Reality Liberation Front

Each Friday, I publish a post titled “Chaos Theory,” where I try to quickly cover all of the news items that I was unable to address during the week.

Well…due to time constraints I was unable to post yesterday, so here’s our first ever SATURDAY installment of “Chaos Theory.” Enjoy!

THE SWINE FLU-MAGGEDON:

• As I’ve pointed out, this flu seems to present little more threat than the seasonal flu strains that kill 100 people A DAY in the United States, making the media and political reaction appear to be increasingly IRRESPONSIBLE. For example, Joe Biden’s recent assertion that people should avoid air and train travel was completely unwarranted, and hurt the travel industry as well…if the regular flu (killing 100 a day) doesn’t stop you from getting on a plane, then why should the swine flu (that has only killed one person in this country) give you any second thoughts? Well now…scientists are starting to agree: experts are coming forward to say that this strain is not any more dangerous than the regular seasonal bug.
• Oh yeah…for all the geniuses out there seeking to blame this outbreak on terrorists, illegal immigrants, Mexico in general, or some combination thereof – you might want to hold up a bit. Some investigators are starting to uncover evidence that this flu strain initially developed…wait for it…on farms in the U.S. Maybe instead of us complaining about infected Mexican immigrants coming over here…Mexico should be complaining about infected American tourists and livestock going down THERE.

POLITICIANS BEHAVING BADLY:

• In the House floor discussion regarding the Matthew Shepard bill, a piece of anti-hate crimes legislation named after the young man beaten and left to die because he was gay, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has sunk to a NEW LOW. She said, “I also would like to point out that there was a bill – the hate crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. This – the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.” A “hoax?” An “unfortunate incident?” The facts: one of the attackers knew Shepard and that he was gay…and the attackers hated gays…this much we know from witness testimony. They lured Shepard out of a bar by pretending they were day, kidnapped him, tied him to a fence rail, pistol-whipped him, and left him. He would be found 18 hours later, unconscious, and would later die from his injuries. To make matters worse…his mother was in the House gallery that day and had to listen to this GARBAGE. Foxx would later issue a “non-apology apology,” saying that “hoax was a poor choice of words.” Really?
• Republican Sen. David Vitter is blocking Obama’s nomination of Craig Fugate’s as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency…and just one month before hurricane season starts. Republicans have held up nearly EVERY nomination for some less-than-sensible reasons, but this tactic on Vitter’s part, simply makes ZERO sense: 1 – Vitter represents LOUISIANA…if anyone needs FEMA to have a leader RIGHT NOW, it’s HIS STATE. 2 - Having served under Republican Governor Jeb Bush as the director of Florida’s emergency management, Fugate has STRONG bipartisan support. 3 – His resume is IMPRESSIVE, having successfully handled many large-scale emergencies (including back-to-back hurricanes) while serving in Florida…certainly more qualified than George Bush’s pick of Michael Brown.
• While appearing on Bill Bennett’s radio show, RNC chair Michael Steele agreed with a caller that President Obama is, indeed, “the magic negro.” This is an all new level of “surprisingly stupid” for Steele…given that the FORMER RNC chair Chip Saltsman was run out of town on a rail after releasing a cd featuring a song called “Barack the Magic Negro.” I hadn’t considered until now…maybe Steele WANTS to lose the chairmanship of the party…it would explain so much of what he says.
• I thought it funny during the last campaign when one side would accuse the other of being “in the pocket of lobbyists” or of being “in bed with Wall Street” or having “taken money” from those groups. Why funny? Because they ALL are “taking money from lobbyists and Wall Street!” Duh…wake up, everybody…this ain’t “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Well, never was this more obvious than on Thursday, when Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) bill, one that would allow certain homeowners (those who met certain conditions) to renegotiate their poorly structured mortgages and avoid foreclosure. The banks didn’t want the bill to pass (of course) and 11 Senate Democrats were more than happy to do the banks’ bidding…at the expense of the American people. And it should be no surprise that some of these senators…received a quite a bit of money from the banks. Some of the very banks that received stimulus money from the taxpayers, paid THAT money to the senators, so the the senators would screw the taxpayers…it makes your head swim. The senators’ flimsy excuses are here…Durbin had this to say: “[the banks] frankly own the place.“
• Some Republicans have a shiny new idea about how to revitalize the GOP…they’ve started the National Council for a New America, and say its goal will be “for the council’s panel of experts to listen to the American people and report back to House and Senate Republican leaders with new strategies for rehabilitating the party and winning elections in 2010.” Who are on this panel of experts who will be seeking out new ideas? Of course they will be a group of young trailblazers…moderate Republicans that emphasize the core values without the noise of “social values” and “religious right” issues…like the old GOP, that really believed in small government, fiscal responsibility, strict constitutionality, civil rights, and non-interference in peoples’ private lives and beliefs…right? Well, these experts are…drumroll…Sen. John McCain, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Ummm….uh…..yeah, well…really? Those are the fresh faces and creative minds of the party? An old, angry man who could never decide how conservative he actually was from minute to minute…a lesser Bush with a lesser mind (if that can even be conceived)…a man born, bred, and raised to lead the Mormon religion and with all the social conservative values that go with that…a religious lunatic who, when not participating in exorcisms, likes to get up in front of cameras and do his best Howdy Doody impression while making up stories about things that didn’t really happen…and an Old South good-old-boy, known for making racist remarks and having no position on any issue of real importance. Nice lineup…this should go well.

THE MEDIA – TALKING HEADS, PUNDITS, AND OTHER INVETERATE LIARS:

• I won’t say much, except that this is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen on CNN this year…I wish I could say that with more certainty, but the truth is they are constantly pushing “fluff” as “news” in an attempt to fill the broadcast hours, and often do pieces that are about this vapid:

• By now you’ve certainly heard that Souter is leaving the Supreme Court, and Obama will have to select his successor. I expected an immediate panic from the right-wing commentators…fears that Obama will replace Souter with some “pinko-lefty-gay-commie-activist.” What I didn’t expect were the level of comments from Rush Limbaugh. It is known that Justice Ginsburg has indicated that there should be at least one more woman on the court, and many have said that there should be at least one Latino member…these considerations led Limbaugh to say the following: “We gotta get an illegal alien on the Supreme Court…We need a teenage single mother, who’s gay, is a lesbian, who’s dirt poor, African-American, and disabled.” If you hear “Latino” or “Hispanic“…and the first thing you think (or even worse, speak) is “illegal alien“…then you…are a racist and have some real work to do to rid yourself of those demons. It’s just that simple…it’s the very DEFINITION of prejudice.
• As said before, the Swine Flu outbreak has given many racists their much awaited “excuse” to vent about “Mexicans.” But it doesn’t always give them the “excuse” they think it does…Jay Severin, radio talk show host on Boston’s WTKK-FM, found this out the hard way when he chose to refer to Mexican immigrants as “criminaliens,” and, “primitives,” oh…and, “leeches,” and…exporters of “women with mustaches and VD.” He’s now on “indefinite suspension“…and neither he nor his attorney have much to say. The impact and magnitude of his slurs is really better seen in the context of what he said…it makes them MUCH worse: “So now, in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico – women with mustaches and VD – now we have swine flu…[Mexicans are] the world’s lowest of primitives…When we are the magnet for primitives around the world – and it’s not the primitives’ fault by the way, I’m not blaming them for being primitives – I’m merely observing they’re primitive…It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals, and a lot of life in America…We should be, if anything, surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types already, considering the number of criminaliens already here.“
• If you think the people in this country are becoming extreme…check out the way the different networks chose to cover the President’s first 100 days…

• Fascinating: A recent study gauged various people’s reactions to The Colbert Report, starring Stephen Colbert. For anyone who has not had the pleasure of watching the show, Colbert pretends to be a far-right pundit (a la Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh), and in doing, so he shows the ridiculousness of their positions and antics. We call it “satire.” Well, the study came to some remarkable conclusions…liberally minded people saw the show and realized that it is satire…Colbert is making fun of conservatives and conservative pundits. Conservatives watching the show…thought it was great, very funny…and that Colbert might look like he is poking fun…but he’s SERIOUS. That’s right…because they agree with the ridiculous things Colbert is saying…they assume HE MUST REALLY MEAN what he is saying. Interestingly, a similar study was done on the show, “All In The Family“…liberals realized that Archie Bunker was a satirical symbol of the outdated, often racist, values of many older Americans…conservatives thought Archie was “old-fashioned and charming.” I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions…
• Did you know that there was a “big” Tea Party protest in Michigan? Joe the Plumber was scheduled to attend…they expected a thousand people to be there? No? Of course you didn’t. After shamelessly pimping the first round of Tea Party gatherings, FOX decided to not promote the latest round of gatherings…like the rest of us, I guess they found that associating with a group of ill-informed, often racist, anti-government extremists is perhaps not in the Republican Party’s best interests…or anybody else’s.

OCTOMOM:

• Nadya Suleman was visited by Orange County child services employees and two police detectives. Neither Orange County child services nor the Sheriff’s Office will say why the visit occurred, but Suleman states that it was a trivial matter…she sent one child to school with a black eye and bite marks, and then she failed to respond to the teacher’s inquiry about the injuries. Her excuse? “He’s autistic, he bumps into things.” Oh, and as to the bite marks, she just said that sometimes kids bite…and that she, herself, was a “biter” during childhood. When asked if the child services people would be returning she exclaimed “No!” Yeah…

TORTURE-GATE:

• Is it possible for something to shock me…and at the same time not surprise me? A study shows that people who go to church…are more likely to approve of torturing terrorist suspects. Honestly, it really just shows how terribly “off message” so many American Christians have become. Love…peace…mercy…forgiveness…these concepts are lost on so many of America’s “faithful.” These folks can look you right in the eye, and if asked “Would Jesus torture a terrorist suspect“…say “Yes.”
• Not Condi’s best moment: First, while answering students’ questions at Stanford, Condoleezza Rice made the ridiculous assertion that Al-Qaeda is a bigger threat to America than the Nazis were…despite the fact the the Nazis killed HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS more Americans, millions more people in general, nearly conquered all of Europe, and sought to take over the entire world. Then, she as much as admitted to conspiracy, when she said she passed on executive orders approving torture to the various agencies. And lastly…she as much as invoked the Nixon doctrine of “if the President does it, it’s legal” when she said “The United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture, and so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.” Which…by the way…has never been true in a Constitutional sense, in a broader legal sense, or in an moral sense. Here’s the clip:

• Briefly, as more memos are released, as more references to “executive orders” arise, as more interrogators and officials come forward…it is painfully clear that the soldiers at Abu Ghraib, caught in photos doing disturbing things to prisoners, weren’t “a few bad apples” as Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush White House suggested. The Bush Administration would have had us believe that these soldiers just took it upon themselves to commit those acts…when it it increasingly clear that they were told EXACTLY what acts to perform, in writing, in detail, by the highest levels of our government. It does not make the soldiers any less guilty that they were “following orders“…it just makes the former administration MORE guilty…for giving those orders, and then denying it and hanging those soldiers out to dry.

That’s all the news for now. Have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll try to get something posted on Monday…