Randi Rhodes: Gridlock & Hunting Obama

OK, everybody over the initial panic? Good. Let’s settle into a little righteous indignation.
Republicans won’t be able to get anything done. The bad news is that that’s their plan. The GOP has no plans to solve this country’s problems. They just have plans to use this country’s problems to their own advantage. Washington gridlock isn’t a problem for Republicans, it’s a strategy. They want to pretend the last two years never happened, and to accomplish that, they’re willing to make nothing happen in the next two years. For instance, they will do nothing to revive the housing market. Why should they? As of yesterday, they have their House. And jobs? Forget it. The Republicans are less concerned with helping millions of Americans find jobs than they are with throwing one American—Barack Obama—out of his job. Mitch McConnell still insists his “single most important goal” for the next two years is to make sure Obama is a one-term president. Nice. Mitch McConnell has fewer goals than a soccer match. In other words, Mitch McConnell is perfectly happy to waste his time just to make sure that President Obama has less time. Actually, McConnell is saying that he’s willing to waste everybody’s time for the next two years. What is the future of healthcare? If Republicans have their way, it’ll be the same as the past of healthcare. And by “past,” I’m going the whole way back to medieval times. Harry Reid says he’s “ready for some tweaking” on healthcare reform. That’s good, because this new crop of Republicans includes some real tweakers. Republicans want to “tweak” healthcare reform the way a pack of jackals want to tweak an antelope. As Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out, as a US Senator, Rand Paul has the ability to force the US government into default by filibustering the raising of the debt ceiling. Rand Paul can destroy the credibility of the United States. Actually, just having elected Rand Paul put a pretty big hit on the credibility of the United States. Putting Rand Paul in this position is like asking Charlie Sheen to housesit for you. There! I feel better already.
Today’s Homework Discuss
George W. Bush is back in the news, sharing with Matt Lauer what he believes was the lowest moment of his presidency. Was it 9/11, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, no WMD, collapsing the economy? Nope. It was Kayne West…


Thom's blog
Time to ban Giant Spaghetti Monster law?
On Tuesday, Oklahomans approved a ballot initiative that would forbid judges in the state from using Sharia law to consider a case. Voters supported the measure by about 40 points even though many of them cannot name a single instance where Sharia law was used to rule in a case - that's because it's never happened in Oklahoma- or any other state in the country for that matter. On top of that, Islam isn't even that prevalent in the state - out of a population of 3.7 million, there are only 15,000 Muslims there. Still, voters found the need to hit the polls to make sure this non-existent threat was stopped before it's too late. Maybe that's because in wake of the "ground zero mosque" controversy, certain media outlets and entrepreneurs have made quite a profit off promoting Islamophobia - "they're coming to subvert our government." This scare tactic has resonated around the country in places like Murfreesboro, Tennessee where it's nearly impossible for Muslim Americans to get approval in to build a place of worship - basically shredding the First Amendment. While Oklahoma has never been a victim of Islamic terrorism - it was notably the site where Timothy McVeigh - a Roman Catholic - blew up the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. Yet there was no rush by voters to discriminate against Catholicism afterward. Since the Sharia law ballot measure passed by a wide margin - it's likely other states will follow with initiatives of their own. Not sure which state will be first to forbid courts from considering the laws of the Giant Spaghetti Monster.
-Thom
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