Good on old Avi for going where all good journalist should go, up close and personal with a village people shitck and a badge. Reminds me of the time I got to go to republican headquarters in Walnut Creek California to celebrate G.H.W. Bush's victory in '92. I had overindulged in the free republican wine and was standing in front of a TV next to a supreme court judge named Barbara Zuninga. She had the frigid, stone faced countenance of a graven idol. George was delivering his concession speech when I turned to the judge and said, "Well, I guess justice is served" She pretended not to hear me, I think it was the word "Justice" that deafened her. I was so proud of myself I fell into a fit of laughter so overwhelming that I had to leave.

Clearly the GOP believe that there are a lot of Hillary suporters who feel cheated and are spiteful enough to vote against Obama. They quickly found a right wing wacko who could fog a mirror and shoved her on stage to do the truepatriottoughcookie dance of the symbolic image politician that characterizes the GOP candidates of the last 15 years. I'm surprised they didn't foist an actress on us, they love the iilsion of toughness so much.

If you are smug beyond any chance of self awareness and you are confirmed in your contempt for all but a few thousand Americans then Palin is the ideal candidate. Only a group of people who had already been successful in getting a chimp elected would run a howler monkey. There will be swiftblood to come, they will try to make her look good by casting Obama as the missing 9/11 hijacker, a jihadist.

If the rupuglicrat strategy is a winning campaign ploy then what is in play here are the hearts and minds of people who can be convinced that there really were wmd's in Irak, that the French are our enemies for not joining our war and the economy is on the upswing. It is so very hard to see it but Palin may be the one to sway them. God save the republic!

Obama's fiscal nievite' has prompted him to instigate a race to the bottom and the republicans have taken the lead. They are showing the president that it takes a passive-agressive, half wit to rise to the top of the GOP and be the first to reach the bottom of any debate. Only when civilization lies in a smoldering ruin will the promise of free market capitalism in it's purest conservative form be triumphant and only then will the liberal charade of common sense and progressive ideals be exposed for the Stalinist dreams of the elites that they truly are. Sure we are all of out on a limb in these perilous times but only the GOP has the vision to saw it off and save the country.

I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS REVELANT BUT i RECENTLY REMEMBERED GOING FISHING WITH A BUDDY AT THE AGE OF SIX. WE LIVED IN THE UPPER HAIGHT-ASHBURY IN 1958 AND WE TOOK A BUS DOWNTOWN WHERE WE TRANSFERED TO A CABLE CAR TO GET TO FISHERMANS WHARF. WE FISHED FROM THE MUNICIPAL PIER AND HAULED OUR POLES, TACKLE AND CATCH HOME WITH US ON THE BUS AND CABLE CAR. ROUND TRIP WAS 30 CENTS, TODAY IT WOULD BE ABOUT $14.00. I DO NOT THINK WE WERE ANY TOUGHER THAN SIX YEAR OLDS OF TODAY BUT WE WERE MUCH BETTER AT THINKING FOR OURSELVES AND GETTING OUR JOLLIES BY OUR OWN EFFORTS. WE HAD REAL, GENUINE EXPERIENCES AND LEARNED SOMETHING ABOUT HOW THINGS WORK IN THE WORLD.

It should be apparent that the right employs linguistic formulae in constructing thier propaganda. The mentality of the rhetoric is adolescent, name calling, inarticulate, emotive. You might even say they are, 'acting out'. Rush Limbaugh is just a fifteen year old outcast who sits in his basement with a five watt transmitter broadcasting to people on his block about his distain for the hip, the cool, the smart people who are, "Just a bunch of snooty creeps"

We live in a society in which a bitter, sub-normal, social reject like perez hilton can command a following and publish a book sold at Barnes and Noble with nothing more than viscious character attacks on popular figures in the media. This is the definition of anti-intellectualism.

Rupert Moloch and his machine in concert with other right wing apparatus put forth a well formulated linguistic program that uses the realities of a post literate world to lead the booboisie to the cause of thier own destruction. The liberal response needs to utilize some of these linguistic devices to expose the manipulative nature of right wing bullshit.

The problem is that an intelligent person usually responds to a moronic attack intelligently and the propaganda machine chews this up and defines reason as elite sonbbery. We have to fight fire with fire. Future generations will ponder why we did not hang the Bush cabal for high crimes and treason.