Calling All Wingnuts

I haven’t posted today.  Ugh.  I tried calling Brian Kilmeade this morning, but his screener’s learned a thing or two, I guess.  I used to have no problem at all getting through the girl (they say she’s an intern), but they must’ve sat her down and made her listen to my voice over and over again.  I’ve got to get that voice changer thingy…

Anyway, after that i just got distracted.  I acquired some HUGE posterboards from a gas station dumpster and decided to do some freeway blogging in support of John Sweeney’s opponent, Kristen Gillibrand.  So I paineted much of the day then scouted placement sites.

Then I came home and read Jeff Wells’ blog, where I found this.  That was it for me today…  It just took all the wind out of my sails.  You read someting like that and, well, I feel like I’d rather slam my dick in a car door than argue with Rusty Humphries tonight…

So tune in tomorrow.

(PS - Excellent news is this:  I don’t have to pay hosting fees anymore.  From now on my only expenses will be my phone bill, internet access and other incidentals (Freedom Concert trips, etc).  So the fundraising posts will be much less frequent.)

I had a chance to ask Leader Pelosi a coupla questions today.

Previous to my queries, she discussed the minimum wage.  mcjoan has a good review of that issue up over at Kos.

I tried a different approach.  An issue that scares the bejesus out of a lot of us diehard liberals is that we won’t turn out people in the mid-term elections.  The Republicans have left this country waddling in such an incredibly huge shit-pie, it would really be a shame if we couldn’t find a way to take at least one of the congressional houses back.  I mean, really…  Iraq, stem-cell, minimum wage, deficit, corruption, war profiteering, lack of oversight, judicial extremists, North Korea & Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Israel…  Trade deficits, imploding real estate market, Katrina, Medicare Part D, increasing crime, stagnant wages…  the list is pretty close to endless…

So yeah…  it’s be a shame if we didn’t get the turn-out.  To be fair, earlier in the call, Leader Pelosi mentioned Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickle and Dimed.  She said that after she wrote the book, Barbara talked to some in Congress.  She was asked if the people that she worked with - housecleaners, waitresses and retail workers - if they would vote for Democrats.  Ehrenreich’s answer was “not likely”.  The reason?  People believe that there isn’t anyone at all in Washington that is on their side.

We need to find a way to communicate to people that work for a living that the democratic Party is on their side.  I know it’s going to be hard as long as we have Joe Lieberman providing cover for Dick Cheney, George Bush, Donal Rumsfeld and the rest of the Republicans…  It’ll be hard as long as we have MBNA Biden pushing through ridiculous bankruptcy reform bills…  and it’ll be hard as long as we have Congressmembers and Senators willing to sign onto every trade agreement that has the word “Free” in it…

But we simply must work through those issues.  As bad as some Dems are on those bills, they are light-years ahead of the opposition in most respects.

OK - gonna grind the gears a little hear as I downshift.  If you are watching the Lieberman race as closely as I am, you know that Holy Joe has threatened the Congressional ticket if Lamont’s challenge is successful.

I asked Ms. Pelosi if she would make a special effort for the downticket races in CT if Lieberman made good on his threat to make life difficult for the rest of the Dems in CT.  I liked the answer I got.

And for the record, I like what she said about Democrats owning August.  I think our leaders are fired up.  I hope their enthusiasm trickles down to the roots.

This is another Freedom Concert picture.  They brought along a bunch of kids that were part of Ollie’s Freedom Alliance Leadership Program.  I believe that’s Oliver North they are “saluting”.

This is truly surreal.  I wish I had the sound that went with this.  I wonder if it sounded like “Zeek heil”.

I end up not linking to a lot of stuff because this, I think, is more of a media watch-dog site than it is a blog, but this is funny as hell…

check it out here:  http://alternet.org/blogs/video/39573/

[UPDATE]  I may put up some more video at some point, but there won’t be much more.  We’ve pretty much highlighted the story.  After all, I was there less than an hour before Hannity had me thrown out.

Oh, I’ve got more video of Coulter’s hairy face…  I’ve got some of Private Wilkow sucking Hannity’s ass… But for the most part, this was the story.  I get in…  I’m spotted…  They call the cops on me…  The cops go into overkill mode to slay the liberal.

Some of the story you didn’t see because I was seperated from Evan when it occurred:

Immediately after being ejected from the park, I went to Guest Relations in order to complain.  I just couldn’t believe park security booted me without me having done anything wrong…  So I’m telling the story to the manager through a window, and there are about 10 people standing around listening, transfixed.  The guy at the window on my left excused himself - he was talking to a customer service rep - turned to me and said, with a heavy accent, that I should hire a lawyer… that what was happening to me was wrong.  I thanked him for empathizing with me and he went ack to his business.  About two minutes later, I heard him say something along the lines of “I can’t wait to see my favorite song.”  And then he started singing Lee Greenwood’s, “Proud to be an American”.  That was uplifting.

About two minutes after that, a lady on my right said pretty much the same thing - that she couldn’t believe this was happening in America.

Ya know, I totally did not expect that.  I don’t know why - maybe it’s the browbeating we liberals get by the media every day, but I’m used to fighting an uphill battle.  (Oh - it just occurred to me that I listen to right-wing radio every day - maybe that’s the reason I feel like I’m in the minority).  Anyway, receiving support from the crowd around me really felt good.

I’ve been having a helluva time getting through to him lately - the screener just keeps denying me access.  Guess that comment about sex tourism in the Dominican Republic didn’t win me any fans at the EIB Network.

I guess I’m a slow learner.

I really expected to have video for you today…  I’m doubly hopeful for tomorrow.

Senator Dorgan was just on the Jim Bohannon Show to talk about his new book, Take This Job and Ship It, which decries unfair trade practices that have enriched CEOs and shareholders, but have left the American worker with empty pockets.

I was able to ask him a coupla questions.  Tellingly, he didn’t do squat to defend our pal Joe Lieberman.

Ha ha.

So the other day, I linked to http://marklevinfan.com/ because they’ve got a picture gallery up for the Freedom Concert.  About 140 photo’s last I heard.

They were also writing about my work (with contempt, of course), so I thought I’d mosey on over there from time to time.  Ya never know what a wingnut will say or when they’ll say it…

So…  They blocked me.  I go to the url and get an “You are not authorized to view this page” screen.  I can access the site just fine though, through anonymizer.com.

Is everyone on the right a gutless coward unwilling to subject their ideas to scrutiny?  Byron York, you’ll remember, wouldn’t talk to me about abortion.  Bill O’Reilly won’t take calls from me anymore.  Same with Rush Limbaugh - his screener has totally shut me out.  Hannity?  I’m not sure about.  I’ll try again soon.  But he threw me out of the Freedom Concert - personally - because he didn’t want me talking to his cretinous acolytes.  There is a great fear on the right that betrays an all consuming moral cowardice.

The saddest part?  These people run the country.  Ugh.

Remember, George Bush’s appearances happen before canned audiences.  Dick Cheney, ditto.  Even Joe Lieberman won’t talk to regular folks. 

One of the most common appreciative sentiments I hear thrown my way is that “I’ve got a pair” or something similar…  brass tacks, whatever…

I’ve never understood that way of thinking.  I’m talking.  That’s it.  There can’t possibly be any penalty for what I’m doing unless I say something extremely stupid, which, I like to think, is extremely unlikely.  Hell, if Ann Coulter can call for the assassination of Bill Clinton and admit that she sent anthrax to the NY Times, what can I possibly say that would get me in trouble?

Which is why I want to throw some appreciation to a woman that deserves it.  I’m not sure what her name is or where she is from (Code Pink, possibly?)  But some beautiful young lady just threw herself to the wolves while Maliki was addressing Congress.  She was wearing a shirt that said “Troops Home Now” and she shut up Maliki for about 45-60 seconds while security escorted her out of the building.

There will be consequences for this woman.  She’ll probably never be able to fly again…  She’ll spend some time at central booking and possibly some time in jail.

But she followed he conscience where it led her.

That, my friends, is courage.

[UPDATE]  Her name is Medea Benjamin.  She’s a leader in Code Pink.  And a hero.