1947 - Howard Hughes flew the Spruce Goose on its first and only flight.
2010 - The anti-USSR F-35 Fighter's development has 3d cost overrun, this time $5,000,000,000, on top of the previous $4.7 Billion and $2.8 Billion overruns
COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!
"Not a dime of taxpayer money should be used to clean up their (gulf spill) mess."
St. John, of Orange
"We made too many wrong mistakes. "
Yogi Berra
FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:
A few random factoids and points of truthiness:
a. The Secret Service receives 30 threats against the President's life EACH DAY.
b. No GOPer has yet "refutiaded" calls for violence or armed rebellion by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Joe Miller, Sharon Angle, etc.
c. The Constitution has a two processes for replacing the President, Vice President etc. One of them is impeachment, something we will hear a lot of very soon.
d. The second? If the president should be killed or becomes incapacitated, Joe Biden would take over. If, before a new VP is selected, Mr. Biden should suffer a similar fate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives would become president.
e. Say Hello to John Boehner
- - - - - - - - -
From RW sources, websites, and news reports, and most of all, from emails that I receive from the most rabid Reich Wingers in the US, those most politically active on the right, especially the Tea Bagger crowd, are convinced that they are "taking back their country" today. Unfortunately, they apparently mean taking it back to the early part of the 19th century.
Because they are so convinced of victory, regardless of what really happens, we will face trouble.
IF THEY LOSE TODAY . . .
If they lose, and we retain either the senate, or preferably, the senate AND the house, RWers will squeal like a greased pig about voter fraud, stolen elections, and such like. I guarantee multiple court fights in every close race. And if we prevail, these greased pigs, or at least the most rabid among them, may turn to their "second Amendment rights." We've already seen how the mentally ill follow Glenn Beck's ideas, and wish to kill innocents on his behalf. It will only get worse if we win today.
The MSM did America no favors, even if we win. They raised expectations so high, that there is bound to be a really bad reaction from the Right.
Pity they don't know exactly what the constitution says, or how such actions would be viewed by the rest of us. Treason, armed uprisings, riots - these are pretty much the same crime. It would not surprise me, to the contrary, I dread and worry about it becoming an eventuality, that some nut case on the Right will figure out a way to attack the president. A D victory will spur them on to take more chances, to do more damage, and to resort to violence, to do "what it takes" to "take back their country." (these are direct quotes from the most rabid emails I have gotten of late)
IF THEY WIN TODAY . . .
Like most rational people, especially those here, I have worked as hard as a I could to insure a D victory. There is a chance that we lose. If we listen to the mantras making the rounds in MSM, it appears to be a guarantee. "The House is lost. A Landslide is coming. It's a GOP Tsunami! The Dems are Dead."
Not only will we witness two years of crap, of disgusting Boehnerisms as Speaker, of obstruction, ridiculous investigations of the president and heads of departments and agencies, endless subpoenas, and quite probably, impeachment efforts from the right, we will see something even more dangerous. An effort by the most rabid Right to remove the president and the vice president would not be limited to constitutional means like impeachment.
Instead, the same warped, sick Tea Baggers who come to rallies armed, who promote violence against gays, immigrants, judges, liberals, progressives, and Democrats, will try even harder to "take their country back" by force. The Kenyan, communist, socialist, Muslim who stole the White House from White People would be their target, and the installation of Boehner of Orange as president would be their reward.
Yes, I know it sounds bleak. If we win, there will be increased violence. If we lose, there will be increased violence. But, I submit, no matter what happens today, there WILL be increased violence. The RW noise machine will turn up the heat, regardless of the result. If they win, the RW Noise Machine will push the most extreme legislation, and the most destructive path for our country. If they lose, they will react even more aggressively.
So, what to do? What can we do?
Recent studies have taught political scientists (again) just how irrational humans are. First of all, we know from personal experience that it is absolutely useless to argue facts with Tea Baggers, the Rabid Right, and with Neocons.
Here's why. If a "target" is asked to deal with a certain issue, and is manipulated emotionally at the same time, that target can be "trained" to react in a predictable way to that issue. In fact, that target is almost immune to changing his or her mind on that issue in the future. The tying of an emotion to a particular issue seems to blind humans and makes it exceedingly difficult to change their minds.
This discovery about human nature explains why GOP "framing" of issues is so successful. They aim for an emotion, and they tie that emotion to an issue. We on the left flail away, using facts, logic, rational arguments, and make no headway.
So, if anyone here says, "we must educate and politely provide our opponents with facts," I am sorry to say, you are wrong. Life would be much easier if it were true, but it is not.
So, what can we do? How can we prevent the Tea Baggers and ultraconservatives from taking to the streets, from using violence, from murdering those with whom they disagree? Unfortunately, we must deal with them on the same level that the RW Noise machine does . . . tying particular emotions to particular facts. That is the only way to undo the damage that the Noise Machine has done. We will have to pick specific points, and engage them emotionally while presenting those facts.
I know, there are images of Goebbels, Stalin, Mussolini, and Machiaveli running through your minds. The idea of such manipulation is distasteful at best. But, it may be the only way to fight back, to protect and preserve our nation, to keep peace in our land.