Has anyone been surprised by the events of the last 1 1/2 years?

[Vernon Windsor]

Given the news of the past year and a half, have you been surprised at what has been going on in our country politically? Did you foresee the events that have taken place or are you taken aback for one
reason or another?

[Snagg]

I wasn't surprised at the level of vitriol and racist garbage directed at President Obama. I work with some of those people, and I knew that they weren't going away anytime soon. I haven't met one yet who's had a single new idea in their skulls in thirty years, and I don't expect any anytime soon. Neither was I surprised at how cravenly the GOP has stooped to embrace them.

I am surprised that none of them have actually attempted an act of violence against Obama or members of his family. And I mean that as commendation towards the US Secret Service and the job that they do. It would not surprise me one bit to learn of some of the plots that they have disrupted.

I am surprised that there was not more of a backlash against Sarah Palin, as her rampant stupidity and obliviousness became ever more evident. But her shameless spotlight-hogging may well make that nut before the year is out.

I was surprised and heartened both by the way Obama took his freshman lumps, learned from his mistakes and then brought Health Care Reform through in the clutch anyway. I've never been a member of the overly-expectant "Messiah" tribe - I expected him to be smart enough to recognize the size of the task before him, and he has moved, pretty much, in a calm, thoughtful, statesman-like manner. No Magic Wand-waving for this guy.

[P.A.]

What Snagg said.

[Vernon Windsor]

The only people who call President Obama "the Messiah" are conservatives and Republicans. Jealousy, I assume.

I think Sarah Palin's abilities are evident to most people and so they feel no need to comment further.

[ZenDog]

Did you know that smugglers will often pilot one plane within the 'shadow' of another to avoid detection by radar?

Take Rush or Beck, their speech is not free - it depends on property. Very expensive, commercial, property.

I pulled these two quotes off MySpace earlier:

Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society.
--Thomas Jefferson

All the Property that is necessary to a man is his natural Right, which none may justly deprive him of, but all Property superfluous to such Purposes is the property of the Public who, by their Laws have created it and who may, by other Laws dispose of it.
--Benjamin Franklin

The voices of Beck and Rush create a signal, they convey, or transport, information. In the shadow of this signal . . .

Well. I would hijack that signal. I would do so in a way that would feed right wing paranoia, theories of conspiracy, and outrageous claims of the anti-christ . . .

Then I would hand the enraged just enough information to be certain they understood quite well how they had been lied to, by whom, and for what purpose. It seems to be a game the right wing has perfected, one I call: Wind them up and watch'em spin . . .

Thirteen years in pocket with little to show for it, but oh how I have spun . . . It is a game that will not end, it will not so long as it seems useful. Let it cease to seem so then. Feed the right wing madness all of the madness they so desire - and temper it with just enough truth to cause their undoing.

And be sure to tell them it is happening as it happens, let them watch in stunned amaze.

[Vernon Windsor]

Makes sense to me.

[darroll]

Politics as usual.
They made movies as to how to kill Bush.
I just hope that the change is for the good.
Will see.

[Vernon Windsor]

Who's "they."

[Quinn]

What pickle said about what Snagg said :-)

I will add one thing that Bee brought up in another thread…I am really surprised at the high level of paranoia some on the right have. I didn’t expect a “the world is going to end, we’re doomed, we’re doomed, hide the children in the cellar and the money in the mattress...” mentally.

[Vernon Windsor]

What do suppose is actually driving this paranoia, Quinn? That is, opposed to what the right says is driving it.

[ZenDog]

I realize you're question isn't directed toward me - but I'll answer it anyway just because I think I know the answer and if it is, as I believe, correct, then it should be clear that not enough people are saying it -

I think it is in part something Vance Packard referred to as whole systems management in his book The People Shapers [1977]. He never did define what that was. I also think that whole systems management has evolved to incorporate game theory and research involving complex systems

The War on Drugs may itself provide both context and excuse for all of the above. Add into the mix privatization of something that has been referred to as "Information operations" -

Here's a recent article:

By PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press Writer Posted: 03/23/2010 11:09:33 AM PDT Updated: 03/23/2010 11:44:50 AM PDT

WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked for a wide-ranging study of the Pentagon's information operations and given officials just 15 days to complete it.

The review comes amid a separate Pentagon investigation into whether an official hired private contractors to run an off-the-books spy operation for tracking suspected insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Information operations" include such activities as electronic warfare, computer network operations, psychological operations, military deception and others generally used to influence, disrupt or corrupt an enemy's decision making.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told a press conference Tuesday that Gates asked a small group of officials to study whether the programs are being run with proper oversight and guidelines.

The review was prompted by the case of Michael D. Furlong, who had directed a defense contract to gather information in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region that could be shared with military units. After military officials suspected he was using Defense Department money for an off-the-books spy operation, defense officials shut down that part of the contract, officials said last week. The New York Times reported that some of the intelligence gathered was used to track down and attack militants.
Furlong denied the allegations. He said last week that the program was authorized by military commanders.

I also expect that among the right wing a certain degree of paranoia is perfectly natural, and that it stems from cultural bias including a distrust of outsiders combined with a stunning propensity - some might even say a stubborn and loving affinity for - ignorance.

Maybe that's my own bias . . .

[Vernon Windsor]

"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?"

[funesthememorious]

I voted for Obama because of his intelligence and vision...and I usually vote the Green or Socialist candidates. I am disappointed that he has attempted to coddle and accommodate the hard core right wing and their self-serving interests. The right hasn't come up with an original idea in half a century - social protection for the working class and poor, the environment, nothing matters to them but their wallets. A better game plan would have been for Obama to borrow a page from the right wing playbook and f*ck 'em and spit on 'em. Like Bush did to the left wing during his administration.

Now the Tea Party mindless drones, controlled by the Republican Party and conservative mainstream media, have unwittingly swallowed their brand of jingoism, racism, fear, and religious fundamentalism - policies that really are intended to crush and subjugate us.

George Wallace would be proud of them.