Convincing moderate Republicans to support extremists like Angle, O'Donnell, et al, just for the sake of Republican Party unity will prove very difficult, most of those moderates consider their personal integrity above their political loyalties.  
 
All this talk about the t-peoples' "constitutional" ideology is nothing more than Fox News propaganda coming to fruition, these people have very little understanding of that Constitution, they use the word like a weapon, not an idea.  
 
This is also a by-product of the Rove era, when the Bush Republicans had to tap the social rage of conservative evangelicals with guns, and now they are paying the piper for depending on that bi-polar extremist element to get their numbers close enough to steal two elections the old fashioned way.  
 
Sometimes strange bedfellows turn on their fellows.  Rove's willful propagation and harvesting of fear and hate and loathing may be the seeds that started this whole mess for the Republican establishment.

yes, as long as this blog is up and still  running, I'm going to repost this one until I get some real responses...  I want the self appointed carbon footprint experts around here to weigh in, instead of just complain all the time, here's a whole approach, so tellme where I'm wrong.

...the fastest way to widespread use of alternative energy?
Electri-City

As a virtual but dedicated layman on the issue, I have produced numerous blogs about the availability of alternative energy, which evolved over time to promote what I call "The Local ENERGY Loop."
It is a story of how a small community is the ideal starting Ipoint for a conversion into a future-friendly form of national energy independence.  It is the "do-ability" of this plan that makes me publish it, my expertise is topical, at best, but the sum of my limited knowledge has given me a point of view that I think actually addresses the real potential, and if it were to actually get support from state and federal agencies, and from he alternative energy industry as a whole, this plan would actually represent something profound that could be accomplished about as quickly and reliably as any other "whole" plan I have read.

There are a dozen alternative options, but too often, the advocates of any one plan tend to focus on their parcel, not the whole picture.  And too often, those same advocates become so mired in their particular advocacy, they ignore the broader picture, and trivialize other options, when they should be looking for a way to get the alternative ball rolling, using all the options together, until the best ones are proven.

This plan is the amalgam of those many other plans, and while each of them alone contributes greatly to the transition, together they represent a whole idea made up of harmonic parts that can bring a much bigger change if allowed to flourish and grow.  And that could really happen, especially if start-up model versions are publicly subsidized and expedited, so other communities take note and emulate this simple formula made up of of complex parts, based on a simple premise; small communities creating full power, under average conditions, from alternative sources.

The formula varies geographically, but the basics remain the same.  Which resources are primary, secondary and back-up would all be variables.

Here in Kansas, where all the notable alternative options are readily available, especially wind power, the primary power source could be wind turbines, again, enough to provide sufficient energy under average conditions. This allows the surplus to be sold during peak conditions, which we will refer to later.

The secondary power source, (again this formula is for central Kansas,) is solar.  State and federal subsidies to encourage business owners in particular and residents in general, to add solar panels to their property, locally grid-tied, not necessarily to storage batteries.

Particularly in Kansas, and across the breadbasket states, solar could best represent the peak-power and/or secondary resource, because the bright sun and air conditioning follow the same cause and effect pattern.  By dedicating solar energy to HVAC, the daily seasonal surge in demand is flattened, allowing for more surplus energy to be sold to the public grid, which we will discuss later..

But that old fossil fuel argument against wind, "the doldrums,"  and the dark-of-night disadvantage of solar arrays, suggests two remedies;  either grid-dependence on a lesser scale, using existing fossil fuel plants as the back-up,  or better yet,  provide the back up by creating a third source that is capable of operating regardless of environmental conditions, and capable of producing a surplus in it's own right, to accommodate that same potential exponential purpose which we will discuss shortly.

This is where biofuels could offer their best use, and where they become the third part of the Local Loop Energy-independence triangle.

For nearly two generations, long before the modern, massive hydro, coal, and nuclear plants were conceived, every small community produced their own energy with their own generators.  These were, at least in my memory, typically diesel powered.  

What I propose is something of a retrotech fix, a return to those days of local energy generation with big diesel generators, but that we use biediesel and biobutane technology, not oil diesel or other fossil fuels,  to act as the fail-safe, third layer of triple-redundant generation resources.  

With wind as the primary, solar as the peak secondary and biofuel as the BACK-UP, a small to medium sized community could literally go grid-free, and put ALL it's community energy budget into it's own local economy, instead of a fraction.  

Not only that, this plan produces an environmentally friendly green energy alternative to the communities and residents around these off-grid towns. Under ideal conditions, they act as a source of revenue, producing real income for the community by selling the excess whenever the wind and solar generators are more productive than local requirements.  By designing these systems to work under average conditions, ideal conditions then become profitable.

This would provide much needed resources to communities everywhere, and could serve to lower both local taxes AND those local utility rates.  Communities could use some of their surplus to offer small businesses and new residents a designated period of free utilities, to encourage people to move there and start businesses. They could contract their excess to particular businesses in a local futures market, so companies could lock-in their costs and communities could gauge and manage potential renewable capacity expansion at the same time.

There are many other "green" side-effects to this plan, especially if the resources available to produce that biofuel on a city-sized scale are made available throughout the scope of community sources.

The starting point is local waste residue, instead of representing a costly liability, it is converted into biomass, by combining sewage residue, street and park sweepings, and other available biomass, to generate the methane that begins the whole gearing up process to make that biofuel.  While any surplus might be used to generate electricity directly via a methane generator, the majority of that methane is used to fuel the "gear-up" biofuel production process, with the resulting biodiesel, biobutanol and bioethanol powering big generators.

While personal battery storage by businesses and residents with solar arrays would not be discouraged, in this system, the local grid itself serves as the mutual system, VIRTUALLY ELIMINATING the need for those systems to require storage, with all, or any one part of, the power-generation triangle/ loop available whenever supply from one part diminishes to a certain point, in a loop of self sufficiency.

This eliminates the need for massive storage facilities.  And remember, each of these systems is designed to provide sufficient energy under average conditions, so keep in mind for future reference, the potential for surplus production is considerable.
Read  "The BIG Picture" after the break...
...Here's that "exponential" part I have been referencing.

I have talked about model versions of this, but when you ponder the "do-ability" of this plan, and that nothing proposed thus far represents anything more precipitous or extreme than a few small communities making a unique conversion.

But once those benefits become obvious, communities across the country will sprint to pass their own local revenue bonds and seek state and federal subsidies to emulate this plan, and with each community managing it's own needs. Now ponder a single idea with a few good examples, suddenly going viral, and the end result would be thousands of small communities across the country emulating this plan, and the immediate availability of their surplus, DEDICATED FOR SALE TO THE METRO AND MEGALOPOLIS ENERGY MARKET.

SOME THOUGHTS TO PONDER;

And, as a publicly owned utility, each of these small town energy plants would be eligible for net metering and thereby would get the commercial rate for the surplus energy they add back to the grid.

This plan creates high-tech, high paying jobs, geographically diverse.  It makes local farmers a primary source of back-up fuel raw materials, and keeps that money in the local economy.  And the co-product grain proteins that are left after oil and carb extraction can be sold back to the participating farmers as a high-quality feed additive.

Local High Schools and Trade Schools could offer maintenance and construction courses for these energy plants, adding even more skilled jobs to those local economies.

The self-interest of each community to gain independence and reach surplus production will help  expedite the "whole" process significantly. 

Voters asked to help fund these projects can be shown how rare it is they can vote on publicly funding something that actually pays them back.

First, some personal disclosure;
My wife and I give the DCCC $10 a month specifically to support Alan Grayson, it is currently the only contribution we can afford (OK, we really can't afford it, long story but we are like many others who have seen drastic negative changes in our small-town Main Street store, and it started lng before Obama was even a household name).

So now I get these wonderfully inspiring regular emails from Florida, and while we can't do more for now in terms of responding to the requests for contributions, we appreciate the fact we can keep up with Grayson's campaign, even from Kansas.

So, being from Kansas, when we read about David Koch putting some of his pollution profits into opposing Grayson from afar,  I felt like we somehow represent the REAL grassroots from Kansas, while Koch is the King of the Astroturf.

And then Alan sent us another email, which puts in a very good nutshell just why the Kochs have gotten so deeply into the political game, and it isn't pretty.

Normally,. I would never assume to post a fundraising letter here, but this one is so full of very relevant and revealing information, it is worth your time to read.
Here's the real story.
You can ignore the requests for contributions if you want, and just get the story, but if you really want to put your money where your heart is, Grayson's one of the best, he proves it every time he stands up to the wingnuts the way EVERY Democrat who is worth their salt should be doing.
Here it is;

"Dear John,

Let me tell you something else about David Koch, the billionaire who is spending $250,000 in attack ads this week, to try to defeat me.

In 1999, Koch Industries was indicted on 97 counts of violating the Clean Air Act, and related criminal laws. Why? Because Koch's Corpus Christi oil refinery had dumped 91 tons of benzene, a carcinogen, into the environment.

Four Koch employees faced up to 35 years in prison. And Koch was liable for $350 million in fines.

Should Koch, the polluter, choose our Congress, or should we? Contribute to our campaign, and fight back.

It didn't look good for Koch. But 2000 was an election year. So Koch dragged out the case, and spent $900,000 to help get George Bush and other Republicans elected. Not to mention doling out $20 million to right-wing think tanks, which churned out anti-Gore propaganda.

And guess what? Two months after John Ashcroft was sworn in as Bush's Attorney General, the Bush Administration settled the case for less than six cents on the dollar. John Ashcroft - the best Attorney General money could buy. The money that Koch spent on the 2000 campaign bought Koch a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.

David Koch learned an important lesson about government in 2001. If you can't beat it, buy it.

And that is what David Koch is trying to do today. Having bought the Executive Branch in 2000, now he's going for the Legislative Branch. A twofer.

And we need your help to stop him. Koch is spending $250,000 right now. We have to fight back. Help us now.

Truth,

Alan Grayson

Tomorrow, we'll tell you how Koch pays for all this. But in the meantime, think about this: can we even call ourselves a democracy, when in each election, one man determines who wins and who loses?

"

Matthew, Verse 23, Chapters 15-19? 

Republicans are giddy with anticipation, already assuming the media spin and pollster's prognostications for a big sweeping victory come November.  But they may not realize just how it might affect their future as a "ruling party."

If Republicans win back control of either or both houses of Congress in November, will they be able to "fix" the problems that have angered the public? Can they turn things around quickly enough to carry their impetus right into 2012?

That question might be worth considering,  because no matter how much power they accumulate,  if the economy somehow rebounds and hiring explodes immediately afterwards, it will look to many of us as if they had that power all along but were holding back just to gain political advantages.  If they really DO turn this economy around so easily, all those crazy conspiracies that they somehow agreed to dump enmployees in the wake of Obama's win, will just gain more credence.


If they take the majorities, then they will have either two years to fix the mess so they can oust Obama, or they will simply be the inheritors of their own mischief.  Considering the Dems are being blamed for Bush fiscal malfeasance, despite he fact they have had majorities AND a President for barely two years. 


Think about it. If they DON'T convince Bush's base to start hiring again, immediately upon gaining their majorities, the Republicans will effectively make themselves the owners of this fiscal mess, but if they somehow manage to "fix" it in less than two short years,  by suddenly finding all those missing jobs, they will prove it was all a contrived political move, at least to anyone with a brain.


My point is, the Republicans will have to make their "pro-business" changes very swiftly, if they intend to avoid being blamed for failure, and if that happens on such a truncated schedule, it will be quite apparent they could have done it at any time.


So, I am suggesting, basically, that if they want to win in 2010 AND 2012, they will have to fix the economy between those elections, or they become inheritors of this mess they have been able to blame on the Dems, despite the fact it is current Republican obstruction and past Bush era fiscal policy that created and perpetuates this mess in the first place.


If the Republicans can't convince their base to start hiring, in a vert big way, they may regret choosing this election cycle to pull out all the stops, a big win this year puts them in great jeopardy of having to actually take responsibility for the fiscal mess they created in the first place.


Just food for thought.

Just read someone on a Facebook thread who claims the Dems are spineless, and no one should vote for them because they are cowards.

But the fact is, it is the Republican Party that is afraid of it's own extremes,  not the Dems.
The proof of my assertion is easy to find, there are two very historic and fairly recent examples of the Republicans being such weak-kneed sissies, they allowed an extreme faction of their party determine their fates.
  
In the first example, it lost them their Congressional majority, in the more recent one, it may split them permanently.

The first example is the neocon takeover of the Republican Party during the Clinton impeachment debacle, the deep-Texas, Cheney-led coalition-of-the-greedy that wanted Saddams' blood and Iraq's oil, the ones who lied us into a no-bid war that they profited so handsomely from.  Any Republicans who questioned that war were called traitors and labelled RINOS and ridiculed openly by the neocon beast.

That abdication of responsibility by the Republican party as a whole, in abject cowardly fear of the big money neocon branch of their own party, led to the loss of their Congressional majorities AND the WHITE HOUSE.  If not for a pliant media pushing anti-Obama propaganda, that might have been the end of them, as a viable political movement.


But now the Republicans have a new set of masters, the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds are history, they have been replaced by Bleck and Limpboy and a seedy cadre of overtly bigoted Tea Party provocateurs whose only goal is to bring down our African-American president, for reasons we all know, no matter how often they deny them.

So now, every time a Republican candidate fails to kiss Tea Party ass, they get slammed by the likes of The Lump and Bleck and the Fox Noose crew. And like the abject cowards they are, most every one of them rolls over and apologizes profusely,  or jumps through the litmus test hoops, no matter how outrageous their bigotry is when they open their ambitious but cowardly mouths to stroke the Tea People around them.

If EVER there has been a party of cowards, it is the modern Republicans, who are afraid of their own extremist shadows, those uber-wealthy-uber-greedy neocons at the top end and the spiteful sore-loser tea baggers at the bottom of their pecking order.
 
Calling the Dems "spineless" in an age of abject and undeniable Republican Party cowardice is the ultimate reversal of reality, and anyone who falls for it is forgetting how scared the R's are of their own extremes.

...the fastest way to widespread use of alternative energy?
Electri-City

As a virtual but dedicated layman on the issue, I have produced numerous blogs about the availability of alternative energy, which evolved over time to promote what I call "The Local ENERGY Loop."
It is a story of how a small community is the ideal starting Ipoint for a conversion into a future-friendly form of national energy independence.  It is the "do-ability" of this plan that makes me publish it, my expertise is topical, at best, but the sum of my limited knowledge has given me a point of view that I think actually addresses the real potential, and if it were to actually get support from state and federal agencies, and from he alternative energy industry as a whole, this plan would actually represent something profound that could be accomplished about as quickly and reliably as any other "whole" plan I have read.

There are a dozen alternative options, but too often, the advocates of any one plan tend to focus on their parcel, not the whole picture.  And too often, those same advocates become so mired in their particular advocacy, they ignore the broader picture, and trivialize other options, when they should be looking for a way to get the alternative ball rolling, using all the options together, until the best ones are proven.

This plan is the amalgam of those many other plans, and while each of them alone contributes greatly to the transition, together they represent a whole idea made up of harmonic parts that can bring a much bigger change if allowed to flourish and grow.  And that could really happen, especially if start-up model versions are publicly subsidized and expedited, so other communities take note and emulate this simple formula made up of of complex parts, based on a simple premise; small communities creating full power, under average conditions, from alternative sources.

The formula varies geographically, but the basics remain the same.  Which resources are primary, secondary and back-up would all be variables.

Here in Kansas, where all the notable alternative options are readily available, especially wind power, the primary power source could be wind turbines, again, enough to provide sufficient energy under average conditions. This allows the surplus to be sold during peak conditions, which we will refer to later.

The secondary power source, (again this formula is for central Kansas,) is solar.  State and federal subsidies to encourage business owners in particular and residents in general, to add solar panels to their property, locally grid-tied, not necessarily to storage batteries.

Particularly in Kansas, and across the breadbasket states, solar could best represent the peak-power and/or secondary resource, because the bright sun and air conditioning follow the same cause and effect pattern.  By dedicating solar energy to HVAC, the daily seasonal surge in demand is flattened, allowing for more surplus energy to be sold to the public grid, which we will discuss later..

But that old fossil fuel argument against wind, "the doldrums,"  and the dark-of-night disadvantage of solar arrays, suggests two remedies;  either grid-dependence on a lesser scale, using existing fossil fuel plants as the back-up,  or better yet,  provide the back up by creating a third source that is capable of operating regardless of environmental conditions, and capable of producing a surplus in it's own right, to accommodate that same potential exponential purpose which we will discuss shortly.

This is where biofuels could offer their best use, and where they become the third part of the Local Loop Energy-independence triangle.

For nearly two generations, long before the modern, massive hydro, coal, and nuclear plants were conceived, every small community produced their own energy with their own generators.  These were, at least in my memory, typically diesel powered.  

What I propose is something of a retrotech fix, a return to those days of local energy generation with big diesel generators, but that we use biediesel and biobutane technology, not oil diesel or other fossil fuels,  to act as the fail-safe, third layer of triple-redundant generation resources.  

With wind as the primary, solar as the peak secondary and biofuel as the BACK-UP, a small to medium sized community could literally go grid-free, and put ALL it's community energy budget into it's own local economy, instead of a fraction.  

Not only that, this plan produces an environmentally friendly green energy alternative to the communities and residents around these off-grid towns. Under ideal conditions, they act as a source of revenue, producing real income for the community by selling the excess whenever the wind and solar generators are more productive than local requirements.  By designing these systems to work under average conditions, ideal conditions then become profitable.

This would provide much needed resources to communities everywhere, and could serve to lower both local taxes AND those local utility rates.  Communities could use some of their surplus to offer small businesses and new residents a designated period of free utilities, to encourage people to move there and start businesses. They could contract their excess to particular businesses in a local futures market, so companies could lock-in their costs and communities could gauge and manage potential renewable capacity expansion at the same time.

There are many other "green" side-effects to this plan, especially if the resources available to produce that biofuel on a city-sized scale are made available throughout the scope of community sources.

The starting point is local waste residue, instead of representing a costly liability, it is converted into biomass, by combining sewage residue, street and park sweepings, and other available biomass, to generate the methane that begins the whole gearing up process to make that biofuel.  While any surplus might be used to generate electricity directly via a methane generator, the majority of that methane is used to fuel the "gear-up" biofuel production process, with the resulting biodiesel, biobutanol and bioethanol powering big generators.

While personal battery storage by businesses and residents with solar arrays would not be discouraged, in this system, the local grid itself serves as the mutual system, VIRTUALLY ELIMINATING the need for those systems to require storage, with all, or any one part of, the power-generation triangle/ loop available whenever supply from one part diminishes to a certain point, in a loop of self sufficiency.

This eliminates the need for massive storage facilities.  And remember, each of these systems is designed to provide sufficient energy under average conditions, so keep in mind for future reference, the potential for surplus production is considerable.
Read  "The BIG Picture" after the break...

Read more »

And no, I don't think has anything to do with MY stuff, but think on it for a moment, just why wouId someone do this?
 
I wish I had copied and pasted the headlines from last set of blog posts that preceded Kirkman's mass attacks, to see if there are any abiding themes that are being moved down the  list.

I'm not saying that is what is happening, just that it would be an effective way for someone to keep issues and ideas they want ignored off the list.  The wingnut pranksters who took over at the Democratic Party Builder site definitely used this ploy back in 2008 to manipulate what was up for viewing, but they did it with a large group and a lot of trivial posts, while this is one source and a lot of trivial posts. But still has the same effect of shoving other posts quickly off the page.

Anyone see any pattern, or is it just your plain old spammer-type stuff?

Most of you have already read about the big Digg manipulation scandal, whereby a relatively small but determined group of about 100 conservative operatives have worked in concert to game the open system of Digg's approval function, to generate both positive results for the far right and negative results for the middle and the left.

After watching and STUDYING a similar manipulation conspiracy take down any usefulness of the Democratic Party Builder site back in 2008, I posted here and at KOS and elsewhere my concerns that the open source nature of these blogs IS being gamed with very little effort by determined deceivers who take advantage of the freedoms that are extended by the blogs.

If you haven't read much about it yet, here's the original Alternet blog that opened up this bloggers Pandora's Box of Worms.


What I would like everyone here to note is the particular paragraph that mentions the fact that, along with the actual conspirators who have promulgated this offensive tactic,  many of the regular, non-conspirators who contribute to these blogs have enabled those cheaters in the name of fair play,  by refusing to acknowledge or even recognize the patterns of abuse that are so evident.

Here's that excerpt:"Although this is a fringe group of Teabagging wingnuts, many well established figures in the Digg community are also present, such as BalancingAct, EMFK, Janinco, mikeinto, and spindig. 10 members have been part of Digg since 2005-2006, with 43 having their current account there for over 2 years."

People with moderating authority need to watch this very carefully,  on any progressive site, because the blogs themselves may the only source to "police" these miscreants. This includes moderators and blog hosts who consistently allow posers and sockpuppets to proliferate despite rules to the contrary. 

I have seen it here at TPM, on a much more intimate scale, especially on the far left where some constant complainers whose motives I have always suspected re consistently rec'd by others who just don't realize they are being gamed, and always in the name of "fair play", even as they are decieved so unfairly.

My point is, this Digg fiasco is pretty good proof that there's a fairly sophisticated right wing conspiracy to dis-empower the best progressive blogs and the rating systems they have contrived,  And these conspirators treat the blogs with the same contempt they hold for democracy itself. And as long as the far-left is willing to include these cheaters in their delusion of "equal time" and "fair play",   we can hardly trust them any more with the keys to the car, they are enabling their own adversaries to make tools of them.

As for the most-guilty parties, you know who you are, and if this blog offends you, then you are probably either one of the fakes or one of the enablers unwilling to admit your "inclusive nature" is nothing more than naive submission to your own adversaries' deceptions.

I've seen it so often, the smooth-talkers come into a conversation praising the poster and kissing personal ass, then they twist the conversation immediately to a trashfest of Obama or the Left or anything to the right of Newt.   And unfortunately, the naive among us fall for the personal part,  to the point they seem almost to defend the cheaters' very premise, because they were "so polite" and know just who to kiss up to, to gain access to this naive consensus.

I'm just sayin'... don't be naive, there is a very pernicious effort on the part of the right to deny the reality-based blogs their rightful place in the political debate, and they are no more reticent about gaming the blog society than they are about gaming society as a whole. They are so determined to win,  they will trash the very concept of free speech even if it destroys the very society they deign to manage.  Expecting them to play by any set of rules ignores the fact that they break their own rules with sheer, unmitigated hypocrisy whenever it serves their immediate needs.

They have proven conclusively, especially under the Bush legacy (BOTH Bushes) they aren't even capable of managing their own corporations safely, let alone the politics of our country.

Stop enabling them.  Open your eyes, people and recognize that you are being fooled, and that every time you gleefully jump on one of their dogpiles you are giving them the power to deceive others, and credibility they have never earned.

Like I said, you know who you are.
 
One last note of reference, I've had some people here passively accuse me of being obsessive when I look back at the archives to see what some of our questinable members have posted in the past, to get an idea of how their participation has evolved.

II you take the time to read that Alternet article, you will see, it took some very determined research to ferret out the very obvious proof that there was a virtual conspiracy underway, and now that it is :out there" there is no way they can continue to deny it, or continue to get their naive enablers to back them up.

That sort of diligent research and investigation into the archives of any blog should not be discouraged or seen as extreme, it is the essence of gaining a whole understanding about this veritable babe of a media, and unless we are vigilant and observant, they will continue to take advantage of the freedoms we all enjoy, to diminish those very freedoms.

I don't have the time or the expertise to sift through the TPM archives with the exhaustive energy the Alternet investigators did with Digg, but I am quite certain, anyone with a healthy skeptical eye, armed with the proven certainty that this manipulation is real, can perceive the truth of what I say.

It is all there in black and white, and unless "they" can get in and destroy those archives, those records will always be available to any determined investigator willing to do the work it takes to make that discovery.

As more bona fide conservative Republicans are dethroned by their extreme right wing fellows,  it is inevitable they will "see the light" and start talking about the perpetual, pernicious Republican conspiracy to "take down Obama."  It literally borders on treason in some cases, no matter how loudly and angrily our Republican apologistas rant and rave that it is "just politics as usual".

Not only is there mounting evidence that the Republicans and their lousy fiscal policies were instrumental in fomenting our current economic woes, some of the honest-to-gosh conservatives who are being thrown under the Tea Party bus are coming forward to tell the public in general what many of us have suspected and a few of us have been certain of;  that the Republicans, per se, have conspired to create failure in our entire system of governance, obstructing even the most basic lawmaking in their desperate attempt to regain their failure-laden Bush era majority.

David Corn has an article over at Alternet that really exposes this curious political phenomenon,  about Bob Inglis of South Carolina, a certifiable right wing ideologue of the worst sort, whose minor forays from the right into moderate territory doomed him with the intransigent and rabid right wingers in the SC Tea Party.
  
Here's David's opening salvo, with my bold added;

"It was the middle of a tough primary contest, and Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) had convened asmall meeting with donors who had contributed thousands of dollars to his previous campaigns. But this year, as Inglis faced a challenge from tea party-backed Republican candidates claiming Inglis wasn't sufficiently conservative, these donors hadn't ponied up. Inglis' task: Get them back on the team. "They were upset with me," Inglis recalls. "They are all Glenn Beck watchers." About 90 minutes into the meeting, as he remembers it, "They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.'" Inglis didn't know how to respond."


Just how they managed to find someone so measurably to the right of Inglis boggles the mind,  it seems to those of us of the progressive persuasion that there's no ROOM to the right of the likes of Inglis in the Republican Party. But apparently there's enough room to oust him like a commie purge.


And in the process of these extremist victories, people like Inglis, who do apparently hold their patriotism above their prejudice, are coming forward and telling the WHOLE truth about the Republican plan to bring down Obama, even if it means bringing down the very nation they claim to worship.

Like Utah and other deep-red enclaves, South Carolina is proving just how extreme the Republican Party is on it's right-most wing.   If Tancredo is any example, then it is obvious those Tea Party extremists, much like the party they infest feels towards Obama, are willing to lose everything, if they have to give up anything.

The "all or nothing" party is what they should call themselves, even as they eat their own.  Dems have an opportunity to use this to their advantage, for the benefit of We, the People, if they will just open up the door to that big tent, they may actually have some surprises in store come November.  Between now and then, if you feel compelled to habitually criticize the Dems from the left, you may as well be a Tea Bagger.

When the Tea Party influence causes the loss of elections at every level in 2010, it will be followed by countless accusations from those Tea people of Democratic mischief in scuttling those noble Tea Partiers.

The tea partiers will first point fingers at each other, but that will only last until one of them turns the blame game onto Democrats.

How long will it be until the old anti-Acorners call for voter-fraud investigations against, say, the Michigan Dems for their apparent tea mischief?

Am I wrong? ...or isn't that what guilty conservatives do? When the tea partiers get accused of losing these winnable elections, they will somehow blame the Dems for cheating, rather than take responsibility for what they, themselves, hae so willfully done..

I'd wager some like Brainfart will even offer pre-emptive posts to that effect, wanting to look like neocon prophets, and running interference for their own exercise in electoral futility. They know they themselves are to blame for any losses like this, but they will instead blame the Dems for cheating, there is no way CONSERVATIVES can lose fair and square.

It MUST be cheating on the the Dem's part.  Rather than face the reality of their own making, they will create a new reality that says Dems infiltrated and scuttled the Tea Party.  And they'll go witch-hunting to prove it.

I rarely use the arcane term "mark my words" but in his case, it would be worth doing. I'm prognosticating that in the very near future, as the implications of their intra-party divisiveness is manifest in these kinds of losses, the Tea People and their media enablers will start blaming Dems for their own failures.

Mark my words.

I've been pushing the perspective lately that there was a deliberate attempt to scuttle the middle-class economy, on the part of Corporations, in general, by laying off (aka "firing") employees simultaneously.  When they saw the "Change" coming and they knew it was inevitable,  they all shed employees just as fast as they could.

Seems many other folks agree, it's not just one of my tinfoil deerstalker contrivances, there's some very good and un-erasable evidence that this pernicious scenario is exactly what happened.

Bob  Herbert nailed it Friday in the NYTimes, in language that is not so subtle as so many others seem to be constrained by.  He really puts in in plain terms.

Here's Bob's opening salvo;
"The treatment of workers by American corporations has been worse -- far more treacherous -- than most of the population realizes. There was no need for so many men and women to be forced out of their jobs in the downturn known as the great recession."

This is class warfare.  If you don't believe we are in a class war over our commonwealth,  you need to study up.  The "wealthy class"  aka "Wall Street" or in it's neocon version, "Corporations", though a minority that probably represents actually less than 10-15% of the population, are the aggressors in this struggle, with trillions to spare and an unquenchable class desire for even more.  They have a campaign-contribution K-Street pipeline to Congress to foist pro-corporation laws upon us, and a majority-owned Supreme Court to protect them from all responsibility that normally comes with those privileges.
 
The two mysterious factors in all this that cause me the most consternation are (1.) the defense of the upper class by so many of their victims in the middle class, and (2.) the ignorance of the wealthy class as to the benefits of paying higher wages to their middle-class employees, to stimulate and sustain  the kind of roaring economy that makes them richer.

The middle class doesn't want this war, but, unfortunately for democracy, too many of them just don't believe or perceive it is happening.  Even some of those recently unemployed, who just can't figure why they got the axe, refuse to see the depth of this silent corporate conspiracy, despite their own experience that proves it.

For those small-business owners and middle class conservatives who consider their own lemming-like defense of multi-national corporate rule as some sort of Chamber of Commerce sanctioned patriotic duty,  I've said it before, and I will repeat it:

PATRIOTS HIRE PEOPLE!

Especially NOW!

The Tea People seem to be up in arms over the MIchigan organization of the same name, because they suspect it is a ploy by the Democratic Party to siphon votes off of Republican candidates.

But the Tea Party, per se, has no one to blame but themselves.

By refusing to adopt national standards and a unified creed, the Tea People have opened the door to this sort of mischief.

If they had been more willing to actually organize nationally, and share their powers, instead of it turning into little cells of ego-driven influence and power struggles between ambitious dominant wannabe's, they might have established a standard that would be hard to prank or emulate with ill intentions.

But look at the Tea Party even recently, ousting controversial members who were involved in the very essence of it's origins, because suddenly their message isn't politically correct with the less-prejudiced late-comers who want a bigger tent.

The result has been a mysterious, devolving chameleon class of activists who all seem to agree they aren't happy, but either won't admit or can't perceive their real motives. And that also means that any group that wants to call itself a Tea Party can do so, no matter what their motives or politics, and no one can tell them "NO" because there is no one of authority to do so.

It also defrocks all this uppity talk about "Tea Party Purity" as an oxymoron of historic humor. The only thing the Tea Party has managed to certify is that a lot of people are mad, they don't want to take it any more.

If they could only agree on what "it" is they might actually become something other than just complainers at large. But I think what matters to them is not very well established, and just being "angry" about "things" doesn't afford the kind of identity that prevents spoof groups from forming, and having almost as much political legitimacy as some of the local organizations.

The mainstream media is losing money on every part of it's operations, especially print journalism. That media knows how hooked campaigns are on their advertising, and they are doing everything they can to foment divisions among us, which inexorably stirs up much more advertising revenue than sane, sensible and issue-based debate.

As I see it, the tea party is nothing more or less than a media tool to create more advertising frenzy. But inherently that puts an edge of frenzy to the whole process. As long as "the middle" rules politics, the ad revenues drop, but when the extremes are tapped and "the crazy" is promoted shamelessly by that miscreant media, ad revenues soar.

And considering the rest of their story, that is about all they (the MSM) have these days. All their regular advertisers are turning to email and internet ads, and it is just a matter of time before it happens to politics, too.

But for now, the knuckledraggers still rule the MSM (no offense to UGG), and they will stir the pot mercilessly to tap that golden flow of campaign ad money. No matter how much damage it causes this nation.

I hope everyone reads Robert Reich's latest offering from up in the balcony at the TPM Cafe.
Particularly THIS very important passage:

"Wall Street analysts are happy with Ford's "commitment to keeping capacity in check," according to the Wall Street Journal. Ford shares rose 5.2 percent Friday. "Keeping capacity in check" is the Street's way of saying "no new hiring." In fact, the Street is advising investors to sell the stocks of companies that talk openly of expanding capacity."  (my bold)
 
It is just more proof that there really is a class war going on in the U.S. between the rich and the middle class, and the rich are the aggressors.

Which has never really been in doubt, but listening to the likes of Grover Norquist or Dick Cheney talk, one would think the wealthy class is under siege, why those poor old rich folks just don't know where their next dividend check will come from...

My only question, are they so determined to raise their total percentage that they are willing to gamble with the future itself, to the point they would rather see it all collapse than surrender the smallest share to the very people who created that wealth in the first place?  Isn't it in the best interests of the wealthy class to give resources to that American middle class consumer machine that heated up the global economy in the first place?

Why WON"T they use some of their increased wealth to help the Main Street economy get back on track? Is this some cosmic merchant-of-venice curse, they want the authority more than they do the profit?  Is their pound of flesh worth more to them than their own future?  

Are they that desperate to call themselves "Master?"

Just had a deep thought, thought I'd bury it here.

When pondering the hows and where's of it all, the "why" suddenly started swimming around in the brainwash.

And it struck me, the fomenting of racial fear and loathing has a very specific effect; it keeps the middle class divided into factions that should be working together. The poor, too suffer the same manipulations.

Think about the civil war.   How did those southern gents, the ones who actually OWNED the slaves and never had to go to war,  get those poor southern whites, whom they considered trash, to fight that profane war for them?

They scared them with the same provocative tools Fox News now uses.

So my thought was "Why are they perpetuating these racial divides NOW?"

Because if the disparate middle class and poor were ever unified as a voting blosk, the uber-wealthy/neocon/global corp types would never be able to control our democracy. And only by fomenting that fear and loathing can they continue to use those same fearful people, full of loathing, to retain their stranglehold on government itself, in order to pass or not pass laws,  for the benefit of that wealthy class.

If southern whites weren't so weak-minded, they would realize that most blacks are in the same place they are, as far as class goes, and they would unify into a very powerful force for democracy.

But the media-owning, employer class has made certain that not only aren't those southern whites (and middle-class whites all across the country for that matter) educated properly, they are spoonfed Foxisms all day long.

If the bigots ever get past their prejudices, the wealthy class will no longer hold the key to controlling government, unless they fix every ballot box in the country (which is never out of the question.)

So to simplify;

Q. WHY do Fox and the rest of the MSM promote racial division and engender fear and loathing in their audience? 

A. To protect the political power of the upper class from real democracy.