Poor, poor Sarah Palin and Michael Steele! Along with Bobby Jindal, these two are attempting to become Vice Leaders of the Republican Party to help the real leader, Rush Limbaugh. All three are sort of competing for the role of Vice. (I suppose the role is open with Larry Craig out of the Senate.) But Sarah and Michael have had some troubles lately.

Sarah, for instance, just had Redoubt, a volcano, erupt in her back yard, spreading ash to the north of Anchorage and disrupting the airport there as well as Elmendorf AFB. This is a major volcano. Now, I’m not sure she can see it like she can Russia, but it is in her state, and that sure has to be unlucky and all. Of course, she promised not to take a whole bunch of that stimulus money, and like Bobby Jindal, she mocked money for volcano monitoring. Yes, nature, in the form of Redoubt the volcano, has defied Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal. Still, if this turns into a disaster, she can depend on the kindness of strangers, just like Sarah Palin will depend on strangers to pay her legal fees.

Michael Steele, on the other hand, has also had a rough time of it. Michael Steele defied King Rush, the dictatorial leader of the GOP, and then had to go and make nice. He caught some flack for redecorating his offices, which he claimed were a bit too masculine, or something like that. (Did he hire these guys, or is that too cliche for a Republican?) Michael Steele can’t seem to get anything right, even getting suggestions he should defect to the Democratic Party, though, as I mentioned earlier, we don’t want him.

Poor Michael and Sarah are both having a bad time of it lately, but now it has gotten worse. According to an exclusive report

The Florida legislature has made it possible for you to honor Jesus by choosing a license plate with His image on it. This landmark legislation was snuck onto another measure the other day by a bipartisan couple of lawmakers. The wing nuts will be pleased. From the St. Petersburg Times:

If you want Jesus on your license plate, the Florida Senate is looking out for you.

Because why worry about a budget impasse or property insurance when you can spend more than an hour talking about Jesus, the devil and license plates?

Religious specialty plates offered by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, made it onto a bill Friday even though many members had not seen images of those plates and none was produced for the debate.

Siplin didn’t mince words when asked what his “Trinity” plate looks like, saying, “It has a picture of my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”

OK, I’m not going to riff about the seperation of church and state. I’m not going to riff about how the legislature is irresponsible to even discuss this when there are a whole lot of other problems in Florida that need to be dealt with. no, I think this is completely appropriate legislation, as it fits the Florida image as America’s tackiest state. OK, Jesus might not be all that pleased to know he’s been relagated to the exhaust end of the car. Heck, wasn’t he on dashboards just a few years ago? Well, he’s honored with a license plate now, and license plates in Florida are nothing if not the great leveler. One can honor almost anything in Florida by choosing a special license plate. Jesus is but one amongst a plethora of honorees, including manatees, turtles and the Space Shuttle.

US Representative Steve King of Iowa is thinking of running for Governor in Iowa now that the courts there have paved the way for gay marriage in the state. Gee, this guy has a way with words. From the Des Moines Register:

U.S. Rep. Steve King said Monday that he is more likely to run for governor next year in light of the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling last week overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage.

“When these kinds of things happen, it sucks me into the Iowa policy in a way that I haven’t been sucked into it in a while,” King told The Des Moines Register. “It’s not a predominant component. But when these kinds of things happen, does it make me more or less likely? The answer is more likely.”

Given that the gay marriage issue can’t come to any kind of vote for a long, long time, I’m thinking Mr. King is going to find himself on the wrong side of this one. But, you know, the extremists on the religious right just might give him some campaign bucks. The thing is, there are probably a few other Republicans who are thinking just like him, that fighting gay marriage is their ticket to bigger and better things. The infighting in that primary might just be horribly fierce, paving the way for a moderate Democrat.

Meanwhile, Iowans have a few years to get used to the idea of their fellow citizens marrying gayly, raising families, and being good neighbors. Someone ought to start a campaign of gay and lesbian Iowans sharing recipes with their neighbors, or something like that. Being visibly “normal” is probably important over the next few years.

As far as Steve King is concerned, why did he choose the word “suck?” Man, is he trying to be subliminal or what?

First up is Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL). He’™s decided that there is no Global warming, because God promised us he wouldn’™t destroy the earth again. Nope, not even pretending to be scientific. Here’™s the video. God promised us, so it must be true. Not like he’™s saying the planet needs even more carbon dioxide, not at all. Ooops, that, too. And here’™s that article. Shimkus must be trying out for a talking head spot on FauxNews or something.

Then there’™s the Catholic Priest with his panties in a wad about a statue of a woman pirate. Yo ho ho! She’™s got a bit of cleavage there, and Father Edward Commoly thinks this is immoral, soft porn, and enough so he should curse bless them, each and every boobs! I’™m thinking the guy is a bit bitter and needs to console himself with something other than a campaign against a legitimate local business. Here’™s the article.

Pam Spaulding has a story about how Oklahoma legislators, mostly, but sadly not all, Republican, are all up in arms because the University of Oklahoma invited an expert on evolution to speak on campus. Yeah, they’™ve got a problem with real science at a university. All hail David Boren for defending academic freedom and, well, truth. The Oklahoma legislators in question probably know that their constituents are so stupid that they will be rewarded with another term for opposing real science. The article is at Pam’™s House Blend.

The noted poet is Glenn Beck of FauxNews, who’™d better watch out or John Shimkus will get his job. There is in fact competition out there to see who the whackjobiest of whack jobs is. Beck shouldn’™t sit on his ass, laurels or whatever. Salon has several examples of Beck’™s poetry, taken verbatim from his broadcasts. Please, go read the Glenn Beck Poetry Collection at Salon, but I’™ll put my favorite here:

MEATBALLS AT THE FURNITURE STORE

Somebody said let’™s make Swedish meatballs at the furniture store

And somebody else said, that’™s a stupid idea; nobody’™s going to want meatballs at the furniture store.

And the first guy on that first day, his ass was on the line.

And so one customer came for lunch, he knew he had to get rid of the meatballs

And he was like, yeah, you want meatballs from the furniture store?

And they’™re like, yeah, I guess; my wife has been dragging them around forever.

Anything. Just whatever. I was thinking about eating an ottoman

A little while ago but then meatballs has actual meat in it

And then the guy behind the counter said, well, I’™m not really sure

But ya, ya, sure. So then he takes the meatballs

And he has to put them on a huge plate

Because he has to get rid of them.

Otherwise, you know, the big Swede is going to say

That was the dumbest thing I’™ve ever heard.

And so now that one fat guy who had the big bowl of meatballs

Now buys all of his furniture there and has told all of his fat friends,

Buy your furniture there because your wife will walk around

And you’™ll have an hour worth of eating meatballs

And that’™s what happened.

(‘The Glenn Beck Program,’ Premiere Radio Networks, Nov. 21, 2007)

It’™s Tuesday. Is that the day all the religious whack jobs come out? Does Beck fit in with them?

I just don’t get right wingers. They can take an issue that has some degree of resonance across the political spectrum, come up with a kicky idea that has PR punch, and then turn it into a steaming pile of fetid compost. (Check that – we all know that dittoheads would never compost their waste.)

You simply must check out this photo gallery from a “protest” in Stamford, Ct. over the weekend. Here’s a taste:

And here’s a link to a story on the tea party protest.

Anyone remember the post-election Brooks Brothers Riot in Miami, Florida in November, 2000 that stopped the presidential vote recounts? Yeah, these tea parties feel a lot like that.

(h/t to Bob Cesca’s Awesome Goddamn Blog)

I suppose they are getting used to environmental disasters in Alaska by now. The tank farm at the base of Redoubt has been evacuated, and it seems from reports that few contingency plans were made for this situation where an active volcano actually erupted. Gee, who could have predicted that? Where’s Bobby Jindal when you need him? From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

An Alaska volcano continued to rumble Tuesday amid new concerns that eruptions and mud flows will damage a nearby oil terminal where about 6 million gallons of crude oil are stored.

The 10,200-foot Mount Redoubt volcano about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage erupted Sunday night. Since then, there have been five more explosions with the latest occurring Monday night. That one, likely a flow of hot gas and rock, shot an ash plume into the air that was 40,000 to 50,000 feet high.

I suppose I could have extended that quotation some about how they don’t know how to evacuate the oil, etc., but I think the prognosis is maybe the best way to end this little piece. From a fisherman in Cook Inlet:

Tom Evans, an Alaska Native from the lower Cook Inlet village of Nanwalek, said people depend on inlet fisheries to feed their families.

“It makes no sense to store oil at the base of an erupting volcano,” he said.

Well, sense is in short supply in Alaska these days, I guess.

. . .

There’s a nexus coming together in this country, and while some are using the metaphor of pitchforks and the proles storming the castle (the rich, at AIG, at least, seem very afraid of this scorn, as evidenced here and here), it is beginning to seem to me as if the rich, those metaphorically living in the castle, are guilty of tea bagging, if not pitchforking, themselves.

I suppose I come to this conclusion first from Michael Hiltzik’s column in the Los Angeles Times. His title somewhat says it all: “The belief that the wealthy are worthy is waning.” The thesis here is that many in our country rallied against progressive income taxes that hit the rich because they themselves pictures themselves as being rich someday, sort of like Joe the Plumber, you know. They had a myopia concerning the true American condition. We all know that Joe the Plumber will get nowhere unless he milks the right wing media with his image, and Joe will therefore continue in self-delusion. But the average American, Hiltzik says, is beginning to see through this Republican myth.

Let’s face facts. The Republicans are the ones, perhaps further back than Gingrich or even Reagan, who perpetuated the myth that cutting taxes on the wealthy would result in good jobs for everyone, including the possibility that everyman may one day become rich himself. Not so much nowadays. The false veneer on this theory is peeling off, like a Laffer Curve going south. They set the stage with their constant attempts to reverse the progressive system of taxes in this country, led now by Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform, a group Republicans listen to almost as well as they bow to their leader, Rush Limbaugh, as mindnumbingly stupid as that act of bowing is.

What really blew the top off, though, is their penchant for deregulation. We’re seeing an economic meltdown because of unregulated securities now, and AIG’s insuring those risky schemes, but what we’re also seeing on the side is the steadily declining respect for the rich. Sure, many rich people are philanthropists, and there are fine people among the rich. When the taxes go up on them, as the current national feeling will assuredly lead to, they will go up on me and my family as well. But let’s make sure to note that the deregulation was spurred by a system of rewards cloaked as bonuses. Sure, the former Chair of AIG claims he wouldn’t have given out the bonuses that are so controversial now, but he gave out similar retention rewards. It was the name of the game for far too many years. Risky products are dreamed up by money managers whose bonus was directly tied to short-term success. They became the rich. By exploiting the system they have tea bagged themselves.

AIG’s defense? They are now going after taxes they say they don’t owe because they derived from offshore tax shelters. Yes, banking regulations evidently enabled them to legally shelter a whole batch of their tax obligations, and AIG wants that 306 Million Dollars back, even though the funds helping them fight the IRS were provided by the federal government. These folks just don’t know how to leave well enough alone. The gall, we say, at every turn where they spend our money on bonuses or suing us! Should we be so surprised?

Now the Republicans have started this stupid Tea Bag campaign. It mimics the Boston Harbor protest from our American Revolution, but there ain’t no redcoats here. As Bob Cesca notes, the Republican Tea Bag campaign is about reducing taxes on the wealthy at a time when the entire American electorate is glued to the TV waiting for the next shoe to drop in the Wall Street mess, caused by the Republican deregulation and greed that the Tea Bagging goal would ostensibly reward. Sure, Republicans are railing against AIG bonuses, but as usual they have no plan. They’d rather protest using Tea Bags, and referring to an insulting sex act. Yeah, Republicans claim to stand for high moral values, but even their protests are coarse and ugly. What they’ve done with such absurities is tea bag themselves.

It would be enough if the Republicans had only Tea Bagged themselves, but they have done the bidding of the markets and those who pretend to stand for the rich for so long that the rich are the ones feeling the Tea Bag, full in the face. Conspicuous Consumption is coming to an end, I’m guessing, at least for a long time, and I’m betting Thorstein Veblen would be proud. But this isn’t about a 120 year old theory. This is about today, about the dangers of runaway and unregulated capitalism and how it can destroy our economy. The Republicans called for that deregulation, trusting int he blind hand of supply and demand to care for everyone. That ship has sailed, and judging by their stupid Tea Bag campaign, the GOP is far, far from recognizing that fact.

Well, there’™s always periodic GOP panic over the word ‘œGod’ in the Pledge of Allegiance. And there is extremist GOP panic about nearly everything concerning Barack Obama, including his religion and his name and his birthplace. The next panic will combine both of these issues, and it will make its way to the national spotlight within a couple days. As for now, it is on the Daily Blaze, here on the internets:

A parent in the Clark County School District of Las Vegas, Henderson area reported today that his son, who is in 1st grade, came home yesterday saying that he didn’™t want to go back to school anymore.

When asked why, the boy said that during the Pledge of Allegiance the teacher put up a large image of Obama next to the flag.

Thinking that the boy might be exaggerating, the man asked his son if he was sure, and suggested that by ‘œlarge’ he might mean an 8–—10 photo of the president. The boy apparently said ‘œNo, it is a large picture of Obama and when we are done, the teacher turns off the image.’

Yes, the whine is that all American children are soon going to be forced to pledge their allegiance directly to Barack Obama. Perhaps there also will be secret radio waves checking to make sure the children are sincrere in their pledge, the first step in making the children Obama Zombies.

Of course, as is usual with the nascent GOP whiney case of panic, there’™s something that rings false here. Sure, marketing would say that the notion of ‘œcaring for the children’ is a good excuse to act, but please don’™t tell me a first grader was scared by a picture of Barack Obama. No, that part of the story doesn’™t ring true. What does that make this? It makes this whole potential case of GOP whiney panic based on the exploitation of a child. No SCHIP for Republicans, but if they can falsely enlist their children in the cause, then that’™s OK.

The only other mentions of this story is on a right wing blog called Red County, and also on right wing whack job Alex Jones’™ web site, Prison Planet. I expect this fake controversy to spread until people start wearing their stupid lapel flag pins again.

Well, it’s like this. News Hounds has some commentary on last night’s Hannity show in which he decided to blame the US Airways near-disaster on Democrats. He traced it all to an earmark New York Senator Chuck Schumer got in 2004 for the environmental group Geesepeace (no, I did not make that up). Geesepeace’s aim is to solve goose problems peacefully. OK, that’s a quick summary of the real Geesepeace mission, and frankly I wish they would deal with a little of the goose droppings issue here in Philly along the Schuylkill River Trail, but that’s another issue altogether.

So, anyway, Hannity did an Olympic-level leap to a conclusion. I understand it’s going to be on the Sportscenter highlights tonight. Hannity put two and two together and came of with the square root of a canned ham. Basically, he blamed the earmark that went to Geesepeace for the birds that evidently were sucked into the engine of US Airways Flight 1549, even though the investigation into the causes of the crash are likely years away from completion. News Hounds made fun of Sean Hannity for jumping the gun, leaping to a conclusion, being stupid, etc., and they may be right, but what they didn’t report is that Hannity is consistent morally, if completely off on the issue of Geesepeace and US Airways Flight 1549.

You see, Hannity didn’t bother to investigate and find out that Geesepeace actually works to limit the population of geese by searching out nests and addling or oiling the eggs of Canadian geese, essentially a crude form of goose abortion. Give them more money and fewer accidents are going to happen, not more, as Hannity claimed, because Geesepeace is aborting goslings! That’s their raison d’etre, the death of baby geese!!! “Geesepeace” should be called the “Gosling Death Squad!” Yes, they are goslingkillers, and this is likely the real reason Hannity is after them. The whole thing about Chuck Schumer? SMOKE SCREEN! Hannity just wants Geesepeace destroyed because they abort baby geese.

Now you know the rest of the story.

In Maryland that was evidently the case, according to an article by Lisa Rein and Josh White in yesterday’s Washington Post. More complete details are now out about the suveillance program conducted by the Maryland State Police, and it is shocking the kinds of citizens groups that agency decided to infiltrate and report on, on the slim rationalization that the groups might be harboring terrorists. This is a mighty report, that’s for sure. Here’s the lead, from the Washington Post:

The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored – and labeled as terrorists – activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.

Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a “security threat” because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.

One of the possible “crimes” in the file police opened on Amnesty International, a world-renowned human rights group: “civil rights.”

According to hundreds of pages of newly obtained police documents, the groups were swept into a broad surveillance operation that started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row.

The operation has been called a “waste of resources” by the current police superintendent and “undemocratic” by the governor.

I’m willing to bet, based on the fearmongering inherent in these actions, and the incompetence the officers showed in choosing who to monitor, that every single one of the officers who hatched this illegal and unconstitutional surveillance program were Republicans. Though he was not implicated in any of this wrongdoing, the Governor of Maryland at the time, Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., is a Republican. Micheal Steele, current GOPAC Chair and candidate for the Chair of the RNC, was Lietenant Governor of Maryland when these ugly crimes took place. Alas, Republicans will counter that they are not crimes since no charges have been filed, but I value the constitution far more highly than they do.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a bicycle enthusist, and log ten to forty mile trips quite often throughout the spring and summer. I have even joined an advocacy group here in PA, the Friends of Schuylkill River Park. Thankfully I live in Pennsylvania, and there is no evidence, as yet, that police or others gone wild in their zeal to perform Homeland Security tasks have targeted that organization.