Chaotic Good

Cassandra's Day Is Nigh.

2011-07-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

Anyone remember this?

If you bother to (re)watch the whole thing, note that Obama's core point is that the Republican Party has so embraced partisanship and division that it is about to paint itself into a corner where compromise becomes impossible.

And now here we are, the nation on a precipice. Obama's warning comes true. He tried. Really, really tried to point out to them the dangers of the road they were taking. But there are enough true-believer types in office now that they ignored him.

I hope they enjoy the suffering they themselves will feel along with all of us. Damn them all to hell.

ETA:

Gods, even such morally twisted creatures as Andrew Sullivan are beginning to see the light.

Republican Insanity - The 2012 Budget Edition

2011-04-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

Yes I know the title is recursively redundant. I just want you to marvel at the yawning depth of delusion in the following statement:

"Our budget will help spur job creation today, stop spending money we don’t have, and lift the crushing burden of debt that threatens our children’s future."

Let's just take a moment to deconstruct that, shall we?

Our budget will help spur job creation today...

You can't spur job creation without hiring people. I don't know what planet Mr. Boehner is from where it is common practice to hire people without paying them, but here on Terra payment is due for labor performed. So if you don't spend money, you can't spur job creation. Which leads us to:

...stop spending money we don’t have...

Why don't we have any money, Mr. Boehner? Seriously, this is not a rhetorical question. WHY DON'T WE HAVE ANY MONEY? Could it possibly be that twelve years of Republican spending priorities (mostly undiluted or ineffectively opposed) and fanatical, we'll-shut-down-the-government opposition (when you've been the minority) to Democratic policies have BROKEN THE ECONOMY?! Could that be it? Of course not, because effect does not follow cause in magical-thinking Christopath Conservative Land!

...and lift the crushing burden of debt...

*sigh* Fastest possible way for a nation to run up a debt- fight a war without raising the taxes necessary to pay for it. Especially a long war. Even better, let's fight two!

...lift the crushing burden of debt that threatens our children’s future."

To understand my objection here, one needs to understand that the United States has seen economic times similar to those we have and are suffering now. Many times. Take a sec to click this handy little Wikipedia link to the history of recessions in the United States. Scroll slowly down the page, taking a good hard look at the column marked Time since previous recession. See a pattern?

I won't belabor the point - the moment when liberal economic policies gained the upper hand was the moment when the cycle of recessions slowed and became less severe. Now, 30 years of radical, reactionary, Randian greed has resulted in the most severe recession in one hundred years. So bad, it's called the Great Recession.

If you know how we actually got out of the Depression (rather than the lies the conservatives tell) you now know why Boehner's lying. He has no interest whatsoever in anything save enriching his exceedingly rich donors.

I shouldn't be surprised. Really, I shouldn't. The Republicans have specialised for a decade now in promulgating lies, and their language is now so tangled it is a solid mass of dishonesty as dense as depleted uranium. They don't have many more orders of magnitude to go before reaching rhetorical neutronium. Before Reagan, we either forcibly committed such people as insane or jailed them as fraudsters, depending on whether they stood to profit from their ravings. Anyone doubt why?

SOTU Liveblog Edition 2011

2011-01-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

This year, for the first time in a good long time, your humble Swordfighting Pundit is going to completely skip the State of the Union.

Between the increasingly-brutal grind any currently-employed person is experiencing with neverending pay cuts or lack of a COLA raise plus the ever-rising cost of living, yours truly spends damn near all his energy just providing for house and home. And even then, we're spending more and more time financially under water, and less and less time able to pay for anything.

I enjoy listening to Obama's speeches, but unless he's planning on outlining a plan to force employers out of the positively feudal spiral of ever-greater demands for dwindling renumeration, I just can't get interested.

I know that I've become one of the emogressives demanding magic ponies. I can't help feeling that corporate power has become so overwhelming that the only path is downward into dystopia before things get any better. And I know our President isn't about to offer a way out- he means well, but one person cannot right the course of a nation in an instant; it's possible that our course cannot be corrected at all, now.

I'm not done fighting for improvement- I call, I write letters, I vote. But I have no money for anything but survival, and neither does anyone else but the wealthy, and this is exactly the way those malefactors want it. Because in politics, only money talks in any way that matters.

2010-01-29T20:50:00.000-08:00

Finally.

Live from inside the lion's den, the return of Barack Obama.

Answering hostile questions during the House Republican Retreat on C-SPAN, Obama was obviously the smartest guy in the room. He knew all the facts and figures. (Which is something I always admired about Bill Clinton.) Nothing fazed him. He stood up in front of teabagging GOP and ~~spanked~~ refuted them for an hour and a half.

We can forget the "can't speak without a teleprompter" meme too. (I also notice he's losing the habit of saying "ahhh" between sentences when speaking off the cuff.) Wingnuts are reduced to counting how many times he used the word "I" (while answering questions about his policies and decisions.)

This is the man I voted for in 2008.

Welcome back, Mr. President, sir.

The Things Teabaggers Refuse to See

2010-01-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

Found on Craiglist- saved for posterity...

I'm informed this was originally authored by Fred Clark, at slacktivist.

WHY you keep getting screwed-- MR. (Tea Party Patriot)

Hey you. You there in the Glenn Beck T-shirt headed off to the Tea Party Patriot rally.

Stop shouting for a moment, please, I want to explain to you why you're so very angry.

You should be angry. You're getting screwed.

I think you know that. But you don't seem to know that it doesn't have to be that way. You can stop it. You can stop it easily because the system that's screwing you over can only keep screwing you over if you keep demanding that it do so.

So stop demanding that. Stop helping the system screw you over.

Look, you can go back to yelling at me in a minute, but just read this first.

1. Get out your pay stub.

Or, if you have direct deposit -- you really should get direct deposit, it saves a lot of time and money (I point this out because, honestly, I'm trying to help you here, even though you don't make that easy Mr. Angry Screamy Guy) -- then take out that little paper receipt they give you when your pay gets directly deposited.

2. Notice that your net pay is lower than your gross pay. This is because some of your wages are withheld every pay period.

3. Notice that only some of this money that was withheld went to pay taxes. (I know, I know -- yeearrrgh! me hates taxes! -- but just try to stick with me for just a second here.)

4. Notice that some of the money that was withheld didn't go to taxes, but to your health insurance company.

5. Now go get a pay stub from last year around this time, from January of 2009.

6. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld for taxes in your current paycheck is less than the amount that was withheld a year ago.

That's because of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, which included more than $200 billion in tax cuts, including the one you're holding right there in your hand, the tax cut that's now staring you in the face. Republicans all voted against that tax cut. And then they told you to get angry about the stimulus plan. They didn't explain, however, why you were supposed to get angry about getting a tax cut. Why would you be? Wouldn't it make more sense to get angry at the people who voted against that Obama tax cut?

But taxes aren't the really important thing here. The really important thing starts with the next point.

7. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is more than it was last year.

8. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is a lot more than it was last year.

I won't ask you to dig up old paychecks from 2008 and 2007, but this has been going on for a long time. Every year, the amount of your paycheck withheld to pay for your health insurance goes up. A lot.

9. Notice the one figure there on your two pay stubs that hasn't changed: Your wage. The raise you didn't get this year went to pay for that big increase in the cost of your health insurance.

10. Here's where I need you to start doing a better job of putting two and two together. If you didn't get a raise last year because the cost of your health insurance went up by a lot, and the cost of your health insurance is going to go up by a lot again this year, what do you think that means for any chance you might have of getting a raise this year?

11. Did you figure it out? That's right. The increasing cost of health insurance means you won't get a raise this year. Or next year. Or the year after that. The increasing cost of health insurance means you will never get a raise again.

That's what I meant when I said you really should be angry. That's what I meant when I said you're getting screwed.

OK, we're almost done. Just a few more points, I promise.

12. The only hope you have of ever seeing another pay raise is if Congress passes health care reform. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will swallow this year's raise. And next year's raise. And pretty soon it won't stop with just your raise. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will start making your pay go down.

13. I wish I could tell you that this was just a worst-case scenario, that this was only something that might, maybe happen, but that wouldn't be true. Without health care reform, this is what will happen. We know this because this is what is happening now. It has been happening for the past 10 years. In 2008, employers spent on average 25 percent more per employee than they did in 2001, but wages on average did not increase during those years. The price of milk went up. The price of gas went up. But wages did not. All of the money that would have gone to higher wages went to pay the higher and higher and higher cost of health insurance. And unless Congress passes health care reform, that will not change.

Well, it will change in the sense that it will keep getting worse, but it won't get better. Unless the problem gets fixed, the problem won't be fixed. That's kind of what "problem" and "fixed" mean.

14. Sadly for any chance you have of ever seeing a raise again, it looks like Congress may not pass health care reform. It looks like they won't do that because they're scared of angry voters who are demanding that they oppose health care reform, angry voters who demand that Congress not do anything that would keep the cost of health insurance from going up and up and up. Angry voters like you.

15. Do you see the point here? You are angrily, loudly demanding that Congress make sure that you never, ever get another pay raise as long as you live. Because of you and because of your angry demands, you and your family and your kids are going to have to get by with less this year than last year. And next year you're going to have to get by with even less. And if you keep angrily demanding that no one must ever fix this problem, then you're going to have to figure out how to get by on less and less every year for the rest of your life.

16. So please, for your own sake, for your family's sake and the sake of your children, stop. Stop demanding that problems not get fixed. Stop demanding that you keep getting screwed. Stay angry -- you should be angry -- but start directing that anger toward the system that's screwing you over and taking money out of your pocket. Start directing that anger toward fixing problems instead of toward making sure they never get fixed. Instead of demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you never, ever, get another pay raise, start demanding that they pass health care reform, as soon as possible. Because until they do, you're just going to keep on getting screwed.

And it's going to be that much worse knowing that you brought this on yourself -- that you demanded it.

Thanks for your time.

P.S. -- I didn't mention this because I'm trying here to be as patient with you as I can, but you might also want to keep in mind that in addition to screwing over yourself and screwing over your family and screwing over your own children by demanding that Congress oppose health care reform so that you will never, ever see another pay raise, by doing that you're also demanding that I never, ever see another pay raise, which means that you're also screwing over me, and my family, and my children. Not to mention the millions of poor and uninsured and uninsureable people I didn't even mention above because they don't seem to matter at all to you. And for that, let me just say the only appropriate thing that can be said to someone so determined to do direct, tangible harm to the welfare of my family: Fuck you, you fucking moron.

Location: Tea Party Patriot

SOTU Liveblog 2010

2010-01-27T08:11:00.000-08:00

I predict this will be very, very painful. Fortunately, I'm well-supplied:
Fifth of Bushmills? Check
Sack of shake? Check
Sleeping pills? Check

Fortunately, I probably won't need ALL of that. After all, I survived W's addresses, and those were so despair-inducing and insane that the word black isn't dark enough. More like fuligin.

1755 on station and ready to roll. The Supremes are entering now.

1803: I love MSNBC, but they need to STFU. Especially Matthews.

1806: And the traditional announcement.

1810: Love the booing on the Republican side of the house. How long before someone blurts out another "You lie!"?

1812: One last try at bipartisanship? Or one last warning? We shall see.

1817: First applause line. A weak line, and a kabuki ovation.

1818: "We all hated the bank bailout." Wow.

1820: And the Republicans sit through the applause to put a fee on banks.

1821: And the GOP sits AGAIN on Obama's tax cuts.

1824: And again the partisan divide over the stimulus bill.

1826: Universal applause for the jobs bill. Whatever that will mean.

1827: 30 billion for community banks. That one's gonna be a fight.

1828: Small business tax credit. Eliminate capital gain on small business.

1830: Recommendations for creating a green economy, and cut the tax breaks that encourage outsourcing.

1831: "I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay."

1834: "I'm not interested in punishing banks. I'm interested in protecting our economy."

1836: Wow, he had the courage to propose nuclear power.

1837: Funny, he's pitting the House against the Senate.

1839: Sets a goal to double exports over five years.

1844: This is the most policy-dense SOTU I can remember. If I tried to summarize each point I'd be basically taking dictation.

1845: "We still need health insurance reform."

1847: And he lays out the motivations for why he's doing HCR, and also the benefits of the plan as it stands. OK, I'm easy for this guy, but he hasn't quite won me back over yet.

1848: This is why I love Obama. He takes responsibility!

1849: OK, now he's won me back.

1853: Here comes the spending freeze.

1855: The Senate blocked his fiscal commission, so he's creating that committee by Executive order.

1858: "Let's try common sense!" Whoa.

1900: Holy shit he is knocking heads all over the place. The GOP. The Supremes. The Dems. ALL over.

1902: "What frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is election day." Damn right!

1908: Combat troops out of Iraq by end of August.

1909: Forgive me for being bored as he relates the fricking obvious. Soldiers are nothing but political props to Versailles. Maybe not to Renegade, but the culture won't change overnight.

1911: The security issues get tons of applause, but the right will still use them relentlessly, posturing to make Obama look weak.

1915: OK, DADT is on the block this year. And so is the equal pay issue. And immigration reform. These are those ugly votes for the GOP that he intends to force.

1918: Barack Obama GETS IT. Oh yes he does.

1922: And he's done. Republican Response coming up.

1930: Virginia Gov McDonnell

1932: So far he's said nothing exceptional.

1932: The gov't is trying to do too much. Too much debt. We must restore the "proper, limited role of government at every level".

1933: "The excessive growth of government..." funny, where were you these past nine years?

You know what? I'm not willing to dignify these bullshit talking points with publicity.

I do love his live audience. They've cut a whole minute out of his speaking time already.

GOP politicians simply refuse to act as if they get habeas corpus, preferring instead to demagogue and sow fear.

Perfidy, thy name is Trijicon

2010-01-19T07:50:00.001-08:00

By way of Rachael Maddow (may she forever and happily reign atop the world of factual and responsible reporting) and driftglass, we learn that a rifle scope manufacturer has been imprinting Bible verse citation on the scopes they sell to the United States military. This despite DoD regulations absolutely forbidding the promotion of any one religion. Period. Ever.

And we also learn that when asked about it, the company responded that they're proud they're doing it, that they have no plans whatsoever to stop, and that one group that it publicizing the problem with the practice is clearly "not a Christian organization". What the hell does this genetic fallacy red herring "rebuttal" have to do with the issue?

You know, there's almost nothing we can say to these people. If they think it's perfectly OK to give the Muslim world proof that America is on a Crusade, then they are clearly so insane that the only possible response is to dust off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. How many Crusades were there, all told? And yet Jerusalem, let alone Eretz Yisrael, is not controlled by Christians, is it? How about the rest of the Middle East? Nope, a minority there, too.

I have just one question for the company: How many Muslims is it OK to kill? Keep in mind that if there is a Heaven, your answer will almost certainly go into your permanent record for determination of your fate. For eternity. Sure you want to take the chance of answering anything other than "none"? Oh, and are you sure that citing the Holy Book on weapons of war isn't blasphemy?

Earthquake Nightmares

2010-01-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

There are no words one can say to describe our reaction to the tragedy in Haiti.
There are no words to encompass our fury that two hundred years of Western policy has kept Haiti poor and desperate, and brought them to this.

I know this is a dangerous idea, but I wonder if we would be doing them a favor to outright annex them.

But then I remember what goes on in the Marianas, and there is nothing left but the despair.

The GOP's Civil War

2010-01-14T13:20:00.001-08:00

I can't believe I didn't post this when I wrote it back in November '08...

Driftglass has posted for years about the core truths that underlie Republican electoral successes of the past three decades. The major media somehow keep seeming to miss these things.

But just in case you cared to doubt drifty, look at this poll result from Rasmussen.

Yes, they are that stupid. And they are the base of the Republican Party. And they have taken it over. And they are going to fight hard to keep it that way, even to the point of politically knifing every single last person of discernible intelligence remaining in the GOP.

Then, and only then, is there likely to be reform - in the creation of a new center-right party from a fragmenting of the Democrats. I look forward to being a socially-liberal, fiscally conservative centrist Blankocrat on that day.

This is what paying attention looks like

2010-01-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Before you rail against Obama for not being progressive enough (yes, I mean you, Firebaggers) consider the worth of effectiveness. And then consider what it means to make yourselves enemies of it.

Two Billion Mostly Just Normal Folks

2010-01-13T14:22:00.001-08:00

What could bring the Snowwman out of this long hiatus?

Try this vile spew from Pat Robertson:

I've recently given in to the Twitterverse, and I tweeted:
Robertson sure is good at encouraging my anti-Christian bigotry. Fuck Pat Robertson in every orifice with a rusty Garden Weasel. Twice.

Which got several replies trying to talk me down. Fair enough. But this one struck me as fairly patronizing:
A simple reminder to all of my atheist and pagan friends 2 Billion people on the planet are christian. Most of us are just normal folks.

Which is quite true. Which is why I tend to keep such sentiments to myself. And when I do vent them, it's only after several hours while I wait for a Christian to denounce the Talevangelical fuckhead of the moment within my hearing/awareness.

So why is it that every time I rage about said fuckhead influential Christian, I get that kind of reply? AND WHY IS IT THAT I BEAT THE RESPONDENT TO CRITICIZING THAT PERSON?

If you're gonna demand not to be lumped in with them, don't you think it would behoove you to actually get out there and criticize them when they promulgate hatred? Or is it OK for Christians to passively enable these guys because, hey, Christianity isn't a monolith or anything?

I actively and proudly call myself an anti-Christian bigot. And this kind of cycle is why. It is everyone's right to disagree with my opinion that Christians are by and large suspect. Feel free. But if you don't want to be a suspect, PROVE ME WRONG. CHANGE MY MIND by ACTING against the malefactors in your own house. AND DO IT BEFORE I DO.

Demanding that I not tar you with the brush when you stand quietly by and let evildoer "Christians" wrap themselves in the flag and hide behind the Cross while promoting white supremacy just isn't gonna fly. Not in the face to two centuries of active sabotage of Haiti's economy, society and politics under the rubric of the same manifest destiny crap that Robertson holds to. That son-of-a-bitch needs to be shouted down every time he opens his piehole.

Be actively better than him. Or fail my test. Very, very simple.

Socialism!

2009-08-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

From a viral e-mail entitled, "I Am a Conservative Shitheel."

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issed by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic and Fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

Presidential Fly Swatting

2009-06-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

(with hat tips to Steerpike, D.N. Nation, Woodrowfan and the commenters at Sadly, No!)

Barack Obama swatted a fly.

George W. would have run from the room or hidden under his desk while Cheney agitated for a Global War On Files.

Clinton would have dazzled the fly with a big, folksy grin, convincing it to establish a Housefly PAC to lobby for federal funds.

Bush Sr. would have ordered the fly to be assassinated, and make it look like an accident.

Reagan would have kept talking, oblivious to the fly’s presence, even when it landed on his unblinking, glassy eyes and started laying eggs.

Carter would have mediated a housefly summit, with a breakthrough agreement for a homeland, and protected international status for all displaced insect refugees.

Ford would have tried to swat the fly, but miss, giving himself a black eye, and, somehow, a broken leg.

Nixon would have disintegrated it in mid-flight with laser-beams emitted from his eyes.

LBJ would have offered it a massive public works project if it’d go away.

JFK would have had Bobby kill it. Slowly. Just to watch it die.

Ike would have had Dulles and the CIA off it.

Truman would have nailed it with a bottle.

FDR would have started a public works project to eliminate flies prompting the republicans to start campaigning on a “pro-fly” platform.

Hoover would have tried to swat it, and missed.

Coolidge would have gone to take a nap while Mellon gave another tax cut to himself.

Harding would have made it a member of his cabinet and invited it to his poker game.

Wilson would have had one of the “colored” servants deal with it or would simply had glared it to death.

Taft would wonder how Roosevelt would handle it, then pass it off to the Senate to deal with.

Teddy Roosevelt would have gleefully shot it through the heart and mounted its head on the wall.

McKinley would have swatted it, and then covered its body with a white handkerchief.

Cleveland would have declared that swatting flies was none of the government’s business and vetoed a bill.

Harrison: who cares?

Arthur: Would have swatted it, much to the surprise of the fly who expected to get a kickback.

Garfield: would have dithered what to do until Blaine came in to kill the fly for him.

Hayes: would have let his wife gently removed the fly from the room.

Grant: would have killed it with cigar smoke.

Johnson: would have let the fly run for Congress from one of the former confederate states.

Lincoln: would have tried one fly swatter after another until he found one that works damnit!

Buchanan: would have run shrieking from the room like a little girl.

Pierce: would have had another drink.

Fillmore: would have killed it while the fly wondered who the hell “Fillmore” was.

Taylor: would have told the North he was pro fly swatting while telling the South he was against it. In the meantime Henry Clay would kill the fly.

Polk: Would have invaded Mexico to kill flies there!

Tyler: whatever he did, both the Whigs and Democrats would hate him for it.

Harrison: would have tried to kill the fly but would drop dead trying.

Van Buren: Would form a coalition of northern and southern fly swatters.

Jackson: Would kill the fly AND a few Indians just for the hell of it.

J.Q. Adams: would have killed the fly but while speaking French (Adams, not the fly.)

Monroe: Would have had JQ Adams kill the fly for him.

Madison: Would have tried to get the British and French to compete to kill the fly.

Jefferson: would have killed the fly, and then studied it under a microscope.

Adams: would have blamed Jefferson for the fly then slapped the fly in jail for insulting the President.

Washington: would have killed the fly in a gentlemanly manner thus setting the model for future Presidents’ fly-killing.

The Change He Promised

2009-02-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

Man, it's just so HARD to get outraged any more. After eight years of a Republican administration that was simultaneously corrupt, incompetent, vicious, incoherent, and cunning I just can't find it in me to get mad at Obama for his "betrayals" of progressivism.

Take last night's speech. He basically gave the GOP a choice- Help him fix this mess, stand aside while he fixes this mess, or suffer the wrath of the American people for stopping him from fixing this mess.

And the Republican "response"? In addition to being insane and laughably delivered, basically came down to "we'd rather be kicked in the face". So we can very much look forward to many many MANY hilarious days of GOP whining about "oppression" and evil government. Bring it, kiddies. While you cry, the Administration will bring this country back on track toward a 21st Century prosperity. You know, the opportunity you squandered with tax cuts and outrageous, wasteful spending on warfare.

Sabotage!

2008-12-15T18:20:00.001-08:00

The Greatest Hits of George W Bush- Part Three: Responsible Steward of the Earth

2008-12-10T19:54:00.000-08:00

In the waning days of the Clinton Administration, a new environmental protection rule came down from the Interior Department- the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This rule sought to protect the remaining wild areas of the United States from unchecked despoliation from overuse. Some fifty-eight million acres of National Forests and grasslands were placed off limits to road construction and most logging, drilling, and mining.

This sounds like a lot- it is barely more than 30 percent of lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Bush immediately (on Feb 5, 2001) suspended the rule, of course. Because conservatives hate few things more than the idea that business depends on environmental preservation.

The Greatest Hits of George W. Bush - Part Two: Bigot

2008-12-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

"I don't think that witchcraft is a religion. I wish the military would rethink this decision."
-- George W. Bush to ABCNEWS, June, 1999

I told you this wouldn't be in any particular order.

Nevermind that the default Christian mindset recoils at the word "witchcraft". Nevermind that the Bible itself enjoins its believers to kill such (even though the verse clearly cannot mean modern Wiccans).

The decade of the 1990s saw an unprecedented explosion in the popular depiction of witchcraft and magical religion in the media. Movies like The Craft and television shows like Charmed, for all their flaws, presented a view of witchcraft and neopaganism that allowed for the possibility that Pagans were not all leering, evil, manipulative seducers bent on corrupting the young and killing the virtuous. News shows talked (seemingly endlessly) about Paganism, educating the populace about the practice and the believers.

And still after all this, George W. Bush said:

I don't think that witchcraft is a religion.

Well then what the fuck is it, George? Yet another warning sign that too many people simply glossed over.

The Greatest Hits of George W. Bush - Intro and Part One

2008-12-04T14:32:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm pissed off enough to have something to write about, again.

I have been watching Versailles heaping plaudits and apologia upon the worst president this nation has ever suffered. I have been watching the Republican Party trying desperately to stuff the entirety of the last eight years down the memory hole, the better to blame Obama for all the pain we will suffer during his administration.

I think it would serve us well to remember. So, between now and Inauguration Day I will be doing my best to post short snippets on the vile, petty, inept, callous, insane,bloodthirsty days of the second Bush Administration. These will come in no particular order, because I'm fracking lazy.

I did try to reach back as early as a quick Google search could take me, though. And so we start with the Hainan Island Spy Plane Incident.

You might not remember this. This was a big huge thing in early 2001, when everyone thought that we might be squaring off with China in the next big power struggle. HA! What a joke that is, now. They'd already outplayed us and were buying U.S. Treasuries hand over fist.

On 1 April, 2001, an American electronic reconaissance plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter. The American aircraft, an EP-3E Aries, had to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island, putting ship and crew into Chinese hands. The Chinese promptly claimed the EP-3 had violated their airspace.

The Bush Administration, in a set of moves that should have foreshadowed all that was to come, was initially bellicose, demanding the unconditional return of the plane and its crew. The Chinese weren't any better, but having the upper hand (control of all the information) they waited until Colin Powell finally convinced Bush to issue an apology.

The crew was quickly sent home, and the plane was dismantled (and probably combed over by Chinese intel) and shipped back to the U.S.

The crisis lasted ELEVEN FREAKING DAYS.

Killing Ourselves With Torture

2008-11-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post published an article today by the former US Army interrogation officer who extracted the information from a prisoner that led to the successful targeting of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, by a military strike.

The information was extracted without the use of torture. But yet, they broke the biggest intelligence case in Iraq other than the location of Saddam Hussein himself.

In fact, this pseudonymous officer (whose real name was withheld for security reasons) did not allow the interrogators under his command to use the "enhanced interrogation techniques" being practiced at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.

I know the counter-argument well -- that we need the rough stuff for the truly hard cases, such as battle-hardened core leaders of al-Qaeda, not just run-of-the-mill Iraqi insurgents. But that's not always true: We turned several hard cases, including some foreign fighters, by using our new techniques. A few of them never abandoned the jihadist cause but still gave up critical information. One actually told me, "I thought you would torture me, and when you didn't, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That's why I decided to cooperate."

Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans.

How strange the Dick Cheneys and Donald Rumsfelds didn't bother to ask the veterans of "the Greatest Generation" how they handled the "hard cases" when they interrogated Nazi officers during World War II. Their work was recently declassified and they were finally given the recognition they deserved. And they also had some harsh words for their modern counterparts.

The group of World War II veterans kept a military code and the decorum of their generation, telling virtually no one of their top-secret work interrogating Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt.

When about two dozen veterans got together yesterday for the first time since the 1940s, many of the proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.

Back then, they and their commanders wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners' cells with listening devices. They felt bad about censoring letters. They took prisoners out for steak dinners to soften them up. They played games with them.

"We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture," said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.

Blunt criticism of modern enemy interrogations was a common refrain at the ceremonies held beside the Potomac River near Alexandria. Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the controversial techniques. And when the time came for them to accept honors from the Army's Freedom Team Salute, one veteran refused, citing his opposition to the war in Iraq and procedures that have been used at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

As any student of American history can tell you, our nation's policy against torture is as old as the nation itself. It so was ordered by the first Supreme Commander of the army himself, General George Washington.

"In 1776," wrote historian David Hackett Fischer in "Washington's Crossing," "American leaders believed it was not enough to win the war. They also had to win in a way that was consistent with the values of their society and the principles of their cause. One of their greatest achievements … was to manage the war in a manner that was true to the expanding humanitarian ideals of the American Revolution."

The fact that the patriots refused to abandon these principles, even in the dark times when the war seemed lost, when the enemy controlled our cities and our ragged army was barefoot and starving, credits the character of Washington and the founding fathers and puts to shame the conduct of America's present leadership.

Fischer writes that leaders in both the Continental Congress and the Continental Army resolved that the War of Independence would be conducted with a respect for human rights. This was all the more extraordinary because these courtesies were not reciprocated by King George's armies. Indeed, the British conducted a deliberate campaign of atrocities against American soldiers and civilians. While Americans extended quarter to combatants as a matter of right and treated their prisoners with humanity, British regulars and German mercenaries were threatened by their own officers with severe punishment if they showed mercy to a surrendering American soldier. Captured Americans were tortured, starved and cruelly maltreated aboard prison ships.

Washington decided to behave differently. After capturing 1,000 Hessians in the Battle of Trenton, he ordered that enemy prisoners be treated with the same rights for which our young nation was fighting. In an order covering prisoners taken in the Battle of Princeton, Washington wrote: "Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren…. Provide everything necessary for them on the road."

John Adams argued that humane treatment of prisoners and deep concern for civilian populations not only reflected the American Revolution's highest ideals, they were a moral and strategic requirement. His thoughts on the subject, expressed in a 1777 letter to his wife, might make a profitable read for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld as we endeavor to win hearts and minds in Iraq. Adams wrote: "I know of no policy, God is my witness, but this — Piety, Humanity and Honesty are the best Policy. Blasphemy, Cruelty and Villainy have prevailed and may again. But they won't prevail against America, in this Contest, because I find the more of them are employed, the less they succeed."

Let us hope that our new president fulfills his promise to end this stain on Amercia's honor.

How To Rebuild The Republican Party

2008-11-29T21:21:00.000-08:00

Now, why would I want to give them any advice?

Well, for one thing, I know they won't follow it. Not yet, anyway. Maybe never.

To hear the "movement" conservatives whine, they think the problem is that they weren't "conservative enough".

Here's South Carolina governor Mark Sanford:

Our party took nothing short of a shellacking nationally. Some on the left will say our electoral losses are a repudiation of our principles of lower taxes, smaller government and individual liberty. But Election Day was not a rejection of those principles — in fact, cutting taxes and spending were important tenets of Barack Obama’s campaign.

Instead, voters rejected the fact that while Republicans have campaigned on the conservative themes of lower taxes, less government and more freedom, they have consistently failed to govern that way. Americans didn’t turn away from conservatism, they instead turned away from many who faked it.

I believe this is a flawed analysis, because it's based on a bad assumption, namely the meaning of "conservative." Or at least, the original principles of the Republican Party.

If a core "conservative" belief is that all government is inherently wasteful, inept, and ineffective - "government is the problem, not the solution" - then that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conservatives told us that government doesn't work, then they got elected and proved it.

"Lower taxes?" What does that mean really? Lower than what? How low? That's a tenet that reaches an absurd conclusion - if "lowering taxes" is good, why not lower them to zero? Besides a few extreme libertarians, no one thinks that's a feasible conclusion.

"Less government?" Sure, as long as that includes things like a smaller military-industrial complex, the elimination of the insane, untenable "war on drugs" and a general shrinking of the bloated prison industry - governmental expenses that are shown to be obscenely wasteful ($700 hammers, anyone?) - then liberals could get on board with it. But today's conservatives only want to shrink the parts of the government they disagree with, like banking and environmental regulations, and social safety nets. Their version of "less government" is synonymous with "incompetent government", which is what we got under Bush II.

"More freedom?" Sure, how about the freedom to marry who you want to? How about the freedom from religious restrictions you don't believe in? How about economic and social equality for women? How about freedom from (again) the insane prohibitions on drug possession and consensual sex? Liberals would be with you on this, conservatives.

So the GOP would do well to look to their own icons for inspiration if they want to make a comeback. Their problem is they're not Republican enough. Because over the last 30 years, the Party has systematically altered what used to be their true core principles, those polices that were once the signatures of their greatest leaders, before the infatuation with St. Ronnie Reagan. For example:

Abraham Lincoln: Racial equality. Preservation of a single Union of all Americans, with equal protection under the law. "A new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all Men are created equal." "Government of the People, by the People and for the People."
Theodore Roosevelt: Conservation and common benefit of natural resources. Support of labor unions. Breaking up of corporate monopolies. "The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the master of the commonwealth; who insists that the creature of man's making shall be the servant not the master of the man who made it."
Dwight Eisenhower: Investment in national infrastructure. Expansion of social security and unemployment insurance. A watchful government eye on corporate power. "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Heck, it was Richard Nixon that created the EPA.

Now that's what I call Republicanism.

About That Michele Obama Tape

2008-11-25T16:02:00.000-08:00

During the last few weeks of the election, Wingnutsylvannia (and the PUMA crazies) were obsessed with the rumor that a recording of Michele Obama existed, chock with profanities and racial epithets that put the fabled "Whitey" video tape to shame. Supposedly our soon-to-be-First Lady gave an interview to an obscure online "news service" in Africa called African News International during the campaign, and ranted about the mistreatment of her husband by Republicans and threatened bodily harm to the sources. She also admitted her husband was born in Kenya. For weeks, the supposed "news service" claimed to have the recording, claimed to have been offered millions for it by Fox News (as well a from the Obama campaign, to keep it hushed up), announced several "release dates" in a row (wihout a release), all the way up to election day. Wingnut bloggers even tried to organize a whip-around to raise money to pay for the tape and release it. Many tales of mysterious fires, secret meetings, and myriad skullduggeries abounded. Money may have even changed hands, but no recording has ever surfaced. And now...

Here's the scoop from Hard News Inc. (also covered on Boing-Boing):

Desperate Obama-Haters Give Money to Nigerian Scam

Nobody directly involved will admit it, but this is looking more and more like one of the more nasty, yet brilliant, scams of the last couple years. It may have been pulled off by the legendary Nigerian internet scammers, but it's beginning to look like it may have been the work of a vast leftwing conspiracy with a twisted sense of humor.

Mmmmmm... that is some DAMN fine schadenfruede pie!

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*snort*!

"So I'm sorry if I spoiled your plans, there, friend. But if it's any consolation to you, you have put a smile on my face." (Top Dollar, from 'The Crow')

The Re-education of Alex P. Keaton

2008-11-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

How can the GOP become relevant again? How indeed.

Paid human squawk-box Andrew Breitbart of the Moonie Times thinks he has the answer: bring back the chic of Alex P. Keaton, the yuppie Republican son in the liberal family from the 1970s sitcom Family Ties, played to an unfortunate 'T' by Michael J. Fox (I bet he's sorry now.)

Breitbart is the genius who said last October, "Mr. McCain's greatest gift to America may have been his inadvertent discovery of Sarah Palin, the only person in American politics who can go up against Mr. Obama's star power."

But since Bible Spice didn't quite capture the hearts and minds of America like the GOP thought she would (being functionally illiterate didn't help her image much), Breitbart has another brilliant idea: sell selfishness to the "Me Generation" packaged as "tax cuts and corporate greed are more fun!"

The future of the Grand Old Party needs to be dangerously youthful, devastatingly attractive and outrageously fun.

Throw the liberal baby boomer bums out. And let's elect to higher office some good-looking, freedom-loving Net Generation babes. Face it: Democracy needs a face-lift and a youth movement. (I'm from Los Angeles, what can I tell you?)

With the economy in the pits, the young, the restless and unapologetically handsome should use their looks, vigor and Internet knowledge to wrest away elective office from joyless bureaucrats who gallingly repackaged the soiled utopian promises of their overly replayed Woodstock days as "hope" and "change."

[...]

The suburban Mall Rats will be the first Obamacons to come back to the fold when they realize that trickle-up socialism limits their lifestyle options. So let's stop first at Abercrombie and Fitch. See those shirtless models in the storefront tossing footballs in the air?

There's a better use of their time and efforts. Tanned, coiffed and seriously cut, these young studs could be tossing free-trade legislation across the halls of the Cannon House Office Building faster than you can Twitter "The Bella Twins."

Just tell these $15-an-hour beefcakes there's a Democrat standing between them and a $169,300 job - one that comes with a free gym membership even.

Now let's head over to Hooters for a basket of buffalo wings and some electoral gender diversity. It's a lot more wholesome than you'd think; it's mostly hosiery, not skin.

Untested bodacious waitresses who can espouse the virtues of limited government, lower taxes and a strong national defense would serve our country with greater distinction than Reps. Loretta and Linda Sanchez, whose spending policies and no longer funny ineptitude will leave Generation Y dazed, confused - and bankrupt.

Imagine overtly attractive candidates marching door-to-door asking for your vote. You'd invite them in to deliver their pitch, right?

The thing Breitbart doesn't realize is that these "tanned young Republicans" have been around for decades - they're the ones reading Ayn Rand and thinking they've found the meaning of life, the universe and everything: BE SELFISH.

They haven't taken over the "youth vote" yet, so what makes him think they're going to do any better now?

The other thing he doesn't understand is that the Christopaths would never stand for it. Breitbart thinks the "Abecrombe & Finch" lifestyle is something the religious Right is going to embrace? Sadly, I don't think the church ladies are going to find Hooters "wholesome". So they're back to the same problem with the GOP - without the Dominionist preachers screaming Republican talking points at their legions of mouth-breathing foot-soldiers, the GOP will never have the votes to get elected to any state office outside the deep South or cowboy West, much less to a national office. And the religious knuckle-draggers are not going to embrace the "young Hispanic, black and gay conservatives and libertarians" that Breitbart wants to conjure into existence.

Well, unless they embrace them in a brothel, or while wearing two wetsuits and a dildo.

Smartocracy

2008-11-23T16:12:00.000-08:00

Even the idiots in the Idiocracy realized that they needed the few smart ones to run the place.

Finally, the nation is going to be run by smart people. And it's not even that - smart pragmatic people.

There once was a time that the GOP could have been called the party of smart pragmatists. That would have been the Eisenhower administration.

Even Tricky Dick Nixon open relations with China and established the EPA because it was the pragmatic thing to do.

But the netroots are not happy.

For one thing, they are enraged that Holy Joe Lieberman's head isn't going to be displayed on a spike outside the White House gates:

Tell me again, Senate Democrats, about how denying Joe Lieberman his Senate Homeland Security and Government Oversight gavel was all about retribution? No, it was about incompetence, criminal neglect, poisoning of children, crony contracting, and worthless government services -- all of which were enabled by the independent Senator from Connecticut.

And they're not happy that there aren't more card-carrying liberals announced for Obama's administration.

I know everyone is obsessed with the "team of rivals" idea right now, but I feel incredibly frustrated. Even after two landslide elections in a row, are our only governing options as a nation either all right-wing Republicans, or a centrist mixture of Democrats and Republicans? Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration? Also, why isn't there a single member of Obama's cabinet who will be advising him from the left? It seems to me as though there is a team of rivals, except for the left, which is left off the team entirely.

(Just curious, how does one get a liberal card to carry? I seem to have misplaced mine somewhere...)

Wow, you'd think we'd have at least a few weeks to revel in the schadenfreude before getting all depressed that we didn't elect Dennis Kucinich as president, and forming up the traditional liberal circular firing squad.

The problem here, as I see it, is that the last two incoming Democratic presidents did exactly what the netroots seem to think Obama should be doing: kicked out all the "old guard" of the DC establishment in favor of his own posse. Carter and Clinton did exactly that. And in two short years, they were struggling to get anything done in Washington, even with their own party in control of Congress, because all those old guard types were still part of the DC establishment and hated their guts.

Obama seems to be ready to do all those things he promised to do in his campaign - affordable health care, ending the war, putting the economy back on track. I don't recall slitting Lieberman's throat or telling Hillary to get stuffed to be included in his campaign promises.

Obama is a center-left pragmatic technocrat, and he's never tried to say otherwise. He's not a Kucinich or even a Russ Feingold. So quit with the pearl-clutching and defenestration, oh my fellow netroots. We all knew what we were getting going in to this election. Truth be told, for me it was a choice between "might work out OK" and "an unmitigated disaster".

The choice was easy. Bring on the smart people.

Equal Justice Under The Law

2008-11-15T23:30:00.000-08:00

From the website of the Equal Justice Society, more details on the legal challenge to Proposition 8, which is being brought by groups also including the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the California NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Civil rights groups today filed a petition with the California Supreme Court to stop the enactment of Proposition 8 because it would mandate discrimination against a minority group and did not follow the process required for fundamental revisions to the California Constitution.
In the petition, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Equal Justice Society, California NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. argue that in order to protect the fundamental rights of all Californians, a higher standard is required to overturn the right to marry. Minority communities cannot be stripped of their fundamental rights by a simple majority vote.
"We would be making a grave mistake to view Proposition 8 as just affecting the LGBT community," said Eva Paterson, president of the Equal Justice Society. "If the Supreme Court allows Proposition 8 to take effect, it would represent a threat to the rights of people of color and all minorities."

No, it's worse than that. It basically means no one is safe from the tyranny of the 50%-plus-one.

It establishes a horrifying precedent: an abridgment of civil rights, rights already found to exist in the state Constitution by the state Supreme Court, can be enacted by simple majority vote.

Just think where this leads.

Suppose (may the gods preserve us) that a major California city suffers a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists. What's to stop a replay of Executive Order 9022 and the rounding up of all middle eastern immigrants and their families, but this time enacted by the voter initiative of a terrorized populace?

Or just as plausibly, an attack by domestic right-wing extremists could result in rounding up all citizens with any racist affiliations (along with a voter-approved law monitoring all Internet traffic to facilitate locating anyone who ever looked at a Stromfront website.) And while I might find those people and their beliefs reprehensible, I don't want it possible for a simple majority of voters to strip the civil rights away from anyone, not even skinhead assholes. It's too horrible a precedent to set.

[h/t to Pam Spaulding for the link]

Satan in the White House

2008-11-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, Ol' Scratch himself is on his way to the White House. The Tribulation is about to begin. The election of Barack Obama to the Presidency is the surest sign ever that the Kingdom of the Anti-Christ is at hand.

What's amazing to me is that even if Obama makes good on his promise to get the economy back on track, ratchet down the tension in the Middle East and restore the good name of the United States in the world, none of that matters. It wouldn't repudiate in the slightest the Christianist view of Obama's election.

It won't even matter if we see the abortion rates go down (as they did under Clinton - the abortion rate is more connected to the economy than any other factor), a decrease in unwanted and/or teenage pregnancy (which reality-based sex education leads to, as liberal families have far lower teen pregnancy rates than conservative families), or a revival of genuine religious spirit (times of hope are good for religions - hopeful religions anyway. The Quakers and Buddhists should do well.)

That's because intention is everything to the Christian extremist movement. The means is what matters, not the end. Results are a secondary consideration at best. Not matter what the outcome, if it didn't come from their God, their beliefs, their prayers, then it's unacceptable.

We are reminded of the Biblical dictum that if a man even looks at a woman other than is wife with lust, he has committed adultery "in his heart." The act of committing a sin is irrelevant. Sin itself is a thoughtcrime.

Christian extremism is utterly anti-pragmatic. Success or failure doesn't matter. It's the thought that counts.

The Mormons, Evangelicals and Catholics spent enormous amounts of money to defeat Proposition 8. Over 20 million dollars, I believe. (I've wondered if they ever considered "what would Jesus do" if handed 20 million bucks. That would feed and clothe a whole lot of poor people, and since Jesus spoke of the poor 190 times in the Gospels and spoke of homosexuality zero times, I think we can can tell what the Gospel writers' priorities were.)

Many of them (notably the officers of the LDS church) also went to great pains to say that they (mostly) don't oppose gay civil unions that offer equal legal rights to those of marriage. Once again, it isn't the reality, it's the thought that counts. Gay and lesbian couples can have all the civil rights they want, as long as they can't think they are married.

Hopefully we've turned the tide with this election, and we are finally moving away from a Handmaid's Tale-like dystopian future. And if that's true, than marriage equality will someday come to pass. When I consider my daughter and how she feels about it, it's inevitable.

We shall overcome.

Veteran's Day

2008-11-11T08:35:00.000-08:00

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, United States Army:

"And it is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life."

Thank you, Cpl. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and all others who have served in the armed forces (including my co-blogger Snowwy), on this day of commemoration. Let us resolve as a people we will never again so lightly ask our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Let us remember the words of General Sun-Tzu:

"Supreme excellence in warfare is the ability to subdue the enemy without engaging in battle."

The GOP's Civil War

2008-11-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

Driftglass has posted for years about the core truths that underlie Republican electoral successes of the past three decades. The major media somehow keep seeming to miss these things.

But just in case you cared to doubt drifty, look at this poll result from Rasmussen:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2012/69_of_gop_voters_say_palin_helped_mccain

Yes, they are that stupid. And they are the base of the Republican Party. And they have taken it over. And they are going to fight hard to keep it that way, even to the point of politically knifing every single last person of discernible intelligence remaining in the GOP.

Then, and only then, is there likely to be reform - in the creation of a new center-right party from a fragmenting of the Democrats. I look forward to being a socially-liberal, fiscally conservative centrist Blankocrat on that day.

Napoleon's Dictum As Applied To Politics

2008-11-08T18:41:00.000-08:00

The great French General Napoleon Bonaparte had a saying- one of my favorite in the whole world:
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

I come to tell you a tale of victory from defeat. Because Napoleon was right. Attend.

So, in the middle of all the hooplah from the election we find that there is still entirely too much bigotry in our populace. In California, trendsetter state of the Union, forefront of the sexual liberation movement, the odious Proposition 8 passed. Of course, that might have something to do with the state’s horrible case of disassociative identity disorder, but that’s another topic for another day.

I’m liking what I see in terms of the fight against the Amendment. The City of San Francisco jumped in with a lawsuit with both feet immediately, and others look to be joining in. But there is a nuclear option which I think the people behind Prop 8 don’t see or believe in, and it seems to me likely that the California Supreme Court is prepared to exercise it. I’ve been saying this for months, but a friend (hi Molly!) asked me nicely the other day to actually write it down. And I like her, so what she wants, she gets.

In their May decision legalizing gay marriage, the CA Supremes clearly and completely laid out their rationale. They referred to the State Constitution which it is their duty to interpret. The pointed out that the first freedom in that constitution is the guarantee of equal treatment of all the state’s citizens before the law. They noted that the ban on gay marriage voted into law in 2005 would violate that guarantee, and that some legally justifiable reasoning would be required before such a law could be considered constitutional.

And after hearing out the case, they found no such compelling legal justification for stripping a class of citizens of their rights.

The passage of Proposition 8, which amends the State Constitution, would seem to get around that hurdle, since it writes such a removal of rights directly into the controlling authority for the laws of the State.

But it doesn’t surmount that problem at all.

You see, after all is said and done, the CA Supreme Court still has to interpret the law. And should Prop 8 survive all the intermediary challenges winding their way through the court system right now, there’s still the precedent of that earlier decision.

Equal protection is paramount.
There must be a compelling justification for a differentiation of the rights of one group of citizens over another.
There IS no such justification for banning gay marriage.

Ergo, the idea must be that Prop 8’s proponents can only have meant to ban marriage entirely in the state of California. Civil unions for everyone, the state is getting out of the marriage business altogether. If you won't share, no one can have any. That is exactly where the Court will take it if forced.

So I understand the consternation of my homosexual brothers and sisters out there in the world, but I tell you- take heart. The Religious Right has won this round, but this was the last good opportunity in a generation (and possibly ever) for them to have this fight.

And in the process, they painted themselves into a corner. And when they have won, and destroyed state-sanctioned marriage entirely in this state, they will look over the ruined plain of victory and cry “But that’s not what we meant!”

No, kids, but that’s what you did.

The Men In Black

2008-11-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

The land of Wingnutsylvania is awash in fear and loathing, as the dreaded regime of That One completes its bloodless coup of all that is good and true in Real America.

The jackbooted thugs of the ATF will soon begin kicking down doors, confiscating guns and rounding up the usual suspects. The expanded surveillance powers so foolishly (in retrospect) given to the Executive Branch to spy on evil brown people will be focused instead on white, god-fearing Real Americans.

Black helicopters will darken the skies.

Yes, Wingnutsylvania, fear us... the ~~black man~~ Man in Black is coming for you all. After carrying you away to our Gay Hip-Hop Liberal re-education camps in the Hollywood hills, we will use the flashy-thingy to erase Chuck Norris, Sean Hannity and Jesus from your memories, and then implant the Muslim brain-blobs into the backs of your necks, rendering you into docile slaves to toil in our underground falafel and tie-dyed t-shirt factories.

Please believe wholeheartedly all the most psychotic ravings you all can find on the Intertubes. Echo them through your blogs loudly in ALL CAPS. Double down on the crazy. Leave no doubt in the minds of anyone else who can rub two brain cells together that you are all unequivocally, certifiably out of your fucking minds.

Do it for baby Jesus.

And Now, The Schadenfreude...

2008-11-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

Some random samplings from Free Republic, Michele Malkin and Gates of Vienna:

"So, is this the Fall of the Eastern Empire we’re witnessing - the last light of civilization (or in our case, freedom) diminishing and leading to the Dark Ages?"

"I wonder if this is how the Romans felt when they saw the barbarians coming down on them..:-("

"The hatred comes from Satan himself, from the pit of hell. He has been in severe spiritual warfare ever since he announced his candidacy. Satan couldn’t fulfill what he wanted to in our nation because of Mr. Bush’s faith in God. Now he has free will. Hope all you bashers are proud of yourselves. (I don’t mean you.)"

"Who would like to see some Republicans come out and say I'm pissed off we lost? I'm mad as hell, and would like to break something. I'm already mad and seeing Republican after republican come out and talk about the "historic" context of this election, ticks me off even more!!"

"The flag is currently hanging upside-down in our window. Not that it matters; we are in CA. I always felt the GOP would have to crash and burn before they got their act together again; even when they mimic socialists, they can’t get elected."

"A true patriot will tell the government to go to hell when they are about to ruin your country. That's what I'm saying here- Hussein can go to hell. I wouldn't cross the street to piss on Hussein if his hair was on fire."

"This country has elected a corrupt neophyte, which I guess makes us just like Europe now. You may be right about them loving it, but they’ll be singing a different tune when Iran is shoving nukes up their butts and we’re wallowing in economic depression with hardly any military to speak of. Oh well… welcome to the People’s Republik of Amerika."

"A dark hour for the U.S. and the world. The fulfillment of scripture cannot be far behind. Come Lord Jesus!"

"Our long national nightmare is just beginning. I’m gonna miss Sarah Palin. F U B O. And all your idiotic supporters too."

Last night, at the Official Chaotic Good Election Party, we toasted the networks calling the election with a fine Macallum single-malt, and dined on sweet schadenfreude pie as McCain made his concession speech.

There will be much work to do in the months and years to come, to make sure that we never get another village idiot as president. But today, let's enjoy the sweet smell of success... we earned it.

UPDATE: Pammycakes presents the best collection of wingnut doom-and-gloom as can be found in a single link. Pass the pie.

The Nightmare is Over, The Dream Begins

2008-11-04T22:56:00.001-08:00

The last battle of America's one hundred forty-seven year long Civil War has ended. After four years of a hot war and more than a century of cold war, the last great barrier has been breached. There will be skirmishes yet to fight, mopping up actions, half a million stories yet to be told.

But today...today I can reclaim my nationality. Today I am once again proud to be called an American.

And today, I can believe that skin color is no barrier to success. Oh sure, there are bigots out there. There always will be. But they don't own the game any more.

It's not equality yet. It's just a damn sight closer to it than I ever dreamed of seeing.

UPDATE: (damn it all, why do people have to disappoint me?)
Digby says it for me:

It's terrific that we are seeing a decline in racism to the extent that we are able to elect a black president. We've come a long way and there's no taking anything away from those who waged the struggle over all these centuries. But our society is not truly changed if it's still writing discrimination into law.

AMERICA - FUCK YEAH!!!

2008-11-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

Congratulations, President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama.

Obama's Grandmother Passes

2008-11-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

From Associated Press:

HONOLULU – Barack Obama's grandmother, whose personality and bearing shaped much of the life of the Democratic presidential contender, has died, Obama announced Monday, one day before the election. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86.

Many condolences to the Obama family. The sorrow must be especially poignant, today of all days.

"Term of all that liveth, whose name is Death and inscrutable, be favorable unto us in thine hour. And unto them from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen, may there be granted the accomplishment of their true will; whether they will absorption in the Infinite, or to be united with their chosen and preferred, or to be in contemplation, or to be at peace, or to achieve the labour and heroism of incarnation on this planet, or another, or in any Star, or aught else, unto them may there be granted the accomplishment of their true will; yea, the accomplishment of their true will. Amen." - Liber X.V.

Let's win this one BIG for Madelyn, people.

Vote, dammit.

One Day More

2008-11-03T07:48:00.000-08:00

Vote, dammit!

Republican Jesus Steals Your Lunch Money

2008-11-02T23:42:00.000-08:00

Having bilked all the available widows out of their Social Security checks, the Christopath movement declares, "what's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine too."

Pagans and atheists don't deserve to keep their money, don'tcha know.

To this end, C. Peter Wagner, the leader of the fundamentalist theocrats called the New Apostolic Reformation, has proclaimed that all your monies are belong to us:

I declare this to the principalities and powers who have been agents of Satan to obstruct this transfer of wealth: Your time is up! Your evil powers are broken! By the blood of Jesus Christ, I declare that your wicked powers are demolished!... God has declared through His prophets that the wealth of the wicked will be released to the Kingdom of God... I declare that this wealth will be distributed for the extension of the Kingdom of God by the apostles that God has set in the church, I decree that vast amounts of wealth will be released supernaturally, even from godless and pagan sources... The enemy's camp will be plundered... Resistance will be impossible. Jesus will put all things under His feet.

GOP VP candidate and Real American Sarah Palin has many ties to the New Apostolic Reformation movement. Imagine my surprise. Her witch hunting spiritual advisor, Bishop Thomas Muthee is a major figure in the movement.

Strangely, many other Fundamentalists don't like them either. The Assemblies of God kicked them out and declared them heretics in 1949.

This is the same wingnut "end times" cult of Christian warriors that was featured in the film Jesus Camp.

Yeah, those guys.

Personally, my money's on the Peruvian Pagans.

[h/t to Lisa Derrick at Campaign Silo]

GOOD Witches!

2008-11-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

Peruvian shamans send blessings to Obama and curses to McCain.

Christopath meltdown in 3... 2... 1...

More Witches!

2008-11-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Seems like Witchfinder General Palin isn't just operating in Africa, but around the world as well.

From Talk2Action:

One of Palin's two witch hunters has publicly stated, in a July 13, 2008 recorded address [see video, below], that Sarah Palin is in the Alaska "spiritual warfare" prayer network and thus Palin appears to be tied into to a U.S. and international "spiritual warfare" network, The Global Apostolic Prayer Network, which claims that a planetary-level demon spirit blocks prayers of Catholics from reaching Heaven and whose top members boast of possibly having helped kill Mother Theresa through prayer-warfare.

Take the time to read the whole article. Scary shit, Maynard.

The Manly McCain Voter

2008-11-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

Seems over at Hot Air (one of the Right blogs that Andrew Sullivan calls "non-partisan") the following comments were posted, featuring a jolly fellow calling himself "Manly Rash":

lobosan5 on November 1, 2008 at 5:26 PM

my dear Malny Rash, my best friend just totally humiliated me & THEN WALKED OUT of the dive where we were eating because i attempted to discuss ~~politics~~ the death of America if bambi is elected w/ her.

She was not your best friend - unless you were trying to get laid, in which case discussing politics was a HUGE mistake. The rule is clear: if she is really hot looking, tell her anything if it means unrestricted access. That aside, if you guys were nothing more than friends then you never were friends if something like this sundered you.

I was feeling rather shtty until i saw yer post….onnaconna that is what i was tryin’to do.so much is being decided by this election…*sigh*

Even Babe Ruth struck out from time to time. Perhaps she will come to her senses and apologize. If so, use her guilt as a weapon. Tell her you were really hurt and truly heartbroken by the way she treated you. Explain that you love your country and want it safe and secure so she can be safe and secure. If she doesn’t come to her senses, egg her house.

” be swift to save us , dear God,before the darkness falls.”

Let your heart not be troubled. After McCain wins, you can call her up on the phone and gloat.

Please tell me this guy never gets laid.

Palin's 1st Amendment RIghts In Danger?

2008-10-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

Somebody get this woman a copy of the US Constitution, stat!

First, let's quote the relevant passage:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Now, let's examine what Governor Mooselini said on wingnut radio today:

ABC News' Steven Portnoy reports: In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

In the first place, the very idea that "paling around with terrorists" does not constitute negative political campaigning is like proclaming the sky isn't blue, it's green. In the second place, Mooseburgers obviously knows as much about the First Amendment as she does about Article 1's description of the job of the Vice-President.

For the dense ones out there, here's how it works: the First Amendment guarantees that Congress shall make no law that places restrictions on any citizen's speech. Little Sarah has the same right as you and I: she can write a blog, make statements to reporters, or stand on a street corner talking to strangers about any stupid thing she wants to, or embarrass herself on wingnut radio, and the US government can't stop her. The 14th Amendment extended this restriction to all State and local governments.

But this Constitutional protection does not extend to the mass media and who they choose to give a microphone to. I thought conservatives didn't care for rules like the Fairness Doctrine.

This is something that's become endemic in wingnut culture as they stare into the abyss: the idea that the right of "Free Speech" means the inalienable right to be taken seriously. Every day there's another asinine pronouncement from the right-wing blogesphere ("Obama is Malcom X's Love Child!!!") , and every day people with a brain larger than that of a one-celled animal point at them and laugh. This drives them berserk - "Why oh why won't the media listen to us!!! BLAAARGH!!!"

The truth is, Sarah doesn't have to worry about not being heard. The mainstream media has dutifully, even gleefully, reported every idiotic utterance that's emanated from her moose-eating pie hole. But the Constitution does not protect right wing knuckle-draggers like Palin from being openly ridiculed.

So I'm all for the craziest of the crazy right wingers to be given as big a megaphone as possible. I invite them to take up the loaded weapon of free speech, spin the cylinder, cock the hammer, take careful aim, and blow their own feet off.

What WIll Yahweh Think?

2008-10-31T01:11:00.000-07:00

As reported by Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN):

In January of this year, Cindy Jacobs was in a worship service when the Lord spoke to her, “Cindy, the strongman over America doesn’t live in Washington, DC – the strongman lives in New York City! Call My people to pray for the economy.”

This word so shook Cindy; she knew she had to call the people of God to converge on New York City the week of October 29 for an emergency prayer rally to cry out against economic collapse in the midst of shaking.

[...]

“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion’s Market,' or God’s control over the economic systems,” she said. “While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.”

And now, we have the photos of scores of fundamentalist Christians praying to a golden calf.

[*ahem*]

The Book of Exodus 32:1-6:

1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

And Yahweh didn't take this kind of thing lightly.

Exodus 32:25-29

25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) 26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. 27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. 28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. 29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

So, can we expect a contingent from Dobson's Focus on the Family to girt their loins and do some avenging at the CBN headquarters? Will they need to kill 3000 to atone for this blasphemous spectacle, or how do these things work?

(Oh, Yahweh sent a plague too, for good measure.)

Fear and Loathing of the 1960s

2008-10-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

"The brutal reality of politics alone would probably be intolerable without drugs." - Hunter S. Thompson

The Wingnut Right is caught in a time warp. It's like they mugged Doctor Who and stole the key to the Tardis, thinking they could go back forty years in time and bring back to the future some good ol' commie-fearing, jesus-wheezing, hippie-bashing, negro-lynching, feminist-mocking, kill-the-queers, America-love-it-or-leave-it fanaticism and win a 21st century election with it.

In essence, the McCain/Palin campaign now consists of playing Merle Haggard's 1969 anthem to the silent redneck majority, "Okie from Muskogee" on endless repeat at ear-bleeding volume from now until election day.

(The irony of Haggard's later descriptions of the lyrics as being a tongue-in-cheek pean to small-town innocence is lost on today's wingnuts. But the times they are a-changing: Haggard's newest song is a sincere tribute to a modern woman in politics, and it's not about Sarah Palin - it's called "Hillary". Yes, that Hillary.)

And this time-twisting campaign strategy, to the great surprise of the wingnuts and no one else, is failing. Epically.

What's amazing is that the Right actually thinks that the politics of the 1960's is a winner for them. As far as I'm concerned, the social-political milieu of "The Sixties" didn't actually end until 1974, with the disgrace and resignation of Nixon. And it began roughly ten years earlier, with the defeat of Goldwater. The political arc of The Sixties was not a happy ending for the Right wing in America.

Even St. Reagan, who the wingers believe succeeded by running against "The Sixties", was far less belligerent than his ideological successors. He simply declared everything evil was called "big government" and needed to say no more. But the current wingnut desperation ("why oh why won't everyone LISTEN TO US! BLAAAARGH!") is what's killing them.

Poorman Institute sums it up:

This is the problem. It’s not just the McCain campaign’s problem - although their inability to pick a narrative and stick to it is a special kind of inexcusable - it’s a problem for the entire wingnut noise machine. Obama is a Marxist Muslim Arab Jesus Black White Terrorist Technocrat Racist Do-Gooder Liberal FDR Stalin Hilter Commie Fascist Gay Womanizing Naive Cynical Insider Noob Boring Radical Unaccomplished Elite Slick Gaffe-Prone Pedophile Pedophile-Seducing Liberation Theology Atheist Etc. & Anti-Etc. with a bunch of scary friends from - wait for it! - the Nineteen Hundred And Sixties. It makes no sense. It’s a jumble sale of fears and scary associations from 50 years of wingnut witch hunts and smear campaigns, a flea market of pre-owned and antique resentments, and if one does detect a semi-consistent 1960’s motif running through it all, that’s because that’s when most of these ideas were coined.

What the wingers are pushing now is a dingo's breakfast of forty year-old tropes. Half the voters in this election weren't even ALIVE in the 1960s. But this old hippie kid hasn't felt this kind of schadenfreude since I watched Nixon resign.

As consolation for all you dispirited wingers out there, here's Merle. (Notice the long-haired hippies in his band, and his tongue firmly in cheek.)

The Obama Republicans

2008-10-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

In 1980 we saw the rise of the "Reagan Democrats". They were the phenomenon that flipped presidential elections to Republicans for the next 25 years. The intellectual conservatives (both real and pseudo, neo and paleo) alone couldn't do it. The psycho wing (Christianists, survivalists, racists, sweaty geek-boys and prissy-girls in mom's basements furiously making horse's asses of themselves on-line) alone couldn't do it. Even together they couldn't do it. They needed the bloc of working and professional class voters who would normally be at home in the Democratic party, in fact they had been for decades. They still sent Democrats to Capitol Hill. But the GOP peeled them away for Reagan.

And now, we've begun to see the rise of the Obama Republicans.

For example, the Financial Times just endorsed Obama. This is like Rolling Stone endorsing a Republican candidate. They said:

[A] campaign is a test of leadership. Mr Obama ran his superbly; Mr McCain’s has often looked a shambles. After eight years of George W. Bush, the steady competence of the Obama operation commands respect.
Nor should one disdain Mr Obama’s way with a crowd. Good presidents engage the country’s attention; great ones inspire. Mr McCain, on form, is an adequate speaker but no more. Mr Obama, on form, is as fine a political orator as the country has heard in decades. Put to the right purposes, this is no mere decoration but a priceless asset.
Mr Obama’s purposes do seem mostly right, though in saying this we give him the benefit of the doubt. Above all, he prizes consensus and genuinely seeks to unite the country, something it wants. His call for change struck a mighty chord in a tired and demoralised nation – and who could promise real change more credibly than Mr Obama, a black man, whose very nomination was a historic advance in US politics?

The intellectual conservatives like Colin Powell, Christopher Buckley, David Frum, Peggy Noonan and John Cole, besides being disgusted with the barking mad wingnuts, they seem to be yearning for simple competency - is that so much to ask for? they ask. Please, can we try having someone competent and intelligent as president this time? Top of their class material? Constitutional law professor material? President of the Harvard Law Review material?

Please, we want the smart guy!!!

Andrew Sullivan calls them "Obamacons" -- Obama conservatives. They seem to be coming from the professional and intellectual class so far, though Matt at fivethirtyeight.com has reported more than one incident of pollsters in deep red states being told, "well, I'm votin' for the ni**er." Even though it took a clue-by-four to the side of the head to get their goddamn attention, even some dixiecrats finally figured out that Republicans aren't good for them.

However... I am cautious of these smart conservatives supporting Obama. Their nefarious plan, I think, is using an Obama presidency to undermine the psycho-Republicans and drive them from the party, or at least from the leadership of the party. Which means the intellectuals have to take the psychos out into the wilderness where they can be beaten into submission. And they want progressives to help them do this, and take the blame for it so they don't have to.

At this point, it seems like the wingnuts out in the "real America" are set on elevating Palin as the new de-facto leader of the Party. And if the Obamacons are smart, they'll go ahead and let them try to peddle Palin's damaged goods in a general election in four years.

And when that time comes, I predict the Obamacons will help the Democrats beat down the Christopaths and Dittoheads, destroy the Palin wing of the GOP, and drive the final stake through their rotting hearts. So after that, in 2013, the intellectual conservatives can take back control of the GOP. That's the plan, anyway.

Right, Andrew?

Wassup 2008

2008-10-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

This has gone mega-viral on the web, but if you haven't seen it yet...

And for the culturally deprived (like me, because I never saw it), here's the original from the 2001 Super Bowl:

Face the Music

2008-10-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. or Ms. Undecided Voter,

Where have you been? How have you been doing?

Yes, I know those sound like nonsensical questions. I see you at least semi-regularly; once a month, twice a day, whatever. But still I ask; where have you been?

You see, for the past seven-plus years I have lived in a country where the most unprincipled men have had their hands on the levers of power. Those powerful people who might have stopped them were only slightly less immoral, and so could recognize the wrongness – but only as an opportunity for political gain.

From the beginning, we were warned that the Bush Administration’s campaign rhetoric was nothing but a passel of lies. “Compassionate Conservatism” was a front, meant only to provide a sham of moral cover for the howling base of the Republican Party. That base had just spent the last eight years in all-out political warfare against a center-right Democratic President. Bush knew then, and we were told then, that he intended to harness that roaring hate for his own purposes.

And what have eight years brought us?

A national debt twice the combined debts of all past presidents in American history.

Two failed wars, one of which we certainly did not need (or even want) to fight.

The most lawless Presidency ever, freely and openly defying the law, the legislature, and the judiciary.

Wholesale and pervasive spying on all American citizens.

The de facto destruction of the most foundational right in the Constitution: habeas corpus.

The loss of a major American city to raw bureaucratic incompetence.

The worst financial crisis in our lifetimes – with no end in sight.

So, where have you been? Have you noted these things? Did they take place in your country? Was your President half as evil as the one I’ve lived under? I just have to know, because here we are now barely more than a week out from an election that will either continue Bush’s policies or change the course of the nation – and you are still undecided. Independent.

I’d try to convince you, bring you around to my point of view. I’d seriously sit down with you and have a long talk about this. I’d listen seriously to what you had to say. I’d expect the same in return.

But you know, there really isn’t much point to civil discussion about important civic issues if you and I don’t share the same reality.

So, where have you been?

-----
Joe Max adds:

This quote from David Sedaris in this week's New Yorker:

"I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. 'Can I interest you in the chicken?' she asks. 'Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?'

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked."

Preparing for the Apocalypse

2008-10-23T22:54:00.001-07:00

Different right-wing Christian sects have different ways of dealing with a series of insurmountable obstacles on a direct path to imminent disaster.

Some, like the Witchfinder Generals of the previous post, mount their spiritual counterattack, covering their charges with the sacrificial Blood of the Lamb.

Some challenge Yahweh to prove that he's the biggest baddest God of all, lest the heathens will think their God(s) are more God-tastic than the real One.

Some, like the long suffering Catholic blogger The Anchoress, will gather her wimple and her rosary, and repair to her closet for some prayer, some fasting and who knows? perhaps a bit of self-flagellation. She will diligently practice suffering to prepare her for the real suffering to come.

A friend of mine, noting the Buckley endorsement of Obama on the slimmest of notions, said, “there is a strange undertow of events, lately.” Yes. Things are so strange because there is disorientation - and this disorientation is because the supernatural is in play - it’s been in play for a long time, of course, but the painless coup is almost complete and there is almost an anticipatory frenzy on the side of the presumptive victors. Mistakes get made in a frenzy.
The Mad Hatter is fasting and praying for discernment, for the nation, for her own vote. I am doing this also - have been doing it since October 1.

[...]

Right now, Nero is watching Rome burn. Right now, Peter, that city’s first Bishop, is being crucified and turned upside down.
Right now, in prayer and in fasting, one may penetrate the illusions of the world and, touching eternity, impact them.

Obama may win this election. Obama may lose this election. McCain may win this election. McCain may lose this election. No matter what happens, we are entering a new era, and I believe everyone knows it. With the prayer and fasting, I am “in training” making myself ready for whatever comes, because whatever comes is going to be very different; it will jar us from all of our complacencies.

You can say that again, sister...

The Politics of Hope

2008-10-23T09:03:00.001-07:00

This is the face of hope.

This is the face of a young African-American girl, who has seen a woman and an African-American battle to a photo finish over the nomination for President by the Democratic Party.

And to be overly fair, who has seen a woman become the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Republican party.

This is a young African-American girl who now knows in her heart, whatever she may hear in her life to discourage her, that with hard work and courage she truly can be anything she wants to be. And this can never be taken away from her.

She will walk taller, hold her head higher, and be more proud of her heritage and her country for the rest of her life.

Electing Barack Obama president: $500 million dollars.

The look on that young girl's face: priceless.

Witches!!!

2008-10-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

From deep in the heart of inner wingnuttia, comes this horrifying report of the unholy power of Satan being summoned by Barack Obama's relatives in Kenya.

Dear friends:

THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS.

Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama's family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Dr. Marvin sent me the below e-mail from Flo Ellers. Flo is credentialed with the International Fellowship of Ministries which is based in Washington State. She is also a member of EndTime Handmaidens and Servants of Jasper, Arkansas.

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, PLEASE PRAY TODAY AND CONTINUALLY THAT ALL SUCH CURSES BE BROKEN AND SATAN'S PLAN FOR AMERICA BE DEFEATED, IN JESUS' NAME. PRAY AND COVER MCCAIN AND PALIN WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, IT IS TIME YOU LEARN!!!

...

She said the witches, warlocks and those involved in satanism and the occult get up daily at 3 a.m. to release curses against McCain and Palin so B. Hussein Obama is elected.

The occultists are "weaving lazy 8's around McCain's mind to make him look confused and like an idiot". Bree K. said we need to break these curses off of him that are being sent from Kenya.

If the intent of the spellcasting was to make McCain and Palin look like confused idiots, I'd say that was a successful spell. Go witches!

But hey, don't worry, right-wing brethren and sistren! Remember Sarah Palin's favorite evangelist has got her back!

I wonder if Obama is elected, is there going to be a serious crisis of faith among the God-fearing folk of the "real America"?

Probably not.

Fashion Faux Pas

2008-10-22T11:16:00.001-07:00

Captured by Stumper at Newsweek.

I do believe I see the word "vote", surrounded by a seemingly endless line of marching donkeys.

And the donkey is the symbol of which Party?

Ouch. Maybe this is Palin's version of "reaching across the aisle?"

I wonder if she picked that one up at Neiman-Marcus or at Sak's Fifth Avenue?

Ready now? Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...[*snort*]

UPDATE: "Obama Resoles His Shoes While Palin Spends $150K"

Looking for a Good Time, Voter?

2008-10-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

These

women

are

whores.

I apologize to my feminist friends (and be assured I count myself among you - just ask my wife) for my use of crude, sexist language, but there's nothing else that suffices.

I also apologize to all the female sex workers, who I am insulting by comparison to these Gorgons.

But all these Palin-projected starbursts popping through TV screens making wingnut boys "sit up straighter" and gag on their Cheetos are exposing yet another part of the conservative id being dredged up like rotting carrion out of a swamp.

So let's toss this revolting tidbit into the middle of the room and let the cat smell it.

As the Guardian UK commented on Michelle Bachmann (R-Wingnuttia), the likely reason the high priests of the GOP offered her up to Tweety Matthews as a human sacrifice is because, why?

Before we go any further - who is this Bachmann? She's a first-term backbencher from exurban Minneapolis who says the Lord told her to run for Congress. She declared herself "a fool for Christ" in 2006 when she announced her candidacy. By all accounts she's down with the whole rightwing Christian package: immigrants bring disease and pestilence, homosexuals want to indoctrinate straight children, and so on. Republican leadership undoubtedly pushed her out on to television because she is, as you Brits say, a looker - at least by the standards of Congress.

(Why is it that Brits can cover our elections more insightfully than the US media? Oh, right, US media, never mind... pass the cocktail weenies...)

Sarah Palin has perfected this kind of political "persuasion": a come-on like a Hooter's waitress with a wink that promises the blow job of your life if you just hand over your wallet (and in this case, your vote). It is aimed exclusively at men - in fact, a distinct subset of sexist and sexually repressed men, generally of the conservatard persuasion.

This kind of man wants a "strong" woman (or thinks he does - he wouldn't know what to do with the real thing), so long as she's physically attractive (in that Cosmo-inspired Barbie-doll way), does most of the domestic work, and agrees with him on everything to do with politics, entertainment, religion and gender. He'll barter what small bit of real agency she's allowed to have in exchange for hot, slutty (though missionary and lasting roughly five minutes) sex-on-demand.

From the woman's point of view in this kind of relationship, her mission is to make this guy a patsy, a bumbling TV-sitcom dad to be plied and wheedled into going along with whatever she wants to do with a wink and a flash of cleavage, and make him think it was his idea.

Both the male and female parties in this are behaving like sexist pigs in the real sense of the term. It's one thing for this power dynamic to exist in personal relationships, and my libertarian side says they can live their own lives as they see fit. But when this dynamic is exploited for either monetary or even worse, political gain, then it is whoredom, plain and simple, in the real sense of the term.

The endless GOP political parade of coifed, blushed, bleached, plucked, botoxed uber-bitches (of which Cindypills McCain is the archetype made flesh) seems to roll off the conveyor belt of some massive machine built with the alien technology of Kang and Kodos. It's like they're stuffing Carrie Nation and Phyllis Schafley into a combination rejuvinator/time machine where their molecules are recombined like Brundlefly and squeezed into a Pamela Anderson shaped injection-mold.

Help me.

Seeing these repugnant women vomiting up the latest fact-free GOP talking points makes the urge to get a gun and go all Elvis on the television screen almost overwhelming.

And why are they there? Because they're "lookers". They make the good ol' boy-cons get a woody. A Republican woman who looks like Janet Reno or Madeline Albright is never offered up as a spokesperson. The Republicans have become the Party of the MILF. It's the embroidered velvet glove on the hand of Skeletor.

In Sarah "wink-and-cleavage" Palin they found their apeothesis. She's the fulfillment of the GOP male wet-dream of the flirty Waffle House waitress as leader of the free world.

They weren't hired just to be "lookers." Try "hookers."

An American Muslim Soldier

2008-10-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

Colin Powell did a lot more than simply and intelligently explain why he was endorsing Barack Obama on Sunday morning. In his remarks he also exposed just how profoundly un-American the right-wing obsession with the "Obama is a Muslim" smear really is, by invoking the memory of Cpl. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry, United States Army.

"And it is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life."

And the picture General Powell described? It's from The New Yorker Magazine's pictorial "Service" by Platon:

I don't know about you, but I look at this picture and think... fuck you, you wingnut assholes. Just... fuck you right in the ear.

UPDATE: More on Cpl. Khan. He was an all-American kid who loved video games, Disney World and the Dallas Cowboys. It's a story to break your heart.

The Traitorous General Powell

2008-10-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

The wingnut whining, along with the expected character assassination, has commenced on former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State in the Bush administration and 4-Star General (and Republican) Colin Powell, over his endorsement of Obama. I guess he's one of those "anti-American" Americans we keep hearing about.

Talking points: He was an "affirmative action hire" by Bush. The Powell Doctrine is just duh-obvious to the military. (So why didn't Bush Jr. follow it? Duh.) Powell was always a liberal RINO anyway. He's only endorsing Obama because they're both Black, so he's a racist too.

Hack mystery writer and quisling Roger L. Smith gives us the whiny ass titty baby side:

But then Powell raised the ante. Citing unnamed Republican party leaders (not McCain), he said these leaders made allegations to him that Obama was a Muslim and therefore a “terrorist”. Really? I would like to hear the names of those “leaders.” Sure, there are plenty of extremists on the Internet and elsewhere bantering around stuff like that (just as there are liberal-left extremists spewing nonsense about McCain), but genuine party leaders? Would Powell please name one? If not, this seems like a political smear. Why would Powell feel he needed to make it?

Three words: Representative Michele Bachmann:

Mr. Simon, you do realize you've just called the only enthusiastic, viable base that still supports McCain/Palin "extremists"? Somehow, I don't think they'd appreciate your description.

And it's not just Internet nutcases, it's the typical parade of seethingly angry supporters lined up for McCain/Palin rallies. There is no similar phenomena at Obama/Biden rallies, no wave after wave of followers spouting "Manchurian candidate" or "Alzheimer's victim" at Obama rallies. (Ridicule of Palin, unfortunately for you guys, simply writes itself.) And there are no Democratic members of Congress calling what now constitutes a majority of the electorate as well as the Legislature "anti-American." Just the one who McCain called one of the wisest men he knows telling it like it really is.

However, both Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley Jr. would agree with your inadvertent "extremist" assessment of the current GOP base, and in fact, they did. They deplored what the GOP and the Conservative movement was becoming even before they died, and now I guarantee you they're spinning in their graves fast enough to generate electricity.

Face it, Mr. Simon - you've backed the wrong horse, you're grasping at straws, and you can't bring yourself to admit it.

Doubling down on the smear by association isn't going to work. The GOP is dead, and you guys killed it.

"President Barack Obama." Get used to it.

UPDATE: Wahhh-mbulance to the Limbaugh studio, stat!
UPDATE 2: Powell gives Simon those three words.

They're Not Gonna Stop

2008-10-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

Bachmann calls for the press to take a good hard look at the Congress, and do an investigation into who's pro- or anti-American. She says she'd welcome such a thing.

No, she wouldn't. Because as this election is about to make pluperfectly clear to anyone with more than a single functioning brain cell, currently Americans despise Republican positions on most issues. Any press investigation that wasn't Fox Noise "Fair and Balanced" would almost have to start by deciding that they had to define "American".

And any such definition would almost have to be composed mostly of the views of the majority on a slate of issues. Following from there to determining which politicos were more in line with the baseline as so defined would be a fairly simple exercise. You wouldn't even necessarily have to talk to them, though fairness does suggest an opportunity for each member of Congress to have a word or two.

This work has already been done. And on issue after issue, the Democrats beat the Republicans.

So, Ms. Bachmann, you really, really don't want that press expose. You'd end up officially branded a traitor, or something like it. And you would not like that.

So really, it's time for the Republicans to STFU about this "anti-American" crap. Questioning your opponent's patriotism worked six years ago. But you rode that horse to death- it's not taking you another step.

Says It All

2008-10-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

(phop courtesy of WordWeaverLynn)

McCain has spent the last three months chasing after Obama rhetorically. The more popular the Democrat gets, the harder the Republican tries to steal his opponent's positions, so as to position himself as some sort of sensible moderate that people can trust to do right by the country.

But the nation has seen what modern Republican rule looks like. It looks like the Ownership Society. It looks like being greeted as liberators. It looks like shattered dreams of empire.

And we're not having any more of this bullshit. The work of cleaning up your mess is about to begin Senator McCain. Follow or get out of the way - you're not going to get to lead us.

Nailin' Paylin

2008-10-14T11:32:00.001-07:00

Rich Lowry's about to get more starbursts all over his pants.

The New York Daily News reports that Larry Flynt's Hustler Video is fast-tracking production of their next cinematic masterpiece, Nailin' Paylin, [sic] to be released before Election Day.

The film also features a three-way between "Paylin", Condi Rice and Hillary Clinton, who will be played by MILF diva Nina Hartley. (I'll bet "Hillary" gets spanked.)

Hustler released the script to RadarOnline, which includes that following frank discussion of international and domestic politics between Paylin and a hunky tanning bed repairman:

PALIN: My oh my. That's quite a toolbelt you have on. It looks heavy.

JOE: I have a big hammer.

PALIN: Oh, I betcha do. I love a big hammer. But I love screwdrivers, too! And wrenches. The fact is I love and respect all of America's diverse tools, big and small. They're what helps make us so great as a nation. Here, let me take that off for ya.

(PALIN takes a seat on the coach beside JOE and starts to undo his belt. He stops her.)

JOE: Let's go take a look at the tanning bed first.

PALIN: Oooh, okay.

(PALIN leads JOE to the tanning salon in the basement. JOE carefully inspects the machine.)

JOE: Looks like there are just a bunch of screws loose.

PALIN: (seductively) You're in luck. I fully support off-shore and on-shore drilling.

(PALIN pounces on JOE and throws him onto the top of the tanning bed. She quickly rips off his jeans.)

PALIN: God almighty! You are hung like a moose. Now I have to eat ya!

JOE: I'm bigger than a moose. Do you have any contraceptives?

PALIN: It's okay. I already took a morning-after pill.

JOE: Um, are you sure it works that way?

PALIN: Are you asking me if I know what a morning-after pill is? Because I totally do! I'll get back to ya with specifics.

(The two proceed to make furious love in a multitude of positions. PALIN amply demonstrates that she has enough experience.)

PALIN: Fuck me harder! HARDER! Pound me until my head is so empty that I can't even remember the name of the one Supreme Court case I actually know! I want it to burn. Burn like a banned book. Oh God, Oh God, OH MY GOD! MAKE ME SEE RUSSIA FROM HERE!

I'm betting it'll outsell the DVD of An American Carol.

It's Going To Get Ugly

2008-10-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

Human squawk boxes Michele Malkin and Glenn Reynolds lead the charge of the WATB keyboard brigade these days, shouting at clouds about how the media is reporting on a few overexcited Joe Six-Packs at rallies shouting "kill him!", but are SO totally ignoring the unhinged moonbats who have been saying mean things about George W. Bush for all these wretched years. (It seems like about 77% of the electorate agree with the moonbats this time around.)

Blue Texan at Instaputz uses the totally unfair debating tactic of asking for facts:

- cite a single Kerry or Obama or Gore campaign rally in which the participants were caught on camera screaming for the assassination of George W. Bush or;
- cite a single instance at a campaign event in which Obama or Kerry had to correct bigoted/ugly questions from supporters or;
- cite a single instance of Biden or Edwards suggesting that George W. Bush "palled around" with racists or extremists
- cite an instance of Kerry or Obama supporters caught on camera outside the event spouting the most ignorant and hateful things imaginable
- cite the dates during Obama or Kerry or Gore in which all of the above happened -- in a single week

It seems the best examples of high profile "lefties spreading hate" are Madonna and Sandra Bernhard. How 80s.

Basically, they want you to believe that in the grand scale of crazy people to be afraid of, this:

Is equal to this:

Which is the whole "liberal fascism" argument in a nutshell, isn't it?

Don't Mess With The Men In Black

2008-10-12T14:10:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a previous post the comments by Seymour Hersh in his recent speech at Berkeley, how he was almost certain that the US Secret Service would not at all be pleased with the bloody red meat of "paling around with terrorists" (notice the use of the plural form) being served up by Sarah Mooselini of late at her Nuremberg-like rallies. And McCain's 100% pure "all attacks all the time" TV ads have undeniably fueled the spittle-flecked rage of the attendees in line for McCain-Palin campaign events being captured on various YouTube videos.

These people are insane. They're being whipped into a frenzy. And they like owning lots of guns.

As one commenter here noted, Hersh is rarely, if ever, wrong about anything having to do with skulduggery and politics. And lo and behold, on Saturday we were treated to the spectacle of McCain having to grab the microphone away from the bag-lady audience member who had simply started to regurgitate the very same talking points that McCain's own handlers had been injecting into the campaign for weeks. And then he had to launch into a passionate defense of his opponent as a "family man" and a "patriot". As the audience booed.

I get the feeling at that moment a lot of hard-faced men and women with sunglasses and earpieces were nodding to each other in grim satisfaction.

Don't mess with the Men in Black.

Take it away, Will...

Blood in the Streets

2008-10-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

Remember when the wingnut pundits were spewing out dire warnings of "race riots" if Obama were to lose the primary against Hillary Clinton? And how they reprised the same talking point about Obama losing the general? How they clucked their tongues and wagged their fingers at those savage ~~nigras~~ liberals who wouldn't hesitate to riot in the streets over an Obama loss, and how this was clear proof of the violent immaturity of all the Dirty Fucking Hippies (and "teh Coloreds")?

But as we all know: It's OK if you're a Republican! Even rioting in the streets is a justifiable reaction to losing an election, if it's the Republicans who lose.

Here's the dire warning from right-wing shithead gasbag Dan Riehl:

There may indeed be blood in the streets before the current political and economic issues before the nation are resolved. But it won't have much of anything to do with Race, it'll be about the fundamental principles of this Republic a great many Americans are not prepared to give up without a serious fight.

And the rage won't just last days ... it could be a battle fought for years and not always without its victims. Can you imagine the look on the faces of the Obama-loving Ayres apologists at the New York Times when the bombs start exploding in their lobby, instead of the Pentagon?

I'm not advocating it, but I do fear some Americans probably can imagine it at this point. In fact, I have little doubt of it. And I can understand that rage, even if I wouldn't support such an action.

Shorter version:

"I certainly won't be out there lynching the niggers myself, I just tell other people to do it, but it's a perfectly understandable and unavoidable reaction if terrorist lover and traitor Obama Hussein wins the election."

UPDATE: The article linked above contains the following paragraph:

OK, just for the sake of argument let’s look at it this way, suppose Obama cleans McCain’s clock and wins in a landslide? And took the Electoral College by storm, just suppose.

Have you heard ANY rumors of race riots in case that scenario were to come to pass?

I know I haven’t, but then again, I am not a person that lives a mindset that dictates that because someone like Rodney King decided to ignore police orders, and got his ass beat all to hell and back in the process, well, I need to go burn down MY neighborhood, and the businesses that cater to ME and MY people, that just isn’t a thought process that I have ever adhered to or heard mentioned in my 55 years on this earth, and I have been around some serious racists, I have heard the mantra, from WHITE and BLACK racists.

That was written two weeks ago. My, how things have changed...

Obama Campaign Adopts the Joe Max Election Eve Strategy

2008-10-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

I do believe you heard it here first. At least, I couldn't find anyone else talking about this idea at the time. Both Nixon and Humphrey did it in 1968, and I had to go to Google Books to find a reference to it in an obscure 20 year-old book on presidential politics and the media: the election eve telethon.

The New York In-The-Tank-For-Obama Times reports:

Obama, Purse Swelling, Plans Half-Hour TV Ad

Senator Barack Obama has become the first presidential candidate in 16 years to buy a half-hour of prime time network television for a campaign infomercial.

Officials at the Obama campaign and at several television networks said Thursday that Mr. Obama had completed deals to show a half-hour program about his candidacy on CBS and NBC on Wednesday, Oct. 29, less than a week before Election Day. The campaign is also talking to ABC and Fox about similar deals, though the potential of a World Series Game 6 may make that impossible on Fox.

And last month I wrote:

In the last days of the 1968 Presidentiual Election, both candidates - Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey - ran two-hour "paid programming" telethons, broadcast on major networks (which, in the days before Cable news channels, were the only games in town.) These are described in the book White House to Your House by Edwin Diamond and Robert A. Silverman.

So how about a blast from the past - an Obama Election Eve Telethon?

[...]

I think this might be a good idea to dust off for November. How about it, Obama campaign? I know you can afford it.

I'm glad that the Obama campaign is finally following my advice!

Admittedly, we're talking about an Obama infomercial, not a "telethon" per se, but these are different times. There won't be a bank of phones ringing, but you can be sure there will be website links and text message numbers being displayed. Though I still think the telethon format would be a great PR move.

Extra credit: Who was the last presidential candidate to use the "infomercial"?

The Cowardly McCain

2008-10-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

"Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk, in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got???"

"Courage!"

"You can say that again!"

Nasty, Brutish, and Short

2008-10-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

...and people want him to be president.

I sometimes wonder if I see a completely different angle on the world than just about anyone else. In the two days since the second presidential debate I have seen not one blog post on this subject. So since someone's gotta do it.

BROKAW: The three -- health care, energy, and entitlement reform: Social Security and Medicare. In what order would you put them in terms of priorities?

MCCAIN: I think you can work on all three at once, Tom. I think it's very important that reform our entitlement programs.

My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for present-day workers that we are going -- that present-day retirees have today.

Allow me to express myself for all those people out there who haven't yet.

*ahem*
WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU WITHERED OLD BEEN-ON-GOVERNMENT-BENEFITS-YOUR-WHOLE-LIFE HUNK OF SHIT?!!

I mean really, What. The. Fuck? If I were an ageist dickhead, I might call this typical Baby Boomer bullshit. But McCain's not a Boomer, and this has the distinct stink of Republicanism and Libertarianism about it. McCain and his cronies have got theirs. He's so sorry, Mister or Madam Generation X, about the promise that has kept you working and paying into the system your whole life even while things like job security and pensions and respect evaporated, each looted in their turn in the name of almighty profit, but we just can't afford to keep it.

And now that we are approaching 40, what do we have to look forward to? Skyrocketing inflation, chronic underemployment, devastated cities and oh by the way the struggle for survival will now go on until the day you don't.

When the financial markets started to meltdown one of the common refrains was "Aren't you glad Nancy Pelosi stopped George Bush from putting our Social Security into Wall Street hands?" Damn right I was. Weren't you?

The Kristallnacht Kampaign

2008-10-08T01:18:00.000-07:00

I heard Seymour Hersh speak at Berkeley last night, and the subject of Sarah Palin was brought up in the Q & A. Hersh said he had no direct knowledge of Palin, has never met her (he was always careful to say when he was offering opinion or relating facts) so he doesn't have any more personal insight on her character than anyone else. But he was amazed, he said, by what he'd read about the audience behavior at Palin's rallies in recent days, and her followers' reactions to the wingnut read-meat she's been slinging. With her crowds (and McCain's) shouting out things like "terrorist!" and "traitor!" and "kill him!" in response to their attacks on Obama, as well as the verbal and physical threatening of reporters by her audience members, her events are more like war rallies than political speeches.

Culture war indeed.

But what Hersh could almost be certain of - again saying he has no special knowledge (always the factual reporter) but can speak from experience with the high end of national political campaigns - is that the Secret Service cannot be taking this kind of thing lightly. He would be very surprised if the director of the Secret Service hadn't already had discussions with the McCain campaign. Apparently the S.S. is already trying to track down some of the more *ahem* enthusiastic members of her audience.

Palin is deliberately pouring gasoline on crowds of already flaming asshole wingnuts. That is, of course, what they hired her for. And these reich-tards are getting scared, as the possibility of not only an Obama win but an Obama landslide looms, their worst nightmare come true.

A sacred wingnut is a dangerous wingnut.

Grandpa and the Church Lady are creating the worst kind of monster: a mob, the monster with a thousand heads and no brain. And what was the winger's biggest complaint about McCain's debate performance? He didn't shovel up the same kind of "fightin' words" as Sarah Mooselini's been spewing for days and throw them in Obama's face.

Here's the thing: two meth-head rednecks with guns and a stupid plan to assassinate Obama in Denver have already been arrested. There's a lot more where they came from, and many of them are likely smarter than those two shitheads, but equally deranged.

If Hersh is right, we may see Mooseburgers lightening up in coming days. Because there's nothing the Secret Service hates more than someone deliberately making their job harder. To an S.S. agent, "harder" means having to take a bullet. That's enough to ruin anybody's day.

For more insight on what happens when wingnuts get scared, there's this from the eeeevil 1960s:

Dead Stock Market Sketch

2008-10-06T10:49:00.001-07:00

Mr. Obama: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.

Mr. Paulson: We're closin' for lunch.

Mr. Obama: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this stock market what I purchased not half a year ago from this very economy.

Mr. Paulson: Oh yes, the, uh, the Unfettered Free Stock Market... What's, uh... What's wrong with it?

Mr. Obama: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it!

Mr. Paulson: No, no, 'e's uh,... it's... adjustin'.

Mr. Obama: Look, matey, I know a dead stock market when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.

Mr. Paulson: No no it's not dead, it's, it's adjustin'! Remarkable stock market, the Unfettered Free, idn'it, ay? Beautiful portfolio!

Mr. Obama: The portfolio don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

Mr. Paulson: Nononono, no, no! it's adjustin'!

Mr. Obama: All right then, if it's adjustin', I'll wake it up! (shouting at the cage) 'Ello, Mister stock market! I've got a lovely fresh government bailout for you if you...

(Mr. Paulson hits the treasury)

Mr. Paulson: There, it moved!

Mr. Obama: No, it didn't, that was you inflating the money supply!

Mr. Paulson: I never!!

Mr. Obama: Yes, you did!

Mr. Paulson: I never, never did anything...

Mr. Obama: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) 'ELLO STOCK MARKET!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your election year alarm call!

(Takes stock market out of the cage and thumps its head on the CNBC anchor desk. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet 1000 points.)

Mr. Obama: Now that's what I call a dead stock market.

Mr. Paulson: No, no... No, it's discouraged!

Mr. Obama: DISCOURAGED?!?

Mr. Paulson: Yeah! You discouraged it, just as it was wakin' up! Unfettered Free stock markets discourage easily, major.

Mr. Obama: Um... now look... now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That stock market is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not 'alf a year ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged irrational exuberance.

Mr. Paulson: Well, it's... it's, ah... probably pining for the Reagan.

Mr. Obama: PININ' for the REAGAN?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that? Look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got 'im home?

Mr. Paulson: The Unfettered Free stock market prefers keepin' on it's back! Remarkable market, id'nit, squire? Lovely portfolio!

Mr. Obama: Look, I took the liberty of examining that stock market when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on a 13,000+ point index in the first place was that it had been NAILED there with over-leveraged real estate.

Mr. Paulson: Well, o'course it was nailed there! If we hadn't nailed that market down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its golden parachutes, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!

Mr. Obama: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this market wouldn't "voom" if you put 700 billion dollars through it! It's bleedin' demised!

Mr. Paulson: No no! It's pining!

Mr. Obama: It's not pinin'! It's passed on! This stock market is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet it's maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the over-inflated mortgage investments, it'd been pushing up the daisies! It's economic processes are now 'istory! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off it's mortal coil, rung down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS... is an EX-stock market!!!

Bring It On

2008-10-06T09:00:00.001-07:00

Sarah Mooseburgers sez:

"Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country,". She went on to say "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

Palin also wants to bring Reverend Wright back for an encore too, seeming to forget her own extensive "preacher problems". In Omaha, she said: "To tell the truth, Bill, I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."

I'll see you one Black Liberation minister and raise you one witch hunter, one "end of days" preacher and one "pray away the gay" sermon, Sarah.

But "palling around" with unsavory political crazies from the 1960s? Well, we already know that the Obama campaign has unleashed the Keating 5 bomb in response. (Hint to McCain: this is not the Kerry campaign.) And little Sarah Winky ought to be a bit more careful, lest her and her husband's connections to the secessionist Alaska Independent Party make the news cycles again.

But if McCain wants to keep playing the slime game, there's always this from the Chicago Tribune:

McCain minced no words: "I think not only a repudiation but an apology for ever having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people. "What McCain didn't mention is that he has his own Bill Ayers -- in the form of G. Gordon Liddy. Now a conservative radio talk-show host, Liddy spent more than 4 years in prison for his role in the 1972 Watergate burglary. That was just one element of what Liddy did, and proposed to do, in a secret White House effort to subvert the Constitution. Far from repudiating him, McCain has embraced him.

How close are McCain and Liddy? At least as close as Obama and Ayers appear to be. In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns -- including $1,000 this year.

Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as "an old friend," and McCain sounded like one. "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family," he gushed. "It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

G. Gordon Liddy... wow, that takes me back. He's the one who called himself a "political prisoner" when he was sent up for the Watergate burglary. He's the one who advised, on his radio show during the Waco standoff, that when the federal cops come for you to aim for their heads, "because they'll be wearing bullet proof vests." Asked later if he wanted to amend his comment, he did: "Actually, you should aim for their groins."

Nice "pal" you got there, Johnny Maverick.

Obama's campaign has ammunition they haven't even loaded yet. So you want to go sleazy? Obama says: bring it on.

Something Dumber This Way Comes

2008-10-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

(Maybe not as great as the first two, but still damn funny.)

UPDATE: Sullivan prints a reader's observation:

I just want to ask: can anyone, anyone, imagine Condoleeza Rice or Margaret Thatcher or even Hillary Clinton for God's sake, winking at the nation and/or being coquettish in any national format?

Yeah. Just checking.

Or Christine Todd Whitman, or Katherine Sebelius, or Kay Bailey Hutchinson, or Nancy Pelosi, or Olympia Snowe, or Jennifer Granholm, or Angela Merkel, or Segolene Royal, or Doi Takako...

Palin has single-handedly set back women in politics by at least a decade. Dontcha know.

The Real Face of Sarah Palin

2008-10-04T10:28:00.001-07:00

Oh gods of all politics, I beseech thee: listen to the right wingnuts when they say, "Let Sarah be Sarah!" Palin said on Faux News that she wants to "talk" to The People, without the "filter" of the media.

Oh please please please pleeeeeeese! Let it be so!

We can look forward to more gems like these:

"I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'" -- as quoted by former City Council Member Nick Carney, after he raised objections about the $50,000 she spent renovating the mayor's office without approval of the city council

"Perhaps so." -- when asked if we may need to go to war with Russia because of the Georgia crisis, ABC News interview, Sept. 11, 2008

"In what respect, Charlie?" -- asked if she agreed with the Bush Doctrine, ABC News interview, Sept. 11, 2008

"Absolutely. Yup, yup." -- asked by People magazine if she was ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency

"It's great to see another part of the country." -- campaigning in Pennsylvania, Aug. 2008

"A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." -- dismissing global warming as influenced by human activity, Newsmax interview, Aug. 2008

"Our national leaders are sending soldiers out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." -- on the Iraq war, speaking to students at the Wasilla Assembly of God, June 2008

"We need to come to the defense of Southeast Alaska when proposals are on the table like the bridge and not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that's so negative." -- on the Bridge to Nowhere, interview with the Ketchikan Daily News, Oct. 2006

"When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism, or maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, 'Man, that doesn't do us any good, women in politics, or women in general, trying to progress this country." -- on complaints from Hillary Clinton's campaign about sexist coverage, Spring 2008

"What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?" -- inquiring with Wasilla librarian Mary Ellen Emmons about banning books right after taking office in 1996

"As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?" -- interview with CNBC's "Kudlow & Co", July 2008

"That's exactly what we're going to do in a Palin and McCain administration." -- elevating herself to the top of the ticket, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sept. 18, 2008

h/t to Daniel Kurtzman at About.com for the compliation. Click here for more Sarah fun!

Devil Girl From Alaska

2008-10-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

Palin proclaims a New Vice Presidential Order:

No, no. Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are. [...] Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.

Ninety-plus U.S. Senators simultaneously gagged on their own bile as those words came sputtering out of the Palin-o-tron's exhaust pipe. In a way, I'd almost like to say, "Ha! I'd like to see her try to face down Harry Reid!" Reid has spit in the faces of the Vegas mafia, so I don't think Caribou Barbie is going to intimidate him in the slightest.

But as amusing as that scenario might be, this "fourth branch" Cheney bullshit has to be strangled, buried, quicklimed and its grave sown with salt. I sat there thinking, "Joe, don't let her get away with this!' And to Joe's eternal credit, he didn't:

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

Go Joe!

Palin Didn't Drool - Wingnuts Rejoice

2008-10-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

After setting the bar so low that a tapeworm couldn't slither under it, wingnuts join in a mighty "YOO-ESS-AY!" over Plain's stunning display of only marginally incompetent mediocrity in St. Louis on Thursday night.

But the disturbing thing to me was her staking out a power grab for the Vice Presidency over the Senate, and I think almost all Senators, even most Republicans, shuddered in fear and loathing at the prospect of Palin driving legislative agendas in the Upper House. I think she's been listening to the Cheney neocons, trying to position a way for a President McCain to get legislation considered by a Congress that will absolutely hate his guts if he wins.

Oh joy. A Vice President Palin with MORE power than Dick Cheney. I really hope they do try to sell that to the public. And I hope Obama beats them to a pulp with it.

UPDATE: "New-qoo-ler". Seven times. Hehehe.

Katie Couric Saves Her Career

2008-10-02T11:16:00.001-07:00

There were many who asked, "Is she ready for prime time?"

There were many who asked, "Can we take her seriously?"

There were many who asked, as recently as last April, "Is she going to keep her job as news anchor?"

But it looks like now she's on track to be the woman who, almost single-handedly, destroyed a major party's presidential campaign.

Without raising her voice.

By merely asking questions of that major party's VP candidate in a calm, detached manner.

Questions that even I, who am certainly nowhere near qualified to hold such an office, could have answered better. While drunk.

I do believe nobody at CBS News is asking those questions anymore. Walter Cronkite should be proud of his network again.

So on behalf of the progressive blogosphere, I say, "Thank you, Ms. Couric."

Job well done.

Gotcha!

Palin Sells Conservative Morality Well

2008-09-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

Beware, social progressives! Sarah Palin is actually good at speaking about some subjects off-the-cuff. She's quite adroit at packaging right-wing Christianist dogma wrapped in specious reasonableness, while deftly avoiding being nailed down on specifics. This was apparently her strong suit while campaigning in Alaska, where her opponents tried to bring her down by painting her as an extreme Fundie. That was their mistake. Though she actually is an extreme Fundie, as the various videos of Born Again Sarah in action demonstrate, she's learned all the tricks of palming it off on the public like a Three-Card Monte artist.

In her last interview session with Katie Couric, Palin shows her skill at coming off reasonable and non-scary. For example:

Couric: But ideally, you think it should be illegal for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?

Palin: I'm saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in. And, um, if you're asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an … abortion, absolutely not. That's nothing I would ever support.

Couric: Some people have credited the morning-after pill for decreasing the number of abortions. How do you feel about the morning-after pill?

Palin: Well, I am all for contraception. And I am all for preventative measures that are legal and safe, and should be taken, but Katie, again, I am one to believe that life starts at the moment of conception. And I would like to see …

Couric: And so you don't believe in the morning-after pill?

Palin: ... I would like to see fewer and fewer abortions in this world. And again, I haven't spoken with anyone who disagrees with my position on that.

She's slick, make no mistake about it. Doesn't want to put women in jail for getting abortions, but how about doctors or anyone who performs or facilitates obtaining abortions? That's a pretty glaring omission, which Coric failed to cover with a follow-up. In favor of contraception? If it's "legal" and "safe", which leaves the door open for some kinds of contraception being declared "unsafe" by the government and therefore made illegal. Just get the FDA to raise "safety" concerns about the morning after pill, and viola! - no longer legal!

But this is all presented with her best, non-scary hockey mom delivery. These are the kinds of questions she got in Alaskan political campaigns, and she knows how to field them.

Conclusion: progressives shouldn't push for journalists to grill Palin on her social conservatism, with the possible exception of nailing her on her position on abortion for victims of rape and incest, which is way off the mainstream. Because Palin's slippery and she knows how to handle those questions. This is what the right-wingers mean with their call for "let Palin be Palin!" Social morality issues are her comfort zone, and she's good at dodging questions about her radical views.

Wilma Palin

2008-09-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times:

"Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.

"Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska."

Epic Bailout, Epic FAIL

2008-09-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

Kent Brockman: Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack each other’s heads open and feast on the goo inside?

Professor: Yes I would, Kent.

Barney Frank puts to rest the usual Republican nonsense that everything is the Democrats' fault.

A Message from the Obama Campaign

2008-09-27T23:53:00.001-07:00

Really. Stop with the fainting couches and pearl clutching already. Obama did exactly what he wanted to do in the debate. They've got a strategy, and they're sticking to it. Remember, his campaign took down what was believed to be the unstoppable Clinton juggernaut. I'm going to assume for now they know what they're doing.

See what James Fallows at The Atlantic has to say - you know, one of those elitist experts on politics and the media.

And for a bit of fun, here's what I'm talking about:

Update: From WaPo, a fly on the wall report from the White House meeting. This explains a lot.

Grandpa Grumpy McSame - FAIL

2008-09-27T12:09:00.001-07:00

No, Obama didn't deliver a knockout punch, but that was not the objective. "National security" is McCain's signature issue, and anything but a decisive win on that topic is counted as a failure, especially when you're behind in the polls.

But more devastating for Gramps, and the polls show this unequivocally, is that he came off as a snide, grumpy old man. It's painfully obvious he holds Obama in supreme contempt, as in, "why is this uppity nigra on the same stage as me?!?!" Not that I think McCain is closet racist, but that's how it comes across, whether or not he meant it that way.

I guess they wont be running that "McCain Wins Debate" blog ad after all...

One of my favorite conservatives (the geniune kind), Daniel Larison, lays it out:

Maybe I am influenced by how poorly Obama used to do when he debated Clinton, but I thought he did so much better than he has before that it has to be scored as a win for him. McCain was more aggressive, no doubt, but it is my impression that it translated into contempt and condescension, which are the things that everyone has been saying that Biden has to avoid when he debates Palin. He used the word naive how many times? He was scolding him as if he were a school master, but it is far from clear in any of the exchanges that he knew more. Obama was not forceful enough, but he was so much more focused than he was earlier in the year. McCain came off, in my view, as a snide, bitter old man. His comments betrayed the sentiment of, “How dare you even think that you can compete with me.” This is what Clinton thought, and it destroyed her.

And from the other side, here's WaPo's Eugene Robinson:

Here’s the politically incorrect way of phrasing one of the central questions about tonight’s presidential debate: Did John McCain come across as too much of a grumpy old man?

That might not be a nice question, but it’s an important one. Americans like to vote for the nice guy, not the grumbling prophet of doom. Throughout the 90-minute debate, McCain seemed contemptuous of Obama. He wouldn’t look at him. He tried to belittle him whenever possible -- how many times did he work “Senator Obama just doesn’t understand” into his answers? His body language was closed, defensive, tense. McCain certainly succeeded in proving that he can be aggressive, but the aggression came with a smirk and a sneer.

I noticed too how focused Obama becomes when he's a wee bit pissed off, and it's good for him. The hesitancy vanishes, his verbal tic of saying "ahh" between points evaporates. I think subconsciously viewers got to see him getting insulted by Ol' Grumpy and not rising to take the bait, and steadiness is something people want in a president right now. I think this explains a lot about the favorables Obama got last night. Obama is willing to look his opponent in the eyes.

And indeed, Biden now has the key to his winning the comparison to Palin: be calm, cool, collected and clearly knowledgeable, and let Palin flail about a impale herself. Sweet, sweet schadenfreude!

Don't Change Dicks in the Middle of a Screw...

2008-09-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

"...re-elect Nixon in '72!"

How come all the talking bloggerheads are describing McCain's "running against the media" as out the "Rove" playbook?

How soon we forget, but Tricky Dick invented the gambit.And Nixon had his own malfunctioning Veep robot, the infamous Spiro Agnew, who resigned in disgrace in 1974.

Former Republican speechwriter and current professional wingnut curmudgeon Pat Buchanan penned mouth noises for the Spiro Robot to regugitate, and denouncing the "liberal media" was his most famous choice of noise, which yielded the immortal line, "the nattering nabobs of negativity."

Take it away, Spiro!

The purpose of my remarks tonight is to focus your attention on this little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant rebuttal to every Presidential address, but, more importantly, wield a free hand in selecting, presenting, and interpreting the great issues in our nation. First, let’s define that power.

At least 40 million Americans every night, it’s estimated, watch the network news. Seven million of them view A.B.C., the remainder being divided between N.B.C. and C.B.S. According to Harris polls and other studies, for millions of Americans the networks are the sole source of national and world news. In Will Roger’s observation, what you knew was what you read in the newspaper. Today for growing millions of Americans, it’s what they see and hear on their television sets.

Now how is this network news determined? A small group of men, numbering perhaps no more than a dozen anchormen, commentators, and executive producers, settle upon the 20 minutes or so of film and commentary that’s to reach the public. This selection is made from the 90 to 180 minutes that may be available. Their powers of choice are broad.

Of course, the prospect of Sarah Mooseburgers becoming the V.P. to a doddering old man president makes me pine for the good old days of Nixon. Gods, what have we become?

One Foot Over the Cliff, Pushing Off With The Other

2008-09-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

And so John McCain, that paragon of honor, integrity, and patriotism, is about to jump over that line, too, and become even more of a whipping boy than his running mate:

From CNN, sorry - commercial leading.

All I have to say is: bawk bawk! Chicken! Come take your beating like a man.

Hold it!

2008-09-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Wall Street: "Hand over the $700 billion dollars, taxpayers, or the economy gets it!"

Bush: “Hold it, Congress. He’s not bluffing.”

Wall Street: "“Gimme that money, or I swear I’ll blow this economy's head all over this town.”

Paulson: “Listen to him, Congress! He’s just crazy enough to do it.”

Wall Street: [now speaking in a higher voice] "Oh, lo'dy, lo'd, he's desp'it! Do what he sayyyy, do what he sayyyy..."

Obama: "Isn't anybody going to help that poor economy?"

Pelosi: "Hush, Barry, that's a sure way to get it killed!"

Wall Street: [higher voice] "Oooh! He'p me, he'p me! Somebody he'p me! He'p me! He'p me! He'p me!"

Wall Street: [low voice] "Shut up!"

Reid: "Just give them the money, Nancy!"

[Wall Street drags itself away, picks up the $700 billion, stuffs it into its pockets]

Wall Street: "Ooh, baby, you are so talented! And they are so DUMB!"

UPDATE: What Robert Reich says.

Sarah Palin - Laughingstock

2008-09-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Can you hear it?

A few weeks ago it came out as honest gasps of amazement and dismay. “Who is this person?!” cried the political junkies of a nation. So began the vetting. As we learned, the consensus split. Each side labored mightily to shape it to their desires.

The Republicans made Sarah Palin out a small-town heroine. A feminist, oh pardon me a post-feminist success story. But it began right then. A pro-Palin site called VPILF was started. And sardonic eyebrows were raised and smirks appeared all over the blogosphere.

The Democrats had a single, simple word. “Lightweight”. And then by and large they proceeded to ignore her completely and concentrated on attacking McCain. Since they didn’t fall into the trap of legitimizing her, the GOP turned to their old standby device – fauxtrage.

Both sides of the political divide roared over the “lipstick” nonsense. The Right, newly awakened to the political leverage that can come from accusations of sexism, suddenly became ardent feminists. The Left essentially replied “Get out of here, you fucking wankers”.

And then. And then… McCain couldn’t keep her away from the intent gaze of the nation any longer. The political junkies of the nation held their breath.

Palin didn’t know anything about the Federal Mortgage companies.
Palin didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was.
Palin made victims pay for rape kits in her town.
Palin was a follower of a witch-hunter. No, really. No, not figuratively - literally. Read Max’s post, just before mine, damn it.

And then…and then, right on the heels of that disaster of an interview on ABC, came Tina Fey with the deadliest possible portrayal of Palin. Accurate, understated, and hilarious.

And a nation laughed. And is still laughing. And just may laugh all the way to election day.

Burn the Witch!

2008-09-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Governor Mooselini has her own "preacher problem".

No, not just her regular fundamentalist whacko preacher who fleeces his flock for cash, telling them that after the imminent Rapture®© Alaska will be the haven for survivors, and sells them "Rapture®© Insurance©. No, that's just business as usual in Jesusland.

No, this guy is a real piece of work.

This from the Daily Mail:

Vice presidential pick Sarah Palin is known for her strident views on religion and the power of prayer.
But her credibility is once again being questioned after an African pastor she credits with helping her political career was revealed to have waged a witch-hunt against a woman who was said to cause car crashes with her "demonic spells."
In June, Palin told how a visiting pastor from Kenya had foretold she was destined for greater things.

She told other members of the Assembly of God church in her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, that Thomas Muthee had laid his hands on her head and prayed over her when they met in 2005.
After what the 44-year-old described as his "awesome" prayer she went on to become Alaska's first governor.

Here, let little Sarah tell it in her own words:

Muthee described his offensive against a demonic presence in the town of Kiambu in a trailer for a evangelical video “Transformations”, made by a Christian research and information agency.

Details of what happened were reported at the time in the Christian Science Monitor, as well as on numerous evangelical websites.

According to the Monitor, six months of prayer and research identified the source of the witchcraft as a local woman called Mama Jane.

Her alleged involvement in fortune-telling and the fact that she lived near the site of a number of fatal car accidents led Pastor Muthee to publicly brand her a witch.

He ordered her to offer her up her soul for salvation or leave Kiambu.

“Muthee held a crusade that 'brought about 200 people to Christ'”, the Monitor said.

They set up round-the-clock prayer intercession and eventually, says the pastor “the demonic influence was broken”, and Mama Jane fled the town.

According to accounts of the witch-hunt circulated on evangelical websites, after Mutheee spoke out against Mama Jane many villagers demanded she be stoned.

Police raided her home and shot a pet python which was believed to be a demon.

Muthee,who said he became a pastor after "God spoke" to him in 1989, has frequently referred to this witch-hunt in his sermons as an example of the power of “spiritual warfare”.

Ph33r TeH Hakkurz!

2008-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

One of the more interesting bits of the whole Sarah Palin nonsense has been the fact that she (and others of her staff) haev been conducting state business out of email accounts other than those provided by the state. (If this M.O. sounds familiar, it's because the Bush Administration has done it, and then conveniently "lost" the mail when it was subpoenaed.)

But in a perfect expression of the ever-increasing incompetence of the GOP, Palin used a Yahoo email address for this.

Wait, you may ask, how is this stupid? Ask your friends who have had their Yahoo accounts broken into - like Sarah Palin's just was!

Oh but it gets even better. You see, Palin has been trying to claim executive privilege for the stuff that went through her Yahoo account. Nevermind that such is explicitly against the law, she was trying it anyway. She can forget about that dodge, now.

Oh, and a tip o' the hat to flemco, over on LiveJournal, for the item.

Pirates of Wall Street

2008-09-16T10:39:00.001-07:00

I've written a speech for Barack Obama. It's time for some straight talk, and I think Obama should steal that meme from McCain like McCain stole "Change" from Obama. Pick a place to make a major address that resonates, like a closed auto plant or (heh) a closed brokerage house. Dispatch the Obama field wokers to deliver a crowd. Look people right in the eye and level with them, Barack.

My fellow Americans, it's time for some real straight talk.

One: the financial regulatory system is broken. John McCain and the Republicans aren't fooling anybody. The captains of Wall Street are no longer wise admirals and commanders who bring law and order to the economic seas, they're like the pirates of the Caribbean! You can even see it in the lingo they use, like corporate raiders and hostile takeovers. Folks, pirates of the Caribbean is no way to run the American economy.

It's become a game to these people, and they're playing the game with your money. They lose your money, your jobs, your savings, your taxes, and then walk away with a golden parachute worth millions. Enough!

[Insert unemployment and other grim financial statistics here. Tick them off one by one.]

Let's not fool ourselves. We can't fix what's broken until we admit it's broken.

Two: what do we do about it, both in the short term and the long term, because this is a long term problem we have to solve.

[Tick off short term governmental remedies to soften the economic hits taken by the working and middle class. e.g. Expansion of unemployment insurance, treasury-backed mortgage re-financing, basic job stimulus package.]

In the long term, this game must have rules. Teddy Roosevelt once said unfettered capitalism leads to corruption. The way you fight corruption is with rule of law, rules that hold people and corporations responsible for their failures. It's true that the old rules created in the 1930s needed to be changed for the modern economy. But modernizing the rules doesn't mean scrapping the rules, unless you're a Republican. Because that's what Republicans have done for the past eight years, they scrapped the rules. John McCain has said repeatedly he doesn't like regulation at all. John McCain's friend and economic adviser Phil Gramm led the way in the Republican's rampant deregulation of the financial industry, and we could end up with that man, who called you "a nation of whiners", as Secretary of the Treasury!

With John McCain in the White House, nothing will change, the same people who brought our economy to the edge of ruin will still be running the ship, and next time it goes over the edge, they'll do what they always do - blame the Democrats.

Enough.

Three: here's the specific changes the Obama administration will bring to the regulation of the financial system:

[Tick off specific policy initiatives.]

With a Democratic congress, and with the help of smart Republican lawmakers who know what needs to be done, I will be able to get new, streamlined regulations put in place to prevent this kind of meltdown from happening again. With John McCain and the Republicans, all you'll get is history repeating itself.

Ok, get me Barack on the Blackberry, stat!

UPDATE: Looks like somebody's got the idea.

And The Stupid Shall Inherit

2008-09-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

According to a recent study, it appears that when refuting a falsehood with facts, there is a certain demographic on whom not only does refutation not work, it actually makes it more likely they will continue to believe the falsehood, not less.

Can you guess which demographic that is? The Washington Post has details:

Political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler provided two groups of volunteers with the Bush administration's prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. One group was given a refutation -- the comprehensive 2004 Duelfer report that concluded that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction before the United States invaded in 2003. Thirty-four percent of conservatives told only about the Bush administration's claims thought Iraq had hidden or destroyed its weapons before the U.S. invasion, but 64 percent of conservatives who heard both claim and refutation thought that Iraq really did have the weapons. The refutation, in other words, made the misinformation worse.

Maybe this is the problem with the 21st century progressive movement - we cling to the naive belief that a majority of voters can be swayed by logic, reason and facts. Suddenly it dawned on me why McPalin keeps repeating the "I told them 'no thanks' on the Bridge to Nowhere" canard, no matter how many times the opposition, the press and their own lying eyes tell their supporters otherwise.

The authors speculate that conservatives have a deep-seated cultural distrust of "academic authority" of any kind, and hearing a refutation of something they strongly wish to believe simply makes them cling to their belief all the more. Liberals, on the other hand, do not resist changing their opinions on the basis of facts.

In a paper approaching publication, Nyhan, a PhD student at Duke University, and Reifler, at Georgia State University, suggest that Republicans might be especially prone to the backfire effect because conservatives may have more rigid views than liberals: Upon hearing a refutation, conservatives might "argue back" against the refutation in their minds, thereby strengthening their belief in the misinformation. Nyhan and Reifler did not see the same "backfire effect" when liberals were given misinformation and a refutation about the Bush administration's stance on stem cell research.

Ironically, the conservatives will also dismiss the conclusions of this study, because "studies" that uncover "facts" are written by a bunch of faggy-fag nerds, the kind they used to kick the shit out of back in junior high. Cause they're too smart. Cause smart guys are fags. Unless they're girls, and then they're lezzies.

We have truly become the Idiocracy.

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

2008-09-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

YouTube seems to think that this video is inappropriate, and has pulled it:

Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

I think it's poorly put together, but damning nonetheless.

The practices of these people remind me of nothing so much as how Christians used to describe Pagan religions. How interesting then that even when I am scornful of my fellow Pagans, I find them to be some of the most civilized, pragmatic, reasonable people I know. Damn few of them go so far as to think they have some divine mission to force their ethos on a nation.

No person who does so think can be anything but my enemy.

Tina Fey, We Love You!

2008-09-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

And we love you too, Amy Poehler!

On The Cutting Room Floor

2008-09-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Following close on the news that Obama hates POWs and pistol whips them with Blackberries, comes the new winger rage-gasm bouncing around in Memeorandum this weekend about the “editing” of Palin’s interview by ABC. This is another piece of stupidity that was chopped to pieces by Daniel Larison in American Conservative, ferfugssake:

Perhaps more pathetic than the ignorance defense (”No one truly knows what the Bush Doctrine is!”) is the editing defense, which just draws attention to parts of the Palin interview that were included in the online transcript but were cut out of the televised version, no doubt at least partly to avoid redundancy and save time. There is also probably a desire to find the most succinct and relevant answers that do not ramble on. Selective editing of this kind can be a favor to the person being interviewed. In this case, you have no idea how much better it was for Palin for some of this stuff to have been left out of the broadcast.

The whole interview was broadcast with the “edited out” parts on Good Morning America the next day, and frankly, it made Plain look worse, not better.

I know it’s just lies-as-usual for those guys, but this time the target is different – this stuff is for “the base”, so help them fight off that horrible feeling that Palin really is a lightweight and painfully out of her league. On the other hand, most of their blog blaterings and trolling comment sections are intended as psyops against liberals, to make Obama supporters discouraged. Only by suppressing voter turnout can they win, and despair is a powerful weapon.

But what amazes me is the sheer speed with which the wingnut blogs propagate a story. It’s like they all get the same talking points memo at the same time, telling them what to write. Funny that.

Fear Itself

2008-09-12T23:36:00.001-07:00

From the front page of The New York Times:

The McCain advertisements are devised to draw the interest of bloggers and cable news producers — but not necessarily always intended for wide, actual use on television stations — to shift the terms of the debate by questioning Mr. Obama’s character and qualifications.

Mr. Sipple, the Republican strategist, voiced concern that Mr. McCain’s approach could backfire. “Any campaign that is taking liberty with the truth and does it in a serial manner will end up paying for it in the end,” he said. “But it’s very unbecoming to a political figure like John McCain whose flag was planted long ago in ground that was about ‘straight talk’ and integrity.”

This is exactly what we've been saying here - or more precisely, it's what this kind of right-wing faux outrage is all about. It's not aimed at the right wing - the pig people have already come home to the sty. It's not aimed at the mass media for consumption by the "average voter". It's sole purpose is to sow despair and hopelessness among the progressive base, to take the wind out of the Democrats sails. That's it. The actual target of these ragegasms and sleazy YouTube videos is us.

Sorry, Mr. Sipple, the Straight Talk Express went over the cliff over a year ago, right after John McCain threw himself under it.

Now's No Time To Turn Gunshy

2008-09-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

I have noticed of late that some of the blogosphere's biggest (and smallest) names are beginning to despair of winning the upcoming Presidential election. People who a year ago were saying that a Democratic victory was a sure thing are now coming perilously close to throwing in the towel in disgust with the whole process.

Don't believe me? Read Digby. Read Atrios. Don't bother reading DailyKos ('cept maybe Kos himself).

Now, I'm every bit as disgusted with the conduct of the campaigns as any of them. The McCain campaign is shoveling so much bullshit I'm surprised it's not raining brown on all the cable news programs. It's got so bad that even some of the worst enablers of the Republican line have taken to wrinkling their noses and saying "Man, those guys are really full of shit."

The Obama campaign, in its part, keeps missing chances to hit those mendacious bastards back. Lie after lie after lie is answered with weak ripostes. McCain flips, then flops, then flips again. Obama says nothing. McCain lies about Obama's tax plan. Obama doesn't call him a slave to the money-men. McCain calls Obama a vapid, shallow celebrity. Obama doesn't call him a senile, feeble old man. For Gods' sake, it took Paris Hilton to do that! McCain, desperate to rally his bigoted base in the hopes of creating some sort of motivation for Republican voters, picks possibly the least qualified, most insane Christianist candidate he can find. Obama doesn't call him a whore of the Christianist Right. It's maddening.

And the media keeps feeding the frenzy, doing everything possible to convince us all that it's a close election.

Discouraging? You bet your ass it's depressing.

AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE. This is the game the Republicans are playing; faced with possibly the worst political landscape in the history of the GOP, they're going all out on the fundamentals. Bring in Palin to energize the base and get out the Republican vote. They had to, because the party's own GOTV efforts are pathetic, and they're up against what looks like the strongest Dem GOTV operation since the Civil Rights Movement.

Fling shit and disenfranchise voters to depress Democratic turnout. This one ought to be obvious to us all. The formula is so simple even a neo-con can't get it wrong - absent certain kinds of countervailing conditions ("war president", feh. Why did people EVER buy that bullshit?) elections are all about turnout in this country. Low turnout = Republican victory. High turnout = Democratic victory.

Now go back and look at all the coverage from the primaries. Especially the stories about the huge, nearly record-breaking turnout in the Democratic primaries. What was Republican turnout like? Um, yeah. Pathetic sounds about right. No wonder the GOP was in a panic in May and June. Their only option for stopping that oncoming electoral wave is to make participation in the political process so noxious and propagate memes so heinous that the Left, after raging against the unfairness of it all, simply starts shedding votes.

It's what they did to Kerry in 2004, because they couldn't be at all sure that he wasn't going to win, even against an incumbent "war president".

There's no incumbent to beat, this time. This time, it's just a toady, an enabler. But we won't get there unless we stand firm in the conviction that this election matters - that our votes matter.

If you feel otherwise - realise you're HELPING the people that are destroying this country.

Oh Sarah, Don't Leave Me!

2008-09-10T23:42:00.001-07:00

So how is McSame going to fare on the stump without his ultra-rightwing ~~mistress~~ running mate?

The first campaign appearance on his own doesn't bode well.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― Republican Presidential nominee John McCain brought his campaign to Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon.

McCain arrived at the Reading Terminal Market to an equal mix of cheers and jeers as the 'lipstick' controversy remains at hot political topic, however; McCain didn't mention the issue once.

[...]

McCain made a very brief appearance at the Reading Terminal Market where he shook hands with admirers, but did not take questions from any local media outlets. He did meet with small business owners at the Down Home diner for about 45 minutes.

"I think they should talk about the issues and stop making cracks at each other," McCain supporter Karen Westgate said from the Reading Terminal Market.

So far the Mavericky One a pretty pathetic draw on his own. Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark.

A Television Golden Oldie - How about an Obama Election Eve Telethon?

2008-09-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

In the last days of the 1968 Presidentiual Election, both candidates - Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey - ran two-hour "paid programming" telethons, broadcast on major networks (which, in the days before Cable news channels, were the only games in town.) These are described in the book White House to Your House by Edwin Diamond and Robert A. Silverman.

I'm old and decrepit enough to remember watching these broadcasts as a kid.

The idea was first used by Lyndon Johnson in his 1964 race against Barry Goldwater. Johnson ran a half-hour "paid advertisement" as a follow up to his famous "Daisy" attack ad against Goldwater, called, "Sorry, Senator Goldwater. We Just Can't Risk It," with a parade of military and academic brass that painted Goldwater as a Dr. Strangelove character who would blow up the world. Even though it was overkill by the Johnson campaign (who was already leading handily in the polls), it may have contributed to Johnson's landslide victory.

But Richard Nixon had learned his lesson about the power of television. So his campaign produced their own version, modeled on the "Jerry Lewis Telethon" format. Nixon's broadcast was a slick, expensive, well-executed affair, in which television star Jackie Gleeson introduced Nixon. As the book describes it:

Viewers could call a Los Angeles telephone number that flashed periodically on the screen. "[Our] tremendous bank of girls" on stage would write out the questions. Then, Nixon said, another group of "girls", called the "Nixonaires", would carry the questions to Oklahoma football coach Bud Wilkinson, the interlocutor. The "Nixonaires" were airline stewardesses dressed in short skirts and jokey caps. Later, the writer Joe McGinniss reported that the questions were re-worded backstage before going to Wilkinson (the Nixon people denied the claim). In any case, no questioner played hardball.

Not to be outdone, the Humphrey campaign produced their own version, broadcast on election eve. Humphrey's telethon was similar:

The Democrats' election eve effort on behalf of candidate Hubert Humphrey resembled Nixon's in many respects. It was on for two hours in prime time and it was carried live. Another two-hour show was done for the West Coast, and a group of attractive young women was on hand to take callers' questions. There were, however, differences. The Humphrey telethon boasted such celebrities as Paul Newman, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Bill Cosby, Edward G. Robinson, and Burt Lancaster. The stars answered some calls and then read out the questions. The set was supposed to look "authentic." TV cables snaked all over, the floor was littered with coffee cups, "just like a real telethon," remembered producer Bill Squier. When Squier discovered that "some efficient person from ABC" had straightened up just before airtime, he hurriedly restored the disarray - counterprogramming against Nixonian neatness.

Nixon, in his memoirs, wrote that he pushed for the telethon over the advice of his handlers, beleiving it helped produce Johnson's landslide over Goldwater. "It was my best campaign decision," he wrote. "Had we not had that telethon, I believe Humphrey would have squeaked through with a close win on election day."

So how about a blast from the past - an Obama Election Eve Telethon?

Of course, it would have to be re-tooled for 21st century sensibilities - no "stewardesses" in jockey caps, please. No, make it look like a contemporary Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon. Obama would have no problem getting star talent to participate, and like the Jerry Lewis version, it could feature top entertainment as well as political pitches. A call in format would work too. Humphrey encouraged callers on-air to "ask the tough questions, the kind my opponent refuses to answer," to draw a distinction between his telethon and Nixon's. Sounds like a familiar theme...

I think this might be a good idea to dust off for November. How about it, Obama campaign? I know you can afford it.

Original Sin?

2008-09-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

Over a Andrew Sullivan's column in The Atlantic, he quotes from Jeffrey Burton Russell's review Alan Jacobs new book, Original Sin: A Cultural History:

Jacobs’s most original and provocative argument is that original sin has strong democratic implications. Denial of original sin leads to elitism: Take, for instance, the duchess who simply refuses to believe that she shares a common nature with the unkempt commoners of field and street, or the self- righteous people who believe that they can make themselves good by stacking up a higher pile of good deeds than of bad ones. Their underlying assumption is that some people have exempt status, or higher virtues, or brighter minds, that others lack— plainly speaking, that some people (usually us) are better than other people (them). Original sin, on the other hand, is egalitarian because it means that everyone is alienated from God and has an innate tendency to sin. Equally egalitarian is the belief that Christ died in order to give everyone the liberty to escape sin. No one person can dare to consider himself or herself better than others, and no nation or race should dare to do so either.

The other way to look at it is as the Buddhists (and Pagans) do: humans aren't born in original sin, but in original divinity. All of us are born Divine, not born cursed. This is every bit as egalitarian and democratic as Jacobs's premise. You, as a human being, are already Divine. Stacking up good or bad deeds doesn't change that, making you more or less Divine. Doing evil is a matter of ignorantly rejecting your inherent Divinity and refusing to behave as the Divine being that you are.

We don't need to be given "liberty to escape sin", because there's no "original sin" to escape from. Unfortunately for Christianity, that kind of negates the entire premise of their salvation narrative. To the Buddhists, "salvation" is unnecessary - the goal is Liberation, so the human being can perceive their natural born divine nature.

I haven't read Jacobs's book, and I don't know why Sullivan, and admitted atheist, would be quoting it. But it is true that fear and degradation are always a good sell.

Obama's Gift To Me

2008-09-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

Now I know that many of you were moved (to rage, to tears, whatever) by Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech at Mile High the other day...

Let me tell you a little about my own experience.

All my life I have grown up knowing that some things were closed to me. Once, when I was twelve, I spent a couple of days trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, because people had been asking me that question long enough that I grew tired of lying to them. I'm pretty sure I knew what I wanted, even then. I wanted to be a politician. I wanted to be president. But when I told people that, I got back the message that this was unrealistic, that white people would ever hold me out of the corridors of power. There was never a coherent why attached to this, no reasoning to support it, but there it was.

So I did the research. And I realised that not only had there never been a black president, there had never even been a major party nominee for president. This despite the qualifications of Shirley Chisolm, who ran in 1972. I finally concluded that I was best sticking with the lie, and so I chose the most mind-bendingly difficult job I could imagine, astrophysicist. (BTW, if you think astronomy isn't hard, you've never been anything but a casual stargazer.)

And so began the squashing of my amibition. The highest heights were no longer mine to conquer.

In high school, I took the government class that was required to become a candidate for student body president. I went to the affluent school in Oakland, Skyline High. There were two blacks in a class of about a dozen people. I campaigned like mad. My candidacy was laughed out of contention, never even appeared on the ballot.

I stopped trying to become popular. And I learned some measure of hate for white people. It was not the kind of moronic and active despite commonly seen in the black community. Mine was more general, and quiet. And it eventually scarred over. The lesson my kin taught me was complete. The dream of political power was dead. I turned to other skills for my livelihood, my sustenance. Fortunately for me, I had skills aplenty to choose from. I chose computers (and, honestly, they chose me).

Down through the years, friends time and again have told me I should be in politics. I had the kind of mind that could play that game well, and the kind of uncompromising, ideological spirit that was a hallmark of major (especially right-wing) politicos. Each time I agreed, yes I should. And then I went about my business.

(There's a note here I could insert to soften this tragic tale - a moment I could take to own my shit. But that would break this nice clean narrative. So nope, not gonna.)

The advent of blogging gave me the opportunity to vent my tiny little frustrations, to exercise this side of me that previously only had expression in the kind of meaningless, much-too-loud conversations carried on between friends. It's fun and easy to preach to the choir. But that wasn't what I wanted. And so I took the chance in this newer life to venture my political opinions to the world, safe in the knowledge that I'd still get lost in the noise, and not be subject to the mockery and racism.

And so I have been the Swordfighting Pundit for a few years now.

Until Barack Obama came down, accepted his nomination for the presidency, and called me on my shit.

Hey wait, you say, did you watch the same speech I did? When did he say "Hey Darrin, it's your fault you're not standing here instead of me"? Well, yes, I did.

Well, no, he didn't. What he did do was remind me what hope means. Actually, Biden said it a bit more explicitly. "...get back up" he said. In any case, Obama re-awakened in me those memories of ambition crushed.

So I spent a little bit of time, watching that speech, crying for all my lost time and opportunities. Crying for my life lost. And then...then he kept speaking. He talked about the better future we could build.

And he gave me to understand that I could go in the direction of my childhood dreams, still. That my best days could well be ahead of me. In this age of cynicism and reduced expectations and stagnant wages, and falling standards of living, that is a huge thing.

I'm not the fool I was as a child. I certainly don't think the presidency is within my reach. Governor of California? Heh, maybe.

I have been given much food for thought. Perhaps enough to last me twenty years and a whole new career.
Oh, and thanks to rimblemethis (at LiveJournal) for reminding me to swallow that first bite. I was still chewing on it two days after the speech, and was trying not to accept the implications. Even if I don't go that way, it won't be from simple inertia.

I Suck At Introductions

2008-09-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

Good evening (or morning, or whatever the bleep time it is in your part of this all-too-connected world when you're reading this),

I am Snowwy, proprietor of The World Reflected in Fine Steel, longtime student and teacher of the fine art of the sword, incorrigible political observer, and all too given to the sound of my own voice.

I have been invited to join Joe Max here in his establishment as another voice.

My political leanings will become all too clear to you, the reader, as time goes on. Trust me. For a primer, I'm going to repost a couple of my recents over at WRFS. I hope you're looking forward to this as much as I.

The Nelson Muntz Maneuver

2008-09-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

The comment below was posted to Sadly, No! and it's of a type that is becoming a common feature of progressive blog comment sections, as well as with the MSM right wing punditry class moving their lips to the latest GOP talking point memo.

The right-wing sower of despair.

"Saul said,

They know that B. Hussein Obama is a leftwing ideologue and a race baiter. According to his voting record in the Illinois state legislature, Obama is a supporter of infanticide, as he voted against protecting babies who were born alive after failed abortions. This is position far beyond being pro-choice. This is infanticide! This is a postion so extreme that even the far-left Nancy Pelosi condemned it.

This position of Obama’s is a matter of public record. He voted this way in the Illinois state legislature. Do you think this sort of fringe postion is gonna go over well in the supposed “swing states” of Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana? These are some of the Solid Red States that Obama bin Biden has to win in order to become President. Good luck, now that the public has been made aware of his extremist postions on issues of life and race.

Heck, this sort of extremism may even swing Pennsylvania in our corner this election. I doubt the blue-collar workers in Pennslvania (who are more pro-life than the national average) are going to find Barry’s postion amusing. Face it lefties, your “messiah” ain’t gonna be elected President, not by a long shot. He is completely unelectable."

Right-winger operatives like Saul have a purpose in the grand GOP scheme, and it amounts to suppressing liberal voter turn-out. Saul doesn't think in a million years that screeds like that are going to change the minds of anyone who frequents liberal blogs, or even impress the fabled "moderate voter". But that's not the purpose, and Saul is just another minor cog in their machine (I often wonder if they GOP hands out liberal blog target assignments with their talking points - for example, Ace has been assigned to Sullivan.)

The purpose of right-wing freepers trolling liberal blog comments is two-fold: the first is to sow despair, usually by claiming that some poorly defined "average American" is going to not like whatever some thing Democrats say, do or want, and therefore "you guys are so going to lose!"

The second purpose is to ward off any conversions by self-described conservatives who might go all John Cole on them and take the red pill. "We laugh at liberals! You don't wanna be laughed at too, do you Mr. Smart Guy?"

This whole thing could be dubbed the "Nelson Muntz" maneuver. "HA ha!"

And it's not, of course, limited to blogs. The whole right-wing echo chamber will be reverberating with foreshadowing of doom and destruction for Obama and all Democrats and progressives. The goal is to make progressives dispirited and want to give up - stay home on election day and cry.

Here's what they're afraid of:

Obama's ground game and GOTV machine is more than impressive, it's astounding - and terrifying to the McCain campaign. Obama has no cap on his fundraising. McCain has, and he's reached it. Palin's speech on Thursday raised $10 million in one day - for Obama. What's Obama going to spend it on? Why, community organizers of course! Organizers to get out the vote. Their convention rhetoric on Obama's community organizer career exposes how much they fear it.

All we progressives have to do is show up and vote en masse, and McCain loses. He can't win the electoral vote on the base alone. It's inconceivable that Obama is going to lose any Kerry states. If just one medium size Bush state flips for Obama, it's over.

His campaign knows this. It haunts their nightmares. So suppressing the progressive vote is part and parcel of their strategy. Well, it always is, but they won't be able to do the same level of ratfucking as last time. Why? Those Obama community organizers again, assigned to watch the polls, especially in the precincts that got ratfucked before.

So they hope to accomplish it this time thorough intimidation. All we have to do is not let it work.

HA ha!

Who ya gonna call?

2008-09-06T18:07:00.001-07:00

"ARE YOU A CONSERVATIVE WINGNUT???"

"um... no."

"THEN... DIE!!!!!"

"Palinzar the Traveler! She will come in one of the prechosen forms. During the rectification of the Reaganaii, the traveler came as a large and moving Cheney! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the Republitrex supplicants they chose a new form for her - THAT OF A GIANT HOCKEY MOM! Many shubs and zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Hockey Mom pit that day, I can tell you!"

"There you go again" Redux

2008-09-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

They say that "happy warrior" Ronald Reagan blew away the wonky Jimmy Carter with a laugh and a simple dismissal:

"There you go again!"

Obama's been studying the Reagan style book (and why shouldn't he?) and is adopting a similar attitude on the stump.

"And suddenly [McCain's] the change agent? Ha. He says, 'I'm going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.' Who is he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman, who's one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager, who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? I mean, come on, they must think you're stupid," Obama said as the crowd laughed and cheered."

This is a smart way for Obama to fight them: Reagan style. It would serve them right if Obama beats them over the head with Reagan's campaign playbook from now until November.

Obama must keep up the image of the happy warrior. If he goes nasty, he's vulnerable. He's got to save that card for only the most despicable of moves by McCain's campaign, something that draws a gasp even from McCain's own camp.

Bashing them is Biden's job. And he's good at it. I think we'll see more of what he's been dishing up, and he'll gradually ease off the obligatory paean to McCain's bravery as time goes on.

As far as Palin's concerned, the best play is to get her riled in debate and with hard questions. Crack the ice queen facade and force the snaggle-toothed barracuda to come out. I get the feeling from Alaskan political blogs, like the excellent Mudflats, that the Moose Queen doesn't handle criticism well. I see that snarky smirk on her face she can barely control, and remarks like "So Sambo beat the Bitch!" seem perfectly in character for her personality type - think Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter. I think the McCain campaign is busy schooling her on anger managment as much as they are on policy. So Obama's side needs to draw out her inner Tracy Flick for the whole world to see.

So here's the scenario:

Make these characters stick in the public mind: McCain as Grandpa Simpson, Palin as Dolores Umbridge, and all their operatives and friends as the same pack of liars and thieves who brought us the last eight years of ruin. If that becomes the "Conventional Wisdom", McCain loses.

PS: Doesn't Palin sound just like Principal Victoria of South Park? Come to think of it, have we ever seen both of them together in one place? Hmmm...

Listen!

"If they get out of control, just use this teargas, ok?"

Mien Furher! I Can Snowmobile!

2008-09-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is the unretouched, un-photoshopped image from CNN's GOP Convention website last night.

Ilsa, She-Wolf of the ~~S.S.~~ G.O.P.

Alaska Uber Alles!

Saharriet Quaylin

2008-08-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

The mad geniuses at the Rovian Laboratories McCain Project have created a monster.

The creepy schoolmarmism of "not-ready-for-prime-time" Harriet Miers combined with the right-wing dunderheaded batshittery of "potato-with-an-E" Dan Quayle.

She pronounced the word, "NOO-Q-LER". Dear gods.

It is the Peter Principle made flesh.

Fear it.

UPDATE: Besides speaking skills, she needs to brush up on American history.

When asked if she supported removing the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, she replied:

"Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance."

[*ahem*] The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist. It did not originally contain the phrase "under God", that was added in the 1950s to stick our thumb in the eye of those atheistic commie Russians. The last of the "Founding Fathers", i.e. anyone who signed the Declaration of Independence, was dead by the end of the 1820s.

Obama Chooses His LBJ

2008-08-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

I'm just old enough to remember the Kennedy assassination. And a lot of recapping was done by the news media as Lyndon Johnson took the Oath of Office: why had young, dynamic, "New Era" politician John F. Kennedy picked the politician who was arguably the most powerful senator on Capital Hill to be his running mate. LBJ represented the Old Guard of the Democratic Party of his day, just as Biden represents the Old Guard of today.

But Kennedy needed Johnson's political muscle and congressional connections if he was going to advance an agenda in Congress, who viewed JFK as an upstart, a first-term junior senator, with a lot of charisma and ideas, but little experience in the corridors of power.

JFK needed an enforcer, and so does Obama. I'm sure that's at least one powerful rationale for the choice.

International Thank Fucking God Day

2008-08-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

I want to declare a new international holiday for January 20th, 2009 - "International Thank Fucking God Day." It is the day when George W. Bush leaves office, and it can't come a moment too soon.

I suggest the celebration include several thousand people assembling on the National Mall to give the departing Marine One helicopter the Single Finger Salute.

Who's with me?

(Thanks to leftwingconspiracy.com for the image)

Banning the Messiah

2008-07-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

The mayor of the quaint Welsh township Aberystwyth is fighting on the front line of artistic freedom (the front line of full frontal nudity no less!) with her campaign to lift the 28-year ban on the Monty Python film The Life of Brian in the town. This is a personal issue for recently elected Mayor Sue Jones-Davies, as she was the actress who played Judith Iscariot, Brian's would-be girlfriend and the only female member (not counting Eric Idle's character Stan who wanted to be a woman) of the People's Front of Judea, not to be confused with the Judean People's Front ("splitters!"). Jones-Davies, like star Graham Chapman, appeared completely nude in the film.

It seems The Life of Brian was banned in many Welsh towns and cities for blasphemy (though not for nudity - naughty bits are OK, making jokes about Jesus, not so much.) Fearing a religionist backlash, major studios refused to finance the film, so it was backed by former Beatle and good friend of the Pythons George Harrison.

Brian: Please, please, please listen! I've got one or two things to say.
The Crowd: Tell us! Tell us both of them!
Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for yourselves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I'm not...
The Crowd: Sch!

Chomsky on "protest voting"

2008-06-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

Many in Left Blogsylvania are upset that Obama didn't go to the mat over the FISA bill. There's talk by many people who were happily riding the Magic Unity Pony last week who are saying that Obama is a traitor to "the cause" and they will either stay home, vote for a 3rd party or even {shudder} vote for McCain - that'll show 'em!

But as Noam Chomsky once said, although there is not a lot of difference between the two parties, a lot of lives hang in the balance of that difference. Voting for what you perceive as the lesser of two evils is not very satisfying, but to abandon that responsibility to vote for the lesser of two evils is to turn your back on all those lives which hang in the balance.

Will Obama end the Iraq War sooner than McCain? Almost certainly. And every day means more lives saved. Therefore, helping McCain get elected by not voting for Obama means more people die.

Will Obama bring about more health coverage for Americans than McCain? Almost certainly. Which means people who might have died for lack of health care (especially early detection of treatable disease) might not die. Therefore, helping McCain get elected by not voting for Obama means more people die.

So before you make a stand and vote on your "principles", be sure you understand what that choice means in real, human terms.