GOP Establishment Begins Targeting Tea Party Congressmen that are Fighting Boehner

I was so disappointed to see how Congressman Billy Long went from criticizing John Boehner for his lack of spending cuts in HR 1 to getting in line to support Boehner's lack of spending cuts in the debt compromise. There may be a reason why Long has shifted towards the establishment and away from the Tea Party. Tea Party members in Congress wearing the R behind their names may be being threatened by the Boehner establishment.

Rush Limbaugh spoke a little bit about how the GOP establishment is trying to clean the House of the Tea Party.

Jim Jordan, as she's so aptly described, a Tea Party Republican, who is resisting all pressure to cave, and speaking publicly about it. Well, as happens in politics, this is common, folks. This is not something unique to Mr. Jordan. The Republican leadership is telling him that if he doesn't get in line, they'll write his district out of existence. Not even try find somebody to run against him in the primary, they'll just gerrymander his district out of existence. That's what they're telling him. Now, here's what I think is different. You can tell by the nature here of Ellie's call, what will happen if the Republican leadership does this to Jim Jordan, the Tea Party will find somebody to run against some of these Republicans in their so-called safe districts and they'll be primaried.

Jim Jordan is Tea Party. Billy Long was never Tea Party, and this is the ultimate proof.

Donald Trump is Back Playing Presidential Race Entry Games

Donald Trump is playing around with the idea of running for president again. You may remember how THE DONALD played around with the idea quickly moving up and crashing in the polls only to push his NBC Apprentice show with his announcement.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump said Friday he'd consider running for president — again — if the U.S. economy "continues to be bad: and "if the Republicans pick the wrong candidate."

"I would give it very, very serious thought," he told CNBC. "There are so many people wanting me to do it."

Chickenfoot's Bigfoot Cover has a Van Halen Frankenstein Resemblence

Chickenfoot, the supergroup featuring former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony, will release their new single tomorrow Bigfoot. Bigfoot comes with cover art that features the same colors and a little resemblance to a Van Halen icon--Frankenstein.

Doesn't it?

The Coming Crash

Why Socialism Fails Everywhere it is Tried

American Military May Face Not Getting Paychecks After August 2 Debt Ceiling Deadline

The politics of scare are in place. First Obama tried to scare Social Security recipients they won't get their paychecks if a debt ceiling increase is no in place by August 2. Of course, had they put your Social Security in a lock box and not spent it, then of course this wouldn't be a problem.

Now the military is being used to push the debt ceiling debate. The UK Daily Mail writes:

American soldiers in Afghanistan have been warned they may not be paid after President Obama failed in an 11th-hour attempt to reach a settlement over the U.S. deficit.

Who do you think issued the warning? Could this have anything to do with the fact Republicans generally do better with the military than Democrats?

Police Officer Derek Colling Beats Man for Videotaping Him

I highly recommend any time you have an interaction with a police officer that you protect yourself and provide yourself with evidence to use in court. Police officers lie.

With that said, we have another enraged cop who was angered for being video taped.


On the night of March 20, Crooks, 36, was in his driveway, near East Desert Inn Road and South Maryland Parkway, videotaping police as they investigated a burglary report across the street. Crooks said that when he refused to stop filming, Colling arrested and beat him, with much of the altercation recorded by the camera.

Does Obama and Boehner have a Debt Ceiling Deal Tonight?

It is being reported that Obama and Boehner have come to terms on the debt ceiling. According to reports the deal includes:

The deal begins with a short term increase of the debt ceiling, just a few days worth so the deal can be put in legislative language and passed.

Other component parts of the tentative deal include: 

• $2.8 trillion in deficit reduction with $1 trillion locked in through discretionary spending caps over 10 years and the remainder determined by a so-called super committee.

• The Super Committee must report precise deficit-reduction proposals by Thanksgiving.

• The Super Committee would have to propose $1.8 trillion spending cuts to achieve that amount of deficit reduction over 10 years. If that doesn't happen, across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect and could touch Medicare and defense spending.

• If the Super Committee fails, Congress must send a balanced-budget amendment to the states for ratification (at least according to Major Garrett, the ABC report is that there has to be a Balanced budget vote either way)

• The Super Committee is allowed to discuss spending cuts only...No net new tax revenue would be part of the special committee's deliberations.

A View From My New Home

I am excited about where life is about to take me, and why shouldn't I be. Look at this amazing view from my new home.

This is from my deck that overlooks Lake Taneycomo from about 150 foot above the water. It is so cool and inspiring. Close to the places I enjoy hiking, and even Maverick seems excited about the new digs.  

Kudos to Governor Nikki Haley for Defending Confederate Flag

There is this dirty little secret in America that many are unaware of because we are taught the Civil War was a black and white war against slavery. It clearly was not. It was a war about states rights, and when you start looking at the real history of the Civil War, you realize Abraham Lincoln was not a defender of freedom an many ways, including slavery (read his Inaugural Address and his letter to Horace Greeley.) It was a war against unfair taxation as northern states attempted to tax southern states at a higher rate in an effort to continue slavery using a redistribution of wealth scheme.

The Confederate Flag is not a symbol of slavery. It never was. No slave ship ever sailed to the southern states with the Confederate flag hoisted above its sails. Likewise, the Confederate Constitution banned the slave trade. Still, in this effort to attach the 10th Amendment to slavery, the Confederate Flag is under attack again, and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has come to its defense.

South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley said she has no intention of removing the Confederate flag that flies beside the Statehouse, despite the head of the NAACP calling it a “contradiction” for Haley, an ethnic minority, to allow the flag to fly.


The Confederate flag has flown beside the South Carolina Statehouse since 2000. Gov. Nikki Haley rejected NAACP President Benjamin Jealous' call Monday to remove it.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous called on Haley to remove the flag during an NAACP conference in Los Angeles on Monday, comparing African American slavery and segregation to the oppression Haley’s ancestors in India faced under British colonialism.

“Perhaps one of the most perplexing examples of the contradictions in this moment in history is that Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s first governor of color, continues to fly the Confederate flag in front of her state’s Capitol,” Jealous said. “Given the similarities between our struggles to end slavery and segregation, and her ancestors’ struggle to end British colonialism and oppression in India, my question to Governor Haley is one that Dr. King often asked himself: What would Gandhi do?”

Haley’s spokesman, Rob Godfrey, said the governor has no intention of renewing the flag debate, which has come under fire before from the NAACP and others who say the flag represents slavery and white supremacy.

“More than a decade ago, under the leadership of a Democratic governor, South Carolinians — Republican and Democrat, black and white — came to a compromise position on the Confederate flag,” Godfrey said. “Many people were uncomfortable with that compromise, but it addressed a sensitive subject in a way that South Carolina as a whole could accept. We don’t expect people from outside the state to understand that dynamic, but revisiting that issue is not part of the governor’s agenda.

According to South Carolina newspaper the State, the flag has flown on the north end of the Statehouse near a monument to Confederate soldiers since 2000. It was placed there as part of a legislative compromise to remove it from the Statehouse dome.

John Lennon's Secrets Video

This Web site has often discussed John Lennon's conversion to Christianity in his life. As well, there was the recent discussion about John Lennon being a closet Reagan supporter in the final year of his life. Now there is a new video out that discusses some of these John Lennon's secrets.

Harry Belafonte Calls Obama a Failure

It's not too often I agree with Banana Boat singing Harry Belafonte. He's a radical socialists who had become another left-wing nut singing the praises of Barack Obama, who basically said nothing during the 2008 campaign as he delivered speech after speech. It sounds like Belafonte has finally figured out Obama was all rhetoric and not any meat.

Here's Belafonte calling Obama a failure.

“Barack Obama and his mission has failed because it lacked a certain kind of moral courage, a kind of moral vision . . . a kind of courage we are in need of,” said the King of Calypso.

“When he said ‘Yes, we can,’ it was politically clever, but he never defined what it is we can do. So we filled in those spaces — what we thought he meant — only to find we were disappointed, because none of those points was satisfied.”

Obama's Poll Numbers Fall to Lowest Ever in Latest Gallup Poll

With the debt ceiling crisis looming just days away now, it appears the American people have less confidence in his leadership. With no plan coming from the White House and a spam campaign against Republicans that have gone south, Obama poll numbers have tanked. Just 40% of those polled in the latest Gallup poll approves of the job Obama is doing in the White House.

Obama's poll numbers went up upon news of Osama Bin Ladin's death, but once again the old adage holds true. It's the economy stupid. Obama's previous low was 41%.

Spamming President: Obama Begins Losing Battle of Social Media in Debt Ceiling Debate

In 2008, the power of social media was revealed as the Obama campaign rallied younger voters to buy into the false promise of hope and change. In 2011, Obama appears to be losing the social media battle.

If you were following your elected representative in on Twitter yesterday, you may have seen the agitators for America spamming twitter with Obama's message to Congressmen on the debt ceiling. It now appears a spamming president isn't given a pass on social media etiquette.

From the New York Daily News:

President Obama brought his debt battle to Twitter and he lost – more than 40,000 Twitter followers.

Obama asked Americans Friday to call, email, and tweet Congressional leaders to “keep the pressure on” lawmakers in hopes of reaching a bipartisan deal to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit ahead of an Aug. 2 deadline.

Obama’s campaign staff used the @BarackObama Twitter account to post the Twitter handles of tweeting GOP leaders – state by state, tweet by tweet.

“Tweet at your Republican legislators and urge them to support a bipartisan compromise to the debt crisis,” Obama’s campaign staff wrote on his account before launching the day-long Twitter campaign.

The campaign appears to have served its purpose: Republican Twitter accounts were flooded with pleas for compromise.

Not everyone is a fan of the presidential spam. By Friday evening, the President had lost more than 40,000 Twitter followers - and counting.

Many members of the Twitterati took to the social media platform to voice their annoyance over the barrage of partisan tweets. A search for “@BarackObama unfollow” turned up scores of irritated posts.

“Honestly, @BarackObama, I’m going to have to unfollow you if you don’t stop filing up my Twitter inbox soon,” tweeted Bostonian @melisthreadgill, a self-described “Progressive activist”.

“Can’t believe I had to unfollow @BarackObama for spamming Twitter. Really, really strange behavior,” wrote @Arevill inConnecticut.

“I want to unfollow @BarackObama but his desperation is too entertaining,” tweeted @rdpatrick of Lavonia, Georgia.

Lily Anderson Delivers an Incredible Version of the American National Anthem

In Atlanta on Thursday night, the Star Spangled Banner before the Braves game earned a standing ovation. Ten year old Lily Anderson delivered the ovation deserving anthem before the game with the Pirates.



Anderson was invited to sing the anthem as the Braves were raising awareness for childhood cancers. Anderson suffers from Neuroblastoma, which she was diagnosed with in 2009.

Missouri Schools Dictating How Teachers Use Facebook and Choose Friends

I discovered a clever use for Facebook by teachers this past week. Teachers use Facebook to ensure their students participating in events and representing the school are keeping their commitment to the programs they participate in. It's kind of like a Super Bowl coach ensuring their players meet curfew in the week leading up to the big game.

New rules in Missouri are going to change how teachers use Facebook.

Missouri Education Watchdog reports:

In case you missed it (this being summer and all), Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation last week, sponsored by Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, aimed at providing important safeguards that will help to protect students from sexual misconduct by school employees. For instance, part of the legislation prevents school districts from unknowingly hiring someone with a history of substantiated sex abuse allegations by requiring school districts to disclose that information about a former employee if contacted for a reference. The legislation also requires annual background checks for teachers, bars registered sex offenders from serving on school boards and creates a new task force of lawmakers and state child welfare officials to focus on sexual abuse of children that and complete a study by 2013.

Another piece of the legislation requires school districts to develop policies by 2012 for communication between teachers and students that includes text messages, social networking websites and other electronic devices. Those polices are to restrict teachers from interacting with students on websites or in ways that are not also accessible to others, including school administrators and parents.

Even though I am Facebook, I hate seeing how much time is spent by kids on Facebook. With that said, there are pros and cons to this legislation. While some teachers use Facebook to help their students in the classroom, it is unfortunate their positive efforts are over shadowed by teachers who are sexually prey upon their students. So you can see why I have mixed feelings about this legislation.

The bottom line here is, schools will only look to the mainstream social media sites, and for teachers engaged in inappropriate conduct with a student, there are always ways to beat the system.

Better Education Dr. Gordon Pace? College Preparedness for Ozark? International Baccalaureate Faces Legal Action for Not Delivering Quality

Here in Ozark, Missouri, Dr. Gordon Pace, Chuck Fugate, and Dr. Sam Taylor are promising Ozark parents the International Baccalaureate will provide better education for Ozark students giving them greater accessibility to better colleges. That hasn't been the case at Medina High School. Now the IB may face a legal suit.

MEDINA High School may be sued after its International Baccalaureate (IB) sixth form course failed to deliver a university place to a pupil.

The County Press reported earlier this month the majority of the school’s 12 IB students were disappointed by their results and may not get into their first-choice universities.

Now, parents have come forward, with one considering legal action, claiming staff changes, a lack of support and failure to deal with concerns have left children without university places.
The school rejected the claims, stating universities would not make final admission decisions until A-level results were known.

One parent, who asked not to be named, said her daughter was in tears almost every day after learning her results may mean she missed out on first and second-choice universities.
"The students have been hard done by. The first year was an absolute disaster," she said.

The IB comes with a huge price tag for communities that adopt its curriculum. There is also concerns over its radical left-wing agenda that promotes anti-America propaganda.

Ozark High School in Missouri is now on the fast track for IB indoctrination. Clearly, there are doubts about the results it delivers as noted above.

St. Louis Today Concludes Billy Long Can't be Trusted

When it comes to truth telling, St. Louis Today describes Congressman Billy Long as untrustworthy. I of course along with Busplunge noticed Long's pandering months ago and how he contradicts himself, so St. Louis today confirms something else these two Web sites have been trying to prove to readers.

Here's today's article:

Short take: Billy Long's addiction is aversion to truth

• Share

Billy Long apologized for this tweet comparing Amy Winehouse's death to the federal budget woes.

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Related Stories

• Missouri congressman apologizes for making Winehouse-budget connection

Someone on his staff should explain the Internet to U.S. Rep. Billy Long, the cowboy-hat-wearing Tea Party Republican from Springfield, Mo.

Mr. Long seems to not understand that his statements, often typed on Twitter, end up being consumed by the general public. For instance, he created quite the firestorm recently when, shortly after British singer Amy Winehouse was found dead, he compared her battles with drug addiction to congressional addiction to spending.

Mr. Long said he couldn't imagine that his ill-timed statement would be taken in a bad light, and then he issued an apology referring to Ms. Winehouse as a "true artist." We're guessing that the "conservative values" Republican hadn't actually paid much attention to the painfully gritty lyrics of Ms. Winehouse's songs before he suddenly became her biggest fan.

Contradictory statements are par for the course for Mr. Long. A couple of weeks ago, he said that "we are not going to raise the debt limit." Then he said that "cut, cap, balance" was the only way to raise the debt limit.

And on Thursday, he said he would back House Speaker John Boehner's plan that completely erased the lines Mr. Long previously drew in the sand.

Truth-telling, it seems, is not Mr. Long's addiction.

More Tea Party that Tea Party Billy Long Votes for Boehner's Debt Ceiling Increase

Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul are two Republicans who realized what a joke John Boehner's debt ceiling compromise plan was. They of course are two Tea Party favorites serving in Congress. It wasn't that long ago when Congressman Billy Long was asked why he didn't join the Tea Party Caucus, that Long said, "I am more Tea Party than the Tea Party."

Last night, Long broke ranks with the Tea Party and voted to extend the debt ceiling while agreeing to minimal spending cuts that would lead to little debt reduction. I am reminded of how Billy Long once told John Boehner off when a similar compromise came out of the house producing minimal spending cuts after the GOP promised us $100 billion.

  U.S. Rep. Billy Long at Joplin Tea Party by PoliticMo

Oh Billy, got up, threw up his arms, and told Boehner the spending cuts in the compromise were a joke and walked out. So what happened to that Billy Long last night when he voted to raise the debt ceiling as Boehner's plan continued to shrink meaningless debt reduction last week?

You know Mr. Long, had you walked out, called Boehner and his plan a joke, and voted no, I would have a new admiration for you. As it turns out, you voted against the Tea Party and voted for a plan that only reduced the deficit $90 billion a year. The American people deserve better sir. The Boehner plan may be the best plan, but it never painted the picture of America I wanted to see ten years down the road.

The 22 Republicans Who Voted Against John Boehner's Bad Debt Ceiling Deal

Justin Amash (Mich.)
Michele Bachmann (Minn.)
Chip Cravaack (Minn.)

Jason Chaffetz (Utah)
Scott Desjarlais (Tenn.)
Tom Graves (Ga.)
Tim Huelskamp (Kans.)
Steve King (Iowa)
Tim Johnson (Ill.)
Tom McClintock (Calif.)
Mick Mulvaney (S.C.)
Ron Paul (Texas)
Connie Mack (Fla.)
Jim Jordan (Ohio)
Tim Scott (S.C.)
Paul Broun (Ga.)
Tom Latham (Iowa)
Jeff Duncan (S.C.)
Trey Gowdy (S.C.)
Steve Southerland (Fla.)
Joe Walsh (Ill.)
Joe Wilson (S.C.)

Fed up Southwest Missouri Congressman Billy Long voted to raise the debt ceiling. Bad Billy!

BBCW Cental Command Post Moving South

BBCW's central command post will be moving to Branson next week. Branson is a hot bed of Tea Party activity and I look forward to working with my friends at We Are Change Branson.

House Has Enough Votes to Pass Boehner's Bad Debt Ceiling Plan

WLS Chicago reports Boehner has enough votes in the House to pass his debt ceiling plan with minimal spending cuts that does little to singnificantly cut the debt.

Order Your Obama 2012 Reelection Poster Here!

Obama Snubs Congressman Billy Long on Social Media Blitz @auctnr1

How do you forget one of the most controversial tweeters in the House of Representin' for your social media blitz?



Despite Congressman Billy Long's numerous Obamagasms when he is in the presence of Barack Obama, noted in tweets while Billy Long attended White House parties and a picnic, Obama forgot all about big Billy Long.

Obama asked his agitators for America organization to begin a social media blitz on Twitter in hopes of winning support for Obama's ill advised debt ceiling plan. On the original list Congressman Billy Long was missing. How does that happen considering one of the hottest Twitter stories of the week was Long politicizing the death of Amy Winehouse.

Staffers have been tweeting from President Barack Obama‘s account today, linking to the Twitter profiles of Republicans and asking followers to tell them to vote for a bipartisan deal.

When he wrote about Missouri, he mentioned Republican Reps. Vicki Hartzler and Todd Akin, as well as Sen. Roy Blunt.

But Missouri, of course, has six Republican representatives. Of those, both Billy Long of Springfield and Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau also have Twitter accounts, and he skipped them.

He came back and Tweeted about Long just now, but he has yet to mention Emerson.

Poor Billy! He's like the Rodney Dangerfield of Congress. No respect!

Life is Getting Worse for Black Americans in Obama's America

Obama was supposed to be a bridge for more black Americans to reach prosperity. That simply hasn't been the case. Life is getting harder for black America.

John Roberts writes:

The unemployment situation across America is bad, no doubt. But for African-Americans in some cities, this is not the great recession. It’s the Great Depression.

Take Charlotte, N.C., for example. It is a jewel of the “new South.” The largest financial center outside of New York City, it's the showcase for next year’s Democratic National Convention. It was a land of hope and opportunity for many blacks with a four-year college degree or higher.

According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, in Charlotte, N.C., the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 19.2 percent. If you add in people who have given up looking for jobs, that number exceeds 20 percent, which, according to economists Algernon Austin and William Darity, has effectively mired blacks in a depression.

“You’re looking at a community that is economically depressed in my opinion,” Austin said. “And we need action that will address that scale of joblessness.”

Vanessa Parker worked hard to get ahead. She was an administrative assistant at IBM in Charlotte. She went to night school to better herself, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in finance. Parker and her husband saved up enough money to move from a bad neighborhood to a quiet, middle-class street. But instead of moving up in the company, IBM moved out. Now she works at a big-box store for minimum wage.

“It’s very frustrating and it makes you wonder why are you doing it,” she told me. “Because it seems like the more that you try to get ahead, seems like you’re falling back.”

“It takes time to build anything. But it doesn’t take very long to destroy it,” says Patrick Graham of the Urban League of Central Carolina. 

His organization runs classes on empowerment, hoping to raise the self-esteem of the unemployed and give them the confidence to take charge of their lives. 

“It’s heartbreaking,” he told me. “In a sense that you watch people who are viable who have talent who can’t necessarily find the job opportunity that they need.”

Derrick Foxx is another example of how deeply this recession has affected the black middle class. Foxx was laid off from Phillip Morris Tobacco 2 years ago and hasn’t worked a day since.

Like Vanessa Parker, Foxx was trying to better himself, attaining an MBA. Though he has sent out more than 1,000 resumes, and contacted more than 1,000 companies, he is still unemployed.

“I got out of school and didn’t get the job I was looking for,” he says. “Then I went back, got an MBA degree, you know, and I’m almost like – wow – was this really worth it?"

It’s quite a sign of the times that people are questioning whether their education was worth all the time, effort and expense. Education is supposed to be the gateway to prosperity. But according to economist William Darity from Duke University, education does not provide the same key for African-Americans to open that gate as it does for others.

“It’s really, actually, a tragedy because people have invested a tremendous amount of effort – devoted the motivation and time to acquire degrees,” he said. “But it doesn’t provide them with the same degree of protection that it provides others in this society.”

There are jobs to be had in Charlotte. But African-Americans are not sharing in the recovery in the way others are. 

Devah Pager, a sociologist at Princeton University, conducted groundbreaking research in Wisconsin and found that black men were less likely to be called back on a job application than white men with a criminal record. The statistics went like this:

Job call-backs:
White non-criminal: 34%
White criminal: 17%
Black non-criminal: 14%
Black criminal: 5%

According to Darity, “The differential in unemployment between blacks and non-blacks in the U.S. is perhaps one of the most dramatic indicators of discrimination in this society.”

So – what to do about it? 

The Congressional Black Caucus has been leaning on President Obama to address the epidemic of black unemployment on his watch. So far, the president has resisted the notion of job programs specifically targeting African-Americans. His position is that a rising tide will lift all boats. But the tide remains out as far as job creation goes.

The Urban League’s Patrick Graham believes small business should be the major driver to employ African-Americans.

“It’s gonna really not just take hard work, but it’s gonna really take some creative thinking in terms of entrepreneurship and other things to really get us out of this,” he said.

The recession – or depression -- in the black community is rapidly eroding the black middle class.

At its convention in Boston this week, the National Urban League released a troubling report on that topic. It found that the recession has virtually wiped out all of the economic gains blacks made in the past 30 years.

And a new report from the Pew Research Center drives home just how bad things are out there.

It found that in 2005, the average net worth for white households was $134, 992. For black households, it was $12,124. (That's not a typo.)

In 2009, the number dropped to $113,149 for whites and a paltry $5,700 for blacks.

Algernon Austin believes the government hasn’t taken the problem seriously enough. “It’s just one step below the scale of the Great Depression,” he said. “But we haven’t treated it as a crisis of that magnitude.”

Despite their plight, both Vanessa Parker and Derrick Foxx have remained remarkably upbeat. Foxx finds purpose in coaching girls’ basketball, and helping disadvantaged youth. “My biggest thing is -- if I’m helping others, you know, it takes the pain off of me,” he says. “Because I see someone else who’s doing worse than I’m doing."

Vanessa Parker is struggling to hang on to what she has built. She doesn’t want to go back to the gunshots and – as she says – the “boom, boom, boom” music of her old neighborhood.

And she truly believes better times are ahead.

“On many days I went to bed crying because I feel that I can’t get the job that I deserve. But then when I think about it, that a better day is coming -- that keeps me going. It keeps me going to that $7.25 job. You know, because something is better than nothing,” she said.

Jim Lee of Busplunge Fame Stars in McDonald's Commercial With the Bus

I just received confirmation a couple hours ago that Jim Lee, a friend of this blog, has arrived safely back home in Southwest Missouri. Jim was asked by Oak Brook, Illinois' McDonald's corporation to bring his unique school bus to Des Plaines to film a commercial.

When he got there, Jim got to do a little acting as the bus driver in the commercial. Here's the famous bus and bus driver.

To read Jim's Democrat leaning blog, visit: http://bus-plunge.blogspot.com

Papa Smurf Wears Red Because He is a Communist

In the first days of my transition into junior high, I suddenly had a new interest in history. Mr. Bill Jeffries had the tough task of getting seventh graders at Strafford Junior High School interested in history. His methods were great, and to this day he remains one of my favorite teachers of all time.

I remember in those days, he asked our first hour history class, well let me quote his exact words.

"People, why do you think Papa Smurf wears a red hat?"

"Because he is a communist," my late friend Clint Maples exclaimed.

"That's exactly right Mr. Maples. Because he is a communist."

For the next 15 minutes Mr. Jeffries went into a passionate lecture comparing the smurf life to communist life.

Mr. Jeffries appears ahead of his time, because today, there is actually an article discussing why Joseph McCarthy would be placing Papa Smurf on his list.

The Washington Times writes:

You remember the Smurfs: Blue skin, white caps and three apples high. Wanton berry junkies. A 1980s pop phenomenon. The adorable masters of the Saturday morning cartooniverse are back, the computer-generated titular attraction in a new movie opening nationwide Friday. As Papa Smurf and friends re-enter the cultural atmosphere, there’s no dodging the question: Are the Smurfs now, or they have ever been … communist?

A red — and blue — menace?

A crypto-Marxist cel escaping from history’s dustbin of discarded lies to reinspire a glorious people’s revolution, one seemingly innocuous cinematic adventure for children of all ages at a time?

“They have a dictatorlike leader, and they all have defined roles,” said Technorati.com editor Curtis Silver, who wrote about the psychology of the Smurfs for Wired magazine’s website. “When it comes to their day-to-day life, they’re like a Communistic group.”

Created in 1958 by Belgian illustrator Pierre Culliford, the Smurfs have since achieved iconic status, conquering the globe with books, figurines, theme parks, video games and best-selling albums (1978’s “The Smurf Song” reached No. 1 in 16 countries). This time around, Smurfette has already inspired a copycat red carpet look from singer Katy Perry, who voices Smurfette in the film.

For millions of fans, “Les Schtroumpfs” are a cute, lovable diversion, stars of an Emmy-winning cartoon that ran for nine seasons and peaked with a 42 percent audience share.

Only don’t tell that to your search engine.

Google the phrase “Smurfs communist,” and you’ll find dozens of essays, blog posts and message-board discussions devoted to a more sinister proposition: The little blue men as surreptitious socialists, mini-Manchurian candidates, propagating subversive ideology beneath a veneer of harmless entertainment.

Three years ago, California resident Evan Topham posted a YouTube video titled “The Communist Smurfs?” The clip since has attracted more than 200,000 views, about 58,000 more than Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential-bid announcement.

Are Mr. Topham and company — gulp — on to something?

In a textbook communist society, all citizens are equal. They labor for the common good. Money is unnecessary. Individual liberty takes a back seat to the needs of the collective. There is no God but the state.

Now, consider life in the Smurfs’ village: Residents live in identical mushroom houses. Everyone dresses alike. They sing the same group song, over and over. They have no apparent deity.

More to the point, the Smurfs have no economy. Farmer Smurf doesn’t peddle his crops to Wholesaler Smurf, who then marks them up for lucrative resale to Grocer and Baker Smurf. Nuh-uh. Farmer Smurf just farms, the better for the other Smurfs to eat at a communal table.

Similarly, Painter Smurf only paints. Handy Smurf builds stuff. Within the village, societal roles are clear-cut. No deviation is allowed — in fact, a memorable episode of the cartoon saw the Smurfs switch jobs with bumbling, humbling results.

Pop quiz: Who uttered the famous maxim, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs?”

A) Karl Marx

B) Papa Smurf

C) Both A and B

The correct answer is “C” — which is one of the reasons Australian essayist and teacher J. Marc Schmidt once referred to the Smurf village as a “Marxist utopia.”

“The workers own all the capital equally, and there is no upper class of owners/capitalists to oppress them,” wrote Mr. Schmidt, author of the book “Secrets of Pop Culture,” in an email. “Unlike real-life Marxist countries, the Smurfs managed this feat without resorting to totalitarianism or repressing personal freedom, so it is a utopia.”

More evidence: The Smurfs replace everyday nouns and verbs with the word “Smurf,” creating a dumbed-down, thought-controlling Newspeak lexicon to rival that of the totalitarian state in George Orwell’s “1984.” Papa Smurf wears red — the only Smurf to do so — a possible sign of party devotion and doctrinal purity. He also sports a thick white beard, much like another famous father figure: German philosopher Karl Marx, the granddaddy of communism.

For his part, the bespectacled, nitpicking Brainy Smurf bears a passing resemblance to Stalin’s more intellectual rival, Leon Trotsky, and often is ridiculed in the cartoon. The subliminal message? Knowledge is dangerous, because it makes you a potential dissident.

Then there’s the Smurfs’ nemesis, the genocidal human wizard Gargamel. Like any good capitalist, he isn’t interested in the destruction of the Smurfs per se; instead, he’s interested in capturing the Smurfs so he can turn them into gold.

“[Gargamel] desired to exploit the ‘workers’ (i.e., the Smurfs) and get rich for his own selfish reasons, without any regard for their well-being,” Mr. Schmidt wrote.

Greed is good; profit, his only motive. In later seasons of the cartoon, the evil wizard wants to eat the Smurfs, a potential metaphor for remorseless industrial capitalism devouring the unwitting proletariat.

Oh, and who is Gargamel’s sidekick? Azriel, a voracious tabby with a similar taste for the delectable little blue workin’ class heroes.

In other words: a literal fat cat.

All of the above was more than enough fodder for Parisian academic Antoine Bueno, who in June published a treatise on the topic, the aptly named “Little Blue Book.” In its 250 pages, the 33-year-old university lecturer argued that Smurf society represents a “totalitarian utopia drenched in Stalinism”; in subsequent interviews, he claimed the Smurfs also were racist, and that Gargamel was an anti-Semitic caricature.

Popular reaction was swift. And fierce. The same Smurf fans who approved of a 2005 UNICEF television ad that depicted the Smurf village being bombed by fighter jets — the better to raise money for ex-child soldiers in Africa — called Mr. Bueno’s book a disgrace. Thierry Culliford, son of the deceased Smurfs creator, called the author’s take “grotesque.”

In his YouTube video, Mr. Topham does Mr. Bueno one better, noting widespread Internet belief that “Smurf” is an acronym for “Socialist Men Under Red Father.”

“How about ‘smoking monkeys under revolting feathers?’” said Mr. Silver of Technorati.com. “You can pull anything out of it. That’s a stretch.”

Added Mr. Schmidt: “Even if it were a genuine acronym dreamt up by some pop-culture infiltration department of the KGB, what would’ve been the point? People would have to know what the letters stood for [for] it to mean anything. How would they have found out?”

While the Smurfs are a popular target, they’re hardly the only well-liked fictional characters to draw deconstructive fire. The Vatican once claimed Homer Simpson was an unwitting Roman Catholic. (Show producers said otherwise.) On the Internet, Dora the Explorer has been portrayed as an illegal immigrant.

Two years ago, a Canadian professor was ridiculed for writing that Thomas the Tank Engine propagated a sexist, ultraconservative ideology. As opposed to being, well, a smiling choo-choo train.

“With any cartoon, you can make allegories, because they’re based in some way on real life,” Mr. Silver said. “But it can go too far.”

It’s tempting to conclude that the Smurfs are somehow more than they seem — that, for example, the ditzy, discord-sowing Smurfette, created by Gargamel from a formula including “a peck of bird brain” and “the vanity of a peacock” reeks of misogyny.

But, sometimes, Mr. Schmidt cautions, a Smurf is just a Smurf.

“It’s not strange for adults to use children’s media to advance all sorts of grown-up ideas,” he said. “But while the conspiracy theory idea of the Soviets trying to win over young Western hearts and minds is juicy, even plausible, it’s all just a coincidence. I don’t think Culliford was conscious of any of it.”

Maybe so. Or maybe the cartoonist was simply making too much money to notice. According to Time magazine, 6.5 billion jellied Smurf sweets have been sold in the past two decades, while roughly 3,000 products and services, including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, have used the Smurf brand image.

Perhaps the Smurfs aren’t communists. Perhaps they’re sneaky capitalists.

Hmmm. On second thought, how does “Savvy Marketers’ Unbelievably Rich Future” sound?

Barck Obama: Secret Agent Man (Debt Ceiling Agent)

Obama doesn't come up with many ideas as he leads this country to ruin. In fact, if you remember, Obamacare wasn't his idea--it was Republican Mitt Romney's. Now Obama says he has a plan for the debt ceiling chaos in DC. It's a secret plan--sounds like Obama is living life in the danger zone.



Here's the transcript of Wolf Blitzer discovering the secret Obama plan from Bill Daley.

BLITZER: You say the president has put forward a plan.

DALEY: Um-hmm.

BLITZER: But the Congressional Budget Office says there is no plan that they can score because it's just a framework, it's just a speech. They haven't seen a document...

DALEY: Well, Speaker Boehner knows - and Congressman Cantor knows the plan that they both worked on try to bring the debt down and get past this debt ceiling. He does not have a legislative fix right now to this, because there's a bill in the House and there's a bill in the Senate and they will deal with those two bills. He's endorsed Senator Reid's bill. He feels very strongly that the bill that the House may pass tonight does not help the economy.

Get High and Vote: Free Marijuana if you Register to Vote

We all have heard the efforts of democratic operatives who bus homeless and less enthused people to polling stations rewarding them with cigarettes. Never in my lifetime did I expect to see this.

Protect Your Access: Vote 2011 is a project in Lansing, Michigan, that is offering free marijuana to unregistered voters to sign up to vote.



Of course, they are telling you who to vote for. Their Web site has a list of candidates the marijuana distributor approves of.

Local Election, November 8, 2011.

Vote YES to Derrick Quiney
Vote YES to A’Lynne Robinson
Vote YES to Harold Leeman

Vote NO to Carol Woods
Vote NO to Jody Washington

Go get high and vote. The politicians love those who are impaired in their thinking to cast a logical vote.