THE Beach Book of 2008: Black Coffee, Staring at the Walls

I know what I'll be reading, aside from horrid style manuals, sunning myself in the Grand Caimans...

Actually, with the price of gas, I can't even get to the Grand Vic Riverboat for under a twenty, and that's only 45 minutes a way. Closest I'll get to a beach is if I quit eating, I might be able to make it to The Beach Water Park-in August. But I'll be reading in the simulacra :

Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):

• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.
• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.
• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”
• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.
• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

Oh sure, it was the liberals that did this to our country:

“If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq.

The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”

It's instructive to,of course, remember the culpability in perpetuating this lie, these rationale, which did not shock this magic user, but did, evidentally, shock Senator Clinton, the smartest woman in the world, fooled by fools. Balls deep in this culpability, but not shocked, is John McCain, who was just happy to be able to claim ostensible balls after he cowered before this doofus.

The culpability, of course, spreads out to every chickenhawkin' dittohead, every dipshit choosing flag pins and stickers over reason and sense, everybody who ignored Blix and the Goddamned No Fly Zone, which had strangle Iraq to the point of needing humanitarian relief, and backpedalling sociopaths who were too stupid to plant WDM's. (Really. We have an army there, and nobody thought to plant the fucking things. Every crooked beat cop knows to have a plant gun. This, alone, should be instructive. If these geniuses couldn't even plant evidence for their case, how the hell were they gonna handle some "unplanned for"?)

Pull your head out, people. You elected criminals and incompetents. Learn from your miskakes. The best part is the satisfaction of the nyah nyah nyah nyah to every asshole who, with no remorse (or sense), still proudly sports a Bush/Cheney bumpersticker. Except that I'll probably cry at what's happened to the country, and the dream, and desperately try to get it back.

You, of course, will watch Fox and give your self a vicarious stroke for WarHero McSame. Or perhaps you'll lose yourself in the kind of knee jerk bigotry that can only come from a dittohead's love of Obamaslander.

Who knows, maybe you'll just head off to Panera and rant about the misogyny of it all with your "Designing Women" Fan Club...

Wait. You seem to be dripping blood from your hands...

The Slow Death

Jill Iscol fights for her right to parrot a Clinton Talking Point:

"This is not the party I thought I belonged to. This is not the party that espouses fairness, justice and equality for all. "

Oh wait...let me guess-"I didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left me":

"This is not the party that elected Bill Clinton President in 1992 and 1996 and Hillary Clinton as Senator in 2000 and 2006. "

And just why is it that the party has moved away from that? Could it be that the pitched ideological battles of the nineties are partially why we are as fucked as we are? Could it be that the ever triangulating Clintons have outsmarted themselves this time? Could it be that Hillary Clinton voted for the war?

Then, of course, the this is where the ideological Kool Aid man crashes through the wall:

"Throughout all this, Hillary has maintained her focus, her message and her dignity. This is truly courage under fire. This is what it takes to be a great president. It is not over until the lady in the pant suit says it is and I and millions of others are with her."

Dignity...really...I'm speechless.

Precious Vile Things

"The art of our necessities is strange,
And can make vile things precious"

(King Lear, Act III, scene ii).

It's come to this.

It's really come to this.

Looking into the dark heart of the power mad is always frightening, but for that to be so publicly expressed...it sends a chill through your fucking blood. These are your values? These are the values you represent? Jesus...

Jon Sheperd stated in an email this morning:

"The long shot odds of Hillary Clinton getting to the White House on anything other than a visitor's pass are now OVER. I'm never seen a more vituperating or justified commentary - on any political issue.

There are enough obvious reasons why this cycle parallels 1968, we don't need to be reminded how tragically that ended; nor do we need to embolden some asshole to replay our history. "

He's right. In this chilling meme that the Clintons have been floating around for months, the assassination meme, if you don't like, we see the desperation of someone who was, by all accounts, the nominee, the media favorite, and, in this, the culminating moment of her destiny. She was owed this-and then, the people spoke up, and she feels betrayed, robbed, inconsolent to the point as to invoke the blackest heart of Old Mean America-Regime change by Gun.

Olbermann, eloquent as he is incredulous, not only gives us 2 special comments in as many weeks, but the second comment on the scurrilous black heart of the Clinton machine:

You have just witnessed astonishing and ignoble end of the Clintons.

STAND!

First Off: I want to thank Mike from The Naked Vine for talking me off the ledge this morning. He's always good for calming me down when I get overheated from listening to the terror through the the wall.

How did he do it? With this:

"As he moves ever closer to wrapping up the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Obama is also opening up a big lead over Clinton among Democrats nationwide. In a national preference test, he leads her by a 59% to 33% margin, the latest Reuters/Zogby poll shows.

Barack Obama has sprinted out to a 10-point lead over Republican John McCain(47%-37%) in a four-way presidential contest including Libertarian Bob Barr and Liberal Ralph Nader, the latest Reuters/Zogby telephone poll of likely voters nationwide shows."

It is in that that I remembered thatthere is the light over at the Frankenstein place: I've advanced a good cause for a better tomorrow. The Good folk at NKY for Obama have worked tirelessly since late February on securing the future. I've met lots of excellent people; Wellington, Chuck et al.-you rock. You are proof that "the devil you know" is still the effin' devil, and should be sent back to hell (or New York...)

I've met some committed people who have driven their exhausted asses all over hells half acre since the start of the campaign who came to Covington to help us, and they are good people who believe in the future.

We raised about 750 bucks for Obama at our Si! Se Puede Party, and I worked with amazing people; Lisa and Brad A., you rule the school. Carl and Terry at The Crazy Fox were amazing hosts, and Mr. Jon Sheperd, friend of the blog, hooked us up with the incredible Mike Fair and his Adventure Seekers for an awesome night of music and message, jello shots and jello shots, Pale Ale and guitars. Deb and Jorge...thanks for your work, and the beer. They brought beer! Covington and Tavern Wench came and pitched in...where are the pics?!?

This is for you:

"Ike Was Right"

Bernie Sanders, our lone Socialist, keeps it real.

Chuck Hagel: Friend of the Democrats

This is interesting:

"I never understand how anyone in any realm of civilized discourse could sort through the big issues and challenges and threats and figure out how to deal with those without engaging in some way...

I am confident that if Obama is elected president [diplomatic engagement] is the approach we will take. And my friend John McCain said some other things about that. We'll see, but in my opinion it has to be done. It is essential."

Trolls

This is too cute:

"Help spread the word about John McCain on news and blog sites. Your efforts to help get the message out about John McCain's policies and plan for the future is one of the most valuable things you can do for this campaign. You know why John McCain should be the next President of the United States and we need you to tell others why.

Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center [Redeemable for a medium, one topping pizza and a 20oz Pepsi product at participating Pizza Hut restaurants. While supplies last. Not available outside of a right wing ideological construction]."

The Kentucky Primary

Photo Dr.'d by The_Wizrd 2008

The vagabond who's rapping at your door/

Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.

Strike another match, go start anew/

And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

You were probably wondering when I was going to detail the appearance of Mrs. Corporate Deathburger in my neighborhood...

"No So Fast", they (they, of course are WomenCount PAC, a Hillary Clinton front group-a 527, if your like)say:

"'We are the women of this nation …' and says that there should not be pressure for Clinton to concede already. 'As this indefatigable woman campaigns, she speaks with our voice,' the ad claims.

I had wondered what the last expression of the kitchen sink strategy would be, and, as it turns out, its the first expression of kitchen sink strategy: I'm a girl, and you are all chauvinists:

"In Kentucky, women voters, one after another are saying, why are people pushing her? Why are they saying sit down and shut up? And there's a lot of resentment about that. A lot of those women had the same thing happen to them."

Would this have anything to do with her warmongering, her constant lying, her pandering to racists, her appropriation of everybody else's message, her cozying up to the right wing, and, most egregiously, her claim that dumbass George Bush fooled her, the smartest woman in the world, on Iraq.

You see, for those of us of a certain age group, male or female, regardless of ethnic background, we don't have the benefit of a strictly ideological world view-that's the game for your generation.

That's right, folks, my report from the front is this: Maifest Saturday was chock full of Baby Boomers, smugly self satisfied in their champion, convinced that , goddammit, they are entitled to this, a woman president, regardless of the cost to anyone else, regardless of the will of the people, regardless of whether it will get McCain elected, regardless of this woman's qualifications or her character. One last temper tantrum for the folk who pulled the ladder up on the American Dream. I want it, IT'S MINE, NOW.

You see, it's like that bumpersticker "Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History" because its the ostensible posing as the historical,or rather, history making. This election is a priori historic because to the fucking criminals we've had running this country into the ground with their gangster politics and poisonous rhetoric. Thus, it is ridiculous and egotistical to view this election as needing to be superhistorical; instead, it is necessary to repair this damage, and bridge this divide. Who can do this?

Certainly, the numbers are conclusively in favor of Barack Obama, and yet, this isn't enough for these women (who, I would ask, if, say Libby Dole were running as the Republican nominee, would they support her based on their desire to have a woman elected? Did they support Margaret Thatcher?) that the democratic process has played out and revealed that: Democrats nationwide support Obama and, by extension, Hillary Clinton has run a shitty campaign. Yet we are supposed to give these Boomers another chance to fuck things up?

Interesting, as well, that these women who are, by their statement, "women of this nation", are certainly willing to tell their daughters, who also do not have the luxury of ideological living, to sit down and shut up:

"Young people don't understand how far we've come and how hard we've worked to get here. They can't see what it took for us to ensure that Clinton would have a chance at the White House."

Or Barack Obama, for that matter, because a feminisms are concerned with many things, not just genitals of people. At least, in other corners of the world, and in other corners of this country. However, what we have here is a brand of feminism peculiar to this country, and only to people of a certain age group.

If you will notice, nothing is said of the relative qualifications of the candidates. No issues are addressed. Nope, it is essentialist to the core: "Feelings are everywhere, and mine are certainly more important than your safety, the constitution, or your children".

Witness:

"If Hillary Clinton is not the nominee, we will not support the nominee," [Cynthia Rucci] said.

Nice. Burn down the party because your candidate ran a shitty campaign appealing to basest instincts of the electorate. Burn down the future because you didn't get your vicarious moment in the sun.

Indeed, if "polite women seldom make history", in this case, they evidentally don't read it either, because then they would know that the history to be made is bigger than their ideological agenda; it is for the idea that allows that possibility to grow and flourish, and for these women demand, on pain of another four years of McSame, to tell the millions who believe "Yes We Can", including their sisters and daughters (and sons and fathers) to go fuck themselves are damning the rest to a future very different than the creed this country was founded on.

Kentucky, unfortunately, is maybe a foregone conclusion here, and these women may have their day to make their history. The consequence of their collective and vicarious moment in the sun, however, may be summed up in the words...

President McCain.

Let's be clear about this(revised after the bordeaux wore off and the headache wore on): As my cousin, Brad Thacker, Comedian, has pointed out, Kentucky is retarded. By retarded, he means stupid and racist.

In the course of my work with NKY for Obama, I have found, in a few cases, the latter to be correct. The former, as evidenced by the result tonight, the rally at Maifest, seems to be the more plausible explanantion.

Let's be real about this: Hillary's angry voters, as represented by Cynthia Rucci,are led by a PAC funded by the Clinton campaign. In other words: It is the Clinton Campaign advancing its own agenda. Yet, here they are, these deluded souls, advancing the ideological agenda in a time that is desperately craving real world descriptions and not ideogical constructions.

The tragedy here is, for the coalition that landslided Hillary last night, Clintons do not give a good goddamn about any of them.

The working class, decimated in the wake of NAFTA, are just constituency to sell paranoia and fear to. There is no intention of doing anything about your failing schools, or your health care. You are beneath her contempt, yet, the yet the Union Organizer from a broken home...he's the elitist? He doesn't understand the working class and its needs?

And these women, with their real stories, and real concerns, and a real grievances against the WASP patriarchy, or any patriarchy, that has resigned all minorities to the "less than..." ghetto, the fight that they have waged their whole lives, are being crooked by a female candidate who's values are squarely on money and power. In other words, while they fought the patriarchy, she has fought to become the patriarchy, and this, friends, is not feminism. It's opportunistic and cynical

This is the classic yuppie modus operandi: If you can't or won't fight the injustice, just make sure you are on the side perpetuating it, so you don't get any on ya. This is something some of her more yuppified supporters know all too well. It's not that they want to shatter the glass ceiling for their daughters; no, they just want to make sure they are pompously staring down at the rest of us. Her victory is vicarious. It is not a victory for all; it is a victory for her.

In a year in which "historic" seems a bit lightweight for the work that lies ahead of us, work that is the result of the pitched ideological battles of the last nearly forty (forty!) years, it seems that some of these ideological warriors will not go gently into that goodnight, while those who really need help are slipping further into the abyss. The irony is that in the coalition that is Hillary Clinton's base in Kentucky, the former of these actually salts, and not salves, the wounds of the latter, because it needs the politics to stay the same, as does John McCain, in order to survive.

The "devil you know", the Clinton brand, will always keep it temporary, will always keep it right now to distract from a future that renders them obsolete. They cannot conceive of another way to do things; We can, and, in this way, perhaps the lesson of Pennsylvania West Virginia Ohio and Kentucky isn't about women, or the working class, but about the ideological construct itself. The "devil you know" is always yourself, and the simpatico here may be the ideological construction of these citizens who can't conceive of it being any different, a future that may differ materially but mentally the same-just like now, only with different TV shows, a generational ideological tyranny, if you like.

Maybe a Hillary Clinton bumper sticker should read:

"I'm spending my kids inheritance".

RADIOHEAD 2008 Houston - Where I End and You Begin

Saw Radiohead last night. I thought this video was really well shot. It gives a good impression of the staging, which involved these really cool "curtains" of light spanning the stage. Check out some of the other tracks--Everything in Its Right Place is also shot quite well.

Corporate Deathburger

I knew something foul was afoot:

"On Saturday[Bill Clinton] will make a 7:30 p.m. speech at Maifest in Covington."

As if the parking situation isn't bad enough, now, we've got Secret Service issues, and Bubba speaking to thousands of people...

In My Neighborhood!!!

Come down and take a bite...this one's for you.

Update: Swell... Senator Ms. Corporate Deathburger is coming, too.

Again with the Nazi simile?

Give it a rest already, will ya...

JERUSALEM — President Bush used a speech to the Israeli Parliament on Thursday to denounce those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” — a remark that was widely interpreted as a rebuke to Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential contender, who has argued that the United States should talk directly with countries like Iran and Syria.

Greg Fischer

I can't say this enough: The Primary isn't only about Obama and Clinton on Tuesday.

We have a chance unseat the Bush shill of shills, Mitchy McConnell. Greg Fischer is the man for the job.

John Edwards To Endorse Barack Obama

Ah...my dream candidates align...




And he's bringing friends along.

Robert Rauschenberg

One of my faves. You will be missed

JESUS H CHRIST

This is a new low.

Class act, this guy.

West Virginia

I'm sorry folks, but if this is your criteria for President, you are a fool:

"'I've got 50-some guns, and I wasn't crazy about Obama's talk about small towns,' said Sam Vetter, 64, a farmer and lifelong Democrat who regrets voting for Bush in 2000.' 'Besides,' he added, 'Obama just doesn't sound right for an American president'."

Well, these are the same folk who keep putting Robert Byrd back, so there you go...

Appropriately Enough (I resisted the awesome temptation. Take That, Norman!!!), Radio Free Newport has an excellent post concerning all those hard working white people. Compelling stuff.

Update: Shocker...People will vote against their interests-even if its for another Democrat, due to some calculus that hithero unheard of outside of Republican Kansas.

But consider this: Since 1972, West Virginia has only went Democratic in 4 elections: 1976, 1980, 1992, and 1996. West Virginia voted for four times for Southern Governors-Jimmy Carter in 1976 and in 1980, and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, electing Carter to one term (take that, Hillary) and Bill Clinton to two. The rest of the elections; 1972, 1984, 2000 and 2004, the went hard to the right, voting for uber republicans Nixon, Reagan, and Bush I and II.

Okay, so West Virginia will support Democratic Southern Governors, or they go right wing. Yet Hillary Clinton is a Northern Senator...

Hmmm....

I dunno...I'm just baffled as to why people vote the way they do, that's all...

Say What?!?

Well, this explains all Hillary's pissing and moaning about the process:

"As aides looked over the campaign calendar, chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all."

Jesus H. Christ...

My Appeal (Slightly Less Bitter Return)

This is the kind of speech a President makes.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned agents of the status quo and Old, Mean American, reared its head yesterday in Indiana. Bomb Threats? Seriously? I told you Indiana was a scary place, with scary people.

Some, and diminishing, evidentally, because, with some polls having written Obama off in Indiana, he loses the state by 2%. Maybe it was the 2% that would call in the bomb threats, or continue to cling to the racist Old Mean America. Maybe, in a way, its a good thing, like having a living dinosaur to study, ponder at the living anachronism.

One thing is sure: If the world has any justice in it at all, Clinton would do the right thing for her country.

However, I'm not sure her ego could stand it.

The Bitter Truth: My Appeal to America concerning The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, The Status Quo, and Half Price Appetizers.

Indiana and North Carolina.

Did you ever think it would go on this long?

I sure as hell didn't, and we still haven't voted in KY. I hope to God that my vote is perfunctory, that the right person for our future, the man who is the future, will have already sewn this up. Somehow, I doubt it.

It seems to me, now, that the senator from Illinois is already running against John McCain, yet only the people's media seems to notice this fact, among other facts.

I hate to break it to the Hillary folks, who I believe by and large are good and noble people, but Clinton's courting of very media outlets who ground the country to halt over a blowjob, who tried to have Bill Clinton impeached for said blowjob, can only lead me to one of two conclusions:

1. The Clintons are power mad, willing to do anything to win.
   
2. The Clintons are part of the vast right wing conspiracy.
   

The first part is self evident: For the last four months, we have watched the former President and the former First Lady (and First Daughter) debase themselves to such a point that, at times, Bill Clinton has transformed into the Smeagol of 21^st Century Politics, cravenly holding on to power, cowering, foaming, lashing out. If I had told you a year ago that Bill Clinton, the first vote I ever cast, from a place called Hope would be the guy that says "Fuck Hope. I believe in a place called Cynicism". Who would have believed that Bill Clinton, our first "black" President, could almost completely destroy his support in the community that loved him as one of their own? And that's just Bill.

Hillary, whose negatives are set in granite by this point, went from the media lock for the Nomination to a horse race to getting trounced. Yet, we have been treated to a constant stream of tears, race baiting, out and out lies, moving the goal posts, attempts to thumb the scale and, now, the bait and switch. Hillary Clinton on O'Reilly? Hillary Clinton hanging with Richard Mellon Scaife? But these people are the ones who tried to destroy you? These are the people for whom their ideologically driven pathological hatred of you, Democrats, and any sense of Social Justice made them willing to stop the country, beating their fists and kicking the floor like a petulant child, until they got what they wanted: Retribution for Nixon. These are the people you are pandering to?

To be fair, of course, Obama has also talked to Fox News, a move which, I understand as an attempt to reach the dittoheads, still baffles me, and, frankly leaves me a little queasy, and feeling a little dirty.

Of course, if this were just an issue right wing media and the pandering of Presidential hopefuls, we could probably just leave it there, calling it a "necessary evil". However, the difference between the two is an ever widening chasm, for while Obama may go on Fox, and, when there, he will still be Obama, Clinton's turn to the right is palpable, and, as a result, these outlets are cheerleading her. Huh?

When Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy, I was filled with dread, because, with the Imperial Presidency of Bush, which has expanded executive powers beyond anything imagined at the founding of this Republic, it would be of the utmost importance that our next President roll those back, and re-establish the balance. In other words, avoid the awesome temptation to try and do some good with this power, because there is no good that can come of this unbalance. When I thought of Hillary Clinton, I thought about the Nineties, and I realized there was no goddamned way she would restore balance to the force. Case closed. Of course, little did I know she would articulate her this dramatically when she said she would unilaterally obliterate Iran if they attacked Israel, and that she wanted to establish a NATO type organization in the Middle East. I mean, when Pat Buchanan foams at the mouth and reminds us that the President does not have that power, that it is unconstitutional, he is correct and true-under the old paradigm. However, Bush swept that away. Nuking Iran…it's the stuff that Bill Kristol vainly attempts masturbation to. WTF?

Couple this with the Karl Rove inspired campaign, kissing John McCain's Ass, reminding everybody what a hero this guy is (and he is). But Audie Murphy was a hero too, and I don't think anybody thought that this made him eminently qualified to be President.

It's hard to get a read on this John McCain, at least in terms of his grasp of the world around him. Certainly, being a POW would make one view humanity through a certain lens, but I would think it would make one more likely to avoid war at all cost, yet McCain seems intent on continuing the disastrous policies and apocalyptic rhetoric of George W. Bush, the man who so thoroughly smeared him in 2000 with the worst sort of whisper campaign imaginable (NVA collaboration? Bi-racial love children? A wife addicted?)-you know, the sort of thing The Clintons did only months ago, and in the same state (I guess there's just something about South Carolina, ya know…).

What's more is the famous pic of Bush and McCain, with Mr. Straighttalk literally embracing the man who tried to destroy him, almost in a thank you. Indeed, Mr. Straighttalk/The Maverick/Johnny Badass War Hero, cravenly clinging to a man who, while McCain was behind enemy lines, was hovering up horse lines like fucking Tony Montana, like he owed Jr. something? Thank you, George, for sullying my honor, and may I kiss you for your hard work. It is in a moment like that words like integrity should be used, not in reference to some bullshit god huckster with an ax to grind, and a refusal to throw the motherfucker under the bus.

No.

Embracing the man who has single handedly (well, with Cheney's permission) wrecked the economy, wrecked the Constitution, wrecked our credibility and moral position, and wrecked the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, and untold Iraqis is craven. It is not honorable; it is ignoble. All that this proves is that McCain, ever the soldier, will eat shit on order. Embracing the dishonorable does not prove your honor or integrity. It does, however, have a tendency to get on you? Did ya get any on ya?

Of course, and only an idiot would tell people that we may have to brace ourselves for perpetual total war, especially when it doesn't have to be so, and especially especially when said person doesn't even know the difference between Sunni and Shia, or the role that Iran has played. One would think that the fear of a Persian Planet would have mitigated the unholy blood lust for Iraq, but hey, let's think about the future, the world of paranoia and death to come. HOO-RAH.

Actually, the worse part is that Mr. Straighttalk, even with his ignorance of the region, just told you that this is a War For Oil. Yes, your children, your husbands and wives, your brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, are fighting and dying for your SUV. Our SUV's…

Excuse the hyperbolic flourish. We aren't fighting and dying for your SUV. No, it's that we are fighting and dying so that Oil companies can continue to sodomize you at the pump, and at home. Thank God it's not Winter, right? Think about next winter, will ya, for a second? Makes the sphincter jumpy, no?

Certainly, Mr. Straighttalk did me a favor: I was beginning to think that every time one of these ditto heads called me a moonbat and told me to put my tinfoil hat back on because I said these whole thing is about Oil, that maybe they had a point. I began to think "Geez, buddy, calm down! Maybe they're right? Our government wouldn't sacrifice its own people for the interests of the godmoneyed few?". So Senator Maverick…thank you!

Naturally, he claims he misspoke, and that he was referring to Gulf War I. Oh…I thought that was about the integrity of Kuwaiti border and the sovereignty of the Kuwaiti Potentate, and protecting our friends the Saudis…so all of that was bullshit?

Was bullshit, and is, bullshit? If you buy Captain Maverick McStraightfrombush's explanation, I've got some WMD's in and around Tikrit you might be interested in.

So what's the explanation to all of this? What are you going on about here?

It's time we reframe this election, it's true meaning. I am talking both epistemologically and ontologically. It needs to be said, and dammit, I'm just the magic user to do it.

You have three candidates; two Democrats and one Republican (actually, two: Let's not forget Don Paul, The Man From Lake Jackson, tilting at the Antebellum, but anyway). Two of these candidates are extremely well known, one, they claim, has not been vetted properly. This candidate is exciting and fresh, with a unique perspective on the world. The people are excited by the prospect of finally turning a corner in regard to the pitched ideological battles of the last 40 years, and working toward a new future.

The other two have a vested interest in discrediting this upstart. Hillary Clinton and John McCain are R ARE the STATUS QUO. Don't believe the bullshit about this change or that change from these two. They intend to keep things just as they are: Narrowly ideological, with a pretense at their difference.

The media, since Reverend Wrong came out with the hatchet (and how come nobody seems to give a shit that a Hillary supporter booked this asshole's media tour?) have given The Status Quo a pass. Both of them? Blood for Oil? So? The Obliteration of Iran? No big deal? Let's talk about the "Goddamn America"-but only if Obama's, right? Since the Status Quo are both associated with religious crackpots who have made offensive and hateful comments about this Republic. The media needs the status quo because its easy and digestible. The characters are set, man. The themes are easy, the dialogue heated and exciting and, the best part of all, everything that happens tends toward more bad news, and that, my friends, sells like hotcakes. Except for now, because hotcakes are too goddamned expensive, too.

If it isn't the wacky Reverend, then we are talking about 30 bucks. Yup, the Federal Gas Tax Holiday, the most inane bullshit idea ever to deal with the hosing of America. Thirty fucking bucks. If you think this is all wonderful, ask yourself "How much are tires now? How much is a new suspensión?" because your trip to Applebees for half price appetizers may end in leaving the front end of your car in a giant pothole. Come on, these two, with this weak ass idea, are the political equivalent of the guy who hits you in the parking lot of Meier's, and want's to pay you cash to not file a claim…"But my bumper's hanging off?"

"Hey, come on, my premiums will go up".

There is an old adage that if you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. I feel like we need a new one: If you get in bed with the Rightwing, you get the herpes.

Herpes, of course, is a gift into perpetuity. The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has given us so many gifts, and not just Fox News and George Bush. It has given us our Status Quo, for both Clinton and McCain have been scarred by it, in some cases, by their own volition. Both of them seem to suffer from outbreaks, or are in the throes of a flaming outbreak. In their ideological battles, the desire to prevail is so great that they would willingly sell anybody and everybody out. For McCain, it was the last shred of integrity and honor, sold out to the NeoCons, The Dittoheads, the lot. For Clinton, it would seem that she has forgotten who the bad guys are, and has decided that her sense of entitlement, her own constructed egoistic claim to history, means that she will do anything to win, even if she alienates millions, and burns down her own party to do it. If you get in bed with the Rightwing, you are the rightwing. Your sores fester for the world to see, a constant reminder of your historical blindness, your pomposity, and your cowardly pandering. You kiss enough ass, and your breath smells like shit.

So, as I end this missive, I would like my fellow citizens of these United States to not be fooled. Do not think that McCain is different from Bush, because he can't be. Do not fool thyself with the underdog bullshit of that NeoCon in a Progressive Pantsuit, Hillary Clinton. A vote for one of them is a vote for the other, and nothing changes.

If you don't like the way the country is going, then really do something about it. Leave your baggage at the door. Vote for Barack Obama.

Return to the Creed of our Founding.

Vote for Obama.

Update, Primary Day: Ron Paul?!?:

"Instead, Paul favors Sen. Barack Obama because of positions on foreign policy. 'But that's doesn't mean that's an endorsement,' Paul quickly added."

I have no earthly idea what is going to happen. I'm in knots...

Joe Andrew

Whoah...

"A leader of the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton has switched his allegiance to Barack Obama and is encouraging fellow Democrats to 'heal the rift in our party' and unite behind the Illinois senator.

Joe Andrew, who was Democratic National Committee chairman from 1999-2001, planned a news conference Thursday in his hometown of Indianapolis to urge other Hoosiers to support Obama in Tuesday's primary, perhaps the most important contest left in the White House race. He also has written a lengthy letter explaining his decision that he plans to send to other superdelegates."

This might be big. This might be decisive...

Update: Paul Kirk comes out for Obama, and The_Wizard shares some thoughts on Indiana.

With all the pundits talking about momentum being in Hillary's favor, it appears these superdelegates being rolled out for Obama might act as a kind of political stop stick. If Obama rolls out more prominent superdelegates, then it may even work.

One thing that concerns me is Indiana-yes, my former home. This could be seen as a kind of Waterloo for this nomination.

The problem with Indiana is...well, parts of it are just like that GOP candidate who spoke at the Hitler breakfast, except, especially in Southern Indiana, many of the people there would have been at that breakfast anyway, regardless of the candidate.

I lived in Indiana for over twenty years, went to High School in an area that had a rather active Klan. I can say, with some authority, that, short of a miracle or being instructed by their Reverend, Priest or Pastor, that there is no fucking way that any of the districts in this part of the Hoosier state will go for Obama, save for the area in and around Jeffersonville, which might.

Even if we aren't talking about committed racists, you have the additional hurdle of the culture. In SE Indiana, where I lived, it was almost entirely German Catholic or Protestant, with each be comprised of native Hoosiers and Green Township/Western Hills/Cheviot/White Oak, etc. transplants. I was a transplant from the same area. To say that these people are conservative would be the understatement of the year.

Bright, the town (well, no, unincorporated sprawl of subdivisions and churches) where I spent alot of my childhood (too much of my adulthood as well)and where my dad still lives, has no signs for any Presidential Candidate. Not one. Judges-sure. Surveyor-absolutely. School Board-totally. Why?

BECAUSE EVERYBODY THERE IS GOING TO VOTE FOR GODDAMNED JOHN MCCAIN, that's way. The only people that won't are the dittoheads, who will vote for Hillary on orders of the OxyContin of Conservatism, Rush Limbaugh, in order to facillitate JOHN MCCAIN. When I lived in Bright, I knew a total of 5 Democrats who also lived in Bright, including me. The rest were either musicians or into meditation. That's it.

I am not saying that this is all of Indiana, but anybody that has spent a significant amount of time there knows that what I write here is truth.

God, please, Indy and North, do the right thing...

Update to the Update: Wonder if this is some kind of trend in the Hoosier state?

"Until now, Shirley Morgan had always been the kind of voter the Republican Party thought it could count on. She comes from a family of staunch Republicans, has a son in the military and has supported Republican presidential candidates ever since she cast her first ballot, for Richard M. Nixon in 1972.

But this year Mrs. Morgan exemplifies a different breed: the Republican crossing over to vote in the Democratic primary. Not only will she mark her ballot for Senator Barack Obama in the May 6 primary here, but she has also been canvassing for him in the heavily Republican suburbs of Hamilton County, just north of Indianapolis — the first time she has ever actively campaigned for a candidate."

The fact that Hillary is peeling off some of the crossovers is no big surprise: The farther right she panders, the more likely she is to get some disgruntled conservatives or moderate Republicans, but it is encouraging that Barack is still knockin' 'em dead, even in the reddest state. If he can win Indiana, he wins the nomination, and this dangerous farce propagated by the power crazed Clintons will end...finally.

Yeah, right...

Speechless

When a blogger has a title containing such a surreal trifecta as LSD, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld...what could go wrong?



RIP Albert...