TPP 2009 Predictions

Pat Robertson is making his annual predictions. I guess he has forgotten about the Bible's admonition against sooth saying and fortune telling.

However following Rev. Robertson lead and risking eternal damnation here are The Progressive Posts 2009 predictions:

1. RepubliCONS will strongly profess new faith in bi-partisan congressional action.
2. Despite their new faith in cooperation, CONS will obstruct (filibuster) many significant and needed bills throughout the year.
3. CONS will unceasingly question/undermine President Obama's policy in Iraq, Afghanistan in particular and the war on Terror in general. Least we forget, during the Bush administration this questioning of war aims was called treasonous unAmerican behavior.
4. CONS will push little more than union busting and tax cuts for the rich as "solutions" to the current economic crisis.
5. The RepubliCON party will continue to wallow throughout the year without real national leadership.
6. Despite an ongoing leadership vacuum, the CON base's love affair with Sarah Palin will sour.
7. Lacking a positive foreign policy vision, CONS will try to turn a minor international event into a major foreign policy crisis for the Obama administration.
8. The current Blogo scandal will have been forgotten long before this time next year.
9. Cons will scream that Roland Burris (a person who has been appointed) should be seated in the Senate, while opposing Al Franken's (a person elected to the chamber) joining the upper House.
10. Most of Pat Robertson's 2009 predictions will not come to pass.

Looking forward to the New Year!

Thrown into the Brier Patch

In the movie Song of the South, the hero Brer Rabbit uses reverse psychology to escape the clutches of his enemies Brer Fox and Brer Bear. In the story, Fox and Bear have caught Rabbit after years of pursuit. Yet before they eat Rabbit, Fox and Bear discuss with Rabbit their cooking preparations. Skinning and boiling are two of the grizzly fates that await Brer Rabbit. Surprisingly, Brer Rabbit is calm when confronted with these futures. In fact, Rabbit welcomes being skinned, but begs Fox and Bear not to throw him in the brier patch, a dense thicket of branches studded with thorns and barbs. Rabbit continues, by all means boil me but don't throw me in the brier patch.

However, Song of the South viewers quickly understand Rabbit wants to be thrown into the brier patch. Fox and Bear being somewhat mentally challenged, fall for Rabbit's trick and chuck him into the patch. Rabbit lands singing "born and bred in the brier patch" leaving Fox and Bear dumbfounded as their meal escapes through the tangle of branches.


Unfortunately, George Bush should have been reading Song of the South rather than My Pet Goat when America was attacked on 9/11. If he had, the United States might be on its way to "escaping" the Iraqi brier patch.

Case in point, in a recent statement Al Quaeda's number two man Ayman al Zawahiri trashed the bill passed by Congress setting a timetable for the pullout of U.S. troops in Iraq. Calling the bill evidence of American "failure."

RepubliCONS and other right-wing hacks pounced on Zawahiri's statements in an attempt to paint Democrats as playing into Al Quaeda's hands. "See," they say, "Pulling our troops out is exactly what our enemies want. We must stay in Iraq."

Yet, Zawahiri's statement should strike most thinking adults as akin to Brer rabbit's cry "Don't Throw me in the brier patch!" Zawahiri wants America to stay in Iraq and take more causalities. Like Brer Fox and Brer Bear, President Bush threw Zawhairi back into the patch when he vetoed the timetable bill. Sadly, American troops will likely pay for the President's lack of a well read childhood.