McPalin Goin' Rogue

Just in case you missed this on The Daily Show:

<a href="http://web.archive.org./web/20190430215354/http://www.thedailyshow.com/" target="_blank">The Daily Show: Goin' Rogue</a>

The Daily Show: Goin' Rogue

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186 4189

Total coalition forces dead: 314
Total Iraqi Dead: 700,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2606
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2053
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2010
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 994
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 834

It is still 81 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

I Haven't Gone MIA -- And Neither Should You

You may have noticed that I've been fairly quiet with the posts lately. Not up to my usual output. Okay, mea culpa. But here's why: I've been volunteering my time at my local Democratic Party HQ, calling new voters and "weak" Democrats to remind them to vote for Barack Obama.

And, if that wasn't taking up enough of my time, I'm also trying to piece together the pictures and video that I took on my vacation to Vietnam into a coherent whole.

Yeah, I know: "Whine whine whine."

Still, since this is THE most important election of our lives -- certainly of my life, and I'm fucking OLD -- let me encourage all of you to get out of the house these last few days before November 4th and DO SOMETHING!!!

Contact your local Obama Campaign HQ or your local Democratic Party, and volunteer to make telephone calls, canvas door-top-door, or even fulfill a support role by getting coffee and sandwiches for those who are doing the front-line work. In this election, every vote counts! Your phone call to a voter can make the difference between that person blowing off the election or actually casting a ballot for Barack Obama.

Get out there and help. This election is too important for all of us for you not to help.

Besides, you'll meet a lot of really cool people and most likely you'll make some new friends. Four years ago, when I was active in the Veterans for Kerry movement, I met two people who are now among my very closest friends.

Another GOOPer for Obama

Former US Senator Larry Pressler, who was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the senate and a Republican from South Dakota, came out today and said that he's already voted for Barack Obama.

His reason? The usual: "It's the economy, stupid." That's what other Rethugs who switched this last week said as well.

Pretty sad when big wheels in your own party jump ship and vote for that uppity Negro, isn't it, Grampy? Don't even bother setting your alarm for the day after Election Day. You'll have no reason to get out of bed.

Oh, and Pressler does take pains to say he's not leaving the Rethug Party -- instead he's going to stay and "reform" the party.

Yeah, we'll see how that works out for him

This is Brilliant!

Okay, just supposing that the Rethugs manage to pull some of those senatorial seats out of the fire and hang on to them, which would make for a less-than-veto-proof majority for the Dems.

According to David Lindhoff over at Buzzflash, all Obama has to do is nominate a couple or three "liberal-ish" GOP senators to cabinet or near-cabinet-level positions from states that have Democratic governors.

Maine's Susan Collins or Olympia Snow are obvious choices. Both of them have exhibited that strong independent stream that Down Easters are notorious for. And on the other side of the country, Oregon's Gordon Smith has been running so hard away from Baby Doc, Grampy and Barbie that he's eligible for a world speed record. He's been campaigning almost as an ally of Obama anyway.

None of these individuals would turn down the prestige of a cabinet post, and both states have Democratic governors who would choose fellow Democrats as their replacments.

It would have the dual result of getting that 60-vote majority, and it would piss off the Rethugs no end.

Nyuck-nyuck-nyuck.

GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!

Okay, maybe I'm crowing just a little too much, but it's gratifying to see the verdict come down on Ted Stevens, just one of many corrupt Alaskan politicians.

But what do you want to bet that even though he was found GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!, the mouth-breathing Palin-fantasizing double-digit-IQ-flaunting Alaskan GOP voting base will vote him back into the senate next week?

Of course it's going to be a little difficult for him to actually be present in the senate if he's doing a five-year-term on each of the charges. But that doesn't bother your average Alaskan, apparently. They'd rather not even be a part of the United States -- and their putative Vice President is right along with them.

So here's Farnsworth's take on it: Fuck Ted Stevens and fuck Sarah Palin. I remember clearly when MY senator, Maria Cantwell, tried to take on Stevens and his fucked-up committee when the Big Oil maggots magnates were invited to make a joint testimony appearance and Maria was gaveled down for her temerity in suggesting that these corporate assholes ought to be -- gasp! -- sworn in before testifying. Old Teddy basically told her to shut the fuck up.

Shoe's on the different foot now, ain't it, Teddy? Too bad you won't be around for the new fitting, since you are going to JAIL! JAIL! JAIL!, motherfucker.

Now, Teddy, for a change, you can shut the fuck up.

But here's hoping that the Alaskans that still have a soul will finally see the light and vote the corrupt old fucker OUT! OUT! OUT! That will give the Democrats a 60-vote veto-proof majority, and we won't have to rely on turncoat LIEberman for that all important swing vote.

And the Rethugs? Fuck 'em. They fucked us over for the last twenty years. Now they can feel what it's like to be on the outside with their snotty noses pressed up against the glass, begging like Oliver Twist, "please sir I want some more".

Fuck 'em. That's what Farnsworth says.

Palin Strips for ... Obama?

This is wrong in SO many ways:

"Are You Joking?" Biden Slaps Wingnut

"Are you joking?" That was the question that Joe Biden asked this wingnut "journalist" when she asked if Obama was a Marxist.

I don't know who the fuck this Barbara West is, but she really needs to go back to J-School and learn some basics. Watch Joe Biden slap the shit out of this bitch:

Actually, a half-a-second Google search came up with the real Barbara West, who is an anchorwoman on WFTV Orlando, and whose husband has donated money to (surprise) four Rethug candidates.

The New McCarthyism -- Just Like the Old McCarthyism

Check out this extremely disturbing video from a McSame-Barbie rally in Colorado:

The idiocy of the Moron-American Voting Bloc has never been on better display.

Check out the shouts of "socialist!" and "communist!" coming from the foul innards of this crowd of race-baiting mouth-breathing knuckledraggers.

When we finally do have a President Obama come January, I hope the Secret Service will double up on his personal protection. These are just the kind of reactionary neo-fascist marginally-functional assholes who wouldn't think anything of popping a cap on him.

Another Endorsement for Obama -- from Alaska!

Today the Anchorage Daily News, the largest paper in the state, came out with their endorsement of Barack Obama:

Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she's a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.
Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time. [Emphasis added]

These are the people that know her best, citizens of her own state, and even they are saying what should be obvious to the rest of the knuckledraggers over in the Rethug camp: She's just not ready for prime time.

When it Comes Down to Food...

...it's easy to understand. My friend D-Cup over at Politits has come up with a sure-fire fool-proof way of explaining Economics 101 to the masses.

Just think of it in terms of food:

The Law of Diminishing Returns
Let's say I'm craving Oreos. The first one tastes fabulous! Yum, yum, yum. The next three are delicious! As I continue to finish off the whole damn bag? Each consumed Oreo doesn't taste as great as the last.

There's more, including the immortal "potato chips as trickle-down economics". Go ahead and read the whole thing. It's the most succinct and understandable explanation of the "dismal science" that I've ever seen.

That Damned Elusive Birth Certificate

It's got to be the sign of a campaign in desperate disarray. Now there's a big flap in the wingnuttery that Barack Obama's sudden trip to Hawaii has nothing to do with his sick grandmother, and everything to do with a hail-mary attempt to "suppress" the "truth" about his birth certificate.

I was at my local Democratic HQ this afternoon making some get-out-the-vote phone calls, reminding Washington state residents that they need to fill out and get back their absentee ballots, when the woman sitting next to me hung up her phone and kind of groaned in frustration.

Turns out that she had just called a full household of registered voters who had, at the last minute (or so the person on the other end of the phone claimed), switched their allegiance from Barack Obama to John McCain ... solely on the issue of Obama's "questionable" birth certificate.

Okay, for beginners I don't believe that any rational person is going to switch his/her allegiance based on this scurrilous rumor about Obama's birth certificate, and I told that to my coworker, which calmed her down some (she was practically in tears over the issue, which is probably what the asshole wanted).

And second of all, why in the fuck would Obama wait until the 11th hour of the campaign and only then make a special trip to Hawaii to suppress whatever negative information that questionable birth certificate held?

If you'll recall, the BFEE went to great pains to suppress any and all evidence about Baby Doc's questionable Texas Air National Guard "service", long before he even announced that he was running.

If you want the truth about Obama's "questionable" birth certificate, you don't need to go any further than Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp

But as I say, this is illustrative of a campaign in its final death throes, when they are willing to pull out all of the stops. It wouldn't surprise me if they suddenly come up with an obviously Photoshopped picture of Obama fucking sheep and stomping puppies at the same time.

Sadly, this kind of shit usually works with the Moron-American Voting Bloc. But I'm glad to see that that particular group seems to be shrinking daily. I think that most American voters are now of the "we won't be fooled again" school.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185 4186

Total coalition forces dead: 314
Total Iraqi Dead: 700,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2599
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 2046
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 2003
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 984
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 827

It is still 88 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Breaking News! Farnsworth Responsible for Rethug Win!

It turns out, in a stunning turn of events, that I, your humble host and blogger, is solely, single-handedly responsible for the election of Grampaw Dribbles and Caribou Barbie.

Here's the video:

Don't let this happen! Watch the video and then send to all of your friends. It's easy and quick, and you'll be doing your part to prevent this from happening.

* * * * * *

Update: Okay, when you click on the video link, you don't get the personalized version. But with a few simple keystrokes, you can change the words "non-voter" into the name of your friend, your spouse, your boss, your kids...whoever. Trust me, it's pretty cool and very effective.

Tweety Rips Palin on Role of VP

I've had my own problems with Chris "Tweety" Matthews over the years, but when he's right, he's right.

Here's a video in which he rips Caribou Barbie -- and her talking head mouthpiece Nancy Pfotenhauer -- a new one over what exactly is the constitutional role of the US vice president:

Frankly, I didn't know the boy had it in him. And poor Nancy P. She does yeoman's work in trying to defend the indefensible, and Tweety does give her props for that, but basically she was under water when she went in to this, and doesn't come out any better.

Better Than a $400 Haircut

Okay, I've tried to restrain myself from jumping all over the Sarah Palin $150,000 clothes budget, but I just can't help myself.

Jeez, that infamous $400 haircut that sank the campaign of John Edwards is starting to look like a real bargain now.

I guess ole Sarah "hockey-mom I'm-just-one-of-you" Palin just couldn't be seen in the kind of clothes the great unwashed (i.e. the rest of us) have to make do with. You know, off-the-rack stuff from Target and Wal-Mart. Oh nooooo, she has to spend $150,000 at places like Nieman Marcus (aka "Needless Markup") and Saks Fifth Avenue.

But what the hell, it's not like it's HER money. No, this is campaign money from the RNC. If I were some poor schlep who sent a few bucks to the RNC to help elect Grampy McSame, and then I learned that this lipstick-on-a-pig VP candidate squandered this kind of money on fucking clothes, I'd be so goddam pissed off that I would... well, insert your own "I would" here. You know what I mean.

I mean really -- $150,000 for clothes???!!! That's more than I, plus my wife and all my children and grandchildren (and now my great-grandchild) have spent -- or will ever spend -- on clothing in our entire lives!

The fucking nerve of the Rethugs and Grampy McSame, to try to pass that lipstick-on-a-pig skanky-assed hockey-mom off as some kind of working class one-of-us "real" person.

Oh, and all you rightwing knuckledragging mouthbreathing morons who get a big boner just watching her wink at you -- only you! -- on television?

All I have to say is this: I'd rather slam it in a car door.

More on McCain and Veterans

The AFL-CIO has announced the formation of a Union Veterans Council to fight back against John McCain and his totally specious, made-up-out-of-thin-air, pulled-from-his ass claims that he has always fought for veterans' benefits and veterans' rights.

Here's the president of the new council, Mark Ayers and a couple of others, speaking on McCain putting veterans last:

Here's more from Ayers:

"Not only has McCain voted the wrong way on veterans' issues - - such as opposing increased funding for veterans' health care the last four years in a row — but he also doesn’t support middle class people's issues," Mr. Ayers said. "He wants to tax people’s health care benefits, and supports unfair trade deals, including NAFTA."

Spread the word among your veteran friends, and tell 'em what Farnsworth always says: A veteran voting for John McCain is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

McSame Drops the "S" Bomb; Barbie Piles On: "Me Too Ya Betcha!"

Is Obama a socialist? Both Grampaw Dribbles and Caribou Barbie think so. And so does my new BFF, thermblog.

The short answer is bullshit. But don't take my word for it. Look up socialism for yourself, and then take a look at this little video from The Daily Show.

As usual, Jon Stewart nails it:

Watch the whole thing, and see Grampaw fumbling around trying to explain his own "socialist" share-the-wealth views -- "When you reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying more [taxes]".

Of course that was a long time ago, back when Grampy still had a soul. Things change, times change, and leopards can apparently change their spots.

Al Qaeda Endorses McCain!

Well, kinda sorta. On a pro-Al Qaeda website this week there was a post that supporters of Al Qaeda would welcome another terrorist attack on the US as a way of "ushering in a McCain presidency":

"This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, al-Qaida [sic] will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."
"If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests," the message said, "this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it."

So while this falls a little short of an official endorsement, it's still an indication that even Al Qaeda recognizes that a McCain presidency would be beneficial to themselves in particular, even though when it comes to the rest of the world, uh...not so much.

Palin as President

As scary as that thought is, here's a website that will bring it into terrifyingly sharp reality: Palin as President.

Move your cursor around the picture and watch stuff happen. Click and hear The Chick Who Would Be Prez utter some of her famous soundbites.

I especially like what happens when you click on the door on the left.

It's bitingly funny political satire, and the authors promise to update it each day between now and election day. Check it out.

Now This Is Just Plain Stupid

Longtime readers of this blog know that I used to be a state employee here in the "Other Washington", so I know what I'm talking about when I say that Sarah Palin is stupid.

What am I talking about? Only the news that Caribou Barbie inappropriately charged her state over $20K in "travel expenses" to take her children along with her on expensive junkets.

The Associated Press broke the story yesterday, and it's a doozy:

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.
In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters' 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.
Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor's children. The law allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.
As governor, Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters — Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7 — by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor's schedule.
But some organizers of these events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend.
Several other organizers said the children merely accompanied their mother and did not participate. The trips enabled Palin, whose main state office is in the capital of Juneau, to spend more time with her children.

Jesus, what is the matter with these people? Is the background noise of corruption so goddam high over on the right wing that even the bureaucratic equivalent of shoplifting seems normal and acceptable?

When I was a state employee, falsifying travel expense vouchers was something that only the stupid did. Smart people didn't do it because it was so easy to get caught. We even had a commissioner -- the HMFIC of the agency -- lose his job over his abuse of travel reimbursements. And on first examination, what he did was not in substance different from what Caribou Barbie did.

And his now-infamous arrogant response when he got busted? "That's chump change."

And that's pretty much how it appears that Caribou Barbie sees it as well.

Vice President Palin? I don't think so.

McSame on Letterman

Why the fuck is it that the only representative of The Media who is willing to take on Grampaw McSame with the kind of questions that journalists used to be known for and pride themselves on, is the host of a late night comedy show?

Why is it that David Letterman, and not Katie Couric, Bob Schieffer, Charles Gibson, or any of the other overpaid and slothful representatives of the CPM*, is the only one willing to pull out the stops and put some direct journalistic questions to the Rethug nominee? (Okay, to be fair, I think Olbermann would be drilling into Grampaw if he had the chance, but the odds of Grampaw actually going on Countdown are roughly the same as my chances of winning the Nobel Prize.)

Here's the complete video:

It's worth watching the whole thing. And don't be fooled by the various highlight clips edited by the CPM. This is the full interview, and while Grampaw is making an effort to try to foist himself off on late-night America as an affable neo-Reaganesque fun-guy-you-can-have-a-beer-with leader, you can tell that he's doing some real stretching to try to pull it off. Plus it's just kind of creepy watching him try to be all jokey-ha-ha with Letterman.

And his praise of Caribou Barbie is just plain desperately weird. He's "absolutely" convinced that she's presidential material, based apparently on the fact that she oversaw a state bureaucracy with 24,000 employees. (Note to Grampaw: The US has a population of over 300 million.)

Watch Grampaw start to wiggle at about 20 minutes in when Letterman nails him with his "relationship" with G. Gordon Liddy: "Um, I've met him"...

Oh, and catch that "secret plan to get Bin Laden" starting about six minutes in. Do you remember the last presidential candidate who had a "secret plan"? Richard Tricky-Dick Nixon, 40 years ago in the 1968 election. He had a "secret plan" to end the war, and sure enough, nearly four years and 20,000+ dead Americans later, the war ended ... for the US. The Vietnamese, not so much.

[* Capitalist Pig Media]

You Want Rights? No, That's Only on TV

That's what a cop said to a protesting IVAW member at Hofstra U the night of the debate, after he was put in handcuffs.

Here's the video:

Stick around to the end, where arrestee and Iraq veteran Adam Kokesh kept his hidden microphone on after he was handcuffed by the cops.

"You want rights?" the cop says. "That's only on TV. That's on Cops. This is New York..."

Unfortunately, it's not only New York, as we saw with the illegal roundup and detention of lawful protesters at the Nuremburg Rally Rethug Convention in Minneapolis this summer.

[HT to constant reader jae for this video]

Waiting for Godot

Ever since the trial balloon went up last week, it's been a little like waiting for Godot, anticipating the announcement by General Colin Powell that he's supporting Obama.

There was even some speculation that it would be a stealth attack against Obama, and he would actually end up endorsing fellow Repugnican Grampaw McCain.

Well, that didn't happen, and he finally came out today for Obama.

"I firmly believe that at this point in America's history, we need a president that will not just continue, even with a new face and with the changes and with some maverick aspects, who will not just continue basically the policies that we have been following in recent years," Powell said.

And John McSame? Stick a fork in him. He's done.

Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground

A lot has been hacked up and spit out by the Rethugs in the last few weeks over Barack Obama's supposed ties to "domestic terrorist" Bill Ayers.

So here's a quick quiz: Off the top of your head, how many Americans died as the result of bombings by the Weatherman Faction (which became known the Weather Underground, probably after several of their female members pointed out the obvious sexism in their name)?

Okay, I know it was a long time ago, but what would you think? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? More than a hundred?

Well, from listening to Unstable and Unable the last couple of weeks, you might think it was even greater than that, so it might surprise you to know that the death toll from all of the bombs built by the Weather Underground was this: Exactly THREE.

And ironically, those three were members of the group, who were blown up in 1970 in a freak explosion in Greenwich Village when the bomb they were attempting to assemble went off prematurely.

Remember that number: Three individuals, all of whom were active members of the group. No "civilians" were injured by the Weather Underground in their brief and inept rise from obscurity to fame to infamy and back again to obscurity.

Oh, and let's not forget that Bill Ayres was never convicted of any "terrorist" acts. Not a single one. When he and Bernadine Dorhn turned themselves in, way back in 1980, she was given three years probation and a fine of $15,000. All charges against Ayres were dropped.

So where's the problem for the Rethugs? They have only one: Desperation.

The Endorsement Race

Not that it means very much these days, but Obama is way ahead of Grampaw McSame in endorsements by newspaper editorial boards. Including such up-til-now-conservative bastions as the Chicago Tribune, which just broke a 167-year record of endorsing Republicans to come out in favor of Obama.

More than 55 newspaper editorial boards have now come out for Barack Obama. And McCain? A sad second place at only 14.

Jeez, I almost feel sorry for the old fucker. He waited all these years to get the nomination, he sold his soul to achieve it, he's now doddering around at the gates of senility, and what happens? He self-destructs along with the American economy, and his dreams of greatness are dashed on the rocks of "socialism"...

Not the "almost" in that last paragraph. Actually I'm lying. I don't feel at bit sorry for him. Once you sell your soul for political gain, you give up the right to expect sympathy.

Fuck you, Johnny. I could have seen myself actually voting for you in 2000. Too bad you got fucked by the BFEE and apparently liked it so much you came back for seconds: "Please sir, may I have some more?"

Now's the time for you to mosey on back to that rancho of yours in Arizona and slowly fade away like the old soldier (scuze me, sailor) that you are.

Bye now. Write if you get work.

A Blast from the Past -- A Scary One

How precocious is this? How prescient? How astoundingly correct?

Here's an excerpt from Der Monkey Fuehrer's first televised speech to the nation in 2001:

"Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over. My fellow Americans, at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

Of course this is not from his real speech. That one was full of lies and distortions and bullshit. No, this is from the speech that he could have given -- should have given. Unfortunately, it was left up to the satiric newspaper The Onion to write and publish it. Way back in 2001. How did they know?

Okay, trick question. Anyone who was not in a Rethug kool-aid-induced political coma back in 2001 could have figured it out. Nevertheless, hats off to the staff at The Onion for getting it so perfect.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180 4185

Total coalition forces dead: 314
Total Iraqi Dead: 700,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2452
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1912
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1860
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 844
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 680

It is still 95 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

When Nuance Doesn't Work

Here's the original video of Obama talking to Joe the Faux Plumber at the rope line on Sunday. This is the same guy that McCain dragged out 21 times during last night's debate as somehow representative of the American people.

As my old pappy used to say, when nuance doesn't work, kick 'em in the nuts.

Of course that's just not possible for a presidential candidate, but sometimes god I wish that it was.

Joe the Plumber?

Grampaw McSame shamelessly invoked the name of Joe the Plumber from working class Toledo Ohio in last night's debate no fewer than 21 times, using him as some kind of example as to how Obama's economic policies will be the worst thing for the country since the Great Depression, how they will drive poor Joe into poverty, take his kids away, repossess his big screen tv, wreck his car and kill his dog. And that's just for starters.

Got that? Twenty-one times. If we'd had any clue that Joe the Plumber would figure that prominently, we could have included him in our Debate Drinking Game instead of "my friends", which got short shrift last night.

So who the fuck is this Joe the Plumber guy anyway? His full name is Joseph Wurzelbacher, and beyond that bit of knowledge, the trail grows cold quickly.

In fact, it appears that no one seems to know for sure. He doesn't have a business license in Ohio -- he doesn't even have a license to be a plumber in Ohio -- he doesn't have a listing in the Toledo area yellow pages or white pages, and he's not even registered to vote!

None of that is stopping the CPM from eating this shit up like the slavering ravenous curs that they are.

So, aside from the inconvenient fact that his citing $250,000 a year profit(?) from the business he's about to buy fits so very neatly into Obama's cutoff point for raising taxes, is he genuine?

Short answer: No fuckin' way.

Consider this odd "coincidence". Joe Wurzelbach is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbach of Milford Ohio. Okay, I can hear you yawning, but here's the clincher: Robert Wurzelbach of Milford Ohio is the son-in-law of ... Charles Keating!

And you remember Charles Keating, don't you? Grampaw was one of the infamous Keating Five (which in fact would have been the Keating Four without his eager participation).

Joe the Plumber and Charles the Crook.

So it seems sort of, I don't know, obvious that Joe was a McCain stooge when he confronted Obama at that ropeline, and he remains one now. Despite the desperate fawning being lavished on him by the CPM at nearly every turn.

Okay Joe the Plumber, you've had your fifteen minutes of fame. Now go on and buy that plumbing business that you've always dreamed of. Oh, what's that you say? You don't actually have the estimated one million dollars that a business that has that kind of profit would cost? Maybe your buddy Charles Keating can help you out. He must have a lot of cash to throw around, now that he's not using it to bribe US Senators.

And, as Steve Young asks, "if he's really a plumber, where's the ass crack?"

See also here, here and here for more exposure of Joe the Plumber, and Steve, here's your answer.

What Kind of Amazing Grace?

Evidently this is video day. Here's an evocative and deeply moving music video from Ian Rhett:



This needs to be seen by all of my Radical Christianist readers -- both of you -- and maybe you can answer Ian's question: What kind of amazing grace does it take?

Hey Sarah Palin Music Video

As they used to say on AM radio back in the day, "and the hits just keep comin' atcha!"

It's just two people singing the lyrics in front of a television that we, the viewers, can't see. You wouldn't think this would work, but it does. Great job, you two!

One Toke Over the Line -- on Lawrence Welk???

This isn't political; it's just weird:

My first impulse was to dismiss it as nothing more than a cleverly-devised spoof, a modern satire of the Welk Show, but on further review, I'm afraid that it's all true. Watch it and see.

And be sure to catch Lawrence "Ah-one-anna-two" Welk himself at the end thanking Gale and Dale for their rendition of "a modern spiritual"...

Barack Obama the Anti-Christ? Or is it McCain?

There's a viral email going around that inflammatorily accuses Barack Obama of being, among other things, the Anti-Christ!

Here's the part that's pertinent:

What do you think of this?
**The Book of Revelations**
This will make you re-think : A Trivia question in Sunday School : How long is the beast allowed to have authority in Revelations ? Guess the Answer? Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months, and you know what that is. Almost a four-year term to a Presidency. All I can say is Lord Have Mercy on us.!
According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is:
The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything ..
Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet...do it! I refuse to take a chance on this unknown candidate who came out of nowhere.

I don't know what Biblical scholar dreamed this one up, but it's probably a knuckledragging graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University.

First of all, it's The Book of Revelation, not "REVELATIONS".

Second, since the book itself was written circa 200 CE, a full 400+ years before the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, it could hardly mention "Muslim" since the religion of Islam would not come into existence for another four centuries.

Third... Well, I don't need to into the long explanation here. Over at Snopes they have an extensive entry on this. Check it out for yourself and see what the truth really is, and when -- not if -- you receive this email, fight back. Inform the sender and, if you're lucky, all the other recipients of the email that Barack Obama is NOT the Anti-Christ.

In fact, if you use the diminutive for John, you can make an equally believable case that McCain is the Anti-Christ: The number of the beast is 666. Johnny (six letters) Sidney (six letters) McCain (six letters) = 666!

Those Nasty Bastards at ACORN

Jeez, from listening to the "news" (aka the wingnut talking points being spread like fresh manure by the CPM*) this week, you'd think that ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) was a cross between the old Communist Party USA and Al Qaeda, with a smattering of KKK-Nazis thrown in for seasoning.

So if the wingnuttery wants to keep talking about what a grave threat to America that ACORN really is, then I'm sure they wouldn't have any problem at all condemning (eschewing, denouncing, execrating, etc etc) an American politician who actually stood up before an ACORN-sponsored event and not only did he give a speech, no! He was the keynote speaker!

Yep, it's true. Somebody better tell Caribou Barbie about it so she can start excoriating his participation in such an obviously anti-American event.

Only one problem: It was 2006, and that keynote speaker? Grampaw McSame.

It was at a rally in Miami way back in Febuary 2006, and the topic was comprehensive immigration reform.

Jeez, what a difference just a couple of short years can make.

War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength¹.

* Capitalist Pig Media, formerly known as the MSM/SCLM

The Pathology of Palin Supporters

This is a fairly long video at almost 15 minutes, but it's well worth watching. Kudos to the filmmakers, David Swanson and Shepherd Johnson, who had the testicular fortitude to go to the Oct 13 Palin rally in Richmond and shoot this video.

I especially like the WMDs-are-in-Syria guy and the god-punishes-liars-with-eternal-hell couple, but there's really only one rational voice (aside from the filmmaker's) in this whole video, and he's from ... Alaska.

But, as entertaining as it is, in a car-wreck-on-the-freeway kind of way, it's also very scary. This is the kind of thinking mentality on the right that makes me extremely nervous.

Watch it and see if you agree.

Adam Smith on Faux News

No, not that Adam Smith -- this is the Adam Smith who is a Democratic congressman from my own Washington State, more than holding his own against Fix Noise media whore and Rethug apologist/enabler Neil Cavuto.

Watch the expressions on Smith's face as Cavuto tries to hand him his lunch on his "hatred" of Baby Doc Bush and instead gets his own lunch handed back to him:

"Astoundingly Ignorant or Downright Orwellian"

That was the judgment of the Anchorage Daily News, the biggest paper in the state, about Caribou Barbie's disingenuous dismissal of the Troopergate report.

When you have your home state's largest media outlet against you, that has to tell you something.

Barbie has said that the report "vindicates" her, and that it proves "no unlawful or unethical activity on my part"...

I don't know what report she read -- if she did read one -- but Finding Numero Uno was this:

"I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act."

As much as I do believe that Caribou Barbie is ignorant -- on a whole raft of issues and history and sociology and psychology and, well the list is endless -- I can't believe that her ignorance, deliberate though it may be, extends to the findings of this investigation.

Nope, I'm going for Option #2: Downright Orwellian.

After all, it's what the Rethugs do best, and she's doing her darn-betcha best to try to fit in. After all, she was chosen as "Miss Congeniality", so she doesn't want to do anything to upset that delicately crafted ship of state that the Rethugs have been foisting off on us lowly vermin for the last eight years.

But guess what, Barbie. It ain't gonna work. After watching the poll numbers for Obama climb and the numbers for Grampaw McSame plummet, I am starting to believe that, finally, "we won't be fooled again"...

Or maybe I'm being a starry-eyed optimist. Again.

More on "Did I Mention I was a POW?

Since Grampaw McSame is still bringing up his prisonerhood at every conceivable opportunity, I have a question for the American people (aka "my friends"):

If being a prisoner in Vietnam somehow automatically qualifies someone to be president, why don't we elect Gary Glitter?

I'm just asking.

How Racism Works

Here's a telling little list of "what ifs" that I lifted from my good friend BAC over at Yikes!.

It's an interesting exercise in perception:

• What if Michelle Obama walked 5 kids including a pregnant 17 year old on stage? Would racism change the perception?
• What if a video surfaced of Michelle Obama being cleansed of witch craft by a black preacher?
• What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
• What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
• What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do' to?
• What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife at the age of 42 (for a 22 year old heiress) after she no longer measured up to his standards?
• What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
• What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
• What if Obama were a member of the 'Keating 5'?
• What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If the answers to these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the poll numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does: It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

I had naively hoped --believed -- in my youth, that we would be past all this crap by the time I got to this advanced age and started to enter my senescence.

Sadly, I was wrong.

Palinex -- The Running Mate Morning After Pill

This is absolutely brilliant political mockery. It's a purported ad for a prescription drug called Palinex, for that morning-after running mate regret:

This is undoubtedly going to turn viral, so a quick HT to It's My Right to Be :Left of Center, where I stole it.

Deconstructed -- a Must See Video

I just discovered Casey Porter, a member of Iraq Vets Against the War and a very talented filmmaker who has his own channel over at YouTube.

Here's Deconstructed, a sample of his work. This is a moving story from the Iraq War Illegal Occupation, and kudos to Casey for putting it together and sharing it with the world.

He has more on his channel. Be sure to check it out.

(And a big HT to constant reader jae for sending me this)

How to Cut the Unemployment Rate

Everybody just get back to work.

Yep, that's all it takes, apparently, to reduce the unemployment rate to Zero. At least that's what White House Spokeswhore Dana Perino says today.

The White House thinks there's no reason to extend unemployment benefits since the only thing holding back the American economy is those lazy bastards on "the dole" who kick back in their Barcaloungers, sipping double-caf creamy-half lattés and watching their big-screen televisions.

If we could just get them off their asses and back to work, everything will be hunky dory. Never mind the fact that the unemployment rate is now the highest it's been in five years, never mind the fact that we've lost something like 150,000 jobs in the last month, never mind the fact that there have never been enough jobs in this economy to put everyone to work.

Let me repeat that: There have NEVER been enough jobs in the American economy to put everyone to work.

There's a reason for that. Even in a so-called "full employment" economy, there is a certain amount of unemployment built in -- baked into the cake, so to speak. That way, no one can afford to be complacent about his or her job, and with the threat of being fired (or "laid off") hanging over your head, you are much more likely to be a "Good Toby" and not make waves. Like agitating to get paid a decent wage, have health benefits, join a union, for example.

Like I say, it's baked into the recipe. It's how capitalism really works. God forbid a worker would be able to negotiate from a position of strength with an employer. God forbid that an employer would actually be so desperate for workers that he'd be willing to pay them a living wage, give them health benefits, sick leave, paid vacations, etc etc.

Okay, I'm being a little simplistic. The actual system is a little more complex than this, but at its core, my theory holds up.

So it rings a little hollow for Ms. Perino to claim that all the unemployed need to do is "get back to work". While she admits that she's never been in that position, here's hoping that when she's out of work come January, she'll have to go on "the dole" and see how it feels.

Yeah, like that's every gonna happen...

FOX Attacks: They Distort. We Reply.

They're at it again over at Faux News. The more things change, etc...

more about "FOX Attacks: They Distort. We Reply.", posted with vodpod

Palin: The Enemy Within

This is "must see" video from Max Blumenthal that ties together Caribou Barbie's weird religious orientation in a neatly done 8-minute package:

Ties to Terrorism?

Okay, let's imagine for a moment that Barack Obama had close family ties to an organization that calls for separation of its territory from the United States and whose founding member is on record as saying "I'm ... not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."

By just squinting a little bit, you can almost see Reverend Wright up there on the pulpit, banging his fist, praising the black separatist movement and cursing America, can't you.

And if that was Wright we're talking about, the Capitalist Pig Media (aka the MSM, aka the SCLM) would be all over it. It would dominate the 24/7 news cycle for days, until everyone was simultaneously sick of hearing it and wondering if there wasn't some where-there's-smoke-there's-fire substance to it. It might even cause more than a few weak-kneed spineless Moron-American voters to change their votes to McSame & Barbie, don't you think?

So why the major silence from the media (you remember, that good old "liberal media") over Sarah Palin's lengthy and substantial ties to something called Alaska Independence Party?

While an official membership list is yet to be unearthed, it's pretty clear from the circumstantial evidence that Caribou Barbie was an active member of this astounding organization, and relinquished her membership only for political expediency, when she joined the Republicans. Her husband,
Todd Palin, has freely admitted that he was a party member in 1995 and in 2000, although he claims he left the party in 2002. Probably just in time for Sarah to become a Republican.

A party official said first that Barbie had been a member, but the next retracted the statement -- remember "the statement is inoperative" from the old Watergate days?

Here's Joe Vogler, founder of the party:

I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions...The fires of Hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won’t be buried under their damn flag! I’ll be buried in Dawson, and when Alaska is an independent nation, they can bring my bones home.

In comparison, that kind of makes Reverend Wright sound like a Boy Scout, doesn't it?

So why the news blackout on something as important as this in the past -- the recent past -- of Caribou Barbie?

And more importantly, why is the Obama camp not trying to capitalize on this? You can bet, as I said above, were the shoe on the other foot, they'd be shouting it from the rooftops with bullhorns. Look at what they've already tried to patch together from the Ayers non-event.

And the more I learn about Caribou Barbie, the more nervous I become.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177 4180

Total coalition forces dead: 314
Total Iraqi Dead: 700,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2445
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1905
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1853
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 837
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 673

It is still 102 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

So Where are the POWs?

I was thinking about the 2004 campaign, and how John Kerry had his fellow Swift Boat crew members with him at nearly every appearance. Every member of Kerry's crew but one gave up many months of his own personal life to travel with him and campaign for him, and make himself readily available to the news media for "corrective interviews" whenever that nasty Swift Boat Liars for Bush bunch of assholes made noise about Kerry's service, his medals, etc.

So then I got to thinking about John McCain, and started wondering why I'm not seeing a single one of his fellow POWs with him at any of these campaign events. Not one.

Why the fuck is that? Do you think that maybe those guys who were with him at the Hanoi Hilton know something about him that he'd rather we didn't know?

I'm just asking, but it does seem more than a little odd, don't you think?

The McCain-Palin Mob

Jesus, just listen to some of these fucktards who are supporting Grampaw and Caribou Barbie. They don't know why, they don't know shit, but they know Obama is a "one man terrorist cell".

This is the kind of "thinking" in the wingnuttery that passes for civil discourse in today's political climate. It's fascinating, in a car-wreck-on-the-freeway kind of way. I especially like the woman who keeps getting in the camera's face -- that's her you see in the freeze-frame above. She's really a prize.

(HT to It's My Right to be Left of Center for the video)

Pounding the Table

There's an old saying around the legal profession that if you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have the evidence on your side, pound the evidence. And if you have neither, pound the table.

And that seems exactly what Grampaw McSame and Caribou Barbie have been doing over the last few days. They can hardly afford to admit that Grampaw and his pack of fellow Rethug slimeball greedy-capitalist-pig deregulation-monkey cohorts are responsible for the economic mess we're in, and since they really have nothing else, they are pounding the table on Barack Obama: "Who is he? We don't know him. But we do know that he pals around with terrorists," etc etc etc.

Jeez, give me a fucking break already. Obama has been running for president for the last two years or so, he's been in a couple dozen debates, he's campaigned in almost every state, he's been in our living rooms on television nearly every day. And we don't "know" him? No, it's Grampaw that we don't "know", since he's taken great pains to try to hide the Real John McCain from the world. But thanks to people like Tim Dickinson, Mary Hershberger (see Investigating John McCain's Tragedy at Sea) and Sidney Schanberg, we're getting to know a new and different John McCain, different from that carefully-constructed persona of the Lone Maverick on the White Horse.

And what we see, Senator, we don't like very much. We very much miss the John McCain we thought we knew back in 2000, and we mourn his passing. The John McCain that we see today ... we don't like you very much. And we're going to like you even less if you keep up these nonsensical below-the-belt desperation attacks on your opponent.

Sarah Palin, "Prayer Warrior"

This is some seriously disturbing video, showing the kind of weirdo religious cult that Sarah Palin has been in, has been supporting, has been believing in for many years:

Oh, and be sure to read Mark Karlin's editor's blog over at Buzzflash: Sarah Palin is a Manchurian Candidate for One Extremist Splinter Group of the End-Times Crowd. It has a lot more information on the extreme and dangerous religious cult views of Sarah Palin and those who support her.

We simply cannot let this woman be a heartbeat away from the presidency. We just can't.

Please, give some money to the Obama-Biden ticket, and vow to do everything you can between now and election day to get out the vote in such overwhelming numbers that they will not be able to shave points and steal another election.

Make-Believe Maverick

This morning I happened across the Rolling Stone article on Grampaw McSame, and while it is fairly long, it's well worth the read.

Make-Believe Maverick by Tim Dickinson pretty much eviscerates the shaky claims that somehow McCain is some kind of maverick, willing to stand up to his own party, vote for the nation's interests over his own, blah blah blah.

The whole "maverick" thing was pretty much made up out of whole cloth by McCain himself, aided and abetted by his servile lackeys in the media, whose approval and friendship he coolly cultivated over the years.

This story gives us the complete McCain, from his pampered existence as the son and grandson of admirals to his ordinary and not heroic behavior as a POW. It also shows how carefully he has created and recreated his myth over the years. This was a reckless hotshot of a pilot who nearly caused an international incident in Spain when he flew so low he clipped some power lines, whose irresponsible behavior would have resulted in an immediate transfer from the air to the surface navy for anyone except this "golden boy".

In short, the McCain story parallels in so many ways the Fortunate Son saga of George W. Bush that it's kind of scary, in a "history repeats itself" kind of way.

Read it. It's a great insight into the man who would be king president. Plus it's enough to scare your socks off if you think there's a chance he could actually win steal the election.

McCain's Anger -- A National Security Issue?

So says Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films with this entry:

It's actually scary to think that this unstable and doddering old man could have his finger on the button. But even more scary is the thought that Sarah Palin would have it if -- when -- Grampaw shuffles off this mortal coil. She's made no secret of the fact that she belongs to a Fundo Xian Third Wave church whose main goal, aside from asserting Dominionism over the United States, is to help bring on the Apocalypse. And what better way to do it than with a few "newkewlar" missiles lobbed into various places in the Middle East?

"Crowd Control" = Martial Law

It's been kind of an open secret for the past couple of weeks that the US Military has redeployed part of the Third Infantry Division to the United States, ordered to stand by in case of the need for "crowd control". According to the Naomi Wolf story, members of congress were even threatened with martial law if they refused to pass the bailout bill.

I never thought that I would see the day the the Posse Comitatus Act would be swept away in this country, and swept away at the stroke of a pen by Der Monkey Fuehrer, not by the rule of law and the legislative deliberation process.

Now it's perfectly legal for infantry soldiers to patrol US streets, arrest "potential" lawbreakers, and shoot to kill in order to maintain "law and order"...

Get that? Shoot to kill. They have, according to Amy Goodwin, both lethal and non-lethal technology available to them, and, no doubt, orders to use both if necessary.

Let's see how it all adds up: We'll shoot to kill to maintain law and order ... We have to destroy the village in order to save it ... The death penalty is how we show our respect for human life ... Up is down, black is white, left is right and right is wrong. Jeez, we're through the looking-glass for sure now.

People, we are just steps -- no, inches -- no, millimeters -- away from the end of freedom in this country. Wanna bet that those troops (and probably many more that we're not aware of) won't be deployed in the dark of the night on November 4, available to put down what the government sees as inevitable riots in the streets when we all learn that Grampaw McSame and his Rethug handlers have managed to steal this election from Barack Obama?

"That One" or The One?

"That one." That was Grampaw McCain's patronizing reference to that uppity Barack Obama during last night's debate.

Could he get more dismissive? Could he get more condescending? Could he get more contemptuous?

Well, I guess the short answer is Yes, he can and he probably will. But on the bright side, he's not calling him The N-Word yet. At least not in public. But is a man who is willing to drop The C-Bomb on his own wife in public really going to be able to keep that impulse reigned in for another month?

The Rethugs think they have everyone bamboozled about their deep-seated racism -- and that seems to be the case some of the time -- but every so often a little reminder comes oozing out.

"That one"...

No, Grampaw, Barack Obama isn't "that one". He's The One. Get used to it.

Corsi Arrested, Deported

Noted slimebag and full-time liar Jerome Corsi, the author of the abomination Obama Nation and former purveyor of scurrilous attacks on John Kerry, has been arrested in and deported from Kenya.

Corsi's new book "falsely claims that Obama, who is revered in Kenya, was raised as a Muslim, and smears the prime minister, Raila Odinga, the country's most popular politician." Not an auspicious start to what was supposed to be Corsi's triumphant first visit to the African nation.

The Kenyan government, naturally, is taking the high road in all of this. Not to seem petty or mean, they are taking official line that his book of lies has absolutely nothing to do with his arrest and deportation; he had merely neglected to obtain a temporary work permit.

Uh-huh.

Buns of Leadership -- The Sarah Palin CDs

This is hilarious -- something I stumbled on over at YouTube:

Fighting Back on "Guilt by Acquaintance"

Unlike four years ago, today's Dems are fighting back. Where John Kerry went wind surfing, Barack Obama is sticking his finger in the eye of the Rovian Rethugs. Call us a pal of terrorists? We'll call you corrupt, and unlike you, we've got proof.

Keating Five.

That's all you need to say.

Grampaw McCain, despite his many cynical mea culpas over the years, remains at his core unrepentant over his role in the scandalous events of the mid-1980s.

In case you haven't seen it already, here's the latest video from the Obama camp that skewers Grampy over his participation in the Keating Five affair -- hoist on his own petard, as the Bard would have it.

It's a bit long for the average American attention span, but it cuts to the chase and points out the truth of the sage adage "a person who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones."

If Freedom is to be Abused, it Must be Taken Away

That's always been the idea behind the neo-con Rethug political philosophy, but up to now they've pretty much kept it hidden. No more. Now Sarah Palin (aka Caribou Barbie*) has come out on the propaganda arm of the Rethug party (Faux News) with the following statement:

As we send our young men and women overseas in a war zone to fight for democracy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, we've really got to have a mutually beneficial relationship here with those fighting the freedom of the press, and then the press, though not taking advantage and exploiting a situation, perhaps they would want to capture and abuse the privilege. We just want truth, we want fairness, we want balance.

Okay, that's typically Palin -- hazy, disjointed and weird, and you don't really come away having a clue as to what she said. But there's a gem in there. Boil all that crap down and you get this: "freedom of the press ... abuse the privilege".

Sarah, I don't quite know how to tell you this, but "freedom of the press" is guaranteed in the US Constitution, in the First Amendment -- arguably the most important of all the amendments:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. (Emphasis added.)

Sarah, it's not a privilege that can be taken away. It's a guaranteed freedom under our constitution. Maybe you ought to read it sometime, since you apparently were in the process of school-hopping when they covered it. There are things in there that would surprise you.

BTW, it's especially galling to think that she finally got a degree in, of all things, journalism! I don't know about today's J-School education, but back in the Dark Ages, when I was an aspiring hack and took a bunch of journalism classes, the concept of Freedom of the Press was still alive and well. Now it seems to be on life support, and if these two manage to steal this election, they'll be more than happy to pull the plug.

* HT to Stephanie Miller for this terrific nickname.

Tina Fey Nails it -- Again!

In case you missed Saturday Night Live's right-on take on the Veep "debate", here's a second chance:

That's Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill, in case you didn't recognize her. I laughed until my sides hurt at Tina Fey's Sarah Palin. Now I can't wait for next Saturday to see what she does then.

And the Rethugs dare to say that her performance was "disrespectful". Ha, that's a joke in itself. It's like I've always said, those people have absolutely no sense of humor, expecially when it comes to laughing at themselves -- and I don't trust anyone who does not have a sense of humor.

But I'm still fearful that come election day, the joke will be on us. Everyone, get out there and work as hard and as long as you can to get Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- along with the other Democrats who are down-ticket -- elected on November 4. We just can't afford another four years of Rethug rule.

The Sorrow of War - A Must Read

On the streets of Saigon (and Hanoi as well), you'll see street vendors walking around with a stack of paperback books to sell to tourists. They are usually cheap photocopy ripoffs of books you can get anywhere, and I rarely fell for it.

But on my last day in Saigon, I was approached by a middle-aged woman with one leg and a stack of books. She was of an age to have been a victim of the war, and I never passed those people by without giving some cash.

For some reason, she knew I was a Vietnam vet, and she handed me a copy of The Sorrow of War, by former North Vietnam soldier Bao Ninh:

I originally bought it as a charity contribution to her, but when I started reading it on the plane coming home, I literally couldn't sleep until I finished it. It's an astonishingly honest and brutal depiction of the tragedy of a North Vietnam soldier desensitized to his own humanity after ten years at war.

It's about time that the world woke up to the universal suffering of soldiers on all sides of a conflict, and this book ought to be required reading for anyone considering a "career" in the military.

I especially recommend it to my fellow Vietnam veterans; Bao Ninh truly is our "brother in arms", regardless of the fact that he was on the other side.

It is, in so many respects, the All Quiet on the Western Front of the Vietnam War. It is, as the Bao Ninh Wikipedia article says, among the most moving war stories of all time.

Highly recommended.

McCain & Palin: Unstable & Unable

That's the message on one of the signs at an anti-Palin rally. Not so much newsy, except for the fact that it was held in ... Anchorage!

According to the news stories, it was the biggest political rally ever in the state of Alaska. There are lots more cool photos over the Daily Kos story as well.

And where did she pick up that phony neo-Fargo accent, anyway? They don't talk that way in either Alaska or Idaho.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725 3738 3760 3780 3795 3823 3830 3838 3845 3866 3875 3881 3886 3891 3896 3908 3921 3932 3943 3952 3960 3974 3987 3992 4004 4032 4036 4177

Total coalition forces dead: 315
Total Iraqi Dead: 700,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2438
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1898
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1846
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 830
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 666(!)

It is still 109 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

West Virginia Miners Thump NRA

Here's a story from Crooks and Liars that you won't be seeing much of in the MSM/SCLM: Coal miners in West Virginia took an unscheduled day off (a walkout) after the mine owner allowed a film crew from, of all things, the National Rifle Association, to come on site and try to get the miners to say something negative about Barack Obama.

Kudos to those coal miners for standing up to management and to the NRA. West Virginians are an independent and sometimes cantakerous lot, and they obviously resented the hell out of the "gotcha" attitude of this so-called "documentary" film crew.

Fuckin' Disgustin'

I'm speaking about Sarah Palin, of course, and her performance in tonight's "debate".

Maybe it's just the frustrated English teacher in me, but I find it gratin' that she apparently can't bring herself to pronouncin' that trailin' "g": Lookin', watchin', seein', havin', doin', bein', etc etc ad nauseum.

She did better than expected, naturally, since anything above choking a kitten to death on stage and wetting her pants would have been "better than expected", but I find it extremely irritating to have to watch 90+ minutes of that phony-baloney "aw shucks" neo-Fargo affability of hers.

Unfortunately, I think that the average member of the Moron-American voting bloc just eats that shit up, and it would be to our detriment if we continue to dismiss her as a lightweight post turtle.

This is the most important election of our lives -- certainly of my lifetime -- and it's more than a little disheartening to think that this election could be decided by people deciding that they "like" her better than Joe Biden.

One other note: I haven't heard any of the talking head pundits mention it yet, but early in the debate I heard her make a comment about "artificial state borders". Can it be that, in addition to her calling for an expanded constitutional powers role for the vice presidency (apparently beyond that even usurped by Dick Cheney), she is signaling that, in a McCain administration, there will be an end to Federalism?

In short, despite her Reaganesque chuckleheaded affability, she still scares the shit out of me, even more so when I consider that McCain will be 72 -- and in ill health -- when he is inaugurated, so the chances of her eventually becoming president are extremely good.

And that's bad.

I'm Back -- for Good This Time...

...that is until my next foreign adventure. I got home Monday afternoon, in the 38th hour of September 29th (thanks to the International Dateline), and I'm just now ready to rejoin the land of the living. I still have some jet lag and I'm sleeping some very odd hours, but I think I have recovered enough to act -- if not actually be -- cogent.

My trip was terrific, the chance of a lifetime, really. I traveled for three weeks in Vietnam with my friend Minh, who is a native Vietnamese and who, naturally, speaks the language fluently. And there's nothing like seeing a country with someone who is a native of that country. I learned 100 times more about Vietnam's history and culture in three weeks than I learned in the whole 10 months and 23 days (but who's counting) that I spent there in 1968.

We flew into Hanoi for Minh's brother's wedding, we spent two days at Ha Long Bay and finally took a series of three passenger trains south -- first to Hue, then to Nha Trang, and finally to Saigon. While we were in Saigon, we took overnight trips to the beach resort of Vung Tau and to the Mekong Delta, as well as a day trip to Tay Ninh with a stopover at the Tunnels of Cu Chi exhibit -- which I ended up calling "Cong World" (as in Disney World).

I have a lot of pictures and travel stories, which I will be posting on my Vietnam website. It'll take me a while to sort through them and pick out the best ones, but I'll let everyone know when it's available.

While the trip was terrific, it's great to be back. So much has happened in my absence, and I never saw a single news show or read a newspaper while I was gone, so now I'm trying to catch up.