Comedian and Republican party “spokesthing” Rush Limbaugh’s statements reflect a most sophomoric analysis of the situation we are in as a country. With Limbaugh as the intellectual voice of the Republican party, the Republicans will be facing the same fate they did in the mid-term elections of Roosevelt’s first term – relegated to an insignificant element of the national political landscape.

This is the card Obama is playing. He knows what an intellectual lightweight Limbaugh really is. When he occasionally strays from his bantering and offers up the semblance of an idea it is nothing more than a repeat of the failed policies of the past. If someone of stature doesn’t succeed in taking the stage from him you Republicans are doomed.

I am anticipating the moment when Limbaugh puts his foot in all your collective ditto-mouths to a point that you will loose all semblance of credibility. Perhaps then you will begin to think, I mean independently think, for yourselves. It will be a great day for this country. I say this realizing that it is impossible for many of you to change your mind about anything.

I think the main objection to our demonstration  Sunday is that it shakes the notion that this (Alamogordo, NM) is a conservative town where everybody is to think alike, look alike, and to behave alike.

Movement conservatives are so used to living in their bubble that any community deviation from their norm questions their very existence causing them a great deal of discomfort and disorientation.

Liberal progressive people recognize how limiting to growth and to the human experience this can be. I pity the narrowly focused conservatives in our town.

Yesterday there was a GLBT ralley in Alamogordo calling for the legal right to marry. Most passing by waved in support(with all five fingers), but some were not so supportive.  Our local Alamogordo News online forum also had some interesting comments.  This is my reply to the anti-gays.

I will try and clarify the nature of inequality and the phrase, “equal rights for all” as guaranteed by the constitution. Equal rights for all really means equal (legal) rights for all citizens.

If a group is not granted equal rights, then no one in the United States has equal rights. One group has less rights than the other. If you have a right that another group does not have, then you are privileged over that other group. Read On…

Three months after their Election Day drubbing, Republican leaders see glimmers of rebirth in the party’s liberation from an unpopular president, its selection of its first African American chairman and, most of all, its stand against a stimulus package that they are increasingly confident will provide little economic jolt but will pay off politically for those who oppose it.

After giving the package zero votes in the House, and with their counterparts in the Senate likely to provide in a crucial procedural vote today only the handful of votes needed to avoid a filibuster, Republicans are relishing the opportunity to make a big statement. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Tex., suggested last week that the party is learning from the disruptive tactics of the Taliban, and the GOP these days does have the bravado of an insurgent band that has pulled together after a big defeat to carry off a quick, if not particularly damaging, raid on the powers that be. Read On…

Published on Sunday, February 8, 2009 by the New York Times

What the Centrists Have Wrought

Comedian and Republican spokesperson, Rush Limbaugh, has come out hard against the proposed stimulus package and according to a CBS poll, he just might be having an effect.

Slightly more than half the country approves of President Obama’s $800 billion-plus stimulus package, a new CBS News poll finds. But support for the bill has fallen 12 points since January, and nearly half of those surveyed do not believe it will shorten the recession.  Feb-05-09  Source:  CBS News

Limbaugh, a proponent of the discredited “supply side” and “trickle down” economic theories of Milton Friedman has often criticized the job creating programs embedded in the stimulus program  of  the Democratic administration.

It probably would be better if we could put a lid on drug use, same with nicotine, and alcohol. This is, however a real Pandora’s Box that we’ve opened and it will be impossible to ever stuff it back in and close the lid. Imagine doing away with alcohol. Every fourth house in the nation would have a still and beer fermenting in the closet.

People like to get high and they will get high. And since nothing will stop people from gettin high, the next best thing is to reduce the harm done by illegal drug use. Legalize, control potency and purity, just like for alcohol users. Tax it and make it available through licensed businesses, just like alcohol.

It is already illegal to drive while high, just like alcohol. Make treatment available for those who get sick, just like alcohol and nicotine. We have millions of young men and women in prison because of using, buying, distributing, and manufacturing, illegal drugs, many of which are less harmful than legal nicotine and alcohol. Read On…

Words from the “right”

Choice quotes from the Summer of 08.

1. Rush Limbaugh: “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for.”

2. Senator Phil Gramm: “We’re going to keep building the party until we’re hunting Democrats with dogs.”

3. Rep. James Hansen on Bill Clinton: Get rid of the guy. Impreach him, censure him, assassinate him.”

4. John Derbyshire intimated in the National Review that because Chelsea Clinton had “the taint,” she should “be killed.”

5. Ann Coulter: “We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too.” Read On…

MLK March Alamogordo, NM 1/19/09

Are they listening?
by Susanne King, MD
Thursday, Jan 15, 2009

As Tom Daschle, President-elect Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services, flies across the country to attend community meetings on health care reform, and the Obama Web site solicits opinions and health care stories from citizens, those of us who support a single-payer national health insurance program hold our collective breath. Will the incoming government really listen to the citizens who, in poll after poll, by a clear majority, support single-payer health care? Or will the vested interests of the private, for-profit health insurance lobby win again? Read On…