Republicans = ♥ (Crazy > Smart)
The Most Abrasive Liberal Rhetoric Is Lukewarm Compared To The Right Wing
by Dr. James McSaddle

Florida Congressman Alan Grayson was criticized for calling out Republicans on their failure to to offer solutions to the serious and far reaching problems that face our current health care system.

The cost of care is going up and the quality of care is going down. We have an inexcusably high infant mortality rate and too many people go bankrupt or die because of the dishonesty of the for-profit insurance industry.

Congresman Grayson's aggressive posture is far less offensive than the outright lie-mongering, distortion, and incitement to fear that have become a part of the Republicans "brand".

It's difficult to listen to G.O.P. leaders call Obama a fascist, especially when the Patriot Act and FISA permitted the federal government to conduct unconstitutional searches, seizures and surveillance against American citizens.

It's especially difficult to hear Republicans compare Obama to Hitler while their own political success hinges upon the effectiveness of their lies and intimidation. The best hope for the Conservative Movement is the prevalence and persistence of the willful ignorance a person needs to believe what they say.

Their constituency consists primarily of those whose psychology is so frail that they believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya and that the poor and sick should be sentenced to death for being poor and sick. Some of them show up with AR-15s and other implements usually reserved for the battlefield or the apocalypse.

Somehow for-profit insurance corporations has gotten a visible number of angry white rubes to yell, stomp, and spit on their behalf in the public square. . .I'll never quite understand it.

I know that the Republicans are keen on death and destruction, but it's intellectually dishonest, even for a them, to subscribe to and embrace this genocidal social Darwinism while doubting the validity of evolution.

They would rather be crazy than smart, they would rather cultivate sociopaths than intellectuals; they would rather the collect campaign contributions from polluters and let humanity die on an uninhabitable planet than work to limit pollution; they would rather spend a trillion dollars on a war of aggression than on creating jobs or improving education.

I don't think it's particularly partisan to think that the G.O.P. platform represents a gross and perverted value system.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

OBAMA WINS
The Only Thing Better Than Victory Will Be Success

It's not hard to think highly of John McCain, especially when he is as gracious and high-minded in defeat as he was last night.

I know that Barack Obama wants to usher in an era of unity and healing, but it's important that we never forget that Barack Obama is the president-elect DESPITE the fact that the McCain campaign promoted fear, xenophobia and racism because he believed that peoples ignorance was the margin of victory.

John McCain deserved to lose, and today is a good day because of that.

In the coming months, watch for John McCain distance himself from his conduct during the financial crisis, Sarah Palin, and the assertions that Barack Obama was too black, too shady, and too much of a secret terrorist to be President.

While McCain deserved to lose, Barack Obama deserved to win. That makes today a great day, and because he won, I have faith that many more are ahead.

Barack Obama changed how campaigns are run and he has set a new standard for 21st Century Presidential candidates. Obama brought progressive politics into the mainstream by making his case to Middle America. His policies are a huge departure from the status quo, and he has inspired us and prepared us for the Change We Need.

Not everyone voted for Obama, but I have a feeling that deep in the hearts of many that they are rooting for him to do a good job.

I have supported Barack Obama's campaign for president ever since hinted that he might be interested running back in October 2006 on Meet The Press. The only thing better than seeing him win will be watching him succeed.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

FINAL PREDICTION: Obama by 7%, 384 Electoral Votes.

OBAMA Will Win Most Decisive Election In A Generation.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

McCain Running Dishonorable Campaign

Worse, It's The Political Equivalent Of A Michael Bay Movie.

Lately I have heard that McCain supporters take issue when he is called "dishonorable". They insist that no man with his war record could ever act dishonorably.

Just because John McCain, failed in his mission, crashed his plane (for the fifth time) and as a result got the shit kicked out of him by a band of malnourished Communist Asians, to whom he revealed classified information in exchange for special treatment doesn't mean he isn't dishonorable.

It certainly doesn't mean that he is beyond serial infidelity, unconscionable corruption, political cowardice, and promoting baseless lies designed to provoke violent racism and xenophobia.

Lately at his rallies, McCain has been prompting some outrageous reactions from his supporters.

For instance,when McCain utters the name of his opponent, Senator Barack Obama (D- Illinois), the crowd has been shouting utterances like "terrorist!", or they say "kill him!" or "off with his head".



They do this without the any admonishment or disapproval from John McCain, who just peels back his lips to reveal his damp, gray and crooked grin, through which his rancid breath escapes in subdued cackle.

Every election year, it seems like someone says that it's about the most dirty election season ever, and usually that notion is just misguided hyperbole. But we live in times where what was ONCE misguided hyperbole is now the most clear and truthful way to describe the world in which we live.

John McCain's campaign is the political equivalent of a film by Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer. It's over budgeted and under developed, it's loud, it's irrational, it's flashy, it's over hyped, it plays to the lowest common denominator and its hard for anyone with cognitive fortitude to watch it for even a moment.

Sarah Palin, the suspension of his campaign, Joe the Plumber: These are overproduced set pieces in a campaign that should never have been. It appears that in this election, people know garbage when they see it, and they are holding their nose at the sight of it.

Still, I worry.

Armageddon and Pearl Harbor each opened at #1.

• 1 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

Doctors: McCain Has Advanced Melanoma,
6 to 18 Months To Live
Mayo Clinic M.D. Originally Reported On Findings, But Has Since Gone Silent

During his first campaign for the White House in 2000, Senator John McCain unconditionally released all of his medical records to the press and gave reporters virtually unlimited access to his entire medical history.

However, last May Sen. McCain agreed to allow only highly restricted access to the very same kind of records. Only selected news organizations and journalists were allowed access to Sen. McCain's medical history during this election cycle. Members of the news media were permitted just three hours to go over 1000s of pages of files in an sealed and isolated room. Reporters were not allowed to use cell phones or use the internet while in the sealed area. Anyone who left the room was not allowed back in. This new level of secrecy baffled many members of the press who remarked that the move was inconsistent with the openness the McCain campaign showed in 2000.

The reason why Sen. McCain has gone from absolute openness with his medical records to a new level of secrecy is because the Senator's health has declined considerably since his original presidential campaign. This decline is not unusual for a man who was 64 eight years ago.

John McCain is 72 years old, and if elected he would be the oldest first-term President in history. Both voters and medical experts have expressed concern that the state of Mr. McCain's health may preclude him from executing the most important tasks of his presidency if he is elected.

At his most recent physical, McCain's personal physician at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. John D. Eckstein said that because of a "serious aliment" that Sen. McCain has just 6 to 18 months to live.

While Dr. Eckstein was not specific on the nature of the illness himself, other experts in the field say that McCain is likely to be suffering from advanced melanoma that could require chemotherapy in the near future. No one is quite sure if McCain's major illness is treatable or if his illness is terminal.

"We aren't going to talk about any potential illness or potential treatment until after the election." said an Senior McCain aide who asked not to be named.

"Right now, it's all speculative" said Dr. Eckstein when he was asked if Senator McCain would be able to maintain a full schedule as President while he underwent chemotherapy. Side effects of the chemotherapy include rapid weight loss, a suppressed immune system,memory loss, malnutrition, nausea and hair loss.

If McCain underwent these procedures it is possible that he would be unable to discharge his duties as President on a full time basis. If elected, McCain might be put in a position where he would have to frequently and regularly invoke the third section of 25th Amendment which would make the Vice President the Acting President.

The constitutional provision was used by Ronald Reagan in 1987 when he underwent surgery as George H.W. Bush became the Acting President. President George W. Bush invoked it when he underwent two separate colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007. However, since the inception of the 25th Amendment, no one has invoked it to cover anything as serious or as long term as chemotherapy.

In a potential McCain administration, current Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would be Vice President and ultimately she would bare the responsibilities of the "Acting President" if section three of the 25th amendment was enacted.

"Even with chemotherapy, the Senator is gravely ill and he is unlikely to serve a full term", said Dr. Eckstein.

The Mayo Clinic physician initially expressed that he was upset that his findings were removed from the medical records to which reporters had access. "Senator McCain would be the oldest first term President ever, and his medical conditions could have a profound impact on his ability to conduct while in office".

Dr. Eckstein was contacted for a follow-up interview, but he did not respond.

• 4 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

Obama & McCain Respond To Bailout Failure

Candidates Show Difference In How They Will Govern

Obama:

Obama said he's confident a deal will be reached on a bailout plan, despite it failing in the House.

Explaining why he was delayed at the start of his event, he said in this town about 20 minutes outside Denver, "I was on the phone with Secretary Paulson as well as the Speaker of the House and the Congressional leaders, because they are still trying to work through this rescue package. And obviously this is a very difficult thing to do. It's difficult because we shouldn't have gotten here in the first place.

"We meet here at a time of great uncertainty for America. The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has led us to a financial crisis as serious as any we have faced since the Great Depression. They said they wanted to let the market run free but instead they let it run wild, and in the process they trampled our American values of fairness, balance, and responsibility to one another. Now, because of speculators who gamed the system and regulators who looked the other way, your jobs, your life savings, and the stability of our entire economy is at risk."

McCain:

When McCain boarded his campaign plane with Rob Portman in preparation for his flight to Des Moines, just as the bailout legislation was defeated on the House floor, he ignored questions shouted by reporters from under the wing about the fate of the bill.

It's unclear if he could hear the questions, but when he heard reporters shouting his name he turned and waved.

Question:

How long before Obama gets 60% in the polls?

Source: NBC News.

• 1 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

McCain Wants To Be A Part-Time President

In Difficult Times, Americans Want An FDR, Not A Hoover

Imagine that if after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that President Franklin Roosevelt didn't address the Congress and the American people by inspiring confidence and strength, but rather he decided that he could only attend to one crisis at a time.

FDR was already taking on The Great Depression when the United States was attacked. After he described December 7, 1941 as "a day that will live in infamy", he went on to say,

"With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph."

Even though the United States was struggling through double-digit unemployment and a shaken economy during The Great Depression, FDR knew that he had to mobilize the nation and the world against dire threats to their liberty, sovereignty and safety.

John McCain, ever the maverick, decided that approach wasn't for him.

Upon what has been described as one of the worst economic crisis' since The Great Depression, John McCain has decided to focus on one thing while ignoring another important thing.

This week, John McCain said that he would suspend his campaign, and he had requested to delay the Presidential Debate scheduled for Friday at 9PM E.S.T.

Apparently Sen. McCain who has been the Congress' most absent Senator is in a rush to fix the economic crisis that he, Bush and the Republicans in Congress helped to create.

McCain insists on ignoring one important task to work on a crisis that he is admittedly not qualified to handle. He does this despite the fact that whoever wins this election will have to be a full-time Commander-In-Chief, a full-time steward of the economy, and a full time President.

If FDR didn't multitask and show a willingness to take on one of the worst domestic crisis' in US history along with the greatest crisis' of war simultaneously, we would be a very different country today.

Would we have been better off if FDR decided not to fight World War II so that he could focus on the economy? Probably not.

McCain's decision is further evidence of his poor temperament and erratic decision making process, which has recently disturbed even the most conservative political observers.

The President of the United States doesn't get an excused absence. When a candidate for President asks for one, he shouldn't be taken seriously.

Barack Obama on the other hand, has called McCain out. He remarked that it is especially important for the American people to hear from the people who will eventually be responsible for this mess.

In about 40 days, the American people will have their say on who is best equipped to lead through this and every crisis we will endure for the next four years. Because of this, it is now especially important for Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama to have an audience with the voting electorate about where they intend to lead this country.

Barack Obama understands that, if elected, he will have to be a full-time President.

McCain doesn't.

Do We Need A Hoover or Do We Need A Roosevelt?

• 2 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

John McCain Est Un Sac De Douche
Insults Are An Important Part Of The French Language, No?

The other day in French class, we were learning how to describe things. (Il est/Elle est = He is/She is).

One of the exercises included finding five ways to describe a celebrity. The choices included Will Smith, Michael Phelps, Charles De Gaule, George Bush, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and John McCain among others.

A fellow that sat behind me said that he was going to describe John McCain and said "Il est indépendant, Il est intelligent". Which, of course, is total bullshit in any language.

When he was done, I said "John McCain? Il est douchebag!". Most of the class laughed including the youngish instructor. I admit that it was a cheap shot and that a majority of the class was more impressed by my used of the word "douchebag" than my criticism of John McCain.

After class, the guy who lavished praise upon McCain in the language of romance walked by my desk as I was packing up to leave.

" [COUGH]douchebag[COUGH]faggot[COUGH]" he muttered.

Yep, he did the thing where he coughed an insult. What's worse is that as he did it he walked away. I was mostly offended because he thought he could insult me and that I would pretend that I didn't hear it just to avoid escalation. As Bugs Bunny said, "He don't know me too well, do he?"

"Excuse me?", I said to him. He didn't acknowledge me, and his back was to me was he walked to the teacher.

"Excuse me! Did you have something to say to me?" I said to him as I picked up my pace without his acknowledgement.

Finally, I stepped in front of him and leaned over into his face.

"Excuse me? Did you have something to say to me?"

He looked at me, but he didn't say anything. Still in front of him, I reiterated.

" Because I am right here."

"Uh, your outrageous comments, uh. . ."

"Outrageous? I think what you said was outrageous! You put your opinion out there, and so did I. I even did it in French! But you, you went ahead and insulted me, and you thought I would ignore it.

He was silent and clearly jarred.

"Maybe next time if you have something to say to me, you'll say it to my face? How's that sound?"

He didn't say anything.

I jetted off in a fuming rage, because this Pugsley Adams looking bastard draped in his American Eagle reminded me of every half-thinking spoiled Detroit-burb moron who thinks that John McCain is the cats pajamas.. He looks like the kind of guy whose interests, outside of Republican politics, include taking dates to Fazoli's and then raping them in the Pontiac Vibe that his dad, an Oakland Country lawyer, bought for him.

Obviously, politics shouldn't escalate to this kind of personal confrontation. But, I am emotionally invested in this election, and after seeing how mean spirited and ruthless the Republican's have been in winning elections and fighting the culture war, I decided that I should be no less cruel or dangerous.

It's a shame that this Preidential election has become so contentious that it almost came to fisticuffs in a French class.

But, that fucker will probably never cough & walk ever again.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

McCain Voted For Banking Deregulation Bill
The bills author is his chief economic adviser.

In response to the fall of Lehman brothers and the sixth worst day ever on Wall Street, John McCain said, "I promise that we wont put America in this position again. . .this is a failure".

John McCain should know, he voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which led to the banking deregulation that allowed the mortgage industry to adopt predatory loan practices that offered mortgages to those with a poor or thin credit history who had unreliable or low incomes.

The legislation also permitted spikes in the interest rates and monthly payments of these mortgages, which led to millions of Americans losing their homes.

Basically, John McCain voted to allow the Mortgage Industry to become Check-N-Go.

So much for "the ownership society" Bush campaigned on in 2004.

What is worse is that the author of the bill, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, is John McCain's chief economic advisor. You might remember Phil Gramm as the guy who said that people who complained about economic hardship are "whiners".

Not only did John McCain support this catastrophic deregulation upon its inception, he has made its author his chief economic adviser. John McCain clearly lacks the judgment and desire to give America a new direction on the economy and give Americans a better quality of life.

I guess he wasn't kidding when he said he didn't know much about the economy.

Share this on Facebook,MySpace & StumbleUpon!

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

Veep Pick Proves McCain Puts Country Second
And Politics First

Republicans: "Sarah Palin is so Pro-Life that she keeps the duds!"

What if Geraldine Ferarro and Dan Quayle had a child? The answer is Sarah Palin, John McCain's newly minted runningmate. Palin already has a unique place in history as being the first candidate to be both woefully unqualified and selected chiefly because of her gender.

McCain's choice for Vice President matters more in this election than in those previous because he would be the oldest first-term President ever at the age of 72. Aside from his numerous bouts with cancer, men his age are known to drop dead spontaneously. Because of this, John McCain might not be able serve throughout all of George Bush’s third term. People who vote for the self-proclaimed “Original Maverick” should know that they are voting for a Sarah Palin administration every bit as much as they are voting for a McCain administration.

Palin’s light resume, her extremist views, and her history of corruption and lies are enough to make a lot of voters wonder if John McCain was in possession of all his cognitive faculty when he chose Palin to be his running mate. After all, he had met her only once and officials from his Vice Presidential search committee had arrived in Alaska to do a background check on Palin just one day before the announcement was made and the McCain/Palin yard signs printed.

McCain and Palin are now calling themselves the “The Original Mavericks” in an effort to make people forget that McCain-Bush policies have been driving the country for the past eight years. Sarah Palin is already famous for saying that she opposed building the ‘bridge to nowhere”, which is a half-billion dollar Alaskan bridge project that connected to an island with a population of less than 50 people, which has become emblematic of wasteful pork-barrel spending. By comparison, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was built for 400 million in today’s dollars.
But, in fact during her gubernatorial election, Palin supported the project whole-heartedly. She only rejected it after it began to provoke outrage and mockery across the nation. Worse? She kept the quarter-billion dollars of congressional pork-barrel earmarks for the bridge and spent it on other projects.

Even though there is now a broad consensus that her remarks fall far short of the truth, she hasn’t corrected herself on the campaign trail. In fact, Palin keeps repeating the same line verbatim from town to town, without any reluctance or evidence of shame. She is either oblivious to the facts or she is an outright liar.

Either way, we have had enough ignorance and dishonesty throughout the past eight years under the Bush Administration; and if you want a change in the direction of the country, John McCain and Sarah Palin are the wrong choice.

Palin, is currently under investigation for misusing her role as governor to have her sister’s ex-husband fired from the Alaska State Police, which is an amazing feat given that she has only been Governor for about a year and a half.

During her 19 months in office, Palin spent 312 days in her own home and charged the tax payers for meals and apparent business expenses, just like any other “Hockey Mom”. If you want a departure from the culture of corruption that has been emboldened by the Bush Administration, John McCain and Sarah Palin are the wrong choice.

Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing worldview is unlikely to jive with Hillary Clinton voters or anyone who might have considered voting for Barack Obama.

Palin is a global warming skeptic, which means that she does not believe that global warming exists or is man-made, despite an overwhelming evidence-based consensus to the contrary. This is a view so extreme that she is out of the touch with the top of the ticket. John McCain has in the past admitted that global warming is real phenomenon. There is no word on McCain’s position since receiving millions of campaign contributions from oil company lobbyists.

Palin is also against abortion rights in all instances, even if a woman is a victim of incest or rape. This is a view way outside the political and practical mainstream. What is even more repulsive is that Palin has allowed the McCain campaign to make a political prop out of her infant son who was born with downs syndrome. There wasn’t a single night during the Republican Convention where someone didn’t mention little Trig Palin. It’s almost as though the Republicans are saying:

“Hey America! Look! Sarah Palin keeps having children, and she is so Pro-Life that she keeps the duds!”

Because she refuses to participate in news interviews, we don’t know if Palin agrees with the assertion of the Bush administration that all contraception can be considered legally the same as an abortion. For that matter, we don’t know if she has any thoughts on anything other than moose burgers and protecting the right to hunt wolves with a helicopter.

Sarah Palin also breaks with John McCain, conventional wisdom, as well as science and reason in her opposition to life-saving medical research on stem cells. If you feel like the clash of ideologies is stymieing progress in Washington D.C. and you want more pragmatic decision makers in the White House, John McCain and Sarah Palin are the wrong choice.

The Palin pick exposes a lot about John McCain’s leadership style and decision-making process. You have to wonder if John McCain would be as equally hasty when choosing an Attorney General or a Secretary of State. The Bush years are a barely-living testament to how putting ideological purity before operational competence can sink a Presidential administration. These are the people who after all gave us Donald Rumsfeld, Harriet Meyers, and Michael “Brownie, you’re doin’ a heck of a job” Brown. And now they have given us Sarah Palin.

As Sarah Palin claims to have told Washington when it came to the “Bridge To No-Where”, tell them “thanks, but no thanks”.

The 45th President Of The United States?

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

The Infidelities Of Johns Edwards & McCain
Why The Edwards Story Is Worse For John McCain

When something bad happens to a well-known leader in the Democratic Party, you might expect that the Democratic Party might suffer.

Those of us that have been paying close attention to this election have noticed that Republicans have been quick to exploit any news story that can be distorted to discredit Barack Obama. But with the Edwards story, John McCain and the Republicans are treading lightly this time.

Why? Because John McCain's vapid, shallow and crotchety campaign has been based on two things:

First, the McCain campaign is out to assassinate the character, policies and campaign narrative of Barack Obama with an alarmingly vitriolic and immature tone that more and more voters are finding repulsive.

The second part of the McCain campaign strategy is to continue his hyperbolic glamorization about his service and character. John McCain wants you to believe that getting shot down and beaten up is a qualification to lead, and that taking on populist policy positions as part of an image-making strategy after the Keating Five scandal somehow validates the assertion that he is an independent minded maverick.

There is a growing consensus throughout the voting community that John McCain’s self-manufactured image as maverick-foreign affairs guru-former fly-boy is little more than a thin marketing strategy that worked better eight years ago.

So, of course John McCain doesn’t want the public to be reminded of his character flaws, which includes his violent and vulgar temperament as well as propensity toward skank-pronging.

John McCain’s first wife, Carol waited years for her husband while he was in a P.O.W. camp. When he came home to find that the former model was severely injured in a car accident.

Despite his apparently catastrophic war injuries on the behalf of the Viet Cong, he was able to muster the strength and virility to commit hundreds of infidelities with dozens of women.

When he finally found an FWB who had extensive connections in Republican politics and who was a millionaire heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, he left Carol outright.

McCain even had the audacity to get a marriage license to wed Cindy McCain, (the infamous pill-popping Stepford Wife) before his divorce with Carol was final.

So, while John Edwards was egregiously unfaithful, I’m sure McCain would like it better if the public wasn’t talking about the marital infidelities of politicians.

Especially when his character-myth is the lynchpin of his campaign narrative.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

You Get What You Deserve

Hillary Clinton, the former first lady will most likely win the Pennsylvania Primary on Tuesday, but probably not by the crushing margin she had thought six-weeks previous.

Barack Obama the Senator from Illinois is poised to win Guam, Indiana, North Carolina, Oregon, Montana and South Dakota in the weeks ahead, and by June 3 all the contests will be over. At the end of all the nominating contest he will be ahead in overall delegates, pledged delegates, the popular vote, states won, and he will still be polling better against John McCain than Hillary Clinton.

History will judge Hillary’s campaign for the White House as a failed experiment in girl-power. Looking back on the past twenty years it will be clear that the Spice Girls did more to promote a positive view of feminism and woman-empowerment than Mrs. Rodham-Clinton.

It's better for womankind though that the first female nominee for President from a major party not be the spouse of a former President. It's not just because it is a formula for defeat but because it would be regarded by the masses that the first woman to have a serious shot at the White House would only have had made things happen by virtue of nepotism and a certain sentiment of socially engineering affirmative action enabled by a certain core constituencies of the Democratic Party.

To be fair though, Hillary Clinton is in many ways a better candidate than most of the choices that were available in 2004. But in this most recent contest the fiery populist John Edwards 2008 (2.0) was a far superior product to not only the establishment hack Hillary Clinton, but also to the establishment lightweight John Edwards of 2004 (BETA). But what is most important is that Senator Barack Obama is better than them all.

It's no wonder Hillary is out for blood. She knew that in 2004 a White House run would have started in haste and ended in disaster. She would have lost as badly or worse than John Kerry. She had all along been counting on a John Kerry defeat so that she could have her time in the sun four years later. Even given the tragedy and disgrace that has ensued since November 2004, she would probably have still been crossing her fingers that John Kerry would sink his prospects of winning by eating escargot and almond-crusted brie at a Red Wings game if it could mean she had a shot at George Bush's job in 2008.

However, she didn't count on the fact that the Bush Administration would implode the way it did. Even those of us who saw it coming didn't have a clear idea about the complete clusterfuck of an economy he would leave us with and how our energy crisis would have persisted completely unabated. Nor would we have ever predicted that Hurricane Katrina would have exposed such disgraceful poverty and governmental incompetence. We didn't know that the Jihad For Jesus would have made a giant stink about Terri Schiavo leading to a repugnant and repulsive government overreach that came to be known as "Schiavo's Law". In looks as though like Iraq, which is the greatest foreign policy disaster in U.S. History, is only one part of the dystopian story that has unfolded over the past 7 1/2 years.

Because Hillary Clinton didn't count on these things, she didn't anticipate that the 2008 electorate would shift in such a way that provoked people to do more than demand a replacement for George W. Bush. Rather, they have been inspired to demand a candidate who as President could deconstruct the institutions and thwart the culture of Government that have made the failures, corruption, and malice of the Bush Administration possible. Voters at the moment seem generally wise to the fact that you can't fix the problems of establishment hackery with another brand of establishment hackery. Indeed, they finally appear wise to the fact that you can't fix your cavities by switching from Pepsi to Coke.

It is this change in sentiment that inspires Hillary to so viciously assault Barack Obama. Her blood-lust isn't inspired by an aversion to the defeat of higher ideas, but rather her own personal defeat. She probably has a good idea that she isn't going to win the nomination in 2008 and she also knows that if Barack Obama wins in November that she wont be able to run in 2012 when she will be 65 years old. And thus she understands that such a victory of her opponent would be a nail in her political coffin, as she is unlikely to pursue the White House in 2016 when she will be 69 years old. She is biting, clawing, and throwing sand in Obama's eyes every chance she can get in an effort to soften him up for John McCain in an effort to preserve the faint possibility that she might be the party's nominee in 2012.

In 1958 former candidate for President Adlai Stevenson (perhaps the Al Gore of his time) said, "people get the kind of government that they deserve". The retrospective context in the time since Stevenson made those remarks reveals them as a cruel, damning, and perhaps completely valid assessment of American Democracy and the American electorate itself.

But maybe, just maybe this time the people will get both what they deserve as well as something good. Just Maybe.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

The New Hampshire Primary
I Pay Attention So You Don't Have To

DEMOCRATS

Obama: by nearly 40%
Hillary: will come in around 30 or below
Edwards: will hover around 20%.

REPUBLICANS

McCain: 27%(?)
Romney: 24%(?)
Huckabee: 14%
Rudy: 12%
Paul: 10%



Democrats

Obama appears to have been able to turn his large Iowa victory and Hillary's huge loss into a major case that he owns the mantle of change and that he is in fact more electable than Hillary. Let’s call this O-Mentum.

After this, look for the Nevada Culinary Workers' Union to endorse Barry-O and give him a boost in Nevada Primary, which will be held 11 days later on the 19th. Will he win? Who knows, maybe.

Hillary will fight in Nevada, but she might as well not visit South Carolina, because the Democratic electorate is 60% African American, and they are breaking overwhelmingly for Obama, and they will do so exceptionally more so if they see that he won too white-bread states like Iowa and NH.

Hillary is going to look right ahead to the Feb 5. Super-Tuesday states with a retooled campaign with staff and surrogates. She can do well in the North East, and probably in New York .

BUT, if Obama is 3-0 in Iowa, NH, and S.C…. Hillary is going to have a hard time convincing people to give donate to her sinking campaign, and Obama is going to be able to outspend her like mad, and in big States like Missouri, California, Illinois, New York etc. .TV campaigns are important, and to have a TV campaign you need $$S

Also, the black populations in the big cities in those large and not so large states are going to have to want to support Sen. Obama. I am talking L.A., San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Chicago, Boston, New York City, St. Louis, Nashville, Memphis, Mobile, Tupelo, Biloxi, Newark, Trenton, New Haven. . .Hillary is going to have a hard time moving urban populations in her favor.

If Hillary is to live another day, she must stop Obama tonight or hope that he ends his own career with some profound mistake.

Republicans

Character Vs. Issues = McCain Vs. Romney

Despite how effing awesome Obama is, the Republican race is a lot more suspenseful.

Because of this, I have about half as much confidence in my GOP projections as I do my Dem projections . . .because I think Romney might do better than this because in GOP post-debate focus groups, undecided Republicans and Republican Independents are breaking for Mitt on the issues of taxes and immigration.

Everyone expects John McCain to win this one, so he kind of has too. The big question today is how many Independent voters want to break for Obama vs. McCain given that they have until they show up at the polling place to choose

If Obamamania has swept NH unaffiliated voters, Romney could live to fight another day in Michigan, and whoever wins Michigan will get to knife-fight Huckabee in S.C.

If Romney finds a way to edge out McCain (which is possible but a long shot)...Huckabee has a great shot at becoming the nominee, because he is going to do well in S.C. and the Feb. 5 redneck States, where his chief Rival will be a weakened Rudy G.

If Romney, Huckabee, Mitt, and Rudy G are dukeing it out until Feb 5. . .we might see a brokered convention, and we might not know who the Republican nominees for President will be until September 2008, when the GOP holds their convention in the Twin Cities, MN.

I pay attention, so you don’t have too.

You’re welcome.

• 1 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

Hate & Fear May Win Elections
But They Don't Produce Results

Barack Obama was born four years before black Americans won the right to vote with the Voting Rights Act. That same man in that same country now stands poised to lead it.

In Iowa, Barack Obama has passed his first test on his way to the White House. More importantly, the American people have passed their first test toward empowering themselves in the post-Bush era. What happened last night in Iowa is a testament to what can happen when people demand change. It stands in great contrast to the politics of fear and hopelessness perpetrated by the Bush administration over the past seven years.

After 9/11 George W. Bush could have appealed to the better angels of our nature by uniting the country and the world against the threats that we face around the globe. Instead, he employed the politics of division and fear to consolidate his power and assure himself re-election.

While this brand of negative politics did help Bush edge out a victory in the 2004 election, it has failed him in the governance of this nation.

George Bush's politics produced an underwhelming response to al-Qaeda and international terrorism and it has instead thrown our nation into two wars that we are losing.

It has enabled corporate greed and worsened the economic challenges of those who were already suffering.

It has given us the largest national debt and the largest deficits in our history while doing absolutely nothing to empower people who struggle to do better.

It has put American citizens under surveillance and has attempted to make enemies of the state out of George Bush and Dick Cheney's political opposition.

It has produced an embarrassing government overreach in response to personal decisions of Terri Schiavo's family and it has produced a critical failure of the government to help and protect the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Hate and fear may win elections, but they don't produce results when it is time to get things done.

Barack Obama offers the greatest departure from the Bush Administration just as we need it. When Obama was down in the polls and looking defeated through the spring, the summer and the autumn, he rejected calls from pundits and establishment hacks to employ nasty slash and burn tactics. Rather, in the most positive way possible, he drew contrasts between himself and opponents and made an argument about what kind of country we could be. He didn't tap into anger and he didn't tap into hate. By identifying the problems we face and offering solutions, Mr. Obama tapped into hope and promise.

As someone who worked in politics for a number of years, I have seen cowardice where I wished there was courage. I have seen it from both Republicans and Democrats, even Democrats I have worked for.

I have seen rancor where I should have seen deliberation.

I have seen partisanship where I should have seen thoughtfulness.

I have seen darkness in American politics, and for too long I have seen establishment politicians add to that darkness.

Sen. Obama knows that when there is darkness that you defeat it not by turning up the heat, but rather turning on the light. I am confident that this brand of politics will not only deliver a victory but that it will also produce results when Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of The United States.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

Obama Wins Iowa:
Why Everyone Has A Reason To celebrate.

Posted January 3, 2008 | 09:30 PM (EST) by Arianna Huffington at the Huffington Post

---

Even if your candidate didn't win tonight, you have reason to celebrate. We all do.

Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa -- down home, folksy, farm-fed, Midwestern, and 92 percent white Iowa -- says a lot about America, and also about the current mindset of the American voter.

Because tonight voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to look into the future -- as if a country exhausted by the last seven years wanted to recapture its youth.

Bush's re-election in 2004 was a monument to the power of fear and fear-mongering. Be Very Afraid was Bush/Cheney's Plans A thru Z. The only card in the Rove-dealt deck. And it worked. America, its vision distorted by the mushroom clouds conjured by Bush and Cheney, made a collective sprint to the bomb shelters in our minds, our lizard brains responding to fear rather than hope.

And the Clintons -- their Hillary-as-incumbent-strategy sputtering -- followed the Bush blueprint in Iowa and played the fear card again and again and again.

Be afraid of Obama, they warned us. Be afraid of something new, something different. He might meet with our enemies. His middle name is Hussein. He went to a madrassa school. A vote for him would be like rolling the dice, the former president said on Charlie Rose.

And the people of Iowa heard him, and chose to roll the dice.

Obama's win might not have legs. Hope could give way to fear once again. But, for tonight at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America, and we can look at ourselves with pride. This is the kind of country America was meant to be, even if you are for Clinton or Edwards -- or even Huckabee or Giuliani.

It's the kind of country we've always imagined ourselves being -- even if in the last seven years we fell horribly short: a young country, an optimistic country, a forward-looking country, a country not afraid to take risks or to dream big.

Bill Clinton has privately told friends that if Hillary didn't win, it would be because of the two weeks that followed her shaky performance in the Philadelphia debate.

But it wasn't those two weeks. Indeed, if we were to pinpoint one decisive moment, it would be Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose, arrogant and entitled, dismissive and fear-mongering. And then Bill Clinton giving us a refresher course in '90s-style truth-twisting and obfuscation -- making stuff about always having been against the war, and about Hillary having always been for every good decision during his presidency and against every bad one, from Ireland to Sarajevo to Rwanda.

So voters in Iowa remembered the past and decided that they didn't want to go back. They wanted to move ahead. Even if that meant rolling the dice.

Again, this moment may not last. But, for tonight, I am going to savor it -- and cross my fingers that it may stand as the day that fear as a winning political tactic died. Killed by an "unlikely candidate" -- as Obama called himself again and again -- who seized the moment, and reminded America of its youth and the optimism it longs to recapture.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

Dear Iowa:

Please don't fuck us over again. Thanks!

-D. James McSaddle

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

The Kitchenette Hotel

and why you wont run into Mitt Romney there.

What I would really like to do right now is lock myself in a Kitchenette Motel somewhere in the mountains. Maybe Colorado or Nevada. This idea is inspired in part by Jack Kerouac's Big Sur, which I am currently borrowing from my housemate. Apparently Ol' Jack went up to Big Sur to cope with a nervous breakdown and/or to detox from alcohol. . .I'm not sure if he got any writing done while he was there.

I wonder if those with artistic tendencies are pre-disposed toward substance abuse, or if merely the established culture of Bohemianism makes it part of the business. I imagine that if you led an ordinary life devoid of crisis, conflict, breakdowns and relapses you wouldn't have too much to write about. Not much worth reading anyway. I feel as though if Fitzgerald were alive today that he would at least embrace the recreational use of NyQuil™; it is after all the absinthe for the new crop of faux-Lost Generation writers.

Last night before bed, I laid on my futon with a note pad, trying to assimilate a couple of ideas together for a story that I'd like to write. Frustrated, I turned the television on to C-Span where Mitt Romney was doing a Town Hall forum in Cedar Rapids Iowa. A guy like Mitt Romney could never produce a novel, short story, or even a Presidential memoir worth reading; not because he is devoid of psychosis, but because he isn't the sort of guy to acknowledge it and work with it.

Willard "Mitt" Romney is certainly not the kind of fellow who would still have a pulse if he defied the Grand Wizard of his local Church and experimented with something like NyQuil.His suits are impeccable, his hair is flawlessly parted, and he has a handsome functional family. But no such things are what they seem and no doubt the Romney family has dark and troubling secrets, which is perhaps the cornerstone of Mormon culture. Like a Norman Rockwell painting, Mitt Romney embodies cold logic, crass literalism, and a tragic artifice built upon an erroneous foundation of American perfection and exceptionalism.

I hope you'll thank Mitt Romney to leave the writing to me.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

"Well, look, I find it amusing that those who helped to authorise and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism.”

Sen. Barack Obama when several of his fellow Democrats critisized his remarks about his willingness to attack Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan.

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »

Obama Has It Right On Foreign Policy

"The time for us to ask how we were going to get out of Iraq was before we went in. And that is something that too many of us failed to do". - Senator Barack Obama

Barack Obama understands that the most important job for the next President of the United States will be to restore the integrity and moral authority of the U.S. throughout the world. The Bush administration's policy of unilateralism, stonewalling, and non-engagement has made America more vulnerable and less strong.

At the now famous "YouTube Debate" on CNN, Sen. Barack Obama was asked if he would meet with leaders of nations likes Syria, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea. He said that, "we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they're going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses."

Obama knows that you can't make peace with your friends, that you must make peace with your enemies.

Sen. Hillary Clinton called Obama "naive" for holding this belief. She said that it would be unwise to engage our enemies about the potential consequences of a failed state in Iraq.

Bill Clinton engaged with North Korea, and though the Bush administration initially abandoned this policy, they have since returned to it. Apparently they found that their policy of pretending that North Korea didn't exist was not effective at stymieing weapons proliferation in the region.

Richard Nixon, who was a skilled diplomat engaged Communist China, which led to a normalization of relations between that country and the U.S.

Both Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy engaged the Soviet Union during the cold war. This was important during Kennedy's time because it helped him navigate through the Cuban Missile Crisis without a nuclear exchange that would have destroyed both our countries. Reagan's engagement of the Soviet Union helped to end the Cold War.

The Bush policy of unilateralism and non-engagement is a radical fringe idea that has failed to unite the civilized world against America's enemies. It is worrisome that Sen. Clinton, the current frontrunner for the White House is embracing these policies.

This isn't the only foreign policy difference between the two candidates. Hillary Clinton supported George Bush's sloppy crusade in Iraq, Obama didn't.

On the same day that Sen. Clinton was voting to support President Bush, Barack Obama gave a speech in Chicago where he said,

"That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics".

He added, ". . .even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda."

Obama made this speech on October 22, 2002, six months before the U.S. invasion. Looking back, he sounds less like an experienced statesman, but more like a prophet.

The judgement and wisdom of Sen. Barack Obama is far stronger than the so called experience of Sen. Clinton, and on this basis alone he should have our support.

For More Go: www.TheTruthOrSomethingLikeIt.blogspot.com

• 0 comments. Got something to say? Come at me, bro. »