New Poem: IT IS WHAT IT ISN’T

president gets hold of tea party bazooka
tweets the word liberate in all caps
encourages insurgent behavior
wants his fans to get out of their houses
cut off pieces of the golden calf
demand a stunted version of normal
>
death is more than numbers on spreadsheet
much more than a model bent to White House will
it’s family friends neighbors coworkers
doctors nurses online shipping clerks
meat packers ministers actors writers
supermarket checkers and many more
>
make tests available
find out who has it who does not
don’t make Americans play Russian Roulette
give life a chance

Why Senator Ted Cruz will stay on the nation's radar a bit longer.

Yes, Ted Cruz makes Joseph McCarthy look like William F. Buckley, Jr.  But he hits a gigantic nerve with feel-don't-think conservatives across the USA.

Witness these comments on Cruz' Facebook page (commenters' names redacted):
Good that they have a Senator who understands the Constitution and the gravity of the current state of affairs.
Please don't crumble! You are all we have!!
Ted Cruz for president!
WE DONT LIKE OBAMA, REMOVE HIM FROM OUR WHITEHOUSE! !!!
Illegal Immigration, and Obamacare, this is not the country of my youth. STAND YOUR GROUND or we are ruined

Rand Paul: Tea Party poster child for unregulated corporate anarchy?

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/pauls-honeymoon-seems-over/?ref=politics

It can now be said: Rand Paul is Ken to Sarah Palin's Barbie.

London GUARDIAN article assesses Obama one year into Presidency.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/16/gary-younge-obama-first-year

Although the article linked above has an unnecessarily dumb-edgy "Even Charles Manson could beat him" tagline, it has some sobering assessments of Year One of the Obama presidential term as the White House and the Democratic Party plan to metaphorically go over Niagra Falls in a barrel to ensure that the Massachusetts senate seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy doesn't go to a Republican. As the media is drumbeating, this could be the (gasp!) end of the health-industry-friendly health care plan--and possibly the beginning of Obama being forced to do Clinton-esque soccer-mom pandering (plus more capitulation to Republicans) for his remaining three years in office.

Take a look at this passage in particular (highlighting by me):
"Many on America's left are also ­disgruntled with Obama. They believe the healthcare reform, without a public option, will be inadequate, that the war in Afghanistan will unravel, the stimulus bill was insufficient to kick-start the economy and that his economic team is being run by Wall Street. But unlike the right they have so far failed to turn their disillusionment into a potent political force."

If the Tuesday Senate replacement election doesn't go Obama and the Democratic Party's way, it's safe to say that the sort-of-left in this country will opt more for depressive rationalization of the "oh, he had too much to contend with from the Bush years" instead of organizing for meaningful Change that benefits people who won't cash corporate paychecks during their lifetimes.

My generation wants to set me straight re Tea Parties and government.

Here's a lengthy response that someone who went to high school in my hometown sent to me publicly on Facebook (related to yesterday's post):
Liberal groups are almost always coordinated and funded by centralized groups whereas the tea-parties where almost all spontaneous local uprisings by pissed off citizens. Sand? We don't need no stinking sand! Propaganda? Dude . . . I think you may be subsisting on it.A. Governments are necessary entities, not persons.B. Governments produce nothing. They are always a sum-zero to sum-negative net creators. The only true wealth is created by producing something worth more than it's inherent cost.C. The more control you give any government the more control it will demand and ultimately take. Our founding fathers understood this impeccably.D. If you have a $1.00 problem it will always take a governmental entity at least a $1.50 to TRY and fix it, which it seldom ever does. At least not without creating numerous collateral new problems.... E. EVERY re-distribution experiment to date has failed to even begin to compete with the over-whelming success of free enterprise. Anyone want to live in North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba, or Venezuela? How many East Germans died trying to get to West Germany before the wall came down?F. Ever gotten a job from a poor person?G. I have more bullet points but it's way past my bed-time!

Talking about my generation--and their responses.

Posted this as a status update to Facebook earlier today:
I'm sorry to say this--but I'm still having a hard time with people I know from high school being suckers for right-wing propaganda and putting heads in the Tea Party sand.

Received a response saying (in essence) that I drank liberal Kool-Aid.

Then I posted the following:
Don't think that I drank Kool-Aid. I find things to disagree with both on left and right. Just think that the Republcans should do something besides supporting passive-aggressive fascism, yelling SHUT HIM UP! re Obama and ousting people who might dare to have more moderate views. Saying it again--too many people I've known in high school and at [Midwestern State University] in Wichita Falls have turned into adults who don't ask questions and turn too much of their lives over to other people because "they know more than we do." And they don't do their chidren and grandchildren any favors when they just expect their values to be unanimously followed and, in some cases, don't love them when they [their children and grandchildren] may turn out differently.

Received some serious responses from people I've known about Obama's danger to the "American Way of Life", "Obama sucks", and that the Left started all the mudslinging. Then, the posts became more jokey since jokes are a great way to neutralize opinions people think are Wrong.

You've just heard the pulse of the nation courtesy of certain members of the high school graduating classes of 1976 and 1977--and 1979 as well.