A Chicken Is Not Pillage

Palin/Bachmann in '12!

Some folks will be dissecting the Rube Goldberg machine of the McCain campaign for many years to come; mostly because several of it's wingnuts and broken gears have been re-purposed for our amusement.  Though I applaud the diligence of the journalists who will continue to study the egos of those that derailed an otherwise poor Presidential run, there really isn't much that I wish to write about it.  My view of it all sums up very quickly, and is penned vastly better than ever I could, by TBogg.

I agree with Jason Zengerle that you have to feel kind of bad for  McCain strategist Steve Schmidt even if he did have a hand in picking the Nome Nitwit as McCain's running mate. As a candidate, McCain was shit-on-a-stick and rolling him in the nuts that is the Palin snowbilly circus sideshow didn't make him any more appealing. But, in the face of the Obama Megatron Steamroller,  the McCain campaign had little choice but to throw the Hail Mary pass that was Bible Spice and then pray that they could keep the media at bay by dazzling them with winks and Wasilla Valley cornpone.

UPDATE:  Just so's we're clear about where I'm coming from:

DRAFT BACHMANN!  But for the VP run, not a mere crazy-ass Governor.

Reid My Lips

Few things invoke mirth in my blackened cynical heart more than when Republicants deride Harry Reid as if we Democrats have a deep emotional bond with his august self.  I've considered Reid to be useless for years now, arrogant and privileged yet clueless as to why he has any status at all, a hollow thinner cartoon of Sergeant Schultz.  I think, and I'm not alone, that Harry Reid is a joke of a Senator (and don't get me started on his counterpart, Pelosi.)  So it suprises me not one tiny tittle that Reid would assume that America's rejection of corrupt and dispicable Republican lies and incompetence was somehow a holy and dogmatic writ for his canonization as one to the Sainted Order of Impo'tent Peoples.

His actions over the last week have essentially proven that his own self-importance has blinded him to what America is all about ... the law.  First, he refuses to sit and have sworn a lawfully appoiinted Senator, blaming everyone but himself in the process.  Because of his shenanegans, he refused to sit another legally elected Senator (both Democrats, mind you.)  And in the process, he tells a most popular President-elect to piss up a rope concerning the actions of the Senate.  I think this guy might be politically dumber than LIEberman.  Truly, that's saying something.

Buress will be a US Senator.  Al Franken will be a US Senator.  Barack Obama will be a capable President, and this will happen in spite of the fact that Harry Reid has acted like a big ignert dick.   Reid doesn't have a clue of the changes that are sweeping him under, and he will lose whatever power game he thinks he's playing.

But what really prompted this post was this:

The Majority Leader thinks former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens shouldn't face jail time for his seven-count federal conviction last year, telling our Manu Raju, who was also in the room, "My personal feeling, you guys, I don't know what good that [would do]... He was a real war hero too, you know. He's been punished enough."

Punished, how?  The guy lost his Senate seat in an election.  He abused the public trust in an illegal way and lost an election (arguably because the public, even in Alaska, doesn't much cotton to criminals running the country.)  Is being a Senator so much of a value that not being a Senator is the same as a criminal sentence?  Isn't that what Harry Reid is saying?

Let's be clear.  If you, I or anyone we know get caught stealing a couple hundred grand on the job we would lose that job and spend a few tens of dozen days in a fine state institution, becoming intimately familiar with concrete, steel bars and concertina wire (and hopefully not our cell-mate.)  We wouldn't just get voted off the island to a comfortable retirement in God's paradise of wilderness and log homes.  I have sympathy for Ted Tubes Stevens because of his age, and hope that some leniency is offered for that alone.  But I also respect the law enough to know that if he is offered leniency, it is at the will of a compassionate society.  It sure as hell shouldn't be because he has "suffered enough" in any way, shape or form.

Ultimately, Reid's bullshit statement isn't about Stevens at all.  It is about how Harry Reid sees being a US Senator.  He sees it as a position being above the law of the little people, such that losing that position is horrific.  What a total ass.  It is my sincere hope that Harry Reid faces that awful "punishment" in November next year.

(And, just to funnel any derogatory comments into a filter I make fun of, I don't like Reid 'cause he's a Mormon ...)

Who Voted How

A rather graphic representation.  If you identify as Republican, you really might want to notice the map of independents.  And if your a snobbish economic elitist for McCain, you might want to visit the map of those folk making over $50,000 a year.  Hint, you'd still lose.

If This Election Were A Movie ... and ZOMBIES!

British comedic writer Charlie Brooker pens an article for the Guardian, in two parts, that is a must read.  The first part posits that this past election were a movie.  My favorite bits:

President Barack Obama. President Barack Obama. Nope, still can't get used to it. It's literally too good to be true. I must've died in my sleep and am now having an insane fantasy pumped into my head by the Matrix. Any minute now Salma Hayek is going to float through the door with a tray of biscuits and I'll know the game's up.

...

And what was with the whole Joe the Plumber sub-plot? I mean, c'mon, they invited him on tour and everything. As if. In the real world, no one would've bought that for a second. That's precisely the sort of thing that breaks the all-important suspension of disbelief. It didn't help that the guy they cast to play him, Michael Chiklis, is instantly recognisable from his leading role as the corrupt, brutal cop Vic Mackey in the hit TV series The Shield.

But the core of the article is this.  Charlie Brooker wrote a short series for British TV called Dead Set.  And yes, it does have zombies.  (I can't wait to see it!)  But you see, it has a problem.   The zombies run, and that's a no no.  As my friend and zombie expert Derek taught us so well:

zombies DON'T RUN. It's a fact, brother . . . a FACT. :)

Apparently Simon Pegg agrees.  You know Simon, otherwise known as Shaun of the Dead.  It seems Simon was none too happy with Charlie for his running zombies.  Charlie responds.  My favorite bits:

3) We had to clearly and immediately differentiate Dead Set from Shaun of the Dead, which had cornered the market on zombie-centric horror-comedy. Blame yourself, Simon: if you'd made that film badly, it wouldn't have been so popular, and drawing a distinction wouldn't have been an issue. Each time one of our zombies breaks into a sprint, it's your own stupid talented fault.

...

Face facts. It's time to embrace diversity, Simon. Make room in your heart for all breeds of zombie. Except ones that talk. They're just silly.

These arguments matter.  You know that, right?

Given' Mark The Props When He's Right

I'm not given to believing in conspiracies, but one needn't be too paranoid to accept that things as complex as elections can be rigged by powerful parties.  Even election night, I wondered how in the hell a convicted felon could be elected Senator from Alaska when he trailed in the polls by a minimum of 10 percentage points.  Is that state full of morons?  Was this Republican gamesmanship?  Or was the election of a US Senator being stolen?

I'm currently thinking it's that last one.

Simply Because He Makes A Great Example ...

Certain things were to be expected following Obama's historic win.  It was expected that Sarah Palin would act even more the asshat than she already has.  It was expected the more rabid wingnuts would go into complete meltdown.  It was, or at least should have been, expected that the Republican concern trolls would be out in force with their phony congratulatory wishes and Straw man insults directed towards the 44th President and his supporters.

As if on cue, say hello to Steve Eschenbacher.  Fresh off his getting his ass kicked in a bid for MT house district 96 (stupid voters!), Steve offers his lame vision of the socialist and over bearing future under those he pretends to acknowledge for their victories.  Yes, Steve expresses warm fuzzies to those who will raise your taxes and destroy your country, because it's polite for him to do so.  I guess that passive-aggressive bullshit is what you call 'being a good loser'.

Steve says:

I will not succumb to the personal attacks that the Left have employed for the last eight years

even though he just laid out the same tired trope about Democrats raising your taxes and attacking your liberties.  He just can't give it up.  The point is, very few of the losers can.  They will stick to the stupid belief that you and I are dumb enough to keep voting for those who will hurt us, based solely on the fantasy of what those idgits think hurts us.  Simply put, they're above the fray of tumult and insult, because they can engage in such while telling the stupid that they're above it.  No they're not; no Steve isn't.  He insults our intelligence with every post he writes about how much he knows and we misguided don't.  And Steve, if you bother to take a look, that is a very personal attack.  Folk don't like that stuff, and maybe that's why you're a loser.

This kind of pathetic concern trolling/insult is not unique to Steve.  He's simply the best example of it.  There are a host of right-wingers out there today who are more than happy to tell us how they will hold the new President accountable, and that we shouldn't even bother to gloat over how very wrong their ideology has proven to be, 'cause they're not afraid ... really they're not ... nope ... no fear here ... nope, not scared.

They're terrified.  They know that the politics of fear has failed.  They know that their caricatures don't work anymore.  The populace can't be fooled with a puppet show.  The ones who re-elected first class assholes are the supposedly 'real' Americans.  The rest of us, in their sad minds, are just misguided, cluck-cluck chuckle and chortle.  But the wingnuts will defend our interests.  They will stand against the predations of our new blacky overlord, and his Berkeley based Congress.  They will defend what's right!

They needn't worry about gloating from me.  They're impotent, gone, extinct.  Like the very dinosaurs they are this country has evolved past their capabilities to survive in it.  The climate is hostile, and they can't breath without the fetid zombie breath of a discredited Reagan.  They can only pretend they have power over the future of the country, but all they've shown is an aptitude for total failure.  Oh yeah, I'm terrified that people like Steve are going to hold the President and the Congress accountable ... right.  They have no voice anymore.  The future belongs to us, those who engage and think.  They are breathing the foul air of the grave, extinct.  Bye bye, Steve.  Enjoy your loss.  We will hold Congress accountable, and the President as well.  You?  You will just troll out Straw man BS.  We don't need you.  We don't want you.  Yesterday should have convinced you of at least that much.

Oh, and congratulations on your run for MT congress, Steve.  I mean that, really, I do.

Racist Asshole Shrugs, Gives Up, And Acknowledges Obama Win

Mike Harris, who has done his level best to confuse people and lie to them about Barack Obama:

With the coming election of Barack Obama here in the states ...

Now, I'll happily admit that Mikey only wrote this in context of how Israel would react to the certitude of an Obama win, but I have to ask ... WHO CARES?

Most of us don't live in Israel (in fact, very few of us who can vote in America live in Israel).  We aren't voting for Obama based on how Israel will react to Obama.  We.just.don't.CARE.  It is perhaps one of the goofiest episodes of the upcoming election that there are idiots who actually think that Americans should put their concern for themselves behind their unfounded interpretation of what  Israel wants.  Real "Country First" of ya' there, Mike.

What is important here is that Mike admits and acknowledges what many of us know to be true.  Barack Obama will win this election.  How he behaves as President is open to conjecture, and how other countries will behave is freely open to their will.  Mike wants us to be scared that Barack will be what his masturbatory horror fantasies lend themselves to, and he wants us all afeard  of what that will mean.  I posit that it's idiotic to look to the future while positing the past in fearful repugnance.  Barack Obama will be President, as Mike admits.  Perhaps it's time that Mike support what favors America, instead of ignorantly wailing about what he fears Barack will do to his beloved other country, and asking you to do the same.

No Honor Among Political Thieves Either

Partners in crime really ought to like each other, don'tcha think?  You betcha ...

Why The Dark Lord Controls My Every Move

Hail the great Orange Satan.  May he long reign in the dark socialist age of Hussain Obama X!

McCain knows he's going down, we get that.

...

So this is how the cowardly McCain wishes to go out -- not with a bang, but with a whimper.

And this, by the way, is what "breaking their backs, crushing their spirits" looks like. I just didn't expect it 10 days early from the GOP's presidential nominee.

Smash

Kos conveys honestly and precisely what I've been attempting to get at through humor and venom.

The day after the election, I want to see an electoral battlefield littered with defeated Republicans, their ranks demoralized, their treasury in heavy debt, and no real leadership to take the helm. I want a vacuum so complete, that a bloody leadership battle between the neocons, theocons, and corporate cons shakes the GOP to its core, and leaves it fractured and ill-equipped to stymie the progressive agenda, much less ramp up for an even bleaker (for them) 2010.

Guys, (and gals - W) that's why I don't worry about complacency. We're not out to win this thing. We're out to crush them.