So, we're bombing Libya...

And that is the big "to do" in the media today. Should we be bombing Libya? Shouldn't we? Is it constitutional? Is this yet another war? Does it count as war since there's no ground troops at this point? Should our "actions" in Yemen and Pakistan count as wars? Is Obama essentially using the Bush doctrine to conduct these attacks? Though that doesn't quite fit for Libya as that is not so much about terrorism (at least theirs) as it is about "protecting the civilian rebels" despite the fact that those same rebels were/are on the verge of losing their insurrection. Thus, I suppose, it's convenient to attempt to eliminate another evil dictator conducting evil dictates in the world.

After taking a cautious stance on armed intervention in Libya's civil war, Obama ordered the attacks citing the threat posed to civilians by Moamer Kadhafi's forces and a UN-mandated no-fly zone endorsed by Arab countries.

"We must be clear: actions have consequences, and the writ of the international community must be enforced," Obama told reporters while on an official visit to Brazil Saturday.

I believe it, since we are the world police we might also be intervening elsewhere. Right? Hmm, no oil in those other African nations? GET. OUT!

Apparently, intervening in any of these countries by Democrat Presidents happens to be an impeachable offense!

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation," he insisted.

"While the action is billed as protecting the civilians of Libya, a no-fly-zone begins with an attack on the air defenses of Libya and Qaddafi forces. It is an act of war. The president made statements which attempt to minimize U.S. action, but U.S. planes may drop U.S. bombs and U.S. missiles may be involved in striking another sovereign nation. War from the air is still war."

"Congress should be called back into session immediately to decide whether or not to authorize the United States’ participation in a military strike. If it does not, the action of the President is contrary to U.S. Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution clearly states that the United States Congress has the power to declare war. The President does not. That was the Founders’ intent,"

Yeah? Well the founders didn't know shit about our oil problems when they wrote that shit Kucinich?! I am pretty sure they didn't have to fork out nearly $4 a gallon for their SUVs fucknutz so Obama gets to go in there and bomb that Quawdaffy? KaDaffi? Qadiffi? Kwaddafi? Quacky the blanketed duck the HELL OFF OUR OIL!!! UUUUUU SSSSSSSS AAAAAAAAA!!!!

But seriously, this is like reason number 7,674 of why Obama's administration is really just more of the same ole, same ole for this millennium. I am really struggling to cite anything, anymore, that sets him apart from Bush aside from the actually passing of some semblance of health care policy, sort of. To celebrate this let's go back to a previous post I wrote in 2008 called, "This day has FINALLY come." If you recall, this moron "blogger" was quite pro-Obama and even went as far to 'endorse him for President.' While I am pretty sure my endorsement surely was the final straw that got him elected I would now like to turn my cynical and all knowing eye inward a moment and attack myself. Which seems oddly appropriate when talking about Democrats in this day and age.

Now, I was quite entertained by the fairly vicious campaign then and remember feeling pretty excited that the official end of the Bush years was about to dawn.

Marvelous, it is truly exciting as the eight year nightmare is in it's death throes and even if McCain somehow miracles his ass (or steals it like 2000) into the White House it still cannot be as bad as it has been these last eight years. Can it?

I think this still holds true and with the continued turmoil, largely remaining from the Bush years, as bad as it has seemed it certainly would have been much different with McCain in office. I can say that confidently as there is simply no way to prove it without traversing into a hypothetical, alternate universe where McCain did win and Palin is really an important member of our federal government. *shudders* That said, I wonder if the only real difference might have been less health care debate and increased deregulation of wall street to solve the financial crisis. Likely, and again total unprovable conjecture, worsening the "recession" into full on "depression." Or so I like to tell myself to justify my own naive belief that voting for asshole, centrist, compromising, spineless democrats is somehow better than voting for shrill, paranoid, asshole republicans who govern from comical, fantastical points of view better served by fiction.

Anyway, back in 2008 I spent a chunk of time trying to convince the hypothetical, independent voter that I was pretending read my blog to help make their electoral decision (which alone is a funny notion by itself) by saying:

I support independent people too and was strongly considering voting for Nader again this year so if you are about voting your beliefs I think that's just great! I know Obama is no miracle, shit ain't going to magic itself right over night, we're not going to just see Iraq end, universal healthcare isn't going to suddenly appear and Socialism isn't suddenly going to take over the government and economy. This is history happening right before you and you need to do is simply mark a piece of paper to take part. A piece of paper that says, "I am interested in the best possible choice and potentially making this place look like America again!" rather than an empty gesture for a third party that, very sadly, won't even get near the 5% they need. I know this because I did that in 2000. Normally, I nod in agreement with that whole lesser of two evils ideal but this time, maybe for the first time, it may actually not be true. I mean this for THIS election, this particular time...Lets all vote third party next time!

Oh, the hope! The sheer wish that, not unlike the cartoon in my previous post, I was going to get the Progressive Fantasy I thought I wanted to vote for! We certainly got some good speeches and I have to say that I especially liked his speech after Tuscon, and his state of the unions have not been all bad. I can be proud that he sounds like a leader, looks like a leader and generally a lot of what he's attacked for (socialist, Muslim, raised in Kenya, etc.) is purely bullshit of the highest order.

That said, albeit "change" is slow and blah-blah-blah, I don't feel he actually intends to change much of anything. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all that. War powers act, Guantanamo closing, ending of any war(s)...Though to be fair he never said he was interested in ending Afghanistan more than to turn his focus back on it, which he has done, to no discernible result at this point in time anyhow. The U.S. still tortures, the U.S. still spies on it's own people in a once illegal fashion and the attacks in Pakistan, Yemen, and now Libya are war crimes. At least the way we used to define them when laws applied to the leaders (or the super rich).

So, politicians are politicians and everything Obama says will not come to magical, wondrous reality and honestly he may be in for quite a roller coaster but why waste time, this time, on a third party or making your values and beliefs feel extra special when you mark your ballot this particular cycle? Get on the boat, man, this shit ain't about just YOU.

This is funny because I now feel that one of the reasons I write these posts is similar to reasons conspiracy theorists get into conspiracy theories; they want to know and they want to be right. I got into political horseshit heavily after 9/11 because I just didn't understand what and why. I had to know why that had happened and somewhere inside I felt like, "if I knew more I would somehow be more prepared!" For what, exactly, I have no idea even to this day...I still keep up as best as I can with "the news" but have come to accept that no amount of knowledge, perspective, information or whatever really makes any tangible difference. This blog doesn't affect anyone or anything really...It's biased opinion, not news, not even particularly well constructed opinion. All it does is allow me to ventilate and momentarily feel like I am in some sort of control, or perhaps in possession of some of "the facts," or some version of "the truth." At least, my version of the truth.

I wonder if you are being unnecessarily stubborn in your own values and beliefs today. I ain't no Democrat and I also voted as many independents as I could in the lower ticket elections but I see no better candidate than Obama. In fact, I have never seen any other candidate ever that was better than Obama on any major ticket

I am unnecessarily stubborn in my own values and beliefs everyday. This is about me, standing on my soapbox and typing to the internet heavens! Hence the subtitle referencing "the Pensieve" as this blog really is a place for me to deposit these wondering thoughts and pseudo-reports to placate my inner play-opinion writer. Though I do stand by the notion that "I personally have never seen a better candidate then Obama on any major ticket." He really was an awesome candidate and I wonder if we won't start seeing that guy resurface in the coming year ahead as we close in on the "referendum of Obama in 2012."

Despite my misgivings and loss of passion for him based on his, more or less, predicted centralism, rightward trending and appeasement to the loony conservatives it just seems quite unlikely the republicans or tea party will be able to mount a credible candidate (or alternative). Though it remains fairly hilarious that the right's noise machine still continue to labor under their own delusion that Obama is still somehow the most left-leaning, liberal, socialist President ever to ruin America it also smacks of tragedy as they split themselves into factions all trying to out conservative the most conservative all the while dismissing any memory of 2000-2008.

Which leads me to another of my incorrect 2008 assumptions:

I will even miss Sarah Palin! I have never seen a bigger maroon in public life in all my years and that is including every member of the Bush administration! She is the human version of a Disney ride....It would be like going to the Epcot Center and forming all of your ethical values and ideology based on the songs they sang. Some days I have wondered if she were simply functionally retarded others I wonder if she was built and programmed. Again, assuming they don't win (wonder what the follow up post will look like here if they do?), then she will be one of THE most amusing footnotes of general election history. Hopefully she will get a talk show or something because her mouth opens and comedy gold just spills out.

It seemed like I was thinking she would just fade away after the 2008 election, didn't it? Sure, I hoped that she would get a talk show, and she did for a while, but why I didn't think reality show, I will never know?! Now a days I am actively hoping she runs for president, oh the primary debates will be something! Palin, Romney, Gingrich, Haley Barbour, maybe some newly radicalized Huckabee AND the man-droid Tim Pawlenty? They should debate the merits of "science" for like a half hour then launch into the ways in which they will shrink government by deregulating big business. It shall be marvelous! Hell, maybe one of them will actually win!

...The Republicans are really good at two things a) winning elections and b) being the bitchy minority party...

And boy howdy how they have succeeded in being the bitchy, party-of-no, minority party! They have done it so thoroughly that they managed to split into almost two groups of GOP and tea party people. Sure, when it comes to voting they are essentially on the same team but when you get into brass tacks they are actually kind of different. Not totally different, just kind of. The most amazing thing though, to me, remains how the GOP continually manipulate the middle class, the poor and the rural, free, independent Americans to keep voting for their rich, asshole rulers who keep rolling back the very regulations that fuck them right out of their shitty low paying, good for nothing jobs. How do I know this? Because I have fallen for the exact same scheme on the left. The Democrats are the team to beat for the Republicans but I think Obama's policies and especially in his financial appointments show that he is on the same side as the Republicans fundamentally. Not our side. In the end, Carlin was right, they don't matter, they are all just figure heads who answer to the bidding of our real masters...Our owners.

I stupidly vote for Progressive Fantasies.

Time has been limited lately but there is an excellent Tom Tomorrow out this week that really kind of sums up issues I have with Obama.

That really kind of hits the nail using the current brewing scandal regarding alleged Wikileaks paperwork provider Pfc. Bradley Manning. This New York Times opinion piece seems to have "set the stage" for this mini-scandal quite well.

Private Manning is in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. For one hour a day, he is allowed to walk around a room in shackles. He is forced to remove all his clothes every night. And every morning he is required to stand outside his cell, naked, until he passes inspection and is given his clothes back.

Certainly not the world ending, awful abuse administered by the "previous administration" but what is particularly awful about this, aside from the fact that he is being punished for apparently aiding a revelation of "the truth" (a post all to it's own I should some day get around to making) by an outside party not formally affiliated with the state approved media services in this country, was that Obama was supposed to be against this sort of thing.

Far more troubling is why President Obama, who has forcefully denounced prisoner abuse, is condoning this treatment. Last week, at a news conference, he said the Pentagon had assured him that the terms of the private’s confinement “are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.” He said he could not go into details, but details are precisely what is needed to explain and correct an abuse that should never have begun.

And that seems to apply to so many, many things that this naive, librul, douche on the internet had truly hoped Obama was to change such as Gitmo closing for real and not "on paper," the end of extraordinary rendition, and all the fun security state-war-powers-patriot-act-NSA-wiretap stuff that seems to have become flat out institutional. It's part of "yesterday's news" not to be looked back upon because there is just too damn much shit to look forward to now, like magical budget austerity and budget discussions that somehow only affect the middle class on down. I have alluded to the following notion before that once power is attained no one will have the where-with-all, nor balls, to relinquish it.

Very disturbing, as this news is about Pfc. Manning it's hard to really focus on this mini-scandal as it's not like there isn't a few other things on the table right now. Which is why I refer to it as a mini-scandal because I imagine most people could give a fuck about that dirty traitor Manning at the moment. You know, there's a freaking apocalyptic nightmare occurring in Japan, essentially a civil war in Libya, another brewing in Bahrain, after affects of the great Egyptian protests on the rest of the Middle East. Not to mention here at home Wisconsin continues be a focal point which has been joined in conservative ridiculousness in Ohio and Michigan just to bullet point a few things "happening" as I type this.

"The gig is now up"

Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said. "The fraud on the people of Wisconsin is now clear."

A stand-off can't go on forever and I suppose it was just a matter of time until the right side got their way.

"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."

All those crafty Wisconsin Republicans had to do was separate out the money oriented parts of this "budget repair bill" and just pass the parts that eliminate collective bargaining and organizational rights of Wisconsin's public employee unions. And so they did, 18 to 1, and they didn't need no stinkin' quorum. Governor Dickface said:

"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused. In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."

That 1 NO vote was actually a moderate Republican who I expect to be replaced by a Tea Partier as soon as they can get to votin' again. Those Democrat senators can finally go home and maybe resign from the senate and take one of those 250,000 shiny, new, private sector jobs! Maybe they can manage a Taco Bell! That'll show Obama for trying to usurp Wisconsin Republicans and have them recalled just for coming to work and doing their jobs.

"It's what we suspected. There's eight recalls that have been launched, and as you know, Wisconsin has been a battleground state in the presidential election. And there's a great deal at stake, and certainly I've been told by, not only some of the Wisconsin members of the Congressional delegation, but those that work in labor, that this is about the presidential election in 2012."

So, I guess if you support Obama then you too work for the White House. I don't know what else the Wisconsin Democrats and the thousands who had protested should do but pursue recalls, just like Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said:

"Using tactics that trample on the traditions of our Legislature, the Republican leadership has betrayed our state. Republicans have rubber-stamped the desire of the Koch Brothers and their godshead Scott Walker to cripple Wisconsin's middle class and lower benefits and wages for every single wage-earner in our state. The vote does nothing to create jobs, does nothing to strengthen our state, and shows finally and utterly that this never was about anything but raw political power. We now put our total focus on recalling the eligible Republican senators who voted for this heinous bill. And we also begin counting the days remaining before Scott Walker is himself eligible for recall."

I have not heard the term godshead before: 1. divine nature or essence. That seems more of a kind of high praise, does it not? But as I said in my last post, this isn't really about saving money, unions or budgets and it is very much about imposing a world view, an agenda, and manipulating "raw political power." To those that support Walker and the agenda these fine, true Americans are doing the work they were voted in to do. It really is ideological warfare on the "middle class" and the fools won another one for their own imagined version of The Gipper!

Welp, here's hoping that the rage this generates will actually stick and this twat and his underling senators move into their posh private sector jobs post haste. what a hose job! This calls for something juvenile and stupid, right now!

That'll learn him! I barely put any effort in that piece of shit pic what-so-ever because it's more than he deserves. And speaking of dickheads...

If you have visited here before you may have noticed that I finally had my web team develop an updated, fresh look for this antiquated blog. The design team really went that extra mile eliminating that annoying and empty and unused links column and also lightened the background so it's no longer so stark. The archives staff have also worked real hard improving the blog search mechanism as well as made it much simpler to look back through the previous 49 posts it has taken me nearly six years to write here. THIS post you are enjoying right now represents our 50th post! Just almost a few weeks away from Ahlblog's SIXTH BIRTHDAY! Wow, it is truly amazing that this collection of internet code has superfluously existed in the internet for six whole years. Now that I have the archives broken down by year you can also see which year I posted a lot and how I mostly ignored it all the other years.

That said, 2011 is trending UP on the ole input graph as with this post I have officially surpassed the number of posts I did in 2009 and close to tying 2010! I don't like setting goals as that will no doubt result in my posting some bullshit posts apologizing for not posting for a while on a blog that I really do not promote to anyone to read anyway. I originally hoped this blog would be a collection of fun posts and short stories but it seems I really just prefer to rant about politics so I can avoid engaging in talking about it in the offline world or having fruitless flame wars in Facebook. That said, here's hoping that I can have a 2008 like year on here (20 posts, whoa)!

Plutocracy + Oligarchy = Plutarchy

Plutarchy - Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy.
I ended my last post with the definition of Oligarchy and it turns out my math was off a tad as the real term I wanted was Plutarchy! A nice, new, more or less made up, hybrid word that seems to best hit the nail on the head. I must admit that I had expected the great Wisconsin protest drama to die down, or fundamentally be over, by now as I saw no real end but the one most "working" people didn't want, i.e. Gov. Walker gets his damn union busted. After all it's a whole different month now and the news cycle has already cycled away and cycled back since my last post. Though I can see the news media, particularly the TV one, seems to have a hard time tracking all this Wisconsin hub-bub while Libya descends into civil war and, you know, what bleeds, leads.

Well, that is actually not fair to say the TV media has been distracted by Libya alone because there's also this whole Charlie Sheen "thing" that just will not die. Despite all the "Duh, Winning!" media meltdowns, and Gaddafi air strikes on civilian protestors turned rebels, Wisconsin, and it's stubborn, sumbitch, Governor Walker just refuse to go away. Which is sort of surprising in this day and age having 18 days of nearly constant media exposure must be like 15 years in dog years. Surely, someone somewhere has already exclaimed that they are, "Sick of all this union Wisconsin bullshit." Then that hypothetical person will probably blame the greedy, asshole teachers for fucking up everything and stealing all his hard earned money to pay for their elevated babysitting.

So, much has happened this last week or two as the Wisconsin Republicans try stunt after stunt to lure the incompetent, state-paid, vacationing, lazy, Democratic senators back to the state with threats of imminent lay-offs (that didn't happen but WILL UNLESS...), authorizing the Wisconsin police to possibly 'use force' if they happen to come across any of these lay-a-bout Democrats crossing state lines to get clothes or what have you. There even was an apparent altercation as a useless, liberal, lefty, lowly representative attempted to enter the capitol last week.



So, likely to avoid potential over exposure or the very real possibility "America" will get total Wisconsin fatigue the Democrats attempt meeting at the State Line.

I assure you that Democratic State Senators, despite our differences and the vigorous debate we have had, remain ready and willing to find a reasonable compromise. To that end, I would ask that you or your authorized representatives agree to meet with us near the Wisconsin-Illinois border to formally resume serious discussions as soon as possible.

The people of Wisconsin are overwhelmingly supportive of us reaching a bipartisan, negotiated compromise. Senate Democrats stand ready to do just that, we ask that you do the same.

Somehow, I get the feeling that Walker will respond to this with his usual inflexible derision and state that these Democratic Senators are just on vacation and other similar statements involving their not being at work. He keeps the attacks rolling under that pretense of their "not working" because real Americans work, are hard working, and don't quit because they are too busy...working. Unlike lazy, unemployed, hippie, liberals who, if they ever work, work at part-time, shit-for-nothing, state jobs in education.*

*UPDATE: And wouldn't you know it, Walker called the idea of a state line meeting RIDICULOUS!

The liberal fit really hit the shan this past weekend as yet another poorly educated, liberal, fat fuck showed up and yelled a lot of gibberish.

America is not broke.

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have as much loot, stock and property as the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

The NERVE!? And HE'S a rich person!?! What a hypocrite? How could someone who has already sucked from the fat American teat betray us so...Therefore, his "opinion" and nearly incomprehensible shouting will not be regarded with anything but a raised nose.



And while I am busy posting "comedy" I might as well take this moment to post a good one from also, lefty, jerkwad, librul-media star, Jon Stewart:

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

And that is sort of the crux of my argument with much of this situation. Aside from the general notion that, "Tea Party/Republican bullshit is bad" it's not just the union busting thing that irks me so much as it's really the attack on teachers that bothers me. That and the way the conservative acolytes sling their ill informed venom at what usually turns out to be their fellow middle class members, their neighbors, their fellow parishioners, their own children's teachers. I see so many jealous comments about 9 month work years, apparently unfairly made contributions to their supposedly state funded retirement plans, and such an over all disregard for the profession that it truly makes me sick. Most especially because these Republican, rich assholes who tend to be behind all of this have so successfully turned us against ourselves while the super-rich continue to run off with all the fucking wealth.

Teaching is a hard job and if the nine months school year seems SO unfair then perhaps you should have, or now get into, becoming a teacher Captain Jealous. And by the way, a lot of teachers, usually the ones who have been doing it for 10-15 years do get the summers off but many of them do the summer school thing or do other odd jobs to make ends meet in the summers. Naturally, that doesn't matter nor does it count because it's an aberration that messes with your general and ignorant point of view. The kind of planning, ability to think on your feet and creative skills to attempt to illuminate the minds of those who mostly could care less is unbelievably difficult and is the furthest thing from "baby sitting." Those notions and amazing insults I see posted by conservative lackeys across the internet are just maddening and made by those who probably believe, "Those who do, Do, who can't teach." If that were really true then what's the problem private sector Sam? Perhaps you should side with the other worker bees then side with the Koch brothers and their "agenda."

And that is what it is, an agenda. What is particularly disturbing with Wisconsin that despite the televised/reported narrative regarding union busting and the general anti-teacher/state worker getting compensated differently than the private sector, is that there is an obvious nation wide agenda at play here. A conservative ideological vision, or the "conservative shock doctrine," here's a good one from liberal liar, Paul Krugman (hat tip, Digby):

As many readers may recall, the results were spectacular — in a bad way. Instead of focusing on the urgent problems of a shattered economy and society, which would soon descend into a murderous civil war, those Bush appointees were obsessed with imposing a conservative ideological vision. Indeed, with looters still prowling the streets of Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer, the American viceroy, told a Washington Post reporter that one of his top priorities was to “corporatize and privatize state-owned enterprises” — Mr. Bremer’s words, not the reporter’s — and to “wean people from the idea the state supports everything.”

The story of the privatization-obsessed Coalition Provisional Authority was the centerpiece of Naomi Klein’s best-selling book “The Shock Doctrine,” which argued that it was part of a broader pattern. From Chile in the 1970s onward, she suggested, right-wing ideologues have exploited crises to push through an agenda that has nothing to do with resolving those crises, and everything to do with imposing their vision of a harsher, more unequal, less democratic society.

Which brings us to Wisconsin 2011, where the shock doctrine is on full display.

And IF you have heard about that phony phone call Walker took from whom he thought was Corporate Master David Koch, Walker actually more or less admitted just that:

This is — you know, I told my cabinet, I had a dinner the Sunday, or excuse me, the Monday right after the 6th. Came home from the Super Bowl where the Packers won, and that Monday night I had all of my cabinet over to the residence for dinner. Talked about what we were gonna do, how we were gonna do it. We’d already kinda built plans up, but it was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb. And I stood up and I pulled out a picture of Ronald Reagan, and I said, you know, this may seem a little melodramatic, but 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday we just celebrated the day before, had one of the most defining moments of his political career, not just his presidency, when he fired the air-traffic controllers. And, uh, I said, to me that moment was more important than just for labor relations or even the federal budget, that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism because from that point forward, the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover. And, uh, I said this may not have as broad of world implications, but in Wisconsin’s history — little did I know how big it would be nationally — in Wisconsin’s history, I said this is our moment, this is our time to change the course of history. And this is why it’s so important that they were all there. I had a cabinet meeting this morning and I reminded them of that and I said for those of you who thought I was being melodramatic you now know it was purely putting it in the right context.

Again, hate to just parrot Digby here but it is good reading PLUS, this diagram from Mike Konzcal handily shows the three pronged attack that is becoming apparent not only in Wisconsin but also in Ohio and essentially nationwide as part of the Tea Party's campaign to reclaim America for the Rich.

But it's that phony, fat, pension and health benefits those shitty, overpaid teachers "get" that is the real problem. Another place to look while this whole thing continues to unfold is the competing story line, generating from our Republican national Congress, but also appearing in the Wisconsin budget byline is the attack on funding of that liberal, evil, abortion factory Planned Parenthood. Stuff those family planning liberal ideas RIGHT up your ass America! The government shouldn't pay for your pension, health care and definitely not support anything that even comes into the ballpark of violating our out-of-date, hypocritical, antiquated values either.

The Invisible Hand of the Markets will right all ills, support all people who are deemed worthy of being supported (i.e. hard working, non-minority, rich, boot-strap pullers only) and all else need to get off their welfare and get a gawd damn REAL job. Or so our corporate master's would have us believe so that we may all have greater economic freedom! So, says corporate overlord Charles Koch himself:

Recent studies show that the poorest 10% of the population living in countries with the greatest economic freedom have 10 times the per capita income of the poorest citizens in countries with the least economic freedom. In other words, society as a whole benefits from greater economic freedom.

All Hail one of the Kings! Or to use a fun paraphrase from the old Karl Rove, "reality based community" Digby also posted:

..believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That's not the way the world really works anymore. When the oligarchs act, they create their own reality. And while you are studying that reality—judiciously, as you will— the oligarchs will act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. The oligarchs are history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what they do.

I think the same could be said for the "fact-based" community. This kind of thing is why I believe so many conservatives have so many issues with liberals and their beloved big government because they willfully elect and take part in massaging this point of view, this agenda, and so they assume naturally that the opposition does too. This is why there is so much about the liberal media controlling "the message" and using Hollywood celebrities to brainwash simple minded, sympathetic liberals into buying into global conspiracies involving climate change, gun control and the cap and traded, "New World Order." The proverbial, liberal "They" are coming for their guns then their freedom all the while raising their taxes to pay an undeserving lower class their handouts because they are all too lazy to work. Hell, they are afraid to work and they don't wear bootstraps because they don't wear boots in Socialist Muslimania what with their gays and their abortions.