CNN Poll Relegates GOP to Trivial Status But Wait, There's More

The current junta that strangles the Republican Party hopes that cultural and wedge issues entice citizens to support their free-market economy philosophy again, the same philosophy that nearly sank our Ship of State.  They hope that enough Americans will be suckered into their ranks over trivial cultural issues so that they can maintain their failed economic policies.

A new CNN poll suggests that American citizens are abandoning these GOP wedge issues fast.  Thirty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday morning said unemployment is the most important economic issue facing the country today, almost three times higher than the 13 percent who felt the same way last April. Inflation is second at 20 percent, followed by the mortgage crisis at 16 percent, the stock market at 14 percent and taxes at 11 percent.

Taxes at the bottom. The trump card of the GOP worthless now. Apparently, the GOP speech writes will have to remove that red herring from the list because Americans don't seem to give a damn about that issue right now.

The poll also indicates the economy remains the most important issue facing the country today. Sixty-three percent said the economy is their top concern, with health care a distant second at 9 percent. The federal budget deficit follows at 8 percent, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at 6 percent, education and terrorism tied at 5 percent, and energy policy at 2 percent.

Not only do the Republicans lose the tax card, but they also lose the war, terrorism, and the federal budget aces. Not a single ace left up the Republican sleeve. No wonder the party is in such disarray.

Don't mourn for the party yet. They are working very hard, overtime these days, to regain their stranglehold on this nation. Their lust for power and easy money is incessant and they will not go gently into the night.

As my previous post on the Weimar Republic suggests, the party out of power can make a sudden and masterful comeback. Rush Limbaugh has already begun the offensive move by declaring his intention of taking down the ruling party. This section from the Weimar post is especially important to recall:

It was at this time that the right wing made its crucial decision. Despite its shocking, naked failure over the prior decade, despite the horrific devastation it had wrought on the German people, despite the discrediting of everything they had purported to stand for, they would fight [the new leader], his new government, and its plans for recovery. They would do everything they could to make sure that the new government failed.

Sound like Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Beck, and others on the far-right of the GOP? "In their hearts, every Republican wants Obama to fail" is essentially true and a call to arms.

The article makes this familiar statement about German politics after World War !:

Contrition for their abject failure, humility for their destructive hubris, compassion for their crippled country-those had nothing to do with it. All they possessed was a blinding, visceral hatred of the left and a masturbatory lust for the return to power.

Sound familiar? It couldn't happen here, though could it? No, not here in this nation. That's what many Germans thought. But it did happen there with the result that a little known political figure from the oddly-named National Socialist Party became the leader and dictator of Germany.

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Here is an excellent comparison of what happened politically in Germany after WWI and what may happen here in America following  Bush and the right-wing Republicans.  The author, Robert Freeman, warns us that we may suffer the same outcome as the Germans if the right-wing Republicans here do what the right-wingers in Germany did to that country. The comparisons are frightfully similar. Let's hope the outcome is different.

Hyperbaric/Oxygen Rich Treatment for Children with Autism

An article at Biomed Central states that several uncontrolled studies of hyperbaric treatment in children with autism have reported clinical improvements. Sixty-two children with autism recruited from 6 centers, ages 2-7 years were randomly assigned to 40 hourly treatments of either hyperbaric treatment at 1.3 atmosphere (atm) and 24% oxygen or slightly pressurized room air at 1.03 atm and 21% oxygen.

After 40 sessions, mean physician CGI scores significantly improved in the treatment group compared to controls in overall functioning, receptive language, social interaction, and eye contact); 9/30 children (30%) in the treatment group were rated as "very much improved" or "much improved" compared to 2/26 (8%) of controls; 24/30 (80%) in the treatment group improved compared to 10/26 (38%) of controls.

The conclusions reached through this preliminary study are that children with autism who received hyperbaric treatment at 1.3 atm and 24% oxygen for 40 hourly sessions had significant improvements in overall functioning, receptive language, social interaction, eye contact, and sensory/cognitive awareness compared to children who received slightly pressurized room air.

A slight increase in air pressure and a small increase in oxygen improved the performance of these children. Amazing outcome. Any hope for improving the lives of the autistic child and their parents is welcome news.

My Right-wing Brother-in-Law Quiet These Days

Often on this blog, I refer to my right-wing brother-in-law in order to get the 'message' from that dark corner of the political spectrum. He gets his 'news' and 'information' from the usual sources, mostly talk radio. We met on Friday for dinner- the first time since the Inauguration- and I wondered what the spin on the Obama presidency would be.

I was amazed at his silence. Dumbfounded, in fact. Not one discouraging word. Nada. It was an eye-opener, for sure.

He used to be a Democrat, like his father and forever back, but in the late 90's he moved far-right. We used to dread dinners together because of the usual right-wing blather that, like a good dittohead, he would utter. Not this time, though. Amazing.

Today, Frank Rich of the NYT penned an OpEd titled, The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off My brother-in-law enjoyed the culture wars, peppering his pronouncements with many 'them' and 'those people' references. Seems 'they' were always stealing his money or messing up his life. On Friday, 'they' apparently disappeared.

His life-savings has all but disappeared from his portfolio. He has no pension and lives on his Social Security [socialism!] check and dividends from his portfolio. Well, not that any longer.

I believe that he has finally it figured out: he has been hoodwinked, bamboozled by the right, election after election, and voted 'culture war' issues rather than his wallet. The chickens didn't come home to roost.

Rich says,

"What has happened between 2001 and 2009 to so radically change the cultural climate? Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown: Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford."

It's the economy, stupid! My wife's brother is finally 'getting it.'

Dick Speaks Today- Get the Arrest Warrant

Dick "Dick" Cheney will appear live today on CNN for an interview with John King. What more can we learn about this psychopathic liar that we didn't already know? Who wants to hear his 'version' of history or his 'ideas' on how to get us out of the hold that he and his sidekick dug for us?

Marshals from the World Court in The Hague ought to be waiting at the doors of the studio to serve him his arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. Like Madoff, it would be a pleasure to see this criminal be cuffed and whisked off to an anonymous country for a little 'rendition.' I'll bet he's squeal like a stuck pig.

Education Reform

The Obama Administration is keen on education
reform. Their idea, however, seems to be just
throw a larger sum of money down the education
sink hole like Bush-Kennedy did with "no child
left behind" legislation. With all the money
thrown at education, the U.S. education system
still ranks behind the rest of our industrialized
co-nation partners. Apparently, the liberals
believe hands more money will make it right.

In my opinion gobs more federal money will not
change the situation. Perhaps it is time to think
outside the box, but therein is the problem, to
think! Real thinking seems to be non-existent in
the United States educational system from elementary
to secondary and through college. There is no
courage to stimulate children and young adults to
learn how to think. Courage is a key virtue, but it
is hard to do with the elitist system that permeates
the United States.

The Obama Administration continues shouting from the
roof top of the White House that all U.S. children have
the right to attend college. There is the myth, i.e.,
all children should go to college/university. College
is for the intellectual able, not everyone. At least
50% have no intellectual reason to be in higher
education. And, please, saying this does not make me
an elitist. And, don't give me the bull about
affirmative action. If a child in the eighth grade
cannot do algebra, the educational system ought to tell
this family that a career in higher education of science
and technology will not be possible.Today, a United States
entering college/university must have had calculus and
statistics in high school. This is a must if our education
system is to provide scientists and mathematicians on a
par with the rest of our industrial national partners.

Conversely, that same eighth grader above can take an engine
apart, find the problem, and put it back together. We
need people with that ability. We need skilled carpenters,
plumbers, electricians, and so forth. What we don't need
is the cost of sending these children to college. Yet, we
hear the Obama Administration saying we need to send our
children to college/university for a BA/BS. Many kids are
just not smart. Half of our kids are below average.
Intellecual ability varies, and kids
just don't do well. They can't pass the tests, so we
shrug and say the poor souls could if the tests were more
sensitive to their feelings. Make it fair, put them on the
Bell curve. The future of the United States depends on how
we educate the intellectual able students. With limited
financial resources we must not spend money to send every
student to college. Let the colleges and universities start
spending their huge endowments. Enough of this egalitarian
educational philosophy at the college/university level.
Reform the elementary and secondary school structure to
provide for a skill and service oriented society for the
majority of students and a way to promote the intellectual
able to come out of high school with the ability to think
and do advanced math and science to be successful in college.

The Un-doing of the Bush Nightmare

It has been a long, 8-year nightmare for us Americans [and much of the world]. The Bush presidency was simply awful. It was so atrocious that the Obama Administration has spent much of its time attempting to repair the enormous damage caused by the former president.

Oh, there are many Bush apologists and sycophants out there trying desperately to spin this pitiful presidency into something positive, something more than the facts portend. More than we witnesses to this painful history remember.

In fact, here is a preview of a NYT Magazine article that will be out Sunday:

NYT contributor James Traub explores the uproar over the soon-to-arrive "Freedom Institute" established by former President George W. Bush at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, which will sit astride his presidential library there. Critics on and off campus have denounced it for various reasons, including the fact that it has been set up to pursue and defend his policies and record, not for scholarly research.

It will begin operating this fall and the George Bush Foundation which runs it will name an executive director soon. Some profs at the school are half-convinced that Bush will appoint Karl Rove to the post. With that in mind, some there see Condi Rice as an acceptable alternative.

Another historian there charges: "The Bush circle has done so much damage to every institution they've touched, it would be naive not to worry about the damage they could do to SMU."

Traub points out "the prospect" of being identified "in perpetuity" with Bush's agenda "freezes the blood of some of the university's leading academics. Everything about the planned institute reminds them of what they detested about the Bush administration. It will proselytize rather than explore: a letter sent to universities bidding for the Bush center stipulated that the institute would, among other things, 'further the domestic and international goals of the Bush administration.'"

The prospect freezes the blood. And the mind as well as the soul. 'In perpetuity' is a frightening thought. Thus, Southern Methodist University is 'stuck' in the role of hosting a grotto to both incompetency as well as vindictiveness. A memorial to a clutch of ideologues who nearly ruined our nation from within and from without.

[graphic from sirenschronicles ]

Recession-hit Americans 'a little sick' of Iraq

Of course they are, six years after lots of them were cheering on the insipid war that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the other neocons trumped-up. My wife, my family, many friends and I not only did not cheer this war, we worked against its inception. We protested, wrote letters, spread the news of anti-war activities, and other pro-active measures to instruct the masses that the Bush preemptive invasion of Iraq was nothing more than an ideological and political stunt.

The pro-war propaganda from both the Pentagon and White House was enormous. The Media played right into their hands, especially the right-wing media who heralded the upcoming war like a Medieval pageant, with parking lot rallies, music and flags- lots of flags.

Emerson said it best 130 years ago: "When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart."

CNN reports: (CNN) -- With Americans confronting an economic crisis, public interest in the nearly 6-year-old war in Iraq has dropped off over the past few years as conditions on the ground there have improved and the relevance to the average American family's pocketbook wears thin.

"This is already one of the longest wars in American history. There's nothing new in Iraq," said Steven Roberts, a professor of media studies at George Washington University. "We've read the stories of instability in the government a hundred times. Every single possible story has been told, and so there is enormous fatigue about Iraq."

Fatigue about Iraq. Perhaps,the American citizens have learned a lesson here. Sadly, don't bet on it.

White Male Privilege gets Senator in Trouble, Again

It's Louisiana Senator David Vitter again. Who doesn't remember that awful scene when he and his poor wife stood before the cameras while he pleaded 'regret' for using the services of DC Madame? Mrs. Vitter stared away from the cameras during his confession. Brings to mind Mrs. Craig and the men's room.

Apparently the white male privilege meme is over-active in Vitter, The TSA is investigating an incident at Dulles international Airport, reported by a gate attendant who reported that the door to the boarding bridge was already closed, but Vitter opened it anyway, triggering an alarm. The paper said an airline worker warned him not to enter the walkway, which led to a "tirade" by Vitter who "remained defiant." The senator left the area before airport police arrived.

Louisiana is becoming the southern version of Illinois. I suppose anybody arrogant enough to think that people elected them to office because they 'deserved to be elected' easily form an attitude of arrogance which, in white men, distorts their natural white male privilege way out of proportion.

Creationism Gibberish as Science

Fossil Equidae: a monobaraminic, stratomorphic series

Cavanaugh, DP; Wood, TC; Wise, KP. 2003

Abstract.

We performed a baraminological analysis on nineteen fossil equid species using a morphological dataset obtained from the published literature. From a baraminic distance correlation analysis, we found evidence that all nineteen species belong to a single monobaramin. The 3D ANOPA distribution revealed a linear trajectory of equid species with sixteen species in the main axis and three species in a side-branch. The order of species in the ANOPA trajectory closely corresponds to the order of stratigraphic appearance, indicating that the fossil equids form a true stratomorphic series. We interpret the strata as post-Flood, concluding that the equid fossil record evidences a rapid, post-Flood, intrabaraminic diversification.

----------------------------------------------

Translation- the creationist 'scientists' who presented this article to the Fifth International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh in 2003 have 'proved' that horses can swim.

Well, not only that, but, to be fair to the 'research,' it proves that the horse may not have lived 54 million years ago because, the earth is only 6,000 years old as the Bible says.

Those odd words in the abstract, monobaraninic, baraminological, and baraminic  may have been strange to your eyes. On-line dictionaries give a 'can't find' message when the word is toggled. However, Wikipedia gives us some help:  Baraminology is a creationist system for classifying life into groups not related by common ancestry, called "baramins". Its methodology is founded on a literal creationist reading of "kinds" in Genesis, especially a distinction between humans and other animals.

Well, that clears the air of any 'science' that the reader was hoping to discover.

Perhaps the 'flood story' helps us understand how the tapir, another of the odd-toed ungulates in the 'horse' family, is found in the rain forests of Brazil. Apparently it was an excellent swimmer, not unlike Michael Phelps.

That darned 'flood story' in the Bible seems to mess up lots of  'science' facts.  We know that it 'covered the whole earth.' As Genesis details:  The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days, and every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. Perhaps the Brazilian tapir clung to a log on its 10,000 mile trip from Israel to Brazil, one hell of a ride.

But no, because everything was wiped out.  Thus the swim.  I wonder if the biblical tapir was more slender in 'those days' because it sure doesn't look like an olympic gold metal swimmer these days.