Denial: Not Just A River In Egypt

[UPDATE]:

Heh. I guess it could be worse. In Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shuttered a newspaper for putting Obama on the cover.

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Nope, that river runs through the heartland of America, too.

While America celebrates Barack Obama’s election victory, if not for political reasons than at least for the transformation in racial equality that it represents, certain stubborn pockets of the nation remain resistant.

First we have Sapulpa, OK, where the local newspaper refused to cover Obama’s victory:

The Sapulpa Daily Herald did not report that Barack Obama won the Presidential election in its Wednesday edition.

One paragraph on the front page did report the majority of Creek County voted for McCain.

"This is not only national, but it's also local. And this is our President; he's President of Sapulpa also," said Scott Gordon.

More than a dozen protesters stood in front of the Herald's downtown office Friday morning to get answers from publisher Darren Sumner.

Lest you think this is an isolated incident, my mother-in-law who lives in rural Western Kentucky reports that their local paper did not report on who won the presidential election, either. I’d say a lot of small town newspapers, steeped in denial, just couldn’t bring themselves to report the news.

It’s even worse a little further south in Mississippi, where teachers in Puckett and Pearl won’t even let students mention the president-elect’s name.

You guys do know that whether you talk about it or not, Barack Obama is still the president-elect, right?

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yes, I am celebrating my birthday today. I’m in good company: also celebrating on 11-11 are Leonardo DiCaprio, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Deana Carter, Kurt Vonnegut, and (ahem) Charles Manson.

I’ve already been given the best present ever: Barack Obama’s victory last week and Nashville's first Trader Joe's opening up the street from me. I don’t even care that Tennessee is one of the handful to states to lurch further to the right, which was totally predictable. We're one of those states that's nearly last in everything, or almost first in everything horrible. I think we're a little slow on the uptake. Hey, it's not our fault, there's all sorts of crap in the water here.

Here are a few other random birthday presents I’d like to have:

• From the news media: An end to the Sarah Palin stories. I’m tired of her, already. It’s time for her to go back to Alaska and worry about how she’s going to balance the state budget now that oil has dropped below $60/barrel.

• From my ISP: please fix whatever glitch has rendered me unable to access a host of blogs, including my own (once again, I can post but I can’t read comments). I have to go to a coffee house to read my own blog. Aargh. Second time this has happened.

• From E*Trade: Those talking baby commercials really freak me out. Find another spokesman, please. Giving cute little tykes adult mannerisms to sell us stuff is just creepy.

* From Rachel Maddow: More! Just ... more! Take that, Sean Hannity!

Following The Prop H8 Money

First Mel Gibson came for the Jews, and the Jews forgave him. Then he came for the gays?

Really?

Actually, probably not:

We managed to ferret out an "unemployed" Mel Gibson living in Cameron Park who gave $250 to the Yes side. Alas, this was probably not the star but a gay-hater of lesser means bearing the same name, as Cameron Park is a community about 25 miles outside Sacramento. Then again, you never know where the Malibu land baron might have a little pied-a-terre.

The search engine is fun, though.

Memo To The Mainstream Media

Dear Mainstream Media:

Now seems like a good time to remind you all that disgruntled departing Clinton-Gore staffers did not, in fact, vandalize the White House and loot Air Force One:

An official government investigation, however, reveals one major problem with these stories: They apparently never happened. According to statements from the General Services Administration that were reported on May 17, little if anything out of the ordinary occurred during the transition, and "the condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy."

Ironically, the investigation came in response to a request from Rep. Bob Barr (R.-Ga.), and many conservatives who had assumed that the wild rumors would be confirmed by an official inquiry. That wasn't the case. (The "looting" of Air Force One had also been denied months ago by officials at Andrews Air Force base -- Kansas City Star, 2/9/01).

By the way, that official government investigation came at a cost of $200,000 to identify less than $1,000 worth of “prank” damages.

I feel the need to remind you in the media of this, since most of you gleefully reported these allegations as fact in the days after President Bush’s first inauguration. Yet few of you bothered to correct the record when the GAO’s report was released.

Now, having just watched MSNBC’s story on the transition to an Obama Administration, I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing a lot about missing “W” keys from keyboards and the like.

So please get the story straight this time.

kaithxbai.

Cat + Box = Fun

I could watch this all day:

Joe The Fraud

Remember (not)Joe the (not)Plumber, who railed against Barack Obama’s “Socialist” policies that “spread the wealth around,” and even questioned Obama’s loyalty to his country? Heh heh. Funny story. Turns out (not)Joe, aka Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, has twice received welfare benefits.

I’d actually give him a pass on this because he was a child at the time, except instead of saying how he learned that being on the government dole is evil because it made his parents lazy and unwilling to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps, he actually defended it, noting that he’s since paid back into the system. Joe’s family “used” the system, not “abused” it, he said.

So in other words, social assistance actually pays for itself, because it provides a bridge to the middle class for struggling families who are able to get back on their feet and become productive, tax paying members of society.

This “socialism” argument is so great! It’s okay for me but not for thee!

Except, of course, there’s (not)Joe’s whole tax lien issue. I guess he feels he’s paid back whatever debt he incurred.

I’d say (not)Joe’s 15 minutes expired long ago, except Wurzelbacher isn’t ready to go quietly. He’s ditched the idea of running for Congress in favor of a new gig as a ”government watchdog.”

This should be fun.

New Swift Boat, Same As The Old Swift Boat

I don't know how I got on a conservative e-mail list, but it has become a source of endless amusement to me. Take this e-mail I just got from Michael Reagan (bold face and underlined type is not my emphasis -- it's his):

From the Desk of Michael Reagan

Dear Conservative Friend,

It's official: America has its first truly Socialist president... and it's the Republican Party's fault.

No, scratch that -- it's the so-called "leaders" of the GOP who are at fault for this humiliating defeat -- and I say it's time to name names and make heads roll in our party. Because, my fellow conservatives, we have been BETRAYED by the very people who promised that, if we would just elect them, they would get into office and vote OUR conservative values.

THEY LIED... THE GOP DIED.

Reagan goes on in this vein, and then invites me to visit his new website, ReaganAction.com, which, he explains,

is no wimpy little website with some news articles and a bunch of editorial writers griping about how bad things are. The time for "just talking" is OVER -- now is the time for ACTION!

Every day, we'll give the members of this site -- our own "Reagan Activists" -- the information they need in order to take real grassroots action to counter the greatest political threat we've ever faced within our own government. It won't take a lot of time -- usually only a few minutes a day -- but the political payout will be HUGE!

Oh, sorta like MoveOn.org. Got it.

And what will they do at this website? "Stop liberal bills ... Fight liberal executive orders ... Expose liberal corruption ... Counter the liberal media ..."

So much for naming names and making heads roll at the GOP. He just wants to attack liberals with more of the partisanship and divisive politics that have brought gridlock to Washington for the past 10 years. I sorta think that's what got these folks kicked out to begin with. Good move.

And then we get to the fine print. According to this e-mail, ReaganAction.com is part of a 527 called the Policy Issues Institute based out of Laguna Niguel, California. The brain behind the Policy Issues Institute is Floyd Brown, the guy famous for the Willie Horton ad, bringing Gennifer Flowers to national attention, and the same numnutz who thought hammering Barack Obama with William Ayers was a winning strategy for electoral victory.

In other words, he's one of the guys who is "at fault for this humiliating defeat." Michael, dude, you're gonna listen to Floyd Brown? Didn't he say if you just listened to him, he would get your candidate into office? How'd that work out for you, Mike? Isn't this the very person who "BETRAYED our conservative values"?

If you need me to name some names so some heads could roll, I say start with Floyd Brown. And you can move on to Jerome Corsi and Andy Martin when you've finished.

You know, Floyd Brown, when I wrote my "Can You Hear Us Now" post, I was talking to you.

I'm really hoping the sleaze and slime tactics have lost their effectiveness. We all know how to use the internet and connect the dots. I've got my eye on you, Floyd Brown. You can hide behind Michael Reagan's skirts, but that doesn't mean I can't see your handiwork in action. And don't think I won't call you on your shit, either.

You're not going to get away with it. Not anymore.

OMG We’re Dooooomed!!!

Rush Limbaugh isn’t happy with President Obama’s pick of Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff. He thinks it means we’re all gonna die.

Let’s play a round of the Limbaugh Logic Game, my friends:

There are a lot of Muslims around the world who believe that they finally got one of theirs in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama.  They think that they've got somebody. They know he's a radical leftist, and they think he's at least sympathetic, because they, too, are downtrodden (they think) like African-Americans in this country are downtrodden.

Okay, got that? President Obama, whom we all know was a secret Muslim anyway, was Islam’s pick for president, which explains Limbaugh’s earlier (false) assertion that Hamas endorsed Obama. Which of course would be really sucky and scary for Israel, according to Limbaugh.

Okay, got that? Moving on:

So they think they've got a sympathetic figure, at least, in the White House. Somebody who is not going to have it in for terrorism as much as George W. Bush did. Somebody who isn't going to be as prone to use force.  They think all of this.  Now all of a sudden he names as his consiglieri, as his enforcer, his capo di tutti: Rahm Emanuel.  Rahm Emanuel is all the other things I said, plus he's Jewish.  Now, this sends a signal to the Arab world that conflicts with what they believe.

(It also conflicts with what Limbaugh believes, that Muslim-y Obama will be friends with Islamic terrorists. But I digress...)

They probably are going to give it some time here, but my guess is, my theory -- and I could be wrong about this, but my theory -- is that we also know in the Muslim world that... I forget the word for it.  They have a word for Muslims who flee the faith and join some other religion.  

Of course, they put out fatwas on them like Salman Rushdie and this sort of thing. I think it's entirely possible that when all is said and done, these people in the Islamic, Muslim world who think they've got a simpatico in the White House end up hating his guts. They're going to end up hating his guts. They're going to think that he's a sellout. They're going to think that he abandoned them. They're going to think that he somehow has sold them out.  Not personally, but in their strict code of conduct with their religion and so forth.  If that is the case -- and it's a big "if" and it's just my theorem. But if it's a big case, if it's true, then the Arab world might get even angrier at us than they already are. (laughing) So we shall see, ladies and gentlemen. We shall see.

Ohmygodwe’reallgonnadie.

We’re all gonna die. Because President Obama, who is not a Muslim, but is someone Muslims supposedly liked, picked a Jew as his Chief of Staff.

Ohmygodwe’reallgonnadie.

So we were safe from attack from the Islamic world by electing Barack Obama, but now he’s gone and blown it all by picking Rahm Emanuel?

But John McCain, who sang a little ditty about bombing Iran, campaigned with Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew! Lieberman was even considered for his vice president! So if we play the Limbaugh Logic Game, that doesn’t anger the Muslim world, but making a Jew your chief of staff does?

You know, this game makes my head hurt.

That Didn't Take Long

Get your Obama impeachment gear here.

Of course, you might want to wait for him to actually take office before looking for reasons to impeach him.

Barney's Not Happy Today