The Straight Poop

Have I mentioned that I love Electoral-Vote.Com? I know I gush like a school girl over Andy's site but it really is magnificent. For those of you who love polls and want to check on the hard numbers so far, it is second to none. Here is a quote from today's report which jibes with what I have been saying.

A point that has come up repeatedly with Hillary Clinton's strong wins in blue-collar states is can Obama get downscale whites to vote for him in the general election? The NY Times has a story about polling on this issue in these states. The bottom line is that while many blue-collar workers prefer Clinton, they still prefer any Democrat to John McCain so the Democrats are not in grave danger of losing states like Pennsylvania that they must win in November. What Obama brings to the table is sudden competitiveness in states like Virginia, Iowa, Missouri, and Colorado, which Republicans normally win easily.

So, basically, when you hear the "liberal" media talk about how Obama can't close the deal with white, blue collar voters, they are sensationalizing the story to make the race seem more exciting. He will win all the states John Kerry won plus Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and very possibly two of the following four states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Texas.

Sounds shocking, I know, but these states are totally in play. Dean's 50 state strategy may be more realistic than was thought a few months ago. Hillary has no clue what she is talking about when she says that the Democrats have no chance of winning them. It is so demonstrative of how this election really is about folks who are trapped in the old way of doing politics simply not getting it.

Speaking of not getting it, the North Carolina GOP is running attack ads against Obama, courtesy of the guy who brought us Willie Horton. Thanks, GOP NC and please keep it up. We are starting to see a correlation between more votes for Obama when people go negative on him.

I suggest mentioning his middle name a few times.....

Pennsylvania Wrap Up

The Hildawg won by 10 points last night. Here are the numbers:

Senator Clinton: 1,258,245 votes, 80 delegates
Senator Obama: 1,042,297, 66 delegates

Looking at the percentages, she wins 55-45, 3 more points than I had predicted. The percentages look bad but the actual numbers look pretty even...depends on how you want to look at it. The "liberal" media is spinning that Obama can't connect with the white, beer drinking, bowling, gun loving crowd so McCain will some of those votes. I think it is complete crap and here's why.

First of all, Hillary had the entire Pennsylvania machine behind her...Governor Rendell, both mayors and tons of elected officials. Obama had Senator Casey and Rep Murphy. If Obama gets the nomination, they will be working to get the vote out for him.

Second, take a look at this map from CNN of all the counties in Pennsylvania. At first glance, you might say that Hillary was more in touch with the rural vote with all the light blue. Scroll your mouse over...say...Buck's County, which is basically the crowd with whom Obama supposedly can't connect. He gets 42,000 votes to her 71,000...a large victory for her to be sure but he is still getting a good chunk of people in these areas. Take a look at some of the smaller counties. She gets around 60 percent of the vote but he still gets people in these very rural counties. It doesn't seem like they ALL were for Hillary as the media makes it appear.

If I were the Obama campaign, I would interview some of these folks and find out why they voted for him. He needs to know this so he can use it in Indiana. If he can win Indiana, it's over. Remember, he won in Iowa and Wisconsin, states that have similar demographics.

Here's my question....two million people voted...what happened to the other two million?

Pennsylvania Prognostication

I think I am just going to predict tonight's results and save the rest of the primary predictions for later next week. I have been doing some training this week and have not had time to fully prepare a rest of the contest crystal ball illumination.

So, I think Hillary will win tonight by 7 points. This is more than what most are predicting but less than the large margin she needs to convince superdelegates that she should still be in the race. It's going to be interesting to see how she does in the "Alabama" part of the state. If she wins 70-30 or more than I think we can safely say that Obama offended the white, beer drinking, bowling gun nuts. Anything less than that and I don't think his comments made much of a difference and I would call it a small victory for him.

I also want to say to those Democrats who are expressing concern that Obama, should he get the nomination, will not be able to win Pennsylvania....You are idiots. Please shut the fuck up. John Kerry carried that state in 2004. If HE can carry Pennsylvania, Obama will win there for sure, given the fact that people are even more dissatisfied with the shape of the country.

Gee, I'm Shocked

The lead story in today's New York Times discusses the Pentagon's influence on the various news networks guest military analysts and how they cover the war. The article contains several points which have been made on this blog for the last 4+ years, one of which is that the media is not "liberal" and will help sell whatever its corporate owners want it to sell, in this case the war in Iraq.

But the best part of the Time's investigation is the exploration of the links between these retired military officers and defense contractors. From the article...

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.

The entire article is filled with confirmations of all of the general points I have made about the Iraq, the defense industry, and the media. It also confirms that the Bush administration has waged an undeniable propaganda campaign whose form and success rivals Joseph Goebbels. Check out these official documents which describe how the propaganda campaign worked. Try not throw up when you read them.

To the people out there who still support the war....do you understand what is going on here and why we are really in Iraq? Or is this just another traitorous article from the Times?

If you answered yes to the last question, put down your cup of Kool Aid and please report to your local neurosurgeon for your annual checkup on the lobotomy you received in November of 2000.

.....then you are an Idiot.

I can always rely on Bill Maher. Below are two clips from last Friday's show. The first is from the New Rules segment at the end of the show. His final new rule is usually the best and he really drove it out of the park with this one. My favorite line?

"If you think Barack Obama is going to take away your guns, the you are an armed idiot."

This leads quite nicely into the next clip, shown earlier in the show, in which author Jeremy Scahill goes into some small towns in rural Pennsylvania and sees if Obama offended anyone with his "bitter" remarks. As I had hoped, the "Alabama" which is in between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, is more pro Obama than one might think. I think some folks over on Kevin Baker's blog aren't going to be too happy.

They are probably going to blow a bowel when, in the last part of the segment, Scahill visits a gun range and finds Obama supporters there as well. I am reminded of the 2004 election and how out of touch liberals seemed with what was really driving voters to the polls (fear, gays, doom etc..). This time around it is apparent to me that conservative pundits and much of the "liberal" media don't have a fucking clue what is really on people's minds.

Shh....let's not tell them.

Aw, who I am kidding? Like they would be reflective, change their mind, and listen.

Sheeya....right!

Clip#1

Clip #2

An Excellent Strategy

Rather than ripping ABC news commentators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulis, as Tom Shales has done wonderfully in the Washington Post, I think maybe I should be commending them. I also think that I should thank the right wing douche bag brigade, especially those in the blogsphere, for continuing to fight their battles using 2004 technology (Guns of August anyone?).

Why?

Since the debate Obama has picked up five more superdelegates which add to his overall delegate lead. I think it is very likely, based on the polls as well as the "man on the street" reaction to the debate, that in the last few primaries, as well as the general election in the fall, the American people aren't going to react kindly to "gotcha" politics any longer. Sure, they might vote against Obama because they think Hillary will do a better job on health care or they don't want government running their health care. That's fine by me. They are voting on the issues and they should keep drilling Obama on why he is not being specific enough on some of his key policy points, my chief complaint about him thus far.

But the rest of it? The flag pin-Ayers-Wright-elitist stuff? I spent most of the week pissed off that people weren't focusing on the issues. Actually, they are. ABC received 15,ooo negative emails in anger that it took 52 minutes to get to an actual issue in the debate last Tuesday. Some conservatives I know are lamenting the fact that we didn't get to see Obama's stance on certain issues so people could really see how off base he is in regards to some of these topics. Even John McCain, recently a guest on the Hardball college tour with Chris Matthews, said he is going to stop any 527s that are running these kind of attacks against Obama. He asked Obama to do the same.

Bottom line, the more these topics come up, the more it benefits Obama. I think McCain knows this and is trying to get the loud mouth putzes in his party to shut the hell up. McCain is a smart guy and he has been out there talking to people. They don't want to hear this crap anymore. It is also becoming evident that these attacks on Obama toughen him up for the fall and exposes, a think a bit prematurely, the right's game plan.

So, by all means, keep piling on. It seems to be working for Obama. Thanks!

Last Night

I was appalled at last night's debate and it further proves my point that we may not deserve someone like Barack Obama. One would think that that the first 45 minutes would cover important issues like the economy, Iraq, health care, and education. The four topics discussed?

-whether or not Obama is an elitist vis a vis his comments in San Francisco
-Reverend Wright
-William Ayers
-Flag pins.

If these are the issues that people want to focus on, our country is doomed. There is no other way to put it. I am hoping that voters in 2008 are smarter than that.

We'll see.....

So far, no effect

There seems to be little or no effect in the polls taken after Barack Obama's comments. Andy over at electoral vote. com has several polls up if you want to take a look.

I'd like to see what the polls show later in the week after the 24-7 news coverage of the comments by the "liberal" media soaks in a little more. Those will be the ones that will really show the effect.

Crabmaster threw down the gauntlet over on Kevin's blog that I haven't made any predictions because I'm (gasp!, sniffle sniffle) scared that I will be wrong. So, I have decided that on Monday I will predict how the rest of the primary season will play out.

Nice Quote

I don't read the Huffington Post often but this one caught my attention:

By cynically twisting Obama's comments about small town voters in a way that confirms every right-wing demagogic caricature of her own Party, Hillary Clinton has adopted the frames, lies, stereotypes and destructive clichés long embraced by the likes of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove. She has clearly decided that the road to victory runs through scorched earth. The question is, if she succeeds, what kind of Party will she be left to lead? She's burning down the village to save it -- or to prove that she would make the best fire chief. But the village won't be saved; only one house will be left standing. A house with room for just two occupants: Hill and Bill.

We Don't Deserve It

About two weeks ago, Senator Obama was on Hardball and told the audience that he believed that marriage was defined as being between a man and a woman. There was little or no reaction to this comment, the "liberal" media did not cover it wall to wall for two days, and the gay community did not go ape shit. In addition, there was no faux concern over Obama's electability.

But in this day and age, when you make a comment like this:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow those communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.And it's not surprising to me then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti immigrant sentiment or anti trade sentiment as to way to explain their frustrations."

well, you are God Damned all to hell!!

And Tinkerbell's light goes out and she dies.

Because as all good Americans know when you make any kind of remark that even is slightly negative about guns or religion (even if it is true), you are the pure embodiment of evil and are against all that is wholesome and good. One need only look at fellow blogger Kevin Baker's site to see the all too predictable reaction. I wonder if any of them will compare the reaction of Senator Obama's comments on gay marriage with the most recent ones and see a difference.

Probably not.

Anyway, I think when you look at the reaction to his statement on small towns, it becomes quite obvious that it is accurate. This reaction is typical of the "rock granite" stubborn refusal of some people to look at who is actually fucking them over and continually blame the "other" which, ironically, is what Obama is describing. It's a distraction from the serious issues of the day and it puts energy into something that will ultimately solve no problems--which works out perfectly for the people (Bush, Cheney and pundit machine) who supposedly are on their side. The people they should really be pissed off at are laughing all the way to the bank.....the people that have manipulated their bitterness and their honesty into votes.

Some people that post here lament long and hard about how liberals are "sheeple" who follow along with whatever their side says. To a certain extent and with certain liberals, this is true. However, the art of getting people to become sheeple has never been more perfected than it has with the "stupid rednecks in flyover country who believe in God, guns and country, " as Kevin describes on his blog. This recent flap is an excellent example.

It illustrates how the "fake outrage machine" works in this country. A bunch of people will now get angry at Obama for being "condescending" or the terribly false belief that he actually looks at people as Kevin says he does So, by all means, let's continue to debate, ad nauseaum, how Senator Obama is an "elitist" or a hater of Meanwhile, Bush Co will dance with glee as it continues to pull several layers of wool over millions of eyes and the real problems out there...the ones that Senator Obama is best equipped to face....continue to get worse.

A while back, a friend of mine told me that she didn't think we were ready for BarackObama..that our country was too petty and stupid to want a real leader who would actually take this country to the next level. If this bullshit continues on into next week, I fear she might be right. In which case, we deserve people like John McCain or Hillary Clinton, who most assuredly will be business as usual and definitely make the majority of our country's problems even worse.

Perhaps now is not the time for change because I'm not sure if we deserve it.

The Rankings

Over at Electoral Vote.Com, the votemaster has put up a list of all senators and where they rank-from liberal to conservative. I was surprised to find Hillary Clinton ranked slightly more liberal than Obama. Obama himself is only slightly more liberal than Joe Lieberman.

And McCain is more conservative than everyone, save four senators. This is based on their voting record and the median of 7 liberal interest groups. This seems to jibe with many of the other rankings out there.

So, why do conservatives hate McCain so much? His voting record is clearly more conservative than people like Saxby Chambliss or Sam Brownback.

The Ronulan Invasion

Great article in the Strib today about how Ron Paul has managed to get some delegates to got to the National Convention. The media is making an awful lot of ballyhoo out of the fight on the Democratic side of the race but methinks the Republican Convention, here in my home state, is going to be mighty interesting.

There a lot of pissed off people in the Republican Party. McCain has basically been propped up because the country club Republicans (aka money guys) know he is the best chance to win and they know that if they let the other two thirds of their loony bin put up someone (that would be the evangelicals and the Waco brigade) they will lose the election to the Democrats.

So, enter Ron Paul. He doesn't have a prayer of getting the nomination but there are enough people that love his libertarian booty that he will get some say at the convention and could lay the groundwork for a real revolution.

Check this out!

Hey folks. Just got back from Pop's funeral. I will be putting up some posts throughout the week on my thoughts. It was a very intense experience. I'm glad I went through it.

In the meantime, check out this site. It is hilarious. I have been raving about it to friends for the last two weeks and last Friday they decided to get political. Check out the comments. Sounds like the usual debate on this blog.

A Heavy Heart

It is with a heavy heart that I must report that my grandfather, Harvey Smith aged 92, has passed away. He had struggled these last few years with small strokes, falls which resulted in back problems, and some skin cancer.

The last few weeks had been particularly bad and his quality of life was terrible. He passed away in his sleep Tuesday morning April 1. The photo to the left was taken two years ago as he was reading to my son.

For the last day I have been thinking about all of the things he saw in his full life...the first automobiles (he was born in 1916!) and a man on the moon, two world wars and the birth of some nations, the first calculator, the first computer, and the Internet. What an amazing life and all the things he saw come to pass!

He served in the Army from 1942-1945 as a cartographer, sometimes going behind enemy lines in the South Pacific to map out areas so our guys could figure out their way around. He was one of the first men to land in Korea and take it from the Japanese in 1945. I just found out today that his service, this Saturday in St Louis, will be a military service with a 21 gun salute, as he is one of the last WWI vets in the area. I am looking forward to being there to honor this great man.

The pride that I have in him is something that cannot be put into words. I will miss him very much but I am happy that he had a full life and was there for me well into my adulthood. Rest In Peace, Poppo, my heart will be always be with you and I know that you went home with more integrity that anyone I know.

It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City

This week, Forest Lake High School, in Forest Lake, Minnesota, is on spring break. Thank goodness they are because if the last week has been any indication, the school was about to be attacked and taken over....by the Right Wing Putz Brigade.

And Steve Massey, principal of the high school and his staff would have been tarred and feathered in the public square for treason. Why?

Last Tuesday, March 25th, the Vets For Freedom National Heroes Tour was scheduled to stop at the school and speak to a social studies class on politics and the war in Iraq. This event was worked out between Massey and Forest Lake alum Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran who heads the Heroes group. The group decided, however, to contact the press and make an "event" out of the visit, complete with rally outside before class. Soon it was learned that Michelle Bachmann, last seen ejaculating on President Bush during his walk in to the State of the Union speech in 2007, was going to attend and speak. Hmm....

Sniff Sniff. What's that I smell? Ah yes, not an educational event at all really. Sounds to me like a propaganda tour to me. A propaganda tour selling a bill half truths and outright lies. You know the kind of horse shit I am talking about....something like this...

"We are in Iraq to protect our freedom and safeguard the world from tyranny."

Does anyone out there actually believe this anymore or are they that fucking clueless?

It would've been one thing if Hegseth had come to the school and had a low key classroom discussion. But no. Oh no. That's not how it works with these people. It has to be a big show because they have a point to make and if you don't agree with it...well....guess what happens?

Since relocating the event to the American Legion, mainly due to security concerns over protest groups also wanting a chance to speak, Massey has received 1200 emails and about 250 phone calling him a coward, a Communist, and a spineless America hater.

Remember this photo?

















After the comments that Massey, his staff, and several students have received, you are all going to have to excuse me while I tell the putz brigade, who lately have been amusing me with their Jonah Goldberg loving assess, that if you want to find a group of people most likely to be fascists, TAKE A LOOK IN THE FUCKING MIRROR, DOUCHE BAGS. The Michelle Malkins of the world need to realize that when they behave like this, they are acting in the EXACT SAME WAY THE SS DID!!!!

They call people like me "unpatriotic" when all I really want is for our troops to be sent in harm's way when they are actually protecting us (Afghanistan) as opposed to fighting for the interests of very select group of people on the world in two very specific industries (Iraq).

I have to say that in many ways I am soooo tired of this idiocy. Can't we be done with these people now? My patience is at an end and when they behave in this fashion, I really have to say that there is no hope in building any bridges. The last eight years of Bush Co have basically given them a license to tap into their jingoistic, inner moron and make up whatever bullshit they want about they world and then have the audacity to play the victim when someone like me calls them on their complete ignorance.

President Obama (aka an intelligent adult) can't come soon enough....

Obama Discusses Iraq and McCain in Fayetteville, NC

The Full Speech

Here is the full speech. I have some problems posting from YouTube these days. Sorry about the technical malfunctions.

I was listening to Michael Medved yesterday and he was talking about this speech. He said that, with this speech, Obama has aligned himself with the reparations section of the civil rights movement. Did he hear the same speech I did? Perhaps he might want to listen again.

I wonder how minds like his (and the people who is speaking to) actually work with all the cognitive dissonance kicking around in there. Of course, they do pay him to shape and frame thinking:)

We Got Bill!

We finally got Bill. Not Clinton, of course, but the big man from New Mexico: Bill Richardson. His endorsement of Barack Obama, in my opinion, is the beginning of the end of the Hillary Clinton candidacy.

Richardson is a huge power player in the Democratic Party, second only to Al Gore perhaps, and his endorsement yesterday of Senator Obama was a huge boost. I'll be the first to admit that my guy had a bad week, even with the instantly historical speech made on Tuesday. In my view, this erases any negativity felt about Senator Obama within the the ranks of the Democratic leadership.

Governor Richardson called Barack Obama a "once in a lifetime" leader.

Oooo...you damn right!