The big news from our Lake Woebegone friends on the Left is that Jesse Jackson is coming to Baraboo on September 11. Yes, I'll give Ed Garvey's Fighting BobFest some pixels.
BobFest is the tea party for the Hugo Chavez wing of the Democrat(ic) party. I was curious about a group of people who could find inspiration in someone like Jesse Jackson, Jim Hightower, and the Raging Grannies. So I attended Fighting BobFest four years ago as would anthropologist Margaret Mead, complete in safari pith helmet and field jacket, to examine this strange culture close-up and report my dispassionate findings.
The Bob Festers inhabit an alternate universe with its own history, belief system, currency, music ...
Just what exactly is the Bob Festers' program? Smash the corporations? (Not on my 401k!) Enshroud our skyscrapers in Kevlar? Become the world's biggest Belgium? Spin homespun in our cottages?
These people revel in their status as a permanent minority. [Isthmus: 9-15-2006]
Significantly, Dave "Stimulus" Obey is among the worshipped. The soon-to-be former congressman discovered that he was "bone tired" about the time his polling told him he should quit the race. That was this Spring, shortly after Obey gaveled ObamaCare into law.
Ed and I often find ourselves on the other side of the microphone on Joy Cardin's Week In Review program, Fridays from 8 to 9 a.m. on the Wisconsin Public Radio network.
Ed Garvey is truly the definition of genial. Avuncular. Irish, with a peckish humor -- he is a less bibulous Ted Kennedy.
So it is with the same mischievous good humor that I suggest one more guest for BobFest. Someone from the White House of the first African-American (and Hawaiian) president. If not President Obama himself, how about his spokesman, Robert Gibbs?
If you thought the White House had trouble with "Faux News," settle into Helen Thomas's old front row seat as press secretary Gibbs attacks what he calls the "professional Left." In an interview with The Hill, the voice of the White House has this to say about the "professional Left:"
"I hear these people saying he [Barack Obama] is like George Bush," he says. "Those people ought to be drug-tested." He goes on to complain, "They will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we've eliminated the Pentagon. That's not reality … They wouldn't be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president."
Ooh, Dennis Kucinich. Dennis is an old BobFest alum. Can you feel the tingling up your leg?
Gibbs is onto something with the drug testing. Ed and his fellow festers, including my comrade John Nichols, love single payer Canadian health care. Eliminate the Pentagon? That's sure to be a crowd pleaser in Baraboo this September 11.
Another guest will be Mike McCabe. He's the good government goo goo that wants to license, regulate and ration political speech. Not just for candidates but for us voters and our affinity groups.
As does BobFest master of ceremonies Garvey. Here's Ed in reference to the litigants in three legal actions who succeeded in scrapping G.A.B. 1.28:
These fronts, organized and paid for by millionaires, billionaires, church groups and ideologues ...
I can see the signs at the Sauk County Fairgrounds: "No Ideologues Beyond This Point Without Passing Drug Test."
Here's my best guess: Obama spokesman Gibbs is trying to position his boss as moderate centrists by throwing the Jesse Jackson Left under the bus.
While we're at it
More suggested speakers and topics:
Jesse Jackson: "Green Eggs and Ham."
Rep. Charles Rangel: "Ethics in the Pelosi Congress."
Gov. Jim E. Doyle" "Dare to Dream Small."
Rep. Obey: "I spent $836 billion to save government jobs but I couldn't save my own."
Howard Dean: "How to Become an Undocumented Canadian after November 2."
John Nichols: "Nationalize the News Media."
Dennis Kucinich: "Who, me?"
Viva Viagra, the newest "right"
When Milwaukee public teachers union brought a lawsuit demanding that taxpayers buy them $750,000 worth of Viagra, they pretty much gave up any credibility they may have had. Even the usual amen chorus of Ed Garvey and John Nichols have maintained embarrassed silence. Of course, the story has made teachers unions a laughing stock nationwide.
Did Tom Barrett have his Sister Souljah moment? Great line in urging the Milwaukee Teachers union to give up their quest for tax-paid Viagra.
"These dollars should be devoted to enhanced performance in the classroom."
Platinum Subscriber bonus material:
Religious tolerance? Sure, a mosque at New York City's Ground Zero. Right next to a synagogue, an evangelical church, and a gay bar.
Well written piece by Mayor Dave in this week's Isthmus. And Bill Lueders is pretty even-handed toward my hero J.B. Van Hollen and my friend Scott Hassett. One's a conservative and one is a liberal. We get a choice, not an echo.
I'm at Whistling Straits Friday, rooting for Steve Stricker, cheering my man Lefty, and hoping Tiger regains his roar. Should be great!
Today's Chuckle
(Thanks to Cousin Johan) The economy is so bad that...
I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
I bought a toaster oven and my free gift with purchase was a bank.
If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.
Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.
My cousin had an exorcism but couldn't afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.
A picture is now only worth 200 words.
When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.
I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.
