This video of Councilman Phil Davison of Minerva, Ohio, is so amazing (and hilarious) I had to post.

Here’s a example of a Republican attempting to connect with his audience through what he no doubt believes will be a “passionate” barn-burner of a speech. Unfortunately… Republicans… being devoid of the feelings required to emote actual “passion” has confused “connecting with the audience” with screaming at them.

Glenn Beck Debases, Dishonors and Disgraces MLK’s Dream

Still unable to accept the outcome of an election not decided by the right-wing Supreme Court, tens of thousands disgruntled white people gathered on the very spot where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech 47 years ago to decry the African American President that normal people legally elected to clean up the abhorrent aftermath of 30 years of class warfare Reaganomics and 8 years of disastrous Bush policies.

Beck, a incredibly-wealthy huckster told Forbes magazine that he could “give a flying crap about the political process”, but is only in it for the money, and who uses his Rupert Murdoch and Saudi Prince Alwaleed-owned Fox News show not only to convince his willfully ignorant audience into losing their money by “investing” in a gold coin company currently under investigation, but also to espouse an ideology meant to cultivate divisions in this nation – lest people turn their anger on the big moneyed interests that Beck convinces his dupes to loudly rally to support.

Bussed to Beck’s Restoring Honor ™ rally courtesy of billionaire climate denier right-wing billionaire David A. Koch of the oil giant Koch Industries, the so-called “non political” event steeped-in politics attendees were praised by half-term governor opportunist Sarah Palin, praised “patriots” in the audience for “knowing never to retreat”… from… I guess… the legally-elected black guy in the White House… and directed to join FreedomWorks, the Astroturf funding arm of the Teabaggers run by former representative Dick Armey, who holds the notable opinion the government-run socialist healthcare known as Medicare- that many of the Teabaggers currently enjoy without a sense of irony – “trashes the Constitution.”

Of course, Republicans traditionally become born-again Constitutionalists during Democratic administrations when it seems like their true constituents – big-moneyed interests and their transnational corporations – may have to loosen their grip around the neck of working people if “pesky” government gets in the way.  This is nothing new.

Beck, who has ensured that racial wounds remain wide open so that our economic royalist masters can drive a wedge between the people who they seek to control, has called the first African-American President a “racist with a deep seeded hatred against white people” as well as railed against the very philosophy of “social justice” that Martin Luther King devoted his life to.

The People For the American Way released a statement about Beck’s bastardization of MLK’s dream here:

Glenn Beck and Dr. King

Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way, released the following statement about Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in DC this weekend:

“Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech was one of America’s proudest moments, and helped define the core values of a nation. Dr. King’s speech was a powerful call for tolerance, compassion, and unity in a harshly divided country. On that day in August of 1963, his March on Washington gathered hundreds of thousands of Americans devoted to expanding equality and opportunity.

“Forty-seven years later, Glenn Beck is trying to appropriate Dr. King’s legacy in order to push his agenda of intolerance, fear, and division. Beck says he’s ‘reclaiming civil rights.’ In fact, he’s insulting exactly what Dr. King and his movement stood for.  Beck has made himself famous for his attacks on progressives, Muslim Americans, union members and even churches who preach the social justice values to which Dr. King dedicated his life.  He claimed that President Obama has ‘a deep-seated hatred of white people.’  Beck is not ‘restoring honor’ to our country; he’s just fanning the flames of tired old prejudices amplified and enlarged for political gain.

“Beck’s histrionics and his deeply cynical appeals to bigotry are anathema to Dr. King’s legacy.  In honoring the life work of Dr. King, Americans should stand for justice and equality for all people, and against hate and those who speak, teach and promote it.”

Robert Greenwald invites us all to “stand with Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a just, diverse and equal society. I do not stand with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and their attempt to destroy and distort King’s vision.” Go to Greenwald’s site “Glenn Beck is not Martin Luther King Jr. to sign the statement.

Only a Republican could be quoted saying that peace talks are the biggest threats to peace and be taken seriously, just like when Bush schooled we ignorant Plebs on June 18, 2002 saying, “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.” on Christiane Amanpour’s Sunday show George Will told the American People that “…the peace process is the biggest threat to peace in Palestine.”

This comes on the heals of the announced this week from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that there will be new peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, so the real problem for Republicans is not how they can effectively aid in the peace process, but how they can stop progress in order to deny a Democratic administration any victories while in office. Of course, the unprecedented Republican obstructionism on all fronts proves once again that Republicans care nothing for country or community – only to the profit of their benefactors – transnational corporations whose only goal is to ride the working people of this nation to the bank without pesky government interference. If they can stop Hillary Clinton from positively affecting peace in the Middle East, they improve their chances of convincing the willfully ignorant of this nation to put them back in power so they can continue turning them into compliant serfs.

As if normal people weren’t already convinced that the Republican Party is a nest of morally-bankrupt, greed centered oligarchs (and their willfully-ignorant sycophants who adopt the agenda of billionaires in the hopes said billionaires will one day meet them for a beer), we have more proof that Republicans would be quite content having millions die in perpetual war in order to maintain their own power.

Republicans are sick… sick… sick… and the most tragic part is that their ideology is like a virus that sickens us all.

Read more at Crooks and Liars

In the face of the Wikileaks documents exposing the futility of our murderous, un-winnable, adventures in Afghanistan, Congress approved ANOTHER deficit-ballooning war supplemental while nixing deficit-neutral funds to prevent the layoffs of approximately140,000 teachers.  Proving, once again, that the “deficit hawk”, “we must cut spending” meme only gets trotted out when Republicans are further turning the screws on the Middle Class their policies are actively meant to destroy.

A House aide said that the teacher money is a top priority for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey, D-Wis… but apparently not as important as pouring unlimited resources into Afghanistan – historically unconquerable since Genghis Kahn.

The final bill contained 37 Billion for a war that, according to the leaked Pentagon internal documents, is destroying our economy and making us less safe.

The bill also cut $10 billion in funding to prevent teacher layoffs, $1 billion for summer youth employment, $5 billion for Pell grants and $701 million for border security, all of which were offset and budget-neutral, whereas the war funding actually increases the national debt.

Here we are again.   Fake Republicans and Democrat in Name only, so-called “deficit hawks” who only seem to appear when the late, great, American Middle Class needs relief from the disastrous effects of 30 years of Reaganomics.

The majority of Americans now oppose the war, yet those who are sent to Washington to supposedly represent us, insist on continuing it.

This is a failure of our democracy the same way war is a failure of leadership.   Unfortunately for us, war is also quite profitable for the rich benefactors who keep our so-called representatives well greased in Washington.

Our system is broken and corrupted by money.  Period.  We were warned, though.

Eisenhower warned us of the dangers of the “Military-Industrial Complex”, and our 4^th President James Madison wrote,

“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes and the opportunities of fraud growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could reserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

Two time Medal of Honor winner, General Smedley Butler wrote in War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier

“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.”

It’s been reported that, like the billions of dollars missing in Iraqm, billions are missing in Afghanistan – billions of dollars in OUR MONEY that was shipped on pallets and in giant suitcases and is now, most likely, sitting in the Swiss Bank accounts of Afgan drug—lords.

could going to create jobs in the US, send kids to college, revitalize our crumbing infrastructure or put us on the road to energy independence.

The fact is, even the Pentagon has reported that there are less than 100 Al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan. It’s also been reported that we’ve been aware that it holds vast mineral riches for the taking of any once-vibrant democracy turned oligarchy willing to turn its youth into, as General Butler described, “high class thug(s) for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.”

This is the world we are creating for future generations.  With education available to only the rich, there’s sure to be no shortage of “paupers” willing to be, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, “shot at for a shilling a day.” Of course, the tragedy is that he was bragging to his friend Dr. Thomas Cooper,

“our men are so happy at home that they will not hire themselves to be shot at for a shilling a day. Hence we can have no standing armies for defense, because we have no paupers to furnish the materials.”

I’m afraid that our Founders, as well as many of our predecessors, would be sorely saddened by the fact that we did not heed their warnings and turned the government of “We the People” they passed down into just another sad, dying, empire, functioning to keep the rich in the cat-bird seats of power, looking down at a large pool of cheap labor to exploit and send to war.

This is Post-“American Dream” America – where so few do so much damage to so many… and Republican and DINO leaders respond with, “so what?”

The schizophrenia of being a modern conservative is enough to give normal people sharing the same air a perpetual knotted stomach. For example, the conservative penchant for proclaiming Jesus as their favorite “philosopher” while re-writing the story of the original liberal “community organizer” into some free-market capitalist crusader Hell-bent on teaching the lazy poor people to pull themselves up from their bootstraps.

The hypocrisy of today’s Cons turning the “Prince of Peace” into a vindictive, war-mongering, selfish, greed-centered, version of themselves is illustrated beautifully at Tea Party Jesus – where the literal words of today’s Christians are put in the mouth of Christ as evidence to the unbridled dishonesty and disingenuousness of Con philosophy.

Canadian-American economist, prolific author and proud progressive John Kenneth Galbraith put it correctly when he said,

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

Not only are they in desperate need of moral justification, they are in on a constant mission for historical justification – even if that means they have to simply “make it up.”

The arch of history in positively evolving societies bends away from Con ideology and towards enlightened and vibrant democracy.
Our Founders, students of the liberal Enlightenment – the Age of Reason – were fighting the Con ideology when they created our republic. Although their were some foundered more Conservative than others – ones who believed that the “right” people (the rich) should lead and the rest of us should follow, they were fresh from being under the thumb of hundreds of years of generational aristocracies and hereditary rule. The Cons of their day were the Loyalists who wanted to remain under the thumb of the Monarchy.

Unfortunately for the current state of discourse in America, wearing a 3-pointed hat draped with teabags does not a historian make.

Glenn Beck is the most egregious culprit in attempting to rewrite history to suit his malignant narcissism.

Not only does Glenn Beck suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction and suicide ideation, and – as Lewis Black put it – “Nazi Tourettes” – he also suffers from regular breaks from reality.

Funny how someone so adept in sniffing out the scent of Nazism would revive that old Nazi propaganda, anti-Semitic canard, about the Jews killing his Lord and Savior, Jesus H Christ, Beck went on his radio program to attack Jewish Funds for Justice’s Simon Greer; saying putting “the common good” first “leads to death camps.”

For the sake of setting the record straight, let’s hear what our actual Founding Fathers had to say about “the common good.”

“In contriving any system of government, and fixing the several checks and controls of the constitution, every man ought to be supposed a knave, and to have no other end, in all his actions, but private interest. By this interest we must govern him, and by means of it make him co-operate to public good,” Alexander Hamilton “The Farmer Refuted.“

“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” – James Madison from “Federalist No. 57“

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men: Therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.” – John Adams “Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1780) Article VII“

“During the contest of opinion through which we have past, the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely, and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the constitution all will of course arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good.” – Thomas Jefferson “First Inaugural Address“

Thanks Thom Hartmann for putting these quotes together.

Barack Obama’s Facebook page announced, “We’re going to keep on fighting until wages and incomes are rising, businesses are hiring again, Americans are headed back to work again, and we’ve recovered from this recession.”

Sound’s wonderful, but I’m done with promises… promises…. like most normal (non-Republican) Americans, I’m numb from promises and looking for ACTION.

The gap between the rich and poor is the widest in decades. Well-fed Republican bastards are, AS USUAL, fighting for tax cuts for the rich – although it would add to the deficit they suddenly care so much about – while simultaneously blocking the extension of unemployment benefits for those out of work in the worst economic climate since the FIRST Republican Great Depression.  Their reasoning is simple – the more people unemployed at election time, the better their chances of getting their boney fingers around the neck of power again. THAT’S how much Republicans hate the “small people” of this nation.

But, still, rather than boldly and unapologetically embracing Democratic Party values and policies, our duly-elected President woos the greed-centered Republicans no matter how many times they reveal this disdain for the suffering of the late, great, American Middle Class.

How about we reach back into the past of and emulate a successful DEMOCRAT whose policies CREATED the once-vibrant American Middle Class – FDR – and restart the Civilian Conservation Corps?   Stimulate the economy in a way that works – from the BOTTOM up, put millions of unemployed people back to work, clean up the corporate-sponsored environmental disasters, put us on the road to energy independence and instill a sense of pride in a despondent workforce.

Why does government always bailout the elite and let the Plebs eat cake?   Where is the Candidate Obama I voted for?   He has surrounded himself with corporatist ideologues who want to maintain the power of our “too big to fail” masters and appease Republicans like battered spouses pining for their abusers.  They won’t take bold action like FDR did because they are just as wedded to the corporate money as Republicans are.  THAT’S how corrupted by money our government is.  This is why we can’t get real “change we can believe in,” only watered-down compromises that they can tout as “victories” for the people too exhausted from their 3 “Uniquely American” low-paying, dead-end, jobs to pay attention.  The root causes of the giant problems unbridled greed and the war on the middle class have brought us are still in place.   Geithner, Summers, Emanuel… are so careful not to anger government’s true constituents – the big moneyed interests that don’t care a whit about the “small people” – that real “change” that would restore the power of the middle class, bring our jobs home from China and India and restart American Manufacturing is impossible.

Want to see the future for the American worker?  Take a look at powerless Chinese worker.  That’s what they are slowing doing to us here.

“The world is flat” if you are a corporate bankster with no allegiance to country or community.

This war on the middle class all began with Reagan. Why doesn’t the President talk about that?  All we hear from Republicans are “the Obama recession… Obama, Reid Pelosi Bailout…”  The party of “Personal Responsibility” sure knows how to take no responsibility for their messes!    But, you see, this destruction of the middle class is what Republican policies are designed to DO.   Their goal is to have the rich own and run everything and the rest of us are turned into compliant Serfs fighting for the scraps that “trickle down” off their tables.  Thanks to Republican policies, the United States is the LEAST upwardly mobile of all the industrialized nations.

Knowing that most American have the political memory of a fruit fly, the President should get on TV  – like he did with his final half hour ad from the campaign titled “American Stories, American Solutions” – and tell the story about how Republican policies have destroyed the middle class with their selfish obsession to shift the tax burden to the shoulders of working people and ship our jobs to China.  (yes, I know that Clinton signed NAFTA – that’s why I said, Republican “policies.”)

That won’t happen, though, because we can’t even have a mature conversation in this country – instead we get speeches about how we put a man on the moon (in a time when the top marginal tax rate was 77% BTW) and “let us pray.”

FDR used to say, “I welcome their hatred.”  This President lauds about “bipartisanship” and welcomes “ideas” from the very dead-enders we voted against who are turning “The Land of the Free” into “The United States of Serfs and Lords.”

We didn’t vote for “Republican ideas.”  We voted to reverse the “Republican Ideas” that have given us the greatest income disparity between rich and poor since the Gilded Age (ANOTHER time of “Republican Ideas”… btw)

I’m so tired of watching this country be devoured by greed.  Join our Green CCC FB page… if you are so inclined….

And check out Daniel Cluchey article at the Huffington Post: Hoover v. Roosevelt: Decision 2010

Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United ruling, the Corporate takeover of our government is complete and Karl Rove can now openly solicit massive contributions to his cause of getting his pudgy fingers on the neck of power in the name of our big-moneyed “betters.”

From Rawstory :
By David Edwards

A recent Supreme Court decision hailed by Republicans but condemned by most Democrats may be helping to stuff the coffers of conservative political groups founded by Karl Rove.

President George W. Bush’s former senior adviser admitted to Fox News Tuesday that his American Crossroads 527 and Crossroads GPS groups have benefited from the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

The Republican National Committee actually lost money in 2009 but Rove doesn’t think his groups are part of the problem. The party ended the year with $10 million fewer dollars than at the start of the year.

Fox News’ Jon Scott asked Rove if his groups were responsible for siphoning fundraising dollars away from the RNC.

SCOTT: I know that you yourself are mentioned in some of these articles as perhaps being part of the RNC’s financial problems because you’ve got this group, American Crossroads, which is raising money. Some suggest that the money that goes to American Crossroads might otherwise go to an organization like the RNC.

ROVE: Well that’s not correct, because American Crossroads is collecting money in excess of the individual contribution limits the RNC has allowed to give. What we’ve essentially said, is if you’ve maxed out the to senate committee, the congressional committee or the RNC and would like to do more, under the Citizens United decision, you can give money to the American Crossroads 527, or Crossroads GPS, so we’re not tapping the people who — if you’ve giving to American Crossroads, you’re fully capable, in all likelihood, of giving the maximum to one of the national committee organizations.

Jake Tapper of ABC News called the American Crossroads group a “shadow RNC” and Comedy Central’s Stephen Colberts recently joked, “And by giving the real power to the shadow party, the Republicans get to tiptoe around the firing of their first African-American chairman which is good because otherwise it would look like they are treating him differently because he is black.”

In January of 2010, the Supreme Court reached a landmark decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case. The court ruled that corporations could donate unlimited amounts of money to political organizations.

In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama criticized the decision. “Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections,” said Obama.

“I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities,” he said.

This video is from FoxNews.com, broadcast July 6, 2010.

Independence Day is bittersweet for anyone with a brain and a knowledge of history, knowing that our Founding Fathers – true students of the Liberal Age of Enlightenment – handed us a system of government “of, by and FOR We The People” not seen since the time of the Romans and, in spite of their warnings, we allowed big-moneyed interests to turn it into a Plutonomy mired in endless wars.

Since recorded history, the philosophy of self-governance was an aberration. Societies were structured hierarchically with hereditary rule by the rich in partnership with religious institutions promising the underclass rewards in the afterlife.

Our Founders were also well aware of the dangers of having a standing Army. Elbridge Gerry, our fifth Vice President under James Madisan  vocalized a common sentiment when he damned standing armies as “the bane of liberty” during Congressional Convention debate in 1789.

At the Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution in 1788, Patrick Henry denounced standing armies because they “execute the execrable commands of tyranny.”

James Madison said, “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .

Thomas Jefferson was aware that so-called “voluntary” armies needed a “pauper class” for their existence. Jefferson largely away with America’s standing army by the end of his Presidency. He was so proud of his accomplishment in the defense of true liberty that he wrote to his friend Dr. Thomas Cooper and said, “our men are so happy at home that they will not hire themselves to be shot at for a shilling a day. Hence we can have no standing armies for defense, because we have no paupers to furnish the materials.”

Our Founders are surely rolling in their graves to see what we have become.. a militaristic, nationalistic, dying empire, with the largest disparity between rich and poor and the least upwardly mobile of all the industrialized nations.

Patrick Henry noted, “We have heard that there is a great deal of bribery practiced in the House of Commons of England, and that many of the members raise themselves to preferments by selling the rights of the whole of the people.” Surely he would be appalled to know of the millions of dollars greasing the hands of today’s so-called representatives and the corrupting influence of money in politics – especially now in the light of the Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling that allows unlimited corporate monies into our system.

While Millions of Americans remain unemployed and cut off by Republican obstruction from life-sustaining benefits and all branches of the military meet and exceed their recruitment goals, it’s clear that the Republican war against the middle class has turned “The Land of the Free” into “The United States of Serfs and Lords.”

U.S. House Representative Dennis Kucinich gave spoke to our endless military adventures and their damage to our economy and our liberty….
Here is the transcript…

In a little more than a year the United States flew $12 billion in cash to Iraq, much of it in $100 bills, shrink wrapped and loaded onto pallets. Vanity Fair reported in 2004 that “at least $9 billion” of the cash had “gone missing, unaccounted for.” $9 billion.

Today, we learned that suitcases of $3 billion in cash have openly moved through the Kabul airport.

One U.S. official quoted by the Wall Street Journal said, “A lot of this looks like our tax dollars being stolen.” $3 billion. Consider this as the American people sweat out an extension of unemployment benefits.

Last week, the BBC reported that “the US military has been giving tens of millions of dollars to Afghan security firms who are funneling the money to warlords.” Add to that a corrupt Afghan government underwritten by the lives of our troops.

And now reports indicate that Congress is preparing to attach $10 billion in state education funding to a $33 billion spending bill to keep the war going.

Back home millions of Americans are out of work, losing their homes, losing their savings, their pensions, and their retirement security. We are losing our nation to lies about the necessity of war.

Bring our troops home. End the war. Secure our economy.

Every time the Teabagging darling Rand Paul opens his mouth, he gives normal people (non-Republicans) the opportunity to see the regressive, backwards, divisive, dead-end vision the Libertarian “philosophy” holds for America.

In the few short days since he won the Kentucky Republican primary, Paul inserted his foot into his mouth on Rachel Maddow’s show concerning his desire to roll back progress on civil rights and, because he, himself is not disabled, also expressed his interest in abolishing of the Americans with Disabilities act.

Paul also didn’t miss the opportunity to take up the Republican raison d’être and jump to the defense of poor misunderstood corporate America by defending BP’s need to cut corners in the name of greed with the flippant retort, “accidents happen.”  This all while the BP created oil geyser continues to destroy the ecosystem and economy of the Gulf Coast and beyond.

Paul (an optometrist) also made known his desire to “slash the size of government” – except where it concerns himself.

Just like Republicans who consistently display symptoms of classic malignant narcissism, his libertarianism stops where his pocketbook starts.” Former Bush speech writer David Frum noted in a Wall Street Journal story from last week in which Paul said he doesn’t want to cut Medicare payments to doctors like himself, because “physicians should be allowed to make a comfortable living“: More from Think Progress here.

The American people are getting a window into the world of the libertarian Republican worldview that looks uncomfortably familiar to the archaic world they have been trying to leave behind over 100 years.

That being the case, Paul has now become the 3rd person in Sunday political talk show history to cancel an appearance on “Meet The Press.”

The Republican Party doesn’t want to lose a good “brand” so they are doing what they can to salvage Rand Paul before he sinks himself further.

Like Sarah Palin, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan before him, Rand Paul is not a leader with a vision for America that benefits the country as a whole, but a snake-oil-salesman hocking a sickening elixir of selfishness and division with the promise to restore everyone to their rightful “place.”

The Republican elite uses their huckster salespeople to grease their middle-class-killing policies up the arse of the middle class – all while promising “relief” from the economic and societal stresses that Republican policies create.   This has been the game the economic royalists have been running on the Sheeple since recorded history.

Now, the Republican “brand” is to wave the flag and talk of “freedom” while working in the halls of power to ensure that corporate America can continue to ride the weary backs of working people to the bank unmolested by pesky government regulation.

The Republican establishment knows that if they can just get Paul to shut his mouth they can pour enormous amounts of corporate donations into damage control and get him back “on message” to advance this agenda.

Check out the Huffington Post’s Rand Paul page for more updates.

It is often said that if you want to truly know a person, then meet their friends.   With this truth in mind, it turns out that (not surprisingly), cult-philosopher of the right-wing and libertarian crowd, Ayn Rand, was a big fan of the disgusting sadist William Edward Hickman, who kidnapped and dismembered a 12 year old girl in 1927.

In her journals, Rand glowingly wrote that Hickman, “is born with a wonderful, free, light consciousness — [resulting from] the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people … Other people do not exist for him and he does not understand why they should.”

Normal Americans (non-Republicans) spent the past year bearing witness to the clutches of teabaggers protesting health care (of all things) while waving various signs extolling Ayn Rand philosophy, believing themselves to be the “Atlas” who would be sure to shrug off the burdens that the unwashed masses inflict on their superiority when they dare demand a society that works for everyone, but truth be told, these teabaggers themselves are often the very “humanity of mud to be ground underfoot” and  “fuel to be burned” that Rand assigned to the working class.

Ayn Rand herself has been called a textbook sociopath characterized by self-preoccupation as well as unapologetic lack of empathy.  In fact, a commitment to selfishness and a rejection of altruistic behavior are elevated to the the height of morality in her worldview.

Much like today’s right-wing bloviators with an elevated sense of self importance, Rand considered herself one of the greatest philosophers of all time, recommending the “three A’s”—Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand.   It’s quite disturbing to think that many of the elite shaping policy today attach themselves to Rand’s “Objectivism,” described by author and one-time Objectivist Michael Prescott as, “an ethics of rational self-interest from which any altruistic motives or duties are excluded. There follows a defense of pure laissez-faire capitalism, the only socioeconomic system that gives free rein to profit-seeking selfishness. Reason, egoism, individualism, capitalism – Objectivism in a nutshell.”

Its easy to see why Republican philosophy would attract sociopaths.  Elevating Malignant Narcissism as a political philosophy is a way of justifying self-serving malevolence, anti-social uncharitableness and downright unkindness – even glorifying it.  Ayn Rand ideologues include Alan Greenspan (who publicly stated that his job was to create “worker insecurity” as a way of keeping the Serfs from rising up against their Sovereign Lords and whose “supply-side” economic fraud has plunged the world towards yet another Republican Great Depression while making a handful of people filthy rich), Clarence Thomas (who assigns Rand’s “The Fountainhead” as required reading for all his law clerks), Rush Limbaugh (who rails against pro-social behavior such as community service as something only to be engaged in by societies’ losers) Glenn Beck (who also encourages his followers to continue contributing nothing to society and whose “9/12 march on Washington was partially sponsored by the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.)

Normal people (non-Republicans) view Rand’s affinity for a self-serving, child murdering and dismembering psychopath as a “real man” as a window into a dark mind to be, at the most, analyzed but not emulated.  I’m sure this disturbing revelation won’t trigger a mass “road to Damascus” moment for her followers – quite the contrary.  No doubt they will reach into the bag of Republican Dirty Tricks and pull out the old standard of justification by any means most commonly by attacking the messenger – far be it for a right winger to abandon their sick philosophy when, according to their self-serving pathology, society is supposed to adjust itself around their sick philosophy.

It’s a safe bet that we would never find a highly evolved person singing the superior praises of selfishness and the virtues of a child-murdering sociopath who’s crime is far more heinous than these words can describe.  Read Mark Ames‘ article for more about Ayn Rand’s sick mind and the entire account of William Hickman’s gruesome crime here. 

Personally, I hope that the right wingers make good on their threats and “Go John Galt” on us.  This is a reference to and Ayn Rand character in “Atlas Shrugged” who triggers the collapse of society by simply refusing to work.  Unlike when the proletariat strike, the Galt-inspired rich go on strike and the whole world comes tumbling down.  More than a work of fiction, Rand’s tome is a nod to the inflamed sense of self importance conservatives have; their Malignant Narcissism actually convincing them that the rest of us freeloaders and parasites can’t survive without them.

Let these twisted souls convince each other that they the pivots that turn the Earth’s access, but we must never reorganize our society to suit the sickest among us.