Via MSNBC:

Newt Gingrich has won the South Carolina Republican primary, capping off a remarkable comeback for his presidential bid that reshapes the trajectory of the battle for the GOP nomination…

[...] The results mark the end of a tumultuous week in politics that saw Gingrich erase and then overcome the lead Romney had in the Palmetto State following his victory in the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary. Gingrich came on strong in the closing days of the campaign, looking to rally under his banner the many conservatives unwilling to get behind Romney, who had sought to posture himself as the eventual nominee.

Mitt Romney indeed thought he had it in the bag… He didn’t. Newt Gingrich’s win in S.C. changes the game quite a bit for the GOP race for the presidential nomination. Stay tuned…

by WALTER and ROSEMARY BRASCH

In January 2009, with a new president about to be inaugurated, we wrote a column about the stories we preferred not having to write, but knew we would. Three years later, we are still writing about those problems; three years from now, we’ll still be writing about them.

We had wanted the U.S. Department of the Interior to stop the government-approved slaughter of wild horses and burros in the southwest, but were disappointed that the cattle industry used its money and influence to shelter politicians from Americans who asked for compassion and understanding of  breeds that roamed freely long before the nation’s “Manifest Destiny.”

We wanted to see the federal government protect wolves, foxes, and coyotes, none of whom attack humans, have no food or commercial value, but are major players in environmental balance. But, we knew that the hunting industry would prevail since they see these canines only as competition.

We wanted to see the Pennsylvania legislature stand up for what is right and courageously end the cruelty of pigeon shoots. But, a pack of cowards left Pennsylvania as the only state where pigeon shoots, with their illegal gambling, are actively held.

For what seems to be decades, we have written against racism and bigotry. But many politicians still believe that gays deserve few, if any, rights; that all Muslims are enemy terrorists; and publicly lie that Voter ID is a way to protect the integrity of the electoral process, while knowing it would disenfranchise thousands of poor and minority citizens.

We will continue to write about the destruction of the environment and of ways people are trying to save it. Environmental concern is greater than a decade ago, but so is the ignorant prattling of those who believe global warming is a hoax, and mistakenly believe that the benefits of natural gas fracking, with well-paying jobs in a depressed economy, far outweigh the environmental, health, and safety problems they cause.

We will continue to write against government corruption, bailouts, tax advantages for the rich and their corporations, governmental waste, and corporate greed. They will continue to exist because millionaire legislators will continue to protect those who contribute to political campaigns. Nevertheless, we will continue to speak out against politicians who have sacrificed the lower- and middle-classes in order to protect the one percent.

We will continue to write about the effects of laying off long-time employees and of outsourcing jobs to “maximize profits.” Until Americans realize that “cheaper” doesn’t necessarily mean “better,” we’ll continue to explain why exploitation knows no geographical boundaries.

The working class successfully launched major counter-attacks against seemingly-entrenched anti-labor politicians in Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states. But these battles will be as long and as bitter as the politicians who deny the rights of workers. We will continue to speak out for worker rights, better working conditions, and benefits at least equal to their managers. We don’t expect anything to change in 2012, but we are still hopeful that a minority of business owners who already respect the worker will influence the rest.

There are still those who believe education is best served by programs manacled by teaching-to-the-test mentality, and are more than willing to sacrifice quality for numbers. We will continue to write about problems in the nation’s educational system, especially the failure to encourage intellectual curiosity and respect for the tenets of academic integrity.

Against great opposition, the President and Congress passed sweeping health care reform. But, certain members of Congress, all of whom have better health care than most Americans, have proclaimed they will dismantle the program they derisively call “Obamacare.”

During this new year, we will still be writing about the unemployed, the homeless, those without adequate health coverage—and against the political lunatics who continue to deny Americans the basics of human life, essentials that most civilized countries already give their citizens.

We had written forcefully against the previous president and vice-president when they strapped on their six-shooters and sent the nation into war in a country that posed no threat to us, while failing to adequately attack a country that housed the core of the al-Qaeda movement. We wrote about the Administration’s failure to provide adequate protection for the soldiers they sent into war or adequate and sustained mental and medical care when they returned home. The War in Iraq is now over, but the war in Afghanistan continues. The reminder of these wars will last as long as there are hospitals and cemeteries.

We had written dozens of stories against the Bush–Cheney Administration’s belief in the use of torture and why it thought it was necessary to shred parts of the Constitution. We had hoped that a new president, a professor of Constitutional law, would stop the attack upon our freedoms and rights. But the PATRIOT Act was extended, and new legislation was enacted that reduces the rights and freedoms of all citizens. At all levels of government, Constitutional violations still exist, and a new year won’t change our determination to bring to light these violations wherever and whenever they occur.

The hope we and this nation had for change we could believe in, and which we still hope will not die, has been minced by the reality of petty politics, with the “Party of No” and its raucous Teabagger mutation blocking social change for America’s improvement. We can hope that the man we elected will realize that compromise works only when the opposition isn’t entrenched in a never-ending priority not of improving the country, but of keeping him from a second term. Perhaps now, three years after his inauguration, President Obama will disregard the disloyal opposition and unleash the fire and truth we saw in the year before his election, and will speak out even more forcefully for the principles we believed when we, as a nation, gave him the largest vote total of any president in history.

We really want to be able to write columns about Americans who take care of each other, about leaders who concentrate upon fixing the social problems. But we know that’s only an ethereal ideal.  So, we’ll just have to hope that the waters of social justice wear down, however slowly, the jagged rocks of haughty resistance.

[Dr. Walter Brasch is an award-winning social issues columnist, former newspaper investigative reporter and editor, and journalism professor. His latest book is Before the First Snow, a social issues mystery novel. Rosemary Brasch is a former secretary, Red Cross national disaster family services specialist, labor activist, and university instructor of labor studies.]

by WALTER BRASCH 

“O.K., class, we have a few minutes at the end of today’s lecture about how the godless Communists created evolution to try to destroy the decent loyal patriotic capitalist society of America. Any questions? Yes, Billy Bob.”

“Mr. Jim Bob, I heard about this thing called a person. What is that?”

“Good question. With all the distortions by the lyin’ liberal left-wing, it can get confusing. But, it’s really simple. A person is an egg that has just been fertilized by a sperm. We call this young person a Zygote.”

“Does it have to be a goat? Can it be anything else?”

“Well, Susie Bob, if you nurture it, that fertilized egg can grow up to be anything it wants to be, because this is the United States of America. And no one has the right to tell us white folks what to do.”

“Are there advantages of being a single-celled person?”

“Definitely. Their parents don’t have to wait until they emerge from the birth canal to claim them as an IRS deduction. Also, with more persons in Mississippi, we can get more single-cell congresspersons to represent us.”

“Then why did our parents vote against the constitutional amendment?”

“It was a close defeat. While those abortion activists voted against the measure, most of the opposition was because us conservatives were worried that the way the proposed amendment was written would allow them liberal types to go to Washington and overturn our states’ rights.”

“You mean Congress can do that?”

“No, Junie Bob, the Supreme Court can do that. It was a craps roll. You see, there are four decent Americans on the Supreme Court. And there are four who are women, or Jews, or both. And they were likely to say something stupid, like the state isn’t allowed to use religious dogma to justify new laws. That would mean there would be a 4–4 tie. We couldn’t trust the other judge to do what’s right, because he changes what side he’s on all the time. Even our illustrious governor said he had doubts about how broad that amendment was, and what the courts would do.”

“But he voted for it anyway.”

“He’s a politician, Kenny Bob. That’s what they do. Next question.”

“My mommy says that abortion and wearing condoms is murder, and to protect persons she plans to run down baby-killer doctors when she sees them on the streets.”

“Your mommy is looking out for the best interests of the fertilized egg. In that case, the courts will rule that what your mother does is justified homicide. Just like them lynchings your pappies and grandpappies might have done for fun on some hot weekend. It sent a message that we don’t tolerate uppity colored people doing dumb things like voting or demanding constitutional rights. Those were meant only for the white people.”

“Is slavery still legal?

“No, Bertie Bob, Mississippi outlawed it in 1995 when we ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.”

“Why did it take so long?”

“Well, Martha Bob, you have to understand that decent conservatives just don’t go rushing into making important decisions. It takes time to figure out all the issues and their implications. Thirteen decades seemed about the right time.”

“I’m still confused Mr. Jim Bob. My pappy says that we got to keep the gummint out of our lives, like not allowing revenooers on our property. Don’t all of them laws intrude on our rights?”

“Sometimes, you have to intrude for the good of society. That’s why we have laws about who you can and can’t marry?”

“You mean, me and—?”

“Yes, Jenny Bob, I was planning to talk to you about you and your brother. Marriage has to be between a man and a woman who aren’t siblings.”

“So, it’s OK for me and Calvin Bob to marry?

“Since you’re first cousins that’s OK, just as long as marriage is between a man and a woman, as God intended.”

“Is that why we don’t like the coloreds and the Asians to marry us? I heard that half the state doesn’t want intermarriages and the rest are the colored people.”

“What people don’t understand, Beauford Bob, is that we made those laws to help the colored people. Before the War Between the States—Praise Jeff Davis and Jesus, Hallelujah!—we allowed white slave owners to have sex with anyone they wanted, as long as they were women. But, then we realized that wasn’t fair to the African people, because it diluted their purity. So, to protect the darkies, we didn’t have any choice but to forbid whites from marrying anyone with even one-eighth dark blood.”

“I heard about this thing called sodomy, which them homosexual and lesbian ladies practice. That’s just yucky.”

“Indeed it is. That’s why sodomy is a felony, and homosexuals can get 10 years in prison, where they can practice deviant. After that, they have to register as sex offenders. That’s another reason why the government is allowed into our bedrooms, so they can protect respectable voyeurs from having to participate in such immoral activity. Time for just one more question. Yes, Horatio Bob.”

“Mr. Jim Bob, how did you become so wise?”

“I’m a graduate of the Mississippi school system.”

 [Walter Brasch’s latest book is the critically-acclaimed mystery/thriller, Before the First Snow, set in rural Pennsylvania. The book is available through www.greeleyandstone.com, amazon.com, and other bookstores.]

I need you to take 30 seconds to watch the RNC attack ad below. That way, all that follows will make better sense to to you, Gentle Reader/Viewer.

Antisemitism on display?  Absolutely. But more from the accusers than from the accused. From the mysteriously and anonymously registered on October 18 website  steveisraelstandswiththem.com, which has mysteriously gone “offline” [update: it's back, now]:

Click here to view the embedded video.

click for the RNC YouTube original

Has the GOP gone completely mad?

Uh, yeah. But there’s a reason for it, and there’s not actually a “GOP” anymore. 

The easiest way to explain this is by analogy.

In Eastern psychology, there is the concept of the emotions as the “monkey cage” or “a cage of monkeys.” Perhaps

During the day, the Mind continually fulfills the will of  whichever monkey is screaming the loudest. When it gets what it wants, it shuts up. Then, the NEXT screaming monkey. They are under no requirement to be consistent: the monkey screaming for chocolate cake shuts up when the piehole is filled, and then the “you must diet” monkey screams.

Right now the “Right” and the “Conservatives” and the “GOP” are the monkey cage. The difference is that, in this case, mind has been fired. (A Konservative mind would never go on strike – no matter how hideous the working konditions.)

People constantly complain about the GOP “presidential” field. But consider it from their point of view:  Right now there is no such thing as a “qualified Republican candidate.”

That’s not a slam; it’s a stone cold fact. The Party has no clear consensus and, thus, “priorities” are all over the map. They are held together either by hatred — Guns, God, Gays, etc. — or else sheer contrariness — oppose all Democratic ideas, no matter how sound — but the fundamental positions within the GOP are SO contradictory that no one exists who could fill the wish list for the crazy salad they’d collectively like to toss.

I mean, accusing Congressman Steve Israel of anti0-semitism for standing with Occupy Wall Street is absurd on the face of it. The former President and CEO of the Institute on Holocaust and Law is probably NOT anti-semitic, nor, given his name, would one automatically mistake him for a Protestant.

No: this is the screaming of monkeys.

The attempt by the RNC to throw the anti-semitism card at the Occupy Wall Street movement is nearly Keystone Kops in its undistinguished hamhandedness:

It begins on October 19, last Wednesday with this headline, when it hit Memeorandum at 12:30 AM, t0 be precise:

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
GOP rips Dems for anti-Semitism in Occupy Wall Street protests

Discussion:

ZIP / Weasel Zippers:   RNC Rips Dem Leaders For Failing To Denounce Anti-Semitim At Occupy Wall Street Protests…

And here is a taste of the story:

GOP rips Dem silence on anti-Semitism in Wall Street protests
By Jonathan Easley – 10/19/11 09:26 AM ET

The Republican National Committee is calling out Democratic leaders for ignoring episodes of anti-Semitism in the Occupy Wall Street protests.

The GOP argues the Democrats are holding a double standard by ripping the Tea Party for incidents of racism in the movement while letting slide anti-Semitic comments by demonstrators protesting corporate greed.

“Democratic leaders have spent the last week championing the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement,” read a statement from RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer. “Yet in the midst of protestors’ extreme anti-Semitic, anti-Israel comments, they’ve been silent.”

Spicer criticized President Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

“Where’s the outrage?” he asked. “While protestors are seen spewing hate against Jewish Americans, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz have declared their support for the demonstrations. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Steve Israel even circulated a petition saying he’s ‘standing with’ Occupy Wall Street.”

Spicer’s memo included links to videos on YouTube that showed a few protestors making anti-Semitic statements.

Gee, where’s the outrage at outrage? Does this lack of outrage about the outrage outrage you? And what about Bill O’Reilly? How can he be outraged, when the Democrats aren’t outraged that some of those outraged by the outrageous antics of Wall Street and the Plutocracy aren’t outrageous enough to characterize the entire Occupy Wall Street for the phony Marxist, Socialist, Anti-Semitic, illegitimate Dirty Hippy lawbreaking thing that it is???!

And how low can the GOP go when they’ve been feeding a non-stop “find the crank” and use him or her to smear the entire crowd* agenda for the entire week? It verges on the pathetic.

[* The Crazy Salad du Jour is Fox News' "EXCLUSIVE: ACORN Playing Behind Scenes Role in ‘Occupy’ Movement" -- even though they were just reporting that ACORN doesn't exist (and ought to know, since they held the flailing arms as Breitbart and O'Keefe slit its throat)]

The Ghost of ACORN Past

This is very interesting, when you consider that the domain  steveisraelstandswiththem.com – the one whose sole page and mission is to present the video at the top of this post — was registered on October 18 [emphasis added]:

from www.allwhois.com

Domain name: steveisraelstandswiththem.com

Administrative Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent (hnvtdgdf@whoisprivacyprotect.com)
+1.4252740657
Fax: +1.4259744730
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St – F1
C/O steveisraelstandswiththem.com
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Technical Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent (hnvtdgdf@whoisprivacyprotect.com)
+1.4252740657
Fax: +1.4259744730
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St – F1
C/O steveisraelstandswiththem.com
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Registrant Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent ()

Fax:
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St – F1
C/O steveisraelstandswiththem.com
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
ns1.cha.smartechcorp.net
ns2.cha.smartechcorp.net
ns3.atl.smartechcorp.net
ns4.atl.smartechcorp.net

Creation date: 18 Oct 2011 13:22:02
Expiration date: 18 Oct 2012 13:22:00

Registered, you will notice, anonymously. (More on that in a moment.)

So, the attempt to smear Steve Israel and the Occupy Wall Street movement BY THE RNC was created at approximately 1:30 PM October 18th (EDT?), and the pliable reporter with “The Hill” and the obligatory cross-linked blog to drive it to Memeorandum (Weasel Zippers, in this case) had the story “breaking” by 12:30 PM EDT on October 19th. No coordinated plan going there.

And then this week, the fully-produced campaign ad, with requisite footage of crazies was released. Here’s a screenshot:

The faint rectangle at the bottom says the RNC is responsible, as well

OK. So WHY did they register it anonymously?

Obviously, they knew that people would have to know who put the site up, and go to great lengths to make sure they’re taking full responsibility. So, what lunacy grips them that they have to register their new attack domain ANONYMOUSLY?

I guess ‘never let your right hand know what your far right hand is doing’ right? It is reflexive secretiveness, absurdly expressed. But absurdity is the order of the day.

 That strip you see across the top is the Google cache legend, explaining that this was how the website looked “a snapshot of the page as it appeared on October 24th, 2011 at 09:41:01 GMT.” (click here for the full sized screen.)

You see, there fundamentally  is no Republican Party right now: it has devolved into a series of tangentally-connected single-issue groups with competing aims and contradictory beliefs.

The anti-tax people fight with the “fiscal responsibility” folk. The small government Randians conflict with the MONITOR ALL PREGNANCIES with Big Government religious extremists. The crypto-athiests of “me-first” conflict with the “my-way-or-the-highway” religious zealots.

The point here is not to belittle the separate interests — although it ought to be apparent that I hold their beliefs in no high regard — but to note that while the machine chugs on, collecting money and minting attack ads, instant domains and anonymous identified webpages to show the latest video, the soul of the machine, the driver, the unifying consensus is gone.

And in the absence of that “driver” the bulldozer clanks on, mindlessly attacking when the attacks make no real sense.

It is the twitching of the legs of a dead daddy long legs spider. The nerves continue to produce movements of the legs, as all children learn, but the spider itself is dead.

Right now, the old consensus, the Ronald Reagan coalition of the GOP is out of steam. Out of ideas, out of passion, out of touch with the times.

It happened to the New Deal Democrats.

I once watched a series of speeches on CSPAN, shown concurrently with (IIRC) the 1996 Democratic National Convention, and it showed speeches by every Democratic Nominee from FDR to George McGovern and probably on from there, but what struck me was that the vision, clear in FDR, passionate in Truman, still strong in Adlai Stevenson, beginning to mutate a bit in JFK, clearly stated, but muddier with LBJ, and finally, in 1968, Hubert Humphrey spoke the same words as FDR, but the life had leeched from them. They were copies of copies of copies, and what had once seemed visionary had now turned pedestrian, what was once profound was now merely a string of clichés.

And that is where the GOP stands today. Separately. Uncertain in what they believe in as a party, but unified only by what they DON’T believe in, which is simply the negation of anything that the opposition believes in.

There is no consensus in congress and no compromise because there is no compromise nor consensus in the Republican “party,” since Parties are merely mechanisms for national consensus, and in 1976, Gerald R. Ford ran on a Republican platform that called for the ratification of the ERA and endorsed a woman’s right to choose. Jimmy Carter’s Democratic Platform pointedly did NOT support the ERA.

(When Republicans are out of power, they are always in favor of fiscal responsibility and restraint. When they are in office, they historically create gigantic new bureaucracies and spend like drunken sailors, as we saw with Reagan and Bush, and again with Bush the Younger.)

But the words have rung hollow, and the profound has turned to cliché.

(Mr. Boehner! Tear down this wall!)

We have created a self-supporting political money network — professional consultants, professional fundraisers, professional itinerary and support services, professional pollsters and the rest — that depend on a 24-hour political cycle. Otherwise, they’re out of work for a year between elections. And in that network, the machine clanks on, but, like the Democratic Party of Jimmy Carter, there is no longer any real agenda and time is wasted in endless cockfighting over turf, Congress reclaiming powers and prerogatives usurped by Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.  And the Democratic Party went into decline.

For a time, it was like that dead daddy long legs.

John Locke once said that words lose their meaning over time. That great concepts become hollow and empty, as has our Constitution become hollow and empty words.

The whole notion that the people, peacefully assembling for the redress of grievances are an OBSTRUCTION and a MENACE to (INSERT BUREAUCRATIC CONCERN HERE) ought to be laughable, given the plain language of the First Amendment.

And yet it is taken seriously that nobody actually takes it seriously.

Same for search and seizure, trial by jury and self-incrimination, to say nothing of cruel and unusual punishments.

But that’s another topic for another day.

The point is that in all of this, all of these weird, reflexive attacks, the Grand Old Party’s legs still twitch, but the spider itself is dead.

Until the next resurrection. The next consensus.

But right now there ain’t one. (See 2009′s “Daddy Long Legs” for more on this.)

But right now, the Monkee Cage is rockin’ and roilin’ and (without being at all schadenfreudey) it’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys.*

Courage.

===============

According to librarian Ted Nesbitt at allexperts.com:

The most authoritative source for the etymological of words and phrases in the English language is “The Oxford English Dictionary,” the multi-volume collection commonly called The OED. The earliest recorded WRITTEN use of the phrase was “cage of monkeys,” in 1840. Of course, the expression most likely was used in SPOKEN English, long before it was ever written in print.

Here is the entry from that source:

31. colloq. a wagonload (also barrel, etc.) of monkeys: used as the type of something extremely clever, mischievous, disorderly, jolly, fun, etc.

In barrel of monkeys, perhaps influenced by barrel of fun (laughs, etc.) s.v. BARREL n.

1840 G. DARLEY Thomas à Becket V. viii. 129 De Traci chatters More than a cage of monkeys: we must wait.

1889 Harper’s Bazar 21 Dec. 932/4 My brother..says the American girls are perfectly fascinating… He says they are more fun than a box of monkeys.

1895 W. C. GORE in Inlander Dec. 115 Barrel of monkeys, or bushel of monkeys, to have more fun than, to have an exceedingly jolly time.

1908 W. G. DAVENPORT Butte & Montana 28 This is just more fun than a bag of monkeys.

1930 G. GOODCHILD McLean Investigates xvi. 310 If once we lose touch with Feeny good-bye to the Rajah’s ruby. He is as clever as a cartload of monkeys.

1968 A. POWELL Mil. Philosophers 155 They’re as artful as a cartload of monkeys when it comes to breaking the rules.

1978 G. VIDAL  Kalki ii. 24 Christianity was never exactly a barrel of monkeys when it came to the here and now.

[...]

==================

A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog.