Updated below with Palin resignation speech
Updated again with FOX's response.

KTUU. com, Alaska….

Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her Wasilla home Friday morning.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor's Picnic at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks the weekend of July 25, Palin said.

And it's all the bad, bad media's fault….

Reporter Andrew Wellner from the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman just appeared on CNN after attending Palin's press conference. She said, Wellner reported, that Palin said she could be more effective outside of government.

And she wholly blamed the national press, saying they were creating national distractions that cost the state money. Palin said: "You are naive if you don't see a full-court press on the national level, picking apart a good point guard."

Maybe she's going to go to work for Runner's World, you know, as a model….

Upon further consideration…."could be more effective outside of government"…..I think, translates into…'I can cash in my instant-celebrity chips right now.'

Bet we see her on the teevee soon, possibly with her own program. Teevee celebrities make way more money than governors. Hey, more power to her.

Update: I don't think I've heard a more rambling, nonsensical piece of sound than Sarah Palin's 7 minute resignation announcement. Honestly, it makes NO logical sense whatsoever….

The National Review's Jonah Goldberg writes an open letter to Ms. Palin…..

"… every time I see you on TV, you’re whining about unfair press coverage…….You are constantly taking the bait, taking up the fights your biggest fans want you to take up…..Politics is ultimately about persuasion, and you seem entirely uninterested in that, preferring instead to play the victim. Well, victims don’t get elected president."

Indeed.

Neo-con extraordinaire, Bill Kristol at the Weekly Standard….

"If Palin wants to run in 2012, why not do exactly what she announced today? It's an enormous gamble – but it could be a shrewd one…… The odds are against her pulling it off. But I wouldn't bet against it."

It could be a safe bet that Palin will enter the GOP primaries in 2012. Less safe bet that she'll take the primaries. Very bad bet that she would even come close to defeating a popular Obama. Kristol's not betting, mind you, but, you know, if he were….

Best comment thus far on the Palin resignation from a conservative site…..

MY dream ticket 2012 = Sarah Palin / Liz Cheney

those two ladies would kick Bambi (Obama)’s a~~ ; )

Palin's words from her speech announcing that she would quit as Alaska's governor….

Life is too short to compromise time and resources… it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and "go with the flow".

Nah, only dead fish "go with the flow".

That registers a 9.0 on the WTF Richter scale.

One more observation. Sarah, The Barracuda, Palin, ex-high school basketball player seems to have a unique way of approaching the game of…umm….basketball….

She has the ball, but is being trapped in the back court….

"You are naive if you don't see a full-court press on the national level, picking apart a good point guard."

What to do when trapped?….

"A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN."

When trapped, knowing the precise time to pass the ball is everything….

"And I know when it's time to pass the ball – for victory."

Question. Who did The Barracuda pass the ball to yesterday?

Answer. The other team.

@nd Update: The FOX response….

Headline: Sarah Palin Outsmarts the Left, no, really, that's the headline.

From the body of the piece: "Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska is a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential truning point for the national conservative movement…..
No one hears of the good work she has been doing there, and the left is free to paint their own false caricature of her."

My personal favorite: "And I hope she starts a new national think tank in Washington."

More: "She should also lead the nation's mothers to oppose mandating replacement of incandescent light bulbs with the new mercury poison gas bulbs."……"If she does all that, the left won't be making jokes about her any more,…"

Hard to make stuff like this up.

Over the past 30 years I've heard a lot of pious baloney about traditional values voters in those so-called Red States. A lot of pious baloney. This faux morality, for the most part, hasn't been touted by your average Red State citizen. Rather, pious baloney has been served up, mostly, by Republican politicians, their enablers, and the "Moral Majority" types like the late Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, Gary Bauer, James Dobson, and Ohio's own Ken Blackwell.

The theme of these "values" spokespeople has been consistent. America is morally depraved, our national culture nearly as bad as ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, and if we don't wake up and smell the brimstone, god will be left with no alternative but to withdraw his "protective hand" from the United States.

The "values" portion of the "traditional moral values" message has always been about abortion, embryonic stem cell research, gay rights, unwed pregnant women, pornography, and "protecting" heterosexual marriage.

The NY Times put up a new chart the other day that all "traditional moral values" proponents need to consider…….

Now, I realize that statistics and data can be made to fit pre-existing biases…..I know that. And, after all, it's the New York Times…..whose headquarters Anne Coulter lovingly wished had been hit on 9-11 instead of the Twin Towers. But it's also the same "liberal" NY Times which helped Bush/Cheney immensely in their fraud-up to Iraq. It's the same NY Times who helped Bush/Cheney coverup their illegal wiretapping of Americans, refraining from printing the story for one full year.

According to the chart, divorce rates, teenage birthrates and online porno subscription broadband usage rates are the highest in states where voters chose John McCain over Barack Obama. The Red States. The states where we have been told for decades that a majority of "traditional moral values" voters reside. States not to be mistaken for the godless (and thus immoral) regions on both the east and west coasts.

I think it's important to note that the Mormon state of Utah, followed by Sarah Palin's state of Alaska, top out the porno-usage states…..and if there's a crisis threatening "traditional marriage" in the country, the biggest threat is seen in the states whose political and religious spokespeople bash the "non-traditionalists" the loudest, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi.

This chart should be a wake-up call prompting a bit more self-awareness and reflection…..a call to humility. America is not sharply divided into two groups of states, one group full of morality, one group possessed by Satan. There's no geographic portion of the country which represents "real America" and one that represents some fake America.

It's time to retire the phrase, "values voters". It has no purpose other than to divide us along, as we now see, completely fictitious moral demarcation lines.

We are one country, the United States of America. Our national political discourse should reflect that fact.

I have mostly understood the anti-abortion movement in America as largely an anti-sex movement. One size does not fit all, naturally, and I recognize that there are many people who oppose abortion on principles other than anti-sex.

What do I mean by anti-sex?

Within the Roman Catholic faith, sexual intercourse is theologically explained as sinful. The only condition under which the church accepts the sex act as anything other than sinful is within the confines of Catholic marriage. A clear example would be why priests must remain celibate. Priests are god's middlemen whose job it is to dispense god's grace. Priests cannot have sexual intercourse, nor marry, because sexual intercourse, itself, would defile the priest rendering him unable to dispense the perfect grace of god.

There is a theological reason why marriage, itself, is regarded by the church as a sacrament. God's grace, according to Catholic theology, is freely given….but only through specific vehicles of the church. The Eucharist, baptism, confirmation, confession, etc. Marriage is one of those vehicles. Marriage is a sacrament of god's grace. Therefore, the sinful activity of sexual intercourse, completely prohibited for the preisthood, can be made "clean" and acceptable before god…..but only within the safe confines of marriage.

I must say, that's a very dark and narrow view of human sexuality….but it is what it is. The root of Catholic theology in this area, as I understand it, is anti-sex. From this root, many other branches of dysfunctional church thinking have grown. The Immaculate Conception doctrine, the celibacy of the priesthood, the lesser status of women, and important to this post…..contraception.

From Obama's White House….

As the White House readies its plan for finding "common ground" on reproductive health issues and reducing the need for abortion, a major debate has emerged over how to package the plan's two major components: preventing unwanted pregnancies and reducing the need for abortion.

Many abortion rights advocates and some Democrats who want to dial down the culture wars want the White House to package the two parts of the plan together, as a single piece of legislation. The plan would seek to reduce unwanted pregnancies by funding comprehensive sex education and contraception and to reduce the need for abortion by bolstering federal support for pregnant women. Supporters of the approach say it would force senators and members of Congress on both sides of the abortion battle to compromise their traditional positions, creating true common ground that mirrors what President Obama has called for.

This approach is typical Obama. Bringing all sides together to accomplish a central objective. In this case, supporting pregnant women AND helping to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I am a liberal, and I find this approach acceptable. Others?…..not so much…..

But more conservative religious groups working with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships say they would be forced to oppose such a plan—even though they support the abortion reduction part—because they oppose federal dollars for contraception and comprehensive sex education. This camp, which includes such formidable organizations as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention, is pressuring the White House to decouple the two parts of the plan into separate bills. One bill would focus entirely on preventing unwanted pregnancy, while the other would focus on supporting pregnant women.

These two anti-sex-outside-of-marriage groups want to eliminate the contraception and sex education part of Obama's comprehensive effort and only support the part that's not sinful in their eyes….

"We welcome the opportunity to seek common ground with this administration . . . and to work on behalf of pregnant women and unborn children," says Deirdre McQuade, a spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is pressuring the White House to decouple pregnancy prevention from supporting pregnant women. "But issues of pregnancy prevention are much more divisive and would only slow down much-needed assistance to pregnant women."

Catholics and Baptists, diametrically opposed to each other theologically concerning how humans gain "salvation", are nevertheless joined at the hip in being anti-sex. The Catholic hierarchy teaches that even sin-free sex under the salvific umbrella of marriage, if accompanied by contraception, is wrong in the eyes of the lord. Baptists simply believe that free and open access to contraception and reproductive education will promote sinful sexual activity outside of marriage. The common ground of these two odd religious bedfellows is anti-sex-outside-of-marriage.

Even if the "common ground" is reached by closing ones eyes to the reality of human sexual activity, even if that "common ground" denies the efficacy of contraception….it's the only "common ground" that anti-sex-outside-of-marriage advocates will accept.

It's not about the contraception, it's not about the sex education, and it's not even really about abortion……it's all about the sex.

I had almost forgotten about those bizarro Tea Parties held around tax day in April……when I came across schedules for even more Tea Parties to be held this weekend. Yep, no joke.

Parties in northeast Ohio are scheduled for Cleveland, Canton and Ravenna.

Here's a message from the Canton Tea Party organizers……

Declare and Defend your Independence from the Tax and Spenders! It's time to turn up the heat on elected officials who want to impose more taxes, create more government waste, and throw the Constitution out the window. In keeping with the tone of the Tax Day Tea Parties, We the People are gathering to celebrate our independence. Let’s declare and defend the values and principles that have made our nation the greatest in the world! Limited Government Fiscal Responsibility Free Market System Holding our elected officials accountable Ladies and Gentlemen Let Freedom Ring! The Tea Party Patriots of Canton, OH are hosting a rally on the Kresge Lot located in downtown Canton on July 5th 2009. The event will run from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. Be sure to tell everyone you can and suggest this event to all your Facebook friends. The larger the crowd, the bigger the message!

The Reverend believes in liberty and justice for all. I, therefore, applaud anyone who wants to organize peacefully for political reasons. However, I also believe in literacy and empirical reality….in fact, I highly recommend both.

It seems to me…..and you can feel free to call me nutty….that being intelligently informed and recognizing objective truth, rather than just accepting what Rush and FOX are saying and living in some fifth dimension, fiction-bubble reality…..would be the more appropriate path to follow in the 21st century. Opinions vary, I guess.

Anyway….to my conservative friends who might be Tea Partying this weekend…..this is my "come to Jesus" altar call moment.

"impose more taxes"

President Obama's short 6 month leadership has resulted in a payroll tax CUT for all employees who pay the payroll tax. That was a CUT, not an INCREASE. And while it's true that Obama and the Democrats increased taxes on those nasty, nasty, cancer causing cigarettes….many more American children are now covered by health insurance with those taxes. Conservatives don't hate children, do they? Of course not.

Yes, eventually, Obama will allow those Depression contributing Bush tax cuts to expire on the richest amongst us. Those who only make the paltry sum of $200,000 and up will see their share of federal income tax increase by the astronomical figure of 3%, and only on money made above $200K. I'm not sure…..but I'm guessing that Tea Party attendees won't include too many fatcats, you know, protesting this weekend by holding a sign that reads, "Where's the Birth Certificate." Could be wrong.

So…."impose more taxes"…..is a fictitious construct not based on reality.

"create more government waste"

At first, I asked myself…..is Obama's government creating more sewage? Then, I calculated that this phrase must be referring to Obama's stimulus plan. It's still a bit early to judge the effectiveness of the stimulus, but anecdotally, I've heard many state officials state that many more layoffs would have happened without the stimulus. Is saving jobs considered "creating more governmental waste?"

Even though our national economy is far from being out of the woods, in reality world, the immediate threat of a cataclysmic disaster has been avoided through direct governmental actions, actions actually begun under a Republican president and carried forward under Obama.

"throw the Constitution out the window"

Once again, it's not clear what part of the Constitution these Tea Party organizers are referring to….but just as a kind of remedial exercise, are torture, wars of aggression, defrauding Congress, outing CIA agents, doubling the national debt, denying habeas to American citizens, secret gulags, the vice-presidency as a 4th governmental branch, the unitary executive theory, and politicizing of the Justice Department…..all in the Constitution?

I can just feel the tears welling up when this emotional cheer goes up at this weekend's Tea Parties….

Limited Government Fiscal Responsibility Free Market System Holding our elected officials accountable Ladies and Gentlemen Let Freedom Ring!

Under every conservative president in my lifetime, the federal government has expanded. Under every conservative president in my lifetime, budget deficits have been the rule and the national debt has increased. The "Free Market System", left unchecked as it has been, created the financial depression we are now experiencing. The call….."Holding our elected officials accountable"…..is simply incredulous after those who instituted lawless torture policies and transparently defrauded Congress and the American people into a war of aggression in Iraq……were and never will be, "held accountable" for their many crimes.

But hey….Party On Dudes…but a word of warning….don't let any tea bags, you know, hit you in the face.

If you were to accept the thinking of the 5 Supreme Court Justices who overturned the Appellate Court ruling yesterday in the so-called Ricci Case, you would think that America's open sore of two plus centuries of enslaving and discriminating against blacks had healed itself completely in the last 45 years…..and now it's majority whites who are suffering mightily under reverse discrimination.

I spent about 30 minutes yesterday reading the ruling and dissent. It's worth a read, if only to see how activist judges make their politically seasoned sausage.

Ricci ruling plus Ginsburg dissent….

What I took away from the Kennedy-written decision is that, to conservative Justices, laws can be stood on their head to serve the political purpose of defending or supporting the majority or the powerful.

Chief Justice John Roberts' previous ruling in the Lily Ledbetter case was a prime example of how the intent of a law is twisted by 5 conservative Supremes to fit the needs of the powerful.

The Ricci case is now another example.

The city of New Haven, Connecticut threw out the results of a firefighter promotion test because blacks who took the test were disparately impacted. According to what is known as Title VII of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, when testing of employees demonstrates a clear disparity where minorities all do poorly, in order to avoid violations of federal discrimination laws in hiring or promoting, the employer must throw out the test and find a test that won't have such a disparate impact.

In the Ricci case, the above is New Haven's defense in a nutshell. They were following the law the best they could. Even the majority ruling by Kennedy agrees that the test scores did, indeed, demonstrate disparate impact. The original District Court's ruling AND the Appellate Court ruling (which included Judge Sotomayor) both agreed with the city's explanation of why the test was thrown out. The city was trying to abide by the law, the law called for action in case of obvious disparate results in testing, New Haven's test produced disparate results, New Haven had the duty to start over.

Here's New Haven's position in the matter…..

The city held that"…they cannot be held liable under Title VII's disparate-impact provision for attempting to comply with Title VII's disparate-impact bar."

In a nutshell, heres' what the District Court found in it's previous ruling for the city…..

District Court ruled…"it is not the case that the City MUST certify a test where they cannot pinpoint its deficiency explaining its disparate impact…simply because they have not yet formulated a better selection process." "motivation to avoid making promotions based on a test with a racially disparate impact….does not, as a matter of law, constitute dicriminatory intent."

Judge Sotomayor, who will be savaged by ignorant and hate-filled conservatives over it, joined two other appellate judges agreeing with the District Court's ruling. Sotomayor voted, not in a judicial activist manner, but just the opposite. She followed the law.

However, yesterday's 5-4 decision reversed both the District and Appellate Court's findings. In Kennedy's ruling, it now seems like the 5 conservative judges believe they have godlike powers of discernment. Here's what I mean….

"Whatever the City's ultimate aim…however well intentioned or benevolent it might have seemed…the City rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white. The question is not whether that conduct was discriminatory but whether the City had a lawful justification for its race based action."

The ruling turns the entire disparate impact intent on it's head. The City had results that demonstrated disparate impact of the test for blacks. The Supremes ruling says that that's not good enough and that they discriminated by even acknowledging the disparate impact…."without some other justification".

The intent of the law in question, just as the intent of the law which was turned on it's head in the Lily Ledbetter case, is clear. For a very long time white majorities, particularly in police and firefighter outfits have discriminated against blacks through the sly use of tests meant to marginalize minorities. Title VII's intent was to attenuate this discriminatory practice.

Instead, 5 Supremes agreed that the Title VII rule was really written to discriminate against majority whites….and in effect, they scrapped the whole deal.

And this is no small deal. In effect, and I don't care what some double-talking conservatives will say about this matter, public employers now will be under pressure to protect and favor majority whites. Written tests will now be put together and weighted in order to protect the employer from being accused of favoring minorities…..which was the very intent of the Title VII rule in the first place.

If nothing else, go to the link I supplied at the top and scroll down to Justice Ginsburg's scathing dissent of the ruling by those 5 activist judges.

Short blog this Monday. I've been meaning to say something about what I have found to be extremely "sore-thumbish" since Obama's inauguration.

Does anyone find it odd that beginning with Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20th, corporate media has spent a tremendous amount of time plumbing the depths of some imagined Republican Party comeback?

Let's just set aside for a moment the overwhelming ratio of conservative guests to progressive guests on corporate teevee "news" programs. That's just standard operating procedure. From the Republican Party teevee network, FOX, to hapless CNN, down through the alleged-to-be-liberal network NBC-MSNBC…..daily questions and Very Serious analysis addressing some fantasy comeback by the minority party has been a part of every program.

It's odd because I'm sure I don't remember corporate media blathering on and on, after the Supreme Court appointed George W. Bush president in 2000, about how Democrats could come back in 2004 and who would lead them back, etc., etc.

But because Republicans, according to corporate media, are, by definition, America's Serious Leaders, and not Democrats, even with a mandate from voters…..if Democrats would happen to, you know, by accident, gain the majority in Congress and the presidency…..then the most important question for Serious Experts in Knee Pad Media Land goes something like this…..

Question from David Gregory on yesterday's Press the Meat…

"David Brooks, how does this Republican Party of the future chart a new course. If you look back historically from Nixon to Reagan to George W. Bush. In each case, it was not only a kind of an indictment of the past, but also the charting of a new course for the future of the Republican Party."

We are 6 months into Democrat, Barack Obama's presidency. Al Franken, the Democrats 60th vote in the Senate, has yet to be given his rightful seat. But the most asked question by the Experts is….How can Republicans quickly come back to lead the country? I've heard this topic being discussed every day by those who call themselves objective journalists.

Why?

___________________

On a lighter note. The picture above is from this past Friday night at Akron's Lock 3. It was a great turnout on a great night,…..and did I mention that the Corona was cold. The Eric Clapton tribute band, Slowhand, did not disappoint this Reverend. Akron should be very proud of Lock 3.

This Friday night's Lock 3 band is Satisfaction, a Rolling Stones tribute band. We've seen them twice before and they are freaking phenomenal…..and you know me….I mostly hate everything. Iffin' you have a mind to, and like the Stones, bring your lawn chairs and have a good time. No cover charge, food is available and beer and wine coolers are $4.

"Do not be a respecter of persons," the good book says, and yet being respecters of people is, by definition, how America rolls. Celebrity fame long ago became the American dream. Identifying one's life with the life of a celebrity figure has become a vicarious way of life for more and more people. American media provides the daily fuel needed to maintain that way of life.

Which brings me to Michael Jackson and his untimely death.

I find the American media's blanket 24/7 coverage of Jackson's death over the last 2 days very revealing. It's not that other more important national and international news stories aren't out there, they are. There's renewed and troubling violence inside Iraq, there's the ongoing Iranian crackdown, there's the passage in the House of an energy bill, there's the affairs of two prominent GOP'ers, etc., etc., …..much more important stuff for Americans to know about than looping "Michael Jackson is dead" chyrons and asking endless "in the know" lunkheads what they think about it.

The truth about Michael Jackson, just like the truth about the war criminals, Bush and Cheney, may never be allowed to surface in the mainstream. Too embarassing and too costly. Today's Akron Beacon Journal puff piece on Jackson is typical of how media protects celebrities from their own sins being revealed…..even after death. The headline: "Jackson might have pushed heart too hard." How purposely misleading can a writer get?

Here's part of the truth about the gloved one….

Michael Jackson was "heavily addicted" to the powerful pain killer Oxycontin and received "daily doses" of it and of another pain killer, Demerol, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the initial investigation of his death.

The Los Angeles police were told Jackson received an injection of Demerol one hour before his death, the official said.

At 50 years old, Jackson's heart stopped because he was addicted to narcotics. Michael Jackson was a drug addict, and probably was a drug addict for the last 20 years. Demerol is a synthetic morphine and is extremely powerful and Oxycontin isn't called "hillbilly heroin" for no reason.

In a society where possession of an ounce of harmless marijuana can land a person in prison for a spell, I don't want to hear any "reasons" why Jackson got hooked or continually needed such high-potency narcotics. I don't want to hear about the "pressures" Jackson was under. I don't want to hear about how Jackson was "enabled" by his closest associates.

Jackson was a drug addict. Like Elvis, Michael had his own personal doctor. Like Elvis, Jackson's doctor was breaking the law by prescribing and administering such powerful dope. Yet, in the age of celebrity, all of this is to be expected and excused,…..it's simply what celebrities do.

After a refreshing beginning with the Jackson 5 in the early 70's, the talented singer and dancer came into his own in the 80's. Though he sold 50 million copies of his "Thriller" album and made the "moonwalk" famous, Jackson's songs, at least to me, were never very impressive. Jackson's major contribution, in my opinion, was his choregraphy and costuming. The pageantry.

Nothing much of value was produced by Michael from 1990 forward. Instead, his freakishness, …..the plastic surgery, the skin coloration thing, his "marriage" to Lisa Presley, his "children", the attention to underage boys, the drug addiction…..dominated his life over the last 20 years. In his most recent appearances at his trial where he was acquitted of molestation charges, Jackson looked and behaved oddly, to say the least.

American celebrity rules must be followed, however. There's a lot of post-mortem money still to be made from the dead star. The ugliness of Jackson's life will be shrouded from public consumption, and as much as possible, kept away from prime time. The toxicology report on Jackson, we're told, will take 4-6 weeks. Just enough time to spin a positive narrative about the freakish, drug-addicted entertainer. Just enough time to "create reality."

Michael Jackson is dead…..but the bizarro world of celebrity inside America lives on.

The far right in American politics often talks about how hard-working and responsible it's members are. This extreme element, that is now dominating the Republican Party, is represented by a radio talk show celebrity, a Mr. Limbaugh. Each day Mr. Limbaugh repeats his monosyllabic message to his faithful, and mostly all white and male, listening audience.

Now, I have no doubt that Mr. Limbaugh couldn't care less about the impact his daily messages of hate and division have on his listeners. In America he's free to spew his hate and divisiveness, he is paid handsomely for doing so, and the corporate-whores who sponsor his program have the patriotism and scruples of slugs. In a just and righteous world, Mr. Limbaugh's radio program would die for lack of interest.

Mr. Limbaugh decided to comment the other day on S. Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's personal meltdown. Sanford was either hiking the Appalachian Trail, or hiking up the dress of his Argentinian mistress, or now euphemistically, both. The radio talker sought to explain why Sanford would do such a thing……and wouldn't you know it…..Limbaugh declares that it was all Obama's fault.

"Obama is trying to kill spirit…..Do you know how many frustrated Americans are out there, about what's happening? This Sanford business, I'll tell ya'….one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind about Mark Sanford….what he did defies logic. This is more than being 180* out of phase because of lust or love.

This is almost like, 'I don't give a damn, the country's going to Hell in a handbasket, I just want out of here.' He had just tried to fight the stimulus money coming to South Carolina. He didn't want any part of it. He lost the battle. He said, 'What the Hell. I mean, I'm — the federal government's taking over — what the Hell, I want to enjoy life.'

The point is, there are a lot of people whose spirit is just — they're fed up, saying to hell with it, I don't even want to fight this anymore, I just want to get away from it.

Callers say, 'Are you kidding? This theory you have about Sanford?' No, I'm not kidding. My first thought was he said, 'the hell with this. The Democrats are destroying the country. We can't do anything to stop it. I did everything I could to stop it here in S. Carolina, my wife's left me, to hell with it, I'm going to enjoy life in what little time I have left.'

Folks, there are a lot of people that are looking at it like this…saying…'screw it.' They're saying 'screw it'….if Obama takes away their money, if Obama takes away their house or the economy takes away their house….there are people who'll say, 'to hell with this', they're tuned out. 'To hell with this, I'm just going to try to enjoy this as much as I can.' I think this is what's wrong with our economy today, I think there's many people out there who have lost their spirit.'"

Looking for the point in Mr. Limbaugh's tirades is akin to searching for peanuts in a sh*tpile…..but in this case, I think his point is clear.

If Mr. Limbaugh, or those like Mark Sanford, who are likeminded, don't get what they want in a democratic society, where give and take and compromise are the norm…..then f*ck it all. Which, in Mark Sanford's case, is exactly what he did, you know, literally and metaphorically.

This reflects the "thinking" that I often ridicule, the "thinking" dominating the extreme-right in America today. While far-right conservatives preach personal responsibility, perserverance and self-sufficiency…..they continually imitate petulant 2 year olds anytime they don't get their own way, blaming even the most egregious behavior by Republicans on Obama, the Democrats….on anybody but themselves.

Democracy is an ongoing process. It is an ideal which humans will never perfect. Rather than working hard at this process, today's American conservatives are ready to chuck the whole concept, opting instead to "enjoy life" by addicting themselves to drugs (in Limbaugh's case), or throwing responsibility and caution to the wind by chasing women other than their wives……the very second they can't win national elections or get what they want.

Last year, Phil Gramm, former GOP senator from Texas, called Americans, "a nation of whiners." Methinks that Gramm was referring, though perhaps inadvertantly, to his own political party.

Rush agrees. He's the spokesman for conservative whiners. The WIC….Whiner-in-Chief.

I don't think I've ever witnessed such political party patriotism. Such dedication is rare. So absolutely stunned was I, after learning recently about the unmatched loyalty of two prominent Republicans,….that I was almost struck speechless….almost.

It has been said that there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends. That being the case, GOP Senator, John Ensign of Nevada and GOP Governor, Mark Sanford of South Carolina have made the ultimate sacrifice of love. Both have laid down their political lives for their party.

The three most prominent leaders of the Republican Party, Rush, Newt and The Dick, have given it their all over the years…….drugs, more drugs, housekeepers buying drugs, pissing in a cup, racist and hate-filled screeds…..adultery and divorcing your wife while she suffers from cancer while you simultaneously call for a Democratic president to resign over a blowjob……torture and lies about torture, fraudulently orchestrating the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

The Big Three Leaders of the GOP have done everything they can possibly do over the years to "grab" the headlines away from those commie Democrats…..but alas…..along comes a "celebrity" president, Barack Obama, who holds the media under his messianic cult-spell. Imagine….Obama announces a press conference and…..the press shows up. I mean, how can a Party of No compete with that?

Enter the GOP patriots, Senator Ensign and Governor Sanford.

John Ensign of Nevada is a prominent Traditional Moral Values kind of guy. Ensign is/was a Promise Keeper. Promise Keepers are Jesus-loving husbands who make an extra-special display of promising to be faithful to their wives. Ensign, because he is so loyal and dedicated to god's cause here on earth…..the Republican Party…….had previously called for the resignations of fellatio-recipient, Bill Clinton, and wide-stancer, Larry Craig. Ensign, naturally, was a full-throated opponent of gay equality. Traditional marriage had to be defended at all costs and the gays were knocking on the Traditional Marriage door.

But Senator Ensign recognized the dire straits that his beloved GOP was in…..no new ideas, crushing defeats in recent elections, no apparent leaders, the threat of irrelevancy……so he decided to strap on a political suicide belt of mass distraction and lay down his political life for his friends. Man, what an explosion.

See, Ensign lived in a Virginia house owned by a group known as "The Family". This group had one purpose….bringing Jesus into his proper position of king of America. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) lived there as well as many other Jesus lovers from the world of politics.

"The Family" encouraged prayer, Bible study and group confessions. It is in one of these sessions that Ensign's close friend, employee and fellow Jesus-lover, John Hampton, pled with the group to intervene to stop Senator Ensign's relentless pursuit of Mrs. Hampton, Doug's wife. Seems like the married Ensign was cuckolding Mr. Hampton and Mr. Hampton was looking for help from "The Family" in bringing that Traditonal Marriage Value practice to an end. Ensign would not be denied his taboo cuckold flesh…..after that confession session Ensign continued the affair with Mrs. Hampton for months.

Senator Ensign stepped to the microphone the other day and pushed the button on his political suicide vest….forced to confess his Traditional Values or be outed for them. The explosion was rather large, gaining some national press attention, but not large enough to wrench the daily narrative away from that scoundrel, Obama.

Enter Mark Sanford.

Governor Sanford of S. Carolina is married and has 4 young boys….and he's a goober. He's not as sophisticated as the Promise Keeper and cuckolder, Ensign,…..but he's loyal to the Traditional Marriage Values of his Party of Jesus….and so he had also called for Clinton, and even Bob Livingston (R-LA), to resign after violating Traditional Values in adulterous affairs. Sanford was an opponent of gay equality and had used the theme "Keeping Your Word" in his 2002 campaign for governor.

After being slapped hard by his own Supreme Court over his refusal to take stimulus money from that commie, Obama…..Sanford decided he would hike the Appalachian Trail for a few days. I've heard it called a lot of things, but hiking the Appalachian Trail is even a new one for me. Now we know that Sanford was actually hiking up the dress of an Argentinian woman named Maria….to fully appreciate her "tan lines."

If you haven't heard about this soap opera yet, it's worth a read.

Yesterday, Governor Sanford strapped on his own political suicide belt, stepped to the microphone-of-apology, and pushed the button, blowing up his own political future. The Sanford explosion has just begun and, perhaps, his act will not be in vain. It took a mighty blow-up, but Sanford may have captured that prized media narrative away from our new Cult Leader President, Barack Obama.

Behavior this bizarre from zealous proponents of Traditional Marriage and Values can only be understood as "laying down their lives for their friends." What other possible explanation could there be?

Or, as Bonnie Raitt puts it, "Let's give them something to talk about."

Also…this.

The first four minutes sets the stage…

In the Village of the Goddamned, Republicans, no matter how far down they are in the minority, no matter how few Americans identify with their party, no matter how irrelevant or bizarre their clueless rhetoric is, no matter how badly their leadership has damaged our nation…..are still, and forevermore, the Very Serious People whose words always carry substantial gravitas.

That's why by a 2-1 margin over Democrats, Republicans appeared on teevee media before the stimulus bill was passed. That's why Dick and Liz Cheney appeared on teevee media 22 times in a two week period, to filibuster in favor of American torture.

That's why, despite the truth that Rachel Maddow pointed out last night about Obama being consistent from the beginning on what he has said about Iran, all the Big Name Villagers insist that the President changed course in his wording yesterday about that country.

It's all very dishonest, ignorant and embarassing…..but that's the state of America's corporate media today. I've seen piles of manure with more integrity than today's American media…..and much more valuable.

CBS' Chip Reid…."Were you influenced at all (on Iran) by John McCain or Lindsay Graham calling you timid and weak?"

NBC's Chuck Todd…"Why not spell out the consequences for Iran?"

FOX's Major (Assh*le) Garrett….."What took you so long?" ( Allegedly, to speak out about Iran.)

All those questions are a variation of the same question. The Republican question. Because, apparently, Knee Padders think Republicans, despite the lowest approval ratings ever, are seen as the Very Serious People…..and even though that one question is ignorant and dishonest, if Republicans keep saying it…..by definition, it must be taken Very Seriously.

See, it's not that Obama hasn't been consistent with his words from the beginning of the Iranian election crisis. He has, as Rachel clearly demonstrated. It's that the Knee Pad members have, by osmosis, absorbed the Republican talking points on Iran, as ragingly ignorant as they are, and accepted those ignorant talking points as coming from Very, Very Serious GOP'ers Who Should Still Be Running Things.

And that leads me to today's reprint in the AB Journal of the AP's Villager representative, Jennifer Loven. Under the entirely false headline, "Obama toughens rhetoric on Iran's violence", Ms. Loven says in her first sentence that Obama's words yesterday were….

"a clear toughening of his rhetoric as Republican critics at home pound him as being too passive.

His appearance came as his approval rating — while still high, and a little above average for new presidents — was slipping, according to recent polls. (WTF?…..65% approval is "slipping"?)

The president took the podium after a troublesome week for the new administration. (Which included) Republicans challenging him to be stronger in his response to the postelection turmoil in Iran."

No question as to whom Ms. Loven thinks should be taken seriously.

But the dishonesty is even worse. Nowhere in Loven's piece does she include quotes from Obama's previous and consistent message about Iran. Instead, because it's no longer the role of media members to inform us who's telling the truth, the AP writer simply, and only, says this….

"Obama said his message has been consistent,…..

Obama strongly countered the idea that he's been slow to forcefully respond to Iran's violent crackdown on dissent.

"I don't think that's accurate," Obama said. "Track what I've been saying."

The president said he quickly responded after the election results and after violence broke out in the streets of Tehran,….

"We've been entirely consistent," Obama said.

Ask yourself…..why wouldn't an Expert Professional take the 60 seconds or so it would take to look up the exact words previously stated by Obama about Iran? Wouldn't that have quickly cleared up who was telling the truth?

The reasons Jennifer Loven, and a host of likeminded Knee Pad Media members, refuse to inform readers and viewers about the truth are twofold….

One….today's he said-he said stenographers no longer believe that it's their job to tell us who's telling the truth.

Two….today's media stenographers, despite huge majorities by Democrats and last November's Republican ass-whooping, still believe that Republicans are the ones to be taken seriously, the ones who should still be running the country.

And that explains how Bush/Cheney got away with defrauding Congress and the American people into attacking and occupying the non-threatening nation of Iraq. That's how the numerous crimes and violations of the Constitution by Bush/Cheney went unaddressed…..and never will be addressed. That's why even "liberal" media outlets, like NPR, to this day, refuse to use the word "torture" to describe….well….torture.

Willingly ignorant and deceptively dishonest.