Category: Deep political thought

GOP to run sack of hammers in 2012?

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 10 Comments

It must be depressing to be a Republican these days. When I was a sprout people said Barry Goldwater was crazy, but he looks like Thomas fuckin’ Jefferson next to the asshats, fucktards, pinheads, fleawits and tools fronting the Grand Old Party these days.

All you have to do is pop round to Steve Benen’s Political Animal — be sure to eat breakfast first, or you’ll lose your appetite — to get the 411 on the Fool Factor:

• Paul Ryan can’t count to 10 without taking his shoes off.

• Newt Gingrich will need a separate campaign bus just to carry all the positions he’s taken (four in the past two weeks) on Ryan’s budget “plan.”

• Mitt Romney acknowledges that there’s “a lot of waste” in the defense budget, but says he wouldn’t trim it by a single, solitary rusty steel penny.

• Michele Bachmann, self-professed fiscal conservative, never met a piece of pork on the hoof that she didn’t smooch right on its flabby porcine lips.

Christ, no wonder Huckabee and Trump ran like roaches from the 2012 presidential clusterfuck. The Repugs would be better off running a sack of hammers against Obama. A sack of hammers may be as dumb as — well, as a sack of hammers — but at least you can trust a hammer, in the hands of an experienced operator, to do what it was designed to do. Not so the other tools in the GOP belt.

• Late update: Speaking of fascism, this story about the Supremes giving cops more leeway to kick down your door without (a) probable cause and (2) a warrant isn’t getting much play. I suppose this means that should the SWAT team get the address wrong, overhear you watching a cowboy movie, conclude that gunfire is being exchanged inside, kick down the door and shoot you nine or 10 times, that you will be ineligible for compensation in addition to being severely dead. Only Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented. Good for her. And shame on the rest of you black-robed pussies. Kevin Drum also weighs in on the issue.

Boogieman’s gonna get you

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 15 Comments

I see Obama got the boogieman. Good for him. Can’t say I liked watching my countrymen acting the fool at the news, as though their team had just won the Super Bowl or something, but given the predilection of American politicians for describing warfare in sporting terms I suppose they can hardly be blamed. But I turned off the TV anyway.

I do have one question, though. Who do you suppose the new boogieman is going to be?

Meanwhile, here’s an old boogieman for you, courtesy of Catfish Hodge.

May Day! May Day!

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 29 Comments

Today, as you all know, is International Workers Day, when we celebrate the final triumphant victory of the working class over the ruthless despots of global capitalism.

Whoops — kind of skipped a step or two there, didn’t we? The “fighting” and “winning” bits, if memory serves.

A quick Google search finds a few stalwarts still out there manning the barricades: the International Workers of the World (IWW), better known as the Wobblies; the Socialist Party USA; the Democratic Socialists of America; the World Socialist Party (US); and of course, Old Reliable, the Communist Party USA.

I haven’t seen an actual commie on the hoof for the better part of quite some time — since I fancied myself one, back in the late Seventies. They appear to be as rare as honor and dignity in the workplace.

Small wonder. Considering the calumny and vitriol heaped upon the decidedly non-socialist Democrat currently occupying the Oval Office, can you imagine what sort of horror awaits someone who actually declares himself a pinko in public?

And more’s the pity. It would be refreshing to see someone standing tall for working people instead of heaping more shit on their plates.

So, until someone shows up — perhaps the Judean People’s Front Crack Suicide Squad — we’ll just have to settle for some old-style agitprop. Here’s an English-language version of the Internationale from the late folk-punk artist and socialist Alistair Hulett to put the red back in your blood.

Tulips and Tea Baggers

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 11 Comments
Frosty tulips
The tulips seem to be saying, "If this is spring, you can have it."

This is the second day lately we’ve awakened to a light, slightly crunchy frosting on the ground.

I don’t know whether it’s a light snow or a heavy frost. I do know the lawn drinks it like Birthers chug Insane-O-Tea®. You want a solid argument against evolution, these folks are your poster children. Chimps look at these asshats, shake their heads and say, “I ain’t got nothin’ to do with it.”