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I'm so very, very weak...

Who knew?

But so what? Life goes on. Thanks to all who kept checking in to see if anything was happening here, even the ones who think I'm an idiot but for some reason were compelled to check here every day anyway. (I check FD daily, so why not.)

I've got a new location I've been experimenting with and I'm not sure if it's ready for Prime Time (in fact, I'm pretty sure it's not) but that's the way it goes. So for good or bad or ugly, here it is.

I lied

I know I said the chorus of exploding right-wingnut heads would be enough to keep me amused for awhile, but really, uh... I lied. It's not enough. I'm tired. For good or ill, this koolade drinker is riding off on her sparkly pink Unicorn of Hope & Change and JoyJoyJoy. Thanks for reading...

The gift that keeps on giving

Looks like the Sarah Palin Saga might be just warming up:

"Sarah Palin wasn't aware that Africa was a continent and she and her brood behaved like a band of "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," aides to Republican John McCain are telling prominent news organizations.

Less than 24 hours after McCain lost the presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, those close to him apparently wasted no time burning up the phone lines to dish the dirt on Palin, the Alaska governor who portrayed herself as a sensible hockey Mom when she was chosen the Arizona senator's running mate in late August.

If the anonymous McCain insiders are to be believed, Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, was unaware that Africa was a continent, arguing that South Africa was simply a region of the larger country of Africa.

She also didn't know the three countries that are in the North American Free Trade Agreement, namely Canada, the U.S. and Mexico." [...]

"On Wednesday in Phoenix, Palin said: "There is absolutely no diva in me."

Nonetheless, a Republican party lawyer is reportedly heading to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in Palin's possession." (emphasis mine)

And once more for the road because it's worth the pixels:

"...she and her brood behaved like a band of "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast"

Whenever I think I might take a break from blogging, these things come along... "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

(h/t reality bites in the comments)

Now that the presidential election is over

I'll really miss this kind of batshittery:

"NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported."

MORE than $150,000? You're shittin' me:

"One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill.

But after she burned through the campaign's clothing budget, she stopped, right?

Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband.

Oh well, at least all the clothing was given to charity... wasn't it?

Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books."

Hold the phone! Run that by me again?

"An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast..."

The Wasilla Hillbilly in 2012? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

President-Elect Obama

That is all.

Ballot Measures to watch today (UPDATED)

**WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!**
U.S. ELECTION POST AHEAD!!!

For those not interested in the history being made today, that was your chance to exercise your right to click. Please, I want you to. Onward...

Apart from the presidential election, there are some important ballot measures being voted on today:

Prop 8 (California): This hideous little initiative, backed by a ton of religious right money, would rescind equal marriage in California, thereby protecting the Institution Of Marriage from whatever the fuck it is they think gay people will *do* to it. If it passes, Prop 8 would not only deny these citizens a basic human right, but will also throw a lot of married couples into limbo where their marriages are no longer recognized. And why not? It's just the Christian thing to do.

UPDATE: Bigotry won. Prop 8 passed, by a small margin.

Prop 4 (California): This anti-abortion measure would legislate parental consent for abortion. We need to remember our kids are individuals with rights of their own, including the right to privacy, and if our daughters can't trust us to know they're facing an unwanted pregnancy, there might be a good reason. Also, like all these nitpicky anti-choice laws, this just gets a foot in the door to further restrictive legislation.

UPDATE: Failed, 53-47.

Prop 48 (Colorado): This is one of the more idiotic anti-abortion initiatives to come along so far, and that's really saying something. Prop 48 would define a fertilized egg as a "person", with all the restrictions on abortion and contraception that definition engenders.

UPDATE: Failed, 72-27 (about the same margin as a similar measure failed by last time around -- ya think?)

Prop 11 (South Dakota): This is an outright ban on abortion, except in cases where it's necessary to save the woman's life. (How generous.) South Dakotans voted down a similar initiative 2 years ago -- ya think!? But anti-choicers just keep grinding away with no compunction about the taxpayers' money they waste on this bullshit.

UPDATE: Failed, 55-45

They're all in the west, so it's unlikely we'll know whether they passed or (hopefully) failed until the wee hours of tomorrow morning. But it's something else to watch for after the presidential race has been called.
Reproductive choice won, but marriage equality lost. I wonder what will happen to the couples already married? Prop 8 is retroactive, which if I'm not mistaken nullifies their marriages. Nice. I can't imagine people being any more vicious and petty.

PROP 8 UPDATE II: The No Side is not conceding yet. Good for them -- do not concede until every. last. vote. is counted.

PROP 8 UPDATE III: Passed, 52-48. What an embarrassment to all straight people. I am so sorry. I can only say: do not give up. Equality demands it.

What if they gave a culture war and nobody came?

Why was the "Culture War" scenario such an epic failure this election cycle? Whether the GOP wins or loses tomorrow, there's no question that this aspect of their campaign didn't work as well as it has in the past. While Sarah Palin might have electrified the superstitious, anti-intellectual, pro-ignorance, abortion-obsessed nutcase faction of the GOP base, it was reflected in only the briefest of upticks in the polls. The economy could be partly to blame, but could it also be that the whole "culture war" narrative has run its course, and there just aren't enough people who care about that bullshit anymore?:

"In 2000, in the wake of an economic boom and a sex scandal that led to a president's impeachment, 22 percent of Americans told exit pollsters that "moral values" were their biggest concern, compared with only 19 percent who cited the economy.

Today, according to a recent Newsweek poll, the economy is up to 44 percent and "issues like abortion, guns and same-sex marriage" down to only 6 percent. It's no coincidence that Palin's popularity has plummeted as the financial crisis has taken center stage. From her championing of small-town America to her efforts to link Barack Obama to former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, Palin is treading a path well-worn by Republicans in recent decades. She's depicting the campaign as a struggle between the culturally familiar and the culturally threatening, the culturally traditional and the culturally exotic. But Obama has dismissed those attacks as irrelevant, and the public, focused nervously on the economic collapse, has largely tuned them out.

Palin's attacks are also failing because of generational change. The long-running, internecine baby boomer cultural feud just isn't that relevant to Americans who came of age after the civil rights, gay rights and feminist revolutions." (emphasis mine)

And it's about fucking time.

Kerry was ahead in 2004

I'm no psychologist but I know an Obama Derangement Syndrome*-driven pre-election nervous breakdown when I see one, and that is what seems to be in progress at our favourite fetus fetishist's blog as the spectre of an Obama victory looms on the American electoral horizon. All weekend long, SUZANNE's been feverishly cranking out desperate and furious posts that vacillate between painting a macabre picture of a post-Obama world awash in aborted fetuses and reminding everyone that there's still hope: John Kerry was ahead in the 2004 polls, too. Indeed he was, as you can see by the Electoral Vote projection for this day in 2004:


Then there's today's projection:

Proving that there's "ahead" and then there's "AHEAD!!!11!!".

*Affliction named by JABbering Stooge

A portent

Goin' rogue, you betcha:

At a boisterous Sarah Palin rally in Polk City, Florida on Saturday afternoon, one name was surprisingly absent from the campaign décor — John McCain’s.

Choosing a running mate just because she'll attract the people who hate your guts can't really end any other way, can it? Palin has already set her sights on 2012 -- and if she's the future of the GOP, it has no future.

Question of the Day

Why does Dick Cheney hate John McCain?

And where's Georgie? He's been keeping pretty quiet since he said this. Loosen that muzzle! Let Georgie exercise his First Amendment rights! Speak, Georgie, SPEAK!

Et tu, Jonathon?

As the US election campaign winds down, Canadian wingnuts are weighing in. Some are still in Denial, clinging to the tired old bullshit about the Biased Lie-beral Media and Obama's -- cue Hallowe'en music -- "past associations". Some have progressed to the Anger stage, blaming McCain for running a stupid campaign. And some... are rooting for Obama?? Here they are, in all their wingnutty glory.

The warped:

"One wonders how often Michelle sees Mona Khalidi these days? Do they go for coffee once in a while? I hope so. Should old acquaintance be forgot? No, but it happens. People outgrow each other; they develop different interests. One may develop an interest in becoming First Lady.

Mona's husband is Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American academic. Republican candidate John McCain has described Professor Khalidi as an erstwhile spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. When Obama was chummy with ex-Weather Underground terrorist Bill "I don't regret setting bombs" Ayers, who sat with Barack on the board of an "anti-poverty" charity called the Woods Foundation, they gave money to the American-Arab Action Network, run by Mona. The Khalidis and the Obamas socialized, and in 2000 the Khaldis hosted a polical fundraiser for the future Democratic presidential nominee."

The bitter:

"If it looks hopeless now, hours before voting day, it is McCain himself who has made it so.

It was McCain who never offered a coherent economic program. It was McCain who pronounced the fundamentals of the economy “sound” on the very day that Lehman Brothers collapsed. It was McCain who could not defend his own healthcare plan in toe-to-toe debate with Barack Obama. It was McCain who was ultimately responsible for a campaign that emphasized stunts and tactics over policy and strategy.

As a decision-maker, McCain proved himself impulsive and emotional, hasty and over-personal — and the revelation of those faults has frightened many voters at a time of economic anxiety."

The twisted:

"Whereas, Mr. Obama was from his political beginnings the darling of a Chicago political machine, notorious for both corruption, and harbouring radicals. His very smoothness and articulacy, even his blackness, made him their golden boy, assuring him of financial patronage along his way."

The incarcerated:

"Over the last 60 years in the United States, the governing party has usually changed after two terms. The stylistic shortcomings of the second Bush administration, McCain’s blunderbuss campaign and the financial crisis have all reinforced that likelihood. Under the Mephistophelean influence of the most biased media coverage of a U.S. election since Barry Goldwater in 1964, Obama’s peculiar associations have been downplayed and McCain has been portrayed as serving up a smear-job for raising them at all."

The... sane??:

"The tipping point came during last Tuesday's presidential debate, when I heard the GOP candidate tell Americans that he wants to take US$300-billion of taxpayer money and use it to pay off the mortgages of private citizens. I know these are rough times. But what kind of "conservative" seeks to socialize the financial risk freely taken on by millions of Americans through arm's-length home loans?"

[...] "Finally, there's Sarah Palin. I'll admit that I was a fan when she was first named to the Republican ticket. She was funny and down to earth, and she gave a great speech at the GOP convention. Even when it was clear she was overmatched in her debate with Biden, I still stuck with her -- because I saw her on her own terms: as a stick in the craw of smug, secular, big-city liberal elites.

But then I realized that this was the only reason I liked her. After a few weeks, I began to focus on the idea of her as a (potential) U. S. Commander-in-Chief. On the crucial question of whether I would actually want this woman to be running the most powerful nation on earth, I really couldn't, in my heart, answer yes.

I suspect that many conservatives who profess to believe that Palin would make a great leader have secretly come around to the same view as me -- but their tribal political reflex won't let them admit as much.

That's an understandable gut reaction. But voting should be done with the head, not the belly. Count me among the millions of self-described right-wingers rooting -- this time--for the guy on the left."

I bet Mama's getting out the wooden spoon for that!

Whoever wins on Tuesday

Georgie is still in power for another 76 days. That's Political Capital, bitches, and he intends to spend it like a drunken sailor:

"The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining."

The Ghost of Georgie will be rattling his chains for some time to come.