 'deregulation of the banks,' 'a cessation of all environmental controls,' 'the abolition of all consumer protection policies' and 'a stake through the heart of the health care reform bill' for starters. We can make the Democrats 'eat' this grisly lunch, and each time we can hold a government shut down over their heads to make them dance."

"Each time we stagger forward to the next 'shut down' date, we can add a few more 'spending cuts' along with a new collection of social outrages from our throwback policy 'dream bag' from the '50's."

"If it works, we'll be able to drive the entire country back to the good old medieval days of the 1950's, a very reasonable ransom for allowing them to have the government they've already paid for continue to function.  If it doesn't work, that is, if the Democrats finally find enough gumption and gonads to draw the line, and the government shuts down, we'll have FOX News and the rest of our media convince the voters that the reckless, socialist Democrats -- including, of course, 'the Black Man' -- did it.

With every dirty shirt Kentucky preacher salivating at the prospects of refilling his dwindling congregation with drooling tea baggers once again inflamed with right wing righteousness, the GOPCon Gang will, once again, be re-labeled the party of God."

"If they start murmuring about cuts to military procurement spending or non-negotiated military service contracts, we'll hit them with a full dose of 'flags and blood.'  After all, we have direct orders from the bosses -- no military spending cuts.  Now, back to the plan for gutting Medicare..."

Boehner Wishes He Could Hide in the Cloakroom

The Speaker has his own problems with this latest over reach.  Wow.  In fact  recently some of his new tea bag caucus members spouted off -- to Boehner's horror,  on media microphones -- that if the entire government didn't immediately cave in, they would just pass a bill and it would automatically become law.  Of course, Boehner back tracked, saying that his party's new "death grip" actually only encompassed half of one third of the government.

Unhappily, the vast tea bag hordes, already inebriated with the prospect of seeing starving old people and abandoned children, heard nothing.

Boehner, while still being well paid to viciously attack the Presidency, is now caught in a string of broken commitments belonging to him, personally.   Three times the Speaker has agreed to a negotiated spending cut settlement with the President and the Democrats.  Three times, he sat there in "career terror" as he brought the agreements back to his tea bags only to see them gleefully reject the proposals.

Senate Majority Leader Reid, almost always far too complacent and agreeable for MeanMesa's tastes, has sat like a troublesome toad on a log as Speaker  Boehner has repeatedly displayed his lack of control over his own caucus.  This time, however, Reid's formidable, imperturbable  stoicism could not have been more confidence wrecking for the busy little guy from Ohio.

Even so much as an emotional crack from  Majority Leader Reid would have provided the tea bags with enough imaginary ammo to sustain their drunken plunge, but they got nothing.  Obama probably needs to visit the White House doctor for all the bites he made on his tongue trying not to break out laughing while he witnessed the process.

Oh Yes, the Next Ransom Note

MeanMesa recalls a decades old advertisement encouraging folks to subscribe to the National Lampoon magazine.  There was a photo of a darling little puppy on the card which came in the mail.  Of course, this was a humorous "tongue in cheek" effort entirely consistent with the publication, but below the picture was this caption, "Subscribe to our magazine or we'll kill this puppy."

The GOPCons apparently have something similar tacked on the wall of the restroom outside the House Chamber.  On their version of the comedy, a portrait of their last, heavily soiled, ultra-creepy "government shutdown" expert, Newt Gringrich, is smiling broadly.  The caption?  "Don't worry.  The voters can't remember last week, much less fifteen years ago.  This is going to work great this time!"

ACORN is gone.  The jihadists don't seem to be cooperating with the GOPCons by providing another terrorist attack.  The hill billies and bigots are dozing off under too much complicated GOPCon fear mongering, and, the Republican Party's national socialist prophet, Glenn Beck, has been sent staggering back to Utah by the profit-Waffen-SS at FOX News.

But, does this mean that all is lost for these sturdy tea bag GOPCons?

Hardly.  They can still kill the puppy.

(image source)

Guantanamo - Watering The Garden of Rupert Murdoch's Wet Dream

Yawn.

Since the 2012 election festival has officially begun, who can surprised to see Obama's "broken promise" to close the autocrat's torture facility at Guantanamo trotted out for at least one more "final spin cycle" to see if there might be a drop or two of hill billy and bigot outrage left in the rag.  

And, who is leading the pack?

Why, none other than FOX News executive, heavily soiled Australian fascist, Rupert Murdoch.  Rupert is a bit intellectually challenged in such matters, so MeanMesa assumes that the order came from elsewhere, perhaps in a "W-style, hand-holding secret sign" relayed to him by his Wahabist co-hort and FOX co-owner, the Saudi Prince.

Now, there's a pair to draw to -- that is, a pair of "real Americans..."  oh well.

Discouragingly, however, other, the remainder of the ever so slightly less soiled , corporate news networks -- including the PBS NewsHour -- have decided to join the chorus, each one contributing a carbon copy of the half lie as a happy, effortless  adjunct commentary to the announcement of Obama's candidacy.

The Plan

Obama the candidate got lots of traction with his campaign platform issue to close the Guantanamo embarrassment for good as quickly as possible after the election.  This plan was a problem for the autocrat's cronies from the second it emerged from Obama's mouth.

If the "evil doers" and "criminals" in the Cuban facility were to be moved somewhere else, the "spray" of accompanying information would be a modern equivalent of Pizzaro's "Fountain of Youth."  Worse, the drips and drops would almost certainly fly far beyond even Florida's boundaries.

The "Black Man" had to be stopped.

Rupert, again, with, no doubt, some serious incentives and coaching, grabbed the FOX News "gearshift lever," and coaxed the reactionary dinosaur of a network into motion.

As if dredging quotes from Blazing Saddles, the Foxites quickly sanitized an equally plagiarized tale and broadcast it far and wide across the land of the free.  The old movie can provide us with a possible script for Murdoch's wet dream.

From the script of Blazing Saddles, 1974, Mel Gibson

See more Blazing Saddles quotes here.

[the Johnsons load their guns and point them at Bart, the black sheriff.  Bart then points his own pistol at his head] 

Cleavon Little as Black Sheriff, Bart, Blazing Saddles (image source - WIKI)

Bart: [low voice] Hold it! Next man makes a move, the nigger gets it!
Olson Johnson: Hold it, men. He's not bluffing.
Dr. Sam Johnson: Listen to him, men. He's just crazy enough to do it!
Bart: [low voice] Drop it! Or I swear I'll blow this nigger's head all over this town!
Bart: [high-pitched voice] Oh, lo'dy, lo'd, he's desp'it! Do what he sayyyy, do what he sayyyy!
[Townspeople drop their guns. Bart jams the gun into his neck and drags himself through the crowd towards the station]
Harriet Johnson: Isn't anybody going to help that poor man?
Dr. Sam Johnson: Hush, Harriet! That's a sure way to get him killed!
Bart: [high-pitched voice] Oooh! He'p me, he'p me! Somebody he'p me! He'p me! He'p me! He'p me!
Bart: [low voice] Shut up!
[Bart places his hand over his own mouth, then drags himself through the door into his office]
Bart: Ooh, baby, you are so talented!
[looks into the camera]
Bart: And they are so *dumb*!

The official FOX line was, as usual, both adolescent and incendiary.  The drooling FOX audience was suddenly inundated by the same innuendo, repeatedly issued forth from the the mouths of the Hannity's, O'Rielly's, Limbaughs, Becks and the rest.  In a hundred varieties, the mind numbing, torpid, fear mongering threat went out over the air waves from every corporate network microphone until casual conversation at every water cooler across the country echoed the same message.

"Ef them thar AArabbs gits inta thu country, they gonna' be afta thu whaht wimmin raught 'way.  It'll be thu ruin o' the whaht race 'n Westun civlizashun as we know it!"

And,

"Ef thet black man 'n Whaht House holds them trahls in Neuw York City, AArabbs gonna' come blow up thu Court House and kill eveybuddy -- 'ncludin' yew 'n yer fambly!  It's all gonna be his fault too, dammit!" 

So, the "marching orders" coming down to FOX News begin to be illuminated, at least, illuminated as much as anything else buried in that dark morass of human desperation and fear. 

"Embarrass the President and terrify the old people and the half wits who listen to FOX."

In no time, the misdirection had spread to all the less wretched media networks, each one frightened at the prospect of missing some bit of the incendiary propaganda which was gaining traction in the hill billy crowd.   Congressmen were, predictably, beginning to receive phone calls from the constituents.  Letters to the editor were appearing, accounts of horrifying last days as the Arab terrorists moved through neighborhoods all across the country, relentlessly continuing their preparations to assault the New York City Federal Court House.

This latest FOX fabrication had grown "legs."

The "Completely Innocent Congress"

Moves to "Protect" the Country

The shabby little bill was easy to pass.  None of the "evil doers" and "criminals" from Guantanamo would ever be allowed inside the country for any reason -- not for a trial, not to be executed, not to go to prison, nothing.  Obviously, there was no possible way to make such a move safe for the people of the US.

However, the stench was slowly growing.  The "can't possibly do it safely" idea looked pretty convincing at first, but there seemed to be a few "loose ends." 

The frightened little autocrat, unable to stand up to the prospect of simple "enemies," had dragged all the Guantanamo prisoners into an Old Testament  redefinition so convincingly that his weird appetite for medieval torture had become palatable for a little while.  But now, even FOX News followers were beginning to grow suspicious.

The Autocrat finds water boarding strangely exciting. (image source)

"Hmmm.  Were they 'supposed to believe' that not even a super power like the United States was strong enough to handle the hordes of Arab terrorists who were now preparing to attack New York to disrupt the trials?"

Not Exactly

See.  There were a couple of other "pesky" little reasons why the Guantanamo prisoners could not be tried in an open, civil court, and they had nothing to do with "protecting" the American citizens from an Arab Terrorist attack.

Obama had already "puzzled" a few of his base supporters with his reluctance to prosecute the autocrat and his "torture loving" cronies for war crimes.  MeanMesa has to assume that the President had no appetite for starting a civil war on his watch no matter how intense the penchant for Christian vengeance might become among the voters. 

At first, the civilian courts had offered a relatively painless opportunity to simply "let things unfold however they might."  But after looking deeply into the bloody eyes of Americans who were not particularly "getting over it,"  Obama had second thoughts, thoughts about the relative value of the explosive nature of a full revelation of the outrages versus the urgent needs for the country to recover from other problems left in the wake of the autocracy's morbid legacy.

So, the FOX Gambit seems to have worked a little.  However, it remains to be seen whether or not the American electorate will "take the bait."  MeanMesa suspects that this latest flamboyance emerging from FOX and the rest of them will not gain any more traction than the latest clutch of other cheap tricks they have attempted.

"Cheap tricks?"  The examples are legion.  For example, last week's efforts by the "spending cuts" crowd to impugn the Libyan intervention as a fiscal outrage in a poor economy.  MeanMesa watched as the proposition was trotted out on every network new cast as a promising new embarrassment for the President, only to then collapse into a dusty mire of disinterest.

Don't be confused.  GOPCons could not care less about Arab Terrorists attacking a New York Federal Court or about thousands of American civilians being killed in such imaginary attacks.  GOPCons could not care less about the hideously soiled American image after the autocrat spent years tearing the arms and legs of his favorite "evil doers."

GOPCons only care about crooked immediate profits and stinky campaign contributions from people you wouldn't allow near your children.  Happily, this is the "brand" that they will be forced to sell in 2012.

Economic Treason - GOPCons' "Media Defined" Spending Cuts

You're Too Busy to Look At Anything 

Besides "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"

Now, quit gawking and just pay attention to the game

Visitors here know that MeanMesa has been ranting and raving about wealth redistribution and the incredible price we, as Americans, are currently paying for "not watching the cash register" while our oligarch class has been quietly emptying the Treasury.  Perhaps too often, all this ranting has been a tad bit too gaseous.  With the video link in this posting, we can all see -- in the bright light of day -- exactly what this illicit wealth redistribution actually amounts to, the relative scope of the "looting" and even a few clues about where all this money has "wound up" after it moved from our tax coffers to corporate and oligarchic "pockets."

In the video, the size of the boxes will be the first feature which will attract your attention, but MeanMesa urges you to "split your focus" to also read the labels at the top of the screen while the boxes are gleefully floating down like a soul crushing version of an innocent Tetris game. They tell us what the "boxes" represent.

This little video, one minute sixteen seconds in length, shows the  preposterous relativity of the latest "GOPCon Spending Cuts" fraud.  We should all be equipped with this information as we enter the 2012 election cycle.  Be sure to come back to MeanMesa when you've finished.

MeanMesa's compliments to InformationIsBeautiful.net.

The You Tube video:

DEBTRIS US

Predictably, the GOPCons are obsessed with inflaming their hill billies and bigots with "fiscal trinkets" such as strangling everything from NPR, Planned Parenthood, HeadStart and Pell Grants to fully funded pension plans.  Although the script of this deception grows tedious to the illiterate in practically no time, when there is nothing else on the "tv's," all these little escapades can gradually escape their intrinsically "gaseous" nature and become artificially material, successfully masquerading as the "burning question of the day."  

However, while this cheap little "bait and switch" operation is proceeding to the delight of the profoundly confused, these same interests are happily watching huge glaciers of national money flow into their clutches.  The most amazing part of the deception is its unexpected durability.

Even as Americans watch what is presented as an "imponderable mystery" of the "missing money" problem which accounts for the train wreck in our economy, this relentless paint job just keeps adding layer after layer of further fraud.  To its hapless consumer, chewing desperately in an attempt to actually digest any of the fiction, the nation's economic woes are left stranded with carefully manufactured, cynically broadcast, alternative explanations.

Explaining the Great Republican Recession of 2008

"It's an act of God."

"It's a routine economic correction."

"Obama and the liberals caused it."

"These things just happen."

"It's way too complicated for anyone to understand."

The video shows us where the money is going, who is benefiting from it's redistribution and the very, very discouraging prospects accompanying the successful completion of the program.  

Meanwhile, the "dancing monkeys" in the new GOPCon House of Representatives are desperately casting every diversion they can grab from the their "Top Hats Full of Tricks."  The oligarchs are giggling in the shadows.  Many of these little tea bag GOPCon crooks actually believe what they are saying.

They have conveniently forgotten that their words arrived on their daily "talking points" email from the RNC.  Not unlike drunken sailors with empty pockets on a painful morning, the House GOPCons have finally reached a state of "continual self-inebriation" constantly reinforced by their hypnotic conviction that they are, actually, thinking for themselves.

Although the majority of Senators and House members are already millionaires, they amount to no more than awkwardly accepted cadre for the Country Club Luncheon with questionable claims of aristocracy when they enter the company of the "real money men."  They still have to stand quietly along the wall while they gobble down their crab salad and water cress sandwiches.

When Oligarchs Deceive Themselves

So, does this "looting rampage" continue forever?

It seems to short sighted billionaire corporatists that the process is inherently safe and perpetual so long as their media's fraudulent misdirection can be sustained. 

It is one of several "cosmic penalties" to be paid for an over eager willingness to be constantly intoxicated by a false history.

We have been here before.

"Oh, Darn.  Another economic 'correction.' We worked so hard to keep this going." (image source)

Comprehending the GOPCon/Tea Bag Agenda of 2011

As MeanMesa watches the final dissolution of what used to be the Republican Party, an eerie fascination emerges with regard to precisely what this bunch will do next as the previous, famously unanimous "marble buttress" slowly becomes a jumbled collection of disjointed "marble blocks" on the wind torn field of political reality.  

Yes, we're talking about the equivalent of civil war, perhaps better described as the unavoidable onset of a messy, intra-party divorce.

Tripoli, Carthage, Hannibaal, Boehner, Scipio and Obama

History Repeats Itself?

The Third Punic War closed with the final collapse of Carthage at the hands of the young Roman General, Scipio -- later Scipio Aficanus.  Armed with the maximum effort of the Republic's armies and fleet, Scipio was given orders that "no two stones of Carthage were to remain mortared together" when his task was completed.  Because Carthage essentially suffered this fate, nothing remains on that rocky Southern Mediterranean coast today but the blocks.

This is the kind of total destruction which what remains of the old Republican party has now unleashed upon itself.  This has been carefully designed as the GOPCon "strategy moving forward."

Le Destruction de Carthage by Scipio Africanus 146 BCE (image source)

The analogy referring to the destruction of Carthage has an unsettling vector into the heart of contemporary affairs.  The ancient city was located in Eastern Libya, and its final end came at the hands on an unlikely, young Roman.  Might our present day situation also include a modern counterpart to Rome's noble Scipio?


Of course the GOP dinosaurs are still stumbling in circles around their old hunting grounds, but their breath is becoming labored and their once mighty teeth are now dropping from those formidable jaws.  The old bellowing and intimidation stills jerks along in fits and starts, but there is a strange new odor in the air.  It is the dull, grey suspicion of an approaching extinction, the causes of which are not yet clearly understood.  The list of participants, however, is as clear and bright as the bodies of song birds in the first dawn after a thermonuclear war.

Any observer of current political realities must fully accept the prospect of "end game" maneuvering on the part of the Republican remnant.  As their strategic conditions continue to decline even further, we can expect the disheartened GOPCons to behave with even more hubris as they wander through the sun set phase of their "looting wet dreams."

The hackneyed joke to the raiding Vikings, an attractive epitaph to the likes of Boehner and his unruly tea bags, comes to mind:  "Rape, pillage and plunder first, then burn."

So, what can we expect from the final chorus of this neo-conservative "Swan Song?"

The GOPCons' Final Agenda 

-- priorities by the numbers

"Drink up!" The Party's Almost Over!(image source)

1. Maintain the Conservative Base in an Incendiary State

Although FOX News has been assigned the main "heavy lifting," tea bags and other Republican stragglers must relentlessly continue the "God, Guns and Gays" talking points until the very end.  A few cynical lies about "Trickle Down" economics can be injected, but not if they are too complicated for the consumption of the hill billies and bigots.  The drawling "dirty shirt preachers" of the halcyon days during the autocracy seem to be losing their appeal amid the continuing wreckage of the economy.

2. Attempt to Complete the "Death Sentence" for Organized Labor

Oh sure, it started with Ronnie Raygun's night attack on the air traffic controllers, but since then the effort has turned into an on-going toothache.  The union members are pumped full to the gunwales with adrenalin after the "daylight attacks" in the states, and the ossified neo-con base has tired of hearing about the latest, phony union "outrages."  Wisconsin and Ohio haven't helped.

3. Continue the Moral Majority "Ground War"

Gingrich, while busy ripping apart the American government, commanded that the neo-cons of the day go to work making his "Moral Majority" a permanent blight by becoming dog catchers, librarians, city engineers and the like.  This strategy has matured to the present "train wreck" we see in the states with shiny new tea bag governors and legislators -- and recall petitions.  As usual, the  latest horde of semi-literate "eager beavers" neglected reading any local history before they commenced the latest series of poorly disguised "over reaches."

4. Keep Asking Independent Voters for a Date in 2012

This fickle block of 40% of voters elected Obama and a Democratic Congress in 2008, but were "wooed" back to "traditional values" under an onslaught of super weird GOPCon media frauds in 2010.  They still maintain their status as the "low hanging fruit" which might, in better times, have consolidated the GOPCon take over for one more election.  It turns out that Independents are just as horrified by the state-level "looting festival" as the most snarling, ultra left wing Democrat might be.

5. Exploit the Price Collapse in the Housing Market

Yawn.  Oh sure, everyone knows where this ugly mess came from, why it happened, who won and who lost.  However, GOPCon geniuses remain convinced that, somehow, the disaster can still be attached to Obama and the Democrats.  The essential GOPCon strategy is based on the idea that an Independent, middle class voter careening into personal bankruptcy with a foreclosed mortgage and a pink slip will automatically vote Republican in 2012.  Housing price problems and Independent voters are "sewn together" at the hip," but the GOPCon tactical error is the assumption that the incipient "mind numbing" rage has not abated.  It has.  Under water home owners are now fully awake.

6. Keep Attacking Obama - Even After It Has Quit Working

At first, the Presidential ad hominems were masked with a courteous film of "political discourse."  However, as the GOPCon nosebleeds continued, all the window dressing was removed, revealing an almost comical, adolescent obsession.  Voters gradually tired of hearing the jabs and pokes embedded in every third noun clause of the Rupert Murdoch approved "reporting."  This heavily soiled, sub-Goebbels propaganda campaign drew a little blood at first, but has now joined the rest of the GOPCon "tooth ache masquerading as a lolly pop" advertised -- while still in its wrapper -- as a delicious Birther, Kenyanite Socialist delight.

7. Stop Health Care at Every Possible Opportunity

Both the well paid GOPCon Congressmen and their generous insurance company sponsors know that the American voters will actually really like the Affordable Care Act if it should ever reach implementation.  The "sickness industry" has been plowing a million dollars per week into the project in a wide ranging panoply of subterfuge and obstruction efforts.  The whole tribe of "health haters" -- including allegedly Democratic Senators such as Max Baucus -- has accepted the task as an excellent paying, second job from the outset.  All will be lost for the multi-trillion dollar extortion scheme if the Act every reaches Main Street.

8. Maximize Citizens United Corporate "Stink" Money

The oligarchs have paid plenty for their "ownership title" on Supreme Court decisions.  The job now falls to the GOPCon strategists.  They must  now use the newly legalized corporate money flow to deliver votes.  The hill billies and bigots are still a bargain, but the price tag on the Independents has inflated every time the economy has gone further down the "crackow."  OMG, some of the citizens have dug out those old civics texts and looked up both "national socialism" and "democracy!"  Oooops.  Too late to burn the books.  Bad planning.

9. Sell Every Scrap of DeRegulation Which Can Be Found

The traditional GOPCon "cottage industry" of eliminating every shred of regulation which might, even possibly, lower illicit corporate profits will continue unchecked.  The hilarious but soul wrenching movie, Catch 22, was about WWII, but the neo-con play book will deliver an utterly un-regulated US culture to the same state.  Watch a few You Tube snippets of the movie, Catch 22, here.

Meanwhile, every foundational regulatory law on the books is in peril -- from child labor to Wall Street to environmental protection.  And, they are all for sale for the right price.

10. Protect, Maintain and Refurbish the Lobbying Industry

Even after every newly elected tea bag has packed his Congressional office with every lobbyist who might possibly ever be useful, there remains more hordes of the greasy little, sub-human beasts in nests on K street and the Christian bastion on C Street.  Every one of them has a Bible in one hand and a check book in the other.  Whether it's legalizing the dumping of pig manure into a river or murdering homosexuals in Uganda, some billionaire will pay for the favor.  Because the GOPCons are totally dedicated -- usually at the expense of democracy -- to the "care and feeding" of big business interests, the lobbyists must also be nurtured as smelly, but necessary, mechanisms for cash transfers.

11. Crush Effective Public Education

This "old rag" from the days of the founding fathers just makes it harder and harder to win an election based on Republican platforms and policies.  In this sense -- and MeanMesa is sure that the Roberts "Court" would agree -- it represents an attack on, uh, free speech.  Plus, all those greedy teachers are union members sucking oligarch money into their pockets like educational vampires!  If you are already a semi-literate tea bag, watching American kids learn enough to see through your scam can be quite uncomfortable.  They get uppity.

12. Try to Keep the Tea Bags From Getting on the News

The rolling onslaught of tea bags originally appeared as something which could be conveniently exploited by the oligarch master of the Republican Party.  However, after a few dozen episodes of drooling Southerners being interviewed on the national media fraud, the facts of the matter have surfaced -- something akin to a "fart in a spacesuit."  Now, all the corporate phone calls to Boehner are frantic pleas to just shut them up before they wreck the "looting scheme" Republicans are paid to protect.  Oh sure, the GOPCon image handlers bought them all new ties for their "media camera/mouth junk sorties," but it turns out that there's just not enough lipstick to make them look serious.

The tea bags have gradually transformed themselves from a possibly useful, public interest anomaly into a full fledged, raging drunk, embarrassment. The rich old "fat cat" GOPCon bosses don't like the dust storm and laughter any more.

13. Convert Austerity and "Spending Cuts" Into Wealth Redistribution

This little task is extremely straightforward.  Begin with a onslaught of incendiary propaganda about discretionary spending, carefully avoiding the inclusion of military procurement, no bid contracts, corporate welfare and tax cut subsidies.  Move on to highlight every possible benefit which poor, elderly or young children might receive, villainizing every Federal check which has gone to one of these "freeloaders" instead of into a corporate purse, all while carefully  obscuring and protecting the real "short circuits" in the corporate economy.

14. Obliterate All Consumer Protection Laws

Long cherished "doo dads" in banking regulations, credit card policies, screwy  mortgage frauds and the like represent a respectable chunk of corporate profits which must be protected.  Over charges on phone bills, penalties on payments incorrectly submitted, "not quite delicious" meat and produce offerings -- you name it.  Every one of these little issues is costing some billionaire corporatist a few cents of his "hard earned money."  GOPCons understand this.  They understand this even better while they are opening a campaign contribution envelope.

15. Protect Corporate Welfare

Okee-dokee.  Exxon is the most profitable corporation in the history of the planet.  This means that if you are a GOPCon, you must not only make sure that Exxon never pays a dime in corporate taxes, but also continues to receive $15 to $20 Bn dollars worth of subsidies from the government every year.  Right?  It's not just Exxon, either.  There are 300 top corporations in the US who either don't pay any taxes at all or even receive a check after tax time (hmmmm, "No tax time?").

If you are a well fed GOPCon you need to keep this going.

16. Crush Every Possible Kind of Renewable Energy Plan

The campaign contribution checks from coal companies spend exactly the same as the ones from big oil.  The tobacco checks have dwindled, but the dirty energy and oligarchy checks are flowing in faster than ever.  During this last great moment of the Republican Party the "money bins" must be force fed in every possible way so the cash will be there when the crooks finally think it's safe to sneak back into town.  Far sighted GOPCons are now perfecting their strategy to regain power in the absence of the current, constant flow of corporate energy dollars.  The  anti-democratic "death grip" of the energy corporatists may well be broken before the  Republicans can start winning elections again.

17. Block Tax Reform, Election Reform, Education Reform

and Prison Reform

In GOPCon logic any term which includes the word "reform" must be navigated to mean "against states' rights."  Once the first stuttering "states' rights" quips have inflamed the hill billies, the additional terms "Constitutional" and "founding fathers" can be safely added.  If the propaganda begins gaining traction, "against the Bible" can be added, later.  The basic criteria for such selections seems to be whether or not some reactionary throw back policy is similar to what might have been around in Alabama during the 1940's.

Conclusions, Conclusions

Because this posting has gone on so long already, MeanMesa will step aside now, encouraging visitors to Short Current Essays to add a few of their own selections.  So, rest a minute, then get busy!

All this nasty stuff is going to jump out, front and center, during the 2012 election.  Think of preparing yourself for the "water cooler" wars as being something akin to sharpening the stakes we will have to drive through the hearts of the denizens of this freak show to get the job done.

Get yourself ready.  Their day is coming.