Our raison d'être justified: Self Identification as "Liberal" Hits New High.

When TrueBlueLiberal.org was started right after John Kerry's defeat in November 2004, a large part of my initial impetus for doing so was to show some pride and restore some luster to a word the conservative government and press had hurled as an insult and which liberals themselves (like the cowardly Kerry) and all establishment Democrats had run away from. Who? Me? Liberal?


Fuck yeah I'm a liberal. It may not have been much of a rallying cry or a blog's raison d'être, but it was mine.

According to this Gallup Poll today, in 2013 "liberal identification edged up to its highest level since Gallup began regularly measuring ideology in the current format in 1992." 23% of all Americans describe themselves as liberal (up from 19% in 2004), but among Democrats the rise was more dramatic, from 33% to 43% in the decade we've been beating the True Blue Liberal drum. Don't be fooled by the fact that less than a hundred people visit this blog on a normal day. Our influence is obviously enormous.

You're welcome.

Preview of 2016 GOP Clown Circus Debate #2: The Elephant in the Room

 In December 2015, the 2016 GOP Traveling Clown Circus was scheduled to make its second stop under the gigantic red, white, and blue big top set up on the campus of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The crowd had been fortified with large quantities of red meat and Red Bull and fluffed into a pre-game frenzy by two of the greatest second-string Saturday Night Live alumni, Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson, telling jokes about Libtards and Dumbocrats. The star moderator Glenn Beck was in position on his throne, but when the cameras were turned on and it came time to fill the ten podia at the front of the tent meeting, only Governor Christopher James "Chris" Christie strode onto the stage. "Let's go, Glenn."

"We'll have to wait for your opponents, Governor," Mr. Beck announced.

"Yeah? I don't think they're coming," Christie said, laughing.

"I'm sure they'll be here.", Beck said. "We have to wait a minute."

"Actually, I heard from my staff they all went to the Tulsa Hospital Emergency Room unexpectedly with injuries to their lower legs."

"What?"

"Something to do with a steel pipe. Something about which I obviously have no further personal knowledge."

"That's awful. We may have to delay this whole evening then."

"I'll be happy to fill the whole hour and a half. Ask me anything."

"OK, let's start with your sports loyalties. We know that you bravely support the Dallas Cowboys even though the Giants and the Jets both play in the state you were born in and currently govern."

"America's Team! Yeah."

"And you've been known to root for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish when they played your state's university, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, in a 2013 bowl game."

"Every North Jersey bully worth his salt likes the Irish."

"Both brave and independent stands, but is it also true that your favorite figure skater was Tonya Harding?"

"That little blonde firecracker? America's sweetheart? Who wasn't in love with her?"

"And it's only a coincidence in light of tonight's events?"

"Obviously. Now let's talk about my impeccable bipartisan record and ability to bring people together. You know that I was supported in 2013 by a lot of Democratic New Jersey Mayors who were certainly not threatened or bribed or beaten into supporting me."
...
(The rest of the hour you know by heart from the inspiring biographical Christie campaign commercials that have been running every night on every network since mid-2015.)
...
[and, in case you missed it, here's the partial transcript of the first imaginary 2016 GOP Clown Circus Debate I posted back in November]

"Ring Out the False / Ring in the True" George Harrison's Happy New Year Song from 1974

Could George's 'Ding Dong, Ding Dong' from the Dark Horse album really be 40 years old?
Happy New Year!

Wealth Inequality in America

As I type this I'm watching (for the first time) some of the Duck Dynasty West show that takes place on Rodeo Drive known as "The 'Real' Housewives of Beverly Hills."  If this horror show isn't enough of an argument for a new French Revolution, maybe this scientific chart is:

And I'll say "Happy New Year" to You Even If You Insist on Living in the Past

Here's the bumper sticker of the day in the ongoing "War On Christmas" seen leaving Yankees Stadium after the Pinstripe Bowl on December 28:

This cheery red and green Comic Sans "Merry Christmas, whether it offends you or not!" bumper sticker was on the back of a dirty black Ford Raptor pickup truck with Connecticut plates that looked as if it might be Darth Vader's gas guzzler of choice.

Celebrating Patti Smith's Birth on 12/30/1946

Here's Patti singing Horses and (a truncated) Hey Joe in 1976:

 

The sprechstimme line at 3'55"(which doesn't exist on the Horses album), "If you are male / and choose other than female / you must take responsibility / to holding the key / to ... freedom", seems so key to her later masterpiece about Robert Mapplethorpe, the beautiful Just Kids that brought her new literary fame and a National Book Award in 2010.
Please watch this wonderful and very touching conversation between Patti and Jeffrey Brown about the book and its award that aired on the PBS NewsHour three years ago:


And, finally, Patti reads a Christmas and birthday story from Just Kids (and smiles):


Happy Birthday.

How'd youse guys do on this test?

There's an interesting dialect quiz (for True Blue Americans only -- no furriners) over on the New York Times website that's fun to take if you have a few spare minutes on this Christmas Eve morning.
I answered the questions yesterday and got no results.  I had thought this meant my dialect was simply unique from having lived on both coasts growing up, but the system must have just been busy. I took it again this morning (with a slightly different set of questions) and it triangulated my exact location from my answers.

Another possible theme song for our Liberal War on Xmas (from Miles Davis & Bob Dorough)

"Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)" is certainly in the running for the official 2013 theme song for our Annual Liberal War on Christmas, but it may still be trailing a little behind Eric Idle's "Fuck Christmas", which is slightly more succinct and to the point.



And if you're looking for the chords and lyrics to sing and play "Fuck Christmas" around your own bare aluminum Festivus pole this year, try clicking here.

"death or glory becomes just another story" -- Joe Strummer, 1952-2002

I just saw that today was the 11th anniversary of Joe Stummer's unexpected death in 2002.
It's hard to pick one song from The Clash to remember him, but here's the first one that pops to mind.

Cyber Monday Has Scrambled Amazon Dot Com's Brain

Why else would they be recommending that I buy books by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck? Amazon has obviously been spending more time developing its drone air force than perfecting its famous algorithms.

This is just one more reason to continue fighting our Annual Liberal War On Christmas by buying nothing.