Contributors

Friday, October 24, 2008

This Is SOOOOOO True

I just got this email from a reader. Hilarious:)

Don't you have to give McCain credit? For a man who graduated at the bottom of his class he married a woman worth 100 million and has been a US Senator for years. Wouldn't you have to say that he has done remarkably well?

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?.....think about it. Would the country's collective point of view be different? More importantly, how do you think the "liberal media" would paint this picture?

Ponder the following:
  • What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
  • What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
  • What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
  • What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
  • What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?
  • What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
  • What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
  • What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
  • What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
  • What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
  • What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
  • What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
  • What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in
International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Buh-Bye

Well, you probably thought I'd never say this but I have to...thank god for the Republican Party. Apparently someone in their congressional re-election campaign has some sense of decency as they have pulled their funding for TV ads for Michelle Bachmann in MN-06. Her comments were completely ludicrous and it gives me hope that some on the right are calling her on her bullshit.

Maybe we are finally starting to turn the corner...

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A Clever and Fiendish Plot

Yesterday, MN-06 Rep Michelled Bachmann offered what is probably the best we are going to get, in the way of an apology, in regards to her comments about Barack Obama having anti American views. She said she was wrong for what she said but that it was a "trap" laid by evil media liberal Chris Matthews and she made the mistake of walking into to it.

Notice, once again, how we see that it is never the fault of the conservative entirely. Oh no. That can't ever be possible. There is always someone else to blame (see: the non victim victim culture of douche bag land) in this case the liberal media.

Take a look at the clip below. Her comments come 5 minutes and 34 seconds into the interview. Tell me exactly how she walked into a trap. She was excited and...dare I say it...jubilant at the idea of answering Matthews' question.

So much for a group of people that tauts taking responsibility for their actions.

Bachmann on Hardball

Monday, October 20, 2008

The End

Last Friday night on Hardball on MSNBC, Chris Matthews asked his guest, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann from MN-06, if Barack Obama had anti American views. She answered yes and then went on to call for an investigation, by the media and Congress, of people in government who have anti American views.

48 hours after her remarks, her Democratic opponent in MN-06, Elwyn Tinklenberg, raised $640,000. While Tinklenberg was raking in the coin, General Colin Powell made a comment about her, right after he endorsed Barack Obama on Meet The Press, saying that sort of divisiveness accomplishes nothing and is simply flat out wrong.

I think someone needs to go knock Congresswoman Bachmann on the noggin and tell her that it is not 1952 and she is not Joe McCarthy.

The year is 2008, folks, and I have to say that it warms my heart to see the tactics of the right, long discussed on this blog, falling completely flat. The American people aren't listening. They aren't listening to the robo calls from the McCain campaign saying that Obama pals around with terrorists. They aren't listening to Sarah Palin as she continues to flog a dead horse by bringing up Obama's anti-American "associations." (Which is very odd, considering her husband belongs to the Alaska secessionist movement who are quite clearly anti American). They aren't listening to the conservative douche bag machine as they play the fear and race card simultaneously.

Just like with Joe McCarthy, the American public is starting to wake up. Thank God. There was awhile there when I wondered if we had it in us. The polls haven't changed. The donations keep rolling in for Senator Obama and Democrats around the country. And, although the election is still two weeks away, I think it is safe to say that we have seen the end of Rovian politics. When our country is as divided as it is, things get really fucked up. Guess what? Things are pretty fucked up right now and the American people are sick of the negativity.

Barack Obama rolled the dice and stayed positive. He had pundit after pundit telling him to go really negative but he didn't. He stayed on task and spoke to the problems our nation faces. These are serious problems that need to be addressed by dedicated people with deep intellect and compassion.

In other words, him.

In all honesty, it may be the end of the Republican Party as we know it. Party leaders hitched their wagon to a volatile and decaying star. Much of the base are ignorant, bitter, and angry people whose only goal in life, seemingly, is force their dogma down people's throats. The convention in St Paul and the attacks against Senator Obama in the weeks since have exposed them for what they truly are...horrible and willfully ignorant people who exist only to hate and divide.

One of the best things about this nation, which is the main reason why I love it as much as I do, is that we always find a way to deal with the Michelle Bachmanns of our country. We've taken a few steps down the path of anger and fanaticism in the past. We always manage to come back, though, and show the people of the world what we are truly made of.

We're just about to do that again.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Powell Endorses Barack Obama

Today was a truly magnificent day. General Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president. I'm certain there will be a lot of talk about race...about how Powell is a traitor and an America hater...or about how he is secretly a socialist/communist/fascist/terrorist.

While all this talk is going on, the right will be exposed for what they truly are...or what they have allowed themselves to become: a large group of angry, ignorant, purposefully unintelligent psychotics. I have already received three emails from readers saying basically that Powell is a traitor. In this case, and I REALLY mean this...I hate being right.

Pretty fucking sad, huh?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Last Night's Debate

Contrary to the polls, I thought McCain did the best job of all the debates. He got a little testy at the end and seemed physically uncomfortable throughout but, for the most part, I thought he did well.

Obama seemed a little flat...like he was coasting. I kept hoping for him to really make some zingers about right wing ideology, regarding the economy, and how it has all folded like a wet taco. Instead, he chose to make some quiet points which I think made him look a little weak.

The next three weeks are going to be fucking nasty. Not so much from McCain himself but from Palin and the base (Arabic translation: Al Qaeda). I'm starting to get a little nervous for Senator Obama's safety. Even though he has Secret Service protection, I don't really feel all that comfortable. The base is starting to spontaneously combust due to the fact that their leader, George W. Bush, has nationalized some banks (aka all humans everywhere being boiled into a pit of sewage). This is not sitting well with them and they are a powder keg ready to explode.

How will it happen?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Uh Oh.

The subject of ACORN and some voter fraud came up in comments recently so I thought I would share this photo that I just got from Robo Cam Guy.

Yep, that's right. It's John McCain attending an ACORN rally.

So, should his link to ACORN be as scrutinized as Barack Obama's?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

One More Time....

Not much popping out of my head today so I'll let Andy at Electoral-Vote.com take it away again...

Palin Whips the Base into a Frenzy

The decision to pick an unknown evangelical governor as John McCain's running mate has succeeded beyond Steve Schmidt's wildest dreams. Way beyond. Sarah Palin has perfect aim when throwing red meat to partisan crowds and whipping them into a frenzy to the point when people at rallies yell: "terrorist" and "kill him" about Obama. Then Palin can conveniently say she did not say that but the point is made anyway. Of course when this happens she could say: "Somebody grab that guy and drag him out of here. I don't want people like that at my rallies" but she never does. She winks and basks. The trouble for Palin and now McCain is that this frenzy has been widely reported and condemned and it is turning off crucial independent voters in droves. The featured commentary at intrade.com is about Palin, saying: "Rove's creation has turned into a mob baying for blood." Even leading conservative columnists don't like this. Kathleen Parker has called for her to drop off the ticket. The bettors agree that Rove III is not working. Ten shares of McCain stock cost $23 this morning. This means that if you are absolutely convinced McCain will win, you can invest, say, $23,000 now and collect $100,000 in 3 weeks if McCain wins.

The consequence of this whole campaign could be far reaching. If Obama wins and the exit polls show independents voted overwhelmingly for him, the pundits are going to lay the blame at Palin's high heels and advise the GOP to forget the evangelicals and run candidates with financial expertise (like Mitt Romney) in the future. Needless to say, the evangelicals, who finally got one of their own on the ticket.

The Republican Party is going to have to do some serious self actualization if they lose as much as people think they will. This is going to be a near impossible task because how little reflection they are capable of. To admit that they could be wrong about something is tantamount to the end of the universe as we know it.

Do they really want people yelling 'terrorist' and 'kill him?' at rallies? I would hope not. I hope that some of you now realize what I have fucking been saying for the last eight years...it isn't the fringe element....IT'S THE MAJORITY OF THE BASE!!!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Polifact Debunks Obama-Ayers Connection

From electoral-vote.com...

The McCain campaign and the RNC are still using ads that link Obama and 1960s radical William Ayers. Now Polifact has examined the ads closely and concluded that the claim that Obama and Ayers ran a radical education foundation together is a "pants-on-fire" lie. While it is true that Obama was the nominal head of the foundation in question, Ayers never had a paid position on the foundation's staff, never was on the board, and never had a vote on anything. His connection to Obama was attending some board meetings that were open to the public, and this 20 years after his radical days, by which time he had reformed enough to get a Ph.D. in education from Columbia University and was able to win Chicago's "Citizen of the Year" award in 1997 for his work for nonprofit organizations. In short, while Ayers was a despicable person in his youth, the McCain campaign's relentless harping on the close relationship between Obama and Ayers is very misleading. They weren't close at all.


Couldn't have said it better myself...

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Holy SheeeIt!

Christopher Buckley, son of the late ultra conservative William F Buckley, has endorsed Barack Obama for president.

I am beginning to feel comfortable.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Ash in the Lead

Apparently, the pilfering of lawn signs isn't high on the minds of the folks in my home district. (MN-03). A new Survey USA poll (Oct 5-6) shows Aswhin Madia (D) ahead of Erik Paulsen 46-43 points. To be certain, this is still within the margin of error. Figure in the fact that it is an a R+1 district and that Ash is a newcomer to politics compared to Paulsen, 13 years in Minnesota State Legislature and House Majority Leader from 2003-2007, and it is incredible.

The real thing to watch now is how the 11 percent undecided break. If you know anyone like this, start talking to them about how Ash is a fiscal conservative and would be a much more responsible steward of spending than Pauslen. Start by clicking here for where he stands on this issue. He's not full of crap when he says this stuff.

He is a marine, after all :)

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Debate II Post Mortem

I watched the debate last night with my friend Marc at Lone Spur. My first impression was that it was terribly boring. Both candidates repeated the same points they have made on the trail. The chief cause of this was this format. Questions were know by both men ahead of time, they were not allowed to talk to each other, and the audience was not allowed to follow up. Lame...

John McCain did not go "there." His campaign probably felt that the Ayers-Rezko-Wright thing would best be showcased in negative ads that will be coming soon to a theater near you. He was pretty weird though. When moderator Tom Brokaw asked him who would be the next Treasury Secretary in a McCain administration, he replied, "Not you, Tom." Huh? Was that supposed to be a joke. And the "that one" comment was just plain silly. McCain looked like a grandpa scolding his grand child.

Barack Obama had a couple of good moments (bomb bomb Iran and North Korea jibes) but essentially repeated his stump points and did not get into specifics. I guess that is alright, given time constraints, but he really has some great specifics on his web site. Couldn't he have showcased one or two?

I am left thinking that the last debate, regarding domestic policy, will be nauseatingly repetitive. That's all we have been talking about. Given the fact that they are going to talk about the economy again, I'd really like to hear some new material.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Tonight's Debate

So, what is going to happen tonight? Will John McCain "go there?" I suspect he will and I predict it's not going to work as well as he thought. First of all, Americans have more on their mind than Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, and Tony Rezko. Second, McCain has his own skeletons in his closet. For the record, though, I think he is telling the truth about the whole Keating Five deal. It was bad judgment but I don't think he broke the law.

What I am really looking for tonight is a substantive discussion between the two of them on where they want to take this country and how they are going to solve our mammoth problems. I probably shouldn't hold my breath, huh?

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Their Tool Kit

I tune in to Bill Maher every Friday night and, for the most part, look forward to laughing most of the time. After the first interview, I didn't really feel much like laughing and found myself to be thoroughly discouraged and quite depressed for the rest of the show. There were some funny things said but I didn't fell like laughing.

In this first segment, Bill interviewed Bob Woodward, famous Washington Post reporter and author of the new book The War Within. The book is the fourth in a series of books on the Bush Presidency, specifically the United States' involvement in Iraq. Woodward was allowed unprecedented access to President Bush to the point of where he has actually been given a National Security clearance and not allowed to discuss certain aspects of the meetings he attended.

One meeting he could discuss was a 2007 meeting between Admiral Fallon, Commander of US Central Command at the time, and President Bush. Woodward relates an extremely disturbing conversation between the Admiral and the president.

Admiral Fallon: Mr. President, what is our strategy going to be with Iran?
President Bush: They're assholes.


If any conversation can sum up the last eight years of US foreign policy, it's this one. I've always known that our foreign policy has been, at best, the product of a fifth grade intellect. But the above exchange really drove it home. I know there will be some of you who will be deluded enough to rip me for being "elitist" but I demand more from my president when dealing with a country like Iran. I want a president who is going to use his intellect and figure out, to the best of his ability, how to neutralize a country like Iran from every possible angle. Take a look at both the candidates we have right now and tell me who best fits that description.

As if this conversation weren't enough to depress the hell out of me, Bill and Bob discussed a statement made by Ayman Al Zawahari, co-leader of Al Qaeda, in 2000. He said that Al Qaeda's only hope of defeating the United States was to get it to beat itself economically. I look at where we are at right now and I have to say, we've done a pretty good job of realizing his dream.

Combine the bail out with the cost of the Iraq War and you're looking at 2 trillion dollars. That's how much we...as in you and I...OWE other people. When you owe other people that much, you don't have a dick anymore. And essentially, that's the problem with America today. We have no authority in the world at all. Sure we might have the best military but even the cracks are starting to show in that. The two people directly responsible for the attacks on 9-11 are living in a luxury villa in Pakistan? And John McCain doesn't want to bomb Pakistan because they are our ally? It's true...we have no dick.

Other countries are moving past us and engaging in diplomacy without us. We saw this last summer with Syria and Israel. We see it every day with Iran because George Bush and John McCain don't understand the difference between appeasement and talking. We are probably going to see more of it if McCain becomes president. If, for some reason, Sarah Palin becomes president, it will be official: The United States will be the joke of the planet.

Some say we already are. And I really haven't felt like laughing about it lately. I have been racking my brain to figure out how we got here. In fact, the search for the answer to this question is why I started this blog. I have come up with something that I think defines the problem. And by "the problem" I mean conservative ideology. Liberals have no problem taking the blame for problems. There is no doubt in my mind that liberals/Democrats have a good deal of responsibility in the mess we are in right now. Conservatives would, of course, agree.

But when it comes to reflection of their own flaws, conservatives balk, thump their chests, and call their examiners liars and traitors. They are incapable of self actualization. Or, in this case, group actualization. In looking at the fact that conservative ideology has been driving the agenda in this country for the last 28 years, one can honestly say that the results don't match the promises. Why?

When they only tool in your tool kit is a hammer, everything is a nail.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Post Mortem On VP Debate

As I predicted, both candidates did fine. They also did pretty much what I said they should do and looked strong overall.

Palin had a couple of comments that I completely agreed with. Much to the hyper consternation of the free market fundamentalists, she blamed predatory lenders and greed for our current situation and not the government. Good answer because it is the truth. She also seemed pretty honest on her position on gay marriage and showed tolerance as well as a desire to make sure that all Americans have equal rights.

She did seem weak on foreign affairs, though, and I don't think we need another person in such a high position of power that has such a low level of knowledge in the rest of the world. She did seem much stronger in this area than she has in the past few weeks but that's mostly because she repeated the party line.

Biden looked like he had just done a bong hit before the debate...which was a good thing because he was tres chill. His strong moments were in the foreign policy segment, when he talked about raising his family, and his closing statement. He was rough in the beginning, looking at Gwen Ifill while Governor Palin looked in the camera. When he started looking in the camera, he seemed stronger.

Now that the side show is over, we can get back to who this election is really about: Barack Obama and John McCain. Town hall format on Tuesday night. It should be fun!

Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Big V

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn't, I should "off" myself.

Sound familiar? It should because it sounds exactly like something I would write here on Notes From The Front demonstrating clearly and accurately the type of attitude I get every day from conservatives. It might surprise you to know that the person who wrote the above statement is none other than Kathleen Parker, CONSERVATIVE columnist for the National Review and Washington Post.

Ms. Parker recently wrote a piece in the National Review which called for Sarah Palin to quit the VP slot on the ticket due to her complete lack of experience and knowledge regarding...just about everything. "She's out of her league," wrote Parker last week week, "she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion." I urge you all to read it as she points out several quotes which demonstrate that Palin has no clue what she is talking about.

After the article went up, Ms. Parker received about 8000 emails. According to Parker, they had the general tone of the first paragraph of this post. She goes on...

Some of my usual readers feel betrayed because I previously have written favorably of Palin. By changing my mind and saying so, I am viewed as a traitor to the Republican Party -- not a "true" conservative.

The fierce reaction to my column has been both bracing and enlightening. After 20 years of column writing, I'm familiar with angry mail. But the past few days have produced responses of a different order. Not just angry, but vicious and threatening.


And she's surprised about this? It's what I have been saying all along about the right. It's not just the crazies, folks. That IS their base. Total vindication. The Big V, baby!

But what is a true conservative? One who doesn't think or question and who marches in lock step with The Party?

Anyvone who disobeys our vill will be liquidated. Seig Heil!

Some of Palin's interview responses can't even be critiqued on their merits because they're so nonsensical. But even that is someone else's fault, say Palin supporters. The media make her uncomfortable.

Someone on the right FINALLY recognizing the "non victim" victim culture just like me.

The picture is this: Anyone who dares express an opinion that runs counter to the party line will be silenced. That doesn't sound American to me, but Stalin would approve.Readers have every right to reject my opinion. But when we decide that a person is a traitor and should die for having an opinion different from one's own, we cross into territory that puts all freedoms at risk. (I hear you, Dixie Chicks)

OK, now I just love Kathleen Parker and want to read every one of her columns now forever and ever. Yes, she is a conservative. Yes, I disagree with her on many issues. But at least she is finally seeing the same insanity that I have been seeing for eight years: the Republican Party has been hijacked by lunatics.

I'm sure it is coincidence that, upon the Palin column's publication, a conservative organization canceled a speech I was scheduled to deliver in a few days. If I were as paranoid as the conspiracy theorists are, I might wonder whether I was being punished for speaking incorrectly.

Unfortunately, that's the way one begins to think when party loyalty is given a higher value than loyalty to bedrock principles.

And what do we call that, Ms. Parker?



















Now, I hope all of you can see how ridiculous Jonah Goldberg (and Kool Aid drinkers) look right now.

As far as tonight's debate goes, look no further than the post below for my thoughts.

Tonight

The VP debate is tonight and, by all indications, it's going to be a dandy. The build up has been extraordinary with an enormous amount of pressure on Sarah Palin to....say something intelligible. There is also a lot of pressure on Biden to not look like he is beating up on a girl. Here's what should happen and what I think is going to happen with each candidate.

Every single time Biden opens his mouth to criticize Sarah Palin it should be prefaced with John McCain's name. So, if Palin says, "We need to stay in Iraq and get the job done," Biden says, "John McCain and Sarah Palin have the wrong policy in Iraq. We need to...blah blah blah." He will look like he is beating up on her or look like he is making her look stupid if he says anything intelligent...and we all know what happens when conservatives see someone smart saying smart things...they tap into their inner rage, make up something moronic, and get ten more eligible idiots to believe it. Election lost. So Biden should have one word on his mind at all times: McCain.

Sarah Palin needs to do what she did in the Alaskan gubernatorial debate: be herself. Speak from her heart and let the base know what her values are. If asked a question that she doesn't know the answer to, which may be many knowing Gwen Ifill, the highly respected journalists and moderator for tonight's debate, simply respond with a canned conservative answer. Continuing to drone on about various things that have been crammed into her head by the McCain team is not going to work. Biden will just get to sit back and win. She did a fine job in that debate in Alaska.

That being said, I think she will do just fine tonight now that expectations have been lowered so much. I think Biden will say one or two really stupid things but at the end of the night, it will be a draw and the polls won't move too much. People are thinking about the economy right now and this is just a side show.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

The Usual Crap

I've gotten a flurry of emails and have engaged in pretty much the same debate, with conservatives, over the last week or so regarding the current financial crisis. There have also been a few posts in comments that were of the same general theme so I thought I would bring this out front to really chew on it.

The basic conservative line is that our current financial crisis was caused by the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and by government quotas, place on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to give loans to low income customers. Essentially, it's the fault of government, affirmative action, and poor people. All the people on Wall Street and the corporations in America were innocent and victims of "gubmint."

This is a complete load of shit.

The CRA was signed into law in 1977. How would a law 30 years old cause lending problems now? Yes, Clinton changed the law but that activity that resulted from those changes came to an end in 2001. The real thing they fail to see is that the CRA only applies to banks and thrifts. It's stated in the law.

The Community Reinvestment Act (or CRA, Pub.L. 95-128, title VIII, 91 Stat. 1147, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq.) is a United States federal law that requires banks and thrifts to offer credit throughout their entire market area and prohibits them from targeting only wealthier neighborhoods with their services, a practice known as redlining. The purpose of the CRA is to provide credit, including home ownership opportunities to under served populations and commercial loans to small businesses.

The vast majority of the sub prime loans in the last 8 years did not originate from banks or thrifts. Half of them came from places beyond the reach of CRA. Another quarter came from subsidiaries. The final quarter of sub prime loans came from CRA and that kind of debt just doesn't seem to be enough to drive our economy off the cliff.

In regards to Fannie and Freddie, Freddie Mac Chairman and CEO Richard Syron recently said that the GSEs have been hit by a "100-year storm" in the housing market, accentuated by some higher-risk mortgages that they were forced to buy to meet government affordable-housing targets.

From Barrons.com

The latter contention is more than disingenuous. A substantial portion of Fannie's and Freddie's credit losses comes from $337 billion and $237 billion, respectively, of Alt-A mortgages that the agencies imprudently bought or guaranteed in recent years to boost their market share. These are mortgages for which little or no attempt was made to verify the borrowers' income or net worth. The principal balances were much higher than those of mortgages typically made to low-income borrowers. In short, Alt-A mortgages were a hallmark of real-estate speculation in the ex-urbs of Las Vegas or Los Angeles, not predatory lending to low-income folks in the inner cities.

Couple this with the fact that Rick Davies, McCain's campaign manager, was paid 30K a month by Fannie and Freddie , for five years, to remove government restrictions. Now either he did a terrible job (possible) or they are lying because they don't want everyone to know how much they fucked up (probable).

Bottom line? The government fell asleep on this one, winked and did nothing, or was completely incompetent at enforcing even the most basic of oversight. It was probably all three.

The information that I have listed above is completely ignored by the right and, hilariously, once again we see the "anti victim" culture behaving like victims. It's always someone else's fault...never the fault of any of their beliefs or actions because, of course, they are perfect and you are not allowed to question them nor is there any need for reflection.

Does anyone out there think it is possible to look at the actual causes of this crisis?

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

777

We have definitely entered the Twilight Zone. I spent a lot of time watching the news last night and one thing really stood out at me. After the Dow dropped 777 points yesterday, our leadership in Washington (both parties) looked like a bunch of incompetents. Over the years, there have been so many things that President Bush has done that have embarrassed our country but there was no doubt that he was on the sidelines yesterday. In fact this morning, he looked like a beaten dog.

The embarrassment yesterday and today, though, lies with the US House of Representatives. All of them should be positively mortified at their unbelievable incompetence to get anything done. I heard a few lone voices, on both sides, saying a couple of slightly intelligent things but for the most part, they behaved like impotent buffoons.

I am not necessarily saying I supported the bill. In fact, those voices on both sides that I speak of in the above paragraph were ones that voted against the bill. Couldn't they have worked little smarter to make it better?

I guess not.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Every Picture Tells A Story

As I was driving to Wisconsin last Friday night, I tuned into WPR and listened to the debate. Aside from the disagreements with policy and his outright false statements, I thought John McCain did a good job. I thought Obama did a good job too and my wife and I looked at each other after it was over and ruled it a tie.

Then I checked out the debate re-run on TV later that night when we got to my mom's and there was no doubt in my mind that Obama won. Why? Because John McCain, throughout the entire debate, would not even look at Senator Obama. He would not even acknowledge his presence. And the look on his face basically told me that he believed that Barack Obama did not deserve to be on the same stage as him.

McCain looked pissed off that he even had to be there. In what had to be one of the most bizarre weeks in politics, John McCain gave Barack Obama the same attitude that conservatives have been giving liberals for the better part of a decade: you're weak and you're not good enough.
It's not acceptable to simply disagree with a liberal...you have to show that they are weak, irrational, and given to emotional hyperbole. In other words, how a male from the 1950s views a female.

Put into this context, the ideas that John McCain put forth on Friday night are relics of an age and of policies that have proven to be colossal failures. He offered nothing new on Friday night, even though he tried desperately to distance himself from President Bush, and I saw his candidacy for the farce that it is. As I drive around Minneapolis and see the "McCain-Palin" signs in people's yards, I wonder why people would continue to support failure.

Are they happy with what has gone on in the last eight years?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Dave Still Has It!

Holy crap, this is the funniest fucking thing I have seen in a long time. Zoom forward to the 6 minute mark and watch from there.

Racing to the airport?

The First Gentlemen of Theater

In what has to be the finest example of acting I have seen in a long time, John McCain is trying to postpone Friday's debate in order to "fix the financial problems" of our country. In other words, he's seen the poll numbers, understands that the policies he supported in the last ten years have helped cause this problem, and is desperately trying to look like he is doing something.

I think Senator Obama said it best. "Presidents have to be able to do more than one thing at a time."

Maybe John McCain is incapable of doing that.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Through The Looking Glass

Hey...guess what? The 2008 Official Republican Party Platform opposes bailouts of private companies.

We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself. We believe in the free market as the best tool to sustained prosperity and opportunity for all.

And yet John McCain is supporting Paulson's plan? A plan that has the blessing of the President? Help me out, here folks. What am I missing?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

From The Right

I started posting on Kevin Baker's blog again. It's been fun so far. We've been discussing the current financial crisis and I wanted to share with a comment that was recently made to me.

Now, THINK, AT LEAST FOR ONE FUCKING MINUTE, DUDE. The gubmint requires the mortgage companies to make what both sides know are very bad investments. Thus, the reason for making such investments is not the expectation of realizing a profit, and in fact the expectation is that many, if not most, of such investments will realize a loss. (Wait for it ...) This is not capitalism, dude, it is socialism. The investment is made for a social purpose that is mandated by the gubmint, is without regard to issues of profit and loss, and is not the free choice of the lending entity involved.

So basically, the cause of our current crisis is...the government? Wow. I find myself wishing more and more that I was on the right side of the aisle. Things would be so much simpler...having the same answer to everything.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Thank You, Chas!

Many are wondering these days why there is so much attention paid to Sarah Palin. I think the main reason for this is John McCain is old and has a history of health issues. So, the question on many people's minds is...is she ready to lead?

Answering this question correctly brings a giant pile of conservative bull shit. Y'see, folks, conservatives, or most of the base anyway, don't like it when you question one of their own. To do so is wrong, evil, and unpatriotic. When some in the media began to question Sarah Palin's credentials after she was first picked, the right wing douche bag machine ramped up their shit and before you know it, it was Glory Glory Hallelujah 24-7 on all of the major media outlets.

It's a very effective way of controlling and manipulating the message. Sarah Palin is, in fact, the most under qualified person to ever run for office. As president, she would be a complete disaster in just about every area imaginable. But to conservatives, she feels like they feel so she's A-OK! Odd because, while they bemoan the left for being all about "feelings," they are actually infinitely more guilty of selecting their candidates based on their "guts" than the left is.

The selection of Palin was, however, a brilliant political move because the leaders of the party know that McCain won't win without the base. They know that, by selecting Palin, the left will make accusations of idiocy which will, in turn, rile up the idiots in the base (attacking one of their own) and get them out to vote...the propaganda working perfectly in shaping the erroneous perception of "elites" attacking a "common folk" which further degrades the intelligence level in this country (aka the plan all along).

Thankfully, though, some Republicans are starting to see the light. Chuck Hagel, Senator from Nebraska, said the following last Thursday.

She has no foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say.

Well, you can say that she doesn't know dick about the world but if you did, the Republicans would pull out the victim card again (ah, the delicious irony) and shove it down your throat. Hagel went on.

I think it is a stretch to say that she's got the experience to be president.

No fucking shit. When Palin told Charlie Gibson that she had foreign policy qualifications because Russia is "our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," Hagel lost it.

I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about 'I look out my window and see Russia so therefore I know something about Russia.' That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.

Thank you, Chas, for saying what no Democrat has the balls to say. It is a complete fucking insult to our country that this woman could possibly be president...and that people support it? President Bush looks like Abraham Lincoln next to her. Ask yourselves this question...can you imagine Sarah Palin dealing with an intricate situation in the Middle East? Or handling the current economic crisis? Good Lord...

So, the answer is no, she is not qualified and it's because she is an idiot. And that's not being partisan. That is a fact. I'm sorry to break the news to the conservative base of this country but the time of electing people based on the fact that they are stupid just like the rest of us isn't going to fly anymore. We have very serious problems that need to be addressed and I want to see someone who is much smarter than me take over in 2009.

I could give a rat's ass if they would be fun at a fucking barbecue.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Why Are Liberals So "Crazy" About Sarah Palin and John McCain

Someone just sent me this email. It sums things up quite nicely.
  • If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
  • Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.
  • If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
  • Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
  • Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
  • Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
  • If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
  • If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
  • If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
  • If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
  • If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
  • If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
  • If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
  • If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

A Short, Comic Break

Click on the image for better clarity.

It really sums up the elitist bullshit argument, the complete and utter refusal to..um...evolve, their myopic ideology, the spineless turdishness of the Democrats, the FUBAR of Ohio and mother fucking Florida every year(groan), and the empty platform, which 47 percent of voters apparently want, of the Republican Party.

Love it...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Obamanomics

A recent article in the New York Times fully and completely details, through a series of conversations on a plane, where Barack Obama stands on the economy. I was surprised to find out from the article that his 12 years spent as lecturer at the University of Chicago had quite an impact on him, economically speaking. As many of you may already know, the University of Chicago was the home of Milton Friedman, free market guru and one of the most influential economists of our time. Here is what he had to say about his time there.

During my formative years, there was still ideological competition between a social-democratic or even socialist agenda and a free-market, Milton Friedman agenda. I think it was natural for me to ask questions of both sides and maybe try to synthesize approaches.

Asking questions is something I always look for in a candidate. Someone who makes up his or her mind and sticks with it forever and ever...not so much. Are they being reflective enough to consider all the angles? Here's the first quote from him, though, that really jumped out at me.

Reagan’s central insight — that the liberal welfare state had grown complacent and overly bureaucratic, with Democratic policy makers more obsessed with slicing the economic pie than with growing that pie — contained a good deal of truth.

I agree. And that's why it drives me nuts when people try to say he will create a nanny state. It's complete bullshit and the people that are saying it can't stand the fact, as they did with President Clinton, that a liberal quite possibly could adhere to some of their ideology. Or (gasp!) succeed with it. It simply isn't done! How dare he!

Some more interesting observations from David Leonhardt

Compared with many other Democrats, Obama simply is more comfortable with the apparent successes of laissez-faire economics.

He also says he believes that there are significant parts of Reaganism worth preserving. So his policies often involve setting up a government program to address a market failure but then trying to harness the power of the market within that program. This, at times, makes him look like a conservative Democrat.

By surrounding himself with economists, however, Obama was also making a decision with ideological consequences. Far more than many other policy advisers, economists believe in the power of markets.

What tends to distinguish Democratic economists is that they set out to uncover imperfections of the market and then come up with incremental, market-based solutions to these imperfections. This helps explain the Obama campaign’s interest in behavioral economics, a relatively new field that has pointed out many ways in which people make irrational, short-term decisions. To deal with one example of such myopia, Obama would require companies to automatically set aside a portion of their workers’ salary in a 401(k) plan. Any worker could override the decision — and save nothing at all or save even more — but the default would be to save.

Hmm..the socialist argument is really starting to look sub moronic now. But the best line comes from the man himself.

The market is the best mechanism ever invented for efficiently allocating resources to maximize production. And I also think that there is a connection between the freedom of the marketplace and freedom more generally. But there are certain things the market doesn’t automatically do.

There it is again. Balance. Level headiness. Connection between free markets and...freedom? Oh no...that sound you just heard is every single person on Kevin Baker's blog (and some here) recovering the pieces of their exploded head. Say it ain't so...Barack Obama is a...good capitalist.

So, when you here some folks on the right say Obama is a socialist, please kindly point this article out to them and tell them to peddle their idiocy elsewhere. Of course, they might not read it because they have brainwashed into believing that the New York Times is a traitorous newspaper but hey....you can at least try.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Where They Stand

The economy is back as the top story of the election and thank God. It's about time. To put it simply, the American economy doesn't work anymore. I am going to spend the rest of the week talking about this and offering all of you what I think are the best solutions. We are going to revisit "Obamanomics" and that wonderful article in the New York Times Magazine from a few weeks ago. Read it again if you haven't yet.

To put it as simply as possible, the reason our economy is in full crisis mode is that the people who have run this country for the last eight years have been incompetent and misguided.And the board room has become filthy with greed. Both George Bush and John McCain have stated in the last few weeks that greed and corruption are what have caused our current crisis. As the President has said, "Wall Street got drunk and now they have the hangover."

What this proves is that corruption can happen anywhere and all of you free market fundamentalists are wrong about it being worse in the government. Sorry, it's something you are going to have to face. Your ideology is terribly flawed. In fact, if you look at when our major crises have occurred in this country (1929, 1987, 2001, 2007-8) they have all come during Republican rule. What does that say to you?

Now, I'll be the first to admit that over bearing government control is a bad thing. But no control at all is also equally disastrous. No regulation, which is what we have had for the better part of 30 years, is also bad. This inaction or sneaky winking from the Washington to Wall Street has put us into a crisis that shows no signs of letting up. Yesterday the market dropped 500 points with the news that Lehman Brothers is bankrupt and Merrill Lynch is being sold to Bank of America. AIG is also in danger.

This is all the result of what happens when you go off the deep end in regards to how our economy should be handled.

By the deep end, I mean people who make the claim that Barack Obama is a socialist. Barack Obama is not a socialist. Please keep your 9 year old girl hysterics out of the adult swim area. He is not going to make America a socialist state. He's not even going to go to an FDR style solution to solve our problems.

Take a look at his plan on taxes, for example:
  • Make many Bush Tax Cuts Permanent
  • Make "work pay" tax credit
  • Index the Alternative Minimum Tax
  • Reduce Estate Tax
  • Automatic 401K and IRA plans, large saver's credits
  • Other Tax Cuts (for college students, seniors, low income filers)
  • Permanent R & D and renewable energy credits
Most of this doesn't sound much different from where conservatives want us to be, right? Now, you balance this out with the fact that we have to let the capital gains tax cuts expire in 2010 in order to increase revenue.

Before all of you righties go apeshit, my source for this is...George Bush. The Bush Administration Treasury Department examined the economic effects of extending the capital gains and dividend tax cuts. Even under the Treasury’s most optimistic scenario about the economic effects of these tax cuts, the tax cuts would not generate anywhere close to enough added economic growth to pay for themselves — and would thus lose money. They estimate between 60 and 80 billion of lost revenue in other less optimistic scenarios.

So this would be an example of why we can't afford to spend another four years looking at only one side of the equation. This is what John McCain wants, sadly. If the majority of Americans aren't spending any money because the majority of wealth has been seized by a very tiny percentage of people, we will continue to see more and more of what happened yesterday.

Take a closer look at what Senator Obama is proposing. For more specifics on this plan, visit here. There are many sub sections and pdf files that go into extraordinary detail about how we can fix this mess. Look at the balance. This how America has always worked best.

It is my hope that some of you on the right will wake up and see that Senator Obama has the right amount of balance on this. It's terribly dangerous to be blinded by ideology and outright lies and that's just what's going on right now. Your pocketbook is going to begin to get hit and it is direct result of a flawed way of thinking that may ultimately be our ruin.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Ohio Bullshit Beginning Early

Well, we knew it had to happen. The Republicans would be pulling their usual bullshit in Ohio. Apparently, the McCain campaign re-wrote the absentee ballot request form it sent out to a million people by adding an extra box on it. The box, which is completely unneeded on the form due to the fact that election judges check eligibility anyway, asks you to check it if you are an eligible voter. If you don't check it, under Ohio law, you would not be able to vote.

And, of course, the box is easy to miss. Hmm..I wonder who they sent out the request forms to?

Gee, let me think hard about this one.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Not Many Words

Usually on this day I have plenty to say. This year, I don't. I've been checking out the news and watching the memorials and quite honestly feel pretty sad.

If you know someone who lost a loved one on 9-11 or someone who is serving in Afghanistan or Iraq, give them a call or drop them a note. Let them know how much you love them and that you are there for them on the other 364 days of the year.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Six More Times

Remember that whole brouhaha we all had a while back about who supports the troops more-McCain or Obama? Check out this story from the AP. Apparently, the troops, particularly those serving overseas, support Obama more and have backed it up by giving more money to his campaign then the McCain campaign...six times more! McCain actually came in third, behind Obama and Ron Paul which, I have to say, is quite embarrassing.

I guess the troops figured out that McCain's GI bill was a load of shit and decided Obama actually had their interests in mind.

Monday, September 08, 2008

A Music Review

One of my many passions in life is music. Actually it's a passion/obsession. As Fairuza Balk says in Almost Famous, "Any time you get sad or lonely, just go to the record store and all your friends are there in the racks.

Anyhoo, I am going to be a regular contributor to IckMusic, my friend Pete's much frequented music blog. Everyone who digs music should check it out. My post is about Todd Rundgren's new album, Arena. Click here to read the review and check in with Pete on a regular basis for all the latest and greatest tunes.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

They Like Her...why again?

Someone sent me this link which we have been talking about in comments over the last few days and I thought I would bring it out front. It is a letter from someone who knows Sarah Palin pretty well. Among the highlights.
  • During her six years as mayor of Wasilla, she increased general government expenditures by more than 33 percent.
  • During those same six years, the amount of taxes collected by the city increased by 38 percent.
  • She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax, which taxed even food.
  • The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.
  • The huge increases in tax revenue during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list, though — borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt but left it with indebtedness of more than $22 million.
So, basically we have George Bush once again. Great.

In her tenure as mayor she tried to have several books banned from the public library. When the librarian refused, Governor Palin tried to have her fired. Thankfully, the rest of the town did not support Palin in this endeavor and she was unsuccessful. I haven't been able to find a list of the books she supposedly wanted banned, due to religious reasons. There is a list out there but it may not be entirely accurate. I have to say I thought of Jonah Goldberg and chuckled when I read this part of the story.

Help me out here, folks. I thought conservatives were about less spending, lower taxes, and reduced government in people's lives. How does the information above jibe with any of those tenets?

Reading further in the article, the answer becomes clear.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits but on the basis of who proposed them.

Ah, now I know why they like her:)

Friday, September 05, 2008

Friday Potpourri

Couple things today.

Take a look at the counter to the left. Obama's bounce from last week is starting to show. Let's see what the polls bring next week. Will there be a Republican bounce?

If you click on the map, you will notice that Obama is ahead in North Dakota. Bush won this state by 27 points in 2004. Granted, his lead is still in the margin of error but the interesting thing to note is that Obama has offices in North and South Dakota as well as Montana. John McCain does not. Obama plans on spending money and campaigning there. Why? Because If he takes two of those three, Iowa and Colorado, Ohio doesn't matter. And he is still leading in Ohio. I think McCain is being terribly short sighted here. He's not looking at the new voters Obama has gotten out in those states.

McCain's lead in Arizona, his home state, isn't all that big either...44 to 36 percent with 20 percent undecided. That's a lot of undecideds that could make it close in McCain's home state and you better believe that Governor Napoliatano is going to be ovaries to the wall for Obama.

I rarely agree with Charles Krauthammer but he is is absolutely right on Sarah Palin.

Obama was sagging because of missteps that reflected the fundamental weakness of his candidacy. Which suggested McCain's strategy: Make this a referendum on Obama, surely the least experienced, least qualified, least prepared presidential nominee in living memory. Palin fatally undermines this entire line of attack.

McCain picked Palin to give the base erections-literally and figuratively-and, in doing so, gave up his argument against Obama's "inexperience" which was an enormous mistake. It was the one thing he could really hammer Obama on which would make some people listen. Now they look at Palin and think, "Well, maybe McCain was disingenuous about Obama and the experience thing. He picked someone who knows nothing about foreign policy.

And speaking of opinion columns. This one has been making me laugh all morning. It is a "text" from a conservative college student to his parents. My favorite line?

Iraq, oil prices, the economy, blah, blah, blah. Here's the thing that I like. Watching Huckabee, Guiliani, and Sara Palin rip into the Obama last night was like watching caged dogs. With our guys (and girl) being the mean dogs and Obama being, like, a Schnoodle with a soft throat.

Pretty much sums up the whole convention.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

No Issue To Be Found

I have watched the Republican National Convention this week in utter astonishment. All of the speeches, the interviews with delegates and pundits, and the overall general theme of the convention point to one thing:

The media is liberal.

This is all they have?

I have tuned in several times throughout the course of the week and EVERY single time I do, I see someone on the podium whooping the crowd into a frenzy over the elite media. Everyone from Fred Thompson to Rudy Giuliani (sadly) made comments about the media. Even the much anticipated speech by VP nominee, Sarah Palin, contained the following line.

...if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.

Setting aside the fact that she actually does lack experience and has some serious problems with judgment, why is that, once again, the party that preaches against a victim society plays the part of the victim so well? It's not Sarah Palin's fault...it's the media.

In addition, it strikes me as highly moronic that the Republicans, for which the media has launched an unbelievable assault in my home town of the Twin Cities, are biting the hands that feed them. As I flipped around the various news channels, all of them seemed perplexed that the Republicans would focus on them when there are so many issues that Americans want to hear about from them.

The right laments the lack of "meat" in Obama's plans and yet offers nothing of their own except more digs at the media and the ever present fear mongering (we are all dead unless we vote Republican).

And, hey, if you don't believe me...why don't we ask McCain campaign chairman, Rick Davies, what he thinks about the election.

This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.

Really?

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

And The Left is Naive?

I popped over to Kevin Baker's blog to see what was new and I found this little commentary, intermixed between the hyper paranoia of what a Barack Obama presidency would mean, on Barack Obama's speech last week. The first line, in blue, is from Obama's speech. The next bit, in red, is the commentary.

For over two decades, (McCain’s) subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy, give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.

No, it isn't given to them and they aren't "lucky." The vast majority of "the ones with the most" earned it through ingenuity, risk-taking, hard work and sacrifice - and they are the business owners, large and small, that employ the bulk of Americans - asshole

No. Absolutely wrong and a complete fucking myth. A myth that has been put forth by the top 1 percent through its cronies in the media (especially the right wing media). I still can't figure out this nauseating hero worship of wealthy, conservative business owners, the MAJORITY of which got their money through pathological criminal behavior. I have been told by several posters here and elsewhere that I am just jealous and should get over it. It's simply not true. Money is not all that important to me.If anything, given the adulation that is showered upon people like this by many conservatives, it is they that are the jealous ones.

Ingenuity, risk taking and sacrifice? While I am sure there are some people in the top one percent who fit this description, it certainly is not common.

Seriously, what fucking country do these people live in?

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Sarah Smile

I am still trying to get my head around McCain's pick for VP. What was he thinking? I suppose she might get more of the base to turn out because she is a staunch conservative but those same people have been squirting about Obama's supposed inexperience.

Imagine if McCain, aged 72 and cancer survivor, dies. My initial reaction is....great, now we have Michelle Bachmann running the country.

A former beauty queen? Really?

For an absolutely hilarious take on what went on behind the scenes in the McCain camp when they were trying to pick a VP, click on the electoral map on the left. Andy really outdid himself with this one.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Half Time Is Over, Folks

We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans — Democrats and Republicans have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.

-Democratic Nominee For President, Barack Obama, 8-28-08, Denver, Co

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Are We Ready?

Originally, I had planned on discussing Obamanomics this week. I thought it would be beneficial to really get into the meat of his ideas for the economic direction of our country which I think is the most important issue facing us at present. This all changed, however, when it was discovered that three men were planning to kill Senator Obama when he gives his acceptance speech tonight and Invesco Field.

My mind just hasn't been on the economy...it's been on whether or not we, as a nation, are ready to move forward. I look at our country and see a very large group of people who are, essentially, children. They don't want to go forward...they want to stay backward. Inexplicably, they think that nothing is wrong with our country. Some of this group doesn't like Senator Obama because he is black. Some don't like him because of his name or they still believe the falsehood that he is a Muslim. Many in the group don't like him because they think both of these things but can't face the disgusting bigotry inside of themselves so it comes out in different ways....like mentioning the fact that Obama's middle name is Hussein and then feigning innocence when called on it. "What? That IS his name," they say.

I have to admit I'm pretty nervous about tonight. I don't know if I will even watch. Up until now, the masters of this large group of people I am talking about have been content in character assassination of Senator Obama. I wonder if they are content any longer. Because the hard truth is that Barack Obama is a major threat to their way of life...a way of life that depends on the ignorance and fear of their lapdogs. Some or most of that ignorance and fear would be gone in an era of Obama which means....they would be gone as well.

In many ways, I am disgusted by what our country has become in the last eight years. Many people who post here rip me for blaming Bush for everything. In the final analysis, they might be right. I look at what is being said about Senator Obama and the clear hatred of him...hatred that is clearly violent...and have realized that a very large voting bloc of this country are complete pieces of shit.

They have no fucking business deciding the direction of this country and will continue to hold us back as from becoming what we should be as long as well allow them to do so.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Only A Matter of Time

Remember all that talk like....oh....since forever on this blog about how most conservatives aren't shit kicking rednecks?

And about how yours truly is filled with bias and hate?

Oh, and how liberals are the ones that are fascist?

Take a look at these three fucks.
From left to right they are: Nathan Johnson (aka Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel), Shawn Adolph (!), and Tharin Gartrell. These three men, along with Johnson's girlfriend, were arrested today in a plot to assassinate Barack Obama on Thursday night in Denver when he gives his acceptance speech. They were found with scopes, high powered rifles, bullet proof vests, and Nazi literature. Adolph (no surprise here) jumped out of his hotel window to try to elude police. Apparently, there was some meth involved as well.

Take a look at these three faces. My first thought went to some of the anger and violent bile I read on various right wing blogs. Here are three of their regular commenters, I'm sure....unless each of them has their own blog discussing how Obama is going to destroy this country with socialism. Or was it fascism? I can never remember what idiocy is the moronic theory du jour.

Now, I know that some of you will say that these guys are just nuts and the left has their nuts too. Well, a conservative friend of mine at the gym..one who I used to have a lot of respect for....a respected doctor in Edina....came up to me today and asked me if I had heard about this plot. When I answered in the affirmative, he looked at me and said, very seriously,

"It's too bad they got caught. They could have saved our country."

Monday, August 25, 2008

That Moment

If John McCain goes on to lose the election this year, it will be because of the economy. The moment everyone will remember will be the one where he didn't know how many properties he owned.

A new site, complete with Google Earth map, shows the properties and very neatly details why this is not a "petty" issue as some on the right would have you believe. A quote from the site.

Before a president can effectively govern this diverse nation, they must first be able to understand the needs and struggles of its citizens. McCain’s astonishing wealth makes it impossible for him to relate to the millions of Americans who have been hurt by the economy.

I don't think McCain really understands what is going on with the economy. By his own admission, it isn't all that important to him. That's a real problem because we need to have a leader who does understand and will make some very tough choices. Starting tomorrow, I am going to be breaking down an article from yesterday's New York Times magazine on "Obamanomics." Click here if you want a preview.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Biden

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the Biden pick. On the one hand, I like his experience on the foreign stage, his attitude (see: fuck you), and his overall belief that government can work. His ego, though, gives me pause and I wonder how much of that is going to interfere with his judgment. I think the Obama campaign has weighed the five gaffes Biden will make between now and election day and determined that more votes will be acquired by his experience.

In addition, from a purely political standpoint, what states is he going to help Obama win? Kaine would've been the better choice from that standpoint because he would've locked up Virginia. And is Biden really an "outsider" to Washington? How does that fit in with Obama's change motif?

I guess it was experience that won the day. Overall, Biden's not a bad pick....he's just not incredibly stellar, which is something I have grown to expect from my guy.

Friday, August 22, 2008

A Bad Week for John McCain

This clip was posted on YouTube...a few days before McCain couldn't answer a reporter's question regarding how many houses he and his wife Cindy owned. It essentially makes fools out of those people who think that Barack Obama is elitist.

How out of touch is John McCain? The number one issue on people's minds is the economy and he continues to go after Obama on foreign policy experience. Couple this with the accord that is about to be signed between Iraq and the United States regarding a troop withdrawal date and....why should anyone vote for McCain again?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Gee, I'm Shocked.

The Brookings Institution released a report last week that stated that most of the economic gains that poor people made in the 1990s have been reversed over the course of the last eight years. Anyone like to take a guess why?

It's pretty obvious to me that Krugman was right when he wrote his piece on the Great Wealth Transfer. The 1990s saw more people with more of the nation's wealth. The economy was in great shape and there was a definitive shift in the direction our country was heading. People in this country were being re-trained for new jobs and there was a palatable feeling that we were heading one direction: FORWARD.

Then President Bush came into office and the more people having more money thing went out the fucking window. The people that put Bush in power want LESS people having MORE of the money. In their minds, the 1990s were a stain on America. Think of the horror. Some scumbag in a smelly T Shirt having stocks and having a say in how this country is run? It quite literally sends shivers up and down the spine.

So, over the course of the last eight years, we have seen more money go to the wealthiest people in this country and the gains that many poor communities made in the 90s are forever gone. And, according to the report, have no hope of coming back. Here is a key quote.

Such increases in concentrations of poor people in specific neighborhoods create a kind of self-perpetuating economic segregation.That's because low-income neighborhoods generally have lower-performing schools, less access to good jobs, poorer health outcomes, higher crime rates, and less economic investment.

The last three words are key: less economic investment. The people that own most of the wealth in this country...the ones that really run the show....the top 1 percent....the ones that have been President Bush's biggest supporters.....knew that in order to maintain their stranglehold on the direction of this country all they had to do was get the almost as rich to stop investing in these neighborhoods. And that's exactly what has happened.

What I find to be completely hilarious about all of this is that when you here certain people talk about poverty, their child like solution usually is something along these lines:

Buck up and pull yourself up by your boot straps!

To quote Hawkeye Pierce, I think these cretins should pull themselves up by their own jock strap.

If we really want to get these poor communities back in shape again, what we really need to do is: a) Elect a president that is not a pimp for power whores and b) Expand on an old proverb. Remember the one that goes "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day...teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." I say teach a village to fish and you create an economy. Throwing more money at these communities will help somewhat but what is really needed is an investment of time from successful business leaders around the country to educate folks in these poorer communities. People in this country need to learn how to run a community from an economic standpoint. It has to be the combination of money and time, not just money. From this investment of time comes a framework or a structure that can help solidify the economies of these communities for decades.

Now which presidential candidate has more experience building up communities?

Hmm..let me think about that one for a....millisecond.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Can John McCain Read?

The Q and A last Saturday night at Rick Warren's church brought a moment which I think very much defines John McCain. When asked about evil in the world, he pounded his fist on the table, said that Al Qaeda has made their decision to make Iraq the center of the war on terror and that, as president, he would stay there until the troops came home in victory.

This would be a fine example of why he should not be president. All of our national intelligence estimates point to Pakistan and Afghanistan as the epicenter of Al Qaeda and those who would use terror as a weapon. A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor details this quite clearly. So why doesn't John McCain get it?

In fact, this is the area of the world that has always been the problem and our current president has largely ignored what has to be done over there, both militarily and diplomatically. I guess McCain just can't operate outside of a certain parameter, in this case the Iraq one, which is about a one centimeter box. I'm not sure he is capable of forward thinking when it comes to Al Qaeda and Barack Obama needs to take advantage of this.

Take a look at the first sentence in Obama's plan to fight the war we need to win.

The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No shit. This plan is the main reason why I am voting for him. McCain's only advantage over Obama is on defense and he is being terribly backwards in his philosophy. His position just doesn't make sense. If someone can explain it to me, I'm all ears.

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Biggest Supporters

Next time you have a conversation with your average conservative, ask them how they feel about affirmative action. Between their not-so-genuine insistence that they are not racist and their spittle from screaming at the top of their lungs about how unfair everything is right now with employment standards (i.e. I'm white and I'm all a feared of these different colored folks), try to insist that they tell you EXACTLY what they find to be faulty with current laws regarding equality in the workplace.

The most common answer they will give you is that businesses should be able to hire the most qualified person regardless of sex, race, color or creed. It's too bad that they don't stand by their words. I offer the picture below as an example.

Shouldn't a man who is supposed to be patriotic know the proper way to hold our flag?

Most conservatives don't actually want someone who is qualified for the job of presidency. This explains why many of them despise John McCain, a man who I generally disagree with on most issues, think his only direction for the path of this country is backwards and is more or less full of crap. He is, however, qualified for the job. And we can't have that, can we?

In looking at President Bush, take just a moment and think....what is the one thing that a president must do on a daily basis? The one thing he should be impressive at?

Take a moment....

Take a moment....

It's public speaking and putting an impressive image out to the world. He is a miserable failure at both. The photo above clearly demonstrates how poor he is at the latter and one need only do a simple YouTube search to see how poor he is at public speaking. I recall a conversation I had a few years ago during the 2004 election in which a person I was playing tennis with told me he was voting for President Bush because, y'know, he was in the military and that's what military people do. He went on to say, "But keep him away from a microphone. That man is a horrible public speaker!" Setting aside the fact that the Republican Party has been the worst thing to happen to the US military, umm......isn't public speaking one of the top qualifications for the FUCKING JOB OF PRESIDENT!!!!!

Sheesh...

If he were at a job interview, a conservative would look at his resume and laugh. Hmm...let's see...ran oil company into the ground...ran Texas Rangers into the ground....ran Texas into the ground....and you want to be our CEO....how exactly are you going to do that? Buh Bye.

Here's the deal, folks. Conservatives like to talk a good game about affirmative action but at the end of they day, THEY vote on their feelings and beliefs, not who is better for the job. They want someone who thinks like them, looks like them, and someone they can have over for a barbecue. Conservatives are the biggest supporters of affirmative action. And, if that person does not share their EXACT beliefs and is clearly more intelligent than them? Well, then they are elitist. They are arrogant.

They are......Barack Obama.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Wake Up, Shit Asses

Last Thursday, I went to the club where I work out. I forgot to bring a bottle of water so I went into the cafe they have there now which basically looks like a Starbuck's. As I waited in line, behind someone who was getting a half caf double decaf half caf with a lemon twist (aka a painfully long process to go through just to get a fucking cup of coffee), I looked around the counter. Everything...and I mean EVERYTHING...was geared around one simple word.

Energy.

Drinks, food, pockets of powder, and a wide variety of other consumables were all guaranteeing a an increase in energy to help you in your life....which, according to many of the products, all of us are lacking. I realize that designer coffee has been a trend for awhile but the "boost" business has really gotten out of hand. Are people in this country in that dire need of a jolt?

I haven't even had a drink of caffeine since 1998. I am a pretty hyper and anxious person so I really need the opposite which is usually cured by red wine. So, I guess what I am trying to figure out is this: is the population of this country so asleep that they HAVE to have this crap in order to wake up? Why? What the fuck is the matter with everyone?

Saturday, August 16, 2008

All Apologies

YouTube went maniacal and all of those times that I tried to post the video of Bob Costas interviewing President Bush ended up being posted here. So, if you came to my blog and saw a bunch of the same thing (i.e. a real mess), I am sorry. It was not my fault. Apparently YouTube is having trouble communicating with Blogger.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Why Would A Republican Vote For Obama

I got this great article from Our Girl Friday recently and I thought I would share it with you all. The best line?

We, the Republican Party, are not worthy and do not deserve another four years. Under President Bush we've betrayed every principle we've stood for as a national party -- fiscal responsibility and discipline, limited government and a foreign policy guided by realism and coalition building.

Competence and integrity have no ideology. Obama in '08.


Yep. Pretty much sums it up.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Surprising Me Yet Again

Just when I think that President Bush couldn't be any LESS in touch with reality, he stuns me yet again. During an interview with Bob Costas, at the Olympics, he commented on Russia's invasion of Georgia.

Here we are trying to promote peace and harmony and we are witnessing this conflict take place.

Umm.....was he absent the day they taught irony in his Yale literature class?

For some reason, YouTube can't share with Blogger again so click on the link below to watch the full video. The quote is about 3 minutes in. The stuff before that is also really...just....hard to watch.

Bush Interview with Costas.

Monday, August 11, 2008

A Big, Fat Middle Finger

I have been watching and thoroughly enjoying Generation Kill on HBO. It is a seven part mini series that follows a Marine unit as it enters Iraq at the beginning of the war in 2003. The show is based on the book of the same name by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, who was embedded with a Marine unit for two months.

There are so many things I enjoy about this series. The dialogue is mega raunch which always appeals to me. Some of it is word for word what the marines said and I have to say that even I...crap mouth of the universe...felt unclean after watching the first ep. The acting is great, mostly because of the talents of Alexander Skarsgard and James Ransone who play Sergeant Brad 'Iceman' Colbert and Corporal Josh Ray Person. Even the minor characters are played by wonderful actors, all of which are new and fresh. It feels real and has an edge to it that is very Saving Private Ryan like.

My favorite scene is a big, fat fuck you to both the left and the right which, as you all know, is something I enjoy immensely. The scene occurs in Episode 2, when a group of Iraqis surrender to the Marines. Since the company is moving north, they have no place to keep them and cannot manage prisoners so they turn them loose or "unsurrender" them, as it was said in the episode.

They do this knowing full well that all of these Iraqi men will probably be shot by their own army for being deserters. The reporter sees and hears all of this transpire. He is about to start writing when he stops and sort of looks for permission from First Lieutenant Nathaniel Fick, played by Stark Sands. Fick says, "Write this as you see it" which, of course, he did.

See, folks, this is how it really is. The left likes to gripe that the army hides stuff and that the troops are psychotic baby killers. Not true. Well, the army does hide stuff but it is mostly at a much higher level. We get to hear a lot of real stories. And the right? Well, when they see stuff like this, they usually blow a bowel and call the media a bunch of commie faggots who hate the troops and love to paint the army in a bad light. Again, it's what actually happened and I know many troops who tell reporters the same thing that Fick did.

It's always a good day when the left and the right are frothing at the mouth about the same stupid shit. Check out the show. It's a corker!

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Guv Says Buh-Bye to VP Slot

Well, I guess Governor Pawlenty decided he didn't want to be McCain's VP after all. Senator Obama was in Minnesota yesterday and, when asked to comment on him, the Guv said the following

Say what you will about Barack Obama, people gravitate when you have something positive to say. People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders. They don't want to follow some negative, scornful person.

Hmm...sound like he is describing the latest round of McCain ads when he says "negative and scornful person."

I don't agree with our Governor often but he is dead on right here!

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Tell Me A Story

How many times has this happened to you?

You are at a party or some sort of social situation and you meet someone you don't know. The first words out of your mouth or theirs are, "So, what do you do?" And then the conversation proceeds down the tedious path of each job that you do on a daily basis, how much of a "bear" it is, and how you can't wait to get a vacation.

Setting aside the fact that most of this nation is on permanent vacation (more on that later), Americans seem to love to define themselves by what they do. I have had many discussions regarding this topic with our very own Crabmaster Scratch, currently known as Last In Line. It may surprise all of you to know that both of us are in complete agreement: defining yourself by your means of employment is fucking lame.

A job is not who you are, particularly with so many Americans hating their jobs (more on that later as well). When I think of Crab, I don't think of his work for a medical parts company. I think of softball, salsa dancing, martinis, girls, guns, and his secret life with MI-6.

Well, OK..the last four are someone else but I think you get my point. I am sick and tired of people in this country playing the 'what do you do' game when the meet someone. It is shallow, trivial, and half the time the person they are talking to isn't even listening anyway.

Far be it from, though, to bitch and not offer a solution. I just started doing this recently and the response I have gotten has been overwhelmingly positive. When you first meet someone and that moment comes when you feel the urge to say, "What do you do?" instead say this:

Tell me a story.

At first they might look a little baffled (or uptight if they live in Minnesota), but if you explain to them why you are asking this, that you are much more interested in that part of life that makes them human, interesting, and exciting, they usually open up. Heck, it can even be a story about their job! People love to hear and tell stories and what better way to break the ice than with a tale?

Give this a try and make sure that when you do, you tell them to pass it on and really get it out there. If I have to sit through another shit eatingly boring story about someone's dumb ass job, which they don't really want to talk about anyway, I will go insane.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Hallelujah!

I really need to get more organized with my links and blog information. It's just terrible. Whenever I am having a discussion with someone in comments, it's a real struggle to find pertinent information to back up my points.

The need for organization was played out quite eloquently in a recent discussion I have been having with one reader regarding whether or not the rich are taxed more. I could not come up with the information quickly and was quite unimpressive in the debate.

After searching for days, I finally found the links that show some hard numbers on what is really going on in this country. The main link I was looking for, by Thurman Hart on NJ.com, a New Jersey web site, neatly explains how "Paris Hilton and her pals have gotten windfall tax breaks while Joe Sixpack has had to take up the slack." Bear in mind, his information is coming from the Census Bureau, the IRS, and the Tax Center. Please go and double check his numbers. I did and it is nauseating.

He explains things in a very brief and clear fashion. An example?

The marginal tax rate - the highest tax bracket - in 1968 was 75.25% for incomes over $200,000. Adjusted for inflation, that would be a $1,128,351 - and they would pay 35% taxes on income over $326,450. For someone making over a million dollars a year currently, that's a 40% tax savings! According to the IRS Statistics of Income, that means about 270,000 people benefited from this tax break in 2004 (2005 and later statistics not currently available). So how much money is that? If the whole sum were subjected to only a 20% tax, the United States government would have brought in an additional $98 BILLION. By way of comparison, this is $17 billion more than was spent in Iraq in 2005.

This is a natural function of the multiplier effect of wealth. Less than one percent of Americans earn more than a million dollars, but they account for 11.2% of all income. This doesn't mean we should "soak the rich", but it does mean that over my lifetime the extremely wealthy have benefited from massive tax cuts.


And that has been my point all along. If you need more tables and charts to understand this, check out this site which is chock full o' data. Check out the CEO compensation charts at the bottom of the page.

I also found this article from the Times which further enforces my point regarding the stratification of our society. This was in regards to the Congressional Budget Office report regarding middle class income earners-the same report the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson was coming when he took office. It shows a very bleak future for our country and, if we don't pay attention, we are going to be in real trouble.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Back In Action

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past few days. Blogger mistakenly identified thousands of blogs as spam blogs. These are blogs that contain multiple links to one site that is trying to hawk something or engage in pyramid scam. Mine was one of them.

I should have a new post up sometime tomorrow. Not quite sure what the topic will be...there is so much to choose from :)