I Hope You're Happy

Hi, I’m Marty, I’m a recovering Republican

A good article about how a one time Liberal hugely over corrected and became a conservative looney.

Children’s Stories

Help Mommy! The Radicals are Ruining my Country!

Looks like the Republicans, who are against the Liberal indoctrination of their children want to indoctrinate their children on paranoia, fear and stupidity. While it is against Nancy Pelosi, so I don’t mind it too much, it is just another bit of Republican hypocrisy. (worth the click just for the image)

You have to read this about “Coraline”

Now, Coraline is my 3 yr old’s favorite movie. It was written by one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, and was done by the Directors of Nightmare Before Christmas (my daughter’s second favorite movie). When Neil was still writing it, I met him, and he told us about a story that kids love, but scares the living shit out of adults. That was Coraline. Now, check out these quotes:

To others, “Mother Hulda” is a reflection of the soul-life of the people who carried the story down through the ages, an embodiment of their outlook on the world. The story extols the beauty of nature, encourages diligence and industry, and praises kindness towards people and all living things. In Goldmarie’s parallel world, each created being, whether an apple tree by the road or a bluebird singing in a rose bush, is worthy of love and respect.

Not so with Hollywood’s horrifying “Coraline” a children’s movie which Christians should have boycotted. The movie was directed by Henry Selick who made “Nightmare before Christmas” with Tim Burton. The images are disturbing enough to do permanent damage to a young soul. Let us just say in passing that the mother in the story blinds her children, replacing their eyes with buttons, a metaphorical action symbolizing the destruction of the soul in hell.

A good friend made the remarkable observation that “Coraline” is really a mirror image of Goldmarie’s story, a dark counterpart to the bright world of Mother Hulda. Indeed, this terrifying tale reverses almost every aspect of “Mother Hulda.” Coraline passes down a tunnel into a parallel universe filled with loathsome creatures. As bright as Goldmarie’s world is, and filled with love, Coraline’s world is filled with terror, darkness, and hate.

That America has fallen so far to allow such a movie to be shown to children is another matter. But what is the political significance of these two stories? Precisely this: many in Hollywood have a vision of the world terrifyingly unlike our own. Those who made “Coraline” are also likely to endorse the evils of abortion and homosexual marriage, and given a chance, could easily change America into a Soviet-style hell on earth. That is – if you will – Mother Hulda shows the soul of the Right, and Coraline, the tormented soul of the Left.

A side-by-side comparison of the two stories reveals that ours is much more than a political struggle. Ours is truly “a battle against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Now, as an author I can tell you a few things. 1) Stories are about conflict. Stories without conflict, and hence danger and scary things, are really bad stories. 2) children’s lit, and especially young adult, is subversive by nature. It’s about gaining independence by facing something challenging or frightening on one’s own. 3) It’s my own personal belief that someone who hasn’t seen some conflict and violence because they’ve been sheltered are completely unable to handle it when they are confronted with it in their real lives.

Young conservatives ashamed of the GOP

At least they eventually learn to think for themselves.

Republican Blowhards

Glenn Beck’s lawsuit against parody site dismissed because he’s a moron

This is actually a really interesting case. After an offhand comment in a Fark.com forum, Isaac Eiland-Hall registered the domain GlennBeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com and set up a parody site where he uses Glenn Beck’s rhetorical devices against him. Glenn Beck sues him in the International Trademark court over commercial use of his brand of crazy, or maybe just his name. Yes, that’s right he didn’t sue for libel, he sued for trademark infringement, in INTERNATIONAL court, making me wonder if he can prove he didn’t rape and murder a girl in 1990. I hope he has an alibi for that year. But the judge sided against him, saying the owner of the site is making a legitimate political statement, and Glenn Beck cannot overstep the constitution and limit the owner’s freedom of speech. Nice to see the constitution enforced.

Remember when V was anti-Obama and a Republican buzzword?

Turns out the creator of the new series is a homosexual who is a huge Obama supporter, and it really is against fascism after all. Hmmmm…..Gays in Hollywood who’d have thought?

Lou Dobbs quits CNN, Runs for Pres in 2012?

Now that’s a recipe for a Roland Emmerich film….

Or he could be facing this guy

Gary Johnson of New Mexico.

Scozzafava is now a verb

To Scozzafava is to be the more moderate Republican in a race which divides the base and allows a Democrat to win.

Turns out, conservative states are not too good at family values

A lot of Red States are at the top of divorce rates.

The coming senatorial election in Florida is shaping up to be a doozy

Crist vs. Rubio. They agree on everything, except the Obama stimulus money. Looks like it’s going to be a good old fashioned feud.

They’re coming after Orly Taitz, queen bee birther

All for filing frivolous lawsuits about birth certificates. Imagine that.

Upcoming Election Outlook

Olympia Snowe, one of the few good Republicans is in electoral trouble

Polls show her losing the primary to a hypothetical conservative candidate in a landslide. Looks like it’s time for her to pull the Arlen Spector.

Deficit Spending

White House spends 787 billion, now is looking for restraint

Actually, I think this is exactly the right course, stimulus spending now, and closer to balancing the budget each year in office. Its better than this:

George W Bush increased federal spending by $1 trillion a year

Hmm, fiscal conservative my ass… and now he’s criticizing Obama.

The FDA is considering regulating on-line claims about pharmaceuticals

Because we all know nobody makes false claims on the internet. What they are very concerned about is social networking sites that put patients in contact with other patients, and the claims they could make. I could see a bot or a paid shill causing some trouble on these sites.

Economy

For Most of us, the Glass Steagull is half empty

Ten years after Glass-Steagull was repealed, how’s it look now?

One of the leading voices of dissent was Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. He warned that reversing Glass-Steagall and implementing the Republican-backed Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was a mistake whose repercussions would be felt in the future.

“I think we will look back in 10 years’ time and say we should not have done this, but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930s is true in 2010,” Mr. Dorgan said 10 years ago. “We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.”

Looks like everything wasn’t on the up and up in the BOA Merrill Lynch merger

Apparently, they said they needed a bunch of money to complete the deal when they really didn’t. They put the squeeze on us tax payers.

Newfound Freedom

The Return of the 10th Amendment

States are beginning to assert their own rights over the Federal Government. It’s giving us more freedom with guns, removing federal health care, and giving us easily accessed medical marijuana. I’m thinking in combination, guns, drugs and a lack of health care aren’t a very good idea.

Why getting high, gay marriage and going to Cuba will soon be legal

I’m not into weed, so I don’t really care, and I don’t picture myself as going to Cuba, but it’s about time it was all legal for many reasons.

Appendix fails to assassinate Glenn Beck

The nation asks doctors to put it back for another try.

The Golden State isn’t worth it

After analysis, the studies find that the standard of living in the high tax, high social program, big government state of California, life isn’t as good as in the  no taxes, small government state of Texas, and the residents are leaving to lower taxed states in droves.

Having seen this coming, this is why I’m an advocate of small government. Too bad there isn’t a small government-lowtax social liberal party out there for me to get behind.The Democrats every once in a while show some interest in it, especially after Clinton proclaimed the era of big government is over. The rest of the party just hasn’t come around to that concept yet.

Todd Akin gambles on the Pledge of Allegiance, Loses

If you want to use it as a political weapon, you should take care to say all the words. I’m just saying.

Cheney’s FBI interview featured 72 times where he couldn’t recall

I know Reagan got away with it, but really, he had Alzheimer’s. Cheney is just avoiding the question.

And Lo, the two party system did create a void, and out of this void came…third parties

America is seeing the problem with the two parties, and we all know that being an independent is a bad route to go (Joe Lieberman). Most of Europe has several parties (BUT THEY’RE ALL SOCIALISTS), so it’s about time we got in on the action, and allowed some more voices into the debate. It can’t get any worse (right?)

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative of NY-23 claims Glenn Beck is his hero

No wonder that race got so fucked up that the Republican candidate dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. With an election as strange as that, I’m shocked there wasn’t a former porn star or reality TV b-lister also on the ballot.

As a result of Barack Obama’s policies, lobbyists are quitting in droves

If only there were a pied piper to run the rest of them out.

Iran Accepts nuclear deal

Funny that Bush was never able to do this….

Texas and Ohio voters reject red light cameras

I think that if we can’t get this on the ballot everywhere, we should reject them like the mysterious guy in Chicago: with a cherry picker and the cover of darkness.

Carly Fiorina to run for California Senate seat

Let’s see, she nearly ruined HP and Compaq, got chased out but kept her $29 million golden parachute, and then was economic advisor to John McCain.  This is one chick that has failed upwards. The difficulty on this is she has money, connections and media savvy. The easy way to beat her is to point out how few of California’s citizens have a golden parachute in their contracts. Should be easy to paint her as one of those Wall Street types that caused this whole economic disaster, and who can’t relate to the masses like her Democratic opponent.

Michele Bachmann losing aides like Washington is losing Lobbyists

Michelle Marston has left her for being too crazy.

Michael Steele on the mid-term elections: We’re Transcendant

Presumably, the chairman meant that his party is ascendant, meaning on the rise, and not transcendent, meaning beyond the limits of comprehension.

The quote says it best.

So AT&T sued Verizon, and Verizon said, “Um well, ok.”

Seems AT&T was getting killed by the Verizon ads comparing networks, and sued, claiming false advertising. The expectation was Verizom would drop the ads and they’d settle out of court. Verizon, on the other hand, replied very simply by saying, “Prove it.” See, the burden of proof is on AT&T and if Verizon has its facts together, well, AT&T has little legal recourse.

This lamp is consumer retribution

An LED lamp that connects to the phone jack in your wall, stealing power from the phone company.

Dick Grayson

The Caustic personality of Dick Grayson

I have to admit, I like him because of one of his faults. He’s overbearing, and overbearing as a real personality fault, but this also makes him a no bullshit kind of guy, and that’s really what we need in politics.

He’s so brash, nobody wants to run opposing him

That’s one way to win an election.

The Fox News Beat

Jane Hall left Fox because of how skewed they are

She says she left because they stopped debating the issues, and because “Beck is scary”.

White House to Democrats: Stop providing balance to Fox News

I think the idea is to let Fox News continue to become more extreme and more marginalized.

Of course, by the laws of Social Newtonianism, that sort of means they must also become more extreme and marginalized. I wonder if they’ve found some sort of Social Gravitation constant I haven’t worked out quite yet.

Lessons Learned is a new series to ihopeyourehappy.com analyzing current political events by comparison between those making the policies, or illustrating what we see better in hindsight, lest we repeat the mistakes of the last administration, or last month.

Lessons Learned #1: Iran

The Obama Administration made more progress with Iran in one face-to-face meeting over tea than the Bush administration got in eight years of demands for preconditions and threats. If these promises hold true, it would be a remarkable turn around for U.S.-Iran relations, that is unless the Republicans continue to undermine Obama’s policy by continuing to advance a subverted foreign policy via rogue statesmen like they have been for the last few months. I’m not holding my breath on them coming through on the promise, I suspect Iran will lead us on following the example of North Korea, but only time will tell on that one.

The lesson learned is dialogue will bring resolution, while demands and threats without discussion will only breed suspicion and fear, but we should support this with some historical analysis, don’t you think?

The start of the current political climate in Iran began with the Ayatollah’s revolution in 1979. The United States was quite aligned with the shah, and so as the revolution flipped public policy, America was officially on the outs in Iran. There was the embarrassing hostage situation leading up to Ronald Reagan’s election, and that even more embarrassing arms for hostages arrangement that really didn’t do anyone any good, and which actually began as a way to establish friendlier relations with Iran. After that whole affair, it wasn’t like America was going to come back with open hearts and let bygones be bygones, and Iran, well, they just got new toys and weren’t willing to share. We can look at that whole event as one of the lessons in horribly bad foreign policy. Let’s just say that anytime weapons are involved in peace negotiations, peace doesn’t seem to happen.

But relations never got better in the 80’s and the Clinton administration didn’t do much with Iran in either direction. We spent a lot of time preoccupied with Iraq and the new threat of al Qaeda (along with the other tension points of the world, Bosnia, Somalia).

The Clinton Administration began a very hard line on Iran. They were the first to accuse Iran of being a state sponsor of terrorism. He put in sanctions against their main industries, and took a hard stance before the election of a moderate President, Mohammed Khatami. This changed Clinton’s idea of how to deal with Iran, but his first steps were to make conciliatory gestures, and that showed a certain amount of weakness, I mean, if somebody is suddenly just giving you things, aren’t you just going to hold off and see when the giving will end and then consider the person a weak negotiator?

But with G-Dub Bush came a change in policy. We would no longer talk without preconditions being met. We would threaten from afar. We would use international forums to threaten. And we wouldn’t talk even through back channels.

Whereas Bush thought this was tough, Texan diplomacy, it provided Iran’s leadership with excuses to blame, villify and target the U.S. We were no longer an uncertain entity to them, we were the enemy, and once a nation becomes your enemy, there’s any number of ways to play them to your citizens. We used the same tactics. We never found Bush sympathetic to the ethnic diversity, Texans don’t do that very well. I know, I have one in my family.

There was also that whole thing about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. We said our intelligence was solid, we invaded based on that rock solid intelligence, and then found none. Obviously we made it all up as an excuse, (politically, a “pretense”) and who knew what we were going to make up about Iran as an excuse to invade. Maybe something about a nuclear weapons program?

By calling Iran part of the infamous (like el Guapo) Axis of Evil, you don’t leave yourself much space to make friends, especially if you happen to have the most powerful military in the world being very active just over the border. We did a lot to make Iran a nation of Bogeymen, the new Russians who were out to kill us all, a backwards and uncivilized place who if they only could produce the technology would nuke our allies, and our nation as well.
By four years into his administration, it was very clear this stance wasn’t making much progress, not with Iran, not with North Korea. While they weren’t the main focus of the administration prior to the 2004 election, in his second term, the tensions only grew. We didn’t make any friends in the Middle East with Iraq. We weren’t greeted as liberators, Democracy didn’t flourish, we’re still there, still working on it, and Iran had plenty of fun with us by allowing cross border raids on our troops and the indigenous Iraqi Kurds and then threatening rightful military response for any cross-border transgressions.

We could argue very strongly that Ahmadenijad and his Holocaust denying, conspiracy theory creating self. We talked very strongly, with rhetoric that their population did not agree was true, and so what did they do? They looked for the strongest most equal paranoid voice they could find, an illustration of my Theory of Social Newtonianism (equal and opposite reaction). We elected Bush, they found a local Glenn Beck equivalent and mouths were shot off and nothing much got done but posturing. All of our talk about how they would nuke our allies led them elect somebody who would nuke our allies if given half a chance.

Obviously these tactics weren’t working. The question became when would Bush recognize this and change course, and he never did. For this reason, I think Bush suffered the longest and most extensive lame duck period of any president. It lasted practically his entire second term. I think even a good deal of his voter base woke up on the morning after election day wondering what they had just done.

Now we have Obama, and we have found that his campaign promises of open dialogs without preconditions have been welcomed. You could make the argument that any change in approach would have been welcome to Iran for at least investigative purposes. Pleasantly, this turned out to be the real deal, and talks have just developed a favorable result, a more than tentative deal to allow Russia to refine and deliver Uranium fuel rods suitable only for power generation. And this happened in what, a couple meetings and discussions over a few months? This is the sort of progress that justifies that Nobel Peace Prize, premature as it was. We all know this was as much a middle finger to Bush and Cheney as it was a vote for Obama, but that prize in and of itself gives Obama credibility to push a peaceful foreign policy ahead.

We can look at the stolen election in Iran as an indication of what Iran wanted, but didn’t get. I think we’re mostly at the point where we can say that The Clerics and Ahmadenijad did some pretty intense rigging to pull off what they did. We elected somebody willing to speak intelligently and calmly about the problem, willing to make a deal, and willing to examine the issue from both sides. I think Iran wanted the same.

The Republicans aren’t the party of No. McCain introduces anti-net-neutrality bill on the eve of the FCC formulating a net-neutrality plan. One of these statements is true.

In case you’re wondering, the McCain one is true, but I’m thinking you’ve got a good idea of this kind of thing by now.

The Senate passes anti discrimination bill for sexual orientation

Which is about freaking time.

Rachel Maddow goes over some of the fallout for the 30 Senators who voted against the Franken Anti-rape bill.

Looks like a lot of conservative Southern states are not happy with their Republican Senators.

Victoria Jackson’s lover letter to Glenn Beck

For her, he’s the only one that tells the truth. For the rest of us sane and reasonable people, not so much.

Clarence Thomas to other judges: STFU

Actually, he said that they pretty much know their decision before verbal arguments, and so they shouldn’t put up this charade of being interested in the lawyer’s arguments. Maybe he should just get out of there and let some real justices take over.One of his statements is interesting.

So why do you beat up on people if you already know? I don’t know, because I don’t beat up on ‘em. I refuse to participate. I don’t like it, so I don’t do it.

Refuse to participate? In difficult cross-examination or at all, you haven’t asked a question in four years.

The White House vs.  Foxnews

Here’s the basics of the who what where when and how

Just take a good look at this, and then pay attention to the next few stories. I’m not saying this is a bad thing to do, but it is a good tactic.

Rep. Alan Grayson: Foxnews is the enemy of America

While this is probably true, the justification is weak. Foxnews is not the enemy of America because it twists stories to its own point of view, it is the enemy of America because it take a point of view. For this matter, Liberal radio and MSNBC, as much as they are a reaction to Fox, are the same. They serve to divide the country, and leave a chasm in its midst. As we go, Olberman and the like become just as dogmatic and biased as Fox. The gulf becomes more and more of a vacuum, and this is why I think Fox is the enemy of America.

Obama: Republicans do as they’re told, Democrats think for themselves

No wonder they’re so quick to call somebody a Nazi. After seeing the drivel my mother in law passes along as political thought, I believe it, but the key to that phrase is “passes along”. I’ve never seen her have a novel thought, she just passes stuff along.

Ineptitude

N.C. State Senator Republican Phil Berger brought a wheelbarrow of surveys to the governor’s office

So let’s set the scene: Republican brings a wheelbarrow of surveys from his constituents to the Democratic Governor’s office to make a point. Turns out he learned a few lessons from his constituents as the Governor made them public.

Lesson 1: “I am embarrassed to be associated with this organization. Your tactics are disgusting and you’re going to lose a generation of voters.” Seems tactics like this are not to the liking of his own voters.

Lesson 2: “Stop wording questions so geared up to get the answers you want and start wording them to actually find out the people’s opinion, not just confirm your own.” Seems maybe some Republicans do think for themselves, Mr. Berger (and Mr. Obama). Sample questions:

Do you think death panels made up of government bureaucrats should decide if your loved ones live or die?

Do you oppose Bev Perdue and the Democrats’ plan to pass a job-killing $1.6 billion dollar [sic] tax increase in the middle of a recession?

Do you support sending the North Carolina National Guard to help secure our southern border?

Lesson 3: When you’re going to make a point, read all of them, don’t just skim a few. Not only did you miss those comments above, but a $50 donation check.

Lawmakers in Utah learn more about global warming from scientists

We’ll look at two direct quotes.

Steenburgh [a scientist], while stressing he has never taken a “policy position” on climate change as a scientist, pointed to a survey that shows 97.4 percent of scientists consider human activity to have an impact on global warming.

[and...]

Rep. Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, said the complexities and contradictions surrounding climate change are polarizing for policymakers. “I can’t express the frustration I have as a policymaker who is not a scientist how difficult it is for us to make policy decisions when the science has become so politicized,” she said.

Al Franken? passes a law? with bipartisan support? How the…?

Yes, this is a bizarro world. While the Republicans passed the Anti-ACORN bill that defunded companies with election related convictions, which reduced ACORN’s funding by $0 and theoretically defense contractors, Al Franken made a bill to defund companies who put into their employment contracts clauses preventing victims of rape from seeking legal damages.

Several points on this issue:

1) There are companies that seem to have a difficulty with its employees raping other employees, so much so that it has become a cover your ass clause in their contracts.

2) Al Franken is able to cultivate bipartisan support for a bill, when Obama and Pelosi cannot.

3) There are 30 Senators who are apparently pro-rape. Those lawmakers are:

Alexander (R-TN), Barrasso (R-WY), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), Wicker (R-MS)

Funny that they are all Republicans.

The Recession has ended in 79 metropolitan areas

With a very interesting graphic. Very interesting to watch the economy in the graphic as the timeline runs.But what does this really say about Republican economics versus Democrats?

According to the GOP, Jackie Robinson crossed more than one color barrier

They claim he was a Republican. While he did campaign for Nixon, he also said this about the 1964 RNC:

That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude towards black people.

A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.

Republican paranoia about Muslim spies on Capital Hill

Yep, you heard it. The accusations all attack one group, with the strong, stand-up-in-a-court-of-law evidence of “they’re politically active.” According to that logic, all politicians, lobbyists, and pundits are terrorists too.

Limbaugh on the peace prize: “It’s an embarrassment.”

Yeah, so embarrassing to seek peace. Horrible.

And Glen Beck: “The Tea partiers should get it.”

Yeah, because that belligerent rabble can maintain decorum. Fuck me.

And for our brilliant logic of the day: Mormon Prop 8 supporters claim discrimination

They compare their persecution stemming from their campaign against the civil rights of others to the civil rights movement of the 60s. Yeah, funny how they only look at their own side of the issue.