Life On The World Of The Cross

“The greatest threat to American democracy today arises from a militant authoritarianism that has become a cancer upon the nation.”

So says psychology professor Robert Altemeyer, who provided Wateregate whistle-blower John Dean with forty years of study on the authoritarian personality type that roughly 28 percent of Americans proudly call their modus operandi.

John Dean:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidates, have shown themselves to be unapologetic and archetypical authoritarian conservatives. Indeed, their campaign has warmed the hearts of fellow authoritarians, who applaud them for their negativity, nastiness, and dishonest ploys, and only criticize them for not offering more of the same.

The McCain/Palin campaign has assumed a typical authoritarian posture: The candidates provide no true, specific proposals to address America’s needs. Rather, they simply ask voters to “trust us” and suggest that their opponents - Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden - are not “real Americans” like McCain, Palin, and the voters they are seeking to court. Accordingly, McCain and Plain have called Obama “a socialist,” “a redistributionist,” “a Marxist,” and “a communist” - without a shred of evidence to support their name-calling, for these terms are pejorative, rather than in any manner descriptive. This is the way authoritarian leaders operate.

In my book Conservatives Without Conscience, I set forth the traits of authoritarian leaders and followers, which have been distilled from a half-century of empirical research, during which thousands of people have voluntarily been interviewed by social scientists. The touch points in these somewhat-overlapping lists of character traits provide a clear picture of the characters of both John McCain and Sarah Palin.

McCain, especially, fits perfectly as an authoritarian leader. Such leaders possess most, if not all, of these traits:

* dominating

* opposes equality

* desirous of personal power

* amoral

* intimidating and bullying

* faintly hedonistic

* vengeful

* pitiless

* exploitive

* manipulative

* dishonest

* cheats to win

* highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic)

* mean-spirited

* militant

* nationalistic

* tells others what they want to hear

* takes advantage of “suckers”

* specializes in creating false images to sell self

* may or may not be religious

* usually politically and economically conservative/Republican

Incidentally, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney also can be described by these well-defined and typical traits — which is why a McCain presidency is so likely to be nearly identical to a Bush presidency.

Clearly, Sarah Palin also has some qualities typical of authoritarian leaders, not to mention almost all of the traits found among authoritarian followers.

[Read the rest. . . →]

In one of the more surreal moments of an already surreal campaign, John McCain got into the spirit of the holiday by appearing in an amazingly creepy “Underdog” costume, while standing next to someone else dressed as Underdog.

WASHINGTON — As we stagger through the final hours of Halloween this election cycle, John McCain and Barack Obama are pulling out all the stops in their efforts to sway comatose “undecided” voters.

Barack Obama is blanketing Tee Vee Land with his main message, that the United States must change the ruinous course we’re on.  John McCain continues to slander Barack Obama with everything vile and foamy in the Karl Rove Book ‘o Slime, and to his eternal disgrace, McCain has saved the Wright Stuff for last.

Dressed in a bizarre “UnderDog“ costume for some stupid fucking reason, Halloween, McCain howled to several hundred people,

“The pundints [sic] have written us off, just as they’ve done several times before. We’re a few points down, but we’re coming back.”

“My friends, My opponent, Barack Obama, is urging Americans to “share the wealth” tonight, by giving candy to strangers. When I’m president, we’re not going to let that happen.”

Although momentarily stunned, the crowd eventually cheered wildly, breaking into a chant of “Socialist! Socialist!”  McCain then pantomimed flying in a circle, supposedly as a grounded, waddling Underdog might; the other Underdog joined in by running circles around John “Underdog” McCain.

However, the latest CBS-NY Times national poll has Obama-Biden at 52 percent, McUnderdog-Palin at 39 percent.  Other national polls show Obama with a substantial lead nationwide.

Meanwhile, McCain’s trick or treat robocalls continue to pummel Americans across the battleground states, including Obama’s home state of Illinois, in McCain’s continuing efforts to link Obama with convicted felon Tony Resco, or anything that anyone might consider scary or questionable. (No such calls linking McCain to convicted felon and nutball, G. Gordon Liddy, have been made by anyone.)  One McCain robo-message claims Obama dresses up as a Druid at least once a year, and roams Chicago neighborhoods looking to cast spells over innocent men, women, and children.

Some things remain prescient.  Enjoy.

•

Us and Them

Us and Them
And after all we’re only ordinary men
Me, and You
God only knows it’s not what we would choose. . . to do
Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died
General sat, and the lines on the map
moved from side to side
Black and Blue
And who knows which is which. . . and who is who
Up and Down
And in the end it’s only round and round, and round
Haven’t you heard it’s a battle of words
and most of them are lies
Listen son, said the man with the gun
There’s room for you inside

I mean, they’re not gonna kill ya, so like, you give’m a quick short, sharp, shock, they won’t do it again. Dig it. I mean he got off lightly, ‘cos I would’ve given’m a thrashing— I only hit him once. It was only a difference of opinion, but really…I mean good manners don’t cost nothing do they, aye.

Down and Out
It can’t be helped but there’s a lot of it about
With, Without
And who’ll deny it’s what the fighting’s all about
Out of the way, it’s a busy day
And nothing’s on my mind
For want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died

•

Brain Damage

The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path

The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You rearrange me ‘ till I’m sane
You lock the door and throw away the key
There’s someone in my head but it’s not me

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

Eclipse

All that you touch,
And all that you see
All that you taste,
All you feel
And all that you love,
And all that you hate
All you distrust,
All you save
And all that you give,
And all that you deal
And all that you buy, beg, borrow, or steal
And all you create,
And all you destroy
And all that you do,
And all that you say
And all that you eat,
And everyone you meet
And all that you slight,
And everyone you fight
And all that is now,
And all that is gone
And all that’s to come,
And everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon

There is no dark side of the moon really.
Matter of fact, it’s all dark.

Apparently the red uniforms beat the blue uniforms to win the World Series.  Anyway, there’s the zone Obama was trying for; the middle.

Just watched the Obama 30 minute ad, and to be honest, I have to say I had a hard time identifying with it.  I guess it was just too blatantly pitched to the middle class;  whoever they are.  I should say up front that I’m one of those Americans who will suffer a tax increase under an Obama administration because, in fact, I’m way inside the top one percent of all wealthy Americans these days.

How wealthy am I?  I’m not really sure, what with the roller coaster economy these days, but as an admirer recently marveled, I have a $60 million dollar custom built jet, and a $24 million dollar doggy jet that follows it with our two dachshunds, Willie Wanker Warhol and Dandy Dick The Dachshund.

Liberals attacked McCain for not knowing exactly how many residences he owns, but truth is, the guy is a pauper, really.  Oh, Cindy has some beer bucks I’m told, and seven homes might impress a few single home owners;  but I own twenty-seven homes that range in price from Obama’s 1.6 million dollar dump to my private island estate at $300 mil.  But enough about my munnies.

It was clear from the Obama ad—  I don’t care for the McCain “infomercial” slur— that he’s in the tank for the middle class.  It’s just too bad that a big gaggle of them are outright racist, another flock are confused Republicans who think they’ll get rich some day, and then there’s the Democrats. Why anyone would try to unify this rabble is beyond me. And no, I won’t try and scare you with that socialism shtick, God forbid the middle class figures that out. The less said about “spreading the wealth around” the better.  Just give me a president who will make my tax cuts permanent and keep the war machine crackin’ open new markets.

So yeah.  Middle class? Save your ass; vote for Palin-McCain so the wealth will continue to trickle down to you, and we can have victory wherever we choose no matter how long it takes, or how many of your kids get to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep our nation free.  And don’t worry about me.  I’ll be fine.

(LOFL)

More than a few police DO NOT CROSS lines are being ignored right now.

Giant phalli in the Erotica Museum are acting-out again.

A six year old I know is very frustrated with school. “It’s just a waste of my time,” he said to me.
“I can’t read; I can’t write; and they won’t let me talk!”

I can’t locate my copy of GPS magazine.

Mildred lay motionless in the little stone house by the mill pond.
The party was over. She listened intently to a foraging owl devouring it’s prey . . .

No matter how much you may hate it, many pursuits wind up being a labor of love.

Yeww.  The folks at LIAR may have crossed the line, this time.
But I don’t really think they give a rat’s ass.

Todd Palmer and Rob Pringle.

Palin: “Where does a lot of that earmark money end up, anyway? [...] You’ve heard about, um, these — some of these pet projects they rilly don’t make a whole lotta sense, and sometimes these dollars they go to projects having little or nothin’ to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not!”

It’s hard to know where to begin deconstructing this statement. This was a speech on autism, and Palin’s critics have pounced on the fact that a recent study of Drosophila fruit flies showed that a protein called neurexin is essential for proper neurological function— a discovery with clear implications for autism research.

Fruit flies are more than just the occasional vehicles for research relevant to human disabilities. They are literally the foundation of modern genetics, the original model organism that has enabled us to discover so much of what we know about heredity, genome structure, congenital disorders, and (yes) evolution. So for Palin to state that “fruit fly research” has “little or nothing to do with the public good” is not just wrong — it’s mind-boggling.

Evolution? Nope. Sarah believes in Creationism. That means she believes that Noah had a little fruit fly cage aboard the ark, where he kept Mr. & Mrs. fruit fly alive, right next to millions of other little cages with married insects in them.  But. Sarah is clearly jealous of the little critters.  They’ve been to Paris, after all;  she hasn’t.

What else does this blunder say about Palin and her candidacy?

[Read the rest. . . →]

The Grand Oil Party slogging through the political wilderness

Updating my initial compilation of the Obamacans (Republicans for Obama ) is becoming quite the task. Add endorsements from the likes of W’s former Secretary of State Colin Powell and press spokesman Scotty McClellan; former Reagan’s UN Secretary Kenneth Adleman; former McCain adviser Charles Fried; former Minnesota Republican Governor William Weld; former South Dakota Senator Larry Pressler– well, you get the idea.

More interesting is what a post-election loss will mean to the Republican party as a whole as the unholy alliance between its corporatist and fundamental evangelical wings rips itself asunder. At stake is control of the party. Will it be Palin v. Romney? Huckabee v. Ridge? (In order to make it a fair a balanced civil war, Fux News will have to give Palin her own yack show alongside Huck’s.)

Today’s LA Times leads with a story titled “Social conservatives fight for control of Republican Party” , which points out the fundies have quietly taken over the machinery of the GOP.

In skirmishes around the country in recent months, evangelicals and others who believe Republicans have been too timid in fighting abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration have won election to the party’s national committee, in preparation for a fight over the direction and leadership of the party

Meaning that even if McCain wins, God forfend, the battle for the soul of the GOP is already joined. Reports of Palin going rogue are the first visible sign. Recall her Freudian slip at a rally last month where she referred to “a Palin and McCain administration.”

Could be the basis for a hit scripted reality show: Survivor meets The Handmaid’s Tale’s , a ripped from the headlines, theocratic melodrama timed to usher in the end of days.

All of which should provide some badly needed (though temporary) comic relief as the Obama Administration struggles with the legacy of ruin left to it by the Bushies. That would include the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,  a health care system on the brink of collapse, military occupations in two Muslim countries with the promise of more military operations to come (witness recent incursions into Syria and Pakistan, not to mention covert ops inside Iran),  and an overcrowded planet facing severe resource depletion and environmental degradation set against a background of runaway global warming.

Can I get me a witness?

[Image from data5.blog.de]

So this is how it’s gonna be. President McCain has said that Palin is qualified, and his way of “assuring the nation” is to let Vice -President Palin run the Joint Chiefs Staff.  The first meeting got off to a volatile start when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates tried in vain to explain to Vice-President Palin why it is innapropriate for the “First Dude” to be present at Joint Chief staff meetings. . . only to get a folksy lecture on who’s “in charge now,” which began with, “Listen up, Troopers,” and concluded with, “I will fire your disloyal asses!”   Click it.

Our economic woes have pushed the two wars we’re still waging out of the headlines. But our sons and daughters are still still fighting and dying;  our treasure continues to be wasted on Dick Bush’s legacy of war crimes.

Terrorists who would do us harm must be hunted down, but these unnecessary wars must end.  Only Barack Obama will end them.  Bullets must give way to Ballots.

Remember that when you vote.

Yeah, people behind me were pretty cool about my arrow. (click it.)

DENVER — There was no time for blogging today! as Dr. Zaius says, because the main man was in Denver, and a few of us got together to wish him well, Tuesday after next.  Like so many in that crowd,  I never layed eyes on Barack. The distance between where he’s standing in the foreground and where the tip of that arrow touches my soft spot is over two hundred yards. Over 100,000 air-breathers in close proximity to each other can be very exhilirating, especially when you’re listening to the next president of the United States; a man and a country facing perhaps the greatest set of challenges we’ve ever known.

Still, you come away from an event like this with a reknewed sense of hope, and purpose. You know— what McCain supporters call “communism.”  That hope will be very important in the coming months, as we finally get an honest appraisal of our floundering ship of state from a President-elect Obama.

It isn’t going to be pretty, either.  He’s already starting to prepare the nation for bad news, by pointing out that all the change we need isn’t going to happen with a snap of his fingers.  But there’s time to gird ourselves for that struggle.  Right now, we have to take seriously the responsibility to get out the vote. If you’re not volunteering a little of your time with a campaign yet, consider that your citizenship dues are in arrears.  Get out there and pitch in this final week at a campaign headquarters near you.  You feel better about yourself and your country.

And vote early.  Make sure your neighbors do, too.

And keep your prayers on the front burner.

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

Some further reflections on this comment I posted at The Lake this morning, vamping off Blue Texan’s analysis of the disaster that John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin is proving to be:

“He chose…poorly.”

Great line, delivered by the ancient guardian knight in the second Indiana Jones movie about the holy grail.

The greedy bad guy has to choose the actual cup used at the Last Supper (which is suppose to confer eternal life). Instead of selecting the humble wood one, the kind that would be carved by a hard working (social activist!) carpenter, he chooses (identifies with) the most ornate one, as befitting a great king, poisoning himself in the process.

How fitting.

If the antagonist had related to Jesus as the humble Prince of Peace instead of the mighty King of the Holy Roman Empire, he would have chosen wisely and not have died such a horrible death.

In the scene depicted below, Indy uses the healing power of the grail to restore a worthy life, his father’s, a life dedicated to the quest for knowledge. Contrast that with the desire to merely prolong an unworthy life, one dedicated to greed and power.

Redemption, at least in the secular sense, is a theme the USA and the rest of the world might want to pursue now that the neocon Republican world view has proven such an utter disaster.

Gonna go see Barack in Denver tomorrow.  But I’ll betcha I don’t see any of the assholes in this video there.

(H/T to Driftglass;  the guy is everywhere.)