Reality Liberation Front

As was the case last Friday…I have little alternative but to offer up a “smorgasbord” edition of my usual, daily posting. Focusing on any one particular topic would necessitate the exclusion of too many other interesting items. Perhaps this will just have to become the regular Friday theme…I’ll try to come up with a catchy title for it…

…the good news: there’s almost nothing in here about the economy, the stimulus package, or Tuesday’s speeches by Obama and Jindal. You’re welcome.

Here goes…here’s everything that caught my eye over the week, but that I haven’t had the time to cover…loosely organized into somewhat sensible categories:

MICHAEL STEELE:

• The new RNC chair, Michael Steele has been delighting us almost daily with new, bizarre comments ever since his selection. In a recent interview on FOX with Neil Cavuto, Michael Steele said he’s open to the idea of “punishing” Republican Senators Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter for voting in favor of the stimulus bill…despite the fact that it has now come to light that most of the Republicans quietly wanted the bill to pass, according to Specter. When asked about the possibility of withholding RNC funds from the senators his response was: “Oh, yes, I’m always open to everything, baby, absolutely.” Seriously…does this guy ever talk like a professional adult? Here’s the clip:

• On ABC Radio, Steele joked after Governor Bobby Jindal’s disastrous speech in which he was called “cheesy,” “insane,” and “childish” (and that’s just what conservatives said!), that he would like to extend “slum love” to Jindal: “…some slum love out to my buddy. Gov. Bobby Jindal is doing a friggin’ awesome job in his state. He’s really turned around on some core principles – like hey, government ought not be corrupt. The good stuff … the easy stuff.” The audio clip can be found here.
• Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, already infamous for her own foolish (and at times, racist) statements, threw her support behind Steele at the recent CPAC conference, saying, “Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man!“
• On a lighter note…Stephen Colbert has officially challenged Steele to a freestyle rap debate…I only fear that Steele might actually accept:

STRANGE GOP BEHAVIOR:

• In a move of near unprecedented GOP sanity, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman John Cornyn preached at the CPAC conference that Republicans should attempt to be more moderate in their approach to congressional matters: “I would rather have a Republican who votes with me 80 percent of the time than a liberal Democrat who would vote with me 0 percent of the time. I understand that occasionally we get frustrated by the way that some of my colleagues vote, I do too. But a circular firing squad is no solution to the problems our party faces right now.” Choosing to completely ignore this call to reason, Sen. Jim DeMint said that congressional leaders are afraid to say the word “freedom” and that Obama is “the world’s best salesman of socialism.“
• The National Catholic Reporter recently sent out a mailing…which includes a letter from Republican Senator Sam Brownback, which indicates that the five Catholic, Democrat Senators who voted for the Freedom of Choice Act (Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)) as well as Nancy Pelosi and Ted Kennedy…aren’t real Catholics. Brownback’s office later said it didn’t approve of the mailing…oh but the letter from Brownback? It’s legit. It appears they just didn’t want it sent out.
• Ever notice that you often hear GOP legislators and conservatives referring to the “Democrat Party” instead of the “Democratic Party?” It’s an insult that started in the days of President Herbert Hoover and Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI)…but it took on new life under the leadership of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay. The original intention was to highlight the Republican’s belief that Democrats are “too elite” to be considered “democratic.” While members of today’s GOP seem to begrudgingly admit that it’s an inappropriate and unprofessional slight…they just can’t quit using it. Don’t get me started on how a group of people calling themselves “Republicans” have been destroying the Republic…ah irony, I love your bittersweet taste.
• Good-bye so-called “liberal media.” CBS just named Jeff Ballabon, a New York Republican activist, as the Senior Vice President of Communications. This is a man who claimed that “Obama is incredibly dangerous,” and that Democrats are fundamentally bad people and Republicans are fundamentally good people.
• You know all those governors considering turning down the “unemployment funding” portions of the stimulus package…turns out the unemployed people in their states are pretty hacked off about it. Who could have guessed that it would be a bad political move?
• Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, hopping on a thoroughly disproven piece of neo-con propaganda, chose to voice to his constituents his concerns over Obama’s citizenship: “Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate. You have to be born in America to be president.” How could he not? It’s been online since during the campaign, has passed Health Department scrutiny, and has been endorsed by liberal and conservative groups alike? Shelby’s people now claim that the quote was taken out of context…really? What context could you place that statement into that would somehow improve upon its obvious intention?
• In order to communicate his fear of conservative Supreme Court justices being replaced by liberals, Sen. Jim Bunning predicted that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg…has cancer. Bad cancer. The kind that you don’t get better from…Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer.” While the odds of surviving past five years with pancreatic cancer are not good…it’s still a fairly thoughtless thing to trot out there for one’s own political purposes.
• A lot of people noticed that the budget for Congressional operations is higher than some expected. Know why? It appears that even though the Republicans have lost a truckload of seats in both houses of Congress…they want to maintain the exact same number of staffers as before. A GOP aide responded “Republicans aren’t getting a dime more in committee money for staff than we got last year.” That’s right…they’re not getting “a dime more“…they’re getting the “same amount.” And that’s the problem, since their membership is 20% less than last year!
• Mayor of Los Alamitos, Dean Grose, sent out an email with the following picture (see below) with the caption “No Easter egg hunt this year.” The Mayor’s response to the outrage this email provoked? “Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn’t see this in the same light that she did. I’m sorry. It wasn’t sent to offend her personally – or anyone – from the standpoint of the African-American race.” It should be no surprise to anyone that the mayor is now stepping down.

• Sen. John McCain just endorsed President Obama’s Iraq War Plan. So much for “McCain was in the military so he will know better what to do,” or perhaps, “McCain knows more about foreign affairs,” or even, “What Obama’s going to do in Iraq will put us at risk so we need McCain to handle it.” It appears that Obama, according to McCain himself, is handling things just fine. When asked if he would have done the same things Obama has included in the Iraq Plan, McCain responded: “Oh, I’m sure…because that’s what our military and civilian leadership has recommended. I can’t say exactly, but certainly it seems to me it’s a viable strategy.“

OCTOMOM:

• Someone actually wants to be Nadya’s “baby daddy.” Good Morning America interviewed Denis Beaudoin, a former boyfriend of Suleman’s, who claims that he donated samples of his semen when they were dating, and that those samples may have been used to produce some or all of Suleman’s brood of fourteen children. There’s a clip of the interview here. Despite the fact that they haven’t spoken in years…and that Nadya lied to him to get him to provide sperm (she told him she had cancer)…he would still really like to be there for her and the children. Nadya denies that Beaudoin is the father…I don’t know why…they sound perfect for each other.
• Must watch: Here is Part 1 of an interview between Nadya Suleman and her mother, Angela. The page also features a link to the second part of the interview. Angela is very critical of her daughter’s decisions and makes some very common sense arguments…Nadya’s responses vary from what you would expect from a petulant teenager, to the truly delusional.
• Nadya now fears (thanks to a segment by Dr. Phil) that the hospital may not release her new children to her, if they deem that she cannot provide a suitable environment. This appears to be a very real possibility, but the hospital is unable to comment.
• Vivid entertainment has offered Suleman $1 million dollars to be in a porno. If she is willing to go on contract? Full family medical and dental benefits, too. Place your bets, place your bets…will she accept? I’d ask “who’d want to see it,” but you and I both know that the answer is “plenty of people.”

OTHER:

• Remember Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott? He’s the guy that decided he just had to go after Michael Phelps after the picture surfaced of the Olympic champion smoking marijuana. It was eventually decided by the District Attorney that charges would not be pursued against Phelps, but Lott wasn’t finished. He decided the perfect way to both take issue with the public’s relaxed attitude about marijuana and to poke fun at his critics…was to appear before media cameras in a blond wig, a bulletproof vest, with bronze medals pinned to his chest. I’m not certain how any of this was supposed to make people take marijuana more seriously…but it can be viewed here.
• A bill is making its way through Congress to end a centuries old injustice. Despite our belief in “no taxation without representation“…residents of Washington D. C. have never had a voting Representative in the House. That’s 600,000 people with no representation. Big shocker: the Republicans oppose this.

That’s all for this week…have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday…