McCain Tacks to the Right

John McCain showed his true red-state colors today. When discussing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, he's always said if a military leader said we should reconsider this shameful policy, then he would do so. But today he went back on those words. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in full uniform told the armed services committee, the policy was wrong and Mccain went out of his way to say--"Hold on a minute, the Congress decides these things, not you military guys. We need to study this thing for at least 25 years and then I'm not even sure it should ever change, cause you know us straight guys don't want no show-tune-singing nancy boys seeing our junk in the shower."

It was obvious why he said that (OK he didn't say exactly those words, but that was his subtext). He's facing a challenge for re-election in the Arizona Republican primary from a tea-bag type. If he appears the slightest bit moderate, they will jump on him--"He lost us the White House. His daughter just loves those gays! His wife posed for that ad in favor of gay marriage--and here we thought she was the perfect Stepford robot! He may as well be having a Cosmo at a piano bar. Damn, you cain't trust nobody these days! Brother Glenn Beck says he's more dangerous than Obama. He's brainwashed our Sister Sarah into endorsing him."

But the Joint Chiefs chairman basically said the policy was wrong and it should end. Oh and BTW, Colin Powell just said DADT should end as well. So that's two major military people on our side. More on Beck and Arianna Huffington and Roger Ailes at their set-to in a further post. It's very late.

Mad Tea Party

(Sung to the tune of "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music"):

Right-wing goons

Looney tunes

Every tea party you show up

Flat earth

Obama's birth

You make me want to throw up

That little ditty occured to me last week as the coverage of the Sept. 12 Tea Party march on Washington unfolded and the inflated numbers were rolled out. I got especially enraged when I saw that Fox was promoting the event as if it were the Second Coming and then had the nerve to take out a full-page ad in the Washington Post asking the rhetorical question: "How could ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC miss this story?" Forget the fact that all five of those networks coverd the event to one degree or another, what really made my blood boil was remembering when I marched on Washington--TWICE--as part of a gay rights protest and we got almost NO coverage from anyone--zip, nada, snoozeville. Our numbers were given short shrift by almost every news outlet--the ones that did cover us--and I will bet you any amount of money that if there were some objective, reliable way to count the marchers, we drew just as many people, if not more, as these loony birds. How come no one said "How could you miss that story?" And when gay people march again later this month, there will almost no coverage--AGAIN. You know why? Because we're not backed by big political interests like the Tea Pot Domers are (I just coined that one, like it?)

And now it's revealed a Fox producer was directing the crowd in one of her shots to cheer and yell. OK, maybe they would have been excited anyway, but Foxy lady, you're not supposed to manipulate the story you're covering--in any way. That's called titling the story towards the outcome you want--not being fair and balanced, you know, your network's motto.

It's late at night and I may ramble a bit here: I don't think Carter was right saying an overwhelming motive behind the anti-Obama vitriol is rooted in racism. Some of it is for sure. But a lot is based on fear that the repubs are ginning up. Fear that this big bad boogie man Obama will take away their insurance and cars and guns and country music and grits and NASCAR races and fatty foods and trips to Disneyland. They'd do that if Obama was white, but his being black adds to the fear for some people.

I heard Glenn Beck say he thought John McCaine would have been worse for the country than Obama. What? He said Mccain was a crazy progressive like Teddy Roosevelt. What a whacked out sense of history. Teddy broke the trusts and helped the average working man--the people Beck supposedly loves and wants to elevate. Now we see his real agenda--keep the proles in line, let the corporations control their lives, as long as it's not big government. Also these tea baggers may form their own third party. Oh please, oh please, do it! Do it! Split the conservatives right down the middle and give the Dems the White House and Congress for sure. This was based on an iterview with some former Rep strategist who believes this whole nutbag movement is based on frustration and dissatisifcation with government in general.

Obama explained it really well on Letterman tonight: this whole economic and health care mess is the result of too little government regulation in the first place (under repub adminsitrations) and now these dimwits think as little government as possible is the answer. Just let private enterprise and capitalism run wild and do whatever the market will bear. You know where that will lead? back to the 18th century before unions, anti-trust laws, Medicare, Social Security, etc. etc. right where Fox, Beck and O'Reilly want us.