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Educated at Rutgers College (BA) and UC Berkeley (Ph.D, English) Becker left university teaching (Northwestern, U. Chicago) for business, founding and heading SOTA Industries, high end audio company from '80 to '92. From '92-02 he did marketing consulting & writing; since 2002, he scribbles on politics and culture, looking for the wit in the shadows.
Monday, May 28, 2012 Does Money -- or Dirty Sources -- Ruin Politics? (1 comments)
Money isn't poison and must be found if the left is to have serious input on our political system Here are notions to collect cleaner money, with good, old-fashioned cash incentives, and to widen participatory democracy, without which the whole experiment crumbles.
Monday, May 21, 2012 It's a Wrap, Obama on Track: Gallup Speaks, Experts Squeak (8 comments)
Survey says: Obama is ahead and should win. Too bad politics this time may not have high drama, more likely the outcome will be: same old, same old, and that means living somewhere between gridlock and suspended animation. Oh, goody.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Romney, Unzipped & Exposed as Babbitt Clone (2 comments)
What if it turns out Romney is little more than Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt on steroids, with more money, clout, and ability to do harm? A classic satire has much to teach about today's politics.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 Pick 'em -- Romney, Romney-bot or Vampire? (1 comments)
Is Romney truly a vampire politician or merely another robot-puppet doing rightwing billionaire bidding? Inquiring minds want to know as we prefer humanized robots to fiendish ghouls -- and we wrote two verse satires to support this prudent perspective.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 Slogging Towards Campaign Slogans: Power Lines or Puffery? (1 comments)
Erratic Obama wordsmiths have slogged their way to the ideal slogan: "Forward," aptly safe and succinct and vacuous. What if it echoes MSNBC's "Lean Forward," itself no powerhouse of punch? Less is certainly more these days, and this president notches one more historic threshold: no other slogan since 1844 uses only one word.
Monday, May 7, 2012 Slogging Towards Slogans: Power Lines or Puffery? (2 comments)
Finally, we know what Obama pitching, sort of. But who knows anything about Romney with is campaign slogan, "Believe in America." Couldn't and didn't and doesn't Obama say the say thing?
Monday, April 30, 2012 Rove Misfires, Pitting Obama Celebrity Vs. Romney Void (5 comments)
What is Turd Blossom thinking -- or is he cowed by reactionary funders who think this election gets decided on personality and likeability. If so, Obama rules, the better campaign hustler and world's greatest celebrity.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Trickle-down Gulf Wreck-onomics (6 comments)
A disturbing survey of the Gulf region, why and where the "BP oil spill" has expanded into the massive disaster widely predicted (but officially denied). And oil drilling adventure is surging, Trickle-down Wreck-economics with a vengeance.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 New Electoral Tie Breaker: The Stupidity Gauge (2 comments)
A touch of optimism (and it isn't easy). Yes, enormous GOP stupidity and misinformation stalk the landscape, but there are functional engines of transparency. We know more about bad guys than you'd think, at least their PAC donations.
Monday, April 9, 2012 Obama Barks at Extreme Supremes: the Inept vs. the Unfeeling (2 comments)
If anyone had to be reminded of our institutional breakdowns, look no further than a Supreme Court fighting history. Of course that doesn't justify Obama's hamfisted, unilateral strikes, making less logical than political sense.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 Domesticating Terrorism: Upshot of "Don't Retreat, Reload" (2 comments)
What Palin captured, with her belligerent "Never Retreat, Reload" war cry, looks back to our lying invasion into Iraq (indeed ten years of foreign policy) plus today's street stalking of Trayvon Martin, violent politic rhetoric and increasing, take-no-prisioners manias dominating the right's politics.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 GOP Lemmings A-Leaping? 2008 Redux? (1 comments)
If Rethuglicans push the Ryan budget hard, armies of seniors will make clear they greatly prefer getting Medicare and Social Security to worrying about deficits. Profound assaults on women -- redefining rape, vaginal violations, defying at passing the Violence Against Women Act -- cannot but turn millions for years against the rampaging GOP (God Over Politics) mob.
Monday, March 26, 2012 GOP Lemmings A-Leaping? 2008 Redux? (1 comments)
Time for a glimmer of a prospect of optimism. If I never try it out, after all . . . how will I know how it feels. The GOP, in short, appears to be doing its best to destroy itself, a sustained, gruesome death march to minority status. Hear, hear, who thought they'd outdo Palin for VP?
Monday, March 19, 2012 Limbaugh Brays on: Louder, Emptier, Closer to the End (6 comments)
Limbaugh is dying, like the dinosaur that he is, slowly, bit by bit. He doesn't need any help from the FCC so I disagree with calls that he be fired. Just watching him losing advertisers is a joy in itself.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 Bashing Obama's America, Fringe Snatches Victory from Defeat (1 comments)
Today's Republican providential villainy: at home, the conscious, cynical wholesale demolition of modern, secular, middle-class America -- overseas, smashing medieval, non-Christian states that offend its entitled vision of the future. Sacrificing one White House race works if it sullies the waters, seizes the Senate, and holds the House: onward rightwing soldiers marching off to '14 and '16 wars.
Monday, March 5, 2012 Level the Playing Field: Let the Leftwing Pandering Begin (1 comments)
To pander or not to pander? Is there good pandering? When is pandering necessary to orchestrate good messaging. Here are a few examples of positive pandering: no animals or wildlife was injured in the process.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Satan Backs Righteous Rick: 'My kind of guy' (15 comments)
Naturally, Satan switches his endorsement from Gingrich to Santorum because he always favors the candidate of greatest disruption. And with Righteous Rick, the possibilities are endless. But the Devil also has piercing advice for Rick and what appears his clumsy, amateur lying, appropriate from the Father of Lies
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Fickle Fingers of Hate: Fringe Hoaxes, Conspiracies & Ambushes (1 comments)
The GOP world is shifting from Karl Rove's focus on wedge issues and the politics of personal attack to full-time, perpetual, delusional hoaxes, conspiracies, and elitist ambushes. It's not a positive shift but it has its amusing sides.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 In Newt-Speak, Losing is Winning and Trials Only Feed More Vainglory (1 comments)
Gingrich's denial is beginning to give chutzpah, let alone grandiosity, a bad name. Cosmic inevitability trumps public opinion and elections: the anointed hero need only present himself, then remove Excalibur and accept the glory. Yessiree, lunacy reigns for this ridiculed fan of lunar colonies (yes, both from the same root).
Monday, February 6, 2012 In Newt-Speak, Losing is Winning: Trials Only Feed More Vainglory (1 comments)
How is it possible that someone who can't distinguish winning from losing hasn't been taken to the funny farm? Well, maybe that fits the GOP campaign for president.
Monday, January 30, 2012 Soft Power, Hard Power, Election Power (3 comments)
Unless something goes awry, this nation will have four relatively soft-spoken candidates for our top office this year. I propose that means more soft power will displace older hard power models. Who knows for sure, but the trends are there.
Monday, January 23, 2012 The Real Rogue for 'Real America'? (1 comments)
Finally, after fits and mis-starts, the radical GOP outsider candidacy movement finds its hero -- none other than the greatest insider of the last 20 years. Newt -- the right real rogue for 'real Americans." OMG
Monday, January 16, 2012 Loons, Goons, and Buffoons -- The Marvelous GOP Unreality Show (1 comments)
However shocked we are by the dismal quality of the GOP campaign, let us assess the revelations from a gang of candidates we are most unlikely to ever see again, in our lifetime. Cringe moments galore do have their payoffs!
Sunday, January 8, 2012 Bush III, Bush IV, AmBushed Forever (27 comments)
Unless wrongheaded agendas are directly dispatched, they can live on and predate whatever comes afterwards. The ultimate tragedy of Obama is we are still under the reign of Bush-Cheney. And 2012 promises little relief.
Sunday, January 1, 2012 Puny Krauthammer Ambushes a Science Giant (10 comments)
Not only does rightwinger Charles Krauthammer drag in a contradiction about politics the size of Jupiter, he impugns a great scientist and science popularizer in the process. As Carl Sagan is not here to defend himself, I take up the cudgel.
Monday, December 26, 2011 "God Particle' Refudiates the Religious Right (24 comments)
Another major blow to simple-minded notions of the universe, especially the guy high in the sky who created everything by declaring it so. How neat that real explanation is far richer and more complex and more engagingly human.
Sunday, December 18, 2011 Gingrich Covets Messiah Gig (3 comments)
Here's my New Year's OpEdNews gift, a light jingle for those normally put off by reason in rhyme. I gave up trying to take Newt seriously enough to write prose for, like Kissinger, he's moving himself beyond satire. But I found a thesis and inspiration from that famous lyric celebrated by heavy drinkers. Feel free to add any rhymes or insights, especially about qualities invisible in the politician at hand: peace and good wi
Monday, December 12, 2011 Oligarchy Unmasked . . . and Outspoken (4 comments)
Rarely do we hear the unfettered, unfiltered truth from the vaunted ruling class, but here is a misdirected email that sheds light on how the rich, the fat and the sassy think -- and what they control -- and don't.
Sunday, December 4, 2011 Does Bad Behavior = Power & Glory? (1 comments)
Two blows to my mental supports made me appreciate a new book that declares all leaders must follow the same rules because they share the same bottom line: getting, then staying empowered. Lessons for all, including Bush and Obama -- who needs to pick up his game or go bye bye.
Monday, November 28, 2011 Three Cheers for GOP Moderation (3 comments)
Though you have to hunt it up, there is a smidgeon of GOP moderation to temper the view everything pouring out backward-looking rightwingers is delusional. It takes a special eye, from a cockeyed optimist, but here I am.
Monday, November 21, 2011 Are the Rich Getting Denser, Or Just More Brazen? (5 comments)
Only an electorate of dunces bounces from one dunce to another, but today's GOP primary voters do that to a tee. Even stranger is the paradox of how so much affluent, even rich rightwingers can be so dumb about life and other people. It's a mystery that I address.
Monday, November 14, 2011 Will Perry's Epic Washout Disgrace Texas As Palin Did Alaska? (11 comments)
There are few more engaging delights than watching an arrogant blowhard fall, hard and fast. That joy increases when our most self-aggrandizing state, a muddle of blowhards, is part of the disgrace and descent. No pity here.
Monday, November 14, 2011 Will Perry's Epic Washout Disgrace Texas As Palin Did Alaska? (1 comments)
It takes no great leap to predict that Perry, added to W.'s disgrace, sets in stone Molly Ivins' prescient warning, "Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention."
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 First Round: Lesser of Two Evils (5 comments)
The tornado of hypocrisy and mendacity has bashed Herman Cain, sending this sex predator into the eye of the storm. Which only reminds us that the GOP must choose between their lesser evil before the rest of us choose ours, in the national election
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 President Everything To Nearly Everybody -- The Hero With 1000 Faces (2 comments)
Is it such a mystery why we campaigned sharply against Bush rights violations, but in office had to match, even outdo him? Talk left, go right, and never look back. Doesn't the left appreciate that knocking off a few bad guys shows how tough we are? And terminating our own untried citizens, like a western film shootout, shows we're as tough as Cheney.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 President Everything To Nearly Everybody - The Hero With 1000 Faces (7 comments)
Speaking to White House, Obama comes clean with his re-election strategy, his confidence in pitching every audience, except Tea Party, and his puzzlement that he's seriously challenged in 2012. With jokes, too.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Taboo - Or Not Taboo. Make That 15 Commandments. (1 comments)
It's good news that bad taboos, which reinforce prejudice, are falling by the wayside. But what about good taboos on which civilization depends, also falling by the wayside.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 In the Wings, the Great White GOP Hope (3 comments)
After the other nine dwarfs running for the GOP nod incinerate, there will be one politician left standing, one capable to taking down a wobbly president. He must be well-known and well tested, with actual campaign experience and a strong personal story. There is such a man.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 You're No Truman - That Populist Bulldog Didn't Just Growl (3 comments)
Truman displayed public wit that escapes you: "I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here."
Monday, October 10, 2011 You're No Truman -- That Populist Bulldog Did More Than Growl (11 comments)
If Obama thinks he's like Harry Truman, per the media hype this week, he's doubled blighted. Not only was Truman a genuine, Democratic populist (though not without flaws), but he does offer a very striking contrast of what Obama isn't doing -- or is doing wrong.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Right Dithers, Left Withers (3 comments)
Can anyone recall such a fickle GOP electorate -- raising up one wingnut after another, only to smash their chances two weeks later? And how curious this display happens when the left is agonizing over what to do with a president who betrayed his promises and still looks like a loser?
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Texas 'Ugly:' President Perry's Real Fringe Manifesto (9 comments)
President Perry will go far beyond manhandling Social Security -- and his war against the New Deal underlies a full-throated Manifesto for Christian Theocracy and all the rightwing wet dreams. Dream on.
Saturday, September 24, 2011 Palin's Puppet Show Suckers Nader -- Less Dumb, More Smart? (4 comments)
"Most adults" consider the Palin the stupidest, least professional pol around -- less qualified, less prepared, and more syntactically-challenged than W., that least qualified, worst-educated mess of a president. So, the miraculous discovery that she's not as dumb as "most people think" may well be damning with faint praise.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Born-again Social Darwinism: Survival of the Morally Unfit (7 comments)
Social Darwinism provides a terrific window to today's Tea Party for its biases reflect like-minded distortion of Darwin's biology. Such a frame also explains the TP shift from confrontation to demonization, now to scapegoating this week.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Born-again Social Darwinism: Survival of the Callous, Morally Unfit (1 comments)
If the minority zealots today driving the right-wing of the right side take power, we may well look back at the Bush-Cheney era as the good old times -- a painful, conflicted interim before the empowered theocracy of rapture takes command. Where else does the marriage of religious fundamentalists, Tea Party anti-government forces, and reactionary, super-rich princes have to go?
Monday, September 5, 2011 Dumb is In -- Redneck Perry Re-sets Slickness Threshold (3 comments)
Palin-style dumb is out -- and slicker, smoother more ideological versions of hustling walk the landscape. Reversals makes once slow students into stars, aligning them with common folks. Watch out as Ponzi-schemer Perry redefines slickness, with skills beyond W.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 Perils of Palin, Outing of Obama -- When High & Mighties Tumble
Without doubt, whatever slick, media-friendly pitches Palin and Obama foisted on us in '08, almost all are discredited, thus their collective, precipitous plunges in approval. However Palin differs from Obama, heart-driven loyalists show little mercy when slapped by: 1) bad faith losers or quitters, 2) hypocrisy, 3) craven ambition, or 4) betrayals of great and explicit promise.
Monday, August 29, 2011 Perils of Palin, Outing of Obama -- When High & Mighties Tumble (4 comments)
Don't scoff: comparing the sudden rise and equally dramatic fall of the two fresh faces from '08 -- yes, that Palin loser-quitter, that president Obama -- yields intriguing insights. See for yourself. Rick Perry thrown in at N/C.
Monday, August 22, 2011 'Whatever it is, I'm against it' (7 comments)
Total negation is rare in politics, but that's what the rightwing is offering. I found an unusual source that explains this politics of demolition, having the destroy the country to save it.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 America Defaults -- On Credit and Credibility (3 comments)
It's one thing when you lose a political fight, don't get a program through, or lose an appointee to Senate chicanery. These are about something. What happens when a president and party in power are ambushed, mortified, and defeated, with little or nothing at stake?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 Nullifying the Future -- Tyranny of the Minority (2 comments)
The Tea Party, like the Civil War, dramatize and test our core value -- does the majority rule when a strident obstructionist minority gets in its way? I say No when 20% trumps 80%.
Monday, August 1, 2011 Debt Wreck at Welchers' Corral -- Five Uneasy Lessons (10 comments)
Yes, there is good news from the horrible debt ceiling agreement but it takes a certain kind of inspired optimism and long-range thinking to find. A survey of the good news.
Monday, July 25, 2011 Tea Party Trumpery-- Reloading the Darker Half of America (2 comments)
Why is the Tea Party still reigning over the GOP, which is to say the USA? Could it go all the way back to early colonial times and Jamestown's Virginia Company and the First Royal Charter?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Squawking Crisis Junkies War Against Our Future (5 comments)
When is a war against the future also a war for controlling the future? When does a war against government become a war against us, our children, species, and planet?
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 High Court Declares 20th C. Federalism 'Unconstitutional' (3 comments)
The Supreme Court vetoed most of what the federal government achieved during the 20th Century, both legislation and amendments. Fallout to continue, based on what the Founders would find "abhorrent."
Monday, July 4, 2011 Flop as Progressive Force, the Internet Devolves to Entertainment (14 comments)
High hopes that the breakthrough Internet platform would change the world of politics are fading. Certainly, there's no evidence that hundreds of leftwing blogs are impacting real-world politics. Au contraire. If so, why do so many of us spend tons of hours blogging?
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 'Winning Arguments' - Apex of Human Reason? (3 comments)
If reason didn't evolve to bring us all into the light of progress, solving our most critical problems, then what hope is there? Without reason and logic and methodology, we are prey to lower impulses, as current politics displays all too clearly.
Monday, June 6, 2011 Propping up Limp Dems: 'Zank Heaven for Rightwing Girls' (4 comments)
What Democrats need, since they seem incapable of finding messages and frameworks that reflect either principles or a functional agenda, is some outside lever that makes them electable. I find one, perhaps the only one.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 What This World Needs: More Inspiring Protest Mentors, Like Diane Wilson (1 comments)
Since progressives all agree we need visible street protests, time to hook up and learn from someone expert who's been winning against huge chemical plants for years. What Diane Wilson did, and does, shows what teaching by example is all about.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Rise and Fall of GOP Solipsism -- Narcissists on the Run? (10 comments)
The Fall of the Palin parallels the decline of the whole gang of deceptive, insular narcissists. Is this not a trend, and perhaps the worst of GOP solipsism is in reverse. Read on for more happy thoughts.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 Moses Kaput -- Rightwing Ten Commandments To Serve Looming Theocracy (10 comments)
Here's your set of brand-new, modernized, much more relevant rightwing commandments for the coming age of theocracy. Feel free to print your own copy. Spread the word, Any good movements needs clear mandates.
Thursday, May 12, 2011 Really Dumb Lying: the Legacy of Palin the Prevaricator
Her mounting voter negatives aside, the Palin wins one dubious modern competition -- the most successful, self-promoter to make a brand (indeed industry) of misrepresentation and innuendo, profiting handsomely from books, TV shows, endorsements and speeches. A babbling bobblehead.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 Really Dumb Lying -- Legacy of Palin the Prevaricator (1 comments)
Though Palin is descending in public esteem much slower than she rose, her lasting impact is undeniable -- she makes mendacity respectable, spawning dozens of really dumb liars. Find out why.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 When Does Obama Stop Channeling W. on bin Laden? (5 comments)
In doubt Obama channels Bush. Just check out his defense of shooting down bin Laden. Tell me how Bush-Cheney advisers couldn't have written it.
Thursday, April 28, 2011 Time for Obama's Long Form Presidency (3 comments)
Legitimacy of leadership demands more than being a legitimate natural born citizen. When does the President become a fully legitimate, Democratic, even progressive leader, per his election?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 Needed: A Disruptive Donald On the Left (13 comments)
What Trump does to the right -- force some issues -- is what a challenger on the left must do to 1) keep the Dems from more capitulation, and 2) shake up this White House so it doesn't blow its chances as the Dems got overwhelmed in 2010.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Is this Obama's 'Bring-it-Home,' Unplugged Moment? (4 comments)
If last week's 'Obama unplugged' moment is his idea of sticking it to the GOP on the budget, we're all in big trouble -- and this campaign will be a snore. I can't imagine ever seeing this president who sold audacity approaching that tone or message.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 Obama Violates Law of Pendulum Politics (3 comments)
Obama, not the rightwing, must take responsibility for violating a generation-old pattern wherein left replaced right when disaster strikes. Carter to Reagan/Bush to Clinton to Bush, now the Obama Violation. Why is this Democrat acting like a Republican, and does this not end his effectiveness?
Monday, April 4, 2011 Rightwing Posse Solves Prison Glut -- Criminalize, Prosecute & Lockup (1 comments)
Just what America needs -- a host of truly radical Republicans dying to criminalize all sorts of otherwise innocent behavior. That will lock up for all time our championship as the nation with more inmates behind bars than any other nation on earth. We're the greatest, by this threshold.
Monday, March 28, 2011 Radioactive Right Spews Fallout -- and No Fix in Sight (3 comments)
Are vague nuclear plumes that haven't arrived yet our worst threat? How about noxious radioactive plumes of mind contamination that are already here-- and broadcast daily by the GOP and FOX News. A toxic bird in the hand beats two in the far-off bushes.
Monday, March 14, 2011 Obama Can't Blame GOP For His Worst "Bipartisanship' Blunder (1 comments)
You can't do bipartisanship against ferocious GOP enemies without a unified team on the same page. But that was exactly the gift from Rahm and Larry Summers, approved by the president -- a major split between a smug White House and a demoralized cabinet. Way to go, Barry.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 Breast-feeding "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness' (4 comments)
Of all the bizarre attacks, none has more surprised me than the three rightwing witches impugning Michelle Obama's promotion of breast-feeding, with low-cost, multiple health benefits for babies.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 The Latest, Greatest Bag of GOP Tricks -- Words That Win?! (1 comments)
It's not only amazing that Frank Luntz' latest magical phrases see the light of day -- but even more so if these delusional verbiages work. If this is what winning is about, the Democrats don't have a chance.
Thursday, February 24, 2011 Obama Calls Out Slackers with 'Forfeit for Failure' Plan, Takes Salary Hit (7 comments)
Just because Obama hasn't yet "thrown caution to the wind" doesn't make it impossible. What is the president rebooted with an idea and a bold action that answered to all his political needs. Hmmm . . .
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Cultural Barbarians Storm the Arts, Sciences & Education (1 comments)
Our Empire, strengths as well as weaknesses, is under direct assault by GOP House Barbarians, in league with entrenched Democrats. Progress, like civilization, is not free, and a Dark Age looms if we defund the life of the mind.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 Progressives, Unite -- War is Still the Health of the State (4 comments)
Until progressives distinguish State from Country, even from Government, we will be vulnerable to the manipulation of symbols and language by the well-oiled rightwing propaganda machine. Challenging the religion of the State is how progressives can begin to regain their voice.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Class War and Violence Belie Obama's Tattered Unity Myths (1 comments)
Perhaps funeral orations are not the best place for reality, but the president missed a major chance to address the whole, complex of violence in America. Without pushing partisan talk on gun control, Obama could have done better than learning on outdated, misleading mythology.
Thursday, January 13, 2011 Good Luck Talking Down Shrill, "Blood Libel' Victims Armed to the Teeth (5 comments)
Words won't fix street violence, or stop officials getting shot down in the street. Unless we deal with the causes -- too much access by too many disturbed or extremist people to too many guns -- what hope is there to confront a national gun fetish and perhaps deflect political assassinations. Palin's "blood libel" comments only proves she is not only no help but a facilitator for today's context of violence.
Sunday, January 9, 2011 Dean Fudges On White House 'Contempt' -- Conjures Obama 'at heart a Reformer' (4 comments)
The admirable Howard Dean, no doubt to keep his power alleys open, fudges the contemptuous cohorts leaving the White HOuse -- and on Obama as "at heart a reformer." Obama got exactly the team he wanted and the results followed suit.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 What Drives the Delusional Right? Why Palin's Christian Fortress Must be the 'Greatest Country Ever' (2 comments)
Let's welcome the New Year with the most important resolution we can make: to battle our greatest enemy. That happens to be the amalgam of religious rightwingers now lately empowered. The debate must engage the cosmic mindset that views history as solely only God's plan -- thus denying the humanistic basis for our politics and country.
Saturday, December 25, 2010 Pitchforks on Hold: 'Miracle' Democrats Rise Up, Obama Lives (21 comments)
The Lame-duck session is no miracle but it's a major boost for the new king of the hill. Obama is better positioned for re-election than most on the left imagined a month ago. Not being a miracle, except to Obama devotees, doesn't mean it's not significant politically.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Happy Days Are Here Again . . . Well, Almost (1 comments)
How you view the New Year depends on how you view life. Offsetting my own critical stance is recognition no one can fathom the future, thus getting depressed looks to me like a waste of time. No, happy days aren't here, but things could be worse.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Obama's Tragi-Comedy: "Honey, I Shrunk the Presidency" (5 comments)
Against historical trends, Obama is managing to diminish the power and role of the presidency. This is all the more remarkable considering how aligned his policy and mindsets are to Bush, who massively concentrated power, without equal since FDR. And no change is in sight.
Friday, December 10, 2010 Heroic GOP War Critic -- Traitor or Patriot? (17 comments)
Heroic Ron Paul won't let us forget the mammoth, if forgotten, issue of this age -- bad wars that are bankrupting us and undermining American interests and prestige. Here are my skeptical answers to a perennially skeptical Congressman who doesn't buy into White House war propaganda.
Thursday, December 9, 2010 Loyalists Fume Over Tax Betrayal -- Hardly the Unkindest Bush III Cut of All (3 comments)
As bad as the Obama tax hustle is, it pales in historical significance compared to the impact of his noxious bipartisan continuity -- in short, the totality of Bush III goes way beyond who pays what for government. Like what government does and why Obama echoes Bush-Cheney.
Thursday, December 2, 2010 Myth of "American Exceptionalism" - The Ultimate, Pernicious Howler (4 comments)
God's mysterious sense of humor strikes again, afflicting the lunatic fringe - and America - with this especially ludicrous zinger: the delusion of infallibility. Advancing from "50's jingoism of "America, right or wrong," now for the rightwing it's clear: "America, never wrong." We must be special, the chosen elect, morally superior to every other country.
Thursday, November 25, 2010 Obama Needs an Enemy - Or Else, 'What's Up, Lame-duck?' (1 comments)
Like any modern president, the hill to die on isn't domestic legislation, good or bad, but how well you identify the enemy du jour, better still as with W., the enemy of the era. If Obama doesn't fight an enemy worth fighting, he will never find a way to show he's a fighter. Frankly, if eagles soar, we got ourselves a grounded turkey.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 The Idiocy of Frank Luntz: Unless We ARE All Tea Partiers (3 comments)
For years, Frank Luntz has been peppering GOP phrasemaking -- and ruining national debates -- so it's quite amazing he's so bad at writing a victory statement. Does he really expect anyone to believe this nonsense, as my comments prove -- or is he, like Sarah Palin, just look for suckers to invoice?
Sunday, November 7, 2010 Tea Party Palin Is Toast, Forfeiting Senate Supremacy While the GOP Romps (16 comments)
Palin and her Tea Party ragtags have really done it -- blowing the opportunity of a political lifetime. They managed to lose what Republicans should have won without much of a fight: control of the Senate. This augurs badly for her presidential chances and for the Tea Bag future. It also shows the Cosmic Jokester on high still has a great sense of humor.
Monday, November 1, 2010 Confessions of a Reluctant Republican Shill, Fifth Columnist by Misdirection (1 comments)
Unintended, even contrary consequences is the theme, explaining how honorable progressive prose backfired, distorted by the White House and scapegoated by the rightwing. Sometimes you can't win for losing. Apologies all around.
Monday, October 25, 2010 Angry Leftists 'Man Up' Against Scapegoating - Defying "When in doubt, bash progressives" (2 comments)
What stands out this campaign season is not only the total absence of genuine policy debate,hardly a surprise, nor the focus on social wedge blather. But what about the seemingly calculated assault against the left, ironic to say the least, considering how disempowered we are.
Monday, October 18, 2010 Team Obama: "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Messages" (2 comments)
The enduring mystery of a great campaigner who, after 20 months, has yet to come up with a single, overwhelming, riveting message, voicing a moral frame, remains. I offer a few tossed off headlines that would have served him, and the country, better. And, I propose, would have answered rightwing propaganda with more verve.
Sunday, October 3, 2010 The Audacity of Blame: the Politics of Put-down (31 comments)
Has any president succeeded by dissing his own, weeks before a midterm. This bizarre tactic is not only White House policy but will fail and demonstrate how out of touch is the president. What possible justification of the "politics of put-down" can there be?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Forever Routed by the Feral Fringe: Obama's Ruinous Outreach (3 comments)
Why can't the over-paid PR team at the White House keep up with the likes of Sarah Palin or John Boehner? Why is the idiot right winning every messaging and framing battle, and with a midterm fiasco looming, the election war, too.
As disappointing is the Obama performance, nothing is more dispiriting than seeing the liberal side trumped, then the administration dare chastise its base for apathy.
Monday, September 20, 2010 Good Gag, Delaware GOP, Less Ready for Prime Time Than Palin (2 comments)
Christine O'Donnell takes unqualified and unknowing to new thresholds, beyond Palin, establishing the "Uncandidate," spurning promises of character, competence, and credibility. It's quite a breakthrough.
