Is there really a Tea Party Movement?

No, there is not. There's a loose conglomeration of the reactionary right, conservative (whatever that means) senior citizens who have been mislead in thinking that their Medicare is going to be cut, closet racists who had no problem with eight criminal years of Bush II but don't like having a black president, tax protesters, gun rights activists, the rural and suburban unemployed, wacko evangelicals, Libertarians, disgruntled former Republicans, militia nuts, neo-Nazis, and a lot of other people I'd never invite over for a drink or a cookout anytime soon.

What the so-called "Tea Party movement" is constitutes reactionary, rightist populism. In other words, misguided, misdirected populist rage that's apparently not willing to be "co-opted" by the GOP let alone the DNC.

In some crucial sense, they're the opposite side of the coin to the progressive left, meaning the majority of the public when you look at the polls regarding social issues and the spending to combat social problems. The majority is for a leftward reformist model, not a rightward trend. Where does that leave these red-headed stepchildren of the right? As far as anyone can tell, an ineffectual demographic minority that, yes, gets it that Wall Street is the problem, yet doesn't like the idea of New Deal reforms and progressive taxation of the wealthiest.

You know: the dumb assholes who still cling to the American Dream.

There is an off-chance that some of these folks will have that "road to Damascus" conversion and actually see that their own interests are best represented in joining the antiwar and progressive left in the streets (as well as on the Internet), in joining together to stop the corporate assault on our rights, but so far it's a pipe dream. Instead, we all harp on more fringe elements of this demographic, and while that's not entirely misplaced in its importance, it's not all about the problem children, it's about the overall group that's been labelled as "Tea Party." Some have implied that many of these self-styled "Tea Baggers" could only attend many of these events by being small business owners, and indeed, there's a kernal of truth to this. But it's not the entire story, some are simply retired baby boomers.

I'm not really sure why the GOP would even want this disparate gaggle of the terminally confused, but what else do they have left as a base? Yet, as stated before, the demographic is fundamentally mistrustful of the entire political establishment and stubbornly resists being used, of being co-opted. Regardless of that, they have been used pretty effectively by both the GOP and DNC to assist in a creating a smokescreen so that bogus health reform could be passed. It doesn't surpise me that this pseudo-movement began with Texas congressional representative Ron Paul since it's as confused in its viewpoint and message as much as he is. To add to the confusion, the mainstream corporate media affixed the labels to them and let things fly, and fly they have, right out the window.

Is there really a Tea Party movement? I don't think so, and it's not going to decide any national elections anytime soon. What it will do, and has done, is to provide one more spectacle, one more distraction, from the worthwhile goals of reformists and the dreams in the hearts of American populists of every stripe. The Mesopotamian priests used the corruption of language to control the builders of the Tower of Babel--but it went bust, and no one could understand each other anymore, and the pillar that was the society of that time, the work towards real civilization, remained unfinished and the people disbursed. The show was effectively over. Funny that religion is part of the equation again, but if it's broken don't fix it when it comes to holding onto power.

"Nirvana members dismayed by 'Guitar Hero 5' "

WWW--You know...who gives a shit? He shot himself (or at least that's the story) with a shotgun sixteen years ago because, ultimately, he was a loser, Kurt Cobain. I loved a lot of his songwriting, but if you want to stop being a star, being famous, there are plenty of ways out, and he had the imagination to do it too.

Many careers in entertainment have been sabotaged, take your pick. It's funny: I recall hearing their first album before the hype and just thought they were so-so, just OK, nothing extraordinary. Did I mention that I hate Seattle and its weather and all the rich assholes that populate what was once a blue collar town? I'd do heroin too.

But seriously--so you can "unlock" the avatar of Cobain and have him play other people's songs? Great! Kurt Cobain doing Bob Seger or Ted Nugent songs seems fitting to me since all of them were the death of rock as a mass movement phenomena anyway. Cobain was just that final gurgle, now it's a microcosmic affair when it's real, generally emanating out of garages in crumbling suburbia, less and less a sad spin-off of the American dream. Who cares? The believers, the fanatics, also known as "fans," the etymological source of the term.

And considering that Cobain's estate signed-off on the deal that Activision could use Nirvana songs and his image as an avatar--well, you do the math, they did. I'm doing the math too and finding that the surviving members of Nirvana strike me as disingenuous, and that's being nice, but I guess they're entitled. With Courtney Love...forget about it. As usual, she's the loud-mouthed tramp she always was, a washed-up starfucker and a nut, and these claims that she's going to "sue" Activision just sound good, they make good copy. She's ugly in every way and her music was never good, ever, not even for a moment.

And while I'm on the subject of Cobain being dead, why not take a casual look at the suicide? I have to wonder if Alex Constantine is saying he was murdered by the government since that also sounds good and makes good copy for the terminally stoned and paranoid. But no, I don't think Cobain was murdered by anyone at all, he was simply a loser. What I believe happened is that his dirty wife was his drug enabler; he was hiding from her as much as he could to kick; she found him; they shot-up together, "for old time's sake," and he died on her of an overdose. You do the math, my take.

Frankly, when someone's totally fucked up their life as he did, having an avatar of you singing Bon Jovi songs is an afterthought that cannot compare to the original disaster. Nobody had to remind me what a pathetic and embarrassing decade the 1990s were, it was. Jimi Hendrix is on one of the games. You can unlock all of the avatars. Get over it. As many others have astutely pointed-out, Cobain left behind a child and he was therefore selfish and dishonorable. Now he's part of the "too stupid to make it to thirty" club. Courtney apparently feels the same way but now just wants to save face with her stupid, feigned drama over this non-issue.

She authorized it, the surviving members of the band did not, they lost a lawsuit against her years ago and had no control over it, she did. At least their dismay is sincere. Face it: rock as a mass movement that's real has been dead for decades, over a generation. Now it has a video game. Long live music, rock is a corpse that's been humped dry. God knows the boomers have talked about themselves to the point that nobody gives a shit anymore.

Montgomery Blair Sibley: Well hung?

"I asked him to wear a suit and tie."

--Obama-accuser, Larry Sinclair.

Washington D.C./Florida--For those of you who don't know the story of Obama accuser Larry Sinclair, count yourself lucky. Sinclair has been claiming for some time that he had coke-fueled sex with the presidential candidate in a limousine in Gurnee, Illinois way back in 1999. Right, he's an annoying liar and an idiot.

Can he prove it? No. Does he have a criminal record? Yes, dating-back 27 years. Is he so incredibly ugly that nobody in their right mind would fuck him, and certainly wouldn't be paying him for the sex? Correct. Is he insane? Probably, but some (other) bloggers wrote things that hurt his feelings, calling him a liar (which we can assume is accurate), and he tried to sue them. Now it's clear that he's just a disturbed sociopath. [Ed., 07.31.2009: and probably still is.]

By all appearances, Sinclair's going to keep trying, we can assume it's going to go nowhere and that he's going to lose miserably in any courtroom that would be stupid enough to accept his presence. Who would represent someone like this? Enter Montgomery Blair Sibley, an attorney I've actually communicated with: Sibley is currently suspended from practicing law in the District of Columbia and the State of Florida, apparently for frivolous litigation and filings.

In case you don't already know, Mr. Sibley was the third sequential attorney [Ed., 07.31.2009: partly-true--as criminal her counsel, but he was civil counsel very early on until January 2008.] for the troubled DC Madam, Jeane Palfrey. Palfrey fired Sibley sometime in January of this year, re-replacing him with her former criminal attorney, Preston Burton. Burton is currently representing the estate of Palfrey, but that's not stopping Sibley from trying to re-enter the picture. [Ed.,08.28.2008-This isn't to say that Burton is pure or unsullied in his motives, which remain unclear.] More on that later.

On Wednesday, Sinclair and counsel Sibley held a press conference at the National Press Club so that Sinclair could convey "evidence" of his alleged one night stand with Barack Obama. I wasn't there, and I'm glad. Anyone can rent a room there for such purposes, and reports state that Sinclair paid-out $4,100 USD for...I don't know what for. The stories are already becoming legend, but it's obvious that Sinclair has no evidence whatsoever, and that he was clutching his last 15 minutes of fame as hard as he could. In the spirit of things, counsel Sibley did likewise, and appeared at the press conference in a kilt. Yes, you read it correctly: a kilt.

Sibley was asked why he was wearing the kilt by an exasperated journalist, possibly from Reason magazine. Sibley's reply, from Huffington Post: "I don't know why men wear pants. It's a function of male genitalia. If you're size normal or smaller, you're probably comfortable with [pants]. ... Those at the other end of the spectrum find them quite confining." In other words, he's saying that he's well-hung. Where is this coming from? Why all the filings of motions and complaints in the courts?

Sibley grew up in Rochester, N.Y., one of six siblings. "We're a big family, but nobody is crazier than Blair," says Harper Sibley Jr., Sibley's father and now a prominent South Florida developer. Sibley played rugby and several other sports with so much aggression that his father often picked him up from the hospital. Sibley's ambitions soon turned to the law. He graduated from the University of Miami and later from Albany Law School at Union University, returning to his hometown district attorney's office as a prosecutor for the next five years. After losing his bid for district attorney in 1987, Sibley headed to Miami. ("The Man Behind the Madam," Law.com, 03.30.2007)

Comparing the M.O. of the Sinclair case with Palfrey's, it's not hard to understand why hers just kept going-and-going-and-going, seemingly without end. Certainly, the client, the government, and her counsel contributed to this fact. Palfrey was clearly a troubled and disturbed individual, but is Sibley?

For that, we'll all have to wait-and-see, but there appear to be columns of thick, black smoke rising from the embattled attorney and his quest for the white whale. The prognosis is not good, not at all, especially considering that Sibley technically cannot represent Sinclair in D.C., though it's possible he could in New York and New Jersey. If any of this is about anything at all it's money, the American Dream (really a nightmare). Jeane, you should have taken the plea deal...

"The Man Behind the Madam," Law.com, 03.30.2007: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1175159039205

Montgomery Blair Sibley's May 8th Suspension from Practicing Law in the District of Columbia: http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/16/1914169/sibley-dc-suspension.pdf

The Florida Bar on Montgomery Blair Sibley: http://www.floridabar.org/names.nsf/0/686B8824E4A5B00185256A8400151BDD?OpenDocument

"The Colorful Case of a Well-Named Lawyer," the Washington Post, 05.04.2007: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302233.html

Revised 06.23.2008

Postscript, 07.31.2009: At this point, considering the incredibly crappy coverage surrounding the Palfrey scandal and numerous others during the Bush II administration, I have to question the veracity of the Washington Post article. I'd also add that while Mr. Sibley might be considered eccentric, I've never seen any indication he had any nefarious intent as an attorney or a private citizen. Why he would wear a kilt to events like this is probably a matter of "doing battle." I can see and hear wise-ass journalists mocking him and Sibley making his retorts that were then conflated into a lot more than they really constituted. Such is public life...