The Inside Dope

Dead Man Walk-er

2011-02-28T01:05:00.001-06:00

Anyone care to wager or speculate on whether Gov. Walker of Wisconsin will win another term. I can't help but feel that he's absolutely a dead letter. Won't have a chance.

Trying to get ahead by tearing others down

2011-02-25T02:20:00.002-06:00

The intrigue in Wisconsin these days is interesting in the extreme, and the reaction to it is even moreso.

I will be baffled until my dying day how average people who are struggling to make ends meet can willfully adopt an anti-union/anti-public employee attitude and think it really makes sense to force public employee unions to essentially cease to exist.

First of all, in the last election cycle a record amount of money was spent by outside organizations, courtesy of the reprehensible "Citizens United" decision which allows any outside organization to spend unlimited millions on ads or other efforts in favor of, or opposing any political candidate. And they don't have to disclose where the money is coming from either. How convienent.

Of the top 10 such groups according to money spent, 6 were business or otherwise right wing lobby groups funded and supported by a relative few number of extremely wealthy interests. The other 4? They were unions, and three were public employee unions.

So they're outnumbered 60/40. But not only that, the unions ranked I believe 4th and 5th, and then 8th and 9th, if I recall correctly.

These unions are the sole remaining organization which can even compete, though not equally, with interests who are behind the massive push to essentially upend government to make it forever beholding to their money and become a bought and paid for arm of the plutocracy not seen since the gilded age.

Not content with near total domination and control over the government and its agenda, these fine folks first priority is attempting to de facto destroy the only groups who can even mount a somewhat equivelent effort in representing and supporting the interests of the 98 odd percent of American citizens who happen to have less than several million dollars in assets laying around, with record gains in income coming in every year.

They've already corrupted and distorted democracy itself and steadily have been creating a new plutocracy. But it's not enough until they have amassed so much power and control that there's literally nothing or no organization that can stand up against them.

And yet, there's those fine folks on the right, swallowing the rancid fever dreams of Glenn Beck and the usual gang of cons, and wallowing in their resentment and anger that THEIR tax dollars are actually going to provide teachers, cops, firefighters, street crews and the like with a wage and benefits that used to be considered the right of any worker who was willing to work hard and play by the rules.

They don't expect those who have reaped such massive windfalls in the past decades to pay a dime more to help balance strained budgets, which are stained precisely because of their excesses and coruption and who gladly banked the millions and walked away scott free.

No, instead they swallow the ridiculous notion that the reason we're in fiscal trouble is because there are still some workers who are paid a fair wage and get fair benefits.

Apparently tearing these workers down is the only way they can feel like they'll be lifted up. Never mind that simply reverting to the tax code in effect in the Clinton era, when the rich were doing quite well, thank you very much, would eliminate or nearly eliminate the very fiscal crisis that is being falsely used as a rationale to bust unions and hurt both public employees and their families, but all citizens as well as they watch their services get worse and worse as pay and benefit standards are whittled down to nothing.

These people, middle class or lower themselves, actually believe that the way to get our financial house in order is to TEAR DOWN other workers in similar situations, rather than dare expect the benefactors of the financial crisis to give back one dime of the literally billions they've reaped over the past 20 years.

I'm not sure there's a word for that sort of reasoning.

Yet there they are. Chickens for Col. Sanders.

Did I miss anything?

2009-04-21T05:12:00.006-05:00

Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we? could we?
Memories, may be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget
..

Since Mike has been raggng at me and taunting me as usual about the lack of updates here (and I'm STILL getting comments trying to buy me off) I thought I'd oblige with this misty water-colored memory of the way they were.

Despite appearances, I'm still alive and kickin' and hoping to get back to this god-forsaken blog sometime soon.

Other matters of a quite pleasant nature have intruded and it was all too easy to let this become less of a priority. I can't say I missed all the dullards and haters who seemed to be the only one's still motivated to contribute anything, though it was their usual dull and juvenile attacks that they've managed to continue for years now without let up, even when there was nothing posted here for weeks.

Odd that their obsession with my blog and myself doesn't diminish with time or even if there's any new content at all.

Thanks to all who have written and indicated that you missed the blog. Maybe the rest will have lost interest and moved on, with any luck.

There's been not much I wanted to tackle in the past couple months. The economic recovery mess/plan is far too complex and when no one, even those who concocted it to begin with, has any clue if it will work, I didn't feel the urge to wade in. I, like most people I imagine, am simply crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

The Republicans have provided a lot of material.

As I predicted even before the election, they've gone absolutely mad. Once their house of cards collapsed, as I knew it inevitably would, they'd be left with nothing but their need to act barking mad and angry about things that don't exist or that they don't understand in the slightest. (witness the witless staging protests against a tax plan which will benefit every one of them.)

Where's my vociferous Republican ideologues when I need 'em? Where's old Mowen, that stalwart of Bush Republicanism and fundementalism? Is he in therapy, having witnessed every goofy ideological belief he held with religious fervor go crashing down into the dust heap of history, from social issues to economic dogma?

What's become of those true believers who held on to discredited and utterly failed notions and policies far past the point of no return, with the zealotry of religious kooks, willingly ignoring reality itself in their attempts to justify and defend the indefensible?

Should we herd them all into Texas and cut the damn place loose? (After we build a border fence along Oklahoma?)

Bobby, we hardly knew ye

2009-02-26T01:22:00.004-06:00

Obama gave a barn-burner of a non-state of the union state of the union address last night, as you no doubt are aware.

The speech was roundly hailed as a success and follow up polls in its wake showed nearly 80% approval. I think part of its power was simply the fact that here was a man who could actually speak English without coming across as a B-string weekend sports reporter for a station in Wichita. And without all the obvious B.S. delivered with so little conviction that it would be clear to a small dog that the guy wasn't buying it himself.

The speech was a long overdue call to arms directed at all Americans, those who skimmed and rigged and fixed the game their way and then looted with reckless disregard for the country as well as to the millions of Americans who know that to the previous regime, they never existed, let alone had their needs addressed.

Feel free to add your thoughts on Obama's speech, I won't belabor it here.

Because I want to get to Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, who was chosen for the elite position of delivering whatever the hell passes for Republican positions these days immediately following Obama's address.

Jindal has been long touted as a rising star in the post-Bush Republican party, and has clearly shown a desire to run for president. This was indeed a plum opportunity for him to present himself to the nation.

Apparently this fact got to poor Bobby.

He emerged and walked to the podium mincing along like he was trying to hold a dime in his butt cheeks. I could have sworn I heard squeaking noises with each step.

His face looked like a death mask with a plastered on half smile, half grimace, and his entire presentation was uncomfortable at best.

To say he was wooden doesn't do it justice. His first few minutes devoted to "Hey, I'm Obama too!" rhetoric was designed to highlight his son of immigrants story and inspiring rise to power fell as flat as his embarrassingly weak attempts at humor.

I didn't know if I was watching a rebuttal speech or a hostage tape.

It was sing-songy and sounded like you were listening to some guy reading a book to a group of 6 year olds.

The substance was equally lame, bizarre, and utterly free of any concrete proposals or even a hint of any ideas on where the Republicans hope to go in the future.

His primary case against Obama's plans was that the (REPUBLICAN) government failed miserably responding to Hurricane Katrina, drawing comparisons to the current economic "storms", and saying that government can't fix it.

OK... so while your party was leading the government, it screwed up criminally in the wake of Katrina, and so..........

Because it let thousands drown and millions suffer unnecessarily, now that millions more may be out of a home and suffering the effects of the Bush economic collapse, we shouldn't even TRY to help them out..... because.... you guys were so inept after Katrina. I see. You sure that's where you wanna go with this Bobby?

Your gang couldn't shoot straight on Katrina so we should not even dream that any government agencies or programs or say, economic bailout could ever be done right?

OK. So we can't possibly hope for anything but the rampant incompetence and corruption of your parties government. I get it. Why even try?

I'm with you. Screw it! Let everything collapse. Individuals can handle stuff like a near depression and natural disasters. Government is never the answer, even after crisis affecting millions.

Good luck with that Bobby.

Look over there! I think I just saw a falling star!

A timely topic

2009-02-15T15:48:00.003-06:00

The Moline Public Library is featuring a local professor in a presentation about the New Deal era works programs Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

From their press release:

Press release submitted by Moline Public Library

LEARN ABOUT THE WPA AND CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS IN THE QUAD CITIES AT THE MOLINE PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Moline Public Library is proud to present Jeff Hancks from Western Illinois University as presents The WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps in the Quad Cities on Saturday, February 28th at 2:30 p.m. This free program will meet in the Silver Meeting Room and is open to all ages. To register for this discussion, please stop by the Moline Public Library or call 309-762-6883.

The Works Project Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were federal work relief programs begun under Franklin Roosevelt"s New Deal. These programs were responsible for the creation numerous construction, parks, and arts projects. Mr. Hancks" discussion will focus on the local impact of the WPA and CCC, which included such projects as the Moline Municipal Airport and Black Hawk State Park.

About the presenter: Rock Island native Jeff Hancks is Professor of Regional Studies and University Archivist at Western Illinois University.

In light of the push for public works funding and programs to at least slow the Bush economic collapse, this lecture will certainly be interesting, especially in view of the current effort of some know-nothing Republicans in congress in trying to spread utterly false or distorted information about the New Deal and it's effect in reviving the economy on the heels of the Great Depression.

Republicans are arguing that the public works programs and the New Deal didn't work.

This is pretty funny, considering that FDR was re-elected TWICE afterwards, which indicates to me that the country didn't exactly feel like it failed.

Some of the nicest and most architecturally beautiful places in our area were built by government projects during the FDR era, as was Starved Rock Lodge and many other beautiful public places.

The lecture should be very interesting and will no doubt inform listeners about what these projects really were like, as opposed of what Republicans are trying to sell.

One reason I'm a democrat

2009-02-11T06:55:00.002-06:00

With all the Republican theatre of the absurd lately over their "Just say no" campaign in trying to stymie and delay any attempt at crucial efforts to stop the nation's economic slide into the dumper, I've frankly been overwhelmed with thoughts on the matter.

But with utterly idiotic and irresponsible crap emitting from the right on a daily basis, and anger towards them growing exponentially as they practice exactly the sort of phony rigidly partisan crap that they so liked to deride the Democrats for, and engage in their favorite past-time, projecting their own sins onto others, I find myself unable to properly crystallize my feelings on the subject.

Suffice it to say that everyone with a brain knows that the country needs massive and unprecedented infusions of cash money to halt the hemorrhaging induced by the wild money party thrown courtesy of Bush & Co. And everyone with a brain knows that the Republican beefs are nothing but bullshit. Carping about funding for desperately needed and long overlooked programs such as education and funds to cities and states to stem massive lay-offs of public safety personnel, and standing for hours cherry picking desperately a minuscule fraction of the spending and holding it up as if the entire package is nothing but foolishness.

And even when they wave these items around like a bloody flag, they look like assholes, decrying aid to education, aid to students, aid to virtually anything or anybody but their fat-cat cronies and masters in the banking industry.

The newly elected moron heading the RNC argues that all the measure creates is work, not jobs. When pressed on this bit of lunacy, he clarified. Only private business can create jobs, government only creates work.

Thus in one neat move, he classified the cops on the beat, the postal workers, the fireman, the building inspector, the nursing home inspector, and virtually every member of the military as not having jobs.

He further illuminated his cretinous ramblings by explaining that government "work" has an end point, while apparently private sector jobs go on forever.

Perhaps he could explain that to the hundreds of thousands of private sector workers who are seeing their jobs vanish, with ever more to come the longer these boobs obstruct meaningful action.

So anyway, here's but one reason I'm a Democrat.

We're clearly better looking.

Phil Hare, media darling

2009-02-07T01:43:00.004-06:00

Local Congressman Phil Hare scored quite the media coup Friday evening by appearing for an interview with Rachel Maddow, whose show on MSNBC is one of the highest rated cable talk shows.

MSNBC's Hardball, Maddow, or Countdown have become coveted spots to appear for politicians, especially Democrats. Maddow's show, along with Keith Olberman's "Countdown" were the only two such shows on television to show a profit last quarter, and both enjoy huge ratings, particularly with those under, say, 80.

Maddow had Rep. Hare on to discuss the unrelenting Republican war against labor, and their latest ridiculous attempt to block the nomination of Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor. The object of their patented phony outrage this time? Solis' heinous offense is being married to a guy who owed taxes on his business, to which Solis has no connnection whatsoever, and who has long since paid them off.

Hare pointed out that this of course is just a means of trying to block or dirty up Solis, who they know will not be reliably anti-union as all Republican Labor Secretaries in the past. It's simply an early salvo in the fight against proposed laws which would allow workers a choice as to whether or not they would like to be represented by a union.

The so-called "card check" measures would allow workers to essentially petition for a union by signing cards indicating their preferences. And despite Republican lies to the contrary, workers wold also be allowed to do so by secret ballot if they chose.

Hare was Hare. He spoke. He was rather wooden, as you might expect a person with not much prior media experience. But he stated his case well and got through the softball interview just fine.

After decades of a congressman that seemed allergic to any sort of media exposure whatsoever, this is kind of nice to at least see a representive from our area getting some real national exposure.

And it's also good to know that Phil Hare is there to do his part to defend unions against the masssive effort to weaken or destroy them. Now more than ever, unions should play an important part of reclaiming the country back from the sliver of economic elites that have so thoroughly dictated the direction of our country and our economy for far too long.

Hey, did we just switch governors in midstream?

2009-01-29T19:31:00.008-06:00

Yep. Seems we did.

Why? Apparently on the grounds that nobody in the legislature liked him, and in light of the fact that his nemesis, Speaker Mike Madigan and those who curry his favor have been trying desperately to get rid of this burr in their saddle for literally years.

He kept making them look bad. And he did things without kissing their rings first. Can't have that.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich gave a meandering peroration before the state senate before they all, to a man and woman, tossed him out of office on his behind.

News networks broadcast the roll-call vote on the matter, including MSNBC, who at least showed enough votes to get up to around the L's before cutting away.

It was a very somber moment, presided over by a black robed official and conducted in silence aside from the clerk calling the names of the senators and them rising to say yea or nay. No one took the opportunity of the grave occasion to act undignified, grandstand or call attention to themselves, much like they've accused Blago of doing.

Except one who just couldn't help injecting crass mean-spiritedness into the affair.

Who? You know who!

Our own senator around these parts, Mike Jacobs, smacking his lips at the chance for some media exposure and as always, even if it's only two fleeting seconds, rose and voted along with all the rest.

But apparently in a bid to stand out somehow, Jacobs decided it would be a really classy thing to lean over the mic during his two seconds on camera and make a thumbs down gesture at the same time, as if he were Emperor at the Roman Colosseum condemning some poor slave to death.

But kicking a guy while he's at his lowest moment, while his entire career goes down in flames and his life is essentially destroyed is the essence of class and maturity on what was, at least to all the others, a time to at least behave as if it was a very serious occasion.

Bravo, senator. We like our politicians to be drama queens, just like Blago. We all think you're mega-cool. Let's hope your stunt gets you noticed. For the good of your constituents, of course.

Perhaps we should count our blessings that Sen. Mike just did the thumbs down deal rather than fliping the bird?

But ya gotta admit, that would have been extra mega classy and made us all proud.

Maybe next time.

Sen. Jacobs mistaking the Illinois Senate chambers for the Roman Colosseum.

Will Blago come out ahead?

2009-01-25T21:46:00.002-06:00

OK, the story so far...

Federal prosecutor Fitzgerald rushes a criminal complaint full of juicy allegations and stuff from wiretaps on Gov. Blagojevich.

They grandstand at the announcement, making it sound as if they'd nailed Capone himself.

The media goes absolutely bonkers over it, since it occurs at a time between the nomination and inaguration when there was absolutely nothing to report other than gossip about what Obama might do next.

They whoop it up and fall over each other to come up with more witty ways to put Blago down and belittle him.

Then after about a week of this piling on, some tiny voices start to be heard pointing out that nearly nothing in this supposedly damning complaint was actually a crime. A lot of big talk, disgusting behavior and general ickiness, but not much in the way of actual crimes committed.

Then Blago drops the Burris bomb, the politicians in Springfield and the Democratic leadership in D.C. all run around like ninnies trying to deal with it, at first full of righteous bluster that they'd never seat anyone Blago named, and then forced to face facts, and sputter along for a few days looking for a way to do a 180 turn and still try to pretend they hadn't.

Score one for Blago.

Now he's upping the ante. His lawyers quit. He doesn't play along with the impeachment game like they want him to. He continues to make statements and hauls out human props in his bid to turn himself into a modern day Robin Hood being persecuted by the evil hacks in Springfield. (which he is. Persecuted by hacks that is, not Robin Hood.)

Now even our august Senate doesn't know what to do.

Yes, Blago is a goof. He's a "character" to put it charitably.

But he's also forcing these gasbags to actually put their money where their mouths are. He's forcing them to put up or shut up, and so far, he's shut them up.

This aspect of it I like.

And I hope he exposes the gang down in Springfield and puts them through as much pain and humiliation as possible. They thought they had it made. Blago's name is dirt, he's a national laughing stock. So they thought it would be a walk in the park to impeach and convict him.

Nope.

And ultimately, even Fitzgerald might have his work cut out for him.

We'll see.

Blago, a corrupt clown, but a corrupt clown who is making the rest of the currupt clowns look bad.

Very hard to figure out who to root for.

Were ya in D.C.? Send along some pics

2009-01-25T21:42:00.002-06:00

I realize the massive inauguration days in D.C. are nearly old news in our short attention span culture, and I've been tardy in doing this, but I've been meaning to invite anyone who was in D.C. for the events to send along some pictures or descriptions of your experiences.

Of course, you can be credited for the pics or not, your call. You don't even have to identify yourself to me, and can send them anonymously if you wish. Add some brief descriptions or captions if you can.

I know at least a few folks from the area were there, and if you were, share some of your impressions or better yet, photos.

Maybe no one will bother, but it's worth a try. I'd love to see some personal pictures of the historic event.

So far, so good.

2009-01-22T14:00:00.000-06:00

With the din of the crowds still ringing in their ears, the Obama administration hit the ground running.

High level staff were driven in vans to the White House immediately following the swearing in and got down to business.

And so far, it's been great. (and we all know that can't last long.)

While the decision to start the process of shutting down Gitmo is grabbing attention, one measure that is of immeasurable importance, but which gained scant attention is designed to end the paranoid secrecy and abuse of the Freedom of Information Act of the Bush era.

Obama issued a memo to counteract the ridiculous and obsessive secrecy imposed by the Bush gang, which historians and others who know about such things have long recognized as the most secretive administration in history, indeed, far worse than Nixon.

As a matter of fact, then Attorney General Ashcroft issued a memo to the heads of all government agencies stating,

When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions.

Kinda hard to hold anyone accountable when the actions of our hired and elected servants operate in complete secrecy, and when attempts to gain access to records are met with an army of lawyers that WE pay for, fighting to keep public information secret. Nice, eh?

Well now Obama has issued directives to counteract that anti-democratic stance on openness and accountability by issuing a memo to the government that says that in deciding when to disclose government records, if there is doubt, they should err on the side of openness, not secrecy.

No longer will 99% of government records requested under FOIA filings be denied, redacted, or kept from media and others seeking them by the ruse of claiming everything pertains to national security and therefore can't be released.

The manner that the Bushoids would routinely deny ANY request for information or records by saying they couldn't be released because they pertained to "national security", no matter how ridiculous and untrue that claim might be.

First realize that a FOIA request is incredibly complicated, and you have to be almost impossibly specific about the records you seek. The process takes literally several years in many instances, and often requires going to court to try to sue for their release.

The Bush administration mantra was to reveal NOTHING, no matter how relatively unimportant, with no regard whatsoever to the fact that these were public records and American's right to know what their government is doing in our names and with our money.

Want to know how often federal food inspectors actually inspect our food? Can't tell ya, national security. Think you still have a right to know? Sue us. Spend thousands. Wait years. Or give up.

In one stroke of the pen, that un-American mindset is gone. Now things that justify being secret will remain secret, but legitimate attempts to obtain matters unrelated to national security in any way, matters which might simply be politically inconvenient or revealing, will no longer be falsely withheld or denied and obstructed by the Justice Dept. and others with an attitude that the public has no right to any information whatsoever.

Obama also immediately signed a memo freezing the wages of all top staff with salaries over $100,000 (which I'd imagine included all of them.) Could you even imagine Bush doing anything remotely like that? Can you imagine Bush even understanding the message such an action conveys, let alone giving a damn?

No more leadership as if leading the government was one big, unimportant joke with only one simple goal... providing ever more wealth to your already exceedingly wealthy supporters by letting them essentially write the laws and regulations, and cynically lying to the public in order to justify using our military, our national treasure, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocents in an attempt to conquer a nation that had absolutely NOTHING to do with 9-11, all in order to try to give your closest friends in big oil access one of the world's largest oil reserves.

That, my friends, isn't bringing up "petty grievances". It ain't chicken feed. The fact that it was done is criminal and immoral on its face.

And the fact that those responsible (though in no way held accountable) are no longer in charge? That's a cause for joy and emmense relief around the planet.

Innauguration quick takes

2009-01-22T12:27:00.005-06:00

Stuff I noticed while watching endless hours of coverage of the Inauguration festivities, mostly on MSNBC.

- Chris Matthews is whacked. What's with his obsession with comparing EVERYTHING to some obscure movie plot? And they should never allow him to be on air longer than a half hour. Otherwise his ignorance and narrow view from the perspective of an elite white pundit who is paid millions and spends his entire life rubbing elbows with other media elite and those he's supposed to cover in D.C. is all too apparent.

Matthews kept saying, over and over and over and over again, over three days, that the huge crowds on the mall, many of, if not most, were black, represented the D.C. neighborhoods finally all emptying out and coming down to the mall. He kept referring to someone saying that D.C. was finally coming to Washington.

This was stunningly racist and plain stupid.

"Washington" evidently is the town of millionaire pundits, lobbyists, and polticians who all live the lives of princes and flit from townhouse to country house and dinner party to dinner party. "D.C." I guess is the blacks that inhabit the city and provide services to them all.

Matthews looked out at the sea of mostly black faces and wondered, "Gee, where did all these blacks come from?".

To Matthews' mind, they couldn't possibly have actually TRAVELLED there. Apparently he thinks blacks can't afford that or something. So to him, they HAD to be all the blacks in the neighborhoods of D.C. coming down to the mall.

Matthews would occasionally leave the toasty confines of the custom built MSNBC trailer and go to the fence around it and talk to the "little people". He'd ask their names and where they were from.

Over the course of three days, Matthews (and others) must have talked with scores of visitors, most of them black. Out of these dozens of people, perhaps one or two said they were from D.C. ALL the rest were from all across the country, north, south, east, and west, and an amazing number were from African and Carribean nations.

They were from Cameroon, from Ethiopia, from Burmuda and the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the Congo, just to name a few. All here giddy with delight and wanting to witness this history, even if it wasn't their country.

Surely Matthews would finally "get it" and drop this notion of his that the huge number of blacks were composed of far more than just the blacks who live in D.C. and provide household staff at the Georgetown parties he attends.

Nope, not a chance. He kept repeating what he apparently thought was a very interesting obvservation, all the way through, mentioning it again during the parade.

"Boy, it's really something.", Matthews seemed to be saying. Look at all those black people. They must all have come streaming out of the D.C. ghettos.

And I'll give him a pass for repeatedly mentioning how all he could see were all the "white teeth" shown by the sea of mostly black attendees, though he probably doesn't deserve it.

He seemed like he was drunk or on drugs or both much of the time, at one point getting into a contest with Keith Matthews, who himself was extremely annoying much of the time, over who could recall the most details about the movie "Advise and Consent".

During the parade, Olberman seemed fixated on acting annoyed that Obama didn't stick strictly to the schedule they had, at one point suggesting that Obama was displaying a "puckish nature" because.... well, because he got out of his limo when they didn't expect it, suggesting to Olberman that Obama was doing this just to screw up.... Olberman.

To be fair, they'd all been up nearly three days straight, and likely attending some of the toney parties themselves, and it showed. They were like a couple pre-teens who were punch-drunk after getting jacked up on Pepsi and staying up all night.

OK, enough of my "petty grievances".

Here's some other things I found notable.

The motorcade went INCREDIBLY S----L-----O-----W for 9/10ths of the parade route.
They were already at least a half hour behind schedule at that point.
Why??

The motorcade actually went twice as fast when Obama and Michelle were outside of the limo walking!!! At points, the Secret Service agents who were walking along side the limo had to walk as if they were a bride walking down the aisle, one small step, pause, another small step.....

I'm dying of curiosity as to why, with darkness approaching, and an incredibly long parade which would take hours to pass, which couldn't begin until the President was in the reviewing stand, and the fact that they'd then have to somehow eat dinner and change into their formal attire and put in appearances at each of the 10 official balls, that they appeared to be stalling for time, with the pace of the motorcade moving literally as slow as possible without coming to a complete stop.

A motivated snail could have left it in the dust.

~~~~

I was also very annoyed at the fact that, once the Obama's arrived at the reviewing stand and the parade began to pass before them, that within MINUTES, about 95% of their guests, who had been given one of the most honored and exclusive tickets in town, had VANISHED.

They'd spent who knows how much to construct this elaborate stand with seating for a few hundred of Obamas closest friends. It was heated and the best seats in D.C. to watch the parade and show their support to the new President and First Lady.

But within a couple MINUTES, these ungrateful and selfish people started running out the door in order to make their way to their hotel rooms and begin changing for the balls.

THAT, in my opinion, took a lot of balls by itself.

So viewers around the world were left with a visual of the Obama's standing utterly abandoned in front of a sea of empty chairs, complete with the names of who was to sit in them attached to the back.

To her credit, Nancy Pelosi stayed for quite some time, as did Bill Daley. Hell, Biden's wife even flew the coop early.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but if Obama had included me in the small number invited to join him in his reveiwing stand, I don't think I would have run out minutes after he arrived to make sure I got to some damn ball on time. I found it very disrespectful and rather tacky on a day where respect should have been given.

~~~~~~

Sasha and Malia are incredibly unspoiled and well-adjusted (not to mention cute)kids, and this reflects very well on their parents. There is nothing about them to suggest that they've been overly coached or taught to be little manequins or props.
It will be interesting to see how the press and the Obamas handle what will inevitably be an incredibly strong media presure worldwide for anything and everything to do with the girls.

And to think that not long ago, when I published a couple shots of the Obamas with their girls here, taken before Obama made his campaign announcement in Springfield, that there was at least one person to vigorously attacked me and applied pressure both to suggest that I was doing a horrible thing to post the pictures, that I was some sort of pedophile, and to demand that I take them down.

I'm sure this total asshole is having a stroke today from the fact that everyone on the planet can see the girls any time they want. Either that or he was a gigantic blowhard trying to throw his weight around at the time. Think I'll go with the latter.

~~~~~~

I'm grateful that the facts regarding Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts flubbing the Presidential Oath of Office have seemed to be accepted.

Obviously, it was inevitable that the goons on the right would leap to suggest that it was Obamas fault, and therefore proof that he can't get anything right, and that he's just as stupid as they are would emerge in an instant, and they did.

But to their credit, pundits and reporters were relatively quick to recognize that it was Roberts, not Obama, who had screwed up. (of course, to right wingers, facts are easily ignored and it's certain that they'll continue to believe that Obama messed it all up.)

After Justice Roberts got to, "I, Barack Hussein Obama..", Obama began to repeat the line, yet Justice Roberts continued, "do solemnly swear". This minor flub seemed to get things out of whack, but who did it right? Where were they supposed to pause?

I wondered if Justice Stevens had paused after saying, "I, Joseph Robinette Biden..." while delivering the Oath to the Vice President or not. After watching the clip, I see that he does not pause there, but repeats the entire phrase, "I, Joseph Robinette Biden do solemnly swear." before Biden repeats it back. ("Robinette" ??!! Yikes. Doesn't sound like your typical Joe Sixpack middle name.)

So it Obama flubbed by starting to repeat before Roberts had finished the entire phrase, "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.".

The actual 35 word Presidential Oath of Office reads,

"I (name) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Roberts choked and made two mistakes in repeating the line, "That I will execute the Office of President to the United States faithfully."

Seemingly catching George Bush disease, Roberts inexplicably said, "...execute the Office of President TO the United States...".

He also misplaced the word "faithfully" the first time he repeated it, then, after Obama paused to give him a chance to get it right, actually got it right the second time before quickly messing it up again prior to Obama's repeating it with "faithfully" misplaced.

This fact was born out by repeated viewings which showed clearly that Roberts had screwed up the phrase in question, then, after Obama paused to let him get it right, repeated it correctly, but then amazingly, quickly repeated it incorrectly again. At that point Obama then repeated the line that Roberts had repeated last, which unfortunatly was incorrect.

Coverage of the luncheon in the Capitol after the event showed Obama going over to a seated Roberts and talking with him. At one point, by reading lips, you can clearly see Roberts saying, "It was my fault." It was also reported elsewhere that Roberts had apologized for his blunder to Obama at the event.

The constitution lays out the wording of the Presidential Oath, but it also stipulates that the president-elect becomes president at the hour of noon, as Olberman put it, "whether he's reciting the oath or taking a bath.". In other words, he becomes president at that hour, oath or no oath. But this assertion is still open for arguement.

Of course, right wing Republicans, addicted to whining and railing at any chance, no matter how irrelevant or petty, to attack Obama, raised a cry about it. And apparently, someone in the White House decided that "out of an abundance of caution", it might be worth it to have a do-over, and Roberts did the thing again, after heeding Obama's suggestion that they "take it slow this time", and all is well.

Of interest is that this incident is neither the first time the oath has been bungled, nor the fist time it's been retaken, though it's the first time a President has taken the oath in private after he'd taken it in public.

~~~~~
The Illinois float in the Inaugural Parade not only featured a rather goulish looking figure wearing an enormous paper mache Lincoln head, but also featured a John Deere children's riding tractor, as well as the skyline of Chicago, all set on the outline of the state. The float, as with others, was pulled by a John Deere tractor as well.

So there ya go. Illinois, noteworthy because of.... Chicago, Lincoln, and John Deere. And apparently, nothing else. Where was Capone? Well, there's Blagojevich, but.....

400,000 plus, but who's counting.

2009-01-22T02:07:00.003-06:00

Just passed the 401,000th visit to The Inside Dope, and we're on our way to passing the half million mark.

Congratulations and a hearty well done to the staff here who have persevered under incredibly adverse conditions in order to provide you with the consistently adequate work you've come to know and love throughout the years.

And great thanks to all those incredibly disloyal readers who continue to read the blog, but who no longer participate. I don't know how to thank you.

Keep those cards and letters and donations coming.

Mission Accomplished

2009-01-20T13:33:00.017-06:00

America has been traumatized by the dark depressing cloud of immorality and dishonesty in the cause of self-centered greed coupled with utter indifference to the needs of the 90% of Americans worth less than a few million that defined the Bush era. As this perversion of and assault on American values passes into the dust bin of history, a new era began today.

Today marks the end of the age of ignorance and callous indifference. And Americans rejoiced, as did millions around the world.

The countdown clock in the sidebar reads all zeros. Millions of people around the world, most particularly myself, who has struggled long and hard to cope with and outlast what I knew would be a disasterous administration literally since the day it began, since the day this obviously unqualified flawed pretender was installed into office by a vote of 5 to 4.

I sometimes despaired tht this day would ever come, or if it would come too late. It did come. At long last. Today.

The past is gone, though the damage the radical Republicans and Bush have left in their wake will take generations to repair, and in some cases can never be undone. This is a fact that the world will have to deal with. Nothing like this passes without leaving scars. Like thousands upon thousands of youths who, seeing us slaughter their families, destroy their homes and towns, who now will carry a seething hatred for our country for the rest of their lives. And no one can blame them.

Cheney was in a wheelchair, looking like some aging Mafia Don being wheeled into a courthouse. A creepier looking villian couldn't be found in central casting.

Is it wrong that this shot conjures up the image of Cheney bouncing down the steps out of control in the wheelchair while loudly uttering gutteral half grunts, half quacks ala The Penguin? "Whaan! Whaaaaan! Whan, Whan,Whan!!" Just in a cartoony way, of course.

Obama was bamboozled by Chief Justice John Roberts when Roberts managed to screw up the 36 word presidential Oath of Office.

The Obama girls, as always, looked cute as buttons and well dressed, and it was fun to see Malia snapping shots on her digital camera before and after the ceremony.

Obama had said that during the family's visit to the Lincoln Memorial the day before the inaugural, that after reading Lincoln's immortal words carved into the walls there, Malia had turned to her dad and said, "Wow. Your speech better be good!".

After her dad delivered his address, the first person he turned to was Malia, and you can plainly read her lips as she looks up at him and says, "That was a good speech.", to which Obama responded with his remarkable smile.

And amazingly, on the day when bi-partisanship and unity was the order of the day, Supreme Court justice Sam Alito was actually childish and petty enough to not attend the inauguration at all, apparently miffed because Obama and Biden voted against his nomination to the court.

I ask, just how small a person do you have to be to pull something like that on an occassion for all Americans? And of course, from a conservative in a high position which is required to be strictly non-partisan, neutral, and apolitical. What a collossal jerk.

Hmmm. Wonder if they're all that small. Maybe Roberts, whom Obama voted against as well, thought it would be cute to screw Obama up on the oath? Nah!

Rev. Rick "Being gay is comparable to bestiality and pedophilia" Warren from Brokeback Church gave his forgetable little prayer, enjoying world-wide exposure he never should have been afforded.

Aretha, The Queen of Soul, did her thing singing "America the Beautiful", and Itzhak Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, pianist and clarinetist Anthony McGill performed a very moving piece written for the occasion by John Williams which I thought was great.

But aside from Obama's address, in my opinion, the highlight of the entire ceremony was the benediction given by the legendary 87 year old civil rights veteran Rev. Joseph Lowrey. (Transcript below)

And it looks like you can take the guy out of Chicago, but you can't take the Chicago out of the guy... at least when the guy is Rahm Emmanual.

Here's a shot of him on the platform prior to Obama's arrival.

Unfortunately, the caption didn't provide the target of his nose thumbing, but it appears as though it's entirely in jest.

The crowd thumbed it's collective noses at Bush, and a massive low hum of boos greeted his introduction. The crowd was studded with signs reading "Arrest Bush", "See ya!", and at the mention of his name by TV talking heads, those around their location spontaneously broke into choruses of "Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, good bye!". One of my favorite signs delivered the mesesage to those who've mislead our country for the past decades, "We are the deciders."

People? There were a few that braved the cold, the restrictive security lines. No one complained. When you're really, REALLY happy, nothing much bothers you.

Leave your impressions of the Inaugural ceremonies. What did you like, dislike? What struck you or made an impression?

Here we see some scary Republicans (including Sen. Nosferatu, R-Transylvania) emerging from The Crypt. (Yep, at least that's what the sign in the upper left says. Click to enlarge.) The other two undead Republicans are unable to open their eyes in the glaring light of day.

Benediction of Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery:

God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far along the way
Thou who has by thy might lead us into the light
Keep us forever on the path we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places our God where we met thee
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee
Shadows beneath our hand, may we forever stand
True to thee oh God, and true to our native land

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day
We pray now oh Lord for thy blessing upon thy servant Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family, and his administration.

He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and indeed, global fiscal climate.

But because we know you got the whole world in your hands, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations.

Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that Lord you're able, and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these, and from favoritism towards the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of our servant, our 44th president to inspire our nation to believe that YES WE CAN work together to achieve a more perfect union.

And while we have sown the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness, and we come in the spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn too each other, and not on each other.

And now lord in the complex arena of human relations help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate, on the side of inclusion, not exclusion, tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family.

Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle, look over our little angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together children pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know that you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power, and your heart of love.

Help us then now Lord to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.

When justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back. When brown can stick around. When yellow will be mellow. And when the red man can get ahead, man. And when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say AMEN.

Say amen.

And AMEN.

Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

2009-01-20T13:22:00.002-06:00

The following is the text of President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address.

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

You were only waiting for this moment to arrive

2009-01-20T07:20:00.004-06:00

Barack Hussein Obama is shortly going to assume the presidency of the United States of America.

And across the planet, people are giddy with excitement.

And at this moment in history, Americans and the world, after having experienced and witnessed the very worst of American government for 8 excrutiatingly long years, is now looking at the prospect of the very best this country has to offer to both it's citizens and the rest of the world.

And to all those white pundits and Republicans and DLC Democrats who've been insisting for decades that Americans are mostly conservative, eat it.

Just because they got most of their campaign loot from conservatives isn't a very good basis for judging the political leanings of the country.

Wonder where the votes came from? Wonder where the record shattering amounts of money raised by the Obama campaign and Dem campaigns across the country came from?
Wonder where the sea of happy people come from stretching as far as the eye can see to stend in the freezing cold just to BE THERE?

I'll give you a clue. They're NOT conservatives.

And they've been IGNORED for scores of years by ignorant politicians and pundits who only see white, rich, conservative leaning people at their fund-raisers and assumed that was reality, a very foolish mistake.

From a government and Republican party who represented the interests of ONLY the exclusively white elite, the very wealthiest sliver of people in this country, and eagerly worked to give them everything they wanted while giving the rest of us nothing but propaganda and lies, to one offering a return to reality, honesty, and actual competence.

The Republican ideologues got their way. The Republicans and Bush spent 8 years busily concocting ways for corporate America and Wall Street to literally loot the government until it was bankrupt as has been their ideological goal for decades. For years they've tried to make the government so broke that it would be forced to eliminate the programs designed to destroy New Deal programs and essentially destroy any form of government which either taxed the wealthy or corporations or prevented them from doing whatever they wanted, anywhere, anytime, to make more money, no matter what the consequences to society, the economy, or the environment.

From the very worst administration in the history of our country, to one which is pledged to return to what our government is supposed to be. One which offers the prospect that our country can be returned to the people who make up the country, not just those who already have incredible power.

How tragic that after radical Republican ideologues having seized our country (in essentially a coup 8 years ago) and happily perverted it beyond recognition, that simply promising a return to "normal" would evince such a massive outpouring of exuberance and joy.

But this is what it looks like when the American people feel that they've actually regained control over their own government after having it stolen, and run, of, by, and for, only the most wealthy, the most connected, and the most greedy and immoral.

And normal Americans are heaving a sigh of relief.

The outpouring of excitement and good feelings aren't just due to Obama alone, though that's a huge part of it.

No, I think at least half of it, if not a majority of it, springs from the joy and RELIEF felt by people literally around the globe who feel as though someone has just removed a boot from their neck.

Yes, the joy you see and literally feel to your core is likely the same emotional release, the same relief and happiness felt by an abused woman feels when her abuser finally is incarcerated. No more fear. NO more abuse, disrespect, lies.

Relief.

Hope.

Joy.

So here's to this historic moment, to an era of possibility, to a president who isn't trying to bullshit the country every time he opens his mouth, (and one that can actually SPEAK ENGLISH). Good riddance to reckless and thoughless government, run by those who's only qualifications were if they were ideological true believers, to a government which didn't even pretend to care about anything or anybody other than the very richest in our society.

And hello to a return to reality. To science. To intelligence. To competence. To a government which exists to help people, not abuse, lie to, and ignore the people.

It is now in hindsight that the Bush era stands naked as the criminally greedy and irresponsible disaster that it was. The cocky ideology that was based on the idea that extremely wealthy white people are inherantly more worthy, more moral, than the rest of us. That incredibly arrogant attitude that government exists to serve them, while taking away basic services, removing regulations that protect our safety and health in the name of them adding a few more million to their already huge stack.

The only thing they felt was due the little people who make their great wealth possible was an endless stream of bullshit designed to cover up what they were doing, an endless marketing campaign to sell shit sandwiches to us all by dipping it in chocolate and charging us dearly for it, in which they'd send out Bush to read lies and distortions off of 3x5 cards and then consider the job done.

Do whatever you want. Take whatever you want. And keep the boobs in line by lying your ass off to them to keep them scared, ignorant, and "patriotic".

Now we see what is possible.

Perhaps most importantly, the promise of a return to REALITY. To honesty.

And frankly, a return to collective mental health.

You can't be told that reality isn't real, that black is white, and that what's bad for you is actually good for you, and have people constantly wave the prospect of horrible death in front of you for 8 long years and not be a little goofy.

That alone is reason for rejoicing.

So lets all enjoy this moment.

And to those dead-enders still longing for the era where you were so cynically manipulated by your inner bigot, your weakness for fear and conspiracy, and your belief that mankind is rotten and it's silly to dream or hope that anything better is possible, or that anything would ever change, get over it, get some help, or get going.

Let's all enjoy this era of good feelings. And then let's see how long we can keep the spirit.

Terror cell trained in Quad Cities

2009-01-17T08:36:00.000-06:00

Be afraid Americans. Be very afraid.

THIS may be your worst nightmare.

A young Canadian terrorist recruit.

As if our nation didn't face enough serious threats, it's now apparent that rogue elements of geese, assumed to be affiliated with our formerly peaceful neighbor to the north, are actively pursuing suicide missions to down U.S. aircraft.

Though not confirmed, presumably to avoid panicking an already jittery public, all indications are that a group of Canadian geese willingly flew into the path of US Air flight 1549, bound for Charlotte, NC from LaGuardia airport in New York City resulting in it's ditching in the Hudson River.

The goal of these birds was obviously to cause a large jet airliner to crash into a densely populated area, thus causing unimaginable death and destruction. Only the skill and experience of the pilots, crew, and rescue workers prevented catastrophe.

Such is their passionate hatred for this country (they obviously "hate our freedom") that this gaggle were willing to become goose liver (and everything else) pate in service to their dastardly cause, willingly being sucked into the world's most powerful Cuisinart and spit out as "jet d'oie".

Such a fowl (ahem) plot must have required careful planning and months of preparation and training.

The Inside Dope can now report exclusively evidence of such a camp located right in our midst along the banks of the Mississippi, as the following pictures reveal for the first time the TERRORISTS IN OUR MIDST.

This is an old surveillance picture of reputed mastermind Osama bin Honkin. Latest intelligence indicates he is currently being sheltered by sympathetic water fowl at an unknown location across the border in Iowa.

Surveillance photo showing an AK-47 toting Canadian goose overseeing young recruits along the Butterworth Parkway in Moline this past summer.

Sentries keep a sharp eye out for humans who might happen along during one of their clandestine training sessions.

The last picture taken by a special ops agent shows a terrorist leader sounding the alarm. The agent managed to upload these pictures via satellite link before his untimely capture. It is presumed that the geese waterboarded the agent. It is not known how much information was pecked of him. Shockingly, the cunning geese were up to their evil deeds in public spaces, hiding in plain sight.

Jet intake specialist "Agent Fred", a white goose of unknown parentage who is in league with the Canadians.

Photo showing sneak attack training. Should the suicide jet engine strike tactic fail, it is thought they were to resort to hissing at and pecking as many people as they could. In case that too failed, plan C was to just pretty much poop all over everything.

Shown at their training facility on Butterworth Parkway in Moline, an recruit bellows a battle cry as he practices proper fan jet attack procedure using a mock-up of the Airbus A320's V2500 engine. Young Canuck recruits look on.

Perhaps most shocking, the Canadian terror geese have set up "madrassas" to inculcate their fiendish evil-doing evil into the minds of their young, shown here with visions of evil-doing dancing in their heads during nap time.

Clearly we have not been vigilant enough. We got lucky this time, with all passengers safely rescued. But if you thought nameless "evil-doers" were tough to stop, try Canadian Geese.

Please, if you hear anyone punctuating their speech with "Eh?", or being suspiciously polite, honest, and tolerant, or ordering back bacon, please report them to the Homeland Uber Alles Defense Force Corp immediately.

If we all work together and get really, really scared, we can authorize those in power to do literally anything they want as long as they tell us they need to in order to keep us safe. Please do your part in mindlessly going along.

Remember, Canadian geese hate our freedom.

Throwing an innaugural bash? Want to find one?

2009-01-17T07:53:00.003-06:00

I'm sure there will be literally millions of celebrations across the country this coming Tuesday, and literally around the world. And with good reason. This gang of criminally inept and irresponsible crooks is FINALLY on their way out the door, and at this moment, there is a great reserve of hope for a better day residing in people around the world.

Moveon.org has a site where you can find innaugural celebrations around you, or at least the ones that have registered there, which you can check out here.

There's still time to plan a gathering or arrange to meet at a local watering hole to usher out the darkness and ring in the new.

Aside from the D.C. events, which one veteran has described as incredibly expensive and crowded disappointments, there's events being held in Chicago as well, including what appears to be the biggest arranged by former Obama staffers and held at McCormick Place. (tickets will set you back $175 minimum.)

Tuesday will be a great national and international event, one you're sure to tell your grandkids about. While it will be great to experience no matter what, it will no doubt be even more fun to experience it with others who share the sense of relief, gratitude, excitement, and hope that the day will bring.

If you know of any local gatherings planned for the 20th, or are planning to host one yourself, please let us know!

Our long national nightmare is (almost) over

2009-01-16T07:59:00.004-06:00

This country, and the world, is almost rid of a President who never should have been placed in office to begin with.

At the time, millions hoped that at least he wouldn't do too much damage before he left office. Well, that hope has long since been dashed.

Perhaps the political reporter from BET said it best when describing George W. Bush's attitude during his recent pathetic attempt to sell his legacy as anything but a miserable failure.

She said his message is, "I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong."

And that's it. The shallow frat boy, the guy who never really appeared to even want to be president, then once there, ran the country as if he were still the goofy governor of Texas who has no real responsibility for governing. (In Texas, the Lt. Governor does all that hard stuff, the Gov. is largely a figure-head.)

Hundreds of books have already been written on the various colossal blunders, stunningly stupid, arrogant, ignorant, and venal attitudes and actions of Bush and his incompetent administration. "How hard can it be?" seemed to be his guiding principle. "So what?", his inspiring creed.

The era will be known as the rise of the ignorant, the revenge of the C student, and the worst presidency of modern times.

I've neither the stomach nor the capacity to even begin to scratch the surface of all the things that have occurred during this destructive era, much of which the general public is completely ignorant of.

There's dozens of books which have already been written documenting the most egregious, and doubtlessly, there will be hundreds, if not thousands, more written about just how bad it really was, now that the Don of the Bush Mafia has been exiled. Maybe some will finally emerge to reveal the truth without as much fear of being rubbed out either figuratively or literally.

There will be much to celebrate on January 20th.

But it's really hard to determine if the cause of the joy will be due to finally getting this gang of know-nothing right wing assholes away from where they can do anymore damage, or the fact that common sense and informed and rational thought is making a return to the White House, and may rub off on Capitol Hill.

Myself, I will be celebrating the end of this dark chapter in American history.
The mere fact of not having to look at Bush's genetically damaged mug, or listen to his brain damaged attempts at the English language, not having to watch his ridiculous swagger, his infuriating sneer, and the endless stream of bullshit that emerges every time he moves his lips.

Bush thought being president wouldn't be that tough. Karl and Dick would take care of the hard part. He could just hang out in Crawford, and just pop up every once in a while to try to sell their bullshit to the public. The whole thing was run as though it was nothing but an ad campaign. We the people were just a bunch of patsies that they could placate with phony appeals to mindless patriotism and macho bluster, and constant and never-ending appeals to fear, endless threats, nameless and largely imagined, and the assurance that no one but Bush could magically keep us safe.

Well, how could you doubt that? They did a hell of a job protecting us from 9-11. But of course, in Bush world, his administration didn't start until September 12, rather than 9 months earlier.

And despite repeated warnings, including a memo entitled, "Bin Laden determined to strike within U.S.", anti-terror budgets were eliminated, Ashcroft told an aid he didn't want to hear about al Queda anymore, and Condoliza Rice, the most incompetent and failed National Security Director and Secretary of State in generations, actually said before a congressional committee that, "...nobody could have imagined that terrorists would use airplanes as weapons.", despite the fact that intelligence had been warning of just that for years.

"How could we have possibly been prepared for that?", Rice asked, in one of the worst examples of outright lying and bullshit put out by this gang. And it got worse. Trying to avoid any responsibility or even accountability, a pursuit which seemed to occupy most of the time of the entire administration, who bizarrely seemed congenitally incapable of ever admitting even the slightest error, Rice actually tried to argue, and Bush flying monkeys parroted the idea, that well, yeah, we did know al Queda was planning to attack us, and maybe with hijacked planes, but we didn't know the EXACT DAY AND TIME they were planning to do it, so, obviously, you can't blame us for having such a shitty response and doing zero to prevent it.

And perhaps it's worth remembering that during those days, which they now constantly insist were so earth-shattering that anyone would have made mistakes, one decision Bush managed to make mere hours after the attack was to allow the private jets of Saudi oil billionaires to be the ONLY aircraft allowed in the air post attack to fly around the country picking up their kids and relatives and flying them back to the country where 15 of the 19 terrorists lived.

Bush is left scraping the barrel for anything he's accomplished, and left trying the flimsy claim that it was he who has kept us safe from attack since 9-11.

The foiled plots they point to are all extremely minor, and none of them amounted to anything but a few crack-pots who were plotting attacks they couldn't possibly pull off anyway. None of these cases were in any way related to al Queda at all.

In Bush's mind, and wingnuts still in denial, the fact that al Queda has kept quiet is attributable to Bush's actions.

And in the rooster's mind, his crowing causes the sun to rise.

Both claims are equally dubious.

And it just goes on and on and on, from shredding the constitution and breaking the law by spying on U.S. citizens without any oversight, committing clear war crimes by directly authorizing torture, devastating environmental protections and giving away millions of acres of federal land to mining and logging corporations, allowing media consolidation which has wrecked both the quality and Independence of the news we receive, turning our nation from a subject of near universal sympathy and solidarity in the wake of 9-11 to a weakened power with little credibility or moral authority at all, and the list goes on and on an on and on and on.

If anything, the only saving grace of this mind-boggling dereliction of duty and shirking of responsibility in favor of sheer greed and abuse of power may be that it clearly illustrated exactly what a leader should NOT do. George, Dick, Don, Condi, and the rest, thanks for being a shining beacon to the world of just how bad it can be when we're conned into thinking that smart people are dumb, science is baloney, the President would never lie us into a war costing thousands of U.S. lives and hundred of thousands of innocent lives just for some goofy notion that it would be easy and self-aggrandizement. A person who clearly views the in comic book terms, as if it's all nothing but a game of Risk with no consequences, isn't the person you want leading this country or any other.

Maybe the final tragedy of the Bush era will be that George W. Bush will be proven right. He came in as a spoiled brat kid who had never fully matured, who's entire life consisted of opportunities handed to him, his blowing it, and family friends coming in to bail him out. And the more he failed, the higher up he rose until we ended up with this.

His response to the fact that his decisions were nearly universally thought to be bad and often tragic mistakes were met with, "So?" That sums up his attitude.

He made decisions from the "gut", as he pointed out, and never sweated the consequences. Self examination or introspection was for wussies and egg-heads, not for George W. Bush. "Who cares? No skin off my nose." was his guiding principle.

And now as he walks away back into the life of a billionaire prince, he'll be proven right.

There ARE no consequences. Not for George W. Bush.

He'll never lose a second of sleep over the hundreds of thousands of innocents he's caused to be slaughtered, or the needless deaths of thousands of U.S. servicemen and women and the grief their deaths leave behind, all killed while he dithered and played for time to run out the clock in Iraq for his political benefit.

No, his conscience won't bother Bush in the slightest, because he's practiced at it. As he's boasted several times, he doesn't look back, doesn't worry, and never thinks twice about what he's done. In other words, he has no conscience. So no consequences there.

He'll live like a billionaire with everything he could ever want or need given to him, including everyone around him treating him with the highest respect and deference. The many billionaires whose wealth Bush has helped double or triple will shower him with perks and luxuries. No consequence there.

There will never be any investigation, or at least none that will be allowed to get too close to holding him accountable for his actions. No consequence there.

Ah, but history. Surely history will not be kind to George W. Bush. That's got to hurt him, right?

Nope. Not in the slightest. He's stated on more than one occasion that he couldn't care less about what historians say about him. First of all, he thinks everyone's got him all wrong, that he really was a great president.

Secondly, historians are them pointy headed intellectuals (aka intelligent people), and he has nothing but contempt for people like that anyway.

And besides, Bush showed us his attitude about being judged by history when asked by Bob Woodward how it would judge the Iraq invasion, when he responded, "History. We don't know. We'll all be dead." Translation? "I don't give a shit."

Ain't he clever? heh heh Just the kind of juvenile thought process we need in the White House. And it's not like he didn't give us thousands of clues going back to prior to 2000. The American people were sold a bill of goods and the Supreme Court did the rest. And then they were manipulated and stampeded by fear (and a Dem candidate who was lackluster at best) into making the same mistake again in 2004, a mistake of judgement on a cosmic scale that will confound historians for ages.

And as a consequence of George W. Bush, the very wealthiest were allowed to run rampant, literally looting the country, with the help of Bush and Republicans allowing them to rig the game every chance they got and however they wanted, bleeding the middle class white, and using the "War on Terror" as if it were the world's largest ATM, we now stand poised on the brink of decades of economic decline and hardship for millions of hard working Americans.

They weren't content simply with doubling the national debt and hanging the bill for their rampage on our children and their children. No, they kept going until the entire country will have to pay the cost of their wholesale looting in the near term and beyond.

Bush and the Republicans got their way. They did things the way they wanted, and they managed to bring the world's strongest economy to it's knees a mere 8 years after being handed an enormous surplus, the first in decades.

So so long George W. Bush. So long stupid cackle, so long government of, by, and for, the highest bidder. So long having a president run this country as if it were his own damn baseball franchise or something, that he could do with whatever the hell struck him at the moment.

So long to having an arrogant, incurious, spoiled man-child run the country and cause untold death, misery, and anti-American hatred which will last generations.

So long George, you shallow, arrogant, asshole. Like your entire life, others are left to clean up the messes you leave in your wake. We and the next few generations of Americans, Americans who've managed to survive your reign of error, will try to undo the lasting damage you've done.

A Burris under their saddle, and the Hokey Mom strikes again there also

2009-01-11T10:42:00.006-06:00

Oh yeah... Gov. Sarah Perhapstherealso is flat out dumb, a little crazy, incredibly shallow, and deeply, deeply delusional about herself and should never be taken seriously by anyone. But then again, maybe those traits make a person destined for greatness in politics?

EVERYTHING is someone else's fault, usually some vague boogie-man that plays to the conservatives love of conspiracy, like "the mainstream media" which essentially doesn't exist. Palin and other right wing flacks pretend the entire "media" engaged in horrible attacks, whining about the horrible things said about her kids. (Yet when pressed by the mean mainstream reporters as to just who said these things, they draw a blank, or admit it was some supermarket tabloid or obscure blog comment. I guess that qualifies as the "mainstream media" to them.)

Palin has no shame, as she's made clear for some time. She actually tried to suggest that Carolyn Kennedy is getting kid glove treatment from the press because "perhaps" there might be a class issue involved (also). Kennedy has been getting battered eight ways to Sunday by both the local NY press and the national media, but so eager is Palin to exploit class resentment among her "low information" base, that she couldn't stop herself from going for it, even though the suggestion is preposterous.

Poor Sarah Palin and her struggling working class family that pulled down $250,000 last year (not counting hubby's silk undies and the $150,000 plus in high-falutin' city duds courtesy of the Republican party, which she says they're going to return or give to charity. Anyone want the first dude's underwear? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?). They're being picked on and looked down on by those suspicious "media elite".

She said (also) that if she were nominated on the Dem ticket, that she would have been treated much better in the press.

This is so dumb on so many levels it's hard to know where to begin (or end). Suffice to say that the Democrats would NEVER nominate an unqualified, un-vetted dim bulb like that to any presidential ticket, EVER, (and neither will the Republicans do so again, it is hoped.) so the point is moot.

But if in bizarro world, the Dems nominated someone with the background of Palin, someone who said the idiotic things she has, with the bizarro family she heads, with the ethical clouds over their heads she had, the association with fringe political parties she and the "first dude" had, who came across as some dim beauty pageant contestant (which she essentially is) during her first few (and only) national interviews, then whined relentlessly about it afterwords as if complaining that there weren't supposed to be HARD questions in a beauty pageant, and that the judges were so mean, then yeah, I think the media would have treated her WORSE than they treated her and her family this time around. I was astounded at just how much credibility and legitimacy the press and pundits actually gave her, laboring mightily to pretend she was somehow legitimate at all.

The press and even the pundit corp were obviously walking on eggshells trying desperately to avoid coming across as unfair to her, as the baseless charges of sexism and bias blasted out of the McCain camp. She got off easy! Very few in the media dared point out the obvious... that Palin was a joke.

But now the small town girl has gotten a taste for the bright lights, and, gosh darn it, she's not ready to fade back to the obscurity she so richly deserves.

So she's out there pluggin' away, trying to somehow polish up her disastrous candidacy, blaming it all on everyone else, while at the same time continuing to demonstrate clearly and convincingly to a majority of Americans that they were indeed correct in judging her grossly unqualified for any office above mayor of Wasilla, the meth capitol of Alaska, and nothing more than a tragi-comic Jerry Springeresque side show.

With no awareness of or apparent interest in how she is percieved, Palin now refuses to just GO AWAY. Rather, she has the gall to continue to peddle her standard complaint that the media was unfair to her for, I guess, reporting anything at all about her dysfunctional family or actually quoting her accurately.

She cited Obama's edict that his family and wife be off limits to the press, trying to make it seem like the press laid off Obama's family, but were terrible and unfair to hers. But of course Obama's young girls weren't out there standing behind him at every campaign stop. And Palin is too stupid to realize that the Obama girls are utterly innocent young children. The press didn't say anything about Palin's younger children other than how cute they were. (I can't even remember her other kids besides the pregnant one and the cutie who slicked down the baby's hair at the convention.)

But in Palin-land, when an 18 year old daughter of a rabid social conservative who loudly and incessantly pointed to her family as evidence of how wholesome she was, is revealed to be about to have a child out of wedlock, the press should have completely ignored it and not reported it at all. No news there, move along.

After all, they didn't report any bad stuff about the OBAMA girls. They're SO biased.

And of course, she never mentions Obamas very stern statement on the subject of kids that if anyone in his campaign were found to have said a word about any of Palin's kids, they'd be bounced out on their asses immediately.

And when Palin trotted around with her poor infant as if he was an overstuffed football, coming on stage holding him like a prop and mugging for the crowd long enough for effect, then quickly passing it off like a hot potato to the baby wrangler so she could begin her crazy slurs against Obama, then yeah, maybe her family was fair game. (By the way, why didn't they just use a prop baby. It would have had the same effect and would have been less wear and tear on poor Tripe, or Trots, or Truck or whatever his name is.)

But according to Sarah, if one of the Obama girls were a teen and pregnant and it wasn't announced for some time, the press wouldn't say a thing, since they're so "elite" and biased, don't cha know.

Or if the Obamas then announced that their daughter and the baby's daddy were going to wed and everything was going to be just peachy, but after using the poor young man as a prop throughout the campaign, he got the hell out of there as soon as it was over, the press wouldn't have breathed a word about it.

And if it was revealed that the Obama's had pulled some strings and got this kid a job in the oil fields, apparently as an inducement to stick around and get hitched, but the guy decided to bolt intead, both from the job AND the prospect of having Sarah Palin as a mother-in-law (The kid is smarter than he looks.) the elite media would never have DARED to report that, if it had been the Obamas instead.

Then it emerges that the baby daddy's dear old Mom got popped for multiple felony drug charges just after the election was over, but it emerged that the cops were set to make the bust BEFORE the election, but pressure was applied for them to wait until afterwards. (makes ya wonder if McCain had won, if she ever would have been charged at all.), but of course, this was only lightly reported at all because, the elite media hate Palin, not because it's news.

As a matter of fact, most of this has been decidedly underplayed in the press. But of course, Palin is clueless to any of it in her eagerness to play the martyr and try to salvage what little credibility she still clings to.

All this is apparent to most people, but apparently not in the beauty pageant world of Sarah Palin there.

The obvious fact which must not be uttered is that Sarah Palin has absolutely NOTHING by way of qualifications for any higher office, has never come up with, let alone uttered a single idea or policy proposal, nor demonstrated any knowledge whatsoever OF any policy or anything to do with governance AT ALL in all the hours of TV time she's had.

She preferred instead to spend about 99% of the exposure she has gotten (due to her freak show attraction, not due to her as a politician) whining endlessly. She's done essentially nothing but pretend to be "Joe Sixpack" while cravenly grasping to become one of the "elites" she supposedly dislikes.

Palin has not uttered a rational, intelligent sylable to do with the problems our country faces or what she'd do about it since she was tossed onto the national stage months ago, and despite the fact that she's had far, far more attention and airtime than she ever deserved, she shows absolutely no sign of having learned a damn thing along the way.

That's just her. Unqualified. Incurious. Largely ignorant and damn proud of it. And utterly and completely unable or unwilling to view the world through anything other than her own incredibly narrow and self-centered lens.

But her stupidity and unpreparedness isn't HER fault. Nothing is, according to her. It's the McCain campaigns, and those naughty reporters who actually asked her legitimate questions and then thought it odd when she couldn't manage to give a straight answer to their "gotcha" questions, like what newspapers and magazines do you read. The nerve of those "elites"!

And she's willing and anxious to continue to use every dishonest trick in the book to continue to sway the gullible and uninformed into thinking there's anything more to her than a mass of hot air, Rovian political scheming, hairspray and hypocrisy. Go for it Hokey Mom! You gonna have a big career and become the first female president? You betcha... perhaps... there.... also.

And then there's Roland Burris.

His best qualification seems to be that he's a nice guy. (and apparently not an outright crook) Nothing wrong with that, obviously, and lord knows we could use more nice guys around.

Roland Burris is a nice guy. Deeply weird, but a really nice guy.

Burris saw fit to spent a huge amount of money on his own mausoleum, essentially a huge marble shrine to himself, complete with his entire resume engraved on it, including not only that he was the first black elected to state-wide office in Illinois, but also such immortalizing accomplishments as his being the first black national bank examiner for the U.S. Treasury Department and that he was the first black Southern Illinois University exchange student to the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Oh, and lest we forget, Burris was also the first non-CPA to be on the board of the Illinois CPA Society. Now THAT'S a trick. Not sure it's something to be remembered for the ages, but apparently Burris thought so. Generations from now, visitors can read that and murmur, "Wow", in hushed reverence.

There's probably still room to mention that he was the head hall monitor in school and that he once helped an old woman across the street. And that he was the first black person to have a career exactly like his career.

Burris also often refers to himself in the third person. (ala Bob Dole), which I find incredibly odd, not to mention annoying as hell, and he also named his son Roland Jr. and his daughter Rolanda. (ala George Foreman.)

I find all of it more than a little weird, especially since he had the monument erected probably while he was still in his 60's. What kind of person erects essentially a monument to his own greatness before he can even be considered elderly? Or while they're still alive, for that matter?

But then again, I think to be a politician in this state, it's a law you have to have a screw loose somewhere. I mean, look around. It seems that Durbin and Obama are the only two who appear "normal" in the usual sense of the word. It's like the rest all have some sort of raging egos, paranoia, or drug and/or alcohol problems (at least that would explain a lot.)

Know a good dermatologist?

2009-01-11T10:30:00.000-06:00

I think I may have a problem. My skin is REALLY red and chapped, there's little tufts of hair growing out for some reason, and one of my fingers is sprouting little teeth. Should I be worried? Or is this normal?
(Click on the pictures to get a good look.)

Or maybe I got the pictures mixed up with pictures of something else. What could it be?

Is latent racism the bedrock of the Republican party?

2009-01-06T11:14:00.001-06:00

A recent column pointing out the crucial role racism has played in nearly everything the Republican party has done over the last several decades got a lot of attention, and rightfully so.

To what extent is racism the underlying strain that runs through all of Republican policy and thought?

Me? I've always recognized the intense strain of racism, both overt and coded, that ran through nearly every Republican policy position. And it's probably that fact that has spelled it's downfall.

Read the piece and leave your thoughts.

Paul Krugman in the New York Times:

As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.

Some of the whining almost defies belief. Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror”? Did Rush Limbaugh really suggest that the financial crisis was the result of a conspiracy, masterminded by that evil genius Chuck Schumer?

But most of the whining takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply a matter of bad luck — either the bad luck of President Bush himself, who just happened to have disasters happen on his watch, or the bad luck of the G.O.P., which just happened to send the wrong man to the White House.

The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.

If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it was just following the advice of leading conservative think tanks: after the 2000 election the Heritage Foundation specifically urged the new team to “make appointments based on loyalty first and expertise second.”

Contempt for expertise, in turn, rested on contempt for government in general. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” declared Ronald Reagan. “Government is the problem.” So why worry about governing well?

Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.

Oh, and the racial element isn’t all that abstract, even now: Chip Saltsman, currently a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, sent committee members a CD including a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — and according to some reports, the controversy over his action has actually helped his chances.

So the reign of George W. Bush, the first true Southern Republican president since Reconstruction, was the culmination of a long process. And despite the claims of some on the right that Mr. Bush betrayed conservatism, the truth is that he faithfully carried out both his party’s divisive tactics — long before Sarah Palin, Mr. Bush declared that he visited his ranch to “stay in touch with real Americans” — and its governing philosophy.

That’s why the soon-to-be-gone administration’s failure is bigger than Mr. Bush himself: it represents the end of the line for a political strategy that dominated the scene for more than a generation.

The reality of this strategy’s collapse has not, I believe, fully sunk in with some observers. Thus, some commentators warning President-elect Barack Obama against bold action have held up Bill Clinton’s political failures in his first two years as a cautionary tale.

But America in 1993 was a very different country — not just a country that had yet to see what happens when conservatives control all three branches of government, but also a country in which Democratic control of Congress depended on the votes of Southern conservatives. Today, Republicans have taken away almost all those Southern votes — and lost the rest of the country. It was a grand ride for a while, but in the end the Southern strategy led the G.O.P. into a cul-de-sac.

Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.

Will the Republicans eventually stage a comeback? Yes, of course. But barring some huge missteps by Mr. Obama, that will not happen until they stop whining and look at what really went wrong. And when they do, they will discover that they need to get in touch with the real “real America,” a country that is more diverse, more tolerant, and more demanding of effective government than is dreamt of in their political philosophy.

2008, A look back from Tom Tomorrow

2009-01-02T05:41:00.003-06:00

Take it away, Tom.

And... Part Two.

Blago lances a boil

2008-12-30T17:54:00.008-06:00

I'm surprised. I find myself sort of rooting for our dysfunctional Governor.

Not because he's a virtuous politician, though he has pushed some pioneering and laudable measures for the needy and working families in the state. But perhaps as a rebel willing to cause massive aggravation to the gang of power brokers who have long plotted his demise.

I've always had a strong inclination to root for the underdog, particularly when they refuses to be steam-rolled and intimidated and instead turn and fight their asses off and at the very least make it as hard as possible for the more powerful to take them down. Maybe that's it.

And Blago has shown that he's more than capable of conducting politics as if it's the Jerry Springer Show (Which after all, originated in Chicago.)

Blago is so isolated, so desperate, and so pissed off, that it's hard not to root for him on some level, just as you'd cheer on some nut who runs out onto a football field in his tighty-whiteys. Crazy? No doubt. But gutsy, and it sure livens things up.

Just as the long knives are out in force for Blago's political throat, with the national press hyperventilating on the basis of a few bare facts and rushing to paint him as the most corrupt politician in world history, just as his many enemies and rivals in the Illinois statehouse were beginning their efforts to impeach him, Blago throws a wrench the size of the Sears tower into the works and appoints former Illinois Comptroller and Attorney General Roland Burris to fill Obama's senate seat.

It's a beautiful thing. And so unexpected and bold that it's guaranteed to cause major aggita for politicians in both Springfield and D.C., and spark a legal battle above and beyond Blago's charges that can't help but be fascinating political theatre.

Blago has lanced the big old boil that is Illinois politics. What was already difficult has now been made into a world class can of worms. It's justice of a sort for this gang in my opinion, and now everyone is going to be exposed and watched as they struggle to come up with some solution to this. What they've tried so far hasn't been too satisfactory and any course won't be clean, won't be easy, and promises to involve protracted fights and legal messiness, and provide a great glimpse into the sausage making machinery in Springfield.

No one is going to emerge from this looking good, and maybe that was Blago's goal all along. If he was going down, he was going to drag a few others down with him. He's long been loathed for his petulance and willingness to recklessly make moves with the sole purpose of tweaking those who opposed him. Bearing his history in mind, this move comes as no surprise.

I seem to recall either Blago or his attorney saying that he would not do this, and no pundits or reporters or politicians ever dreamed he would dare actually make an appointment. After all, it's assumed that the reason Fed prosecutor Fitzgerald rushed to publicize the criminal complaint against Blago was in order to PREVENT him from making a corrupt appointment. Of course, despite the fact that it's emerged that Burris has forked over $20,000 to Blago's campaigns, there's no clear indication that the Burris appointment is corrupt in any way.

But it definitely is a big "F*** YOU!" to his enemies in Springfield. No one dared think Blago would dare make an appointment after his arrest. But he sure the hell just did.

The Gov effectively stuck his thumb in the eye of all those in Springfield with visions of grabbing Blago power, those with fantasies of taking his place as Governor, and those who sought Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate.

Lt. Gov. Quinn was particularly blind-sided in all this. He'd favored holding a special election to select Obama's successor, but was over-ruled by Dems who didn't want to open up the chance of a Republican being elected in the wake of Blago's bust. (of course there are legit reasons to oppose a special election, in particular the cost.)

To some, those who favored a special election stand vindicated after Blago's big move. After all, they argue, if the Dems had gone for one, then Blago would have been held in check. But would that have stopped him from appointing Burris? On that I'm not sure.

I find a certain justice in all of it. Throughout this saga, there's been the rather unpleasant reality that nearly all those who sought to unseat Blago were probably as guilty of playing political hardball as Blago was. They were eager to bring Blago down for some legitimate reasons, but a lot of it was simply due to the fact that Blago wouldn't play nice with the powers that be and refused to kiss their rings and play the game the way it had always been played.

Underlying it further was the fact that Blago, despite his faults, which certainly are numerous, had really made strong efforts at reform and proved a solid progressive who pursued many policies which reflected traditional core Democratic principles and were designed to help the working people, poor, and disenfranchised citizens of Illinois.

The fact that many Dems in their desire for power and corporate and industry campaign dollars nearly always stood in the way of such measures and thwarted efforts at reform lend all Blago's antics a certain air of crude justice.

The leadership of the Illinois legislature have long treated Blago like a rented mule, acting incredibly childish and selfishly in their increasingly petty and personal battles with the Governor, and Blago, to his credit in my opinion, is refusing to lay down and let them use his troubles to pile on and bury him.

He's not going down without a fight. And with his enemies often every bit as seedy and unscrupulous as he, only even less concerned with the interests of the average citizen of Illinois, I'm glad that Blago is giving them plenty of heartburn on the way down.

Was Blago inept, childish, erratic, and utterly unpredictable? Hell yes. The end of his tenure as Governor would be welcomed by nearly all, if only because it might finally end the truly insane spectacle of three figures essentially holding the state hostage to their personal and petty grudges and animosities and childish fits of pique.

The blame for all this seemed to always be placed on Blago, and lord knows he did enough to contribute to the situation which has essentially brought Illinois government to a stand-still and deserves a mountain of condemnation, though the other political "leaders" played every bit as large a role in the insanity but rarely come in for the same scrutiny.

For the last several years, the state has been paralysed while a tiny group battled amongst themselves, almost always at the detriment of the state, and essentially paralysing government. The players consisted of Blago, his erstwhile ally former Senate president Emil Jones, his sworn enemy House Leader Mike Madigan, and to a lesser extent, his daughter, Attorney General Lisa, (who's goofy and transparent stunt to try to get Blago declared unfit to serve out his term was recently and appropriately slapped down by the IL Supreme Court, who refused to waste their time even looking at it).

It was the ultimate three-ring circus. And they're all Democrats.

These three figures were running the state as if they were the only people that mattered. Probably because they did hold ALL the power and for the most part, the Reps and Senators chose sides and obediently played along while Madigan seemed determine to prove that HE ran the state, not Blago, and Blago petulantly insisted that the lege go along with him on all his major programs, or risk him pulling every stunt he could to make their lives difficult.

Blago has long been isolated, shunned, and schemed against by the powerful Speaker Madigan and a growing number of Dems. With the recent resignation of his ally Emil Jones from the Senate presidency, he was left more alone and vulnerable still.

Blago was left fighting for his life like a cornered animal with predators closing in all around him, and forced to resort to using what power and prerogatives he had left. He only had a few arrows left in his quiver, one of which was the Senate appointment, and the only backers those who would pay whoever was in charge some cash for state business. That's all he had left.

This goes a long way to explaining his actions and mind-set, though the press rarely touches on it. It could be argued that Blago might not have had to resort to the crazy shake-down schemes he bloviated about if it weren't for the fact that he had almost zero support from his own party and party leadership. He was a man without a country, forced to rely on his own devices and use what little power and influence was left to him as governor to try to survive in office.

His sworn enemies and their lemmings in the General Assembly have been every bit as corrupt and crazy and petty as Blago, though in a less dramatic fashion. Blago insisted on being his own man, and had the audacity to lead as though it was actually HE who was governor and in charge. They didn't like his style of progressive measures and wanted to go back to the old style corruption they were used to, which served gambling and labor and anyone else with enough dough to grease the skids without those pesky progressive and reform measures that their money men didn't like at all.

To witness this bunch suddenly cast as figures trying to rid themselves of a corrupt Governor has been rich indeed. And the national press has for the most part completely ignored the history of the state and the over-long feuding between Blago and nearly everyone else, let alone tried to get at just what it was all about.

As I've noted before, if you stuck a wire on every pol in Springfield, you'd hear stuff that would make Blago sound like Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".

And add to the drama the fact that Bobby Rush rushed to the mic to inject race into the Burris appointment by warning people not to "hang or lynch" him just because of Blago's troubles, and we've got the sort of mess that was only inevitable in light of the past several years of Illinois politics.

The national press smugly snorted and said how stunned they were at Blago's amazing stupidity after the wire-taps emerged. But now they're seeing that Blago might be stupid like a fox after all.

He's plaid the aftermath deftly, and stands a real chance of beating a lot of the less than solid charges against him. Of course the impeachment will be stacked against him and should go through. Fairness isn't a real issue there.

But those who thought his political obituary was already written may have to think again.

Now we'll get to witness all sorts of improbable stunts, moves, and actions as the players scramble to get more for position. And there will be drama in D.C. as well as the Dems refuse to acknowledge or seat Burris as a duly and legally appointed U.S. Senator.

To those who worry that this will tie up the state and prevent any meaningful governing from going on, hello! There hasn't been any of that for years.

Let the games begin!

Polluters, right here in River City

2008-12-22T05:55:00.004-06:00

Just stumbled across this website serving people looking for real estate to check and see what the pollution situation is in prospective locations to live. It provides EPA information on the largest poluters in a town or city. I happened across the page for Moline, thouh I'm sure you can check on your own city as well.

For instance, the largest polluter in Moline is the Quad City Airport, with 3 pollutants from 12 sources, which emitted a whopping 896,000 POUNDS (448 TONS) of harmful pollutants per year.

Second is Deere & Co. with 47 pollutants from 273 sources and belching out 426,977 pounds (213 tons) per year.

Another hidden and little noticed business which has been pouring out toxins for years in close proximity to thousands of residences is Valspar Coatings, which I've seen on polluter lists for many, many years.

Despite it's relatively small size, it comes in a solid third on the list, with 5 pollutants from 10 sources and emitting 171,648 pounds (nearly 86 tons) of toxic pollutants each and every year.

And it's located on the border of Moline and East Moline at 5400 Avenue of the Cities (23rd Ave.) I'm sure many people have driven past it hundreds of times and never even known it was there.

Also interesting is the fact that a few veternary clinics are listed. Not sure what hazardous pollutants they deal with.

Check the website here, and then use the google map with polluters marked. You can zoom in or out and add a satellite view, then simply drag the map around to show any area you're interested in. Polluters are marked with little dark clouds.

An even more comprehensive site can be found here, which allows you to search by state, county or city and further by polutants, top 10 polluters, and more, with links to further infomation.

Here's the page showing amounts of pollution emitted in Rock Island County by type of pollutant.

Topping the list is Sulphur Dioxide, with 1,577 tons, or 3,154,964.96 pounds of it put into the environment per year. Sulphur Dioxide's hazard to human health is stated, "Sulfur dioxide acts as an acid, it reacts with other chemicals in the air to form tiny sulfate particles. When these are breathed, they gather in the lungs and are associated with increased respiratory symptoms and disease, difficulty in breathing, and premature death." and is listed as a suspected...
- Cardiovascular or Blood Toxicant
- Developmental Toxicant
- Gastrointestinal or Liver Toxicant
- Neurotoxicant
- Respiratory Toxicant

Rounding out the top three are the Volatile Organic Compounds (like found in paints and solvents - 2,462,676.72 pounds per year) and the ever popular greenhouse gas Carbon Monoxide (1,890,934.06 pounds per year).

VOC's have a lot of fun potential health effects, which according to the EPA include:

Eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some organics can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. Key signs or symptoms associated with exposure to VOCs include conjunctival irritation, nose and throat discomfort, headache, allergic skin reaction, dyspnea, declines in serum cholinesterase levels, nausea, emesis, epistaxis, fatigue, dizziness.

Both VOCs and Carbon Monoxide are major contributors to acid rain and to global warming due to their role in the depletion of the ozone layer.

Merry Christmas! (I'll look for something a little less grim to post soon.)

The campaign in 6 minutes and 9 seconds

2008-12-18T20:47:00.004-06:00

P.S. The "political bullshit" comment at 3:15 in the clip was made by none other than arch-conservative former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan on an open mic during a cable talk show.

Holiday Blago Edition

2008-12-17T01:10:00.001-06:00

Ho, ho, freaking, ho to y'all.

Sorry for the lack of postings lately, but the holiday frenzy is upon TID and between the social swirl and family stuff and incessant shopping and the other ten-thousand and one obligations and chores, I'm afraid posting about the news of the day hasn't been at the top of the list.

The fever dream of somehow tarnishing Obama with our hapless Governor continues to be what Republicans want most for Christmas. But they've been very, very bad this year and I'm afraid they won't get much more than a George W. Bush to hang around their neck.

Sure, they'll huff and puff and rant in mock outrage about things that are really incredibly mundane and ordinary and try to make it seem as if Obama is some modern day Capone. But really, did you think they'd at least make the effort to try out some other act besides their incredibly phoney, and stale "guilt by association" gambit?

The Dems don't know how good they have it with an opposition party who literally has nothing to fall back on but a strategy which was an utter failure during the campaign. They just don't know when to quit. Maybe there should be some sort of intervention?

It will likely emerge that Rahm Emanuel talked to Blago or his staff a lot about the appointment. I'm sure this obvious and completely expected fact will be greated with howls of indignation from the right wing flying monkeys.

I also wouldn't be surprised if, beyond that, there emerged some stuff that made Emanual look like what he is, namely, a savvy Chicago and D.C. political operator who knows how to deal with situations like this. He won't come out like some white knight, but neither will there be any evidence that he was trying to broker any improper deals for the seat.

Worst case scenario? Emanuel or some other transition official will be accused of knowing that Blago was trying to horse trade over the appointment and they didn't immediately run around with their hair on fire and dash off to the prosecutors to rat him out. (for what in essence likely isn't a crime.)

Those of us familiar with Blago and Illinois politics in general were treated to a grand spectacle of just how taboid and innacurate and irresponsible the press can be when a piece of raw meat like this story is thrown in front of them.

They didn't know Blago from a ham sandwich before last week. But they quickly rushed to tell the story. Which consisted of a few common points.

First, the prosecutors announcement was overblown and self-serving, but it caused the press to follow the, "Illinois is such a corruption ridden state it's like some third world banana republic!" story line.

Yes, Illinois has corruption, some of it pretty damn foul. But so do most states. Another point lost in it all is that, for the most part, all the corruption stories are from the Chicago area, just as it's always been focused on large cities across the country for literally centuries, though not exclusively. The vast majority of the state runs quite well.

No matter. The Asst. dude to Fitzgerald had to grandstand and make his little quip that if Illinois isn't the most corrupt state in the entire country, it sure is strong competition. The press ran with that and portrayed the entire state as if it was a huge cesspool. (Well, a bigger cesspool than it really is.)

Then the inevitable trivializing of the story, focusing on Blago's hair, his foul language. (Imagine! A politician who SWEARS in conversation which he THINKS is private and among close associates. Horrors!)

Then they noted that his wife is a king-sized meah-meah biotch. This I was rather pleased to see mention. In my very brief observation of Mrs. Blago over the years, she's always come across as incredibly arrogant, rather rude and haughty, and just generally not a nice person at all.

I was left thinking that part of the reason the cheese seems to be slipping off Blago's cracker, so to speak, is that his wife has been pushing him so hard that he's about a bubble out of plumb. (so to speak.)

She may be the one with outsized ambitions, pushing him toward the laughable goal of a presidential run. She might be the one beating him up all along to make her the country's First Lady (shudder) and against the backdrop of his increasing isolation and unpopularity, might explain why he comes across as nearly frantic to get ahead, one way or another. The tapes revealed that his top concerns was for their financial future and for her getting a plumb status job somewhere. (which she almost certainly isn't remotely qualified for.)

The Obama seat was THE very last card in Blago's hand. He was going down, and going down hard, and it was the only thing of value he had left. He was bound and determined to play it for all it was worth, after all, it was his last shot.

And maybe Patty would neuter him and make him wish he was dead if he didn't use this last chance to get them something to ensure their future financial and social status on the way out the door. They didn't go through all this hell for nothing, was probably the operative attitude.

And only now, FINALLY, has anyone in the press stopped hyperventilating enough to realize that the criminal complaint against Blago may not really detail any actual crimes, and the case against him is very weak. That's kind of important.

Actually, it's the lead of the story. But of course it was never even considered until yesterday by the press, and only AFTER Blago's lawyer reminded them of this rather inconvenient fact.

But the Blago frenzy resulted from the press having to scrape up bits and pieces of anything to fill air time while nothing was happening. All they could do day after tedious day was speculate about the Obama transition and show Bush's embarrassing and lame tour to try to salvage his un-salvagable image as the world counts the minutes until he's off the stage for good.

So it was like tossing a steak to a starving pack of hounds when the Blago story broke. The over-coverage was guaranteed.

And politicians rushed to the cameras with equally unsound theories and proposals, as when Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the daughter of Blago's blood enemy, speaker Mike Madigan, soberly anounced that she would ask the IL Surpreme Court to issue a verdict on whether Blago is even fit to serve as Governor.

THIS situation is the real Illinois corruption, the rampant nepotism that runs through state politics. It's why all this corruption continues and efforts to change it is met with cold fury by hacks with linage back generations. Why not just start a House of Lords and get over it?

To see Lisa Madigan on Meet the Press questioned about whether she was doing this stunt because she'd like the Obama seat she otherwise would NEVER get with Blago in office, she simply lied saying, no. She then responded to being asked whether she IS interested in the seat, to which she responded that, yes, she was interested, but she was busy trying to get Blago out of office and that she won't be able to "think about" grabbing the seat for, "a long time, unfortunately."

Darn the luck. She has to spend her time trying to get her families sworn enemy out of office before she can start campaigning for the seat. THAT is what's wrong with Illinois politics at the top. But Blago's taken all the focus off of the real rot.

Another proposal to deal with the embarassment that is our Governor is one floated almost immediately by Sen. Dick Durbin, and one apparently endorsed by Obama as well. And that is to hold a special election to select Obama's successor.

Ironically, that idea has been seen as a god-send to Illinois Republicans, who've gone as far as spending millions on a TV ad to promote the idea, figuring that they stand a better than even chance to FINALLY get a Republican senator by riding the backlash against Blago and the incestuous Dem leadership.

Not surprisingly, Sen. Mike Jacobs is on record as firmly supporting the Republican endorsed idea, weirdly saying, "I think the people have spoken on this matter. I think the people want an election they want an election on the United States Senate and they want an election for governor, period."

This begs the question for the Senator. Just when exactly did the people "speak" on this issue? It's only been a matter of days since the issue appeared!

Apparently the Senator has polled every Illinois resident in the few days since the story broke and knows their wishes on this very complex issue. Beware the pol who falls back on the hackneyed, lame, "The people want...." blah, blah, blah, which always happens to be what the pol or his contributors happen to want. Amazing, isn't it?

Obviously they don't have the slightest CLUE what people favor, prefer, or "want", but that doesn't stop them from spouting it as if it's rock solid fact.

He also seems to favor anything no matter how flawed to get Blago out of office quickly.

While obviously the most democratic way to proceed, this would cost a lot of money the state doesn't have, and again, it would open the door to a Republican having a better than even shot of winning.

So now we'll likely be treated to Dems opposing the very thing that the only remaining Illinois Senator and it's favorite son president-elect endorse.

And now Boss Madigan has OKed an impeachment effort to begin in the House. It's off to a rocky start.

Maybe 43rd Ward Chicago Alderman Paddy Bauler was right when he said after Richard J. Dailey defeated a good government, or "goo-goo" candidate the 1955 mayoral election, "Chicago ain't ready for reform."?

After all, the city's unoffical slogan has been said to be, "Where's mine?"

(Bauler was also reported to have said, "Them guys in the black suits and narrow ties, them Ivy-League types, them goo-goos - they think the whole thing is on the square."
And to Harry (his son), "If anything happens to me, I don't want you to call the priest or the undertaker. Just get your ass down to the bank and get them deposit boxes.")

Tis the season for more political junk.

2008-12-17T01:00:00.002-06:00

Though the Blago saga has focused enough white hot media frenzy on our region to melt the polar ice caps, another little plumb was today's announcement that Obama is to appoint former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture.

This is yet another appointment that bodes ill for any sort of "change" in our government policies, as Vilsack is a typical midwest proponent of ethanol, and the enormous government subsidies that support it.

This is an issue key to both the important issues of food security and vital to our country's future energy policies.

Evidence suggests that ethanol uses almost as much energy to produce as it provides, and isn't a viable scheme as it would eat up far too much land to produce the corn needed and take away from land otherwise devoted to production of corn used in the production of food.

It's not a good sign for those concerned with the environment, our alternative energy future, or food production. I only hope Vilsack does a 180 and is at least something less than a shill for the ethanol lobby, which has exerted WAY WAY WAY more power in D.C. than it's size due to the fact that nearly every swing state is an agricultural corn producing state. McCain, to his credit, was the only candidate honest enough to not come out in support of ethanol subsidies, and as a consequence forfeited any chance of winning Iowa. Every other candidate of both parties knew that you have to support ethanol or your chances of getting anywhere are very slim.

And we were given a video clip for the ages when Bush dodged a speeding shoe or two.

Pundit opinion on this seemed to always be prefaced, before they admitted how hilarious it was, by saying that "everyone" felt a little angry about it, after all, he IS our president.

Is that so?

I didn't feel a bit of anger. Not one teeny-tiny bit. I thought it was hilarious on one level, but found it entirely justified and appropriate on the other.

I also have to give Boy George props for having the reflexes of a boxer. It's as if he had gone in EXPECTING some shoes to come his way and was just waiting for it.

Secondly, the reporter who threw the footwear has an incredible arm!! The first shoe was going right at W's nose, and at a very high velocity. It makes you wonder if he'd just come off a productive spring training where he flung shoes at an old tire hanging from a tree limb for hours each day.

Incredible aim, and equally incredibly quick reflexes from our beloved leader.

If it would have been McCain, there would have been at least a bloody nose.

I'm glad that now we have an image, a video clip, that pretty much will stand for the ages as a visual comment on Bush's efforts in the Mid-East.

As Bush's Magical Re-inventing History Tour rolls on, he's caught baldly lying by saying, "I never said the Taliban was eliminated", when he's on tape saying exactly that about 4 different ways, including saying, "We've eliminated the Taliban."

And Good Old Dick gave an interview where he both admitted that they would have invaded Iraq even if they knew they didn't have any "WMDs", thus admitting that all the garbage they fed us about how they knew he had nuclear capabilities and we couldn't risk the smoking gun being a mushroom cloud, etc. were, and are, utter lies.

He also admitted that he was personally involved in authorizing illegal torture of detainees, thereby admitting to having committed a clear and unambiguous war crime.

But as both Bush and Cheney have famously reponded when confronted with facts that reveal them as utterly unconcerned over anyone else's opinion, least of all the people they were elected to represent, or that they obviously lied about their reasons to lead the country into war, and the idea that the rule of law applied to them "So?"

"What are you going to do about it, huh?", is the unspoken follow on to their arrogant answer, knowing that absolutely nothing will be done to hold them accountable, and thus sending the clear message that any future leaders are essentially immune from the rule of law.

They'll walk away scott free. In light of the horror and terror they've both been directly responsible for, dodging a couple shoes seems a tragically minor consequence.

And then there's the interesting story out of New York that has all the elements the press eats up like candy, celebrity, political history, and conlict between two political dynasties of the same party.

Of course I'm referring to the speculation, then news, that Caroline Kennedy, the only surviving member of JFK's immediate family, is interested in being appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's senate seat, presumably to run for election in 2010.

This has caused a somewhat ugly erruption from a group getting known for somewhat ugly erruptions, namely strong supporters of Hillary Clinton.

Some Rep. from Brooklyn dissed Caroline as having never milked a cow, a skill he considers essential for any candidate, though I'd wager most guys from Brooklyn have never even SEEN a cow, much less tried to milk one.

Some other erstwhile liberal Dem from N.Y. dismissed Kennedy as having nothing to offer but name-recognition, comparing her to J-Lo, of all people.

Some pundits consider Kennedy a mortal lock to win if she wins, other's aren't so convinced.

We shall see. First she has to get N.Y. Governor David Patterson to appoint her, which is far from a sure thing.

Blago busted

2008-12-09T10:48:00.006-06:00

In keeping with Illinois' long proud tradition of crooked governors, Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris, were arrested by agents of the FBI at their homes earlier today on corruption charges, including trying to "sell" the seat of departing senator Barack Obama, "like a sports agent", extorting campaign cash for political favors, like a "saleman trying to make his sales goal", and demanding that the Chicago Tribune fire editors who have been critical of Blagojevich in exchange for aid to the Tribune Company in their attempt to sell Wrigley Field.

Ooops.

Despite the threat of indictments and federal investigations swirling around him for years, Blago still continued business as usual.

In the face of new ethics guidelines which would preclude taking big cash from people doing business with the state, instead of the probes and indictments and prosecutions over the past year serving to slow down the corruption, it instead increased, in an attempt to rake in all the cash possible before the new ethics rules kicked in in January.

Federal prosecutor Peter Fitzgerald described Blago of engaging in a "crime spree" that would make "Lincoln roll over in his grave." Fitzgerald also used words such as "appalling", "staggering", "astounding", and "amazing".

Fitzgerald's assistant just revealed during the press conference that they called Blago at 6:00 a.m. this morning, waking him and informing him that there were FBI agents outside his home to take him into custody. Blago initially thought it was a joke, but they convinced him finally that it wasn't. They informed him they had a warrent for his arrest and took him into custody at his home without incident. He said that the children were just starting to stir as they hauled Blago out of his home.

The entire Federal criminal complaint against Blago and Harris can be read here.

The Sun-Times reveals that Blago was wire-tapped and caught speculating about what he might get in exchange for an appointment to Obama's senate seat, including...

• A substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.

• Placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year.

• Promises of campaign funds — including cash up front.

• A cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

Wiretaps revealed Blagojevich speculating about Obama's senate seat.

From the Sun-Times:

Regarding the Senate seat, the charges allege that Blagojevich, Harris and others have engaged and are engaging in efforts to obtain personal gain, including financial gain, to benefit Blagojevich and his family through corruptly using Blagojevich’s sole authority to appoint a successor to the unexpired term of the President-elect’s former Senate seat, which he resigned effective Nov. 16. The affidavit details numerous conversations about the Senate seat between Nov. 3 and Dec. 5. In these conversations, Blagojevich allegedly discussed the attributes of potential candidates, including their abilities to benefit the people of Illinois, and the financial and political benefits he and his wife could receive if he appointed various of the possible candidates.

Throughout the intercepted conversations, Blagojevich also allegedly spent significant time weighing the option of appointing himself to the open Senate seat and expressed a variety of reasons for doing so, including: frustration at being “stuck” as governor; a belief that he will be able to obtain greater resources if he is indicted as a sitting Senator as opposed to a sitting governor; a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for President in 2016; avoiding impeachment by the Illinois legislature; making corporate contacts that would be of value to him after leaving public office; facilitating his wife’s employment as a lobbyist; and generating speaking fees should he decide to leave public office.

In the earliest intercepted conversation about the Senate seat described in the affidavit, Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A on Nov. 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself: “If . . . they’re not going to offer anything of any value, then I might just take it.”

Later that day, speaking to Advisor A, Blagojevich allegedly said: “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain.” He added later that the seat “is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

News conference set to start momentarily.

While all this will no doubt sound horribly corrupt to the country, one wonders what the big deal is in Illinois.

I'm sure that many Illinois pols are a bit nervous, seeing as they probably have converstions like this on a near daily basis. If you wire-tapped enough of them, you could probably indict the entire state legislature.

Imagine, trying to bully, threaten, try to buy off or intimidate someone who writes critically about you or your administration!! Hell, that's happened here on a nearly daily basis for years.

More Sun-Times coverage shows Blago's neighbors not surprised.

Details on the charge of selling Obama's seat here.

Details of attempt to get Chicago Tribune editorialists fired here.

This should get Sen. Jacobs excited, since he has visions of being governor dancing in his head.

Another equally pathetic result will inevitably be right wingers trying to insist that this means that Barack Obama is somehow corrupt despite absolutely zero evidence of any involvement on his part whatsoever. Blago is caught on a wiretap complaining that the Obama people weren't team players, that all he got from them was "appreciation", so "F*** 'em!".

But a huge impact of all of this is.... just who is going to select Obama's replacement in the senate??

Sen. Dick Durbin called a press conference earlier today where he called for a special election to choose Obama's replacement in the Senate. It's assumed that this is Obama's preference as well.

Is this the best way to go about it?

Blago was shown yesterday standing with the workers at Republican Window and Door being asked about this. By that time a story had emerged in the Trib that revealed that the Feds were using wire-taps and bugs. Blago said he wasn't concerned and derided them for engaging in spying and comparing it to Watergate.

I assume that there's good in depth coverage and even more, reaction from state insiders over at Capitol Fax as well.

During the press conference, Fitzgerald urged anyone that has been shook down by Blago or other politicians to contact them.

More as details emerge.

Bush bids us adieu

2008-12-08T19:07:00.001-06:00

Oh, America. Eight years went by so fast, didn't they?

I feel like I hardly got to know you and methodically undermine everything you once stood for. But I guess all good things must come to an end, and even though you know I would love to stick around for another year or four—maybe privatize Social Security or get us into Iran—I'm afraid it's time to go. But before I leave, let me say, from the bottom of my heart: I can't think of another country I would've rather led to the brink of collapse.
...
It's just gonna be so hard packing up my things and heading off into the sunset come January. I wish I could go on forever giving massive and disastrous tax cuts to the wealthy, taking the country from a surplus to a deficit—nearly $500 billion this year, likely to pass $1 trillion next year, fingers crossed—and just generally doing irreparable damage to the very underpinnings of our economy, but, well, I'm afraid the Constitution says I can't. And not even I can overrule the Constitution. Though Lord knows I tried! Initiating blanket wiretaps without warrants, suspending habeas corpus for prisoners in Guantanamo, infiltrating an unknown number of nonviolent civilian antiwar groups without permission… such wonderful memories. I'm going to cherish them forever.

Jumers opens casino in swamp

2008-12-02T22:11:00.000-06:00

Apparently the new Jumers Hotel and Casino opened in it's new location in the wetlands near the I-280 bridge.

The only reason I noticed is a one sentence mention over at Capitol Fax, which linked to this article and the decidedly negative comments (including one which asked where Rock Island was.)

There I noticed a link to another decidedly more interesting article which is part of a series done by the Daily Herald on casinos in Illinois, specifically the fact that casinos are tightening the odds on slots and raking in more cash.

You would NEVER see this sort of reporting in the local paper, for whom questioning any local business is apparently forbidden (unless they're relatively small and don't have a state senator carrying their water.)

A few stats:

• Illinois' nine casinos have managed to make 20 percent more cash from gamblers despite a 13 percent drop in visits between 2000 and 2007.

• The amount of money pumped into slots has increased just 2 percent in that time, but the casinos' take has jumped 30 percent.

• Casino operators are relying on tighter slot machines, ones programmed to keep more from every dollar bet. In 2000, 7 percent of suburban slots kept more than 10 cents of every dollar bet on average. Last year, 46 percent fell into that category.

• Stingier slots took in $600 million last year statewide, close to the cash needed to cover the casinos' massive tax bill.

• Illinois spends a fraction of what other Midwest states do to help gambling addicts, severely limiting inpatient treatment options.

• Problem gamblers who elect to ban themselves from Illinois casinos are disproportionate from cities with casinos.

• Lawmakers have never specifically researched the impact of legalized gambling in Illinois.

Casino operators say they are simply rolling out tighter slot machines to meet gamblers' demand for these newer, more exciting games. The innovative video slots offer a more entertaining and sometimes longer game, even though they are programmed to pay out less and keep more money than older slot machines.

The new slots are programmed for more losses, they say, because gamblers can play as little as a penny per spin. But they often spend more than $1 and sometimes as much as $5 on a spin every six seconds as they hope to strike it rich.

Seems a road to ruin when the state is putting so many eggs in the basket of gambling outfits feeding off the elderly and undisiplined. And who the hell will have any money to gamble away in the coming economy other than those already addicted?

David Gregory to host Meet the Press

2008-12-02T15:12:00.001-06:00

NBC is set to announce that David Gregory is being named as the replacement for Tim Russert on Meet the Press, the longest running show on TV.

They obviously had to name someone soon, as it was clear by last Sunday's show that Brokaw had just stopped caring, complete with having his close friend and neighbor in Montana (hell, he's everyone's neighbor, he owns half the state) Ted Turner warbling a verse of "Home on the Range".

Gregory is fine, but judging from the show he's hosted for the past few months, which was initially called "Race for the White House", and re-named "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" after the race was over, Gregory will leave a lot to be desired.

Gregory is certainly a safe choice, as he seems to have the establishment "don't rock the boat too much" angle down. He's a likable guy, and does well, but I'm not sure this move is going to make Meet the Press any more exciting, and it may well be a little duller than under Russert.

While I'm a bit disappointed in this choice, it certainly could have been worse, and to be honest, no one comes to mind who would be appreciably better.

Gregory certainly has some big shoes and enormous expectations to fill. News junkies can only hope that he'll rise to the occasion.

At least he can bust a move on occasion.

Any thoughts on this move?

Lying about Joe Autoworker

2008-11-30T02:15:00.001-06:00

If you're a news junkie or someone who simply keeps an ear to media opinion, you've no doubt heard the latest from the right regarding the potential bailout of the big 3 American automakers.

Republicans are now attempting to distort and push their actual agenda by... yep, lying. (God, can't they stage some sort of intervention to get them to stop their addiction to lying to the American public?)

It seems, according to their prominent shills, that the entire economic meltdown the fault of the poor and Democrats due to a program designed to allow those who make less than $100,000 a year or so to actually get into a house.

Of course, that's preposterous, and as it nearly always turns out, utterly false. (The agency in charge of monitoring this program reports that a vast minority of "toxic" home loans originated with banks participating in this program.)

But more recently, we're now hearing from the usual wing-nut suspects that the reason automakers are going belly up is... yep, like a broken record... the fault of unions and assembly line workers.

If you shower before work, you're OK, if you shower after work, it's your fault.

To gin up some righteous anger and jealousy among those "low information" voters which are all they have left, the Republicans are spreading around the idea that the average autoworker pulls down $74 dollars an hour.

Obviously, if that were true, it would tend to make people think that workers were grossly overpaid (as if execs and CEOs aren't.)

But again, they're lying and playing us for rubes.

They arrive at the $74 an hour figure by being dishonest with their numbers (big surprise) That hourly figure represents:

-Salary... a workers hourly wage

The actual average hourly wage is about $26 an hour. Good pay, to be sure, but a damn sight less than the lie that it's $74.

-health benefits... which are good, but not extravagant.

-pension benefits in the future.

Adding these all together and dividing them by hours worked, it comes to a little less than $40 an hour. A good total package allowing a worker to enter the middle class and retire with some measure of security after decades of very hard work.

But that's not $74. How did they concoct that number?

Well, they're not interested in basic honesty, but they are interested in arriving at some figure which sounds absurdly high.

So they also added to the mix EVERY DIME paid to every worker still living, who once worked for GM, their entire cost of health care and pension.

THAT is where the $74 figure came from....

The total of every worker's hourly wage, health care benefits, pension benefits, PLUS the cost of every single retiree's pension and health care, all wrapped up together and then divided by ONLY the number of hourly wage earners CURRENTLY working.

Neat trick, eh? But clearly misleading and purposely dishonest. You can pretty much count on the fact that anything you hear these folks say is utterly false, to a greater or lesser degree, and most likely toward the greater.

So they take the sum total of every dime expended on all autoworkers, both those who are now working PLUS every retiree out there, and then divide this whopping total by only the number of current workers.

Now granted, this isn't to argue that the enormous labor cost of all of the above isn't a huge and fixed cost that's been an enormous burden for the corporations. But the fact is that they still posted gargantuan profits under this very setup for decades on end.

Now that management has been asleep at the switch and spent energy trying to preserve their place at the top of the heap and being allowed to sail along without having to change much in their vision or attitude, continuing to focus on gas-guzzlers and lobbying against milage standards, and doing all they could to eliminate any competition which didn't follow the gas guzzling model, they're aground on the rocks and want us all to haul their shaky ship back out to deeper waters.

In other words, the damn guy and woman showing up to do mind-numbing work on the assembly line aren't the ones who lead the corporations down the tubes! It's the management.

That's like blaming a sales clerk at Foot-Locker if the corporation went broke because he got a decent wage and benefits.

No, clearly the right is doing what they're congenitally programed to do, which is blame the poor, blame the worker, and in doing so, try to angle towards a position where they can further bust unions and break down workers rights to the point where the U.S. can become a banana republic with cheap, exploitable labor just likle China or Guatamala.

That's what all this garbage about blaming U.S. workers for the auto comany's woes is alll about. It's as though they're pissed as U.S. workers because they won't lay down and work as cheaply, with no benefits, in just as sordid and dangerous conditions as their Chinese and Asian competitors do.

Sure, they say that Honda and Toyota manufacture cars in the U.S. (with parts from Asia), and they pay much less per worker. Yeah, and they don't have generations of retirees drawing pensions either.

The argument boils down to expecting the average worker to take the hit and be taken a few more rungs down the social ladder, all so management, who gets paid millions to fail, can compete and keep the dividents coming for investors.

Bottom line? It's all baloney, to put it charitably.

Sure labor has to be a part of any restructuring or long-range plan for essentially bailing out CEOs for their failures. Unions are major stake-holders in all of this, naturally.

But for ONCE in this country, shouldn't those at the top be expected to shoulder a little of the burden and give up a little of their royal lifestyle too?

Or is it as they say, if you take a shower before work, you aren't expected to give up anything, even if you fail, but if you take a shower AFTER work, you're the first to be expected to take a hit in order to help the company?

Hillary of State?

2008-11-24T06:21:00.001-06:00

Well, the poor press, left with nothing to go on but scraps and so much air to fill, have been beating stories and rumors to death and taking their reading of tea leaves and gossip and imagined machiavellian machinations to a new high in lows. They've talked and pondered and ruminated so much on the "will she, or won't she" game regarding Hillary Clinton's purportedly upcoming appointment as Secretary of State that it's almost painful to think about.

(a main reason I haven't posted much lately. It's all being done to death in the press and I don't figure people want to hear even more of it.)

It is an important choice of course, and along with Treasury Secretary, arguably the most important pick Obama will make.

So I'll throw it out there for your views on the matter.

Me? I'm against it. Why? Just have a bad feeling about it all.

Any time a president elect has to engage in endless negotiations, for God's sake, with someone as to whether they'll serve in the cabinet, maybe it's not a good idea.

And I just don't know if Hillary could serve in that position without sucumbing to the seemingly insatiable drive to make it more about her than Obama's policies, not to mention that along with Bill, they might practically try to run a shadow government on foriegn policy, no matter how much they swear they won't. They'll start thinking they're back where they truly thought they'd be, if it wasn't for that uppity Obama.

Add to that her all but certain permanent campaign for 2012 or 2019, and I foresee ickiness.

I just don't trust her. "Team of Rivals" theory notwithstanding, I don't see her carrying anyone else's brief, much less someone who soundly beat her for the office she obviously thought she had a God-given right to win.

Too much bad ju-ju with the Clintons. Double un-good.

Some say she could do more damage to Obama were she to remain in the Senate, and regard this as a prudent move for Obama.

What do you think?

Is bringing in the magical traveling Clinton circus into the Obama administration a good move, all things considered? Or not so much?

Right back at 'cha

2008-11-24T05:59:00.004-06:00

There's a couple of illiterate juveniles who constantly try to write in comments as insulting as they can possibly make them (thankfully, they're more laughable than anything) and see how mean and idiotic they can be.

These couple of cretins always pop up after any mention of Sen. Jacobs and they usually continue their little hissy fits for a few weeks afterwards.

They can't spell worth a damn, and I'm not talking about difficult words either, they're almost certainly drunk when they leave their droppings, (they can't possibly be that idiotic sober. And this while accusing me of being a drunk.) and they're consumed with seething hatred towards myself and this blog. (Really... it's THAT important to them, which indicates some sick puppies to me and is a laugh in itself.)

They state repeatedly that no one reads the blog anymore and after telling me to quit or give it up a few thousands times, they apparently think maybe the 1,492nd time might do the trick. But it's mostly personal attacks of the most vile and exagerated kind which comically bear no resemblance to anything about me. Where it comes from is a mystery to me. But they sure love spewing it and finding newer, more crude and nasty ways to repeat the same long past boring little fit like some neglected kid with a loaded diaper.

I don't check my traffic numbers for the blog very often, and hadn't done so for weeks, and months before that. But after one of these bizarre hatetroids stated that no one read the blog other than he and myself, I thought I'd take a look. Who knows? They've written in thousands of comments which are laughably off base, they're sure way overdue to get at least something right.

When I looked at the chart showing visits to the blog over the past month, I immediately saw that the chart itself was the perfect response to these asshats.

It has less to do with the numbers, but more to do with what the shape of the chart resembles.

So here's to you, Ding and Dong, the crude and creepy, amazingly angry, disturbingly delusional, incredibly illiterate, and just plain batshit crazy bullshit brothers.

(and no, I didn't change a thing. That's actually how it appears. The spike is election day.)

American Idiot

2008-11-21T22:38:00.005-06:00

Just when you thought Sarah Palin or someone around her would have gotten hip to the fact that she's making an utter fool out of herself with alarming regularity and staying on stage far past the time someone should have gotten out the hook, she reappears like a long lost girlfriend you'd thought you'd dodged for good.

After you get over the idiotic staging and slaughter in the background (gotta love the way the turkey guy keeps turning and looking right into the camera.), just TRY to figure out what the hell she's saying.

For example, listen to her answer on what her plans for the state are. Pure unadulterated gibberish in one long run-on sentence without end, and after all those words thrown together in no apparent order, she's said essentially nothing.

**UPDATE**
When asked what plans she had for Alaska, she was obviously completely taken off guard by a question that actually had to do with doing her job.

During her answer, Palin actually said, after some blather about "building the budget" while cutting the size of government, and hitting a dead end on the "plans" area, said, "... plans like that that have to do with governing this state and building this team which is continually being built.."

There ya go. As Chief Wiggums on The Simpsons might say, "That's some real fine governin'.

She also mentioned that it was "brutal" on the campign trail as the turkey was snuffed behind her. And later, a reporter asked what things might be on the "chopping block" in the state budget.

But at least it was "fun".

By the way, Palin was asked if she wanted to get a different shot that didn't show the slaughter, and reportedly replied, "No worries." No. The woman is so blissfully ignorant and full of delusions of grandeur that she saw no reason to avoid sharing turkey death spasms and blood troughs with kids and people everywhere on the eve of Thanksgiving.

The woman isn't bright enough to be mayor of Wassila. As a matter of fact, if any local mayor spouted such ridiculous phoney blather, I think people would question their fitness for office.

Here's the clip. Nothing has been blurred to spare delicate consitutions... so be warned. It's not too terribly graphic, but it is disturbing if you're one who doesn't like to see something that goes on millions of times a day to bring food to your table.

"brutal" indeed.

By the way, I think the guy bleeding out the turkeys in the background is more deserving of attention than Joe the Plumber ever was. Get THAT guy a book contract.

He's obviously more deserving of attention than a non-plumber who lied through his teeth to bait Obama, never intended to buy his boss's business, and is so massively ignorant that he didn't realize that both he AND his boss will have their taxes cut under Obama's plan.

The grinning blood spattered guy behind Palin is 100 times more "real" than Joe the Dumber ever could be, and probably twice as intelligent.

Where's HIS book contract and all the interviews? Why aren't conservative know-nothings chasing him down to ask his opinions on world affairs like they did to the lumox Joe. (As if he weren't a phoney enough, Joe isn't even his first name.)

I don't mind about all the bizarro-world freak show that is Palin and Co. I find it entertaining in a rather disturbing way.

But what really is disturbing is that some people STILL think she's the future of the Republican party. And nearly all pundits have seemingly arrived at some secret pact to pretend that Palin is something other than a nattering buffoon, even though it's plain as day.

I hope we get to see more of her. It's like watching the contestants that didn't make it on American Idol.

Change indeed

2008-11-18T03:31:00.002-06:00

During the Bush reign of error, books weren't exactly in favor, what with Bush reporting that his favorite book was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", saying that he loved reading it as a kid - until it was shown that the book wasn't published until he was in his 20's. Well, he could still have been telling the truth, seeing as he's the biggest case of arrested development in U.S. history.

Literary Bush ain't, in spite of his wife's former status as a librarian and commendable efforts on behalf of adult literacy. (She apparently knew Bush was a lost cause.)

(Man! Kid's books ain't cheap. The price for Bush's favorite book (in hardcover) is around $3.40 a page! And the list price is nearly three times that.)

So it's been a novel situation (pun intended) to hear Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" being mentioned about every 5 minutes on cable shows for over a week. As a result it's shot to the top of the best-seller lists once again. Good for Doris. She deserves it.

The reason it's been the center of so much talk is that Obama has referred to it and Lincoln's example as something he'd like to emulate in his choice of cabinet members and other appointments.

The book of course, recounts Lincoln's choice of some of his most bitter political rivals, including those he'd just beaten in the presidential election and including some bitter opponents, to surround him in his cabinet, and how in hindsight, it was a brilliant move.

So apparently nothing can be said about the rampant speculation surrounding Obama's cabinet picks without mentioning Goodwin's "Team of Rivals".

I was glad to hear Obama mention the book months ago, as I bought and read the book a year and a half ago and even recommended it here a couple of times, first here where I recommended it before I'd read it myself, and including this post where I mention the fact that I was able to finish it due to a forced absence from my computer and any connection to the inter-tubes. (Sometimes it's good to get away from the infernal contraptions. A cyber fast if you will.)

As I said then, it's a very good book on a fascinating subject, and well written as are all of Goodwin's works. Even though it's a lengthy book, it reads well and it's almost a let down when you reach the end. I really enjoyed it at the time, and am glad to actually know what Obama is talking about, even if most of the pundits on the tube who constantly refer to it haven't even read it themselves.

So, the moral of the story is that steady readers of TID stay up to date, stay well informed, and find out the books they should be reading and are WAY ahead of the pundits.

Another book which Obama has said he's recently read is by a guy I've liked for a long time, Newsweek writer Jonathan Alter, who recently published his work on FDR, "The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope"

One of the most important authors on the area of wealth and influence and the nature of true power in America is conservative thinker and author Kevin Phillips, and I'm glad that he's added another book to his many previous works which have been featured here in the past. His newest book is particularly relevant to today's financial meltdown. The title pretty much says it all, "Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism".

Take a look at the books mentioned above which I've included in the links in the sidebar to the right. I invite you to take a look at them and pick some up if you wish.

Another recent book is called, "The Collected Wisdom of Sarah Palin". It consists entirely of blank pages. (I'm kinda partial to this tee-shirt too.)

Imagine. A literate president. Ahhhh. One that not only can read, but can speak in complete sentences and actually pronounces "nuclear" "nuclear". Yes, change is good.

He's got bigger fish to fry, but who will replace him?

2008-11-17T08:42:00.002-06:00

The Springfield Journal-Register published yesterday a letter of appreciation from Barack Obama to the people of Illinois upon his retiring his senate seat.

Today, I am ending one journey to begin another. After serving the people of Illinois in the United States Senate — one of the highest honors and privileges of my life — I am stepping down as senator to prepare for the responsibilities I will assume as our nation’s next president. But I will never forget, and will forever be grateful, to the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible.

I guess we'll be gracious enough to share him with the rest of the world.

(except maybe for Nico, who appeared to painfully feel Obama's absence during the campaign and was amazingly annoyed that Barack wasn't devoting 100% of his time in the Senate during his successful run for President. Wonder what he'll do without Obama?)

And of course, this raises the intrigue over who the wonder-Gov, Blagojevich, will appoint to Obama's seat. Hynes? Jesse Jackson Jr.? Himself?

Any opinions on who he should pick, and who he will pick?

QC Times swallowing Dispatch/Argus??

2008-11-14T09:37:00.003-06:00

**UPDATE**

Move along folks, nothing to see here. A managing editor of the Dispatch/Argus swiftly responded to this post (see comment below) with the assurance that the D/A carriers beginning to also deliver the QC Times is just, "doing what makes sense in tough economic times."

From this it's assumed that no merger is in the offing.

(The editor also brought up the valid question of why it would be assumed that the QC Times was taking over the D/A rather than visa-versa. That question did cross my mind, but I felt that the larger corporation usually buys the smaller. But his point is of course a valid one.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A It's come to my attention that word has been going around about a "big meeting" recently held between management of the Dispatch/Argus and the Quad City Times and it's sparked concern that they may be merging.

These concerns were heightened when Dispatch/Argus district managers recently announced that their carriers would begin delivering the Quad City Times paper in addition to the Dispatch/Argus beginning December 8th.

Is this simply a consolidation of carriers for cost savings, or does it portend something larger?

Anyone know what's going on or what may be in the works?

It can't be a good thing to have one company controlling all the print media outlets in the area.

New Bush autobiography leaked

2008-11-12T03:15:00.000-06:00

News reports show that publishers aren't exactly chomping at the bit for the rights to George W. Bush's memoirs. Unlike both the Clintons, whose tomes fetched record-breaking advances in the tens of millions, and which in turn flew off the shelves, publishers have recently been quoted as saying that, though they'd be interested in something by Laura Bush (seeing as how she's actually literate), Bush might have to wait around 6 years for anyone to be interested enough to make it worthwhile.

During last night's Rachel Maddow Show, Kent Jones suggested that perhaps a Bush book might do very well were it something like this...

Hell, I might even buy that.

A shame that Bush would rather loofah Barney Frank's back in the shower in prime time on every network before he'd entertain the idea he's been wrong in any way.

Fascinating graphic display of election results

2008-11-11T20:51:00.000-06:00

The NY Times has a nifty series of maps and graphs which display some of the more interesting data from the recent election, including a county-by-county map showing which showed an increase in Dem votes from '04, and which showed an increase in Republicans, and demographic data from swing states.

Worth a gander.

Looks like the Moonshine Belt(c) is the Republicans only remaining turf.

You also might enjoy playing around with TPM's interactive electoral results map where you can dig down and examine election results by state or county in House, Senate, and Presidential races.

Obama chooses company of Lane Evans on election night

2008-11-08T07:22:00.002-06:00

It was spotted by an alert and helpful reader on the Flicker photo site where the Obama campaign had posted behind the scenes snapshots from Election Night in Chicago.

On this most historic moment, only hours after learning he had been elected president, and only hours prior to him going before the eyes and ears of the entire world on stage in Grant Park in Chicago, Barack Obama met personally with former congressman Lane Evans at the Hyatt hotel.

I can't think of a higher honor than having a president-elect include you in the very small group of people allowed into his hotel suite on election night, and find time to talk intimately with you, before such a history changing moment.

Obama is clasping Evans hands in his own as he leans forward, showing obvious affection and concern. A truly touching and revealing photo, and a testiment to the great respect our next president has for Lane Evans.

Breathtaking hypocrisy

2008-11-08T01:33:00.000-06:00

Just try to believe what Sarah Palin said today.

Responding to constant leaks from McCain campaign staffers who have referred to her alternatively as a "diva", a "whack-job", and most recently described her and the spooky first-dude Todd as, "Wasilla hillbillys looting Neiman-Marcus from coast to coast".

"That's cruel. It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional, and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair and not right,"

Do I even have to point out the breathtaking hypocrisy and amazing lack of awareness this displays?

What has, after all, Palin done for the entirety of her campaign for Vice President?

Several times a day for weeks on end, Sarah Palin did exactly the things she labels others as jerks for doing.

She took things out of context, distorted them beyond recognition, then spread it on every single media outlet in the country. Going down her list, she herself has been cruel, consistently mean-spirited, and embarrassingly immature herself on a daily basis, and done so in front of international press coverage.

Well, she's got one thing right. It's not fair, and it's not right. And anyone who does such things is a world class jerk.

But she damn sure was ready, more than willing, and able to engage in exactly the behavior she now condemns when it's done to her, several times a day, every day, for months.

A jerk indeed.

Let Alaska have her.

As an aside, all the breathless concensus among pundits that she's going to be a big "star" in the future Republican party is bunk. The woman is popular with the very Republican consituency that the American people by this election has relegated to irrelevancy. Namely, angry whites scared to death that non-whites are assuming their place as Americans, and narrow focus know-nothing fundementalists who gladly let others do their thinking for them.

She can ride that train into oblivion, and I hope she does.

Now it can be told

2008-11-06T03:43:00.000-06:00

Newsweek has an interesting peek at their "behind the scenes" access to the campaigns, reporting done with the agreement that none of it would be published until after the election.

For political junkies, and everyone interested in this truly historic election, from primaries to just a couple days ago, suffering the withdrawals from the end of the process is made a little more bearable by the prospect of dozens of books sure to be published detailing the backstory. With any luck, at least a couple will actually be good.

So here is perhaps the first of the "inside dope", so to speak, with some rather surprising insights, including the fact that the McCain campaign knew it was all over far earlier than might be imagined, and that Palin really did "go rogue" at times, that both campaigns sophisticated computer systems were victims of cyber attacks prompting FBI attention, and that the effort to portray Obama as a terrorist or worse resulted in a large increase in threats against Obama's life.

November 4th at a glance

2008-11-06T03:20:00.000-06:00

From "The Political Carnival"...

Things up with which we will no longer have to put

2008-11-05T18:43:00.002-06:00

There are many profound reasons to be joyful and grateful and proud today that we Americans finally got one right. But there are equally as many reasons to be glad for what we'll no longer have to endure. It's truly the end of an error.

Aside the election of a leader of grace, intelligence, and vision, it is a great triumph for humanity by simply ending the destructive, thoughtless, and incredibly belligerent and arrogant policies of the Republican era.

With radical fundamentalism, political, religious, and economic, having failed miserably and dealt a resounding, "Enough!" by the majority of Americans, the country and the planet will no longer have to suffer from Neo-con radicals and rigid right-wing ideologues twisting our country to fit their radical, flawed and doomed to fail theories and notions, which were, after all, nothing but dressed up rationales for indulging in selfish and violent attempts to increase their personal wealth and expand their hold on power.

Perhaps it's worth taking a moment to contemplate just what this momentous election signals the end of. Repudiating the ideas of, and removing from office, those who have perpetrated such gross offences and failed leadership is akin to removing a big boot from our collective necks.

Good riddance to bad garbage.

For instance:

First and foremost, no more George W. Bush and Dick "Dick" Cheney and the horse they rode in on. History's very worst president is through wreaking his damage on the country and the world. (NOTE: Not yet. It's revealed that he's busily repealing regulations on the environment and economic markets even as we speak, trying to do maximum damage before its too late. See "Where's George" post below)

Americans learned not to swallow their bullshit and refuse to be frightened into voting for candidates of a party who's very existence was built on deception, hypocrisy and fear. 'Nuff said. Into the trash bin of history with them all.

- No more Sarah Palin, the mute "First Dude", or Kick, Stoob, Click, Klack, Magnesia, Zamboni and their other kids. No more moronic and bizarre utterances in the yowling, overly-dramatic, sing-song, grammatically mangled, trying to sound like she knows something, drawl as if she's talking to toddlers, in such a horridly annoying tone of voice that you reflexively dive for the mute button. We no longer have to feel collectively embarrassed every time she "reared her head".

Bonus: No more will we have to witness the bizarre sight of Hank Williams, Jr. standing on stage like some redneck nightmare cigar store Indian, wearing various football jerseys tucked into his jeans an outsized cowboy hat and sunglasses indoors.

Truly a blessing.

- The ruinous and colossally misguided and impractical ideology of the right, and the toads who promoted them, Gingrich, Delay, et. al, it can be hoped, will fade to the obscurity they so richly deserve. They've already enjoyed attention and prominence WAY beyond what they deserved, will have a much more appropriate profile, in other words, Americans will hold them accountable at long last for the wrong ideas and massively failed ideology and they won't be taken seriously any more.

Unfortunately, if the past is any guide, there are many right wing figures who can be dead wrong with amazing consistency and yet they're still allowed plum positions in the media from which to continue spouting their half-baked ideas.

- The constitution wasn't completely shredded, and at least now the shredding will stop, and some repair will hopefully begin.

WE CAN FINALLY BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT, instead of deeply embarrassed and apologetic that we had elevated such a blatantly shallow buffoon to the Presidency, not once, but.... (cringe)... twice.

- A media who, rather than being browbeaten and stampeded into pretending that right wing propaganda and lies make sense or should be given serious attention, have now been browbeaten and stampeded into actually calling a lie a lie, and a slimy distorted attack, a slimy distorted attack. (At least in some outlets.)

No one is served by a media that decides to pretend that, for instance, Sarah Palin really WAS qualified to be president, had foreign policy experience, and was more experienced and prepared than Obama. Sometimes, the truth is unavoidable and the press shouldn't be scared to stand up for reality.

- "Liddy" Dole is gone, marking the fact that America has at long last rid itself of having either a Dole, a Bush, or both in office for the first time in about 30 years.

- And end to e-mail inboxes packed with appeals for donations from every elected official above dog-catcher on a daily basis, with each warning of more dire consequences than the next. And of course, no more sickening, infantile negative ads.

...and the list goes on.

Tell us what you won't miss, what you'll say good riddance to, or what you hope this election will put an end to. In other words, the incompetent boobs and philosophy up with we no longer will have to put.

What other things can we expect to not have to deal with now that this election is over?

Who will Blago select to fill Obama's senate seat?

2008-11-05T17:57:00.000-06:00

With Barack Obama moving on to a job with greater responsibilities, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will now be charged with appointing a replacement.

The Governor could conceivably pick himself or any number of elected officials.

Usually mentioned are Lisa Madigan or Dan Hynes.

Who's going to be the pick?

Also of note was some election night humor courtesy of Sen. Mike Jacobs and his father, former Senator Denny Jacobs. What cut-ups!! It's obviously humor. No one could possibly be that arrogant and full of themselves with such a thin record.

Apparently, to the Jacobs, Obama's victory means comic gold.

No sooner had Mike Jacobs learned that he had won re-election to the state senate Tuesday night than he began talking about running for governor in 2010.

“I think it is going to be a crowded field of Democrats seeking the nomination for governor. There may be five or six candidates, and chances are good that I'll be the only downstater running. If I can capture the downstate vote, I can win the nomination,” Sen. Jacobs said.
...
Sen. Jacobs said he soon will create an exploratory committee to weigh the possibility of a gubernatorial bid.

“Could Mike have a viable bid for governor? Well, yes, I think he could,” said the senator's father, former state Sen. Denny Jacobs. “Two years ago, who would have guessed that a man named Barack Obama would have a viable chance of becoming president of the United States?”

Mike Jacobs said a bid for governor would be an opportunity to spread his political wings.

“Until now, when I have run for election, many people have been voting on whether or not they like my family. If I run for governor, I'll be running based on my record. I think I would have a chance of winning. Not only am I a downstater, but I'm always good for a good for a good quote. The press loves that.”

Oh those Jacobs, always cutting up! It's funny that Sen. Mike, our own equivalent of George W. Bush, now wants to become our own equivalent of Sarah Palin. Hilarious!

And the best punch line? Denny comparing his son to Barack Obama!

The polls had barely closed on Obama's history changing election when Denny decided to try to throw his son on his coat-tails.

Not since Mike himself compared himself to Rosa Parks on her birthday have we heard such a whopper. Is this a trend? Ridiculous attempts to compare the senator to historic figures at the most unseemly times?

Thanks for the comic relief.

The hilarity never ends.

This seems like an instance where the old saying applies; "Don't vote for the guy, it only encourages 'em."

Airplanes for Obama

2008-11-05T17:26:00.000-06:00

Just how cool is this...

Obama is right. It really IS about the people. The people did this. They organized, they got "fired up", and they found ways to do what they could. And most importantly, they DID IT.

In the midst of this historic moment, we should all pause to acknowledge the millions of ordinary people who broke out of their shell and sacrificed their time, money, efforts and talents to helping bring this moment about.

And the millions of volunteers from both campaigns are to be commended for their civic paticipation.

And last but certainly not least, are the most unsung and underappreciated group of all, those elected officials and millions of ordinary people who work to organize and provide the means for us to vote, and who served untold thousands of hours at polling places to ensure that the process worked.

It's a day to be proud of it all.

Hats off to those who helped make it happen.

Where's George?

2008-11-05T16:31:00.002-06:00

With the Last Emperor reduced to a joke and remaining conspicuously out of sight, one might wonder what our national shame is doing. After all, he still has 75 days as of today (you can keep track with the countdown timer in the sidebar) to go before the country and the world is rid of him and all he represents.

You might even be grateful and relieved at the thought that at least he's not actively screwing things up and making our country and planet worse.

After all, Bush just pledged his "complete cooperation" with President-elect Obama.

But silly you. You'd be wrong.

President Bush’s aides have been scrambling to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others — few for the good. Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in Mr. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball. We fear it could take months, or years, for the next president to identify and then undo all of the damage.

You might not want the buzzkill, but if you can deal with hearing what damage he's busily doing while no one is looking in the midst of the promise of change to come, read this sobering piece.

Like some surly three year old throwing a tantrum after being disciplined, here are but some of what this small man is doing in a last ditch effort to impetuously inflict more damage on the country and give his corporate and fundementalist masters what they want before he's unceremoniously tossed out of a position of power.

CIVIL LIBERTIES We don’t know all of the ways that the administration has violated Americans’ rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Last month, Attorney General Michael Mukasey rushed out new guidelines for the F.B.I. that permit agents to use chillingly intrusive techniques to collect information on Americans even where there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
...
THE ENVIRONMENT The administration has been especially busy weakening regulations that promote clean air and clean water and protect endangered species.
...
ABORTION RIGHTS Soon after the election, Michael Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, is expected to issue new regulations aimed at further limiting women’s access to abortion, contraceptives and information about their reproductive health care options.

How nice that this petty and shallow man, obviously concerned with nothing but the wishes of his small base of support, is thumbing his nose at the idea of accountibility and democracy and busily giving us all the finger all the way until the bitter end.

It's a BEAUTIFUL DAY

2008-11-04T21:27:00.004-06:00

Fear just struck out, and the world's somehow a little more beautiful today.

I'm still absorbing it all, drinking it all in.

Leave your thoughts.

Ok, there's so much to write, I'm not sure I could get it all in, so I'll do a shorthand version.

First I wanted to note that John McCain's concession speech was without a doubt the most gracious and responsible, even moving, consession speeches I've ever heard.
He not only displayed great humility, but proved that he has the wisdom to realize that, after spending months whipping it up, his responsibility now was to tell the angry and misinformed minions they'd so crudely mislead that in essense, it was all bullshit, and that they should support and give Obama the respect he's due and, as people who supposedly love America more than anyone else, they need to drop all the over-blown fear and anger McCain's campaign had worked so hard to instill, and instead be magnanimous and lend support to the countries next leader in perilous times.

McCain, after having his hour of a campaign, on the 59th second of the 59th minute, FINALLY stepped forward to try to dampen the ugliness his campaign has created, an ugliness that even he realizes poses a real threat to solving the many problems the country faces.

Indian Summer... ain't it cool?

2008-11-03T07:32:00.002-06:00

A few from a trip to Maquoketa Caves yesterday...
Click 'em to blow 'em up.

A stumble down memory lane

2008-11-03T07:05:00.001-06:00

Before we enjoy looking forward to the possibilities which will emerge tomorow, let's take a brief look back.

As far as this miniscule outpost on the web, who's proved to be right, and who's proven to have been dead wrong about this Obama feller and other matters?

Well, there's some evidence from the old archives here that's interesting to read in hindsight.

First, I asked way back in May of 2006, fully two and a half YEARS ago, what readers thought of the idea then being floated by Sen. Dick Durbin, that Barack Obama should consider a presidential run.

Go on and read the opinions from some of the faithful. There's a couple Republicans and a couple Dems. Guess who got things right?

The Inside Dope: President Obama?

I held off as long as I could, assessing the situation far past the point where I was willing to stake my reputation on a prediction. But there came a point where I was entirely comfortable in coming out and flatly stating that Barack Obama would be our next President of the United States.

Was it a couple days ago? Last week? After he won the primary?

No. It was eight and a half months ago.

The Inside Dope: Barack Obama is our next President

The following is a rant involving my long held conviction that the Democratic Leadership Council style Dems were making a fatal error in thinking that they had to adopt Republican tactics, Republican ideas, Republican positions, Republican views, Republican obedience to corporate and fat-cat wishes, and even Republican code words in order to be successful.

It's long and likely boring to most of you, so you can safely skip it if you wish.
But I feel my side of this argument has been vindicated and will only continue to be proven true as time goes on.

Over the past couple years, I've enjoyed a few heated arguments with some DLC type Dems that the idea of chasing Republicans, swallowing all their tripe and trumped up issues, running as fast as they can to the right to supposedly appease all the "conservatives" out there in the land was a horrible, horrible mistake.

(Alas, it would take a long time to unearth all the posts and comment threads where these debates took place. But if anyone really cares, I'm sure I could find a few.)

All these DLC type Dems wanted to do was to do and say whatever it took to get elected, even if they had to essentially become Republicans in Dem clothing to do it. They'd even parrot Republican talking points and happily join in the right's take-over of political language and framing.

For instance, the Republicans labeled the inheritance tax, the "death tax". It was a phonied up gimick like most of them, designed to benefit a nearly none existant minority of extremely wealthy families who resented having to pay taxes on what was essentially a gift of several million dollars.

These Dems would merrily refer to this sham as the "death tax", as if they wanted the cool kids to like them too. It was, and is disgusting and hard to watch. Yet they'd do it all the time. Competing to see who could ape the Republican tactics and positions the best, essentially giving up completely of ever competing with them as Democrats with better ideas, better solutions, and better guiding principles.

They threw all that aside, instead chosing to join the corporate money chase to try to compete with the Republicans, and in turn getting just as corrupted as they were. And of course, they threw all the core Dem issues right into the dumper, becoming pro-gun, pro-life, and on down the list, never bothering to stand up and argue the truth on guns for instance, that they were for modest COMMON SENSE gun regulation to stop the slaughter of thousands every year, instead trying to ape the phony macho "I'm a gun guy and I'm for guns and my gun's bigger than yours" bullshit.

They didn't stand for ANYTHING except saying and doing whatever they thought the supposedly conservative voters wanted to hear.

The only problem was that in most cases, the idea that there was this big conservative majority out there was a damn myth, and always has been. These types had actually been caught up by, and believed, the very crap the right wing was spewing daily across the country. They actually swallowed the Kool-ade that most of the independents and "just plain folks" were solid conservative Republicans.

That was, and is, a myth and always has been.

They actually were sucked in by the massive right wing noise machine and firmly believed that every rube out there who said they were conservative, was actually conservative, when the truth was that these people could be just as easily turned around into saying they were Democrats. (and most of them had been in the past anyway.)

It's about the same as someone saying they're a Cubs fan, and then moving to St. Louis and begining to tell people they'd always been a Cardinal fan.

These people had no core beliefs, they had no special love for Republican policies. They were just BRAINWASHED essentially. They had this tripe pumped into their brains literally for 10 or 12 hours a day. Their ignorant friends at the shop started saying they were Republicans because if you were a Dem, you were a pussy or worse.

And a lot of people went along to get along.

I argued strenuously that this was not the case, that probably 80% or more of the so-called "Reagan Democrats", "Independents", or "swing voters" that the political hacks were so hot on were just as easily swung to saying they were Dems.

IF the damn Democrats ever had the spine to stand up and say what they stood for and STAND BY IT, instead of waffling and adopting positions based on which ever way the polling winds were blowing that particular day. No one repected such phoniness and "me too" bullshit pandering to what they thought was a conservative majority.

They thought the Dems were losing because they were too liberal, when in fact, it was because they were pandering, craven, no principle pussies who wouldn't even take their own side in a fight!

Bush won twice largely because he had his simple beliefs and stuck to them unambiguously. People liked that a lot, even if they didn't even know what he was talking about or realize that his ideas would hurt them and the country.

I feel I've been proven right on that issue as well, as there's a groundswell of people who had described themselves as "conservatives" or Republicans, simply because it was the cool thing to do or their friends were, etc. even though they really had no core committment to the Republicans and didn't know squat about their policies. And the main fact that the DLC Dems ignored.... they really favor Democratic policies and philosophy overwelmingly more than Republican right wing theory.

They just were conned into thinking they'd be pussies if they admitted supporting Dems.

They just thought it felt right at the time.

But as I've been arguing for years, these people could just as easily be pursueded to say they were Democrats and support Dem candidates, IF, the Dems weren't so obviously calculating and weasly and just spoke the truth and stopped kissing corporate asses and ran on behalf of the average American.

Obama found a way to do it. A way to get campaign cash without thinking you have to be a craven corporate ass-kisser to do so.

And now even rural whites and other demographics who called themselves Republicans are suddenly coming out from under the rock they'd been scared under and realizing that gee, I really DO prefer Democratic positions and ideals.

What the DLC types like the utterly nauseating Harold Ford Jr. and Evan Bayh and others didn't realize is that the way to win these lapsed Dems back wasn't to essentially try to say, "Hey look, I'm just as conservative and believe all the backwards crap the Republicans you love do!", but to stand up and say, "Listen, you've been fed a load of B.S. all day, every day for years now. The Republican policies are dangerous, make us less safe, and are destroying the economy while they reap billions among their cronies and you and your communities suffer.

Stop being the selfish jerk-ass consumed by the worst part of your nature that the right wing media has relentlessly encouraged you to be and remember the person your Mom taught you to be.

Let Rush and Hannity and all the rest of the flying monkeys be collossal butt-munches and morons. Just ignore them. You knew they were wrong all along anyway.

When the Dems stand up for themselves and their ideals, they win.

When they are so bankrupt of ideas that the best thing they can come up with is trying to out-Republican Republicans, then it's over.

Thank God Obama has prevailed and not idiots like Ford, who, for example, after watching McCain deliver THIS God-aweful train-wreck of a speech, said it was the most powerful speech he'd ever heard McCain deliver.

Of course the party can't suddenly lurch to the far right. Not only shouldn't it, but it's impossible. But they sure the hell shouldn't run like scared bunnies from the basic, common sense, principles that have made it such a progressive force for the good of America's citizens for hundreds of years, instead of the party who fought tooth and nail AGAINST civil rights, AGAINST minimum wage, AGAINST the right of workers to organize, AGAINST constitutional rights, FOR torture, and on and on.

The bastardized Republicanism of the Bush junta is dead and gone, with the tragedy being that it was allowed to last this long.

Let's dance on the grave of the likes of Tom Delay, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, and yes, Rush and Hannity and Coulter and Malkin and all the other fruit-bats.

Dare we hope that some semblance of sanity returns to our politics?

While I'll certainly be among the millions across the planet who will be jubilant and exhultant at the ushering in of an Obama presidency, I'll be equally thankful and inspired by the tawdry exit from the political landscape of all the right wing crack-pots, con men, perverts, hypocrits and thieves that has seemed to populate the upper reaches of the Republican party.

And I'm confident that there are legions of Republicans that will feel the same relief and hope that they will have the chance to rebuild their once worthy party into something less destructive, less ugly, less corrupt, less ignorant, less miserable and less theocraticly obsessed with ideology before and above basic common sense and blatant evidence of it's utter failure.

So when you're celebrating only a few short hours from now and thinking about what possibilities are to come, count your blessings as well for the rot that we, the American people, have managed to rid ourselves of at long last.

One too many screetching Palin speeches....

2008-11-01T01:01:00.000-05:00

....and even this poor Gourd-American couldn't take it.

(pumpkin by a creative, if slightly twisted, TID protege.)

And here's how my stab (no pun intended) at a Barack-o-lantern turned out. It got a lot of positive reactions from the various princesses, swashbucklers, spooks and ghouls and their parents.

Fresh carved...

After dark...

Real dark...

18th district race heats up.

2008-10-31T00:57:00.001-05:00

Meanwhile, down in the Peoria area 18th district, we've got this clever graphic floating around...

This campaign broadside is in reference to the fact that the 27 year old Schock got President Bush himself to appear in Peoria at a fundraiser for his campaign.

As the Peoria Journal Star puts it in it's endorsement of Schock,

How many other 27-year-olds manage to get the leader of the free world in town for a fundraiser? President Bush's visit in July came with controversy about who should pick up the tab for local security, but Schock weathered that, too.

Bush's little visit for a money party cost local government $40,000 for security and all the numerous expenses associated with a presidential visit.

Did the federal governent pick up the cost? Nope. It was a political trip, so rightfully it shouldn't.

Then the Schock campaign obviously ponied up, right? Nope.

Schock left his local taxpayers on the hook for the $40,000, meaning that they had to pay tens of thousands of dollars in order for HIM to raise money for HIS political campaign.

Nice work if you can get it, eh?

Apparently to the PJ-Star, managing to survive a scandal makes you a qualified representive, leave aside the propriety of the issue.

Another blot on Schock's record is mentioned in the same piece:

Later questions were raised about Schock's role in helping his father attempt to set up a tax shelter seven years ago, when as a notary public Schock improperly backdated documents by 16 months. Schock described it as a "clerical error" and said his father did not profit from it. The Peoria County state's attorney's office chose not to pursue the matter, partly because the statute of limitations had expired.

Judging from the policy positions listed in the PJ-Star's endorsement, Schock is almost the reincarnation of failed and wrong-headed Bush policy. He apes the Bush approach right down the line.

Yet the Star manages to toss the many questionable marks against Schock, ignores his adherance to demonstrably wrong Bush policys, and endorses him anyway.

A damn weird way to justify an endorsement.

Carve the vote

2008-10-29T01:09:00.004-05:00

Who said politics can't be fun?

I've been planning on carving an Obama logo on my pumpkin for several days now. (Really, I have!) Tonight I was going to try to find an Obama logo and trace it out and figure out how to transfer it to the pumpkin, and carve it so that it would be self-supporting and look half-way decent.

Then I was paging through the latest Newsweek and saw a tiny blurb about the "Yes We Carve!" website. Damn! Glad I found it before making a total wreck of both myself and a perfectly good pumpkin trying to do it on my own.

As you may have noticed, there's a little gizmo in the sidebar where you can click to go there.

What a great idea it is too. Users submit various templates and designs, some of them quite creative and clever, and you can then download a template of the design and use it to trace out the design on your pump type kin.

Aside from the usual gooey extravaganza of de-gutting the pumpkin and dealing with the seeds, and the mess, it looks like a fairly easy proposition to create a very nice little pumpkin with a positive message.

Not only does the site provide templates and many designs, they offer instructions and invite readers to submit pictures of their finished creations. It's a lot of fun to just browse through and see the many Obama supporters and their work, many of which are nothing short of amazing. (the scrape method is used to provide shading in amazing ways.)

Another cool feature is it allows you to set up and post announcements for B.Y.O.P. (bring your own pumpkin) parties so you can get together and have some pumpkin fun with like-minded folks.

Go check it out, and if you haven't already taken sharp object to your gourd, consider making a Obam-a-lantern this year.

It's fun with a purpose, and a great activity for any little people whose future, after all, this election is so much about.

Here's just a few samples... you really gotta go browse the pictures.

This guy had to use some sort of advanced carving/transfer method ... it's almost too good.

Love it!

And just how cool is THIS?!! They carved mirror image letters on the back of the pumpkin to project the date on the wall!

And this little girl did a pretty good job at making the Obama logo, don't you think? She's obviously proud.

Here's someone else that apparently supports Obama.

Another nice design.

Fun for the whole family...

And yes, that's carved into a pumpkin. Amazing how people can carefully scrape the pumpkin to various thicknesses to create the shading of the picture. (though they look really ugly when they're not lit up.)

Here's the unlit/lit version of one "Barack-o-lantern.

Are you "wealthy"?

2008-10-27T15:09:00.001-05:00

The world got a revealing answer from Sen. John McCain on Sunday's "Meet the Press", though you could be forgiven for missing it.

It jumped right out at me.

Tom Brokaw, giving the equivelent of a big wet kiss of an interview with McCain, brought up the Palin shopping splurge, with the RNC spending $150,000 over the span of a few months on clothes for the Palins, (he left out the fact that Palin's Hollywood hairstylist was the highest paid member of the campaign, even more than the campaign managers, getting over $20,000 for a few weeks work.)

In response, McCain cocked his head and said earnestly, "Look, the Palins aren't wealthy.....", and went on to defend the crazy expenditure.

Well then, we now know that Sen. John McCain doesn't think a couple with a net worth of over $1 million is "wealthy". The Palin's income last year was near $250,000, a quarter of a million dollars.

Now there's nothing wrong with that, obviously. But really, divide your net income last year by the Palin's. How many times what you made did they make?

And to McCain, they're not wealthy at all.

If they made, say, FIVE TIMES what you made, then you could double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple your entire yearly income ... and STILL be considered kinda poor in McCain's book. At least not wealthy.

McCain has quipped before that his idea of being wealthy is anyone making more than $5 million a year. I don't think he was joking.

By the standards of those in the McCain's bracket, the Palin's are downright poverty striken.

This goes a ways towards explaining his frantic and angry denounciation of actually lowering the taxes of everyone making less than a quarter million a year while slightly raising the taxes of those who make several million.

McCain is just defending his base. Those who make more than $5 million a year.

Can anyone explain why misguided Republican die-hards, often making a tiny fraction of what the Palin's make and the exact people who would benefit from Obama's economic plan, are so rabid in their defense of the super-rich being able to enjoy favored status? Why they are so fixated on the idea of protecting the only class in America who have seen their incomes skyrocket over the past decade, while the rest of us have had wages stagnate and buying power plummet?

Yet there they are, railing about the evil Obama tax plan, arguing in favor of a plan that will tax them more and defending the very policies which have created the economic collapse which promises to get many times worse before it gets better.

More of the same. With the same disasterous results.

AND... how 'bout that Joe McCain, HENH! HENH!! HENHH!!

McCain's beligerant and hair-trigger brother (big surprise, huh?) thinks he's so damn important that he can call 911 and demand that they do something to get him through traffic faster, then when the police at the 911 center asks if he's calling the emergency service to complain about traffic, responds, "F*CK YOU!" and hangs up.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Then when the 9-11 supervisor calls him back to repremand him for abusing the service and swearing at the officers, they get Joe McCain's answering machine saying he's busy with brother John's campaign.

But that's not all. McCain then calls back the supervisor to complain about them "reading me the riot act" and AGAIN starts to bitch about a traffic snarl!

Granted, you can't pick your family, but somehow it's not at all hard to see John McCain doing this if he weren't a prominent pol.

Arrogant. Belligerant, with a hair-trigger and uncontrolled anger.

Trib highlights unusual 17th district situation

2008-10-24T21:29:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Tribune recently wrote this piece about our 17th District Congressional race, or rather the fact that there IS no 17th District Congressional race.

According to the Trib, only 5 other freshmen congressmen are running un-opposed in the entire country.

Interesting.

Will he make it??

2008-10-23T20:59:00.000-05:00

Watching this clip, one wonders. Better get that Geritol I.V. going.

I know, we're all worn out just watching this crap, surely McCain's a bit "bushed", if you will, at this point. Hell, we all are. But before you're "ready on day one", you have to make it to day one. I think it's old John that needs a couple days in Hawaii more than Barack.

Items of note from the late campaign insanity....

- Someone needs to see if Joe Biden is drunk. I can't conceive of any other reason someone with his time in politics would make such collossally IDIOTIC mistakes and say such breathtakingly stupid things, all from the desire to convince people he knows things.

- Palin is more of a joke, and more of a mistake, than even Obama supporters could have hoped. Now it's revealed that the cash strapped Republican National Committee spent $150,000 bucks on clothes and baubles for her and her freaky family over just a couple months. This, by the way, is more than their new best friend, Joe the Plumber's ENTIRE HOUSE is worth.

Some Hockey Mom. Sure politicians are phonys, some more than others, but rarely do we get the rather nauseating experience of witnessing someone so blatantly and transparently phony and as big a fraud as the Palin spectacle. Are we lucky to have witnessed a new high in lows? Not really. It's just getting progressively more pathetic and sickening as they stumble to election day.

I predicted some months ago that if the election were to come down to Obama vs. McCain, we'd all get to see the true racism that inhabits the core of the Republican party come right out in broad daylight.

I was right. The "Obama Bucks" put out by Republican party officials in California was brought to light a few days ago, and it's but one example among many of racist Republican asshats across the land who have been so accustomed to the blatant racism among their party members that they do such things without even realizing just how repulsive and embarassing they are.

These squirely-birds, far from being "real Americans" or patriots, or the Godly chosen ones, they've tried so desperately and so long to convince themselves and others they are, are more un-American than any of their imaginary boogy-men, and about as far from having American "values" as anyone could possibly get.

They're an embarassment to all decent citizens, and we should be grateful that at least some of them are being exposed.

Something fishy in Peoria area Schock/Callahan race

2008-10-23T20:24:00.000-05:00

The Peoria area race for Congress between Democrat Colleen Callahan and Republican Aaron Schock has been heating up the past few days.

As a letter to donors from the Durbin campaign puts it:

Contribute to Colleen Callahan today, and help expose "Backdate-gate!"

I am writing you this urgent appeal because I have nowhere else to turn.

There has been a game-changing development in an important Congressional race in downstate Illinois.

It's an open seat in Peoria, which is traditionally Republican.

The GOP nominee is a 27-year-old named Aaron Schock who has all the money he can spend. He shoots from the hip about sending nuclear weapons to Taiwan and his undying loyalty to George Bush's failed agenda.

Our Democratic nominee, Colleen Callahan, is a bright, engaging community leader who has spent 30 years in broadcast journalism covering a variety of issues and specializing in agriculture policy.

As a newcomer she has raised over $450,000, but Schock has swamped her with the help of national Republican sources.

Please make a contribution to Colleen Callahan's campaign today, and help her compete against her well-financed Republican opponent!

Last week there was a blockbuster story across Illinois that Schock had notarized fraudulent documents with false dates so that his father could be eligible for offshore tax shelters. The source of the story was Schock's own father in sworn testimony before a federal court. The damning testimony was buried in a court transcript but an Associated Press reporter dug it out, making statewide news.

Schock denied wrongdoing and said he saw nothing wrong with notarizing documents he knew were clearly fraudulent. A national notary expert quoted in the story said Schock clearly broke the law because "to backdate a document ... is illegal. You have to notarize for the current date."

Colleen Callahan's campaign has just produced a powerful new television ad to expose "Backdate-gate." But right now, Colleen has enough money to run this ad for only four days. She needs at least $10,000 from our community to deliver this important message to the voters through Election Day.

Please click here to watch Colleen Callahan's new ad, and make a contribution so she can keep it on the air through Election Day!

Schock's clear misconduct raises serious questions about his judgment. When the voters know the facts, Colleen Callahan can win.

Colleen is not only a good person, she brings the kind of mature judgment to this race that we need in Congress.

We need your help today.

If you can send Colleen's campaign $10, $100, or whatever you can afford, it can make the difference.

The election is only a few days away and your help can decide this critical contest.

Sincerely,

Dick Durbin
U.S. Senator

In addition to the revelation that Schock committed "official misconduct" by
putting a false date on his father's overseas tax shelter documents, there is
potentially a larger issue looming: whether Mr. Schock will ever release his
tax returns for public viewing, a common move done by congressional candidates
and incumbents.

Callahan, who's running an uphill battle in a Republican district, has been
publically calling on Schock to release his tax returns. Rumors have been
floating around Peoria for months that the big loan listed on Schock's 2007
FEC report might have come from an area businessman. Now, that's just a
rumor, an allegation -- but it's been circulating for months. It's time Mr.
Schock release those tax returns so that voters have all the information they
need before they cast their votes on November 4. This issue is very relevant
to the campaign and to the voters, given the past behavior of Mr. Schock
(putting false dates on tax returns). I mean, are voters ready to elect him
to go to Washington and write and vote on tax policy?

Schock has the fundraising lead in this race, but look for this race to be
competitive on election day thanks to the tide of blue for Obama-Biden.

As campaign enters the stretch, Powell endorses Obama

2008-10-19T08:48:00.008-05:00

In what was the most sought after, important, and most anticipated endorsement of this entire election year, Gen. Colin Powell today announced that he intends to vote for Sen. Barack Obama for President of the United states.

It's not as though Powell is your average politician. He is a veteran of a 35 year military career in which he rose to the rank of General, National Security Advisor to Ronald Reagan, Commander in Chief of the Army, promoted to a four-star General by George H.W. Bush, and the youngest ever to achieve the highest position in the Department of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was appointed Secretary of State by George W. Bush, who later used, abused, and permanently stained his well-deserved reputation by trotting him out before the U.N. with dubious or outright false information to make their pitch for perhaps the worst foreign policy decision in our history.

Powell's endorsement carries the gravitas and seriousness that will undoubtedly go far in reassuring many people who may have been hesitant or unsure of Obama's suitableness for the office.

His endorsement also goes far in exploding the truly despicable and increasingly desperate "fear and smear" attempts by the Republicans to blatantly lie to and mislead the people they profess to care about with their ludicrous attempts to paint Obama as anti-American. This is so clearly harmful to our country in so many ways that it can no longer be excused by the fact it's being done on behalf of a political candidate.

The Republicans should be, and are being, held to account for it and repudiated at every chance. It's truly not Obama who's concern for the well-being of the country should be legitimately questioned, but McCain's.

Powell makes a very powerful statement against the anti-Muslim bigotry and fear-mongering openly displayed by the Republican party and the McCain campaign, a message long overdue and powerfully stated.

The following is a transcript of the portion of Powell's remarks in which he endorses Sen. Obama, taken immediately following their broadcast on "Meet the Press".

This "speech", if you will, should go a long way towards rehabilitating the sterling credibility and reputation of Powell before it was willfully and cynically squandered by Bush & Co.

~~~~~~~~~

Meet the Press
October 19th, 2008

BROKAW: General Powell, last year you gave a campaign contribution to Sen. McCain, you have met twice at least with Barack Obama, are you prepared to make a public declaration of which of these two candidates that you're prepared to support?

POWELL: Yes, but let me lead into it this way.

I know both of these individuals very well now. I've known John for 25 years, as your set-up said, and I've gotten to know Mr. Obama quite well over the past two years. Both of them are distinguished Americans who are patriotic, who are dedicated to the welfare of our country. Either one of them, I think, would be a good president.

I have said to Mr. McCain that I admire all he has done. I have some concerns about the direction that the (Republican) party has taken in recent years. It has moved more to the right than I would like to see it, but that's the choice the party makes.

And I've said to Mr. Obama, you have pass the test of do you have enough experience, and do you bring the judgement to the table that would give us confidence that you would be a good president.

And I have watched them over the past two years, frankly, and I've had this conversation with them.

I have especially watched over the last six or seven weeks as both of them have really taken a final exam with respect to this economic crisis that we are in, and coming out of the conventions. And I must say that I've gotten a good measure of both.

In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we were having, and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem, and that concerned me. I got the sense that he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had.

And I was also concerned at the selection of Gov. Palin. She's a very distinguished woman and she's to be admired, but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be President of the United States, which is the job of the Vice President. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgement that Sen. McCain made.

On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama, and I watched him during this seven week period. And he displayed a steadiness and intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge, and an approach to looking at problems like this, and picking a Vice President that I think is ready to be Vice President on day one. And also in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well.

I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican party and Sen. McCain have become narrower and narrower.

Mr. Obama at the same time has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines. Ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about ALL villages have values, all towns have values, not just "small towns" have values.

And I've also been disappointed frankly by some of the approaches that Sen. McCain has taken recently, or his campaign has, on issues that are not really central to the issues that the American people are worried about.

This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks, became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he's a "washed up terrorist" - then why do we keep talking about it?

And why do we have these robo-calls going on around the country, trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited that Sen. Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, that somehow Mr. Obama is tainted.

What they're trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that's inappropriate.

No I know understand what politics is all about, I know how you can go after one another, and that's good. But I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for.

And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me. And the (Republican) party has moved even further to the right, and Gov. Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration.

I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but members of the (Republican) party say, and it is permitted to be said. Such things as, "Well you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is that 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 is NO, that's not America! Is there something wrong with some 7 year old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

Yet I have heard senior members of my own (Republican) party drop this suggestion, that he's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists - this is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were 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 a Star of David, it had a crescent and a star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Mushad 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 could go serve his country and he gave his life.

Now we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as non-discriminatory as anyone I know, but I'm troubled about the fact that within the (Republican) party we have these kinds of expressions.

So when I look at all of this, and I think back to my Army career, we've got two individuals, either one of them could be a good president. But which is the president that we need now? Which is the individual who best serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time?

And I come to the conclusion, that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities, and we have to take that into account, as well as his substance, he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president.

I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming on to the world stage, on to the American stage, and for that reason, I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.

~~~~~~~

By stating his beliefs, Powell has ensured that the Republicans will instantly transform him from hero of the Bush administration, American military patriot, and icon of supposed Republican "inclusiveness", to nothing more than just another black guy, someone who favors Obama simply because of his race. From hero to zero. And they'll do it with a straight, if snarling, face.

In fact, that's probably the reason Powell recognizes how we simply can't stand more of their style of reckless rigidly ideological, and harmful, fundamentalism across the board.

Brokaw realized that the Republicans would predictably try to ascribe Powell's endorsement to his race, to which Powell responded that if it was only a matter of race, he could have made this endorsement several months ago, but he chose to observe the candidates and weigh his choice and only arrived at his decision a month ago.

Brokaw lied and repeated the Republican talking point that Bill Ayers had said in a book published on 9-11 that he regretted that he "didn't bomb more".

Brokaw should know better, and he's obviously just as uninformed as many people on this.

They try to make it sound as though, immediately after the attack on 9-11, this guy Ayers had come out and said he wished he had "bombed more".

Wow. That makes a nice story. Makes the guy sound absolutely soulless and like a monster.

But it's a total fabrication and designed to deceive.

Ayers had written a book, and indeed, it came out the very day of the 9-11 attacks.

In an interview about the book published on 9-11 in the NYT, Ayers is quoted as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs," Bill Ayers said. "I feel we didn't do enough." Ayers has since said that he was not referring to doing more bombing, but simply that they didn't achieve their goals and therefore he wishes they'd done more to bring about an end to the Vietnam war, bring about social justice, etc.

It's only the Republicans, and now Brokaw and the others who repeat it, that have conveniently bastardized the quote and his stated meaning into Ayers saying he wished he had "bombed more".

(As an aside, Ayer's father was chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago and chairman of Northwestern University and of the Chicago Symphony. Not exactly middle class. His father was also a leader in race relations and was picked to serve as a mediator between Mayor Richard Daley and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 when King marched in Cicero, Ill., to protest housing segregation.)

I'm not so sure you can safely assume that Ayers meant her regretted not doing more bombing. And the attempt to tie Ayers to 9-11 simply because an interview happened to be published on that date is obviously stupid and deceptive. It would only take a moment's thought to realize that anything said in an interview published on 9-11 was obviously said BEFORE the attack occur ed. But here again, truth and the McCain campaign only have a glancing relationship.

Powell responded to the continuation of this non-sense by stating that what Ayers did 40 years ago was "despicable", but when on to say that still talking about it today is likewise despicable and nothing but demagoguery.

Powell said he didn't intend to campaign for Obama, and when asked whether he'd like a position in an Obama administration, said he didn't have any desire to return to government service, but of course he would listen to the President were he to request his services, but left it clear that he would prefer not to be asked.

It should come as no surprise that this decorated public servent who has served with such distinction at many of the highest positions in the military and government would realize that Americans have a clear choice this time around, and the choice is equally clear as to who represents the direction forward, and who represents more of the same failed way of thinking and way of approaching the world.

Down the tubes

2008-10-18T17:23:00.001-05:00

Not to mention the sewage coming out of Palin and other McCain surrogate's mouth, the crazy robo-calls, and endless falsehoods. They need Roto-rooter, not Joe the Plumber.

Fact: Joe the plumber has no plans to buy his bosses business as McCain claimed.
Fact: Joe the plumber doesn't hold a plumber's license as required in Ohio.
Fact: Joe the plumber said he'd be making over $250,000 if he bought the business.
Fact: His boss's business actually makes less than half that amount and would benefit from Obama's tax plan, not be taxed more.

A quick video review of the McCain/Obama debate

2008-10-16T12:50:00.000-05:00

Did he actually say, "My Friends"?

Sen. McCain? Viagra ad agency on line two...

2008-10-16T12:03:00.004-05:00

How 'bout the last debate?

Like Bob Dole, whom McCain increasingly seems to be morphing into, it's clearly time that McCain ought to be lining up a deal pitching Viagra on TV for some post election cash.

A few (quick) observations and comments...

- Thanks to McCain's goofy pander, Joe the Plumber is probably better known than John the Baptist. (It is now emerging that the actual Joe the Plumber isn't even a licensed plumber, but an apprentice. John McCain also mangled his name during the debate.)

- Right when Obama's halting, flat droning had gotten to the near-comatose stage near the end, and when he's supposedly trying to "connect" with Joe Sixpack or Joe the Plumber, or whoever, he actually used the word, "primacy" in noting the historical link between nations economic health and military power.

- John McCain is toast.

- It's a miracle McCain has lasted as long as he has without suffering a major stroke or heart attack in view of his barely being able to control his obvious seething anger and frustration. To those who watched CNN which provided a split screen of the two candidates, McCain looked as though he was undergoing a spastic episode of weird twitches, frantic and ceaseless eye batting, grimaces, eye-rolling, arched eyebrows, clenched jaws, glares and creepy rigid grins, usually at completely inappropriate moments. (Not to mention long, loud sniffs and what sounds like denture whistles when he speaks.)

Worst and most disgusting moment- John McCain, in trying to dodge the issue of the hate and violent anger his campaign has whipped up by constantly painting Obama as some sort of radical terrorist threat to the very existence of America, instead suddenly tried to turn it around and blame Obama. McCain went into a long and incredibly sappy spiel where he mentioned WWII vets of every stripe, and everything but Mom, Apple Pie, and Baseball, before defending the people who show up at his rallies despite the fact that NO ONE HAD ATTACKED THEM in the slightest.

Unless he was stating his immense pride in the very freaks who shout "Terrorist!", "Kill him!", "Marxist!" and "Traitor!" repeatedly at their rallies. As usual with McCain, his utterances often seem incomprehensible upon the slightest examination. This was no different.

But when confronted with the ugliness and irresponsible message his campaign has spewed, McCain cowardly and dishonestly tried to once again fool the stupid by suggesting that the complaints and warnings were nothing but attacks on "good patriotic Americans".

In a word, pathetic. Right up there with the rest, like trying to earnestly insist that he was referring to the sainted American worker when he said the "fundamentals" of our economy are strong.

-Joe the Plumber meet John the Dumber.

McCain showed how low he's willing to sink when he stated that a group submitting false voter REGISTRATION forms was, get this, "destroying the fabric of democracy".

My God! Destroying democracy itself!!!?? That's really serious! Man the barricades!

The McCain campaign's bedrock core belief is that Americans are essentially the mental equivalent of first graders.

This ACORN issue is so utterly phony that it insults every American. ACORN, a community organizing outfit who is paid to register voters, does so by hiring people, many who are the unemployed, or homeless. They try to help out those who need a little income by hiring them to go out and register new voters.

Of course, to ensure they're doing the job, they establish a minimum number of new registrations that a person has to get before they can get paid. There's no other way to ensure that ACORN won't be paying people for doing nothing.

They hire THOUSANDS of people to do this work. Some who don't want to do the work instead resort to filling out made up names on the applications in order to get paid.

Is this really a big shock? No.

ACORN by law has to submit the phony apps, even when they themselves find most of them and point them out to government officials when they turn them in.

In short, it's a big NOTHING. The phony apps are tossed, and life goes on.

This does not, and CAN NOT have anything to do with actual vote fraud.

If some goof turns in a registration form in the name of Mickey Mouse or Paris Hilton, there is no way Mickey or Paris are going to then show up and try to vote, and neither are any of the other phony names on these bogus forms.

Obama has represented ACORN along with the Justice Dept. in a lawsuit forcing the state of Illinois to comply with motor voter laws. They've had no involvement with the Obama presidential campaign whatsoever, as the campaign itself has it's own massive and effective voter registration operation.

McCain knows this, as any reasonably intelligent Schnauzer would, yet there he sits, seemingly in the advanced stages of rigor mortis except for the strained facial expressions, solemnly suggesting with a straight face that this routine and utterly unsurprising and inconsequential fact means that Obama himself is involved in voter fraud most foul, MOST FOUL I TELL'S YA!!!

McCain trusts that you, my friend, are an utter fool.

- McCain mocks the idea of the "health" of the mother in allowing emergency abortions.

- McCain rails against "Class warfare" and "spreading the wealth around" in the face of the middle class collapsing while millionaires and billionaires who've had the rules rigged allowing them to rake in obscene profits while paying no taxes and having literally no government oversight which would have prevented the worst looting of the economy during the past 8 years. Good luck with that, Mac.

McCain thumbs his nose at anyone who isn't wealthy enough to start their own business and make more than a quarter million a year in personal income, and yells about allowing billionaires to keep every dime they've stolen or accumulated due to policies skewed entirely in their direction. He's such a rigid ideologue that he'd rather the middle class become extinct and literally be thrown out of their homes than to ask that those who have seen their incomes double, triple, or quadruple over the past 8 years to actually pitch in a little towards the good of the country.

What a patriot.

The bottom line is that McCain is obviously EXACTLY the kind of Republican ideologue who hews to failed and dumb ideas and theories even as he stands right in the middle of the wreckage they've created. McCain last night was angrily arguing exactly for more of the same, even as he tried, and failed, to argue he, rather than Obama, represented real change. But the word just doesn't fit well in his mouth.

Most people see this clearly, even if they don't consciously realize it.

And unless you're Joe the Plumber and more concerned with making a few extra thousand dollars over saving the country from the disastrous course it's on, it's plain which candidate represents "Change", and which is arguing for following the same failed ideological course that got us in this mess to begin with.

What did you think? Can you list all the demonstrable lies and distortions pedaled by the Lizard King?

Finally, as an aside, consider this fact: There has not been a winning Republican Presidential ticket since 1928 (Hoover) that did not include Richard Nixon or one of the Bush's.

Astounding. Maybe that's the problem?)

Thanks to McCain campaign, local fundy ingnoramus gets noticed

2008-10-14T02:24:00.002-05:00

Hey boys and girls! Another local figure has managed to make the Countdown "Worst Person in the World" list. And not just as a runner up, but as THE Worst Person in the World! That's no mean feat. **

I saw a piece live-blogging about this event the day of the McCain rally in Davenport but haven't had a chance to get anything up about it. Plus, it was just so disturbingly idiotic that I almost didn't want to even think about it again.

But Keith Olberman came through and recogized true "worstness" when he saw it.

Listen to the Rev. Arnie Conrad of the Evangelical Free Church as he tells God to man-up.

"I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god - whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah - that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons,” Conrad said.

“And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day.”

** You may recall that another religiously insane fruitbat made the "Worst" list when he drove around several states looking for an abortion clinic to target before deciding to drive his car into a woman's health clinic in Davenport and then try to set it on fire.

Only one tiny problem. The place he demolished doesn't perform abortions.

Palin' it like it is

2008-10-14T01:51:00.000-05:00

Last week's so-called town-hall event showed Sen. John McCain to be someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience.

McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendoes and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendoes and slanders for him.

Whew! Now that's some writin', as Palin might say. Talk about taking the hide off someone. And the fact it's entirely true adds to the power.

I'm not sure, but I don't think Chris Hitchens is too fond of the Hokey Mom.

The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.

Bonus: The line of the day: Richard Lewis, "Wasilla??!? I thought that was a yeast infection I got at Ohio State!"

Don't know much about geography...

2008-10-14T01:09:00.000-05:00

Ah, those brainiac graphic artists over at MSNBC.

Rachel Maddow was talking about how the McCain campaign is sinking so fast that they've had to spend their time trying to hold on to states that went solidly Republican last time around.

"On Saturday, Sen. McCain campaigned in Davenport, Ia, today the McCain Palin ticket campaigned in the states of Virginia and North Carolina, and Gov. Palin will reportedly make a trip to the red, red state of Indiana.", reported the lovely and talented Ms. Maddow.

Now bear in mind that this isn't some Junior Achievement project. This isn't even the local morning show. This is network cable, viewed by literally millions of viewers. They hire people that know their stuff, right?

Here's the graphic.

Seriously. Just how ignorant does a person have to be to make this mistake? There are literally hundreds of thousands of 5 year olds who know better.

The tragedy of John McCain

2008-10-11T14:41:00.002-05:00

I almost felt sorry for John McCain yesterday.

But then I regained my senses.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, appearing on a cable news show yesterday to discuss the appeal to human ugliness that has increasingly defined the McCain campaign, recalled an Adlai Stevenson quote which fit the situation brilliantly:

"The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning."

McCain is obviously failing at this goal.

The poor guy was finally forced to re-discoved some sense of dignity and honor when many of his lunatic followers actually voiced the very lies and distorted ideas that the his own campaign had consciously labored so hard and so long to establish.

So there was McCain, looking like a too-tightly wrapped mummy, forced out of sheer embarassment to defend his opponent when a couple of the his faithful expressed the beliefs that McCain himself had been hoping to plant.

And as if that weren't pathetic enough, these hate-filled lemmings actually BOOED him for daring to suggest that Obama isn't the jihadist radical threat that they've been told he is, but rather a normal, decent, person with which McCain has strong differences of opinion.

They're knee deep in hate and loving it, and damn it, they're pissed at anyone who tries to take that away from them, even if it's their own freaking candidate.

Truly amazing.

But it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Sometimes you reap what you sow.

On the edge

2008-10-11T13:10:00.000-05:00

Nothing like a trek around Pallisades State Park near Savannah, IL to get your heart racing. Just hope the rock holds.

In view of the worsening financial crash, there may be some who seek out such spots in the near future. After all, sky scrapers don't have the old sash windows anymore. Hope not.

Explored the park yesterday and it was a wonderful day. I couldn't stop marvelling at how in the hell they'd ever managed to grade and pave the incredibly steep roads to the summits along the bluff, and run fresh water and electricity up there as well. A really remarkable achievement, as were all of the incredible park projects first undertaken under the WPA and CCC of the New Deal.

Their work can still be seen, including the lodges at Black Hawk and Starved Rock, White Pines, Perre Marquette, and many other state parks.

Interestingly enough, while researching the role of the CCC program in Illinois State Parks, I came across a DNR page on the topic which begins:

Although the Emergency Conservation Work Program popularly known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) started in 1933, the events that led to its formation started in the 1920s and culminated in the Great Depression of 1929- circa 1942. The "Roaring '20s" were years of tremendous prosperity for a small segment of society. Technological advances made possible production increases of about 32%, resulting in a flood of goods on the market and increased profit for factory owners. Unfortunately, the same period saw wage increases of only 8% for the average worker. The technological advances meant that as many as 200,000 workers lost their jobs to automatic or semiautomatic machinery. While the well-to-do were increasingly speculating on the stock market, the other three-quarters of the population were spending practically their entire salary on goods and services. Food, radios, clothes, and cars were increasingly being bought on credit, the workers "banking" on the continuity of their jobs. Indeed about 80% of Americans had no savings at all, while the elite 0.1% held over one-third of all savings and paid less and less taxes.

Sound familiar? Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The fact that government was far-sighted enough to preserve such glorious areas of nature and make them available to all citizens is all the more precious in light of the fact that park budgets are proposed to be slashed and are usually the first to fall in tight economic times.

But on the right day, at the right time, you can lay on your back in the midst of a tall stand of pines and peer into the infinite blue sky and for a moment, you could be back in simpler times... if it wasn't for high-tech jetliners burning thousands of gallons of fuel an hour leaving their artificial clouds as tracers across the blue.

And you see some funny things in the woods.

Like these fungi poking out of a hole where a tree limb once was. They reminded me of some sort of George Jetson condos.

Sadly, all the trees of this type were dead or dying. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what kind of tree they are, but they have very rough and deeply creased bark. And every single one of them were being killed or dead, likely from some sort of parasite. It was a bit sad to walk along and see all the rest of the trees doing well, but only one species being utterly wiped out for some reason. And they were some of the biggest, oldest, and tallest trees in the woods.

It may be related to this huge "infection" on one of these trees. I think they call it a gall.

But life easily appaears to outweigh death in the woods. These brilliant red berrys were like little lights among the green. There's a little bug going about his business too. (as with all pics, click to enlarge)

We'd taken the trip hoping to see some fall colors, but we were a little early. But, see, all was not lost.

Can you spot the beaver lodge out in the water lily field?

Hip Hip Hussein!

2008-10-09T20:10:00.002-05:00

I'm not a political consultant and I rarely, if ever, offer advise here to any candidates. I certainly wouldn't expect anyone on the Obama campaign to hear, much less follow, anything I'd suggest.

But I'm going to break precedence and offer the Obama campaign a suggestion that I truly wish they'd try.

The Republican candidate's campaign has suddenly erupted with local shills at campaign events snarling Obama's full name, Barack Hussein Obama, as though they were hissing "Lee Harvey Oswald", only with more contempt and hatred.

Of course it's a truly loathsome and just plain pitiful attempt to give the rubes just enough suggestions to let them fill in the blanks with every spooky unhinged fear rattling around in their cavernous fact-free heads.

Obama has been taking a beating with this and losing a lot of these "low information" voters (as the pundits now refer to the reality challenged delusional Republican right) to the myth that Obama, that scary negro, is a secret Muslim, a radical, a black supremacist out to destroy the white man, and an ally of terrorists everywhere.

This is particularly bizarre when you consider that these mullet-headed faux patriots support a candidate named John Sidney McCain the Third. (now THERE'S a Joe Sixpack name for ya, gosh darn it.) Though truth be told, I think they're more united by their quaking fear of a person who's even part black being President than they are in their support of McCain. They truly could not possibly care less about his stances on the issues, his history, (other than the "hero" myth) or anything else about him aside from the fact he's white like them.

This explains why they flock to hear the mindless ideologue Palin and her cavelcade of hate and fear, and then start to stream out of the venue as soon as McCain starts to speak.

Yet maddeningly, the Obama campaign plays right into this, and amplifies and increases the negative power of using his own name against him. Obama and his campaign running away from his middle name and complaining that anyone who mentions it is being offensive is wrong. Here's a few reasons.

First, it's as though Obama is ashamed of his own middle name. Not good. How can you respect someone who acts as though the name his parents gave him is something to hide, an insult, and something which must not be uttered?

Second, by running from it, they are tacitly proclaiming that being of the Muslim faith is somehow wrong and offensive. It's political correctness run amok, trying to hide a legitimate middle name that he should be proud and unashamed of, simply because they fear Obama might be considered a Muslim. This, obviously, is insulting to Muslims. Obama should not be contributing to this ignorance and religious intolerance.

Thirdly, the right wing troglodytes are using his middle name as a bludgeon and they've beat the daylights out of him with it for months if not years now. It's become a hateful epithet,loaded with delusional negative inferences only limited to the depths of the paranoid imagination of thousands of enraged (and racist) Republican moonbats across the country.

But there is a way to take that bludgeon away from them entirely. There's a way to sap the name of all it's meaning. It would be easy to rob them of this crazy insult and take away the negative power it now has, and not only that, but it's the right and honorable thing to do.

Obama needs to do the honest thing and NOT BE ASHAMED OF IT OR RUN AWAY FROM IT at all, and instead say the name Hussein as often as possible. The more you repeat a word, the more you drain it of it's loaded meaning.

By the mere act of trying to keep it under wraps and accusing those who dare utter it of being offensive, they're only ADDING to it's negative power.

Use it freely. Use it often. Hell, joke about it. And it will leave the bullet-headed clods at a loss.

If the Obama campaign used it often, use it proudly, fearlessly, and without reservation, and showed clearly that there's no shame whatsoever attached to it, it would leave the Republican crazies flummoxed and baffled, and completely unarmed.

Not only that, but it would demonstrate to the millions of Muslim Americans and everyone else that he's neither ashamed of his own name, nor is he afraid to risk being thought to be a Muslim by some racist nimrods, and that being a Muslim is, in and of itself, not a bad thing, nothing evil, and certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

Obama should embrace his given name and he and his campaign should say it out loud as often as they can. At every campaign appearance, whatever local dignitary or party official introduces him should say, "And now it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you, the next President of the United States, Barack HUSSEIN OBAMA!!!! (wild cheers).

It would leave Republican blow-hards frustrated and completely rob them of one of their most cherished dim-witted and idiotic attacks.

The best way to rob a word of it's power is to simply use it until it loses all power.

There's my advice. No charge. Just maybe let me catch a lift on Air Force One?

Politics first, America second

2008-10-09T19:00:00.000-05:00

Tom Friedman in the Times:

Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But given the huge attention she is getting, you can’t just ignore what she has to say. And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”

What an awful statement. Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.

I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.

Indeed.

And what about the many, many, too many casual lies dropping off the tongues of McCain and Sarah Palin? The disingenuous and irresponsibly inflamatory deceptions?

The unprecidented spectacle of the wife of a candidate stepping forward to take a cheap shot at an opponent, such as Cindy "the Trophy" McCain did recently in trying to suggest that Barack Obama PERSONALLY is responsible for putting her son at more risk as he serves in the military (because he voted against some multi-billion dollar authorization for the war.)

She said it sent a chill down her spine to think of this apparently deeply anti-American act. "I would suggest that Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day." said Miss Cindy, conjuring up the decidedly bizarre image of Obama in one of her dozens of pairs of $750 designer heels. (Or her wearing some black wing-tips.)

This even though Obama voted against it because it didn't include any provision for a timetable to begin to withdraw troops from Iraq, and not telling the rubes that HER OWN HUSBAND voted AGAINST a similar bill because the bill DID include a schedule to begin drawing down troop numbers.

Accusing Obama of "paling around with "domestic terrorists" (a phrase which I figured would immediately make some men to say, "Obama's paling around with my wife??!)

That's stupid talk, out of a desperate desire to get people to "look over there!" and take their eyes and their minds off the real problems the next President will have to address and their proposals to do so.

Obama, to hear them tell it, was thick as theives with Bill Ayers, a guy who formed a seminal and important protest group during the 60's. He was accused, but never convicted, of planting bombs at government buildings, all in protest of the Vietnam War.

Bad stuff. Not too productive to say the least.

Obama was 5 years old and about 2000 miles away at the time this happened. Yet Palin is convincing what the press has now politely dubbed "low information voters", in other words, uninformed and unintelligent Republicans, that Obama lit the fuse to the bombs.

The reality? (not that they care.) Ayers went on to hold the title of Distinguished Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois and established himself as a valuable civic minded citizen who Chicago Mayor Richard Daley Jr. praises for his contributions to Chicago, which awarded Ayers the "Citizen of the Year" award in 1997 for his years of work on reforming Chicago's education system.

He happened to live near Obama. They were both INVITED to serve on the board of a charitable organization founded by the Annenbergs, a decidedly conservative Republican billionaire couple, for the purpose of reforming and improving Chicago's failing school system.

So they served on the same board, which as you know, is not exactly like the weekly poker club. These people barely get to know each other, and only attend infrequent board meetings together.

Later, an Illinois state senator named Alice Palmer was retiring. Obama had finally decided to enter politics and was going to run for Palmer's seat. Palmer did the ordinary thing, and introduced Obama to some of the more prominent and politically active residents of her district, which is perfectly ordinary. In doing so, she introduced him to Ayers and his wife. The civically prominent Ayers saw something in Obama and was willing to pitch in when the relative unknown decided to launch his race for state senate. He, like many people, decided to host a small fundraiser at his home.

This event probably lasted an entire 3 to 4 hours, IF that.

After that, the two may have spoken occasionally, but Ayers never played a role in advising Obama nor did he hold any position in any Obama campaign.

Obama has denounced Ayers actions of 4 decades ago.

Now Palin and McCain are trying to describe this as "paling around with a "domestic terrorist", and saying Obama, "launched his career in the living room of a "domestic terrorist".

Uh-huh.

Then apparently, the Annenbergs, pals of McCain and stauch conservatives, must be even more suspicious, since they not only "palled around with" but INVITED "domestic terrorist" Bill Ayers to serve on the board of their foundation's organization.

And hosting one of dozens of informal fund-raising events at his home suddenly sounds like Obama is some secret robot-like creation of the fiendish Bill Ayers. That Ayers "launched" Obama's career and therefore, it's suggested to the rubes, must be the evil American hating evil-doer behind the scenes secretly pulling the strings for every move Obama makes. A vote for Obama is a vote for a "domestic terrorist."

Which is of course, so preposterous that only a right wing loon would fall for it.

But there's millions of right wing loons. And many are truly unhinged and well armed.

Which makes it all the more anti-American, reckless and deeply irresponsible and unethical for Palin and McCain to feed such bullshit to these nut-cases, who truly feel, thanks to such things being pumped into them from the right constantly, that Obama actually represents a dire threat to this nation's very survival.

This of course is a psychological outlet for the seething racism that many Republicans embrace. Intertwine that racism with the assurances from Palin and McCain, the message that, yes, you're very right to feel Obama is some mysterious and very dangerous threat to America! Yes, all your deranged fantasys are probably true.

They give permission to the insane, they confirm for the delusional their worst fears of a black man as president. "TERRORIST!!" they shout at McCain events, "TRAITOR!!!", even, "KILL HIM!!" has been heard and reported shouted in response to Palin's cutesy and crazy accusations against Obama.

When these dangerous kooks are out there thinking that they, like John Wilkes Booth, would go down in history as saving the country from certain doom by doing harm to Obama, and Palin and McCain, far from discouraging them or sternly admonishing them not to, only throw gasoline on the fire of their paranoid delusions, what share of the responsibility will rightly fall on their shoulders should the unthinkable acutually occur?

And how much further will they go down this truly anti-American road as they see themselves losing this race? To what extremes will they go to frighten the easily frightened? How much further will they go to encourage and abet the raving fear, paranoia, and racism of many of their most ardent supporters?

Is this what the thoroughly dishonorable John McCain means by putting "Country First"?

Who won? THAT one.

2008-10-08T09:47:00.003-05:00

John McCain is a cranky, mean-spirited, frustrated and very angry man. He really should relax before something bursts.

Between referring to the person both he and Bush seem to think actually runs our military policy lock, stock, and barrel, Gen. Petreaus, as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (he's not, and never has been.) and his decidedly cringy attempts at lame humor, to his baffling flashes of anger, the really low and bizarre stab at mocking Joe Biden's hair implants, (To this point, none of the dozens of pundits and others have managed to connect the dots on this remark, instead assuming it was just a typical inexplicably odd McCain crack.), to his weird announcement of a new policy goal to buy out the worst morgages of the most risky lendees, even though that very thing is part of the bail-out bill just passed, (Maybe he didn't read this version either.), to his de-humanizing and offensive and just plain out-of-it reference to the next President of the United States as, "that one", John McCain proved once again that he doesn't see America like you and I.

No, he thinks what will get voters hot are references to sending Marines to Lebanon, Bosnia, the first Gulf War, Teddy Roosevelt, (whom he knew personally), and the Crimean War. Well, I made that last one up. But you get the picture. Forward looking he's not.

The entire spectacle was bizarre, up to and including McCain wandering in front of Tom Brokaw's camera shot after the debate to his avoiding shaking Obama's hand even when it was extended to him, and then clearing out as fast as he could while the Obama's spent nearly an hour meeting the people in the hall.

Things look grim for the grim looking guy.

Maybe he regrets not winking a few times at the camera.

Instead, he radiated anger.

I was flipping around in the recording of the debate and came to a spot where McCain looked like he was ready to deck someone. What the heck was that about, I wondered?

I backed up a little and found out he was answering a guy in the audience who had asked him, "Yes. Sen. McCain, how will all the recent economic stress affect our nation's ability to act as a peacemaker in the world?"

As McCain answered, something apparently caused him to get visibly angry at this mild-mannered looking guy. Why? I have no earthly idea. Maybe because he actually dared to suggest that the U.S. could do something to promote peace instead of endless war and constant militarism? That's my guess. Maybe he assumed that uttering the word "peace" made the guy an Obama fan? Who knows?

McCain's answer ended with, "Sen. Obama was wrong about Iraq and the surge. He was wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against Georgia. And in his short career, he does not understand our national security challenges.

We don't have time for on-the-job training, my friends."

I did a quick and dirty recording, just shooting the TV screen. The sound is faint, but just look at McCain's face and tell me that's not the face of anger and agression. Very weird.

Combine that with the dozens of other instances of him really losing his temper and lashing out reflexively in the past, and, well, it's McCain, not Obama, who's not fit to become President.

Fraud? You betcha!

2008-10-04T06:38:00.001-05:00

What's this country coming to when a major candidate for vice president flatly states that she's not going to bother answering the questions put to her at a debate held to allow the public to judge her fitness for office, why bother having any press or debates or other public forums at all?

Have we officially gotten to the point where a candidate is picked and they blatantly set out to manufacture a persona and history and story line with only a vague connection to reality and fact? Where they brow-beat the press so badly that they're afraid of stating the obvious or even asking any questions which a candidate has to be asked?

When skills more suited to a contestant on the Dating Game are somehow said to prove a candidate's fitness for the second most powerful office in the world?

Have we all literally been brainwashed? What happened to our common sense?

Sarah Palin is a train-wreck. In a sane country, she'd be seen as the utter embarassment that she is viewed as by the rest of the world, who aren't bamboozled by relentless spin and pure B.S.

Not only have people gotten so dangerously off-base that they're literally supporting a candidate because they think she's "hot", but precisely because she's so obviously and completely ignorant.

A large number of otherwise sane people truly argue that they like Palin because she's essentially stupid. They use numerous code words and phrases, such as "hockey mom" or "Joe Six-pack" or an "outsider", but the truth beneath all that hooey is that they're saying that they view the fact that she's as incapable and ignorant of the world we live in as they are. And these Republican voters, rather than being ashamed to admit such a unpatriotic and bizarre view, seem to revel in it.

No one who has listened and watched Palin's performance since her reckless pick by McCain thinks that she's truly able to lead this country through perilous and quite dangerous times. Sure, they'll lie their asses off and say so, using every bizarre and delusional argument in the book, but even the reasons and arguments they concoct are clearly hogwash. (Alaska is close to Russia, leader of the Alaska National Guard, and on and on.) None of it proves her capable in the slightest.

So let's move beyond the experience question. How about just watching her think on her feet. That's a pretty good way to guage a candidate.

There too, she's an utter disaster. An embarrassing, cringe inducing mess that is so clearly out of her league and devoid of even the basest knowledge of the world she would be dealing with as V.P. that decent people can't bear to even watch as she displays her un-hinged attempts to play the part she's told to play and makes an utter fool out of herself in the process.

She's a B-string TV news reader, pumped full of lines and then shoved out on stage.

And the lines she regurgitated during the debate were almost entirely flat wrong or outright lies, doggone it! (WINK!)

I've got other matters to attend to, but I invite you to list the lies, falsehoods, and things she got wrong. The list is long.

Here's a few really inexcusable Palin lies to get you started (from ABC news)

-Bankruptcy Law

BIDEN: "We should be allowing bankruptcy courts to be able to readjust, not just the interest rate you are paying on your mortgage to be able to stay in your home, but in -- be able to adjust the principal that you owe, the principal that that you owe. That would keep people in their homes; actually help banks by keeping them from going under. But John McCain, as I understand it -- I'm not sure of this, but I believe John McCain and the governor don't support that….

GWEN IFILL: Gov. Palin, is that so?

PALIN: That is not so.

FACT: The Senate has voted only once this year on legislation that would change bankruptcy laws to help distressed homeowners. John McCain was absent for that vote. Contrary to what Palin says, the McCain campaign acknowledges that he does not support those changes to bankruptcy laws.

-Palin on Troop Levels in Iraq

During an exchange on Iraq, Palin erroneously claimed the United States is down to presurge levels in Iraq. Palin said, "We have got to win Iraq. And with the surge that has worked we're now down to presurge numbers in Iraq. That's where we could be." Palin is incorrect.

FACT: The Alaska governor is wrong because the number of troops on the ground is still higher and the number of combat brigades is the same as at the start of the surge in January 2007, according to Pentagon figures. Iraq troop levels before the surge were at 133,500. While U.S. troop levels in Iraq have been in the 142,000 range recently, today they are at around 150,000 because of an ongoing troop rotation.

-Obama's Voting Record on Taxes

Palin argued that Obama has voted to increase taxes 94 times. Palin said, "Barack had 94 opportunities to side on the people's side and reduce taxes and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction. Ninety-four times."

FACT: That's a wildly inflated number Palin threw out; the actual number is closer to half that.

Hell, you can just go to FactCheck.org and see a list of all the false statements by Palin and a few relatively mild errors by Biden.

The right wingers cheers and whoop because their candidate put on a ridiculously phoney act. She may have been wrong and lying more often than not, but they don't care. Palin didn't cause the moderator to end the debate out of simple human compassion, and that's a victory.

Good for them. She made it through. She put on a good act, it's true. She didn't fall apart, though in order to get through the debate, she disturbingly and habitually refused to answer anything which she wasn't scripted, and would lurch suddenly back to some topic for which she had some material memorized.

That's not a strong candidate by any stretch of the imagination. There's been no perceptible bump in the polling showing Obama pulling away from McCain. I'm proud that polling has shown that a clear majority of Americans didn't fall for the act of someone who is quite possibly the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American public.

What did you feel were some of the more freaky and disturbing aspects of Palin's performance?

Wall St. moves to make millions from efforts to clean up their mess

2008-09-29T09:02:00.000-05:00

What's not included in all the coverage of the massive Wall St. bailout is the fact that many of those very same Wall St. execs and firms at the heart of the problem now stand to make millions from the taxpayer financed scheme to bail them out.

Kind of ironic, eh? They're essentially being rewarded for their utter greed and recklessness, at least the Bush administation proposal they attempted to ram through congress with warnings of dire and immediate economic castastrophe if congress didn't give them a $700 billion open-ended blank check with no oversight whatsoever.

It's not known if anyone is seeking to add provisions to prevent the same firms who screwed the pooch from making excessive profits from the very effort to bail them out.

Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions.

“The definition of Financial Institution should be as broad as possible,” the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents big financial services companies, wrote in an e-mail message to members on Sunday.

The group said a wide variety of institutions as varied as mortgage lenders and insurance companies should be able to take advantage of the bailout, and that these companies should be able to sell off any investments linked to mortgages.

The scope of the bailout grew over the weekend. As recently as Saturday morning, the Bush administration’s proposal called for Treasury to buy residential or commercial mortgages and related securities. By that evening, the proposal was broadened to give Treasury discretion to buy “any other financial instrument.”

Sarah, Saaaarah, no time is a good time for goodbyes

2008-09-29T07:57:00.005-05:00

"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state."

- Gov. Sarah Palin, explaining why her state's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience, as she and McCain have repeatedly claimed, during her 3rd ever press interview with Katie Couric.

Airspace indeed.

COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

Uh.... sure. That's a clear explanation of her views on whether government should step in to prop up private Wall St. firms. That's a maverick alright. But I'm not sure trade is what's scary here.

The chorus calling for Palin to step down from the McCain ticket is getting larger, and almost exclusively from staunch conservatives.

George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, David Frum, and the National Review's Kathleen Parker have all expressed the obvious fact that Palin is simply out of her league and some call for her to step down. That's quite a list.

Fareed Zakaria has also called for Palin to step down.

Who'd have thought McCain would, at this critical time in our history, pick a running mate that makes Dan Quayle look like Stephen freaking Hawking by comparison. Way to put your campaign, er.. "Country First".

With columnists of all stripes saying McCain's incendiary temper is liability, and Palin's being from the northernmost state, maybe Starship said it best in their sappy ballad, "Sarah"...

"With fire and ice, the dream won't come true."

(Appologies to Starship)

Watch this and be a better American

2008-09-29T07:36:00.000-05:00

Watch this interview with Andrew J. Bacevich, then buy his recent book, "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism".

Doesn't matter if you're right, left, Republican, Democrat, or somewhere else, this guy's views deserve to be heard and heeded.

The interview is in two parts and I guarantee you'll want to watch both. Important and interesting stuff from perhaps the most serious and thoughtful political show on television, "Bill Moyers Journal".

The show often discusses how poorly informed and poorly served the American public is by major networks when it comes to in-depth political coverage and how rare it is to find discussions of serious topics facing the nation. The pathetic irony is that, as if to prove the point, WQPT dropped "Journal" a few months back and IPTV (chan. 12) moved it from prime time to a 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning time slot.)

Let's review

2008-09-26T19:20:00.002-05:00

John McCain's response to the looming economic catastrophe has been nothing short of erratic, clueless, and so impulsive and reckless that it seems clear he literally had no idea what to do and so they tried one thing after another after another trying to see what might work.

Just off the top of my head, beginning on the day the crisis occured, McCain has, sometimes literally within hours:

-stated that the fundamentals of our economy were strong.

-Said that the economy was in a serious crisis.

-The guy trying to paint himself as a decisive, take charge leader emerged to say he wanted a "9-11 style" committee to "study" the issue and come up with a solution. (read: dither around until the economy collapse while shifting any potential risk of blame to others.)

-Decided the solution was to come out and act tough and say he'd fire the head of the SEC if he were president. (The president can not fire the head of the SEC, which McCain a short time later referred to as the "FEC")

-Paulson issued a three page summary of the White House plan to inject $700 billion in a bail-out plan.

-Early one morning, Obama reached out to McCain and suggested they issue a joint statement on the crisis in order to keep presidential politics out of the issue and ensure that both parties are able to work for the good of the country without trying to take credit or assign blame.

-McCain agrees, then blind-sides Obama by appearing on TV with no notice to the Obama campaign and making a blatantly political stunt.

-Out of the blue, McCain decides that he, someone who admittedly doesn't know much about economic matters, must "suspend" his campaign and rush to D.C. to single-handedly solve the problem. He simultaneously announces that he might skip the first presidential debate in order to deal with this crisis. He trys to spin this as his putting the country first over politics.

By doing this, he ensures that presidential politics is injected into the matter, thus destroying the delicate bi-partisan negotiations.

-After this announcement, McCain spends 22 hours in New York appearing with Katie Couric and at the Clinton World forum, having dinner, then finally gets around to going to D.C. the next day.

-TENS DAYS after the crisis began, and three days after Sec. Paulson released his bail-out plan, (and two days after he announced the "suspension" of his campaign,) McCain revealed to an interviewer that he couldn't comment on the proposed White House bail-out plan because, stunningly, he hadn't gotten around to reading the three page plan yet. This alone is reason enough to disqualify him from the presidency.

-During the 24 hours plus between the time McCain tried to inject some drama into his sputtering campaign by announcing he was going to ride to the rescue and his actual arrival at the photo op set up by Bush, Dems and Republicans announced that they were making progress and had agreed in principle on a bail-out plan. McCain then arrived and the deal fell apart.

-McCain brought a campaign aide to this supposedly critically important White House summit, (which turned out to be nothing but a photo op.) Obama, coming to get something done, brought one of his senate office staffers.

-McCain sat mute during the vaunted meeting at the White House that he'd "suspended" his campaign for, only speaking briefly at the end and offering no direction on the matter.

-McCain's campaign was not suspended in any way. Ads still ran, the entire campaign kept campaigning, surrogates kept up their appearances. In short, it was a sham.

-There's no deal as of today. The house Republicans blew up the entire process by refusing to even negotiate the matter.

-Despite his statement that he would not debate until a deal was struck, McCain leaves D.C. after blowing up the process and goes to Mississippi to debate.

Is this the steady leadership that McCain pretends to offer?

When he goes on and on tonight about how all this bullshit was a principled and heroic act by a selfless public servent who, without regard to political cost, dropped everything to help his beloved country in her hour of need, will you kind of throw up a little in the back of your throat?

Debate number one

2008-09-26T19:15:00.000-05:00

Well, the phony baloney suspense over whether John McCain would be able to run away from his first debate is over. Of course it turns out it was all a sham to begin with.

Here's the place to share your views on the debate, the ridiculous stunts leading up to it, and your reaction afterwards. (or during.)

Afterwards, what did you think were some of the moments which stuck out and what did they suggest to you?

Sub Prime crisis explained

2008-09-26T03:44:00.001-05:00

This is the best thing I've gotten in e-mail in ages. It's a powerpoint slide-show that explains, by someone who obviously knows, just exactly how the sub-prime housing crisis happened in a simple but comprehensive way with a good dose of humor to boot.

I don't have PowerPoint myself, but I could view it fine with a Powerpoint Viewer program I happened to have.

When you click on the link above, it should ask if you want to run the file or download it. Take your pick.

If you choose to run it from the webpage and have either Powerpoint or the Powerpoint viewer installed, it will open in your browser. Use your right & left arrow keys to go from slide to slide.

Or you can download it and then run it from your computer. Your call. It's worth it.

If you can't see the file, here's where you can download the PowerPoint viewer program.

Any problems, let me know and I'll try to help.

"Goring" Palin

2008-09-26T02:54:00.002-05:00

I can't stand Sarah Palin. She's unappealing to me personally, and I sure think, well, know, that she's nowhere close to being qualified to be within a time zone of the White House.

But there's something I've noticed from a few in the press these last few days that really pisses me off. They're "Goring" Palin.

By that I mean that the press has decided it's OK to repeat stuff which isn't exactly true, but which are so snarky and sarcastic and demeaning that they can't resist.

The grand-daddy of all such bullshit was of course, the entire false "Al Gore said he invented the internet" crap. Wholey untrue, a complete distortion, unfair, and simply false. But how many thousands of times did you hear it repeated, not only by Republicans, but by journalists? In fact, they sometimes STILL DO.

What happened to Palin is far less bad, but it bugs me nonetheless.

Palin, in what was truly a stunning example of stupidity on parade, has cited the fact that her state is the nearest to Russia as some sort of proof of her foreign policy credentials and qualifications.

This will go down in history as perhaps one of the must ludicrous, insulting to anyone with a mind, crazy political assertions in history.

It started with Cindy McCain, then her husband repeated it, and then Palin repeated it over and over and over and over and over. She might as well have said in a high-pitched squeak, "I'm stupid!, I'm stupid!, I'm stupid!, I'm stupid!, I'm stupid!, and I think you're stupid too!"

It was disturbing to even hear any grownup trying to use such mangled logic, but what was worse was that they stuck to it even after it had become the joke it was.

At one point, as if to try to explain it and put a finer point on the ridiculous claim, she mentioned to an interviewer (one of the three) that you could actually SEE Russia from land in Alaska. (From a tiny island at the end of the Alutians.)

Tina Fay famously took this and during her turn as Palin on SNL squeaked, "I can see Russia from my house!"

It was hilarious stuff.

But what pisses me off is that I've heard reporters on more than one occassion ascribe that line to Palin!

They'll say something like, "Well, Palin might be able to see Russia from her house, but ... blah blah blah."

One blogger even posted a map of Alaska marked with Wasilla and Russia and calling Palin a liar for supposedly saying she could see Russia from her house.

I mean, it's insane!

It's really irresponsible and infuriating to see the press or commentators or anyone take a politicians words and distort them to make them look like a buffoon when they didn't say it, and these people should know better. (Especially when you don't NEED to distort anything Palin says to make her look like a buffoon! She does a bang-up job on her own.)

Surely these highly paid reporters KNOW that it was Tina Fay that said the "see Russia from my house" line, NOT Palin, who only said that you could see Russia from land in Alaska. (true, on a clear day) But that doesn't stop them. "Well, I can see the MOON from my house. That doesn't make me an astrophysisit!" har har har har.

They did it to Gore with reckless abandon. Now they're doing it to Palin.

The "turn about is fair play", or "live by the sword, die by the sword" axioms might apply. And the Republicans elevated such false distortions to an art form and used it to turn Dem candidates into cartoon caricatures. It was dishonest and underhanded and slimy.

So maybe what's good for the goose is good for the gander? (as long as we're slinging around platitudes.)

Maybe.

But it doesn't make it any less disgusting to anyone who doesn't like to see anyone attacked with words they never said.

I asked the Witchdoctor he told me what to do....

2008-09-25T05:37:00.000-05:00

Seriously folks, are a lot of Americans about to vote for a VP that didn't get the memo that witch hunts went out of style around 1692?

Palin's spiritual mentor, Pastor Muthee, somehow ended up in Wasilla, AK after getting his big start in Kenya, where he gained notice after accusing a local woman of being a witch, saying she caused car accidents, and threatened and harassed the woman until she was forced to leave town. Every year, hundreds of women are killed after being accused of being witches in Africa.

Muthee, in the sermon, calls on church members to try to gain footholds in centres of influence, such as politics and the media, and praises Palin for her bid to become governor of Alaska. He spoke about the hindrances she faced from her enemies. "In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, every form of witchcraft is what you rebuke. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, father make away now," Muthee said.

In a video that emerged last week Palin, in a speech to the church on June 8, thanked Muthee for his help in getting her elected governor. She said his invocation was "very, very powerful".

The Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, faced weeks of damaging reports this year over links to controversial Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright, who was accused of being unpatriotic. The links between Palin and Muthee have the potential to damage her.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Muthee, while in Kenya, led a campaign to find the source of alleged witchcraft after a series of fatal car accidents in Kiambu. He blamed a local woman called Mama Jane, who is reported to have been forced to leave.

Muthee, in a promotional video, said: "We prayed, we fasted, the lord showed us a spirit of witchcraft over the place."

Curiously enough, this and dozens of other YouTube videos critical of Palin have been yanked down. Here's the same video that still survives. (for now.)

Give a listen, and tell me if this guy doesn't sound like HE'S possessed! The guy's voice sounds like he should have done the voice-over in "The Exorcist".

Example # 234,578

2008-09-25T03:27:00.002-05:00

I've gone around with some Republicans here who pop up predictably whenever I cite an instance of Republican racism.

It particularly gets them cooking when the idea that millions of voters (who won't vote for Obama soley on the basis of race.

Why! They protest, none of us would vote against Obama due to his race or all the bullshit propaganda constantly put out (that we believe and spread ourselves,) propaganda designed specifically to appeal to racist fears and stereotypes! We're going to vote for McCain simply because we love the way this country has been run and want more of the same! How DARE you suggest any racial motivation!

They usually come up with their other usual ridiculous argument, citing the fact that back about, oh, 70 years ago, southern racists were all Democrats. This conveniently ignores the reality that the southern racist/segregationist Dems all followed Strom Thurmond and ran to the Republican side once the other Democrats and a Democratic president took the politically courageous stand for civil rights, thus ensuring that all the racists in the South would vote Republican from that day forward. (and they have.... and do.)

Southern Dems were once racist, goes their unique logic, hence it's the Democrats who are racist now. (I guess that's what they're arguing. It's so illogical that I'm not sure what their point is.)

Or they point to a dubious poll which said that 30% of respondent Dems wouldn't vote for Obama due to race. Of course, not only is that one shaky poll, but the fact remains that the number of Republicans who vote based on race is far, far higher.

Any self-respecting racist in this country isn't going to register as a Democrat, and the idea that they don't flock to the Republican party is ludicrous and silly.

Did you see all those black delegates at the Republican Convention in St. Paul?

Me neither.

I recently posted about the story of these guys who were pedaling a product which put a caricature of Obama in place of Aunt Jemima on a box of pancake mix. (along with other blatantly racist imagery and text) They thought it was hilarious and clever, and they were selling them like, well, hotcakes to the, get this, fine upright Christian right folks at the "Values Voter Summit" sponsored by the lobbying arm of James Dobson's Family Research Council.

Now comes this. Wonder what goofy arguments they'll come up to ignore this example of God's own racists in training.

NEWBERG, Ore. - Students and school leaders at a small Christian university expressed outrage Wednesday at the discovery of a life-size cardboard effigy of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hanging from a tree on campus.

A custodian at George Fox University discovered the effigy early Tuesday and immediately removed it, President Robin Baker said. University spokesman Rob Felton said Wednesday that the commercially produced reproduction had been suspended from the branch of a tree near Minthorn Hall with fishing line around the neck.

The hanging of the effigy around the neck is seen as racist symbolism because it harkens back to lynchings of black men by white mobs, especially in the U.S. South, decades ago. Obama is aiming to become America's first black president.

"We will not tolerate such displays and condemn it in the strongest terms," Baker said. "George Fox University is committed to becoming a place that more broadly represents the Kingdom of God — a place where students from diverse backgrounds come together to live out the teachings of Jesus in our world."

Taped to the cardboard cutout of Obama was a sign that read "Act Six reject." Act Six is a scholarship program geared toward increasing the number of minority and low-income students at several Christian colleges, mostly in the Northwest.

The school has 17 students in the program, whose name derives from the New Testament book of Acts. All but one are members of minority groups, Felton said.

Sure, Christian colleges are expensive, but you want your kids to get those great Christian values they can't get at non-sectarian schools.

Except when we do

2008-09-25T02:53:00.000-05:00

"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself."

--2008 Republican Party Platform, adopted September 2008

Getta load of this commie lib! Sheesh!

2008-09-25T02:46:00.001-05:00

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.
...
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Man, that guy probably wrote that after cashing his welfare check and going back to his welfare pad to smoke dope all day. Oh yeah, and he's probably a minority too and would take a job away from a white guy, if there were any jobs.

What? That was George who??!!

Love this ad

2008-09-25T02:12:00.000-05:00

This ad came out quite some time ago (Maybe the Super Bowl?), but I just saw it air again. I loved it then and I still do.

They've yanked the YouTube clip of it, so to see it, you have to go here and then scroll to the "Robot Dance" clip. Click on it to play.

The only thing wrong with it is that it's too short.

Putting politics first, McCain pulls Hail Mary stunt

2008-09-24T19:29:00.000-05:00

Call it flop sweat. Call it desperation. Call it B.S.

McCain's campaign has decided to disrupt the process of dealing with the nearly impossible to decipher bail-out plan being deliberated in D.C. by pulling a border-line crazy political stunt.

In response to plunging poll numbers since the Wall St. crisis, McCain decides to drop a bomb and say that he's "suspending" his campaign in order to lend his own dubious hand to finding a solution, thus using this weird excuse to try to duck the first debate.

This is patent non-sense, of course. McCain's presense in D.C. is neither wanted nor needed.

Hope to get more on this up later.... but feel free to offer your opinion on the recent wild gyrations and this stunt by McCain.

Does he even care anymore?

They loves them some lobbyists, but not freedom of the press

2008-09-24T07:20:00.000-05:00

McCain's campaign manager up to his very well paid neck in lobbying for Freddie Mac.

Since 2006, the federally sponsored mortgage giant Freddie Mac has paid at least $345,000 to the lobbying and consulting firm of John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.

Freddie Mac had previously paid an advocacy group run by Davis, called the Homeownership Alliance, $30,000 a month until the end of 2005, when that group was dissolved. That relationship was the subject of a New York Times story Monday, which drew angry denunciations from the McCain campaign. McCain and his aides have vehemently objected to suggestions that Davis has ties to Freddie Mac—an especially sensitive issue given that the Republican presidential candidate has blamed "the lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats" for the mortgage crisis that recently prompted the Bush administration to take over both Freddie Mac and its companion, Fannie Mae, and put them under federal conservatorship.

But neither the Times story—nor the McCain campaign—revealed that Davis's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, based in Washington, D.C., continued to receive $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until last month—long after the Homeownership Alliance had been terminated. The two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself approached Freddie Mac in 2006 and asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. The arrangement was approved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac's senior vice president for external relations, because "he [Davis] was John McCain's campaign manager and it was felt you couldn't say no," said one of the sources. [McLoughlin did not return phone calls].

It's clear that Davis severed ties to his direct lobbying for Freddie Mac, but then continued to accept $15,000 a month UP UNTIL LAST MONTH, for crying out loud, from Freddie Mac for doing essentially nothing at all, other than providing access to the guy who's now out there ranting about how evil D.C. lobbyists have caused this near depression.

Trouble with that is, his own damn campaign manager was one of them.

And when it was initially reported by the NYT that Davis's firm had collected hundreds of thousands from Freddie Mac for lobbying, McCain's chief spokesman went out of his mind and threw a tantrum, saying,

"But whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization. It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Gov. Palin and excuses Sen. Obama. There is no public vetting... there is no level of outrage directed at his deceitful ads... This is an organization that is completely and totally 150 percent in the tank for the Democratic candidate.... Everything that is read in the New York Times should be evaluated by the American people from that perspective. It is an organization that has made a decision to cast aside its journalistic integrity and advocate for the defeat of one candidate and the election of another."

Then it comes out that it's even worse than was reported.

When you have to resort to overblown crazy accusations against the press, for the offense of reporting the truth, then you're in trouble.

And when half of your ticket embarks on an excellent adventure in New York, sort of a field trip, to meet the first foreign heads of state she's ever met, trying to give Palin some foreign policy "insta-cred" and generate some neat-o pictures of her RIGHT THERE IN THE SAME ROOM AS FOREIGN LOOKING GUYS, and they want to ban access to reporters to actually report, or the (horrors) questions they might ask, then you're in trouble.

There are two things to bear in mind here.

First, these are photo sessions... photo ops, not press conferences. The press is usually allowed to pile in and do their thing for maybe 5 minutes, then they're shooed out. (In this case, it was more like 30 seconds.) It's a very controlled deal and Presidents and candidates usually like them because they have someone else there to kind of deflect things off and the questions are usually easy and there are only a couple at most.

A press pool of some sort have ALWAYS been allowed at these sorts of photo ops. The State Dept. DEMANDS that they be allowed when the Sec. of State meets with repressive leaders in places like Syria or China which don't allow the press to witness such meetings.

Yet, after frothing at the mouth in indignation that anyone would dare even ask whether Palin could manage to run for vice president while properly raising 5 kids including a handicapped infant, suggesting that such a thing was insulting and misogynistic, they now are so absolutely TERRIFIED of her shallowness and lack of knowledge that they won't even allow the poor woman to speak unless it's in front of a friendly crowd and she stays on script.

Boy, they sure have faith in the abilities of a woman to be just as smart and tough and skilled as a man. They're such ardent feminists that they pick an attractive female, ("The hottest governor from the coldest state." campaign crap flew off the shelves.) then want the public to only see pictures of her and hear tales of how tough and smart she is and her family and handicapped infant and to listen to her recite repeated lies in front of adoring crowds in her God-awful screeching voice (which always reminds me of the bird screech that opened the intro to the show "Northern Exposure". Cicily might as well be Wasilla.)

The round of brief meaningless meetings in New York were really helpful and make me at least feel much more secure in Palin's knowledge and preparedness in foreign affairs.

When the press went into revolt at the brazen attempts to limit coverage, threatening to not cover the stunt at all, the McCain camp backed down, saying it was a "misunderstanding" and allowed the three or four person press pool access.

So the press (our representatives) were allowed to show about 30 seconds of each meeting. Pretty impressive, eh? What did we learn?

Palin spent her meeting with the leader of Afghanistan talking about his children. She asked what his son's name was. He told her.

She talked to the leader of Columbia briefly, but no one could hear what they were talking about over the snapping of cameras.

She met with Henry Kissinger, which should pretty much alarm anyone with a knowledge of history.

During the few seconds the press were allowed into the room, Kissinger said that he was going to give conservative French president Nicolas Sarkozy credit for brokering the Georgia-Russia ceasefire in a speech he was to give.

"Good, good," Palin replied. "And you'll give me more insight on that, also, huh? Good."

Palin answered one question while leaving Henry Kissinger's office after their meeting. "It was great", Palin said when asked how it went.

So there you go. What more could you want? Try to say she's unqualified NOW.

I'm aware that most people aren't really crazy about the press. But they ARE our only means of knowing and seeing and finding out what's going on with the people who purport to run our country or who aspire to it.

And I find this over-the-top attempt by the McCain campaign to keep Palin in a weird sort of bubble, all the while trying to vilify the press for attempting to do their job, really disgusting and a bit disturbing.

It's really not much of a leap to some sort of "Brave New World" scenario where the candidates only appear on video prepared by the campaign.

They're literally refusing to allow Palin to answer, or even be exposed to, any questions from the press.

She did do the Charlie Gibson interview, which was an actual interview. She sucked. Bad. (In what respect, Charlie?)

Then she did a late night infomercial type of interview with Sean "Mutton head" Hannity.

God, was that a gem. With Hannity trying to act like Walter Cronkite, in a setting that looked like they were in the White House. It was like Hannity was a kid playing at being an actual reporter. Egads. He tossed her every softball imaginable, and I'm only surprised he didn't ask, "Will you be a great vice president, or the greatest vice president in history?"

Other than that, they've scrupulously avoided exposing her to anything which would give the slightest glimpse into what she believes, how bright she is, or the depth (or lack of) of her knowledge about critical issues confronting the country.

When you find yourself with nothing left to do but try to lash out at the press because they actually are trying to figure out who the hell you picked to be a heart-beat away from the presidency, or daring to report the truth about the thick and numerous ties between the several lobbyists running the McCain campaign and the very firms and banks that are at the heart of the worst economic crisis for generations,
you've got problems.

That's not good.

Maybe this is what McCain was talking about

2008-09-24T07:13:00.001-05:00

.... when he said the fundamentals of our economy are strong. When you spend your life around people in this income bracket, especially since they've been allowed to keep millions more to themselves rather than contributing to the country in taxes, things are, and have been, just great.

If you're one of Bush/McCain's "base", you might be in the market for one of these homes. (Just try to remember how many you own. It's very tacky to lose track.)

By the way, I heard Trump say he just sold the Palm Beach mansion to one of the many post break-up Russian billionaires who've now snapping up exclusive property in the U.S.

Toons

2008-09-24T00:58:00.001-05:00

Click on toons to view larger

McCain's history with financial sector

2008-09-24T00:52:00.000-05:00

In looking for something else the other day, I came across this article from the Arizona Republic. It's apparently part of a larger story about John McCain's biography, but this section deals with his involvement with the infamous Keating 5, a group of lawmakers who were in kahoots with multi-millionaire savings and loan shark Charles Keating.

While a few of them were indicted, McCain got away with a slap on the wrist.

But in light of the current crisis and McCain's utterly baffling flailing about on what he would do, perhaps this is the time to educate yourself on what the Keating 5 story was all about.

Though McCain has so far gotten a free-pass from the press about this chapter in his past, you'll likely hear about it from time to time. Why not actually know what they're talking about?

Read this straightforward factual account of the scandal and McCain's involvement.

Want to make money? Vote Democratic.

2008-09-23T01:14:00.000-05:00

It's hard to argue with success.

President George W. Bush inherited the lousy end of the business cycle. The stock market has been falling throughout his entire term, battered by war, a feeble economy, and corporate scandals. Yet this decay still hasn't shaken Americans' faith that Republicans are better for the economy and the market. Poll after poll shows that when Americans divide up the chores of running the country, they tend to think of the economy and stock market as Republican domain and delegate softer issues, like the environment, to Democrats.

But Democrats, it turns out, are much better for the stock market than Republicans. Slate ran the numbers and found that since 1900, Democratic presidents have produced a 12.3 percent annual total return on the S&P 500, but Republicans only an 8 percent return. In 2000, the Stock Trader's Almanac, which slices and dices Wall Street performance figures like baseball stats, came up with nearly the same numbers (13.4 percent versus 8.1 percent) by measuring Dow price appreciation. (Most of the 20th century's bear markets, incidentally, have been Republican bear markets: the Crash of '29, the early '70s oil shock, the '87 correction, and the current stall occu! rred under GOP presidents.)

According to almanac editor Jeffrey Hirsch, the presidential party figures are among the most significant he's found. If the stock market were random, we'd expect such a result only one-quarter of the time. "I don't know why people are convinced Republicans are good for the stock market," Hirsch says.

Nor does having a Republican Congress help the market. A Democratic Senate showed returns of 10.5 percent (versus 9.4 percent for a GOP upper chamber), and a Democratic House returned 10.9 percent versus 8.1 percent for the Republicans.
...
Republicans are no doubt muttering that that's just the stock market, not the whole economy. But real GDP growth follows the same pattern. Since 1930 (the first year decent data is available), GDP growth was 5.4 percent for Democratic presidents and 1.6 percent for Republicans.

Yet another con job by Republicans..... they're better on economic issues. Not if you value facts and reality... or having money in the bank.

McCain finally lays out plan to address economic meltdown

2008-09-22T20:40:00.000-05:00

McCainâ��s Economic Plan For Nation: "Everyone Marry A Beer Heiress"

Sometimes the best defense is .... pathetic

2008-09-22T08:58:00.003-05:00

I'm still not sure if my eyes are deceiving me, but I don't think so.

Palin/McCain's rapid response lawyer squad which parachuted into Alaska recently to try to shut down the Troopergate scandal investigation are now arguing that Palin didn't fire Alaska's top cop for refusing to illegally fire her former brother-in-law. No, they now say, he was fired for planning to go to D.C. to lobby for ... well, here's the quote. You tell me if it's as insane as it sounds.

Fighting back against allegations she may have fired her then-Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, for refusing to go along with a personal vendetta, Palin on Monday argued in a legal filing that she fired Monegan because he had a "rogue mentality" and was bucking her administration's directives.

"The last straw," her lawyer argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program. The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape.

The McCain-Palin campaign echoed the charge in a press release it distributed Monday, concurrent with Palin's legal filing. "Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C.," the release stated.

But the governor's staff authorized the trip, according to an internal travel document from the Department of Public Safety, released Friday in response to an open records request.

Sooooo, the guy's firing offence was to try to find funds to combat rape and sexual assault in his state which has the highest rates of rape per capita in the entire United States? And Palin found this so objectionable that she canned a guy with an exemplary record over decades in law enforcement for it? (Though evidence states that her office OKed it.)

THAT'S the kind of "reformer" she was up there?

The more that is revealed, the more she seems like a Cheney clone, vindictive, secretive, and surrounding herself with unqualified cronies.

And did I mention that Sarah Palin is a real feminist? A great beacon of hope to Republican women everywhere? Well, it's true.

According to her hometown newspaper, while "The Drilla from Wassila" was mayor, Wasilla charged traumatized rape victims for the cost of their own rape exams, for God's sake! (and was upset by a bill that forced them to do so.)

"You got raped!"
"Yes"
"Oh my God! Are you pressing charges? Did you report it to the police?"
"No"
"Why on earth not!!??"
"They said I had to pay for the exam to collect evidence and I can't afford it."
"Well, that's reasonable. It would be too big a burden on taxpayers. Besides, anyone that gets raped was probably asking for it anyway and isn't a good Christian."

Is this just another example of "normal" Republican values and philosophy? Or is Palin and her ilk just more despicable nut-case conservative ideologues using their phony Christianity as a shield to justify their decidedly un-Christian ways?

Yet Palin is quite the feminist. The McCain campaign pushed that idea hard. And we all know they wouldn't lie.

She's the woman who can simultaneously raise 5 kids including a handicapped infant while travelling non-stop and campaigning 18 hours a day, field dress a moose, and have it on the table by 6, and still look good enough to unleash frenzied masturbation among pasty conservatives everywhere.

Yep, the great feminist Sarah who feels that rape victims should pull themselves up by their bootstraps (if they survived and weren't beaten or stabbed too badly) and pay the Wassilla PD out their own pockets to have evidence collected from the violent act committed against them.

The Republican's idea of feminism is a little... different, I guess.

But I'm sure those Hillary voters will still flock to McCain. After all, Palin is a woman.

That's what the McCain campaign told us, and we all know they wouldn't lie.

The Man of the People

2008-09-22T03:50:00.001-05:00

Here's a little slideshow about newest phony "populist" in town, John McCain and his 13 cars.

(The Obamas own one vehicle, a Ford Escape Hybrid.)