The GOP's Political Frankenstein

Tea Party candidates are winning GOP primaries and the Republican establishment is running scared. Well, they created this monster, so now they have to live with it. That and the fact that while Sister Sarah and her "grizzlies" appeal to a significant part of the GOP base, their "charm" doesn't take hold that well outside of their own loony circles. How did they get here? Well, this is something they've been cooking up for some time now.

The Republicans tried with the Tea Party the same approach they started using with the Christian Right some 30 years ago: lure them in for votes and once their support carries the GOP into office, turn their backs on them. After all, they're not gonna vote for the Democrats, right?

Except the Tea Partiers were pro-active and office-seeking in a way the Christian Right wasn't. So now you have the GOP worried that the far right agenda of Tea Party candidates will alienate moderate Republicans AND independents in November. Hell, Karl Rove said as much to Sean Hannity on Fox Tuesday night. This could get pretty interesting. And while it may be to early for those of us with liberal political leanings to partake in some schadenfruede, this Republican mess is enough to make one smile.

Nine Years Ago...

If you don’t mind I’d like to share with you my brief recollections from that day.

Since I didn’t have to be at work go until noon or so, I was asleep in my South Brooklyn apartment when it all happened. I don’t have a phone in my bedroom because I get calls at all hours of the day and don’t want to deal with that nonsense. Plus, my friends know they won’t wake me no matter what time they call so they feel free to call anytime. However, it was one of those friends who woke me that fateful Tuesday morning.

I couldn’t immediately make out who it was but someone was yelling into my answer machine and I got up to find out what all the fuss was about. When I picked up, my buddy Jorge, who was calling from Florida, didn’t even greet me. “Put on the TV!” Figuring this was something major I didn’t hesitate and immediately put on CNN only to be confronted by the sight of the World Trade Center up in smoke.

For the next 4 or 5 hours I was on the couch in front of the TV and getting calls from all over the world. My mom in the Dominican Republic, who like the vast majority of Dominicans was equally shocked and saddened, told me how my brother was on the roof placing both a Dominican and American flag side by side. Friends kept calling to check in on me and to commiserate. At one point I went back to my bedroom for the first time since Jorge had awakened me and absentmindedly wondered what that burning smell was. Oh.

I walked out to the corner bodega to get a bite to eat and noticed how the cars on my block were covered in a light coat of sand-colored ash. When I got to the corner and looked north on 4th Ave I saw what seemed like an army of commuters, trudging along on foot, exhausted and bewildered, but on their way home. Meanwhile, my Yemenite grocers looked dismayed and slightly unsettled; who knew what reaction would come their way? Thankfully, all was calm in the ‘hood as we started to piece together just how horrible this tragedy turned out to be.

Where Are We?

There has been much talk lately about liberal apathy and unreasonable expectations of the President feeding GOP scorched earth/divide and conquer tactics. While this may be true, and unfortunate--as well as something that needs to be reversed immediately--those of us who continue to support President Obama have every reason to be dismayed over his tenure in the Oval Office.

Sometimes you can control end results; often, you cannot. That's not what bothers me. However, not putting up a proper fight truly does irk me. If you'll permit me a dried up sports analogy...it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. And Obama's team has played a mediocre game despite much talent on the field. The GOP is not beating this administration; the White House is beating itself by making one bad play after another.

The talented team that ran a brilliant campaign has not lived up to the reasonable expectations we had, now that they are in office. Yes, it's way more complicated than that, obviously. But that's what it boils down to. Perception is the key currency in politics; it's what gets you elected and re-elected. Obama's efforts to compromise with the GOP--which was the equivalent of a straight man continuously hitting on a lesbian and hoping to score--rendered him ineffectual and weak. Irreparably so? I sure hope not. But enough damage has been done to his persona.

I thought a Chicago pol that came out of nowhere to become the first black US president would be a badass and not the milquetoast that took forever to figure out the GOP only respects fear and decisive action. Politics is a ruthless and dirty business; the GOP hate Bill Clinton not because he has a weakness for tail but because he plays dirty and for keeps like they do. Sadly, that SNL skit from last year, "The Rock Obama", is closer to the truth than anyone would like to admit.

The Distinguished Gentleman

I thought someone who 10 years ago was a virtual unknown and rose out of Chicago politics to be the first African-American president would be one tough mofo. Instead, Obama has shown himself to be, for the most part, a step or two above a garden variety milquetoast. A stereotypical Democrat, indeed.

Bob Cesca Nails It

There's been a lot of talk regarding the community center/mosque to be built mere blocks away from where the World Trade Center once stood. At first I thought this would not be a good idea on the grounds of sensitivity. That was before I found out there are currently 2 mosques within mere blocks of ground zero, one of which was opened in 1970 and actually predates the WTC. (The other has been around since 1985.) Or that a strip club is located a mere 2 blocks away. Now, I truthfully don't know. I really appreciate the feelings and concerns of those who lost loved ones at the WTC on Sept 11th but there are big inconsistencies in this situation. Huffington Post contributor Bob Cesca addresses them. Namely...

...there's going to be a shopping mall literally in the ground of Ground Zero. "Below-grade" means "in the ground." The Ground. In other words, Sarah Palin and her entire gaggle of various babies and ghost writers can visit Ground Zero and honor the heroes and victims of 9/11 while trying on tankinis at Juicy Couture (or whatever clothing stores end up there) constructed within the actual ground of Ground Zero.

This bears repeating: unlike Park 51, which is blocks away, there's going to be a 55,000 square foot mall under the same ground where people fell to their deaths on that terrible day. Ground that's mixed with the remains of the dead. A mall.

Is anyone asking those who oppose this new mosque about the discrepancy between de-facto hallowed ground and soon-to-be commercial real estate? I personally don't have a dog in this hunt, I'm just trying to gauge where people are coming from on this matter. But there's some obvious contradictions here and acting on a whim is probably not a good idea.

Here's the rest of Bob Cesca's piece.

600 (no asterisk, thanks)

Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th home run on Thursday August 4th, exactly 3 years to the day he hit his 500th four-bagger.




He did it at home, in front of the Yankee Stadium faithful, a 2-run blast in the first inning that was also the winning run in a 5-1 victory vs the Toronto Blue Jays. A-Rod becomes the 7th player in Major League history to reach this milestone and at age 35 the youngest ever.

His admission of steroid use in the first three years of the previous decade will always be brought up whenever his career and individual stats, and by extension his Hall of Fame credentials, are discussed. But as a fan of the player in question, I acknowledge this transgression but refuse to chime in with the haters and the hypocrites: folks that would leave their current jobs for a $100/wk pay raise elsewhere in a heartbeat, yet cry greed when an athlete wants to take advantage of their small window of opportunity to make money in their given profession before they are kicked to the curb (Bo Jackson, anyone?); or the purists who exalt players from a gloried past but look the other way when the topic of controlled substances taken by these legends of yesteryear is referenced. (Or when in many cases, these retired athletes admit they'd likely have taken today's PEDs if they'd had the chance.) In any event, let's scour the gyms of America and find the most steroid-pumped individuals, give 'em a bat, and see if they can hit 100 HRs against major league pitching, let alone 600.

So today I come not to bury Alex but to praise him--heh, heh--and wish him many HRs to come. May they all be in The Bronx and with A-Rod wearing pinstripes.

[photo AP/Kathy Willens via River Ave Blues]

Obama Needs to Man Up; Breitbart's Screwup

I sincerely hope the Obama administration has learned its lesson with the whole sorry-ass Shirley Sherrod affair: don't jump to fucking conclusions; do your research. And most importantly, stop being so afraid of the wing-nut smear machine. Scumbag emeritus Andrew Breitbart and his ilk will always take cheap shots like taking an edit from Sherrod's speech about racial reconciliation and pull a few sentences out of context to make it seem like a racist affirmation. That's what these assholes do. It's not that they have a different political ideology, it's that they are dishonest pieces of shit that don't care about the truth. Slime pays and they've got bills, you know?

But this time, hopefully, the smearmongers will have whatever little credibility they may enjoy questioned a bit more; their race-baiting pronouncements and slimy tactics less likely to be immediately regurgitated. After all, a misunderstood quote is one thing, but to purposely and shamelessly take a positive message and try to fashion it into one of division and hate is not only slanderous but indecent and immoral as well. But, hey, look who we're asking moral certitude from.

Shakespearean 'tweets' in Honor of Sister Sarah

I'm not a fan of Twitter but Sarah Palin comparing her mangling of the English language to William Shakespeare's linguistic flights of fancy has brought about many funny tweets. My faves:

“Cry havoc, and let slip the hockey moms of war!”

“Something is rotten in the state of Alaska. So I’m quitting.”

“Et tu, Bristol?!

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury America not to serve it in any way. At all.”

“Shall I compare ya to a summer’s day?”

Priceless.

Tea Partier Not Your Dad's Mr. Roper

Let's get to the gist of this: Tea Party leader Mark Williams has vehemently defended his organization from accusations of racism but when confronted by the NAACP on the subject he lashes out and claims the NAACP has made "more money off of race than any slave trader ever." Dumbfounding huh? Well, what about Billy Roper, a Tea Partier and write-in candidate for governor of Arkansas who had this to say to the Kansas City Star:

“I don’t want non-whites in my country in any form or fashion or any status,” he says. Roper also is a tea party member who says he has been gathering support for his cause by attending tea party rallies. “We go to these tea parties all over the country,” Roper said. “We’re looking for the younger, potentially more radical people.”

That's incriminating enough. But then I find out that, according to the Anti-Defamation League website...

Arkansas-based White Revolution is a relatively new neo-Nazi organization that seeks to promote unity and cooperation among white supremacist groups. Run by Billy Roper, a former official with National Alliance, White Revolution coordinates rallies and protests - often in conjunction with other groups - that attract a wide array of racist participants, ranging from young skinheads to Identity Christians to neo-Nazis and Klansmen...Roper, born in 1972, is a onetime skinhead and a former high school history instructor who claims that three generations of his family have belonged to the Klan.

Care to add something to this, Mr. Williams?

McCarver Steps In It Yet Again

Unlike many baseball fans I've never had much of a problem with Tim McCarver in the broadcast booth; I find him to be more like a necessary evil than anything else. (Joe Morgan is another matter altogether.) But a recent pronouncement from McCarver reminded me of the Mets' botched firing of manager Willie Randolph a few seasons ago. In other words, a widely supported conclusion was handled badly and ended up biting the protagonist in the ass.

During Fox Sports' broadcast of the Saturday, July 17th, Yankees vs Rays game at Yankee Stadium, McCarver decried the absence of any tribute to former Yankee manager Joe Torre at the Yankees home park. Now, regardless of how one may feel regarding the Yankees' handling of Torre's departure, the fact remains that he led the Bronx Bombers to 12 consecutive post-season appearances, including 4 World Series championships, 6 pennants, and 10 division titles. So, yes, it's a no-brainer to suggest that Torre be acknowledged in the palace that is the new Yankee Stadium, and shame on the Yankees for failing to do so.

But for McCarver to compare this Yankee faux pas to mid 20th century German and Soviet generals being airbrushed out of their respective histories for not achieving whatever victory was expected of them, is not only grounds for invoking Godwin's Law, but an incredibly inappropriate and ill-timed statement mere days after the death of Yankees owner, and acknowledged hard-ass George M. Steinbrenner. Jesus, man, do you not think before you spew such nonsense? Good grief.

Ted, Just Admit It

Right-wing nutjob and rock and roll has-been Ted Nugent recently appeared on Faux News' Hannity--one of the few non-music forums desperate enough to have him--to sing the praise of the Tea Party loons (complete with a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King), demand accountability from the government, and claim that President Obama is spitting on the US Constitution.

Now, let's put aside all facts and common sense and bring it down to this:

Ted, for the sake of argument we'll grant you the ridiculous notion that Obama is indeed metaphorically loogying on our supreme governing document. In turn, you admit that shitting one's pants to fake dementia that would preclude one from getting drafted to fight in Vietnam is no way to demonstrate accountability.

Cool?