Thoughts before leaving for Arkansas

Here it is another year and no wiser. This was possibly the worst year of my life, at least on the public side -- defeat for Bill McBride in 2002 was no walk in the park, but the combination of John Kerry's loss with the rise of the reactionary religious right is almost too much to bear, but we will bear it. The hope left in Pandora's box is the resolve of real democrats. My earlier wish for a blue boycott of the Republican business community so well embodied by Wal Mart was answered by buyblue.com and chooseblue.com. Now all we need is to organize a Democratic Party Insurance Cooperative. Other mutual societies, like United Services Automobile Association (USAA) for military officers, have demonstrated the viability of the concept, now all we need is to put it in motion and fight off the right wing attacks on us for having the temerity to want to keep 'their money.'

And by the way, there's nothing wrong with Social Security -- discuss this with any Republicans you meet in the next few weeks -- if you want to retire, that is. Happy holidays

Back again, and pissed

As I said, I have to get my outrage on; and here it is. Now the Rethugs are after Social Security, with the Chimp in Chief saying SS collapse is imminent, the compliant media slavishly parroting the imminent collapse theme, and the pundits saying how obvious it is that the 'system is in trouble.' Which it is, of course, because it's now the target for Republican looting. Paul Krugman has a great piece in the NY Times about this being the route Argentina took in the 1980's.

Perhaps the most significant outrage, of course, is the conscious choice of the right wing to make Americans ignorant and stupid. Because thoughtful people become Democrats, "ignorance is strength" is the real Republican motto. Ruy Texiera wrote that as Americans become more educated, they also become more Democratic. The obvious counter to this is to make Americans more ignorant. That'll make 'em good Rethugs. It's the basis of the whole "creation science" or "intelligent design" campaign. Make rational thought and the scientific method invalid, and all evaluation becomes replaced by faith and manipulated public opinion. Shall we vote on the value of pi? Three makes more sense than some "irrational" number.