It's that time of year ...

Oh, the Horror! Once again Conservatives have gathered together to bitch and moan about Obama as if he is the reincarnation of Soviet socialism in America, spouting off one damn fool thing after another in what they call the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Numerous comments jump out like the one from Rick Perry who thinks he has the magic formula for success by pushing ever lower taxes, claiming his Texas is growing faster economically than any other state in the Union. Of course, no one bothers to fact check any of these outbursts, least of all Conservatives who clap like a bunch of trained seals in the audience. Texas is an impressive fourth in economic growth in the country, but Oregon and West Virginia are both ahead of the Lone Star State with (gasp!) Democratic governors, and California, which he denounced, is in the Top Ten and may very well get the first high speed rail in the country.

But, Perry wasn't alone in making absurd comments. Ted Cruz stood up and claimed Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney all lost their Presidential bids because they didn't fully embrace conservative values. He seemed to forget that when George W. Bush ran in 2000 he promoted "compassionate conservatism," not this rabid race-bating crap we see today in the Republican party, eking out a dubious victory that pried open the door for the radical conservatism so much on display.

Bush did much better in 2004 (62 million votes), but Mackie and Romney polled 59 and 61 million votes respectively, so there didn't seem to be any appreciable fall off in the conservative electorate. Obama had enough popular vote (69 million and 65 million) to beat Bush both times. So, one can assume it is just the opposite, it was McCain and Romney catering to the rabid right in the primaries that left both GOP nominees virtually no middle ground to work with in the general election.

Not to be outdone, Huck extolled the virtues of Vladimir Putin. The political tele-evangelist said the new Russian emperor is not the least bit worried what we think about him. Then why, Huck, does Putin continually deny Russia has no troops in Crimea? This despite a steady convoy of military trucks crossing the border into Crimea. If he is oblivious to our criticism then surely he wouldn't be making such pretenses? Jon Stewart has great fun with this newfound conservative love for Putin in his segment, Big Vladdy.

It really makes you wonder how anyone can take any of these persons seriously. Yet, there was the Human Hair Piece boldly predicting the Republicans would take the Senate this Fall. Of course, Trump offered a similar prediction back in 2012 and the GOP ended up losing two seats. Wouldn't it be sweet if this year one of those lost seats is Mitch McConnell's chair. He strode into CPAC waving a rifle over his head, apparently evoking the specter of Charlton Heston. This is the sorry state to which the Republican Party has devolved.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Dispatches from Vilnius

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