Yesterday was Sunday, a peaceful day of promised rest from the great gigamaflanks (yes, I made that word up) that define the usual politics of newsmaking the other six days of every week in 24/7 mediated America. But on Sunday, no. It is a day of rest. Attend services or go for a long walk. Maybe both. Make a proper pot roast, watch some NFL football. Think about whatever. Spend time with the family. Tinker with the furnace before winter arrives. But, alas, as is my nasty habit, I begin each and every day with large cup of black coffee and a perusal of several online news sources.

And so it was that my eyes were assaulted by a series of headlines about Sarah Palin and the 2012 presidential race. These headlines were not good signs. I read on. Surely some modicum of sanity would prevail among my favorite columnists and reporters?

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.”

--Mark Twain

Admittedly I have wanted to use the above quotation in relation to Sarah Palin for a long time. But I resisted using it. Yes, her behavior when she ran for vice president epitomized it. And yes, her behavior since then proves only how much she deserves it. But it wasn’t until her new book was published that I felt I could no longer hold back. Honestly, my friends, it is time we all took a deep breath and began in earnest to dismantle any hope this freak of American politics has for running for the highest office in our beloved land in 2012.

Palin’s book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, proves that without a doubt she has moved from sublimely boneheaded to simply ridiculous and deeply dangerous, yet, having said that, I fear more than ever that she may, in fact, be successful. Why would I say that?

“car-ol n

1. a joyful religious song or hymn, especially a Christmas song celebrating Christmas

2. a dance in a circle, or the music accompanying it (archaic)

--Encarta World English Dictionary

Ebenezer Scrooge, Teapublican from Down There, tallied his books for 2010 with a self-satisfied smile. It had been a good year, a very good year. His disinformation business, funded by the Brothers Koch and popularized by his old pal Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda outlets had succeeded in convincing an increasingly docile electorate of many false things. That the world was not warming and those who said it was were dreaded socialists; that health care for all was really a liberal government takeover that would lead to—he licked his oversized lips—“death panels”; that increased regulation of the oil and food industries was further evidence of the government’s unwarranted intrusion into their lives and profits; and that lowering taxes for the rich—including himself, of course—was as important to the maintenance of democracy as slop was to the maintenance of pigs. Oink! He smiled. Yes, this had been a very good year!

Ebenezer Scrooge pretended not to notice the time. He dreaded the impending hour and to yet another ghostly visitor. Two fifty-nine a.m. became three a.m. Nothing. Three oh-one, he groaned. Oh-two. Oh-three. “Drat,’ he said under his cold breath, whomever you are, please do not prolong my nightmare! Oh-four. Oh-five. Then, as suddenly as before, a ghostly specter appeared as if by magic by his bed. “Ohhhhh Scrooge …” another familiar voice beckoned. “Ohhhhh, Mr. Scrooge, wake up!”

He turned slowly to face … Ted Kennedy. No! This could not be happening to him! His face registered the horror. Kennedy was, or had been, his political nemesis! For years Scrooge had done everything he could do to undermine the progressive political work—even the very life—of the late Senator. It had been none other than Ebenezer Scrooge who had slipped the fateful Mickey to the then much younger Senator Kennedy’s drink at the reunion party, knowing that he would be driving back to the Cape on that moonless night, July 18, 1969. Scrooge had not known that Kennedy would be accompanied by Mary Jo Kopechne, poor child, but nevertheless the Chappaquiddick incident worked to Scrooge’s political advantage as the tragic death of Kopechne had successfully robbed America of yet another Kennedy who aspired to the presidency.

So I am listening to NPR on the way home from the office and I hear the announcement about the Republicans in the House voting to repeal the Obama health care reform bill. My first response was “so what?” After all, it won’t make it past the Senate and Obama said even if it did, he’d veto it. So the Congressional Republicans are just wasting time, holding a symbolic vote that has no substance, and meanwhile the country awaits serious attention to serious problems that will require something other than inflexibility and old campaign promises to resolve.

The NPR report used data from Factcheck.Org to refute, point by point, all of the charges the Republicans made. Here are some relevant questions: If I make under $15K a year, do I have to purchase health insurance (as the Republicans claim, saying this is socialistic). The answer is NO. In fact, under the new plan, a person making less than 133% of the poverty rate will be covered, for free, under Medicaid.

How about if I am a small business owner and have only 24 employees – do I have to buy health insurance for all of them? Because, as the Republicans would have us believe, you have no choice. This is socialism! But the facts are that any small business owner with less than 25 employees gets a major tax incentive to cover them, thus nullifying the cost of the coverage.

But how about those 600,000 jobs that the Republicans say will be “killed” by this reform? Huh? Turns out the majority of these “lost” jobs will be due to people voluntarily retiring early because their health insurance is no longer tied to the job they have. Under the reform plan, they can purchase their own insurance and do something else with their lives.

And so on. No death panels. No new IRS agents to harass us.