Primary Season is Almost OVER

Yes indeed. I've been on a political hiatus for a while, but soon enough, once the real race begins, I'm all over it.

Who Stole My Looking Glass?

Well, I thought that these crazy tea party people would simply give me and T some inspiration to make accurate comparisons between our political arena and Carroll's mind...it will be funny, yea? Well, it WAS until the crazy tea party took it a step further than Carroll's mind could ever imagine. I'm not sure if there is TOO much material to choose from or if the material just speaks for itself, but I don't think I could interpret it and write about it any better than these insane people do. I really should just post links to impressive stories....I feel like I should just a Leno/Letterman style monologue and let you be the judge.... here's a link about Michigan's new Dictatorship! http://www.eclectablog.com/search/label/Benton%20Harbor

They are dissolving entire local governments and appointing managers to take over entirely. It's beyond incredible. Rachel Maddow is the only one to give any coverage to the goings on in Michigan, which to me is strange...but then again, you can only expect the general U.S. public to follow one big story at a time...Sometimes I think that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is causing all this birth certificate nonsense just to distract Americans from the important things happening around our country...makes sense to me...and it's certainly working, isn't it? It's good to be king.

Again, how can I compete with this full-on nonsense of our time by comparing it to Carroll's full-on nonsense of his mind.

That was it...this is me, defeated by the crazy. Oh, I'll be back but for now, I just cannot weed through so much crazy in order to focus on one tiny shard of the looking glass world.

Until then. Keep your eyes on the Midwest! They are doing some important work there...(the citizens I mean.) A

Eric Cantor...

We're All Quite Mad Here, You'll Fit Right In

'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'
Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on 'And how do you know that you're mad?'
'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?'
'I suppose so,' said Alice.
'Well, then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.

This world certainly can seem like it is backward. The economy is a mess, most of us are living under the poverty line, yet we elect government officials who strive to keep us poor! Keep them poor, keep them desperate, make them promises that, not only will we not keep, but we will work tirelessly to defy. When they are poor and desperate, right where we want them, find a way to convince them that they have each other to blame. Encourage them to point fingers as well as guns. Civil unrest, yes! That is what will keep us at the top!

Perhaps. Perhaps we will continue to be good little worker bees and obey the orders of our queen, but there will be a tipping point. Oh yes, there will be! T told me once, when I was flabbergasted by the lack of concern, a couple of years ago, for the downturn the economy was making, he said "If you put enough pressure on something, eventually it will break." I know he is right, and I've been sitting back and waiting for it since then. Something HAS to pull us out of this Carroll-esque world we've created. The problem is that the two sides of political officials, news programs, blogs, radio shows and the loud extremists, continue to tell us that our opposition is each other! These fear mongers are playing with fire and not with themselves, but with us. In reality, WE are not each other'e enemies, it's US against THEM.

It seems impossible that what NEEDS to happen in order to reunite us as Americans is a government shut down, but in our mad, backwards world, that MIGHT be the answer. Government officials, for years, have shown us the path in which we have to take in order to obtain prosperity, or so we believed. At one point, that path MAY have worked for us. Times are changing, no longer is the set path going to lead us to what we imagine as The American Dream. The American dream is dead. The value of the American dollar continues to dwindle, while the prices of basic necessities continue to rise. The constant tampering with our crops have caused our fruits and vegetables to lack the required nutritional value that our bodies need, while it costs more to buy these genetically "enhanced" products. What happens to us when we don't get enough vitamins and nutrients?? Our bodies react, we bloat, our digestive system goes all wacky, and our brains are therefore not getting the fuel it needs to make rational decisions. Their plan to keep us poor and desperate is working, lucky for them, the lack of essential nutrients from our diets, also keeps us stupid. Ignorance causes us to believe them when they tell us they will create jobs for us, they will lower spending on unnecessary programs, they will show us the way back to the path of the American Dream. As our favorite party favor republican Joe Wilson says "YOU LIE!" and they do. That imaginary path to a nice house with a picket fence is an illusion, just like Alice's path home is. It's not HER path, it's the Queen who decides what path she has access to.

Somehow, we have to realize that we are Alice, that we are all in the same place, trying desperately to find our way out of poverty and into prosperity, and we are all losing. Our elected officials are liars, ALL OF THEM, even when they start out as servants of the people, they get caught up in politics and even the most passionate and driven elected officials get lost. Their paths get swept up and disappear, just like ours do, just like Alice's does.

So, how to we find our way back to each other? Back from the right or the left and back into just being Americans? Shut it down. Take away our livelihood. Take away the things we take for granted. Make us ALL desperate and let us all go MAD. A society full of MAD people have a good chance of making our MAD world work for us. It won't be easy! We will ALL suffer. Those who oppose socialism will learn the meaning of a country without it! Food stamps, postal service, disability, SOCIAL security...GONE. The others who think they are better than the others, will find themselves in the same boat. Everyone into the dingy! Everyone join the caucus race! Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Tea Party, Green Party...Let us ALL be MAD AMERICANS!!! When we unite, we can change things. Egypt, what?

Help! Serpent! Help! Socialist!

After Alice is through getting advice from the Caterpillar, who told her that if she eats one side of the mushroom she will grow taller, and if she eats the other side it will make her grow shorter, she decides to try it out. Once she takes a bite, however, her neck suddenly she grows far taller than she expected and shoots up right through a tree, where she meets the Pigeon who has a nest in the tree. The Pigeon is paranoid, scared and very loud.

`And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood,' continued the Pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, `and just as I was thinking I should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from the sky! Ugh, Serpent!'

`But I'm NOT a serpent, I tell you!' said Alice. `I'm a--I'm a--'

`Well! WHAT are you?' said the Pigeon. `I can see you're trying to invent something!'

`I--I'm a little girl,' said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day.

`A likely story indeed!' said the Pigeon in a tone of the deepest contempt. `I've seen a good many little girls in my time, but never ONE with such a neck as that! No, no! You're a serpent; and there's no use denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an egg!'

`I HAVE tasted eggs, certainly,' said Alice, who was a very truthful child; `but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.'

`I don't believe it,' said the Pigeon; `but if they do, why then they're a kind of serpent, that's all I can say.'

It's a frustrating situation for Alice, as she tries desperately to convince the paranoid Pigeon who is screaming at her, that she really isn't a horrible monster as the Pigeon thinks she is. Sound familiar? It should.

There is a fairly large group of people in this country who are paranoid, scared and very loud; they are called the Tea Party. Instead of screaming "SERPENT!" these people scream "SOCIALIST!" or "COMMUNIST!" or "FOREIGNER!" and no matter how hard the rest of try to convince them that our President IS indeed an American citizen and that he NOT a socialist, fascist or a communist, they can't hear us over their own noise. It is incredibly frustrating that these people are so paranoid and gullible.

Enter the Tea Party movement. From what I've observed, these are undereducated, ignorant people who are being told that their way of life and their country is being threatened by a communist president who wasn't even born in the U.S.A. He's going to take your freedom of speech and freedom of religion away. He's going to take your guns away. He's going to kill your parents and grandparents when they are too old to be of any use. This is SERIOUS! Panic ensues. Paranoia becomes out right fear, fear becomes hysteria. Thanks to people like Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Dick Army and all of the talking heads on Fox News Channel pouring fuel on the fire, these people get defensive and then they become dangerous. (And no, I am not blaming them for the AZ shootings.)

With the Tea Party, as with the Pigeon, all of this hysteria stems directly from their own ignorance, yet they claim to be the victim in all of it. There is no convincing them that all of these things they fear are lies and propaganda..."No! I saw it on the NEWS!" As we nod our heads and try to explain that Fox News isn't actually news, and that we are not communists, they get defensive...`Well! WHAT are you?' said the Pigeon. `I can see you're trying to invent something!' Now WE are the socialists. It's all a trick! WE are trying to take away their freedom! WE are trying to take away their guns. There is no other logical explanation as to why we don't agree with them...why we aren't afraid, like they are...why we are supporting a socialist! Suddenly, the hysteria returns, as does the noise! There is no rhyme. No reason. No point in attempting to enlighten anyone. It's too late now. They have been told over and over and over again to believe these things. Rallies, Internet, Fox News, (headline, ticker, interviews...notice how all the statements are EXACTLY the same?) fellow Tea Party patriots. If you tell a group of undereducated and paranoid people,, the same thing over and over and over again, verbatim, they will eventually believe it to be true.

Yes, we are serpents. President Obama is a serpent. Anyone who doesn't agree with you MUST be a serpent!

`I HAVE tasted eggs, certainly,' said Alice, who was a very truthful child; `but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.'

`I don't believe it,' said the Pigeon; `but if they do, why then they're a kind of serpent, that's all I can say.'

Yes. We know.

The Jolly Caucus Race

If anyone remembers the caucus race, you will recall Alice, after creating an ocean with her giant tears, ends up lost at sea and then washes up on the shore to find the Dodo character commanding a group of lesser characters running around in circles in an attempt to get dry. The catch is, no matter how much they run in circles, the waves always soak them again, thereby making their attempts to dry off futile. Alice is baffled by this process..."No one can EVER get dry THIS way!" Dodo (high up on his pedestal) responds: "Nonsense! Why I'm as dry as a bone already!" Alice: "Yes but..." SPLASH. As the ones running in circles are singing a song.

Forward, backward, inward, outward
Come and join the chase
Nothing could be drier
Than a jolly caucus race

Backward, forward, outward, inward
Bottom to the top
Never a beginning,
There can never be a stop

To skipping, hopping, tripping fancy free and gay
Started it tomorrow
But will finish yesterday

'Round and 'round and 'round we go
Until forevermore
For once we were behind
But now we find we are be-

Forward, backward, inward, outward
Come and join the chase
Nothing could be drier
Than a jolly caucus race!

If this sounds like a familiar conundrum, IT IS. GOP big-wigs are on the pedestal (especially now that Boehner is Speaker of the House, they strut around like self-proclaimed rock stars!), doing their best to convince "We the People", Senate and House Democrats AND the president that if we just continue to run in circles, like they command us to, THEY will make good on their promises. We saw this happen at the end of 2010 with the dreaded tax cuts for the top 2%. If you don't want unemployed Americans to lose their homes and cars and food and what have you, you must first meet our demands.

As Alice tries to question Dodo about his tactics, she gets another splash and is swept into the caucus race, against her will, but is on the ground being trampled by the others who ARE running. Dodo says "You'll never get dry that way! Have to run with the others!"

Is this hitting home yet? My point is this; so long as we keep running in circles, we NEVER will get dry. We will just keep running and running until we push Dodo off his pedestal! Given that so many Americans are satisfied running in circles, chances are dizziness and death will come before a revolution will. Until then, the furious five, (Refer to picture above.) will obstruct law making, spout off GOP talking points at "news" organizations who are willing to listen and absorb, (so they can spout it off to their ignorant viewers), and generally drive the entire country and everyone inside the government INSANE with confusion over WHAT they want!

"Forward, backward, inward, outward, here we go again. No one ever loses and no one can ever win."

~AR & TO~

An 'Alice In Wonderland' Budget Process

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is getting a strong whiff off the pungent, piping hot Republican Tea being served up fresh by the golden (bronze? orange?) oldies in the House and calling the crazy like it is.

On Thursday, newly-minted old House Speaker, weeper and giant gavel fetishist, John Boehner (R-Ohio) came out and said in response to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's estimate that repealing health care would add $1.5 trillian to the estimate this: "CBO is entitled to their opinion, but they're locked within constraints of the 1974 Budget Act" (source)

Welch responded in a statement to the Huffington Post: "It's incredibly ominous that they are waving away the CBO opinion. That's catastrophic for any opportunity to maintain budget discipline. If anybody can make up their own numbers, you literally institutionalize an 'Alice In Wonderland' budget process. It is beyond reckless and irresponsible."

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone: "so I ca'n't take more."

"You mean you ca'n't take less," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."

~TO