Rage Against the Machine in Reverse?!

When the disbanded far-left rock group Rage Against the Machine held protests outside the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis back in 2008, many of us in the center-left/moderate Democratic side of the political aisle, were horrified when those attending the band's protest/concert started turning over cars.

We were concerned that these radicals would cause us the same political problems that the hippie movement of the late 1960s (which occured shortly before I was born) created which all but assured the reelection of Richard Nixon in 1968.

But, that horror has subsided as it is now far right-wing extremists which are causing political qualms for the Republican Party. Centrist conservative commentator David Brooks told NPR last week that such actions could potentially doom the party's hopes of capturing seats in both houses of Congress.

This new radical raight-wing populism has a name; it's the Tea Party, which '80s action movie star Chuck Norris hailed as 'the true voice of the American people' in a recent column. But, one has to wonder if the American people are completely in sync with the Tea Partiers such as the one pictured above (who is holding a swashtika under his ObamaCare banner).

And, the group members have taken very extreme actions in both Washington, DC, and in the heartland of America. According to thinkprogress.org, the glass front door of Cong. Gabrielle Giffords' (D-Ariz.) was completely smashed out.

Similarly, a brick was thrown through the window of Cong. Louise Slaughter's (D-NY) office in Niagara Falls, NY. And, someone spray-painted the word "DORKS" in red on the front window of the Knox County Democratic headquarters in Mount Vernon, Ohio.

Closer to home, Lynchburg (Va.) Tea Party member Mike Troxel posted the home address of Bo Perriello, a Charlottesville-area resident who is the brother of Cong. Tom Perriello (D-Va) who was one of the last Democratic Congress members to vote yes for health care reform.

According to "The Roanoke Times," a threatening note was sent to Bo Perriello's home and a gas line from a propane tank was cut to his house.

Today, on its web site, The Lynchburg Tea Party hardly seems to be expressing any remorse for this incident as its lead posting states "Perriello Go Home." The LTP goes on to state that Perriello, who defeated the far-right Virgil Goode (ironically a former Democrat) in a huge 2008 political upset, should be voted out because of his votes on "ObamaCare, Cap and Trade and the other items on the Pellosi, Reid/Obama agenda that have destroyed the hopes of future generations to live in a nation that resembles the one envisioned by the founders."

(In its statement, the LTP did not spell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) name correctly.)

But, a larger questions that looms over this radical movement is if there are Republican Party operatives supporting their cause, and the answer to that seems to be a very apparent 'yes.'

On their web site, The Roanoke (Va) Tea Party stated they were either sponsoring or co-sponsoring debates and forums involving potential opponents for both Perriello and Cong. Rick Boucher (D-Va), who actually voted against the controversial health care bill.

The RTP is also encouraging letter-writing campaigns to Virginia's recently elected Republican state officials, Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, both of whom are evangelicals who have shown far-right leanings, especially in the areas of civil rights, abortion rights, education and health care, early into their tenure.

Nationwide, the trend seems to be on the same fringe Yosemite Sam stratosphere as the Minnesota Tea Party, based in St. Paul, said on its Twitter page that: "America is on YOU to save the Republic; please inconveience yourself so as to save the Republic."

The Jersey Tea Party, based in NJ, took threatening aims at Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), who ironically when he was a Republican senator greatly assisted the nomination process of the current far-right Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, on their Twitter page:

"Arlen Spectre swithced parties. Soon, I promise you, he's gonna be switching addresses."

This lunacy has lead the liberal journal "The Nation" to write its lead story this week on the Tea Party, which it is calling 'The Mad Tea Party' in reference to "Alice in Wonderland."

Richard Kim of "The Nation" quipped:

"Leftists like to say another world is possible, but I was never quite sure of that until I started reading tea party websites."

Michelle Cottle of the more centrist "The New Republic" said Sarah Palin, whom 72 percent of Tea Partiers approve of, should go ahead and start her own far-right third party. But, as Cottle added, the former Alaska governor would have a lot of work in 'unionizing' these dittoheads:

"Pretty much everyone gets that Tea Partiers are mad as hell, it's just increasingly hard to tell about what."

Perriello's seat is one that Palin has targeted as one of the 20 Congressional districts which her ticket won in 2008 that are held by Democrats. Former Democratic presidential candidate Wes Clark said that it was important for party activists to counter these Glenn Beck followers by contributing to the funds of those representatives Palin is aiming at.

As a Turkish-American, I am concerned that the Tea Party movement might be the early stages of a very radical evangelical movement which aims to unite church and state. And, in this sense there are direct parallels with their Muslim counterparts.

Islamic fundamentalists took similar measures in Turkey in 1993 when they allegedly murdered secular journalist Ugur Mumcu by placing a bomb in his car. Muslim extresmists also set fire to a hotel in the eastern city of Sivas where an intellectual forum was being held. The gathering, which included key note speaker Aziz Nesin, (1915-1995) Turkish writer and political activisit who escaped the fire, killed 37 people and is today known as "The Sivas Massacre." Nesin had translated Salman Rushdie's controversial novel "The Satanic Verses."

Silly Picture to Fill Space- The Easter Bunny and W

This should be a reminder to Tea Partiers, far right evangelicals, dittoheads, Chuck Norris fans and even far left idealists (the Michael Moore crowd) that things were so MUCH worse when George W. Bush was president....weren't they?!!!!

Quote of the Week- Jack Lemmon

Today, we are featuring quotes from the late Jack Lemmon (1925-2001) and Sissy Spacek who co-starred in the highly political 1982 thriller "Missing" about the disappearance of an American journalist circa 1973 during a coup in Chile which gave power to right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006). The quote from Lemmon will be on this blog, while the quote from Spacek will be on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

"Missing" was shot in secret in Mexico by the left-wing Greek film director Costa-Gravas because the film indictes the American government of the time, particularly the likes of Henry Kissinger, which supported the controversial coup which remains a black mark for the former secretary of state under Richard Nixon.

The film was based on the real-life experience of Ed Horman, played by Lemmon, who joins his daughter-in-law Beth (played by Spacek) in looking for Charlie Horman, played by character actor John Shea.

I just saw the film a few years ago. Interestingly enough, "Missing" shared the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the late Turkish filmmaker Yilmaz Guney's "Yol" (actually directed by Serif Goren). That film was also highly controversial as it dealt with the impact of the 1980 military coup in Turkey and the film directly suggested the need for Turkish Kurds (Guney was ethnically Kurdish) to politically separate from Turkey, which remains a highly provacative issue in my late father Mehmet Gokbudak's country.

Coincidentally, my late uncle Ilhan Gokbudak was a high-ranking Turkish diplomat in Chile while Pinochet ruled the country in the 1970s. The dictator did not step down until 2000, and he died without ever being brought to justice for his many human rights abuses during his reign.

As for Lemmon, he was nominated for Best Actor seven times, including his lead role in "Missing." He won the Oscar in 1973 for his role in "Save the Tiger" over other highly-touted nominees, including Marlan Brando ("Last Tango in Paris"), Jack Nicholson ("The Last Detail"), Al Pacino ("Serpico") and Robert Redford ("The Sting.") Lemmon had earlier won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1956 for "Mister Roberts."

Lemmon starred in seven Billy Wilder films, including "The Apartment" and "Some Like it Hot" as well as ten films with Walter Matthau, most notably "The Odd Couple."

The late actor was idolized by Kevin Spacey who has also won Oscars in the two categories, including the Best Actor Oscar he recieved for the 1999 film "American Beauty."

Throughout March, we have quoted past Best Actor and Best Actress Oscar winners.

Here is the quote from Lemmon:

"Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure."

My Cousin Mike Picked Butler to Make it to Final Four!

I must profess that I laughed at my cousin Michael, who is an alumnus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, the school that beat my alma mater Radford University to win The Big South Tournament in Myrtle Beach (well, Conway, SC, is close enough) a few weeks ago, when he told me that he picked the Butler Bulldogs to make it to the Final Four.

I asked him point blank: "How would they beat Syracuse?"

He said: "I don't know. I just think they just will."

And, by a score of 73-69 Butler did just that!

My lone Final Four pick which made it to Indianapolis, where Butler is, happens to West Virginia University. I am especially happy for their Turkish basketball player Deniz Kilicli who made his debut for the Mountaineers this year (that is not him pictured here).

We are also happy for 'the local team,' The Duke University Blue Devils though I live some 90 miles away from Durham, NC, which is also home to the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. Coach K's team downed Baylor this afternoon which had to have really ticked off a friend of mine in Wilmington, NC, because not only is he a Tarheels fan but he also had the Bears from Waco, Tex., in his Final Four!

The last team to make it is Michigan State. They beat the Tennessee Volunteers 70-69 while I was shopping at Pet-Smart. I almost adopted a kitten today, but there were a few complications. Oh well, there is a next year- well except for those players who are seniors or leaving college early to make a zillion bucks playing for a team like the Minnesota T-Wolves in the NBA.

Shakespeare Likes the Wildcats, the Wildcats, the Panthers and the Blue Devils

The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., began this cheeky campaign last year to say which team William Shakespeare would have picked to win the Final Four.

Since their pick, The University of North Carolina Tarheels, proved to be correct, they are at it again this year, but much to the probable chagrin of 'Heels coach Roy Williams they are assuming that The Bard would pick their rival team Duke to make it to the Final Four.

The stage company, which is currently producing "Twelfth Night" as one of their four on-going productions (the play ends April 3rd), also projected that the Northern Iowa Panthers, Kansas State Wildcats and Kentucky Wildcats would make it to the proverbial 'final act' (we couldn't resist!).

Among the performers in "Twelfth Night" are Sarah Fallon (Olivia), Benjamin Curns (Sir Toby) and Miriam Donald (Viola).

The Bard will pick 'his' national champion next week.

March Marchness with Mapquest (for Thursday Games)

This could arguably be one of the craziest series of posts I've done in a while (the sister entry is on our other blog 'Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time.')

For this particular entry, we will focus on the distances between the towns of the college teams that advanced to the Sweet 16 for the Thursday night sessions.

The Syracuse-Butler game will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, as will Kansas State-Xavier (Ohio) game.

The other two Thursday games will be held in Syracuse, NY, where Syracuse University will ironically not play. But, nearby Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, will face top-seeded Kentucky in Syracuse which also where West Virginia University will take on the University of Washington.

To figure out the distances, we arbitrarily found some nifty places on the web in each of the college towns. Should the University of North Carolina have qualified for the NCAA Tournament, we would have mentioned Chapel Hill Comics in Chapel Hill, NC, where my friend Andrew Neal will find you the latest issue of....well, we better not make any promises.

As one might fully expect West Virginia University located in Morgantown, WV, also home of the Sahara Bar (a hookah lounge), is 2,596 miles from the Cherry Street Coffee House in Seattle, the city which is home to the University of Washington. According to MapQuest.com, that makes for a 39 hour, 13 minute drive. At least for Mountaineer fans, the trek to Syracuse is much closer!

As for Syracuse University, the city of Syracuse is 647 miles from Indianapolis, which is the home of their opponent Butler University. Of course, Salt Lake City where they will play the Sweet 16 game is much farther for both schools.

Syracuse is also the home of Syracuse Stage which is currently producing the acclaimed play "Almost, Maine" (alas Syracuse is also quite far from Greensboro, NC, where I live or I'd go up there to see the play!). And, Indianapolis is a city which features the Claddah Irish Pub (part of a regional chain) located at 234 South Meridian Street downtown. We should note that we believe the image here is of Syracuse player Wes Johnson.

There is no actual radio station called WKRP in Cincinnati which was where the late'70s/early '80s sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" took place (the show is a personal favorite of my friend Moviezzz's who has a great blog on tv and movies). But, there is a WKRQ in Cincinnati (also known as Q-102.

Cincy is also home of the Xavier Muskeeters. Though they will face the Kansas State Wildcats in Utah, Cincy is 713 miles from Manhattan, Kansas, where one can also find Kite's Grille and Bar at 615 North 12th Street.

Lastly, Ithaca- home of the Cornell Big Red is 682 miles (a virtual 11 hour drive) from Lexington, Ky. In Ithaca, one can probably find a J.D. Salinger novel at Autumn Leaves Used Books. While in Lexington, one can probably find a nice oak desk at Blue Grass Antique Market on 801 Winchester Road.

My mother incidentally sells antiques in Lexington, Va., at Duke's Antique Mall, but I'm not sure if she has a big oak desk and if she did then advertisiting it here might be a conflict of interest (not that we really care about such things!)

Health Care Voices-The Pundits

Dr. Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, is the most famous Turkish-American around (hopefully, one day, I will crack the top 100).

To my knowledge,like many doctors, he has not said much about the health care spat, but the same can not be said for pundits both on the right and the left.

On the far, far right, Glenn Beck, compared President Barack Obama's plan to cup-stacking, presumably suggesting that all the cups would fall down and create a mess.

Frank Livingston, a Garner, NC, resident told "The Indy Weekly" (a Raleigh,NC, alt weekly) during a Tea Party/anti-health care protest in the Tarheel State capital that the bill would somehow help Osama bin Laden take over America and convert everyone to Muslims.

The much more intelligent center-right has been cynical as well. In a June 2009 column, George F. Will said: "The president may have been too clever when he decided during an economic crisis that was sending federal expenditures soaring and revenues plummeting, to push the entire liberal agenda on the premise that every item in it is essential to combating the crisis," Will stated, adding that more federal government will escalate the problem.

Jonathan V. Last of the conservative magazine "The Weekly Standard" said Obama's positive numbers were inflated because of his popularity among African-Americans.

But, a counter argument could be made that former President George W. Bush's numbers would have been even closer to the South Pole if it was not for his evangelical base whom comedian Bill Maher said would have supported Bush if he had run over child actress Dakota Fanning on the White House lawn.

However, if the right was critical, the left, which has not always supported Obama universally, called the health care bill's delivery a defining moment for the president.

Jonathan Chait of the center-left "The New Repubic" said: "Let me offer a ludicrously premature opinion: Barack Obama has sealed his reputation as a president of great historical importance."

Lindsay Beyerstein of the more progressive journal "The Nation" said: "This legislation will extend coverage to 32 million Americans and curb the wrost abuses of the corrupt insurance industry and attmept to contain spiraling health care costs."

The measure also got anlaysis from outside the United States as indicated by this sentiment expressed by Konrad Yakabushi of "The Toronto Globe and Mail:"

"Passage of the $940 billion overhaul of the U.S. health-care system is a milestone that will change the face and character of the country."