Tuesday, January 20. 2009
 The smorgasbord of emotions as the final day of the Bush disaster winds down is almost too complicated for simple words. We have the republicans just praying the last eight years go away, their Karl Rove dynasty crushed beyond recognition, to the democrats who still want blood, knowing they were robbed in 2000 and demanding justice for the disasters and crimes Bush/Cheney perpetuated while denying any accountability these last eight years.
Is justice to be served? Clinton, easily the most successful president in modern times using any criteria, was impeached for lying about consensual sex. Bush, using the same criteria is easily the worst president and he didn't just lie, his lies got thousands, hundreds of thousands of people killed. And his failures didn't end there, they will continue for as long as it takes to reverse almost every initiative he started.
The world is a far worse place since George W. Bush was handed the presidency by five people, the ideological majority of the Supreme Court of the United Stated of America. Sandra Day O'Connor, the swing vote, will go down in infamy as a disgrace. Rehnquist at least had the decency to die, but Sandra Day O'Connor lives on and her vote way back in December of 2000 is still costing lives and treasure around the world. She quit, took her ball and went home, but she can't escape her shame.
One can only wonder how these people forgive themselves, power and money I suppose. But as the GOP conservative brand continues to lose credibility, may the enablers be exposed for what they are; facilitators who place their own well-being ahead of the majority of Americans. Sandra Day O'Connor, we're talking about you. It's arguable that you're the one person most responsible for the ills the U.S. and world now face.
History is definitely going to catch up with this lady, and not very kindly.
Saturday, December 6. 2008
 For people trying to hang onto their homes or jobs, all this bailout talk for millionaires has to be more than discomforting. Back in the early '80s, when Reagan started his deregulation crap by overturning the very policies that rescued us from the Great Depression, CEO salaries were about 20 times that of the average worker. As we sit here helpless in the middle of this current financial disaster, the equivalent CEO salaries with bonuses are now 500 times greater. And if that's not enough to get your sphincter muscle twitching, many of these companies are losing billions to boot.
People are losing their jobs not because of any wrong doing on their part, but because of greed and poor decisions by upper management. Instead of being innovative to reverse the process and increase business, they have been taking the easy way out by cutting jobs to reduce costs. This is just stupidity squared because job losses are reaching critical mass and unemployed people are not exactly known for buying cars, investing in stocks or buying homes. Quite understandably they will spend the minimum just to survive, so as job losses and unemployment expand, our consumer based economy is sinking into a depression.
Unlike the federal government, consumers can't print more money, sell bonds or borrow from foreign governments like China. We instead have to rely on credit cards or house equity to secure bank loans. Well, credit cards eventually get maxed out and home equity is something most can only dream of given the current circumstances. In fact, many new home owners hold mortgages of greater value than their house. Without a light at the end of the tunnel, it only makes sense to leave the keys in the door and walk away.
You can only feel sorry for the millions of normal folks who are getting crushed financially, and anger towards the bastards who abetted this disaster, but the thing that irks me the most is that the $700. billion bailout to the financial industry, the very culprits who started this mess, are using these funds not to help you, me, GM, Ford or Chrysler, but to buy up the weaker banks who couldn't survive this crisis.
Think about that for a second. The biggest banks got seven hundred billion in bailout money with little oversight other than the expressed purpose of easing the credit crunch, but won't loan a dime of it to the big three auto makers, which means the car guys have to come cup in hand to the government, that's us folks, for additional bailout money. The so-called big three are definitely guilty of poor decisions and being on the wrong side of the trend to smaller and more efficient vehicles, but when GM, once the largest corporation in the world is denied a loan from the banks, banks fresh with this infusion of our commitment to higher taxes to pay this off some day, you really have to wonder
And just to put it in perspective, with all these numbers involving billions, know this: to count to a billion, you know...1,2,3, 4, without a break would take 31 years.
Smoke that taxpayers.
Tuesday, December 2. 2008
 The wing nuts on the right are always so much fun. With all the free advice they've been offering Obama lately, one could be tricked into believing they actually have a clue how to govern, but the moment that thought catches a foothold, reality comes crashing back with Katrina, Iraq and the economy. The overwhelming reality of this election is that a black man with a funny name won easily and handed the GOP their fat, white butts. How much worse could it get for these bible-thumping illiterates?
Enough Americans finally clued in that GOP talk is just that, without the walk. And many of the most bigoted, intolerant, and religiously insane Americans voted with their pocket books this time rather than with their prejudices. How many homes or jobs did they have to lose to wise up?
For those of us who have been going crazy and feeling helpless while suffering through the last eight years, revenge is indeed a dish best served cold. But the fun's only beginning. The party of zero ideas, the party that has won elections by pushing hate and division, the party of lies, deceit and corruption has been dispatched to the political wilderness, which is exactly where they belong.
These smug Bush/Cheney apologists are now blindly running in circles with their shorts down around their ankles wondering what the hell happened to them. And while we could explain it, what would be the point? They'll never listen anyway because the nucleus of the party believes they aren't conservative enough, (read religious), and that someone like Sarah Palin is their god-send.
No way we'll be that lucky come 2012, and they do have four years to develop an alternative candidate if things don't go well for Obama. But other than Ginghrich, Romney and crew, the love affair between the GOP and the religiously insane will have to part ways before they can make any progress. In fact, many of the saner republicans are already making noises to this effect and turning in their bibles.
Meanwhile, sit back, kick up, and enjoy the implosion.
Thursday, November 27. 2008
 With even conservative pundits calling for Bush to move aside and resign early, one has to wonder what is going through the man's head. He can put on as many brave faces as he wants, that he's satisfied with the progress in Iraq, that he's done his best and so forth, but the brutal fact remains he's been a dismal failure as a president in everyone's mind but perhaps his own. Talk about narcissism.
Think back to the 2000 presidential campaign when he promised open and honest government, returning honor and dignity to the White House, being a uniter not a divider and help is on the way for the troops. The sad fact is he's delivered exactly the opposite on every promise. And if that's not enough to disgrace him in the annals of history, he's also managed to sully America's image with preemptive war, torture, rendition, our way or the highway diplomacy all while presiding over and contributing to the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression.
You'd think that would be enough to secure his place in history as the worst president in American history, but oh no, he's also managed to allow more arsenic in our drinking water, more pollution, and fewer protections for our air quality, endangered species, forests, and even the Constitution. Add his record number of signing statements excluding him from laws passed by Congress, illegal spying on US citizens and secrecy that the worst dictator would envy, he leaves office as King George when eight years ago he was merely President Bush.
That twenty-five percent of Americans still approve of his job performance is something we as a country have to work on. How can one in four of us be so damned stupid? Calling him a lame duck, while comforting that were almost done with him messing our pants all over the globe, is hardly accurate. He's a cooked turkey, and this evening I'm going to enjoy sticking a fork in him.
Monday, November 17. 2008
 In what seems like an indeterminable transition period until Obama takes the reigns next January 20, many Americans will be worrying about keeping their jobs, their homes, and trying to find a way to put gifts on their families this Christmas season. Politics for junkies is pretty much dead during this period with even the Sunday gasbags reduced to speculating on who Obama should pick for key positions or will Sarah run in 2012. Oh, and speaking of Ms. Palin, isn't it unsettling that since the election, when after every canned stump speech her handlers threw a blanket over her and kept her dark until the next speech, that you now can't turn on the teevee or pick up a newspaper without her face dominating?
Caught perfectly in one of those, I wish I'd written that moments, catch this beaut from the brilliant Dick Cavett in last Friday's New York Times:
There she is with Larry and Matt and just about everyone else but Dr. Phil (so far). If she is not yet on “Judge Judy,” I suspect it can’t be for lack of trying.
What have we done to deserve this, this media blitz that the astute Andrea Mitchell has labeled “The Victory Tour”?
I suppose it will be recorded as among political history’s ironies that Palin was brought in to help John McCain. I can’t blame feminists who might draw amusement from the fact that a woman managed to both cripple the male she was supposed to help while gleaning an almost Elvis-sized following for herself. Mac loses, Sarah wins big-time was the gist of headlines.
I feel a little sorry for John. He aimed low and missed.
What will ambitious politicos learn from this? That frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate’s valuable traits?
And how much more of all that lies in our future if God points her to those open-a-crack doors she refers to? The ones she resolves to splinter and bulldoze her way through upon glimpsing the opportunities, revealed from on high.
What on earth are our underpaid teachers, laboring in the vineyards of education, supposed to tell students about the following sentence, committed by the serial syntax-killer from Wasilla High and gleaned by my colleague Maureen Dowd for preservation for those who ask, “How was it she talked?” My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars. And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”
It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.
(A cynic might wonder if Wasilla High School’s English and geography departments are draped in black.) Ha ha, make him stop, too funny. You can read the entire article here
Sunday, November 16. 2008
 Ya gotta love Rush's ditto heads, all 20 million of them. Here's Joe the Speller, who graduated suma cume laude from Okie Public with a major in spelling. Joe successfully completed his third year in grade five when he decided he had enough knowledge, so he quit school and hit the streets with personally designed signs to educate the rest of us pinko commies on how to vote.
With nearly 70 days to go before Obama even takes office, the wing nuts on the right are already blaming him for the economic crisis. Heck, just the other day, wing nut in Chief Rush Limbaugh, accused Bill Clinton for all the woes up to Nov. 4, and Obama since then. The peace and prosperity of the '90's was nothing but an illusion according to His Pigness.
The irony of course is that Joe the Speller and Joe the Plumber are going to be better off down the road once an Obama presidency reinstates progressive tax policies and programs that favor the vast majority of Americans and not just the filthy rich. Neither Joe will understand any of this and undoubtedly vote for Sarah or Mitt or Newt in 2012 anyway, but what do you expect from people who get their views from radio and cable clowns like Limbaugh and Hannity. If it wasn't for rubes like these two Joes who have been convinced that Obama is going to take away their guns and bibles, AM hate radio hosts and almost everyone at Fox News would be begging on street corners with a tin cup.
If nothing else, I'm excited that a Barak Obama presidency is going to make intelligence and command of the English language fashionable again.
Monday, November 10. 2008
 Okay, agreed it's a tad premature to be thinking about the next GOP nominee to take on Obama in 2012, but you have to admit this is going to be fun for our side. I mean, who have they got? McCain's got several forks in him. Palin....puleeeze! Romney....Mormon, Guliani....double puleeeze. For sure there's got to be a couple of smart people left in the republican party who will find a new guy or gal who could challenge. From what we've seen of Obama before he even takes the reigns of office is that this isn't gonna be easy for the repubs. Even repubs admit he's smart and that he can hardly be blamed for the current problems confronting America.
One name they have left in their diminishing arsenal which I've been hearing about is Newt Gingrich. Aside from a name even weirder than Barak's, this guy is a three time loser with wives and an even bigger loser when it comes to governance. If Newt hadn't shut down the government in 2005 over a perceived slight with Bill Clinton, Bill would have never met Monica. Newt's also the guy who created the negative talking points about democrats, a list that demonized everything liberal. Like, we need all this negative campaigning again? Remember, the guy resigned as House Leader, the position Nancy Pelosi now holds. He resigned because he didn't want to be the minority leader, and that pretty much tells you all you need to know about him. He took on the big dog, (Clinton), lost, so he took his ball and went home. That's a leader?
Anyway, time to take a couple of breaths and give Obama a chance to organize for January 20th. Finally, the smartest guy in the room is going to be the president and how long have we waited for that?
Sunday, November 9. 2008
 Well, to say Nov. 4 was emotional would be the understatement of all time. I lost track of how many celebrities who admitted shedding a tear or two because I was too busy shedding a couple of my own. This has been a long hard-fought emotional battle for eight years which seemed more like a lifetime. Yeah, yeah, I know I should be magnanimous in victory, but stick that thought up their crazy GOP asses. I want to stomp on their ugly heads every time they pop up from the whack-a-mole hole. I want to chase them into the hell they claim to believe in that they so richly deserve.
Our side always knew this election was never a black or white thing, but about right and wrong issues. We've been fighting for years against policies we knew to be pig-headed wrong, policies both domestic and foreign designed to favor the filthy rich at the expense of the majority. Policies based on fear and outright lies. It was beyond frustrating to suffer through the GOP stealing just enough votes and fooling just enough idiots with wedge issues to prevail. Why would anyone care if his neighbor married his dog? After all, we did find out from Sarah Palin that pit bulls wear lipstick, or hockey moms, whatever.
While everything seemed to go wrong for the McCain campaign, from his fumbling to find a consistent message to the bad timing of economic events, not to mention the almost perfect campaign Obama ran, the turning point for me was the Katie Couric interview, run not over one day but three. You almost had to feel sorry for the repubs (I didn't), going from the euphoria of her convention speech to three solid days in a row of rolling their eyes watching over and over again her flubbed grade three answers to simple grade six questions. The fight for moderates and independents was now over because how could they vote for a candidate who picked such a light weight for VP, a choice who quite possibly could take over the presidency considering McCain's age and heath. McCain, like Bush, was making choices based on politics and not what was best for the country. Most Americans had had enough of poor decisions and and god-awful choices for important positions in government and that was reflected with overwhelming clarity on November 4.
The future is hardly predictable, but at least for the next four years unlike the last eight, we know the smartest guy in the room will be calling the shots. What happens after that is anyone's guess, but it's a good bet that if the GOP picks Ms. Palin for 2012, we can all rest easy until 2016.
I suspect after a few more weeks, once the comics run out material for jokes, it will be Sarah who?
Saturday, October 25. 2008
 Ten days to go, and each and every one seems to deliver more bad news for Johnny Mac. Palin's new 150K wardrobe, more GOP stalwarts like Scottie McCarron and C. C. Goldwater jumping ship, and how about the grenade the GOP tried to toss by accusing Obama of visiting Hawaii not to be with his ailing grandmother, but to steal his birth records which prove he's not a U.S. citizen. All horseshit of course, it's like they pulled the pin out of the grenade but forgot to throw it. And speaking of horseshit, did you catch that McCain volunteer, Ashley Todd, who got caught fabricating a whopper about a big black guy assaulting her and carving a backwards B on her face. Okay, you can't fault McCain for having a mentally challenged supporter, after all, there are a few more of those in his party, but you'd think he'd at least have the story checked out before calling her to offer his sympathy only to confirm more poor judgement on his part. The only thing these guys seem to be able to do well is shoot themselves in the foot. While we know a week in politics is an eternity, the enemy is running out of time for any sort of October surprise. The stars are just not aligning for McNasty, and they must be aware of it because already we're hearing rumors of a rift between the McCain and Palin camps. Being a dem, naturally I'm leery of seeing another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, but at this late point can only see two scenarios; McCain either calls off the attack dogs in an attempt to preserve what little he has left of his dignity and go away quietly, or he goes all in and doubles down on the negativity. I suspect the latter considering the Rovian-trained crew he brought on board. But what's more alarming, accepting the realizaton that Bush, McCain, and the GOP have been wrong on every issue of importance to Americans, is the fact they still have these so-called pundits or surrogates willing to get up on their hind legs on your teevee and look you in the eyes to proclaim everything will be hunkey-dorey if you just give the republicans one more chance. It's one thing to be a fool, but it's quite something else to put your face in front of a TV camera and remove all doubt. This election has come down to who's stupid and who isn't. Without equivocation, it's clear that you can lead a republican to the kool-aid, but unlike a horse, you can actually make them drink it.
Sunday, October 19. 2008
 With millions of Americans losing their jobs, homes, insurance, retirement income and hope, John McCain's response to the crisis has been to run around screaming at the top of his lungs, "Bill Ayers, Acorn, tax cuts and Joe the plumber." Little wonder it's been so easy for Obama to pin the out of touch label on his forehead. At the core of McCain's poorly run campaign was his willingness to go along with his campaign strategists who obviously convinced him to follow the Rovian blueprint of negative ads and dirty tricks. Well, could there possibly have been a worse time for these tactics considering the current economic climate? It may have worked in 2000, a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity when Gore should have run the Electoral College table on Bush, but it won't work now with real people suffering real losses. Even a few religiously insane nose-pickers are starting to comprehend that huge tax cuts for the already rich and a senseless two billion dollar a week war in Iraq have not worked in their favor. And isn't it fun to watch some of the smarter republicans jump the S.S. McCain. As they say, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, and regardless of the outcome on Nov. 4, McCain has exposed himself as a typical, pandering politician who will do or say anything to get elected. He has done a complete 180 since his failed attempt at the presidency in 2000 and gawd save us if he does somehow pull off an upset, because no one of sane mind will believe this election was legitimate. In the unlikely event Diebold, disenfranchisement and other dirty tricks carry the day for McCain, and Obama folds like Gore and Kerry did, McCain faces a dem House majority and a potential dem veto-proof Senate. He could be a lame duck on day one. Since he backed into the republican choice as their presidential candidate, his behavior has been contorted, confused, misleading and anything but presidential. His most important decision to date, his choice of Sarah Palin as his VP, will go down in history as a running joke that just keeps on giving. He's swirling down the toilet at such a pace that even his best new friend, Joe the plumber can't save him. John McTurd, RIP.
Thursday, October 16. 2008
 Now that Vladimir Putin has been chased out of Alaskan air space by Guv-ner Sarah Palin, it's comforting for the rest of us to know that our most western front is so well protected from this trespassing peeking tom. If Putin sneaks into Alaska disguised as a wolf or moose, you should feel safer with Ms. Palin on guard, because with one wink she can vanquish any intelligent thought. Ms. Palin, a stanch believer in dinosaurs walking with man, a miscalculation by a mere 160 million years or so if you believe the overwhelming majority of world scientists, also believes in the good book, the bible, verbatim. The bible never even mentions dinosaurs which begs the question how could this all important book miss something so big? But even using George Bush's fuzzy math there is no way you could get a mommy and daddy dinosaur on a boat with biblical dimensions of 300 by 50 cubits, whatever that means, along with two of every other animal on earth at that time. What did Noah feed them, the other animals? Sarah also seems to believe in witch exorcisms and the end times, which is all well and good if you believe in nonsense and idiots running around loose, but my concern is how could a guy like John McCain, someone who supposedly loves his country first, pick such a lunatic as his backup, an admitted trigger-finger happy hunter with the potential of controlling the nuclear codes. You can put lipstick on a moose, but you can't make it kiss nicely. This election isn't just about jobs, the economy, the failed wars and disastrous policies of Bush. It's about all of this of course, and electing someone with the good sense to avoid the pratfalls of the past eight years. McCain has established that he is not the man to reset our course by virtue of his pick of this boob Sarah Palin. His choice ranks right up there with Bush's decision to attack Iraq. The man is simply not qualified to lead America into a better future. In a few weeks we will find out if American voters are smart enough to grab the reigns of their own destiny and throw out the bums. From what I've seen the past two presidential elections, it's a close call.
Monday, October 6. 2008
 To paraphrase red-ink Reagan, here we go again, so let the swift boating begin. The GOP, devastated that the polls gave Biden the win in last Thursday's vice-presidential debate, even though Palin was never caught picking her nose a single time, have opted for their time-tested campaign strategy, to swift boat Barak Obama. Ignoring the Iraqi and economic disasters they've once again zeroed in on what they do best, make crap up about their opponent. This weekend, they sent out Moose Mom to claim Barak hangs with a terrorist who threw firecrackers at a federal building back in the sixties. The guy in question, Bill Ayers, was a Vietnam protester. Never mind that Obama was eight years old when the Ayers protesting occurred, never mind Ayer's was never charged and is now a university professor who also does non-profit work for the less fortunate, and of course never mind that Obama has always discredited Ayer's and any other form of violent protest as credible behavior, Sarah Palin, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, claimed Barak Obama by association loves terrorists. People actually buy this shit, and far too many of them vote. You really have to ask yourself who in their right mind would buy this non-sensible crap, but obviously it works or why else would the GOP keep perpetuating it and winning elections cycle after cycle? As an observer I think John McCain tried to play it straight in 2000 and we all saw what Bush and Rove did to him. He's now come to believe that the only way to win on the GOP ticket is to fight dirty with Sarah Palin as a willing dupe. If you think about it, is winning power so important that you'll deep-six your principles to win an election based on outrageous fibs rather than considered and well thought out policy? McCain sold his soul for victory by virtue of his Palin pick. He won't release his medical records yet subjects the country to a VP, one heart beat away, who as we've all seen couldn't possibly be less qualified. There is no doubt in my mind that Obama will handle these swift boat assaults with the derision they deserve, but c'mon, how pathetic do you have to be for McCain to want to win on these terms?
Wednesday, September 17. 2008
 Seems that many of my dem friends are aghast that Johnny McSame is close or even ahead in the so-called national polls. People forget that the pollsters get their data from respondents on land line telephones, and not cell phones. I don't know anyone in this day and age under 30, a big constituency of Obama's support, who still has a land line, so these polls can hardly be reflective. In fact, cell phones are increasingly becoming the sole communications tool for most age groups, which could render today's polling methods obsolete. Dems also seem to be appalled that McCain could receive a sizable bounce after selecting a light-weight, bible-thumping, gun-tooting' moose hunter from a distant area of land even further north than most of Canada. They can't believe that our guy Obama is at best even in spite of all the fibs, distortions and outright lies the McCain camp regurgitates, and this in spite of some surprise mild protestations from our cowered media who normally cave at the slightest hint of right wing backlash, and the related threat to cut off ad revenues to the corporate owners they work for.
Heartbeat away VP pick Sarah Palin can talk about end times all she wants, but we've been there twice, in 2000 and 2004 and hell ain't pretty. Call me naive, I just don't think it's going to be a three-fer, for two reasons: the polls aren't accurate and McCain's political advisor's have gone "all in" with a dead hand. Lemme 'splain: McCain's Rovian advisor's, all lobbyists shilling for the military industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about way back in 1960, are so desperate to keep power, that they'll do anything to win. They can't make money during peace time. Only after 8 years of the disaster called Bush, their normal disgusting tactics won't be enough and so they're going to have to sink to even lower levels. That's why they're lying through their teeth at levels even a grade two class clown could see through. They've got absolutely nothing to lose. Of course they can't run on the issues, the wars, the state of the economy. All they've got is throw shit at Obama and the democrats and hope 51/% of American voters fall for it a third time. I don't think so. The repubs read the tea leaves after the very successful dem convention, which didn't implode as they were hoping, and decided they had nothing to lose. So they risked everything on an unvetted nobody hoping to pander to their base and disgruntled Hillary supporters, and what did they get? A VP candidate so weak they can't even let her talk to the press until she goes to the GOP College of Talking Points first. Barak Obama may not be a killer when it comes to a political mud fight, but he doesn't have to be. All he has to do is call a "major" press conference in front of the assembled cameras and scribes and simply state:
"These are serious times, people at home and abroad are suffering miserably because of the policies of the Bush administration the past eight years. I have put forth serious and detailed solutions to correct and change this failed course. Meanwhile, my opponent John McCain, is running a campaign based on the same old tired, GOP game of false innuendos, a tactic he pledged not to do this time around. Well, John McCain lied to you about that, just as he's lying about what I've promised. He talks about putting country first yet he selects as his VP running mate a candidate who's only qualifications are appealing to the most radical, extreme fringes of his party. John McCain has approved ads that want you to think about pigs, lipstick and kindergarten sex. That's because he doesn't want you focusing on real issues, issues that effect you and your families. Issues that effect the safety of our country." "I think it's about time the media, that's you folks, started doing your job. Your job as the forth estate is to keep politicians honest. If I tell a lie or mislead, then by all means call me on it. If John McCain tells a lie, or misleads you, which he is doing every day, then you have an obligation on behalf of our country to bring this to the voter's attention. It hardly serves the interests of our nation to allow a professional politician, someone who is trained to spin facts, to use you as their megaphone to get away with untruths in a false effort to be fair, because in the end we all suffer." "That's all I ask. Any questions?" If all we asked as citizens and voters was for the media to do their jobs, and they did, we never would have heard the name George W. Bush.
Friday, August 22. 2008
With the Bush administration increasing the nation's deficit by record numbers, even to the extent of making "Red Ink" Reagan appear more responsible by comparison, one's mind becomes somewhat numbed every time we hear the number a billion dollars. Two billion a week for the war in Iraq, billions in tax credits for oil companies already recording record profits in the tens of billions, etc. It's so common to hear of references to almost anything in the billions of dollars these days, that we've lost perspective. And then I noticed an article, (apology for the lack of attribution, I'm old and forgetful), referring to a clever ad agency who found a way to put a billion into perspective. You may want to sit down for this, but this is what I learned: -a billion seconds ago was in the year 1959 -a billion minutes ago our calendar was changing from B.C. to A.D. or year 1 -a billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the stone age -a billion days ago no-one on earth walked on two feet. Mind boggling? Well ponder this, a trillion is one thousand billion and Bush has added a half trillion dollars to your deficit with a few months left on his time clock to add to his record setting total. For those of you who still have republican friends you may want to point this out to them and remind the so-called party of fiscal responsibility that John McSame is tied to the hip economically with Bush. And it won't offend any of us hear at Rackjite if you also mention that Clinton left office with a huge surplus. A billion seconds ago was in 1959? Wow, blew my old mind.
Thursday, August 21. 2008
 By now everyone's heard that McHouse, I mean McCain, was asked today how many houses he and his wife own, but couldn't remember and referred the query to his staff. His staff got back and said he and Cindy own four houses. In less time than it takes to swat a mosquito, Obama, in full attack mode since back from Hawaii, pointed out that the McCains actually own seven houses and turned the elitist label they've been trying to pin on the dem candidate upside down or inside out depending on your preferred method of swatting a political opponent. But apart from the silliness of how many houses the McCain's own in what should be a serious political debate, one can't help but wonder how McCain could flub such an easy question, "how many houses do you own?" To put in perspective how easy this question was, I'll venture to say if every American were asked the same question the vast majority would say, "none." And of course we all know it's only getting worse with the sub-prime/foreclosure scandal. With the economy being the number one issue this election, we obviously need a guy who can do some math, or at the very least count. How effective will McCain's economic team be when after given the simple task of adding up seven houses they came up with the answer: 7 + 0 = 4, an error of __%. I purposely left the percentage of error blank to see if any McCain supporters write in with the correct answer. I think we could find them a position in the McCain camp.
Wednesday, August 20. 2008
 It's truly incredible that recent polls have John McCain running close or in some cases even with Barak Obama. Is it possible that suddenly half of likely voters are greedy rich CEO's, the religiously insane, or intolerant bigots? You know, the republican base. Surely even the most greedy and intolerant amongst us have had enough of a president who's an embarrassment every time he opens his mouth. Forgetting McCain's flip-floppery on almost every position he stood for in 2000 to pander to "the base," forgetting his daily gaffes, forgetting he can't remember his own policy positions from one hour to the next, and forgetting that this so-called foreign policy expert couldn't find a middle east country with an Atlas and a geography teacher, he has to be a worse public speaker than Bush. After eight years of Bush, how could anyone, including rabid wingnutters, want more of this? If his boring monotone wasn't enough to have you diving for the channel change button on the TV remote, beginning every sentence with "my friends," he must have his handlers half insane. McCain's vaunted claim to fame is getting shot down in Vietnam and being held prisoner for 5 1/2 years. How that somehow qualifies him as a foreign policy expert is beyond me. It's not like he played chess with Ho Chi Minh every night and discussed world affairs. No human should suffer the indignity John McCain suffered all those years, but that experience hardly qualifies him to be president of the United States. And speaking of experience, look at the mess the so-called experienced experts have gotten us into under the Bush administration. This is the type of experience we could do without. For McCain to get up on his hind legs and endorse these failed policies in the hopes of winning the presidency suggests to me he's jumping the shark. And according to recent polls, nearly half the American voting public is grabbing the same shark fin with him. How depressing.
Friday, August 1. 2008
 It's been pretty darn easy of late to get sick of and tired of US presidential politics. Seems like we've been in a four year campaign ever since Bush/Cheney/Rove stole a second election in 2004. And let's face a grim fact here; one didn't have to be much of a genius to predict that four more years of Bush would be a disaster in every way imaginable. This crew is so incompetent they could turn honey into shit just by standing too close to it. And that's just about the gist of what's happened. Clinton left them eight unprecedented years of peace and prosperity, not to mention a huge surplus, and what we have now can only be described as a huge pile of poo poo. Talk about the gang that couldn't shoot straight, well, except for Cheney who on a controlled quail hunt managed to miss the quail and instead shot his friend, in the face. Sorta like trying to shoot fish in a barrel, and missing. How typical of this administration. Personally, I am so sick and tired of American politics in general, and the current presidential election in particular, that I don't know why I even bother to write anymore. For over eight years our like minded crew have been tapping out stories about republican hypocrisy, scandals, screw ups, lawbreaking and just about everything else we once considered anti-American to the point that our fingers are bleeding. Yet after a perfect eight days by Obama overseas under the scrutiny of the MSM and rest of the entire world press, and with McCain suffering foot in mouth gaffe after gaffe with his $520 Ferragamo's, the so-called national polls are calling the race by only a few points in Obama's favor. In a normal world Obama would be ahead by double digits, triple digits even, but this world has been anything but normal the past seven and a half years. Obama: smart, articulate, good looking, nice family, with a message Americans have been waiting to hear. McCain: he's a worse speaker than Bush if that's possible. You can put lipstick on him, dress him up in fancy loafers, herd him out in front of loyal repub crowds and he still comes off as a complete dufus. Even the rare sane repubs are questioning his performance which only makes me wonder why this race is so close. If Barack Obama was white and his name was John Smith, is it possible he'd be ahead by 35 points? Of course it's a race issue. Barak Obama's skin color and name shouldn't be under scrutiny, the intelligence of the American voting populace is the real issue.
Monday, June 9. 2008
 After eight years of Bush-Cheney diplomacy, the result which has been pretty much everyone on planet earth hating us, along comes hop-a-long McSame pledging to continue these same failed policies. Here's a guy who's been to Iraq eight times, and still can't get it right. He thinks an Iraqi neighborhood is safe as long as he's wearing a bullet proof vest, has a hundred soldiers guarding him, and several military helicopters hovering overhead for good measure. He doesn't even know the difference between a Sunni or a Shia Arab, a gaffe he repeated more than once with regards to this 1400 year old tribal war. While no one belittles his unfortunate captivity in the Hanoi Hilton where he was subjected to five and a half years of torture, we do have to wonder how he can claim this experience somehow sharpened his foreign policy creds. The guy was locked up while being tortured for gawd's sake. This begs the question, considering the inhumane treatment he received, how he could have caved so quickly to the Bush-Cheney side of the torture bill congress tried to pass, a bill that meant little more than reaffirming the Geneva Conventions. It's difficult to imagine a more dramatic collapse of one's honestly earned principles for such transparent political gain by pandering to the oddly named "Christian" right. With our screwed up corporate-controlled media, that pays more attention to who's your pastor rather than issues Americans actually give a rat's ass about, the general election this fall will be far closer than it should be. McCain, with all his nutty statements, lack of understanding of domestic concerns, his abandoning his 2000 campaign principles, and just plain sounding like he hasn't a clue what he's talking about, is running even in the polls with Obama, if you can believe it. Like, what is it Americans hate about peace and prosperity versus war and recession? Because if nothing else, John McCain is promising four more years of war and recession, and you'd better like it or you'll be accused of being an unpatriotic traitor, which is standard GOP campaign strategy. Mr. bomb, bomb Iran has made it clear that he will take the disastrous international and domestic policies of Bush-Cheney and dig the hole deeper. For the sake of America, someone has to take away his shovel. The very definition of diplomacy is about talking and negotiation. Bullying your adversary through threat of force will never work and only compound the disagreement. Consider the possiblity that the Arab nations had the superior military power and threatened us with force if we didn't bend to their will. How would we react? Is it so hard to understand why so many all over the world detest our arrogant asses? McCain has demonstrated through words and actions that he clearly is not the person to change a course that is in shambles. He will be labeled as John McBush, and for good reason. He's just more of the same old crap that has two thirds of Americans frustrated and longing for better. He's another rich old white man who thinks diplomacy is best accomplished by sending our young people into a battle they think they can win because they have bigger guns, without any sense of why they're there. This failed diplomacy has resulted in the deaths of thousands of our own young kids, and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Forget the money, thousands upon thousands of people have died unnecessary deaths because idiots like McCain think it's important to continue an unwinable war that never should have been started in the first place. For what, pride? Add up the last eight years of Bush diplomacy and you get; Bush + McCain = McFailure.
Thursday, May 29. 2008
 John McCain's "Straight Talk Express" bus suffered a flat tire sometime around the announcement that he'd had a falling out with a couple of evangelical pastors, Hagee and Parsley, who according to themselves, are on a first name basis with Gawd and Jesus. This can't be very good for ol' John because being for their endorsements before he was against them will have repercussions with this base. It's been reported that up to 20% of Americans are religiously insane and with Hagee and Parsley withdrawing their support for McCain, one has to wonder where McCain goes to fill this void. It's unlikely he's going to find much support among those earning less that a few hundred grand a year as he's pledged to make Bush's tax cuts for the already filthy rich permanent, anymore than he's gained favor with homeowners facing foreclosure whom he's referred to as speculators. He has another equally pressing dilemma in spite of his war hero status with military personnel by voting against the popular GI Bill which passed the Senate 75-22 and the House with a similar veto-proof majority. This leaves the racists and chauvinists which Barack and Hillary wouldn't get anyway. So, looking into the 2008 general election future with both eyes open, there is no way McCain should win fair and square against either Obama or Clinton. Unfortunately we've seen just how fair and square worked in both 2000 and 2004. So fasten your political seatbelts, the road is about to get very bumpy because the GOP and their corporate controllers have too much to lose now that they've tasted the spoils of their excesses the past twelve years. Expect every dirty political trick and then some with the support of a compromised media punditry. Gawd help us all.
Tuesday, May 13. 2008
 John McCain greeting his opponent after being defeated. Is this the man you want protecting us from our enemies? As if we haven't been tortured enough after seven plus years of wincing through almost daily Bushisms, from food on our families, to co-existing with fish, to fool me once, , can't be fooled again. Now we get another buffoon in John McCain, the so-called foreign policy expert who can't tell the difference between Shias and Sunnis, a couple of tribes who've been fighting each other for a mere 1,400 years. And if this wasn't enough, he was quoted as saying he'd be happy to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years if that's what it took for victory.
Of course, like his newest best buddy Bush, he can't quite articulate what victory in Iraq is unless it was one of his many inane statements, "until they stop killing us." I'm still trying to make any sense of this. Does it mean once every Iraqi is dead then they won't be able to kill our soldiers anymore?
Scary is that he's denying any of these statements even though he's been caught on tape. Scarier is the media letting him off the hook by not looping it 24/7 like they do with far less meaningful dem gaffes. But what caught my attention was a report this week on The Huffington Post claiming that after the 2000 election McCain said he didn't vote for Bush and that his wife Cindy voted for her husband on a write-in ballot. This was confirmed not only by Arianna herself, but also two other witnesses.
In true Bush mode McCain denied having made this statement and claimed he had in fact voted for Bush. Is this constant lying a republican thing? No need to answer that. Nonetheless, this is more than a he said - she said thing, because it really does come down to character. The guy has flip-flopped, pandered and changed his stance on almost everything he stood for in 2000 to appeal to the wing nutters in the republican party. And they say Hillary will do anything to get elected. He's made so many contrary claims the past few weeks, including he never said he didn't understand the economy, that how can we believe anything he says? He's all over the map in contradictions.
We know the MSM can't be trusted to save us from another dangerous loon in the White House, so it's left to the liberal blogosphere to hammer home every single miscue, gaffe, stumble or inane utterance McCain makes. The GOP started this, the only difference is they're wrong on every issue and have to rely on just making shit up about our candidate. Stuff that has zero to do with the issues.
I'm certainly no expert, but if I were a dem consultant using GOP rules, this is an ad I'd run against McCain:
"John McCain claims he has more experience in foreign affairs and is the best candidate to fight terrorism. After the dirty tricks Bush pulled on him in the republican primary in South Carolina in 2000, this is how McCain reacted."
Thursday, March 13. 2008
My wife, the Missus Herself, has a BS meter so powerful she could scare a buzzard off a s**t wagon with a single glance. For example, a few weeks ago she heard G. W. Bush make his usual ridiculous claims during the State of the Union Address about our success in Iraq and how wonderful the economy is doing. Her comment, "now do you understand why I can't stand to listen to this crap." Her point of course was, who could take politics seriously considering the idiocy of Bush and his crew these past seven years. Disaster upon disaster while claiming everything is going according to plan in his upside-down world. I'm the political junkie in the family but realized she was right, and who of sane mind would try and defend what's happening in Bush's political world. So I shut up. Which leads me to Jimmy Joe Bob. Jimmy Joe is our next door neighbor down south when the MH and I have the opportunity to visit our beloved southern home. We're northerners, so going south during the winter months is always a treat for us. Nevertheless, Jimmy Joe Bob is an actual person, only his last name is not Bob, I made that up. Jimmy Joe is as redneck as it gets. This guy is so scary he believes the Klu Klux Klan are liberal commie pinkos. He thinks George W. Bush is the best thing that ever happened to America and he believes all your kids want to sign up for a stint in Iraq. Now the ironic thing about Jimmy Joe is, he needs to sell his house, maybe because of me, or maybe because he and his wife recently lost their jobs in spite of the wonderful economy. In any event, we've all heard about the disaster that is Florida real estate and to this end Jimmy Joe is asking a hundred grand less than what he tried to get last year, yet he still insists the economy is doing just fine. I'm not trying to make fun of Jimmy Joe, I actually like the guy, but he's so typical of southern white bigots that he can't see through his own racism. And further, he's too stubborn to admit that Bush and his economic policies have damaged him personally. The sad fact is, Jimmy Joe and his wife are not an isolated situation. Approximately 30% of Americans still give Bush a favorable job approval rating in polls. I mean, come on, how dumb do you have to be to think Bush gives or even knows a rat's ass about problems facing the normal dude. This is the face of today's America under George W. Bush, a country that now rewards the already rich and penalizes the struggling masses, a country that now stands for exactly the opposite of what it was purported to be about for over two centuries, a country that is now lost in its own false patriotism. So great was America for its leadership role to promote human values that the world seems dumbfounded by her collapse in a short seven years. If only Jimmy Joe Bob and his like could understand what is really happening, America could recapture her former glory.
Monday, February 25. 2008
In a normal world the republican candidate should have about as much chance of winning the White House this year as George W. Bush getting up on his hind legs and saying, "I can not tell a lie." If Bush and the republicans have done one thing to benefit America as a whole, versus the already greedy rich and large corporations, I'm at a loss to think of what that might be. Conversely, to name the things he and the GOP have screwed up would fill an ocean. But this world is not normal and American politics has become crazier than a mule with fire ants up its ass. McCain has out flip-flopped Romney so many times they should change the name of the popular summer footware to "McCains." Why just this week, the anti-torture Senator from Arizona did his fish out of water thing and voted against the Senate bill to ban waterboarding. This from the same guy who for over 30 years has fought torture, and it should be noted had some authority on the issue having spent five and half years in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam war. But as they say, politics makes strange bedfellows and McCain has totally collapsed his principles to chase votes of the religiously insane and wingnuts. Oh, and something the press always gets wrong, waterboarding is not simulated drowning, it is drowning. If you don't have an expert performing the procedure it's easy to actually drown the individual being tortured, an occurrence I'm sure that has happened more than anyone cares to admit. We've all heard the stories that McCain can't control his temper, not a particularly desirable trait for a guy who controls the red button. And what are his chances of changing this character flaw as he approches his 72nd birthday? He also admits that economics is not his strong suit in a year where Americans consider the economy the number 1 issue. And of course he's stated he'll keep the troops in Iraq for a hundred years if that's what it takes, going completely against the number two issue on American minds. Without question you'd think he's the dream opponent for the dems in the 2008 presidential race. But not so fast. American politics has been dominated by big money, special interests, and the corporate controlled media for decades. Barak and Hillary are running so close that it's possible the dem nominee might not be determined until the convention in late summer. That means they will have to spend huge sums of money competing with each other right to the end, money they won't have for the general election against McCain. Meanwhile, McCain will have months to build a war chest, and you just know the repubs will hold their noses and fill McCain's coffers. Personally I prefer Hillary because I think she's best qualified to fight off the repub slime machine. But if Barak gets the nod, I'll support him 100%. What scares me is all this talk we're hearing that the Clinton and Obama supporters won't support the other camp. This sort of talk is the only thing that just might cause us to wake up November 5th with another dangerous loon in the White House. If Barak or Hillary has any sort of a lead after the March 5 primaries, then that's the time for one of them to concede and support the other for the sake of the country. If they decide to team up, even better. But let's not blow this again, they only need even money to send McCain packing in all 50 states.
Sunday, November 18. 2007
Watching the Democratic debate on CNN the other evening, along with 4.3 million other viewers, a few things struck us. Firstly, and before things even got started, our pundit experts predicted that Hillary could stumble a few more poll notches, mostly from her flip-flopping over driver's licenses for illegal immigrants in New York State. Not only did this not happen, most would have to agree that she performed as the confident front runner she is. The armchair quarterbacks complained that Hillary got off lightly on this issue, but the thought occurred to us that this was simply clever politics. That she pre-empted the issue before the debate began and reversed what was clearly, rightly or wrongly, a losing position. Isn't this refreshing considering the stubborn, arrogant, never wrong, decider BS we've suffered through the past 6+ years? We should point out that we have no dog in this hunt and consider all the Democratic candidates more than qualified even considering the low bar they face. The next thing that caught our attention was the booing when Obama and Edwards tried an early assault on Hillary. No question she handled these attacks with ease on her own, but we were somewhat surprised that our expert pundits, not happy with her anti-bitch slapping, suggested she had plants in the audience to throw her opponents off their game. Even if this were true, and you can get away with it, hey, politics is a compact sport. Compare this with the swift boat tactics of the Republican party whether they're sliming the Democrats or eating their own. And again, even if this were true, we're sure the other dem candidates are castigating their advisers because they didn't think of this too. Our tiny troupe of political junkies is so anxious to donkey kick the Republicans elephant dung off White House front porch, that we applaud any and all signs of fighting back. We want a scrapper, someone who will kick back with a lead boot, someone who could care less about the niceties considering what we're up against. The Republicans have demonstrated for decades that they have no respect for the Queensbury rules of political discourse, so why should we? The difference is that when the Republicans gain power, they can't govern shit, and can only follow the direction of their masters, the military industrial complex aided and abetted by the religiously insane who get their asses in a knot over gays and abortion. Which brings up another difference we noticed in this debate, that none of the Democrats took any crap from the CNN moderators. Well done Democrats. Now let's see how the Republicans fare on the Fox friendly - You Tube debate later this month. Any bets Rudy will be asked his favorite passage in the Bible?
Wednesday, November 7. 2007
Thankfully, Karl Rove's disgusting self has been out of my head since he quit last August, but here we go again, in no small part because of Valerie Plame's new book, 'Fair Game.'
Truthfully, I have never given much thought to his Bush coined nickname, "turd blossom," until recently that is. Sure, I get the turd part, but what does blossom have to do with it? I honestly never thought much about it, just never put the two words together, until now. Then a possibility hit me, a thought so deep in the recesses of my mind, that it laid there dormant for over seven years. Bush called Rove "turd blossom," because the fat slob could turn shit into a political flower.
It's so easy to hate the Bush administration for far too many reasons to count; war, corruption, incompetence. It's difficult to point your finger at any one thing, because the daily screw ups just keep coming, and that's the kicker. With Clinton it was one issue, lying about sex. How do you pick one issue with Bush? It's like whack-a-mole.
Clearly the Bush administration purposely created all these crises not only for their sick ideological manifesto, but more so to stay in power. They attacked Afghanistan, Iraq and the constitution to appeal to the religiously insane and the idiots who know no better. That's Karl Rove's modus operendi, that it's all about politics all the time and to hell with what's best for the country and the vast majority of citizens. Rove even announced prior to the '04 election that Iraq was a winning political strategy. Think about that for a second, that in their minds politics trumped the reality of war. That they would willingly sacrifice tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent lives to win a f**king election.
And impeachment's off the table?
And then it ended. Rove had to go quietly into the night to save the king, because his plan to create a GOP generation was over. He was over. The turd blossom turned back into what it was all along, shit.
Friday, October 19. 2007
It's baseball season so let's talk about the gang who couldn't shoot straight. The GOP are on a roll again, and all downhill. These guys and gals are a laugh a minute and don't even realize how funny they are. Why just the other day congressman David Hobson announced his retirement stating he was taking his ball and going home to play catch with his kids. Mr. Hobson is 71 years old, and is the 12th republican to so announce with over a year before the next election. At this rate of repubs going home with their ball, the democrats could gain super majorities in both houses by default. But let's not get a head of ourselves, this could be a Larry (wide-stance) Craig type resignation, you know, the republican who struggles to keep his feet off his neighbors' in airport bathroom stalls. Mr. Craig resigned from the senate before he decided not to resign and is now appealing his written confession. I can't even write this from my computer chair without strapping myself in with seatbelts because I'm laughing so hard.
Which brings us to Giuliani, who in response to a question
claimed his administration would be prepared to repel an attack from
Mars. (You can't make this shit up). I have no idea what the Rude-man
is smoking, but if he's a sharing type of guy, he just may get my vote.
Okay, scratch that. I just remembered the thrice married ex-mayor
Giuliani is the same dude who put the New York command center in the
World Trade Center against all expert advice after the 1993 al-Qaeda
attack. He's the same guy who wouldn't spring for working
walkie-talkies for firefighters, ones that worked for the police, ones
that didn't work for the firemen. The police escaped the collapse of
the World Trade Center on 9/11 because of communication. The firemen
didn't for the same reason. But Giuliani can save us from Martians.
This guy definitely qualifies for the alien threat, just not a human
terrorist threat. (start Twilight Zone theme music).
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