Sunday, March 29, 2009

Bob Basso Channels Thomas Paine

The latest internet phenomonon (limited, I suppose, to conservative political junkies) is one Bob Basso, whom I haven't bothered to read about, but I have watched his videos. While I like his schtick and agree with (much of) his point of view, his argument that our government is not representing America is quite weak: Fact is, it is not representing about 48% of America. That's Democracy, not tyranny.

He seems to be quite a fan of hyperbole and sophistry, but the actual issues he discusses are valid. My Ron Paul Republicanism (these days called Libertarianism) mindset agrees that the subjects he covers are important, but the way he makes them out to be Republic-shattering, liberty-killing, freedom-drowning events is a bit overdone — this guy really hates illegal immigrants... Wow.

Anyway, it seems that President O has heard, seen, or been made aware of these videos that Bob Basso has put out and has invited him to The White House. The third-hand quote purportedly made by The White House as the reason for the visit is "to discuss the disturbing nature of these videos." I'm guessing that quote more a canard to gin up publicity for this guy than it is an actual quote: White House comments usually reserve vituperative words like that for Mugabe and Kim Jong Il... not some guy in a powdered wig and lace stock fulminating on YouTube.

Anyway, here is the first of Bob Basso's videos. He does his act well and makes some good (if frantic) points about The Union.



UPDATE:

The only source of this invitation to sit down with The President is from Bob Basso himself, reported soley via an often-wrong website. I suppose it should be taken with a 30-pound grain of salt.

UPDATE II:

I suppose I should bulletize my opinions lest it be thought that I agree whole-heartedly with Mr. Basso, which I do not:
  • I think that English should be learned by anyone who wants to be a long-term resident of America. I don't care one way or the other if English becomes the official language of America more than in a de facto sense.
  • Mr. Basso says he is against "diversity", but I actually think he means he is anti-ethnicity. Big difference. I think that some people do "American hyphenate" themselves too quickly and too easily... but having/keeping/celebrating an ethnic heritage does not threaten America like Mr. Basso believes.
  • I also don't think that the government should be the primary administrator of our healthcare system, but I do think that government should guarantee a minimum level of preventative and maintenance healthcare to all its citizens.
  • As far as I'm concerned, ranting about activist judges who "ignore history" (for history's sake alone) is the same as ranting against scientists who ignore the Bible. Times change, opinions change, values change, laws change.
  • As far as illegal immigrants go, I have no idea how to deal with fixing the problem: They do lots of jobs that need to be done at a salary that keeps certain goods and services affordable in America... yet they are breaking the law. But I'm not going to have a thrombo over it like this guy.
  • The rest of it, I pretty much fully agree with.
  • So the Second American Revolution this guy is asking for? Yawn. Lots of salient points, some even highly important that should be debated more fully in the American community. But somehow expecting that overthrowing one set of elected officials for another would result in the desired changes is silly. As I said above: This is the exact government that 52% of Americans want.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess ya don't have to worry about Obambi's "mandatory" volunteerism since you moved to Philippines...this thug is a criminal with NO trasparency as he freaking claims...soon all the obamabots will realize that too but it will be too late

Jil Wrinkle said...

Anon,

You need to provide a link to a proper news service/outlet that talks about this "mandatory volunteerism". Otherwise you're just posting paranoid Michael-Savage-style talk radio baloney.

Anonymous said...

there are about 50 pages of results in Google about it!
http://tinyurl.com/d64dec

Do you really think CNN or MSNBC are proper news? LMAO...they have ben kissing Obambi 's ass and that is one of the reasons why the usurper got elected...free media does not exist anymore!

Jil Wrinkle said...

You see Anon, you are the reason why Republicans are getting the shit kicked out of them all over the country: You read stupid hyperbolic rantings on some Wingnut Website like Atlas Shrugs about some Democrat program, and then run off to places like this blog spouting those rantings as if they were fact.

What this particular episode of Wingnut Kabuki Theatre was about was the GIVE Act (HR1388) (Fox News link), which is a renewal and expansion of the AmericaCorp program that has been around since 1993 (which cooincedentally President O has had nothing to do with... it's all in the Congress). It was even co-sponsored by a couple of Republicans, and passed in the House Of Representatives with lots of Republican support.

The change that the Wingnut Wackos whom you read have seized upon — and are pretenting to have seizures about — is that people who are working in AmericaCorps and are getting paid $500 per week to do Job A, may be required to shift over to Job B if Job A runs out of work and Job B needs help... and that person still wants to get paid. (But then you knew that already right? Of course you didn't. You just read the filtered rantings of people who get paid to make you stupider, and came here all hot and bothered and spouted it off without any research.)

Like I said, you have idiots in Downtown Wingnuttia whose job it is to rant on street corners about any and all things Democrat, and then they have a loyal army of doofuses (doofi?) like yourself who then run out to the suburbs and come on blogs and make useful idiots of themselves. You're the political version of the guy who fowards those paranoid e-mail warnings about college students getting their kidneys stolen, or date-rape-drug-laced business cards, or how to unlock your car door with your mobile phone.

Laughably though, this 5-year-old tactic is backfiring: It used to be useful for getting more doofi riled up, but now it is just causing more people to think, "Oh Jeez, another Wingnut doofus," and then they read comments like mine, tearing you apart, and they think, "Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not one of those Wingnut Doofi."

Now, Anon, let me explain this to you: Wingnut Writers' only job in life is to complain about Democrat programs. When they can't find real things to complain about, they do their "slippery slope" routine: "A may not be bad, but there is a one-percent chance it could lead to B, C, and then finally D!!!!" When they don't have even that, they fly straight off into hyperbole: A person getting paid by the government to volunteer may have to change jobs if there isn't enough to keep him busy where he is at suddenly becomes "All of America will be forced to do whatever the government says!!!!"

See? Now that you have this pointed out to you, maybe you won't be a Wingnut Sucker anymore. Maybe you won't come on blogs like this and make yourself look like a tinfoil-hat-wearing imbecile. Maybe you'll learn to stop relying on Far Right Crazies for all of your information about the world.

Well, probably not... but A always does have a 1% chance of leading to B, C, and D, even with hopeless cases like yourself.

Anonymous said...

Bob Basso looks and sounds just like all the old, white and clueless men that still zombify and rule the elitists of Amerikka.

Jil Wrinkle said...

Anon 2,

Not exactly sure what you are implying. Maybe one too many Zombie movies? I don't think Bob Basso is 100% clueless... 50% clueless, yes. He does make some valid points about Americans: The country is becoming stupider, lazier, and more involved in world affairs than it's own well-being. It's a decaying country that needs a renewal of citizenship and personal responsibility. Aside from his "illegals out now", that is the principal point I took away from his video. Do you disagree?

Anonymous said...

I agree with you; but America has been involved too deep in world affairs for the past decade, not just recently.
Citizenship should carry an honor with it; not a right.
On that note I see that the prisoners in Afganistan get to sue in US courts. Case in point.
As far as the 'Zombie' adjective; it just seems like the geriatric leaders are just stumbling through their terms, clueless of the pulse of the common citizen. Kind of like the characters on "Dawn of the Dead" films. Hey, it's the best similarity I could come up with...

Anonymous said...

Seeing something good in Basso's spiel is like picking watermelon seeds out of your shit--unpleasant and not very productive.