Another of Those Silly Anti-Obama Emails

A couple of days ago I received the following email in my Inbox:

Some have said that the stimulus hasn't saved any jobs, but here is a case where at least one job was saved.Oregon State University Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis was considering firing their basketball coach, Craig Robinson, after an 8-11 start (2-5 in the Pac 10 conference). When word of this reached Washington, Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter was dispatched to Corvallis with $17 million in stimulus money for the university. Craig Robinson's job is safe for this year. For those of you unfamiliar with Coach Robinson, he just so happens to be Michelle Obama's brother. Just a coincidence I'm sure!

Of course as most of these go, it was immediately suspect. In the first place colleges rarely replace their coaches in the middle of the season. After checking out Oregon State's basketball program I found that this season was Craig Robinson's second one at OSU. He inherited the program after an 0 - 18 season. It then became very clear that he had no where to go but up and would not have been fired after but one season. After all, he won 18 games his first season.

In the second place it is highly doubtful that 17 million dollars would have been quietly given to a college to save a basketball coach's job. I am sure there are enough Republicans in the state college system in Oregon to find out about such a move. It would have hit the news outlets big time. I further doubt that 17 million dollars could have saved a coach's job, if the alumni wanted him out. Finally, stimulus money would very doubtfully have gone straight to a school without a middle man somewhere along the way.

After this bit of research and thought, which took a couple of minutes at best, I went over to truthorfiction.com to see what that site had to say about the situation. As I suspected, it put the email in the "fiction" category. No surprise. It is scary to see how these silly emails get passed along by people who want to believe this nonsense. The friend who sent it to me responded to me that he was glad that he sent it on because it was so "heart warming." In other words he wanted to believe it and he wanted others to believe it.

Just another example of the lack of thought and consideration about the plethora of misleading information on the internet and on the airwaves. If it is written, they believe it. If it is spoken, it is the truth. After all it is passed on by such trusted sources as FOX Noise, the Washington Post, unfortunately now, the Wall St. Journal, Rush, Sean, BillO, and their ilk.

The Teabagger Who Made his Bed

The young man, Chris Reichert, who harassed an elderly man who suffers from Parkinson's says he is sorry for what he did. I am so glad that this fellow's actions were filmed and then spread far and wide through the Internet and the news networks. It showed these imbecilic teabaggers for what they really are. It also showed what mob actions do to people who are easily swayed by misinformation.

Mr. Reichert says that he snapped and that what he did was shameful. He says he has not slept since. This is good. I hope there are others out there who are having restless nights as well. They have been whipped into a frenzy by the propaganda of the likes of FOX Noise, Limbaugh, and the rest of the extremist rabble rousers. In Reichert's case he says he had never been to such a "political rally." He also says he will never go to another.

The organizers of the mob condemned the actions of Reichert and the others who harrassed the man. One has to wonder if the organizers are really sorry. They got the publicity that they sought. Nothing is better than seeing counter protesters being put in their place by the mob. I would guess that there were many who saw Reichert's actions as justified.

History shows that most revolutionary activities are carried out by mobs created by the fomenters of the revolts. It is pretty easy to set mobs in motion. Usually the are made up of the ignorant and the violent elements of society which are easily manipulated. We are seeing this sort of activity among the teabaggers. They are being set in motion by the extremist elements of the Republican Party and their media hacks. The white supremacists and other racist elements, the extremist anti-tax/anti-government groups have moved to the teabagger groups to garner acceptance by more of the masses. I fear that we are very close to assassinations of government officials from politicians to bureaucrats.

Now is the time for saner heads to prevail. Unfortunately there are no statesmen among the Republicans today who might take a stand and bring sanity back to their party. There have been some half heated attempts at condemning the violence, but most of the Republicans fear for their seats. They are too spineless to take a stand. Instead they simply fall further victim to the extremist rhetoric and move themselves further to the right in an attempt to maintain their power and status. They are certainly not "patriots." It is a sad time in which we live.

Health Care, Republicans, and the Future

Now that the big bad ogre of health care reform will soon be on the books, what lies in the future for the opposition? Will US citizens accept it? How will Republicans and their vile, racist, military arm, the teabaggers, oppose it? It is interesting to ponder these questions.

Some Republicans are suggesting that their opposition to health care reform may be their final downfall. Millions of our citizenry have no health care for various reason. They may be jobless. They may have a pre-existing condition. They may simply be unable to afford it, yet they do not qualify for Medicare. What are they thinking about the backward Republicans and their minions? What about the millions who voted for the President because of his stand on health care reform? These people may very well be the "silent majority."

We are hearing, mostly, from the vile and vocal teabaggers, but their primary goal isn't to kill health care, although, killing appears to be in their vision. They are lead by an extreme and racist element, which is in the minority in most sections of the country, except the south. The Republican leadership is playing to them, but are their numbers really high enough to make a real difference? I seriously doubt it. The teabaggers talk big about sending incumbents home, but their primary goal is to send Democratic incumbents home. They are not going to touch John Boener and his crowd. Here in GA the Republican Senators and Congressmen are safe. All Republican elected officials are safe unless they profess to be anywhere to the left of Hitler or Stalin. Actually, I suppose I should have used Cromwell as an example, since he was a Puritan, and Puritans are heroes of the right wing Christian elements.. Hitler and Stalin were leftist, atheistic, Socialists.

I think the teabaggers will make it through the fall elections...maybe. They will for the most part be history by 2012. I will be surprised if Obama does not win in 2012. I think the passage of the health care bill and subsequent legislation that will be passed by the Democrats will change the minds of independents and any Democrats that may have been wavering. The man is doing what he was elected to do. I think it has taken him awhile to figure out that he must forget about the obstructionist Republicans and move his agenda forward. He does not seem to be worried about whether he will lose votes or not. He is interested in doing what he promised to do. That, in my mind, is what elected officials should be doing. It is what some of the teabaggers truly want, but they are too blinded by their hatred to see it.