In his song, “With God On Our Side,” Bob Dylan pondered just whose side God was on in conflict and war.

In Michigan, union sympathizers think it’s theirs.  Strangely, I’ve never found the words “collective bargaining” or “pension” in the Bible.  And no offense, but I think God is a little bigger than worrying about material things given by the state.

But that apparently didn’t register with Rev. D. Alexander Bullock, head of the Detroit chapter of the Rainbow PUSH coalition.

In his prayer before the latest union protest on the Capitol steps, he prayed for God to “wither” the hands of anyone that would sign bills reforming pensions or collective bargaining.  I have to admit I don’t think I’ve ever heard a prayer – especially in such a public setting – seeking physical harm to opponents.  The video comes courtesy of the Lansing State Journal.

Seeing that the protests and cruel signs are doing the trick, Rainbow PUSH and all the unions are bringing in the big guns: God.

Should I be nervous?

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Remember the Coffee Party? Yeah, me neither.

But don’t worry. You haven’t missed your chance to hang with some of the mellowest, most laid-back-est, nicest political activists who ever strummed an E-A-B chord progression on the old six-string or crooned “The Answer Is Blowin’ in the Wind” around a Duraflame 20” electric fireplace.

That’s because the Coffee Party—all twelve or so of its lukewarm membership—is convening this weekend in Louisville, Kentucky. Let your eyes gently glaze over as you listen to Michael Brook’s soothing acoustic guitar accompanying the YouTube ad for the upcoming Brew-haha in Louisville:

Defending the Tea Party to its opponents is like explaining Bob Dylan to his critics: their ears don’t hear what your heart understands.

For a year now, Tea Partiers have peaceably assembled and petitioned government for the redress of grievances; and, for a year now, the political class has feared, reviled and defied them.

In sum, Washington power-brokers and special interests treat the Tea Party movement as a political bacillus to be quarantined until high priced pollsters, pundits and consultants clad in Gucci lab coats can find a vaccine. In truth, the Tea Party movement is a soulful, spontaneous call for the restoration of citizens’ God-given rights and a revitalization of our representative institutions so that “We the People” can preserve our cherished way of life. Thus, a Tea Party protest is a hymn of American redemption, one which to truly be heard must be felt in one’s heart.

Indeed, amid the folksy din of organic theatrics, at its principled core the Tea Parties constitutes an earnest, spontaneous, decentralized political movement arising from diverse grassroots centers of gravity. Bonded by a shared faith in their freedom and American Exceptionalism, the Tea Party’s eclectic mix of Republicans, Independents, Libertarians and Democrats is deeply concerned about the challenges confronting this great nation we’ve inherited and must bequeath to our children. Consequently, as patriots rather than materialists, Tea Partiers measure their loss of sovereignty by the growth of big government’s insane, unsustainable spending, which edges us further toward fiscal implosion and exacerbates the disorder within our troubled republic.

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Tea Party Paranoia is apparently setting in for progressives.  It’s like the old Bob Dylan song, “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues:”

Well, I wus sittin’ home alone an’ started to sweat
Figured they wus in my T.V. set
Peeked behind the picture frame
Got a shock from my feet, hittin’ right up in the brain
Them Reds caused it!
I know they did . . . them hard-core ones

Case in point?  New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica uses graffiti on a stop sign to launch into the prevalent anti-Obama attitude that is currently strong in America.  You see, without a single shred of evidence, Lupica presumes Tea Party crazies must have painted ‘Obama’ under ‘Stop’ – 100 yards from a school no less!!  Won’t someone think of the children?!?

Why has somebody done it? Because in the current climate, people have been convinced they can. Or, more likely, that they should.

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