Mitt called - The Phactor is feeling popular!

Mitt called.  He wants my vote.  In fact he’s called at least 3 times.  He said that if the Phactor stayed on the line my questions could be part of an online town hall meeting.  Too bad it would have interrupted my annual St. Pat’s corned beef dinner.  In the first call Mitt reminded me what a terrible person Rick Sanctimonious was, and how Rick had actually vote funding for Planned Parenthood (but only because it was buried in a bill with lots of other worthwhile things).  The Phactor was unaware that Rick had ever done one single worthwhile thing, so unfortunately for Mitt, point Rick. Planned Parenthood is a great organization.  It is too bad we did not get a chance to chat.  Mitt’s views on getting so much support from very rich people, who think they don’t get enough voice in our country, and from corporate people, who think they don’t get enough voice in our country, but are getting more and more, would be interesting because why would they be supporting him if they did not think a president like Mitt would help the rich and powerful and the corporate persons?  And if they are right, then voting for Mitt would be like hosing yourself, fiscally, politically.  So wish he could have explained how his concept of democracy works.  It might have been interesting to ask how anyone knows what Mitt actually stands for having changed his position on so many issues so many times.  How does one know when a politician is pandering, saying what they think you want to hear just to get your vote, or when they actually are being sincere?  Of course anyone from the northeast or upper Midwest who tries to say “Y’all”, or says they like cheesy grits, is pandering, period.  So unfortunately Mitt is the least trustworthy of all the GnOPe candidates, but somehow the most reasonable?  What does that say about the other 3?  However, this year’s corned beef was superb. 

Rick wants my vote!

Rick Sanctimonious wants me to vote for him. This is known because he called me on the phone and left me a message to that effect. The Phactor is quite sorry he missed the opportunity to chat with Rick, but he was gardening, and on the whole, accomplishing more than talking to a politician. But still so there are no bad feelings, let me leave Rick a message in response.



Dear Rick, I’ve spent a great portion of my life getting educated and then doing my best to educate others and get them excited about really learning about things, actually thinking and sounding articulate and, well, educated. So it is with profound sadness to learn that you think my efforts, those of a self-professed liberal elitist, actually harms our country. Rick you need to understand that nothing that takes place in my classes or labs even remotely qualifies as indoctrination. As a professional the Phactor is quite careful about not presenting his own opinions, although he does admit to being a devil’s advocate frequently to provoke thought. So unlike what you seem to believe, students are not told what to think, but taught how to think. And apparently that, and that alone, generates the harm you perceive. But Rick you want to be President of the most powerful country on Earth, at this time, and yet you think higher education something harmful? Quite a number of statements have been attributed to you Rick, and they don’t sound like the sort of ideas that come of a well-educated person, yet you are. Apparently Rick, you made your way through higher education without learning anything that you didn’t already believe true. Rick, how can somebody so proud of their ignorance, so incapable of learning, think they can run something as complex as this country? You don’t think science knows anything, upon what are you going to base policy? It makes me wonder what kind of country you wish us to be, and apparently you would prefer a highly religious country to a highly educated country, a highly moral country where neither the government nor affluent citizens give a crap about others, about public welfare, public education, social security, and other things that watch out for people. But you may still get my vote Rick, and this is the reason, you may represent the easiest candidate for Obama to beat, even easier than the millionaire weather vane, and that’s the reason you found my name on GnOPe voter rolls; voting for a spoiler to game the system often seems like a good idea. So glad you called; wish we could have actually talked, but my guess is that it would have only reinforced your opinion about us educated elites.  Best regards, TPP.

Darth Cheney's book

Over the years, the Phactor has developed a healthy dislike of several politicians, and never in my wildest imagination did it seem anyone could ever top Tricky Dick, although Agnew had a run at it. Oh, but Darth Cheney proves that no matter how tall the hurdle someone will manage to vault it. Please understand, under no circumstances will his book be purchased or read by yours truly, there being so many other worthwhile books around like a retrospective of TV guides. This contemptible man will show no remorse or any second thoughts about the actions that he promoted or proposed, and were this actually an influential blog, perhaps old Darth would propose sending a Death Star to vaporize it for this affront. It has been suggested elsewhere that people take his book and move it to the crime section of the book store and insert a handy bookmark with a reminder that international war criminals should be arrested. Let's see? Will a country somewhere ask that the USA kindly hand him over for trial in their country? Hard to say. He's more machine now than man, and he lies and blames others with such ease at this point you wonder if there is any truth left in him. We can be more certain about his book.

Monsters under the bed

If you think monsters live under your bed or in your closet, it's hard to sleep. But when you stop believing in monsters under the bed, they just go away. And so it is with media monsters too. When you stop paying attention to them they just fade away. They feed on the attention, and when not fed, they become malnourished and thin. As this happens they appear even more transparent than usual such that you can see right though them. And thus perhaps as the public's political fascination with Sarah Palin dwindled, and as the media attention waned during the bus trip to no where for nothing, or the type of attention she wanted was not what she got, her cross country bus tour ended halfway through without even visiting politically important states. So unless the media begins running around and clapping and reporting her every move, poof goes Palin. A lot more media monsters would go poof too if only the media would wait for people they report on to actually do something important before paying them any attention.

Newtron Bombs

Yes, the Phactor can spell, but for 30 some odd years we've been the targets of the verbal bombs of Newtron Gingrinch, the worst rhetoric since Spiro Agnew. At least Spiro used big words and alliteration (e.g., "nattering nabobs of negativity"). For those of you fortunate enough to have purged your memories, or those of you too young to have such memories, and those in neither of the previous groups but who need reminding what a two-faced, hypocritical little wart Newtron is, Mother Jones has a nice sampling from across the years. Here's some thing typical from 1989 where Gingrinch lays out his electoral roadmap: "The left-wing Democrats will represent the party of total hedonism, total exhibitionism, total bizarreness, total weirdness, and the total right to cripple innocent people in the name of letting hooligans loose." Hey, with Newtron running (off his mouth) the campaign will be colorful and he's sure to please all those conservative values voters. Read the list, it's real presidential material.
HT to Ed.

Predictions for 2011 - Politics and politicians to remain dumb

Unlike more professional soothsayers, the Phactor likes predicting sure things, so in the coming year we may expect that our politicians and the politics they practice will not get any smarter. Although it will not bother me a whit when some of the dumbass political actions being foisted off on us as solutions when actually they are merely sound bites being prepared for the next round of elections which is as far as most of these near-sighted morons can see, end up biting some of these twits in the butt, but the troubling aspect of this is that politicians are exactly what the voting public makes them. So if our representatives act like ideological idiots it's because the voting public made them that way, and if we could wish for anything it would be more choices because too often the choice between dems and doze is nothing by a lesser of two evils.

Congratulations - Award Winning Republicans!

Congratulations to Republicans; this is a richly deserved award. Yes, the Politifact website has awarded them the Lie-of-the-Year for the phrase “government takeover of health care”. This honor comes with a cute lapel button proclaiming “My pants are on fire” with flames flickering in the background. The cynical nature of the politics of obstruction allow key talking points to be totally divorced from reality and truth so much so that the laughably ignorant, unfortunately this time around the voting majority in many races, carried signs saying “keep the government out of Medicare”. Where did they think those benefits came from, a health insurance fairy? The real sadness of this is that the USA has way too many citizens who don’t do enough critical thinking for themselves. Here's my hint; you can never go wrong by starting with the premise that if it’s a politician and their lips are moving, of course they are lying, or distorting, or misrepresenting, or misleading, or smearing whenever it seems it will help their political fortunes to do so. Another reason for the award is "there was a uniformity of Republican messaging that was disconnected from facts; the sheer discipline . . . was breathtaking." Many citizens of the USA like to pride themselves on having good old fashioned common sense street smart intuitions about political intentions. Well, this time you got hosed. Start thinking or get used to it.