Oobie’s Big Batch of News #1

Gadhafi, from the cover of his upcoming solo album, "Depose THIS!"

We’re going to do a little something different this time out, the first sort of news roundup, grabbing a few stories and making brief comments about each. (Read: I’ve got nothing big in the tank, so we’re going to turn a bunch of stories into one piece.) Obviously, there are huge developments going on in the Middle East that should probably be plenty of fodder for a huge piece, but I for one have no idea how anything over there is going to turn out, and I’m not going to pretend I do.

Nonetheless, we’re going to start with the elephant in the room.

Photos and Video of Libyan Protests – (WARNING: Many of the images at this link are of a graphic nature. They personally made me uncomfortable, but I think their historic significance makes it important for people to understand what’s going on.)

And that elephant is mostly Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who seems to be the only one unaware of his elephant nature. His officials are defecting at every opportunity, his security forces not immediately within his line of sight are siding with protestors, and his entire country is tearing itself apart to remove him from power. And yet, he seems pretty sure this is all just going to blow over.

Oh, to be a batshit insane dictator.

Recent reports suggest the Libyan leader has been using tanks and warplanes in his attempts to break up the protests, showing a certain sweat-stained desperation in what I can only imagine are his final days in power. When the funeral marches of those killed in earlier protests turn into new demonstrations, military forces are ordered to fire upon them, too.

It’s times like this I’m especially glad to live in America, where we don’t have to fear that sort of reaction from our leaders.

Freedom to incite violence? Or just freedom to cap a bitch?

Indiana state official says “Use live ammunition” on Wisconsin protestors
Well then…

On the plus side, this guy doesn’t have a job anymore. On the down side, I wasn’t in the room to listen to his exit interview.

“I just… I don’t understand! Was it the whole ‘shooting US citizens’ thing?”

“I’m going to be honest with you. It kinda was, yeah.”

This guy was a deputy attorney general, meaning he was a lawyer. If he thinks it would be okay to just go ahead and off some people who are exercising their first amendment rights, I’d be interested to see what other positions he’s taken throughout his career.

At the very least, I suppose it could be said that he stuck to his guns. (Insert rimshot here.)

Iranian President Condemns Mideast Violence

Because one world leader certainly didn’t.

On the list of mind-numbingly incomprehensible things anyone has ever said in the history of time, we have a new entry, thanks to Iran’s own fountain of insanity, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Said Ahmadinejad of the recent protests and crackdowns throughout the Middle East, “Instead of killing people, listen to them. How is it possible that a state leader uses bombers, tanks, and cannons to kill his own people and afterwards warns them that whoever says something will be killed. That is really ugly.”

Here, here! It’s a proud day for reason in the world, is it not?

Naturally, Ahmadinejad said that while his government was involved in violently cracking down on protests and raiding apartment buildings to steal satellite equipment to stop Iranians from getting news reports from around the world. Fun!

Wisconsin Governor Likes Dirty Tricks

From insane dictators to dirty politics, we move on to the Republican governor of Wisconsin. Scott Walker and the Republican-led State Senate have been pushing to strip public worker unions of virtually all their power, and much to Walker’s dismay, the Democrats in the state aren’t playing along.

I'm sure these people just don't know any better.

Walker detailed a plan in a phone call with a man he thought was a wealthy backer of his, in which the Republican governor would lure Senate Democrats back to the capitol building with the false promise of discussing the controversial bill, and then hold the vote without their knowledge, guaranteeing it would pass. Because, really, what better way to get a major controversy behind you than to screw thousands of citizens of your state with a political ploy that alienates the other side of the argument?

Also, Walker admitted that he’d considered planting troublemakers in the protest crowds, to make them seem more violent than they actually were. Now that’s a trick that would make the earlier entries on this list proud.

I salute you, Scott Walker, and your devious little mind. You’re a proud leader, and I’m sure the people of Wisconsin are glad to have such an accomplished grifter at the helm of their state.

Wisconsin Assembly Passes Bill

As an aside to the above entry, Republicans in the State Assembly managed to pass their vote on the controversial bill while state Democrats thought there was still a filibuster in progress, so that many Democrats didn’t even cast a vote because they weren’t aware one was happening.

Land of the free, home of the… what now?

The Speaker approves of this message in cowardly pandering.

Lawmaker condemns question… after a while
And finally, Georgia Republican Congressman Paul Broun was hosting an event in his home state when a constituent asked, “Who’s going to shoot Obama?”

Broun called the question “abhorrent”, a very strong statement against an obviously extreme ideological wing of his constituency. Of course, he only made that statement long after the fact, in a press release, AFTER the exchange was reported by local media. To the lunatic that asked the question, he pandered. He told the crowd he understood their frustration with Obama.

Like Speaker of the House John Boehner, Broun was faced with the very clear opportunity to denounce extremist thinking in his own constituency, and like the Republican speaker, he balked at it, instead offering a sort of olive branch of understanding and acceptance for lunacy, because that lunacy will vote for him later.

How can we come together as a nation and have civil discussions on the issues that matter if the leadership on one side of the aisle coddles those in their party that reject obvious facts to continue to harbor their own prejudices, or advocate for the murder of a commander in chief they happen to disagree with? There won’t be any real progress in this country until people can at least disagree with each other like human beings, instead of drowning each other out with insults and overblown rhetoric.