Was I ever misled by my civics teachers and the Bill of Rights itself! Thank heavens we have two Democrats, the top two in Congress, mind you, to set us straight (so to speak) on that misunderstanding.

Yes, indeedy, Pelosi and Hoyer call protesters of the Health Care Bill “Un-American” in a USA Today op-ed. How do you like them apples?

Here’s a video discussing their charge:

Evidently, neither one of these alleged Democrats has read word one by Thomas Jefferson or any other of our Founders who, themselves, rebelled against their government. Here’s a little reminder Speaker Pelosi and House Majority Leader Hoyer: This country was founded by people rebelling and revolting against their own government because of its abuses of them.

Oh, wait – the phone is ringing, and it’s for you – it’s from the Get A Clue Department suggesting you get one.

The father of a handicapped child tried to ask his representative a question about how the Health Care plan will do away with any care for his son. Wait until you hear what happened to him:

Can you believe that? He had someone show up in the dead of night to deliver a “message” to him and his wife, terrifying them. Read that again: he had someone show up in the dead of night to deliver a “message” to him for speaking up for his son, and asking a question of his representative.

Wow. Which country is this again?

Well, you’ll be glad to know that political pundit, Michael Barone, has cleared up the record – it is NOT “Un-American” to protest against one’s government:

This is, by far and wide, my FAVORITE sentence in the entire video: “Kinda ridiculous for a former Community organizer to denounce community organizing…” Uh, yeah.

And I am relieved, too. As someone who has been in her fair share of protests, being photographed by the F.B.I. for participation in some of them, I am relieved to hear that our Democratic leaders have it all wrong. That we do, in fact, have the right to protest, to ask our representatives to answer to US, to make policies that benefit US, and that is what being an American MEANS, Speaker Pelosi and House Majority Leader Hoyer. How in the world can you possibly not know that, given your positions, and the very name of your party?? Dang. I tell you what – here’s a link to the Bill of Rights. Maybe you oughta take a little look-see and refresh your memories of just what it our Constitution actually says, especially since you swore to uphold it. I’m just sayin’.

Oh, one last right in there I should point out: we have the right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” And that’s just what we are doing. You can’t get more AMERICAN than that.

In my new video I look at the way the Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome has dominated the arts and humanities over the past half century, with the help of academic practitioners looking for theories to build on, trying to carve out some academic territory for themselves and becoming the high priests or priestesses of their chosen domains. In music, it ended with meaningless and very irritating noise.

Now I make some sweeping generalizations in this video, and may be overstating my case for effect, but that does not necessarily dilute the reality of what I am saying.

As I said at the beginning of the top ten composer series, we saw the Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome ( a tendency to pretend to see or believe something out of fear of being thought of out of step with others, or out of fear that you might be attacked or ridiculed if you show your true feelings) running rampant during the elections.

“It’s the kind of pseudo-liberal academic milieu that produces people like the Beast with No Name, who is a Rhodes scholar and yet one of the most narrow-minded and bigoted people you can find. One of the problems is that lot of people who excel academically are people who are able to absorb and reflect back what their tutors want them to,” I wrote then.

“They are the kind of people who try to impose their narrow and very theoretical world view on others and become blinkered in their focus, doing their best to beat down anyone who doesn’t agree with them. (Now what does that remind you of?).”

Academia can provide you with the tools and techniques of art, but the academic process cannot make you an artist, or even an art critic.

From a broader perspective, Academia can provide you with a framework for examining things, but to get close to the true nature of anything you have to examine it through a number of different frameworks from a number of different angles. If you keep using the same theoretical frameworks, they become blinkers.

Many branches of academia, particularly in the field of arts and humanities, strive to create a single framework or model of things and academics fight to have their models adopted as the only ones that are valid. That is what gives them power.

Art and life in general cannot be confined by academic theories or opinion. The essence of art is that it must be transcendant, and to be transcendant it has to be organic. It has to be able to grow beyond prescribed boundaries to achieve new perspectives.

As in art, so in life.

It’s clear to many Democrats that a radical clique has taken control of the Party. Democratic ideals once held to be sacrosanct, including freedom of speech, one person one vote, and an intolerance of sexism have been violently pushed aside for the benefit of Obama. The media drumbeat for Obama is incessant; the media has even stopped pretending to be neutral. We’re seeing the country through Alice’s Looking Glass now and everything is upside-down and backwards. In an effort to save our Party and country, many Democrats are actively working to defeat Obama.

In 1980, the last Japanese soldier of World War Two, Captain Fumio Nakahira, was discovered on Mt. Halcon, Mindoro Island, Philippines. During the previous 35 years, Captain Nakahira had survived alone, serving his Emperor and believing that the War had not yet ended. (This was 15 years after the Gilligan’s Island episode).

Captain Nakahira comes to mind when I think about the thousands of disaffected and disillusioned Democrats across the country who will not be voting for Obama. If Obama is elected despite our efforts to defeat him, it will codify for a generation the Chicago corruption, race-baiting, and misogyny practiced by Obama and his minions; tactics which caused many of to leave the Party. And Obama’s race-baiting, misogynistic thugs will say: Good riddance!

Camping out on our own private Mt. Halcons, many thousands of men and women will remain committed to the causes which brought us to the Democratic Party in the first place. We won’t stop being concerned about sexism, race relations, economic opportunity, and national security.

It’s now dawning on Republicans and independents that a creeping totalitarianism is sweeping the country. Obama’s Truth Squads use the power of the state to stifle free expression, McCain supporters are jeered in public, and Obama’s shock troops — in a form of hate speech so ugly that it can only be described as a pogrom against women — wear clothing which declares that the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is a “cunt.” Sexual terrorism is the new form of Left-wing Kristallnacht.

Where did this come from?

The ecstatic mania of Obama’s supporters comes from many places, and I don’t pretend to understand all of the sources. Many who support Obama are low-information liberals, do-good progressives, proud African Americans, and fed-up independents. I can’t blame these groups; the Bush Administration has been a disaster. There is, however, a core group of Obama supporters who believe that the Senator from Illinois will bring revolutionary change. And their desire for the revolution is all-consuming and any tactic is considered fair game: caucus fraud, sexism, race-baiting, voter intimidation, online smear campaigns, sexual terrorism, and voter fraud. Anything to win.

I hold Obama accountable for the tone of this campaign and the actions of his supporters. From “hoodwink and bamboozled” to his “lipstick on a pig,” Obama’s sexist double-speak and race-baiting innuendos have unleashed something very ugly into the ether. Obama has given his supporters the tacit encouragement to cross lines of acceptable discourse in order to destroy his political opponents. In the Obama world, Bill Clinton is a racist, Hillary is a bitch, Sarah Palin is a cunt, and John McCain is erratic and senile. I fully expect that an Obama Administration, like all recent Administrations, will continue in campaign mode and I expect these tactics to continue. This was the reason, to borrow a phrase, that we sought to fumigate our Party.

Like many of you, I won’t have anything to do with Obama or his party. Obama’s tactics go against the reason I was a Democrat and no pleas and no threats will force me to give up my principles. Above my computer I have postcards with the images of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy; my Hillary poster is in the corner and remains unframed.

Referring to the fact that the sexism in America is overt, she had this to say:

Estrich was asked: “Realistically speaking” How many of Hillary Clinton’s voters are in play for John McCain. Her answer: …..”about a third….30 % I would say”.

What they’re doing to her………..and I mean friends of yours and mine….what they’re saying, second guessing her prenatal care……..with her youngest child….. even going so far as to suggest she took unnecessary risks………..maybe she was even responsible for the Down’s Syndrome………this whole business of saying maybe she was covering up for her teenage daughter’s pregnancy….they are dumping all over the daughter…..I find it Really offensive….and I think a lot of women in particular….who ended up supporting Hillary because they were so offended by the sexism may well be offended by what they see as the piling on of Sarah Palin.

You can see the video here.

Overall, I would say Ms. Estrich is darned close.

I look forward to Obama and his fellow sacks of crap helping us all to send Barack Obama back to Chicago Thug Land. And I look forward to Howard Dean, Donna Brazile and Nancy Pelosi getting exactly what they deserve. We won’t be staying home as you “suggested,” Donna. Count on it.

This is the year you inhumane pigs who think you are going to subjugate women again will understand that we will NOT allow Barack Obama and you to catapult the rights of American Women back to the 60s.

I look forward to you learning the lesson: It’s The Women Stupid, because we are brushing you right off our shoulders, Studly.

You many have fooled very young women who think their rights as actual humans were always there, but you can’t fool the rest of us. The rest of us know what you are up to and we are going to fight you until the last dog is dead. Do you understand? We know that your kind of crap, Barack Obama, rolls downhill in the workplace and in the home and we will have none of you or your sexist pig attitude. We will fight to the death to maintain our rights, and we aren’t kidding, in case you didn’t notice.

I fully expect you to make another hysterical “historic speech” about women as you did on race— coming to our theater soon— because you are nothing short of a pandering vote whore with Plans. Don’t even waste your time. Don’t break our jaws and then come home with flowers. Your shameless and shameful use of the Race Card while figuratively killing off a women who is and always will be far superior to you, so that you might climb up that greasy political poll you cling to, is inexcusable. We will not forget. And we are horrifed to watch you try the same crap on yet another woman. Horrified, but not surprised. We know what you are, Barack Obama.

We know that you and your sponsors from America and the Middle East think you are saving the “best” for when it’s too late. It’s our job to make sure you never reach the “too late” phase. Your capture of the young women in America alone is nothing short of despicable, given what you really are, Sweetie. Why don’t you trot over to Kenya and be President? Or maybe you can go to Pakistan or Afghanistan and help rule. They like to shoot women on sight and set them on fire. Maybe Hamas can help set you up there. After all, they have already funneled money to your campaign right from one of their compounds.

One more thing, Barack: I cannot tell you how sad I am for the future of your daughters after what you have done. And true to your habit of passing the buck, you continue to blame others for the behaviors you have fostered. Now run along and stick your hands in your pants. Your cell phone is vibrating.

Also, I recall Michelle saying you are only home on weekends. You’re a lousy father. Get your butt home.

I also think it’s important right now to say that we women who Get It can hardly express how much we appreciate all the many real progressive men who also See what’s really going on here. I am not referring to the radical Far Left hijackers, also known in the underground as Regressives in the Democratic Party. These truly Democratic men, and there are millions of them, are superior in every way to Barack Obama and the pigs who surround him. Women do not forget. They don’t forget the good and they don’t forget the bad. To me, Barack Obama is The Bad. I recognize him from places in Corporate America twenty years ago.

Barack Obama and his sycophants are caught in their own irony. They have become exactly what they purported to despise: Threatening, lowlife fascists, misogynists and sexists. This is what you get when you allow left over members of failed fringe parties attempt to take over our party. Again. It’s happened before and the results have always been the same. MoveOn, you need to Move On for sure.

Pigs. All of you.

Obama’s willingness to flip-flop has earned him the moniker Backtrack Obama. He betrayed progressives by voting for the FISA legislation; he promised to expand Bush’s faith-based initiatives; he equivocated on choice by saying that “mental distress” should not be a factor in abortion.

Obama’s newest flip flop was not over a matter of public policy important to progressives, but rather the United State’s historic role in confronting evil. During the debate at Saddleback, Rick Warren asked, “Does evil exist and, if it does, do we ignore it, do we negotiate with it, do we contain it, or do we defeat it?”

OBAMA: Evil does exist. I mean, I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil sadly on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. And I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely. And one of the things that I strongly believe is that, you know, we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the world. That is God’s task. But we can be soldiers in that process. And we can confront it when we see it.

Now, the one thing that I think is very important is for us to have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil. Because, you know, a lot of evil’s been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil.

Think about Obama’s words. He’s talking about the United States. Consider the image below. It’s G.I.s examining a train car at Dachau. During the last century, the United States ended the bloody morass of World War I, freed Europe from genocidal Nazism and freed the Pacific Rim from the horrors of Imperial Japan. We held off Soviet expansionism and our policies eventually freed hundreds of millions who lived under the iron fist of communism.

Our country has undoubtedly made grievous errors confronting evil. We’ve entered conflicts, like Vietnam, where we had only a cursory understanding of the nationalistic feelings of the population. But to accuse the United States of being evil when we confronted communist expansionism in Korea or Vietnam or dictators elsewhere, like Iraq — regardless of how unwise the war policies may have been — is an inaccurate and shameful explanation of our history. It is the typical far-left canard which describes bad policies as having evil intentions.

The men responsible for our entry into Vietnam — Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson — were idealists who were responding to the pressures of their era. They collectively made many mistakes, but they were not evil men. Similarly, the men who had to deal with Saddam Hussein — Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II — were all criticized for their actions or inactions but all of them, I believe, wanted to make the best decisions for the security of their country. So while mistakes were made, colossal mistakes, it was not on par with the evil we confronted, as Obama suggests.

When Warren asked the same question of McCain, he responded:

MCCAIN: Defeat it.

(APPLAUSE) A couple points. One, if I’m president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice. I will do that and I know how to do it. I will get that guy. No one, no one should be allowed to take thousands of innocent American lives.

This one question put into stark relief each man’s attitude towards the United States. McCain is a man who personally sacrificed in a war which lasted far too long, but he does not ascribe evil to his own country. He knows evil exists and he is ready to confront it. McCain is an old-fashioned patriot, and Obama believes in the moral relativists values of the extreme left. In Obama’s flip flop, the good guys become the bad guys. No wonder he felt at home at Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity Church.

DENVER (CBS4) ― CBS4 News has learned if mass arrests happen at the Democratic Convention, those taken into custody will be jailed in a warehouse owned by the City of Denver. Investigator Rick Sallinger discovered the location and managed to get inside for a look.

The newly created lockup is on the northeast side of Denver. Protesters have already given this place a name: “Gitmo on the Platte.”

Inside are dozens are metal cages. They are made out of chain link fence material and topped by rolls of barbed wire.

I wonder what the ratio of Hillary supporters will be in that tank? You all know how popular we will be with Barky and his hood ornament Howard. Not to mention Nancy and Donna. So bring a book with you, Denver people! You can at least read between floggings by those Recreate68 folks.

Maybe Barack can bring in the Taliban to shoot us. I understand he’s the candidate of choice amongst terrorists worldwide.

Unfortunately, while you are in the tank, you will miss Barack Obama standing perfectly still, his ear turned toward the crowd, his nose sniffing the air, chin jutted out, his eyes slightly glazed, as he revels in the roar of the crowd in response to a planned platitude.

You will miss the on-cue shout: “I LOVE YOU BARACK!”. And you will miss Barack saying “I LOVE YOU RIGHT BACK!”. You will miss the hired fainter. You will miss the Ooooooooooo Baaaaaaaahhhhhhh Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa roar, coordinated at just the right time.

You will miss Barack Obama applauding himself.

Come to think of it, Gitmo sounds like a better deal.

Thunderstorms are common in summer afternoons, specifically during the late summer monsoon season. 

 Recreate 68 has announced its lineup. It appears to be a training ground for protesters/ rock concert. The lineup is an alphabet soup of the marginalized, those mad-at-everybody, the unwashed dread lock-wearing, drum-circling, white, upper-class boys. Picture the crowd outside the gates of a Dead concert, alongside some with loud political agendas. While Ward Churchill will speak, Cynthia McKinney and the Green Party report that are listed by mistake: 

 Cynthia McKinney, Green Party candidate for President, and Rosa Clemente, Green Party candidate for Vice President are NOT participating in any Recreate ‘68 activities. 

And inside the Pepsi Center you’ll find a convention designed as a “Town Hall” meeting with a series of themes. Clearly this allows the party to control for content and against spontaneity. ABC is sending Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer to Denver but oddly enough, al-Jazeera English will be located in Golden, CO, the home of Coors Brewery.  If you’re anything like me, you don’t give a rat’s patooti about the presumptuous nominee’s pick for VP. In fact, the only thing I’m interested in is what impact Hillary and her supporters will have on the convention and the nomination process. According to CNN, delegates, super and otherwise, can vote for whomever they want: 

Clinton can still win votes from delegates at the Democratic National Convention even if her name is not placed in nomination. Delegates are free to vote for anyone they want to at the convention. 

Knowing how popular Hillary remains, and how devoted and disgruntled her supporters are, it’s not surprising that the Atlantic and other Obama-media outlets are once again dissing her, her campaign and of course, her supporters. The sexists insults continue (women are infamous for being indecisive, so why not say that Hillary couldn’t make decisions.) While Josh Green trots out emails and memos that demonstrate the “catty” behavior in Clinton’s campaign, Dowd uses the opposite end of the spectrum in her  sexists putdowns: Hillary is “orchestrating” the events of the convention.  In fact, if you read  Dowd’s Op-Ed  while ignoring her uncontrollable nastiness and jealousy toward all things Clinton, her portrayal of Hillary (and Bill) contradict all the Hillary-blaming in Green’s CDS Opus. For example, Dowd writes: 

While Obama was spending three hours watching “The Dark Knight” five time zones away, and going to a fund-raiser featuring “Aloha attire” and Hawaiian pupus, Hillary was busy planning her convention. 

Wow, if this is true, rock-on Hillary! The corrupt forces of Pelosi, Brazile, Dean et al, stole the election from Democracy, disenfranchising Michigan, Florida and 18 million voters, and Obama’s supporters want Hillary (and Bill) to:

“get in the box” or get lost if they can’t show more loyalty, rather than giving them back-to-back, prime-time speaking gigs at the convention on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Not only is Hillary not getting in the box (whatever that means), according to Dowd: 

Hillary’s orchestrating a play within the play in Denver. Just as Hamlet used the device to show that his stepfather murdered his father, Hillary will try to show the Democrats they chose the wrong savior.  

Yes, Dowd wrote “savior.” Wonder why that word came to mind? And while Dowd spins this as negatively as her one-track rhetorical skills allows her to, for many of us, what Hillary is doing is creating a moment of Real Democracy. The voices, desires, concerns, fears and objections, etc, of Dems who don’t want Obama will be heard. Dowd continues her sexism by calling Hillary’s female followers “gals” but even with Dowd’s green-eyed prose, this makes me proud:

{Hillary} said she thought it would be good for party unity if her gals felt “that their voices are heard.” But that’s disingenuous. Hillary was the one who raised the roll-call idea at the end of May with Democrats, who were urging her to face the math. She said she wanted it for Chelsea, oblivious to how such a vote would dim Obama’s star turn. Ever since she stepped aside in June, she’s been telling people privately that there might have to be “a catharsis” at the convention, signaling she wants a Clinton crescendo. 

Clearly Dowd thinks the convention is just a pro forma performance to crown His Majesty; the paternalism in this statement is stunning:

Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that “demeaning portrayals of women … dampen the dreams of our daughters.”   

Of course, the Democratic Party has created this myth that Obama is the choice of the party. Sacha Millstone, who did valuable volunteer work for Hillary’s campaign and is a delegate for Hillary, is being brow-beaten by Party Officials: 

The Colorado Democratic Party would like Boulder delegate Sacha Millstone, who is devoted to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to give up her spot as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. 

Apparently, the CDP wants strict party loyalty to extend to speech: 

Party officials said Monday that they won’t insist Millstone resign. But in an e-mail last week, Billy Compton, state political director of the Colorado Democratic Party, ordered Millstone into his office to explain disparaging comments she made about Barack Obama. 

Sounding frighteningly undemocratic, Millstone receive this message:

“You are hereby directed to come in to the party Headquarters and explain your comments and why you should remain a national delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in light of these comments,” the letter said. 

A lesser person may have caved after receiving a letter like this, but Millstone hired a lawyer. She writes:

“Isn’t there a right to free speech? Isn’t this right in line with our time-honored tradition with the Dems?” she said. “These intimidation tactics have a chilling effect on people feeling comfortable speaking up.” 

What’s happening in Denver? Much more than a convention paying homage to The One selected by a corrupted Democratic Party. What’s going on here affects you and I much more than we know.

State Democratic Party chair Pat Waak, who said it would be nice to have a united delegation when 50,000 conventioneers arrive in Colorado, called the Millstone matter “moot.” “We’re getting too near the convention, and she’s refused to come in,” Waak said. Any effort to intimidate Clinton supporters won’t work, at least not on at-large Clinton delegate Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who lives in unincorporated Boulder County. “It makes me angry,” Jaquez Lewis said. “It makes me want to now really be even louder about issues and concerns that before I was willing to look the other way.”