In 1977, the Sex Pistols played their final UK concert in Huddersfield to benefit striking firefighters. If you like the Pistols, Christmas, firefighters, or even just good holiday vibrations, you should click through to the story “How the Sex Pistols Save Christmas” at Dangerous Minds, complete with video.
(Link VIA)
Heard these guys on KCRW the other morning and kind of love this song.
Nelson Mandela is dead. Mandela’s struggle to end the oppression of Apartheid in South Africa has been chronicled many times, but it’s important to remember that once upon a time he was labeled a terrorist. Many of the same voices praising him today were condemning him thirty years ago. The Reagan Administration actively fought to prevent action against the White Supremacist Apartheid regime of P.W. Botha. William F. Buckley famously compared Mandela to V.I. Lenin (and not as a compliment). Dick Cheney led opposition to sanctions in the House, aligning himself with notorious racists Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond and Phil Gramm in the Senate.
Compare the way they treated Mandela to the way they treated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While both were actively working to end established racist social structures, Conservatives called them every name in the book (although “Communist” always seemed to be the dirtiest one they could deploy). They opposed any action in support of the cause of freedom and equality for people of color, even relatively mild economic sanctions. And now, after history has made its judgment on the struggles of these great men, Conservatives attempt to coopt their legacies. Well, despite what Mitt Romney may think, you can’t baptize someone after they’re dead. No amount of revisionist history changes the facts as they stand. When it mattered, Conservatives were on the wrong side, as always.
The last post got me to thinking about why Republicans always seem to end up eating their shoe just when they think they’ve got Obama where they want him. I’ve seen a few comparisons of the President to Br’er Rabbit, the trickster hero of Southern Black folklore. But if we are defined by our enemies, then I think a more apt analogy is Marty McFly of the “Back to the Future” trilogy. Because the perfect avatar of Republican thought and action is, without a doubt, Biff Tannen.
Biff is an oversized white guy with a chip on his shoulder. He has a particular way with the ladies. He doesn’t come right out and make racist statements, but his friends sure do. He’s not particularly bright.
Much like Biff, the Republican Party has displayed an irrational animosity toward our protagonist President, opposing everything he does out of some instinctive dislike for him. If Obama proposed an anti-suicide initiative, Republicans would show up on TV promoting sleeping pills and Bourbon. But inevitably, they end up looking stupid. The Obamacare website problems are only the latest example. After spending a month telling America that the flawed rollout meant the end of Obamacare, they are now busily trying to shift the focus to something else. When President Obama threatened military action against the Assad regime in Syria after their indiscriminate and horrendous use of chemical weapons against a civilian population, Republicans openly spoke of impeaching him if he acted without Congressional approval. (So much for politics ending at the border, by the way.) When Obama’s stance resulted in Assad allowing the UN to dismantle his chemical weapons stockpile, Republicans were wiping egg off their faces again. Prior to that, the Republicans in Congress, led by latter-day Joe McCarthy Ted Cruz, decided to shut down the government under the insane delusion that they might force Obama to reverse the signature legislative achievement of his tenure in office. When this disastrous auto-pedal firing squad had finished its work, the Republican brand was as unpopular as it has ever been.
Time after time, Republicans try to bury the President and end up burying themselves in manure.
December 1st has rolled around and suddenly the naysayers are no longer saying nay. Or at least not saying it about Healthcare.gov, the official portal to the healthcare exchanges established by the Federal government in states run by Republican douchenozzles more concerned about earning Tea Party street cred than helping the most afflicted of the people who put them in office. So now, as they are wont to do, the stupid wing of the Republican party (protip: that chicken only has one wing) is trying to pivot away from criticism of the website rollout back to more generalized complaints about the law itself.
The problem with this tack is that the vast majority of currently insured Americans will see no change in coverage, while the remaining small percentage of the population will either be able to purchase insurance for the first time or see no change or a reduction in their rates, if currently insured. The only people who will be adversely affected are a small percentage of currently uninsured young people (those who think a gym membership makes you immortal) and those with current plans that really cover nothing at all. The fact is, even these people will be better off under Obamacare, because they will have plans that provide actual healthcare.
Eventually, after all the noise has subsided, people will begin to realize that Obamacare is a net good, at which point the Republicans who so vocally oppose it now will have egg on their face. Again.
A Working Man's Lunch 