Andy, Andy. You've been dreaming and droning about Obama Republicans, and they are there. But you've taken the Reagan Democrat mythology and spackled it onto the man from Illinois without understanding, I think, how mythology works.

Peggy Noonan, semi-admiring Obama's Wright Speech here, channels Ronnie as is her custom, teeing it up for Sullivan. Andy then attempts a heroic bank shot off the gnome, the fiberglass rhino, and into the door of the windmill:

[Some Kant, some Campbell, some Christopher Robin, some totally unfair shrinkifying of Hillary and Andy, a lion's front, a goat's middle, a snake's tail, and a magical pony, after the jump...]

I am deeply, deeply disappointed with Barack Obama. First I find out he's black. Black! Next, a person familiar with blackness tells me he's not Black enough! Then, he tries to denounce and/or reject his TRUE heritage: he's not black, or, what-do-you call-it,  African-American. Nooo.

He's really ARAB-African-American! What are you ashamed of, Barack H.? And what does a name like Barack mean, anyway!?

Since this is a serious matter, I did some research on The Google. Yeah, what is in a name? More than you know, my friends, more than you know...

[Earlier today, Jeffrey Feldman held a quiz on countering Mike Huckabee's aww shucks huckleberry. My comment/submission as usual morphed into diary length and when that happens I usually leave it in the 'draft' folder and get back to pretending to paying the bills. Here's throwing caution to the wind...]

An ancient and anonymous saying goes that "Faith moves mountains. But bring a shovel." But in Mike Huckabee's view, faith seems to be the mountain you drop on scientists who say factual things that discomfort certain spiritual beliefs. Or, it's a mountain he insists scientists must shovel around in their search for the straight and best path to fact and national strength and security. In a short vid here via Jeffrey, he says he would "turn this country loose with technology." I take that to mean technology is necessary to aid in solving our biggest problems. If you're not paying attention, it's easy to miss what he doesn't say. He doesn't say what technology is, what it derives from.  He avoids one simple word. Science.

Gee. How come?

We must stop volunteering and giving.

Who's "we"? Probably you. And me. And anybody who has 10 bucks, ten thousand, or one million left over at the end of each month when the bills are paid.

Why? Because you cannot authentically care and commit to poor people if you aren't one step ahead of the repo man and a regular at the Goodwill give-out window. A house with more bedrooms than family members? Stop volunteering, stop caring--you haven't earned it.  Already set for retirement, college tuition for the kids? Stop it. Been on vacation lately and been a Big Brother™ or Big Sister™? You cynical damn hypocrite...

Like a few others here, I subcribe to GOPUSA for laffs and intel and was glad to see yesterdays diary go up on Kincaid's "shock" at Ann Coulter's, uh, presentation and persona.

Today, the tide is flowing back in and bringing all kinds of down-home, values-voter authenticity with it. GOPUSA Founder Bobby Eberle is aghast at his readership and fills us in--a few snips--after the jump.

U.S. generals call for Democratic takeover:

"SALON Oct. 25, 2006 | WASHINGTON -- Two retired senior Army generals, who served in Iraq and previously voted Republican, are now openly endorsing a Democratic takeover of Congress. The generals, and an active-duty senior military official, told Salon in separate interviews that they believe a Democratic victory will help reverse course from what they consider to be a disastrous Bush administration policy in Iraq. The two retired generals, Maj. Gen. John Batiste and Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, first openly criticized the handling of the war last spring, when they called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Another few sad/amazing paragraphs and one dumbfounding statement about Gore and Kerry from Eaton that makes me wanna grab a bat, after the fold.

I'm a tad cynical here, but I'm reminded of a drowning man thrown two life preservers, one serviceable, one in flames, and he refuses the useful one because it has a union label.

Still, after the jump, I've tried to address Bob & Sue in as compassionate but firm a way as possible. To suggest that, to borrow the words of Paul, that ultimate right winger and mysoginist: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

joooomp!

Why did I quit banging the keyboard? Cuz, while I should have been writing about Moonshots & Tsunamis and brain-stuff, I'd veered into spewing this Dystopian Disneyland: jump

It's a short diary. What can you say when it's a simple idea?

I'm dad to an 8 and 11 year old. I'm looking at this moment at a bookshelf filled with approx 150 Disney videos and DVDs from original Herbie to the latest Kim Possible. They will be leaving soon.

I've asked my kids how they feel about people who lie or tell half the truth? I got the predictable answer, they don't like it. Why, I asked? I got our family rules quoted back at me:

(We posted these around the house a few years back when we were having sibling issues.)

[jump]

Whether it's wingnuts enlisting Disney to hagiograph Mr. Smoke-em-out,Bring-it-on, Dead-or-alive or just angry cavalry buffs insisting Little Big Horn was "a minor blemish" on an otherwsise stellar career, it's painful to watch people of driving age revert to Romper Room.

Lee Siegel's actually agreed to an interview at the New York Observer:

"It never occurred to me" that it was wrong, the 48-year-old Mr. Siegel said of his frame of mind at the time. "This is really cowboy territory, with very few boundaries. I think now that it was wrong. I assumed an alias, I guess, because I didn't want to stoop to their level, not realizing that I was stooping to their level."

I wrote the following just short of a year ago. I never posted it because I thought it too shrill, and myself too angry. Well, now, coming off two weeks of objectively shameful media circus and titillation over JonBenet * Karr, followed the credulous parade of politicians that Jack Cafferty notes are shamelessly slogging through a third-world New Orleans... well, now it's time to pop the top. Because we serve no vinegar before it's time...
- jump -

1. Mr. Chairman, our market share is declining and margins are slipping.
2. Damn your mouth, TRAITOR!

1. Members of the Board, Dynetron's Executive Commitee has refused our joint-venture offer.
ALL: Why?
1. Umm, they say here, quote: 'You better join us, or we mount a global PR campaign to brand you as smelly cowards and girly men.' is not negotiation."

A fake sailor/star voyager wants you! to join his newly formed flotilla/space wing in the fight against evil liberals who do what conservatives used to: Take what government says it's doing in your name with several grains of salt.

Head on over and get your free patch.

Captain Ed has a nice bit of exposition on how the chickenhawk is a noble bird n' all, cuz, well, it's got "hawk" in the name so, y'know, it must have claws and predatory fierceness and whatnot.

--take the jump for some barnyard etymology and some art. sqwawk!--

And most of them have been happening to Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney or to their scary-mad friends. Or maybe they've been happening to us and Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are what grown-ups call "collateral damage"? Or maybe we're the collateral damage?

Oh dear. There are so many boo-boos and it's all so confusing. What were people so vein-popping angry about before Mr. Cheney shot his friend in the face, but after Mr. Bush nominated Harriet Miers? Well, don't get down. Get organized!

Get the Dubyamatic® Disast-o-meter!

Two quick arguments after the jump, pro and con, and why pro maybe shouldn't be a non-starter but is, because Junior's painted us in a corner.

What is a Neoconservative, exactly?

[They are] not normal people . . . they don't reason the way you reason, they're not motivated by human emotions such as rage and pity . . . they are calculating machines, they will look at the balance sheet, and they will see that they cannot win. -- Professor Groeteschele Fail-Safe. 1964

So, what is a neocon? The scary-funny spelunking and family-tree climbing with the requsite Python in said tree,after the jump.

Hey, it's the Classic Comics version of Greek Tragedy. While some may not enjoy swami-like conjectures and observational suppositions, it is nice to be proven competent at one's vocation from time to time...

21 Things we will learn in the next 6 to 18 months

(snip)

• How many times Tony Blair had to talk George Bush down off the ledge.
  
• How much DoD money was given to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Jordan, Syria
  
• How deeply known, and how high, was the WMD McGuffin known as such and, how surprisingly early.

and last but not least:

How many of Bush's notable business and political supporters were "truly and deeply" concerned about his volatile imbalances and decision-making, but were "afraid to say anything."

Seems to me, we got us some vim and vigor happening. Most important, and none too late, we have some motivated Congress-type individuals on one side of the aisle who dun had enuf and realize the magnitude of the situation. And who grasp its tone and manner. Looks like time for some helpful hints. And, we ain't talking Marquis of Queensbury here.

After the jump: First, the executive summary version from chuggnutt. Then, the wise words of one Ragnar Benson, Man of Action, Accidental Political Strategist....