It's funny, sad, funny, because it's true

(hat tip to Chet at the Vanity Press)

The Guns of August

First this dingbat, now the floodgates are open.

One can only assume that since we are told Obama gets dozens of death threats daily, that this latest effort on the part of the wingnuts to intimidate their political opponenets by bringing assault rifles to demonstrations at appearances by the president is probably causing the Secret Service to have kittens the size of Bengal tigers.

Can you imagine for one second the reaction if someone had showed up with an AR-15 at an anti-George Bush rally? You know, the ones the White House insisted be held in fenced-in "Free Speech Zones" surrounded by riot cops miles away from where the president was appearing. People who protested the GOP convention in 2004 in NYC were charged with carrying concealed weapon for having nail scissors in their purse and held for days in makeshift jails in old warehouses contaminated with hazardous chemicals and these whackjobs are being allowed to walk around with assault rifles?

But we on the left are the angry, uncivil ones because we sometimes say "fuck" on our blogs and we questioned the intelligence and motivation of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Imagine the reaction of the teabaggers and town brawl activists and other Glenn Beck fans if a dozen shotgun-toting neo-Black Panthers came and stood outside the president's next town hall meeting to show support for Obama. The screeching would be deafening.

If these tactics on the right continue, that, sadly, will be the next step in the escalation.

Members of the GOP are encouraging this kind of armed intimidation.

It is only a matter of time before someone starts shooting.

Osama bin Laden must be dying of laughter right now.

Sadly, No puts things in perspective

h/t to Lulu over at Canadian Cynic.

Excuse me, I think I have something in my eye



Seen somewhere in the blogosphere:
"Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack is running so all our kids can soar"

Warm bread

Others may consider the game over already, but I remember what happened in 2004 and could well happen again. I will not say they are toast just yet,( see my earlier prediction re:Newt Gingrich and 2012) but McCain seems to be planning his concession speech already while Obama is planning a massive victory celebration in Chicago in the very spot where 40 years ago the whole world was watching while uniformed thugs beat and gassed and killed young people for voicing an opinion and Mayor Richard Daley famously remarked: "The policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder." This time around, despite the pants-pissing on the right, thing are going to be different. While some people are clearly nuts enough to keep voting for whomever they think Jesus would most like to have a beer with, people with more than a vestigial lizard brain will only eat so much shit before they get wise. Hell, even the GOP will only swallow so much crap before it just gets too embarrassing.

Meanwhile, Sadly, No reenacts great moments in geek cult cinema,

Jon Swift explains the real America and gathers all election crazy into a big pile

the General goes upriver in search of the heart of dorkness.

Stealing back your vote

It should be simple. You're a citizen, you should get to vote, right?

Wrong.

In Canada, its fairly simple to get on the voters' list if you are eligible. You can even get on the list of electors at the polling station on election day. You accept your ballot, mark it with an X and put it in the ballot box, and then go home and wait for the returns to roll in.

In the U.S. it isn't quite as easy as that. Rules, proceedures and the physical mechanics of voting and counting vary from state to state, even from polling station to polling station. And some people are doing their best to make it as difficult as possible for the "wrong sort" of voter.

The New York Time reports voters being illegally purged from electoral rolls in six battleground states -- not much of a surprise if you've been reading Greg Palast ( and if you haven't, what's wrong with you, you louche slacker bastards? His "Armed Madhouse" and "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" should be required reading for anyone who votes.)

Let me make this very simple -- I'll type this very slowly for some of you who have trouble following things more complex than an episode of Dancing With The Stars-- The Republicans took office in 2000 because they were successful in keeping people, mostly blacks, from voting in Florida. The Republicans took office in 2004 because they used similar tricks to surpress the vote in Ohio. If you don't think they will do their best to surpress the vote in 2008 you are either too stupid to be allowed to vote or a Republican. Fortunately, Palast and Kennedy have whipped up this little number to show how to steal back your vote.

Presidential

Go watch the speech or read the transcript.

This is a speech that kids will be learning in grade school in twenty years. It may not be "I have a dream" but it is, as they say, close enough for government work.

Anyone who thinks the "Wright controversy" is an actual issue is an idiot to begin with, but Obama has taken this perceived problem and turned it into an opportunity. He is possibly the most eloquent speaker in U.S. politics since Kennedy, including Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

Those in the democratic camp who are still splitting hairs and concern trolling about whether Obama is too black or not black enough or not experienced enough need to take a long look at the forest instead of the trees. Those on the Republican side who are still flinging poop and trying to sell the "he's a secret muslim whose crazy radical black preacher hates white people" line of bullshit have just been shown, in a very public way, to be idiots of the first water and quite simply on the wrong side of history.

The Rude Pundit pretty much sums it up. While Sadly, No turns over the rock that is "Free Republic"

John McCain=Maverick

Bugs Bunny - Oily Hare

Cheaters never prosper
I know you'll be shocked, as I was, to learn that Republicans like to cheat in elections.

16,000 Republicans in Cuyahoga crossed over and voted Democratic in primary
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Amanda Garrett
Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter
A staggering 16,000-plus Republicans in Cuyahoga County switched parties when they voted in last week's primary. That includes 931 in Rocky River, 1,027 in Westlake and 1,142 in Strongsville. More than a third of the Republicans in Solon and Bay Village switched. Pepper Pike had the most dramatic change: just under half its Republicans became Democrats. And some of those who changed - it's difficult to say how many - could be in trouble with the law.
At least one member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections wants to investigate some Republicans who may have crossed party lines only to influence which Democrat would face presumed Republican nominee John McCain in November.

All may be fair in love and war, but all is not legal in politics.

Lying on the pledge is a felony, punishable by six to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Election watchers said they don't know any cases that have been prosecuted in Ohio. And it's unlikely the Republican crossovers influenced the outcome since Clinton handily defeated Barack Obama, said Edward Foley, an election-law professor at Ohio State University.

The result isn't always what matters when a crime is committed - attempted robbery and attempted murder are still crimes, as is conspiracy to commit a felony in some cases.

It started a few weeks ago when conservative radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh suggested that his Republican following cross over during the primary to vote for Clinton. Clinton, Limbaugh argued, would be easier for McCain to beat in November than Obama.
Soon, local morning radio show host Bob Frantz echoed Limbaugh on WTAM AM/1100, and the buzz began to grow.

The Republicans managed to steal Ohio in the last presidential election (see Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse or his explanation here of how votes don't always get counted. As Stalin said "its not the people who vote that counts, its the people who count the votes") The Democrats should be screaming about this and demanding that people be prosecuted for breaking election laws. The lengths to which these scofflaws will go to cling to power really knows no bounds.

Swiftboating Obama
And so, predictably, it begins. Oddly enough, in a British newspaper, but this is the template you're going to see the election run on as the Republicans try to cling to the levers of power.

"Grover Norquist, an influential conservative tax reform lobbyist, said: “Barack Obama has been able to create his own image and introduce himself to voters, but the swing voters in a general election are not paying attention yet. He is open to being defined as a leftwing, corrupt Chicago politician.” "

It is interesting to see the Times describe Norquist as a "conservative tax reform lobbyist" when in reality he is a quasi-libertarian anti-government activist, character assassin and neo-con operative who once claimed he'd like to see government become "small enough to drown in a bathtub." Norquist is part of the movement in conservative/libertarian circles that champion supply-side "trickle down" economics, elimination of minimum wage laws, elimination of workplace and product safety laws, a so-called flat tax or elimination of income tax in favor of consumption tax and the elimination of capital-gains and inheritance taxes. Such people will claim that such measures are all about fairness or "freeing business from bureaucratic red tape" or "stimulating the economy" but what they are really all about is making sure the rich get richer and the poor stay poor and scared of getting poorer. Of course, anyone in politics or the media who points this out is immediately accused of waging "class warfare" in a nation which delusionally claims not to have a class system. To people like Norquist anyone to the left of the Rockerfellers, Morgans, Mellons and the rest of the original robber baron-class is a socialist.
Norquist and his masters believe that government is simply an often unavoidable impediment to them making money. To be asked to hand over a portion of their money to help other people smacks of communism to them.

As Bill Maher likes to say: Conservatives like to claim that government doesn't work, that it can't help people, that it can't solve the country's problems. Then they get elected and prove it. The more I read and research and examine the events of the last seven years, the more I have moved from thinking the neo-cons are stupid and inept, to believing they are both evil and very crafty. They have appointed incompetents to vital positions to ensure that the government departments involved fail when called upon ("Heckuva job Brownie"). This helps undermine people's faith in government and provides ammunition to show that the work of government should be privatized. Think about the arguments for school vouchers, or look at the "shock doctrine" privatization of things like water systems, power grids and transportation systems around the world, and it becomes clear the motives are to make a profit for corporations and their wealthy shareholders and to ensure that none of the that profit is ever handed back to help those who are not wealthy.

The sad thing is that Norquist is probably correct when he says that a well-funded 527 group attack on Obama could work. There will be a chain of deniablity between the Republican Party and this year's model of "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" but the money will still flow in from the usual sources and we will see Antoin Rezko, a dodgy property developer, inflated into a criminal mastermind on par with Al Capone and be told that because he gave Obama a sweetheart deal on some property, the senator is his amoral meat puppet. We will hear endlessly all about how William Ayers, a domestic terrorist and member of the sinister hippy-communist-veteran hating Weather Underground -- the largest domestic terrorist group EVER ! They bombed the Pentagon before Al-Quaida!-- who has become a sissified America-hating academic "intellectual" (just like Ward Churchill) is practically Obama's foster father. And we will heard how Obama didn't grow up in America and is probably a secret muslim, has fangs, a third eye, eats babies and HAS THE SAME NAMES AS AMERICA'S ENEMIES!!!!

We will hear all that crap and more from the right wing noise machine for the next ten months. No one will believe it, but after ten months of it being repeated again and again and again on CNN and FOX and MSNBC it will enter the collective consciousness. And even if Obama wins anyways, the first time he tries to reach across the aisle to get something done, the Republicans will gnaw his hand off and in the finest tradition of Newt Gingrich, do everything they can to make sure the government's business screeches to halt so that when the midterms come around they can claim that the Democrats can't get anything done.

Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose, or as the Talking Heads put it "Same as it ever was"

Theocrats gone wild

With apologies to Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, here is your International Moment of Zen Theocratic Wingnuttery:

Former Arkansas Governor and clergyman Mike Huckabee speaking to a crowd of the faithful at Jerry Falwell's Liberty "University":

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/12/what-huckabee-a.html

About 50 minutes into it, a student asks Huckabee "what do you attribute this surge (in polls) to?"
"There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one," Huckabee says. "It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people.
"And that's the only way that our campaign could be doing what it's doing. And I'm not being facetious nor am I trying to be trite.
"There literally are thousands of people across this country who are praying that a little will become much. And it has. And it defies all explanation it has confounded the pundits and I'm enjoying every moinute of their trying to figure it out and until they look at it in a" -- here he motions in a God-like heavenly manner -- "just, experience beyond human, they'll never figure it out. That's honestly why it's happening."

Priorities
Lucky for all you folks in the Excited States that your government has its priorities in order. In this time of war and economic turmoil, with White House shenanigans aplenty to be investigated, and an election in the offing -- not to mention global warming and the various crises in health care, education, civil rights, race relations, mall shootings and the writers' strike --- it is good to know that your Congress has its eyes on the prize.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has introduced a resolution (H.Res. 847) saying that Christmas and Christians are important. The House passed this bill Dec 10. The vote, surprisingly, was 372-9, with 10 members also voting "Present," meaning they took no position on the legislation, and 40 not voting. One of the "Present" votes was cast by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.). More Democrats -195 - voted for the bill than Republicans, 177.

Just wait until the new year when the Republicans bring in their controversial bill declaring "Water is Wet" or the all important "America loves ice cream" omnibus bill with clauses declaring puppies, kittens and bunnies "cute" and cockroaches "icky"

Trent's Lott
Hmmmm, radical right-wing social conservative and close personal friend of definitely-not-gay-because-he-persecutes-gays Larry "tap dance" Craig Trent Lott is resigning to spend more time with his family or some other obviously bullshit reason.
Would it be irresponsible to speculate? No, it would be irresponsible NOT to speculate.

But would he meet with the new Premier of French Columbia, Heywood Jablomi?

So Fred Thompson finally took part in a Republican Canadiates debate and it didn't make much a difference It was all very ho-hum, though Mitt Romney and Rudy Gulliani took a few shots at each other. But what caught my eye was this bit from the CNN story on the debate:

"The former Tennessee senator survived a gotcha question, correctly identifying the prime minister of Canada as Stephen Harper."

A gotcha question? He wants to be president and asking him the name of the leader of one of the G-8 nations, the U.S. partner in Norad and NATO, the country's northern neighbour is a gotcha question? Talk about lowering the bar. What's next? Will they ask John McCain to name the three branches of government? or Gulliani how many states there are? May they'll ask Mitt Romney if he can find Utah on a map.

And another thing: This is typical of the double standard of the So-Called Liberal Media. Hillary Clinton is expected to put forth a universal health care system that will ensure absolute and total coverage for any and all ailments for every single American without it costing more than a couple of Big Macs a year and the plan must be handed in to the media in triplicate, double spaced and footnoted or she's failed to live up to expectations and is considered unworthy to lead. Barrack Obama, by virtue of the fact that he is half-African, is expected to solve or at least explain any and all issues connected to race in the United States or he is dodging the issue - oh and he has to be "black enough" to win over African-American voters without being "too black" and scaring off white suburbanites. John Edwards has mentioned poverty, but he's a wealthy self made man, so unless he has a ironclad plan approved by a panel of Republican economists to make everyone millionaires by the Thursday after election day, he's just a pretty boy who pays too much for haircuts. And since they all oppose the war in Iraq, they better all have a surefire plan to win the war, bring peace and prosperity to Baghdad and release terrorist-eating unicorns that shit gold bars throughout the Middle East otherwise they are siding with Osama Bin Laden.

Fred Thompson on the other hand drives a shiny red truck, can talk tough as a crime-fightin' lawyer on TV, knows the name of the country's next door neighbor and looks like every Middle American's dad. Now that's presidential!

Stranger than Fiction
This is just too bizarre to have been invented from scratch -- I'll be interested to see how much of it checks out, but it would explain the Turd Blossom's recent resignation. Besides, how often do you see a story headlined "I'm the proud owner of Karl Rove's father's solid gold cock ring"?

Head rat to leave sinking ship
The man alternately known as Bush's Brain and Turd Blossom (and who says it wouldn't be the same thing) announces his resignation. This could make for an entertaining final year in office for Dubya, since he doesn't know how to wipe his own backside without advice from the man they named a really digusting sex act after. (don't click the link if you have ever been grossed out by a Kevin Smith movie or fecal matter) I hope they check to make sure the silverwear is all there after he leaves. Anyone want to offer me odds on how often his name comes up in the upcoming Gonzales impeachment?

Betcha didn't know he had his dirty little paws in the Watergate debacle too. Yep, he was head of the College Republicans at the time and something of an apprentice to convicted felon and professional dirty trickster Donald Segretti.


Hat tip to News Sophisticate for the video clip, and Dan Rather for the crackerjack reportage.

That light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train
I've been reading a lot of stuff on Iraq lately, both opinion and factual reports, and arguing with some blockheads over at Canadian Cynic in the comment threads about a few things related to operation sandbox meatgrinder aka the war in Iraq.

First we have people like Bill Kristol, the man who was the brains behind Dan Quayle, saying stupid things and then we have the President saying stupid things.

"First of all, I understand why the American people are -- you know, they're tired of the war. People are -- there's war fatigue in America. It's affecting our psychology. I've said this before. I understand that. This is an ugly war. It's a war in which an enemy will kill
innocent men, women and children in order to achieve a political objective.
It doesn't surprise me that there is deep concern amongst our people. "

He did say one thing I agree with:

"We're at the beginning stages of a great ideological conflict between those who yearn for peace and those who want their children to grow up in a normal, decent society -- and radicals and extremists who want to impose their dark vision on people throughout the world. "

However, I think the radicals and extremists are led by Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, James Dobson, Pat Robertson and especially George W. Bush and others of their ilk who seem determined to destroy the United States by breaking it on the anvil of war. The administration has consistently abused and expanded its powers, ignored and willfully violated the constitutions and the law of the land in order to erode civil liberties and checks and balances on executive power. This is not a republican presidency any more, it is an imperial executive that rules by presidential edict on foreign policy and since the change in congress last fall, more and more by presidential veto on domestic policy.

We keep hearing from the Bushiviks that victory is at hand, that the insurgency is in its last throes. Frankly, the U.S. has turned the corner so many times in Iraq, it has come a full circle back to where it started. Iraq is broken, and will remain broken for the foreseeable future, possibly for the rest of my lifetime. There is every chance it will drag the rest of the region down into the flames of a tripartate civil war with it.

The United States will never win in Iraq -- insurgents with enough munitions and a certain level of support among the populace ALWAYS win eventually. And everytime there is an airstrike on the wrong house, or a U.S. soldier runs over a kid in the street or kicks in the door of the wrong family home in the middle of the night, it builds more support for the insurgents.

I'm very much inclined to say "You broke, it you bought it" and take the position that the United States has a responsibility to stay in Iraq until stability is restored and the insurgent threat is ended. If they had taken this tack in Vietnam, they would still be there and still be fighting the Viet Cong and the United States would look something like Russia right now, having bankrupted itself physically and morally in a pointless war and occupation. The insurgents are not going to go away and having an outside power that has been an enemy for last three decades there occupying the country will not hasten the process.

The U.S. is the bull in the china shop and at some point after the first set of china get smashed, its better to lead the bull out of the shop and back into its stall, rather than have it mangle the few remaining display cases and shit all over the floor while you look for your wallet to pay for the damage.

George W. and Bill Kristol and the other warmongers can talk all they like about their duty to Iraq and ensuring the sacrifices of troops have not been made in vain, but they already abnegated their responsibility by invading the place for no good reason in the first place. The Iraqi government's response to the whole question has been to keep fighting amongst itself over who gets the oil money. As far as the withdrawal of U.S. troops is concerned, the attitude of some is "here's your hat -- oh, leaving so soon?" while others would like them to get out of the way so they can just fight their civil war and get it over with.

After all that has gone on, it would be nice to see a positive ending, nice to think that all this death lead to something good instead of just more death. I'd love to see the United States win in Iraq, install an independent, western-friendly, representative, egalitarian, secular democratic government. I'd also love to do body shots off of Carmen Electra's cleavage between sets at my all star rock band's sell-out show at the Budokkan, but I've accepted the fact that neither of these things is going to happen.

There is not going to be a happy ending to this and the author of this entire story is George W. Bush. No one forced his hand, no gun was put to his head. He and his administration lied and cheated and cajoled and manipulated the United States into this war. Thousands have died and tens of thousands of Iraqis and others in the region have been inspired to hate the United States more than they ever did before. Meaning more terrorism, more repressive security measures, less democracy and freedom both in Iraq and in the United States and the rest of the world.

Osama Bin Laden (remember him? Whatever happenned to that guy?) handed George W. Bush the magic lamp on Sept. 11, 2001, and Dubya has been rubbing it for all he's worth. The Djinn is out of the bottle and as always happens with these things, George's three wishes (1. An excuse to seize unlimited power. 2. A way to get re-elected. 3. An excuse to invade Iraq) have backfired on America.

Somehow, someone needs to convince him there is no pony under the pile of horseshit, that it is no longer about winning, but about limiting the damage that is done. The neo-con's baby is dead, let's at least try to save the mother. Iraq is screwed for a least the next generation, probably more. Unless somebody grabs the wheel and soon, so is the United States.

"backpfeifengesicht"

A hat tip to Tbogg commenter Doug over at heyJennySlater (the only blog I know of named for a line from one of my all time favorite movies)for the German word "backpfeifengesicht", which translates to "a face that cries out for a fist in it."

Supporting the troops...not
First they send them to a place they just shouldn't be on the basis of trumped up charges and outright lies. Then they don't provide enough body armor or armored vehicles. Then they screw over the returning wounded at Walter Reed. Now, Bush is screwing the veterans out of health care so he can cut taxes for Haliburton and Paris Hilton.

Seal the borders, NOW!
This kind of stupidity could be contagious. Don't misinterpret me, I don't think that belief in God should disqualify one from holding high office, but I do think that disbelief in science should. If you are superstitious enough to believe, despite mountains of empirical scientific evidence to the contrary, theat we humans were put here in our present form as a species less than 10,000 years ago by your mystical Sky Daddy, then you are denying basic empirical evidence. If you really believe this, I have no reason to trust that you wouldn't go along if the pope or Pat Robertson told you gravity was just God pushing down on your shoulders and that airplanes could fly because He chose not to push down on them. Would you hire a person who believed that to design aircraft? Or teach biology or physics?

From the linked USA Today/Gallup poll:

23.Next, we'd like to ask about your views on two different explanations for the origin and development of life on earth. Do you think Evolution, that is, the idea that human beings developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life is:

Definitely true 18%
Probably true 35%
Probably false 16 %
Definitely false 28%
No opinion 3%
Total true 53%
Total false 44%

B. Creationism, that is, the idea that God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years is:

Definitely true 39%
Probably true 27%
Probably false 16%
Definitely false 15%
No opinion 3 %
Total true 66%
Total false 31%

I suppose the difference between the percentage that are sure evolution is definitely false and the percent that are sure creationism is definitely true represents those who cling to intelligent design to try to put a faux scientific gloss on their superstition, but the notion that there is a core of about 30% or more that are just plain willfully ignorant is more than a little disturbing.

first against the wall when the revolution comes
Chris Matthew, Ann Coulter, Pat Caddell, Wolf Blitzer, Brian Williams, Jon Scott, Wendell Goler, David E. Sanger, Karen DeYoung, Bob Schieffer, Joe Klein, Brit Hume, Margaret Carlson and Laura Ingraham all just made the list

And Gordon Liddy's review of the presidential package might be the creepiest homoerotica I've ever seen.