Paul M Peterson

(video courtesy of UpTakeVideo)

(video courtesy of )
In my local paper, the Press Democrat, this morning, there was an editorial from an irate republican. He expressed very righteously his outrage at the code pink protester who disrupted John McCain’s acceptance speech. “Why can’t these professional protesters just let a proven war hero like John McCain give his acceptance speech in peace? Doesn’t she realize that John McCain fought for her freedom?” This meme is common in Amerikkkan politics.

The truth is that John McCain never fired a shot in defense of american freedoms. He fired on the viet cong to maintain the right of the international elites to form corporations that exploit the resources and labor of Vietnam. That is just the truth. Americans would still be free if he had never done that. I present as evidence all that has happened to Vietnam since then (we lost the war, after all.)

Meanwhile, outside the RNC, people were arrested for demonstrating and protesting. Demonstrations and protests were to be expected, given the last eight years of mismanagement and torturous insanity. Did John McCain do anything to ensure that these citizens were humanely treated? Judge for yourself.

(Video courtesy of Morse56)
This video represents the center-left take on John McCain’s choice of VP. Notice the video doesn’t actually say anything against Sarah Palin. Instead, it says, in so many words, that because John McCain is a four time cancer survivor and he is about 72 years old, his VP pick may be the most important choice of his would-be presidency. Then it shows a picture of Saracudda with her hair messed up, implying that she is a crazy bitch (which, by all accounts she is, in my opinion). Both of these are reasonable points but that doesn’t mean it isn’t propaganda.

I stumbled upon this video while surfing the web. I like it, because it is a refreshing perspective on racism and its funny. Plus the woman in the video is cute. I present it for medicinal reasons. After all of the racism that has come to light this political season, it is nice to have proof that some people can rise above it.

(video courtesy oftpmtv)
Well, so what, right? I mean, she is a republican and he is a republican. Who cares if Ted Stevens endorsed Sarah Palin.

Oh Dear gentle reader…if Ted Stevens, of “bridge to nowhere” and “the internet is just a series of tubes” fame, wants to endorse to carribou barbie, that has meaning. She had to do a significant bit of cozying up to Ted to get this endorsement for her gubernatorial run in 2006. This kind of support doesn’t come for free. That she turned around and stabbed him in the back shows that she isn’t the ethics reformer she claims to be, but a cold calculating reptile disguised as a “hockey mom”. If she really believed in ethics reform, why didn’t she turn his endorsement down?

(video courtesy of TheOnion)

(video courtesy of kennordine)

(Artwork, “confidence between men”, by Jose Miguel, as posted on Frinkism)

Right wing conservatives have often critiqued the Main Stream Media as having a liberal bias. Rush Limbaugh regularly assails the New York Times as a liberal rag. Jonah Goldberg’s book, Liberal Fascism, decries many examples of supposed media bias. Conservatives regularly assail the Washinton Post, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and Hollywood as all having a “liberal, elite” bias. Jeanine Garafolo, Barbra Streisand, The Baldwins, and Carl Reiner all get the finger pointed at them as evidence of the elitism of prominent liberals.

I maintain that, in fact, the media has a center-right bias, that sometimes promotes liberal, progressivist ideas when such ideas promote stability of the social order. I take as evidence the media black out regarding toxins in our water and food. I also take as evidence the media black out regarding net neutrality and the fight by the telecoms against internet democracy. I site further the cheerleading media coverage of the Iraq war. I site even further, the twisted, all too infrequent coverage of torture and spying in the “war on terror”. I could go on for about thirty pages. However doing that does not refute the “evidence”, largely anecdotal, that conservatives have amassed.

I believe that there is a mechanism through which the illusion of liberal control is maintained. This is the class division within the liberal, progressivist movement itself. Some liberals come from Ivy League schools and wealthy families. Other liberals start out working class and, because of occasional success in the arts and entertainment industries, become affluent celebrities. Both of these groups tend to regard themselves as somewhat superior to the “masses”.

On the other hand, there are also liberals who maintain their working class roots. There are liberals who maintain their “street cred” so to speak. Leftists like Jello Biafra, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Michael Moore and Bill Moyers who stay true to the original libertarian impulses of the left wing movement.

The difference between the first group of celebrities and the second is that one promotes statist left wing idealogy and the other promotes more syndicalist ideas. The thing is, to read Marx or any of the early anarchists and attend an Ivy League school is to fundamentally misread leftist philosophy. It is a little like when white people try to explain and or relate the speeches of Malcolm X. It is that level of difference.

If you come from a wealthy, upper class background, you will fundamentally misunderstand the history and scope of left wing polemics because you will assume that it exists fundamentally to reform the class system rather than to obliterate it.

(video courtesy of transpondency)

Jello Biafra: “It has nothing to do with what we have immediately been talking about, but since you have a religious right guy as a prime minister now perhaps part of the reason he got in was like bush fear of seeing people of the same sex kiss each other on television or possibly even get married, right in your neighborhood because it might be promoting the “Homosexual Agenda”. Ooooh! They use that term a lot in the states we have to prevent any of this could lead to somebody promoting the homosexual agenda. What is the Homosexual Agenda? Playgrounds of little Liberace’s and Rosie O’donnels? (unintelligible) masters in pink nighties imitating catholic priests? I would actually prefer that to somebody’s idea of a Praise the Lord, Inc. Agenda. Better off grades k-12 learning Tribait and Pansy Division songs. I would even put up with more Morrisey fans walking the earth if it gains us more pitchforks to beat back the fundamentalist christian agenda. And Boy don’t they enforce their moral values very selectively, don’t they. I mean, the same time Newt Gingrich got Clinton impeached for Monica Lewinsky, he was banging his secretary behind his wife’s back the entire time. Jimmy Swaggart we know about. I mean if they are really that freaked out about people flipping the scripture, why are they so obsessed with the so-called homosexual agenda, instead of trying to get rid of Santa Claus? I mean, there is nothing in the bible about Santa Claus. Muslims don’t have a figure like that, buddhists don’t, jews don’t. Only Christians let the temple get this bizarre on their prophets birthday. What does Santa Deliver that Jesus can’t deliver? Presents! Gifts! For Free!! Something for nothing, the American way!”

(video courtesy of 1984dobson)
This is a video welcoming members of the Alaska Independance Party to their convention in 2008 . While Sarah Palin was a registered Republican in 2008, she did significant work to promote the interests of a secessionist party, just this year!

Does John McCain want to start another civil war? I cannot believe that he didn’t know about this. Here are the two possibilities: either he really didn’t vet his VP choice in which case his judgement is incredibly unsound or worse he did vet her in which case he plans to promote secessionism all over the United States or at least is tolerant of the idea. How ironic. The party of lincoln finds itself with a vice presidential candidate that would have easily found a political home in the southern confederacy, while across the aisle, the first african-american presidential hopeful contends for rule of the free world.

If I were Barrack Obama, I would make John McCain suck on this.