The weekend begins with another nuclear catastrophe being barely avoided in Japan while the Congress has the entire country teetering on the brink of another kind of catastrophe, this time totally manmade as the federal budget impasse threatens to bring this country to a grinding halt. And what is the response of the right wing? Let’s take another look at Barack Obama’s birth certificate! The lunatics have slipped their leashes and are on the loose.

Cruel but not so unusual….

As you read this column the federal government is at the brink of a shutdown engineered by the right wing of the right wing of the G.O.Tea Party in Congress that is insisting upon draconian cuts that will impact on everything and everyone from Planned Parenthood to National Public Radio to homeless veterans.

In adopting this scorched earth version of negotiation, these avatars of social pain and relentless injustice are willing to shut down the federal government even if that means that all Americans will suffer, including the spouses and children of military personnel who are fighting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere at this very moment. The mirror has not been made that can withstand the visage of these twenty first century fanatics.

They have cloaked their social agenda with budgetary robes. But it is clear to any keen eye that it is not the budget that is out of balance in their eyes. The right wing of the right wing is focused on the imbalances in governmental priorities that deem social services for all citizens to be important instead of continuously glorifying and enabling the endless accumulation of infinite wealth.

The use of words is very important in a society with so many forms of communication. Employing the word “entitlements” to refer providing social services to the citizens of this country is a tactic which is meant to invoke thoughts of undeserved and unearned privileges. Parents warn their children against feeling “entitled” and teach their sons and daughters that they must earn what they receive.

By using the term “entitlements” the right wing of the right wing seeks to demonize the recipients of social services as being undeserving of the unearned services and benefits that they receive. And, of course, these services and benefits are derived from the beneficent largesse of the tax-oppressed billionaires, millionaires and corporate plutocrats who have already suffered much too much.

Tax “relief” for the wealthiest people on the planet and reduction of “entitlements” for those in need of services are the lines of demarcation within which the budgetary battles take place. We have now entered a Dada phase of politics in America where no sense makes sense.

Birther Redux

Sometimes stupidity persists to the point that it seems to be immortal. But typically, stupidity has its Achilles heel – the truth.

In the midst of budget crises, wars and revolts from Libya to the Ivory Coast to Afghanistan to Mexico, while we are wondering if the next rainstorm will contain radiation courtesy of the disaster in Japan, Donald Trump and other half-wits are willing to content themselves with beating the dead horse known as the Obama Birth Certificate Controversy.

In point of fact there has never been a controversy over the site of Barack Obama’s birth. Yet the same people who brought you the Swift boats and the resurrection of Elvis Presley would have you believe that there is some real doubt regarding President Obama’s birthplace, the notion being that if he wasn’t born in America then he shouldn’t be President and his entire presidency is, therefore illegitimate.

I can only wish that The Donald and Mike Huckabee and all the other bearers of this tattered and stained banner of lies would use the internet. Barack Obama’s website has been online for over three years. Here it is again http://www.fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birthcertificate
These clowns won’t let something like the truth get in the way of a good lie, but at least we know that these clowns are lying.

Have a great weekend!