"Where else would you go when you have an ax to grind?"

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Block the vote


Despite the stench of death and failure that now creeps forth from the staggering McCain - Palin campaign as it lurches from one screw up to the next, the GOP machine is still lurking behind the curtain. As Palast and Kennedy point out: It ain't over 'til it's over.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

From the desk of Sen. John McCain

Dear crazy Jesus freaks Friends at inJesus.com

I know I said I wanted your help to become president and continue to carry out the Lord's work just the way our beloved President Bush has done. I even picked one of your own as my running mate to try to buy your loyalty. I know you sincerely believe all this stuff and can quote me chapter and verse in the Scriptures to support your belief. But here's the thing: Most people in America are base sinners who don't understand the threat that witches and satanism actually pose, in fact most of them think Spiritual Warfare is the stuff of cheesy horror movies and the sorts of games with all the books and dice those weird, nerdy kids in high school used to play. I'm trying to win an election here people, so I as much as I appreciate your prayers and other efforts to fight Nigerian witchcraft on my behalf, do you think you could kind of keep it on the down low?
Thanks
your pal in Jesus,
Sen. John McCain

H/T the Wingnutterer

Monday, October 20, 2008

you say "tomayto," I say "tomahto"


When Rich Lowery and many other perpetually adolescent right wingers think of Sarah Palin, they think of her as a sexy school marm at the Bible college or some damn thing. They think of this (nearly safe for work, and do, by all means read the script).
When I hear her voice, I think of Edie McClurg as Mrs Herbert R. Tarlek or the car rental clerk in Planes Trains and Automobiles


Don't cry for me Arizona


(in which I analyze, predict and offer sage advice on the U.S. political scene)


I don't want to jinx anything, but the Obama campaign seems to be an unstoppable juggernaut - anytime a Democratic presidential nominee can draw back-to-back crowds of 100,000 and 75,000 in Missouri, you have to figure the Republicans are going to get worried, especially when they are drawing far smaller, far crazier crowds.



Like I said, I don't want to jinx anything and I probably won't relax until about Obama's third State of the Union address, but the Republicans appear to be giving up on McCain -- pundit rats are leaving the sinking ship and the right wing nuts are about to go all Viet Cong on the rest of the country, skulking off into their spiderholes stocked with canned Cheetos and ammunition to write dogwhistle screeds for New Republic, the Washington Times and Regnery calling for decent, Jesus-loving, white Americans to rise up against their socialist oppressors before the black helicopters arrive with the UN occupation troops.



Newt Gingrich is already setting the narrative for his attempt to renew his Contract on with America in 2012. The new Republican narrative is going to go like this: "Filthy liberal terrorist fellow traveller Barack Obama ( who is a black African "mask Muslim" negro) stole the 2008 election from (white) Maverick POW War Hero John McCain, an all-American (white) War Hero who was a Maverick hero military pilot and POW (and a WASPy white Christian) with the help of the terrorist-loving liberal Mainstream media, pointy-headed intellectuals who graduated from elitist secular liberal colleges, liberal secular elitist universities and public high schools, socialist James Bond villain gazillionaire George Soros and trashy, liberal, elitists coughJewscough in Sodom and Gomorrah Hollyweird. ACORN stole all the votes everywhere we lost. It was fixed. We was robbed. Obama isn't really the president, he's not even an American."



Assuming that some knuckledragging goniff doesn't lurch forward from among the great unwashed and murder the president on the orders of Jesus (and who wouldn't like to have the contract to supply the Secret Service with Depends now that every bald guy in a ski vest on the ropeline is going to look like a skinhead suicide bomber at first glance) Newt or Skeeter or Jeb or whoever will spend the next four year trying to convince Americans that the Democrats are responsible for losing Iraq ("If it hadn't been for those damned dirty hippies, John McCain would have won that war and gas would be 50 cents a gallon") raising taxes on hard-working American oil executives and corporate vice presidents ("He's redistributing wealth, that's class warfare - you know who else engaged in class warfare? Stalin!") and allowing swarthy foreigners to steal jobs.


The economy will just be emerging from the current disaster (which everyone knows was the Democrats fault) and because of the cost of the bailout and wars the Democrats won't be able to afford to do anything about education or health care -- they will be lucky to balance the budget by 2020 at this point, which of course will prove how financially irresponsible they are. ("They nationalized the banks! You know who else nationalized the banks? Mao!")



Now, none of this works if the McCain-Palin ticket gets elected and further screws things up. You thought Iraq was a gigantic clusterfuck? Wait until McCain invades Iran, Syria, Jordan and Spain. They will drop the country from the frying pan into the fire and throw gasoline on the fire and then nuke the fire from an orbital war satellite. You think I'm being pessimistic ? Wait until they start saying the pledge of allegiance at sporting events and requiring Muslims, gays and liberal arts degree holders to attend mandatory bible classes. Wait until they privatize the departments of the interior, education, health and human corporate services and put Rush Limbaugh in charge of the FCC.



But none of this is going to happen.


John McCain is not going to win.


He is a sacrificial jackass. The Republican pundits know it. The Republican money men know it. The RNC knows it. The Democrats are starting to figure it out, hell even John McCain is starting to figure it out. How else do you explain his appearance on Fox New Sunday this week? You can smell the fear just reading the transcript on the internet. He must have had a case of flop sweat that left salt stains under his arm pits. After yammering himself into an apoplectic froth for ten minutes about how he didn't care about William Ayers and Barack Obama possibly being gay lovers or cannibals or something, whatever, he doesn't care, he's not interested in slinging mud at that terrorist-loving secret muslim socialist, it's not an issue -- McCain had this to say about the possibility of not winning:





WALLACE: As we said at the beginning of this interview, you are behind in this race, but you are a fighter. You have been your whole life.
Have you considered — have you even dealt in your mind with the possibility that you could lose, and could you live with that?
MCCAIN: Oh, sure. I mean, I don't dwell on it. But look. I've had a wonderful life. I have to go back and live in Arizona, and be in the United States Senate representing them, and with a wonderful family, and daughters and sons that I'm so proud of, and a — and a life that's been blessed.
I'm the luckiest guy you have ever interviewed and will ever interview. I'm the most fortunate man on earth, and I thank God for it every single day.
WALLACE: So if the world turns an unfortunate way on November 4th, don't feel sorry for John McCain?
MCCAIN: Don't feel sorry for John McCain, and John McCain will be concentrating on not feeling sorry for himself.
WALLACE: And you might just be president.
MCCAIN: You never know.



It isn't quite a concession, because, hey, you never know, those Diebold machines might come through yet.


In order to beat the Republicans in 2012 and 2016 -- because it is going to take that long to fix the scorched, salted earth the Republican neo-cons are leaving behind --Obama is going to have to work very hard just to get the shit to shoe level. He doesn't just have eight years of Dubya to fix, he has 12 years of Reagan's dumbassery to repair as well. Expectations will be high and when he fails to fix everything overnight the knives will be out, even among his own party. 2010 is going to be a hard year for Democrats running in the midterm election. The wars will not be over yet, the economy will still be a smoking ruin and it is extremely unlikely that the health care or education or environmental issues will have been addressed to anyone's satisfaction. There will be a whole lot of "I told you so" and "Hilary would have done it better" going around.


But there is a way to beat that. First, Obama has to win by a landslide and the Democrats need 60 or more seats in the Senate and a large majority in the house. They also need to win some state governments over as well so as to control the election referees the way the Republicans have so successfully for the last 20 years. Then Obama has to appoint a serious badass to run the Justice Department, someone like Patrick Fitzgerald, who will investigate the outright fuckery of the last eight years and put some of these people in jail. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, Monica Goodling -- all the political hatchet men and campaign ratfuckers, all the torturers and liars -- screw the pardons Bush is gonna write for all of them, subpeona these people and when, like Karl Rove has done this year, they refuse to appear, send the federal marshals to their country club to slap the cuffs on them right there on the 14th green and jail their sorry asses for contempt. Do the same with some of the Wall Street moneymen who got platinum parachutes while their companies burned down the whole neighborhood. Americans will forget they don't have jobs if they can watch these bastards being put in the dock and sent to Levenworth for a couple of years.


While the public is watching the bloodletting, use the time and the majority to get stuff done. Reregulate the financial industry. Pass your tax plan to give the middle class a break and make the rich pay their share. Pull 50,000 troops out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to find Bin Laden and then bring them the hell home and demobilize them. Cut the defense budget in half, the USA will still outspend the rest of the world. Bring back the fairness doctrine and give the FCC some teeth. Conservatives will scream. So what? Let them, they made the mess and they wanna cry while Obama cleans it up? It will be great campaign fodder for 2012.


The other positive working in the Democrats favour is time. The time it takes to clean up the mess is also time that will pass and put some past events in better perspective. Like the enormity of the mistake made in invading Iraq. Like the fact that the 9/11 attacks, while tragic, were not the apocalypse. The luster of Reagan will fade some more, and the stench of the corpse of conservatism will grow. The shadow will start to lift. Plus, within eight years a good quarter of the people who are voting for John McCain this year will be dead from old age, apoplexy, hunting accidents, carnival ride mishaps, cirrhosis and lead poisoning (all those years of eating paint chips will eventually catch up with the people who phone call-in talk radio shows).


My friends, that is change we can believe in.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Spellink iz fur eeleetust loozurz

Here is the kind of quality control we can expect from a McCain/Palin administration. Even Joe the Plumber should be embarrassed by this.


H/T to Lawyers, Guns and Money

Racists? In the GOP?

What on earth would ever give you that idea?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

American Idiots

 
I'm sure some clever conservative will point out that this is from Al-Jazeera and so therefore it is biased, but what cannot be denied or deflected is that these are the people who are attending the McCain-Palin rallies and voting Republican: the misinformed, the bigoted,  the religious zealots and elderly people stuck in the distant past--- in other words, pretty much the same as the Republican candidates. 


Canadian idiots


At some point I'll write a longer post about the pointless, stupid, expensive and disastrous Canadian election, but for now let me just address a few choice comments to a small group of voters in a single riding.

Dear 3,667 NDP voters in Saanich--Gulf,

Look, I know you probably got a phone call from some robot urging you to get out and vote for the NDP candidate and I know some people are stubborn about strategic voting and don't like to vote for the lesser of two evils and all that, but seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you? It isn't like no one noticed that your candidate dropped out of the race, it was kind of in the newspapers and on the TV and all over the internet and stuff. Even if you really, really, really loved Jack Layton and the NDP and couldn't bring yourself to vote strategically for the Liberals, couldn't you just stay home instead of parading your jaw-dropping stupidity in public by voting for a non-existent candidate. If you thought this was some kind of clever protest vote, well I hope your sense of righteous indignation keeps you warm on cold winter nights in the fall out shelter after your returning MP manages to cause a nuclear explosion in the Alberta Tar Sands, or some other stroke of brilliance.
On the bright side, by falling for it  you have at least brought to light Gary Lunn's dirty tricks, but it wasn't like we didn't already know he was an asshole. 
Thanks to you, that asshole is now heading back to Ottawa to continue to do pretty much the opposite of what the NDP would to see done, and you sent him there.
Nice going.




Go read it now

Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson gives the goods on the Make Believe Maverick

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Quote of the day

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. "

--John Stuart Mill

Letter to the Conservative MP, Sir John Pakington (March 1866)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving


A thought to ponder for the weekend

When it comes to a financial meltdown, after dire predictions from economists governments around the world scramble to cooperate, the G7 calls emergency meetings, the doors to various national treasuries are flung open. The attitude among politicians and pundits by and large is "Do something! Costs to the taxpayers be dammed, we must solve this problem before it get worse, no matter what it takes.The government tells you about different ways to save money to whether the crisis Times are hard and we all have to pull together!" Handing over $700 billion with little or no oversight is something that must be done.

When it comes to global warming on the other hand, after 25 years of studies and dire predictions from scientists, there are still many politicians, bonehead and corporate lackies who claim the whole thing is a matter of opinion and the best thing to do is burn more coal and oil and drive your SUV to the corner store. Equiping factories with antipollution gear and forcing the auto industry to build more hybrids would be socialism and would cost too much.

When it comes to genocide in Darfur, thousands are dying, but it might be too expensive to divest or to pay some bills for the African Union or send some of our own soldiers. Besides, Sudan has some oil and you never know when that might come in handy.

The government of the United States is willing to fork over $700 billion in one fell swoop to the very people who lead the finanacial industry into disaser, but when experts say it might cost as much aas $150 billion to bring unversal health care to the country, all we hear about is "personal responsibility" and "fiscal restraint."

Nice to know where our priorities lay as a society.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Stealing back your vote

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

Wrong.

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

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

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

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


Radical ties
We've mentioned a few of John McCain's unsavory associations already -- not the least of which is his "close friend" Watergate thug G. Gordon Liddy -- but what of some of his inner circles' connections? Fancy seeing this in the Wall Street Journal:



The McCain campaign, in a continuing effort to link Barack Obama to domestic terrorism, released a statement Wednesday from a New York supporter, recounting how his family home was firebombed by the radical 1960s group founded by Obama supporter William Ayers.
But the McCain supporter, John M. Murtagh, has his own ties to radical protesters: He served as a lawyer for a Catholic priest who led protests at an abortion clinic that turned violent.




Then, of course, there is Sarah Palin's consorting with wingnuts from the John Birch Society and the Alaska Independence Party :



During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin’s campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.
Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution’s language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as “Black Helicopter Steve,” to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. “Every time I showed up her door was open,” said Chryson. “And that policy continued when she became governor.”


Meanwhile, Barrack Obama has your October Surprise right here. My guess is he either gives another hard-hitting speech on race or runs an old episode of the Beverly Hillbillies with the Palin's and the McCain's faces superimposed via CGI, depending on where things stand in the polls.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

"The sheriff is a ..."

With the world economy in freefall, I can't believe this even needs to be talked about, but after McCain's reference to "that one" in the debate, and the tenor of recent speeches by McCain and Palin and responses they have drawn -- it is pretty clear that the Republicans, desperate to distract, have once again hit the bottom of the barrel and started digging.

Don't for a second kid yourself that race no longer matters in America. Conservatives like the gang at the Corner like to claim that Barack Obama's nomination by the Democrats proves that discrimination against blacks no longer exists (reverse racism against white men, well according to them, that's another story ) Bullshit. Just have a look at what is going on in Virginia, in cyberspace, in Oregon, all over the place, everywhere.

The McCain campaign has given up on the dog whistle and dusted off the megaphone. (Thanks to Cynicor for the comprehensive list of recent sins)

From the LA Times Via Glenn Greenwald and Rising Hegemon :

Here (.pdf) is a newspaper column from Bobby May, the McCain campaign chair in Buchanan County, Virginia and correspondence secretary for the Buchanan County Republican Party, warning that "the platform of Barack Hussein Obama" includes:
Illegal Immigration: "Learn to Speak Spanish";
Terrorist Threat to America: "Learn to Speak Arabic";
Reparations to Black Community: Opposes before Election Day and supports after Election Day;
Freedom of Religion: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology courses taught in all churches;
Homosexual Marriage: Coddle sexual perverts. Give tax breaks for NAMBLA membership;
Drug Crisis: Raise taxes for free drugs for Obama's inner-city political base;
The White House: Hire rapper Ludacris to "paint it black."



It's a short step from "that one" to "you people" to "Sambo beat the bitch *" to the picking a new Grand Wizard. If only Barack had done those townhall meetings like McCain had asked him to, this wouldn't have had to happen.

And furthermore: A Maverick? I don't think so.

*sourcing discussed here

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

There but for the grace of God go I...

The scene: The moat of the Imperial Palace, Tokyo at 11 A.M. today.



interestingly, the original videos seem to have disappeared but you can still see it on the BBC 


It's not me, but I work a block away and a few more of those 45 degree-85 percent humidity August days and I wouldn't necessarily rule it out for next year.

Update: Now you know (none of) the rest of the story

"Like watching Gidget address the Reichstag"
Matt Taibbi channels the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson. Go read it now!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Palling around with terrorists

Sarah Palin says Barack Obama palls around with terrorists because an acquaintance of his, William Ayers,was once a member of the Weather Underground, back when Obama was eight years old. As future Alaska Gov. Dave Noon (aw cmon Dave, run! please! Wouldn't you just love to debate her yourself?) points out, the Republicans really don't want to go there.

There is also talk that the Republican smear machine is gearing up to talk about Rev. Jeremiah Wright some more. Oh yeah, lets talk about whose preacher is crazier, the ex-Marine civil rights firebrand that Obama has split with, or the gay-hating, witch-hunting brace of looney toons who speak in tongues and think the Iraq war is part of the God's plan that Palin embraces.

If Team Maverick want to talk about who has connection to shady characters, radicals or ideologues that might affect the way they govern, well, bring it on. McCain has some very, very troubling friends - the aforementioned Watergate spook G. Gordon Liddy, financial deregulator Phil Gram, American Taliban Pastor John Hagee, to say nothing of the various mobbed-up gambling industry types and assorted lobbyists.

And of course, there's this guy:





Update: Dave Neiwert rightfully points out that Palin complaining about Obama hanging out with traitors is very much a case of the pot calling the kettle....uh.... well, you know what I mean . Hasn't she already shown her sympathy for a plan to break up the union? Doesn't she snuggle up every night with someone who favours treason in defense of oil profits?
Over at the Huffington Post, Sam Stein reminds us of John McCain's association with a group that backed Central American death squads.
Finally, in the interest of being fair and balanced, Jesus' General has a video that shines a light on the kind of radical organization Obama has joined and the sort of sleazy company this has put him in.