Contrarian Bitch/ing

How to Motivate Democrats. Think Pod People.

2012-01-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

Ok, Dems, you have just been handed the most compelling motivational tool of all time...and it's FREEEEE!! Did you watch the South Carolina GOP debate last night? Did your blood pressure skyrocket? Did you jump off the couch and shout at the television? Well, I did and so did my friends who were watching with me. We even had to rewind because we weren't sure we heard right. But we did. This debate, my friends, is the best motivational tool we have. It should be required viewing by every Democrat and Progressive and by everyone who has a brain. No, the Republican candidates do not have brains but I will get to that later.

While the candidates were infuriating, blathering neanderthals, what was really troubling was the mob mentality of the audience. Close your eyes and you could picture them storming the poor house, their flaming cudgels raised high, fangs bared, screeching for the heads of all poor people - white, black, brown, pink, blue, whatever - poor immigrants, paupers and, you may as well throw in, liberals. To them, the poor are the bloodsuckers of society who threaten their conservative, righteous place on their God's good earth. Yes, those people who rose to their feet when Gingrich excoriated the needy were the scariest of all. These people are the reason all Democrats, lapsed or otherwise, should be scared straight off their duffs to volunteer day and night for President Obama's re-election.

Now, back to the candidates. They do not have brains because - and it can now be revealed - they are Pod people disguised as GOP people. Remember Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Here's a little bit about them:

The Pod People are a race of nomadic, extraterrestrial parasites originating from a now dying planet. Realizing that it was only a matter of time before the planet's resources would be completely depleted, the pods somehow evolved the ability to defy gravity and leave their planet's atmosphere in the search of a new world to colonize. For millennia, the pods floated in space like spores, propelled by the solar winds, some occasionally landing on inhabited planets. Once there, they would replace the dominant species by spawning emotionless replicas; the original bodies would then disintegrate into dust once the duplication process was completed. They would then consume all of the planet's resources, only to then leave in search of yet another new world.

...

The Pods' sole purpose in life was that of individual survival, with no attention given to the civilizations they conquered or the resources they squandered.

And, try as hard as he might to disguise himself as a human, Mitt Romney is, not surprisingly, the holy Pod leader. Poke him and there's nothing there but a flip-flopping semblance of a real person, a Pod calculating how to fit in with humanity but, with no center, he blows this way and that depending on the direction of the solar wind. It is evident that the GOP Pods want to scorch the earth. Pod Perry, Pod Santorum, Pod Gingrich, Pod Paul, Pod Romney whipped the human(?) audience into a frenzy which makes one wonder...are they not Pods, too?

Listen, Democrats, this election is a fight for our planet. Don't be complacent. Make no mistake, the GOP Pods WILL scorch the earth and take civil liberties along with it. It is our human time to make sure that doesn't happen. Where's the wonderful Kevin McCarthy when we need him?

I'm suing you, Mr. President...for my therapy sessions.

2011-10-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

I've been mulling this idea for months - suing President Obama. It's time to make my move. You see, he's made me schizoid... or schizophrenic...I can't decide. Is that bad to say? I don't want to be less than PC when explaining my symptoms and why I find it necessary to sue and why he is culpable.

Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness and sometimes (sexual) apathy, with a simultaneous rich, elaborate and exclusively internal fantasy world.^[1] SPD is not the same as schizophrenia, although they share some similar characteristics such as detachment or blunted affect.

Let's first parse the schizoid personality disorder.

1. Sometimes I do have a lack of interest in social relationships particularly if they're with Obama apologists who have deified this man beyond all reason. If one were generous, one could call them Optimists, but I am not so generous. I think they're deluded.

2. Okay - "a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle" - I would have to say that's true if only to protect myself from political crazies and Optimists. It's best to hunker down with some good beer and catch up on Arrested Development.

3. Next up -"secretiveness, emotional coldness and sometimes (sexual) apathy" - Well, secretive I am not. Ask me anything and I will tell you. And then you'll wish you hadn't. Emotional coldness? This one's crucial when it comes to shielding myself from reacting to every single Obama disappointment. Sadly, the disappointment started inauguration day and I've been in a cold 'disappointment' bubble ever since. Hmmm, sexual apathy? That could be worth big bucks when I sue, right?

4. However! A "rich, elaborate and exclusively internal fantasy world" - Big Time!

I painfully go over each and every missed opportunity Obama could have/should have taken...like what if he just stood up for single payer and had to settle for the public option? What if he hadn't met with Big Pharma and cozied up to insurance companies? What if he had listened to Paul Volker instead of those Wall St. sycophants, Geithner and Summers? How the hell did he deserve the Peace Prize? I spent a lot of time on that...kind of looking for a lost penny in the sand. The Nobel committee must have been star struck. What if he had prosecuted just a few of his criminal banking friends and aggressively regulated derivatives? I fantasize about how $16 million buys 'friendship' - the amount Obama has taken from Wall St. thugs. Sometimes I go way back to fantasize about why Obama increased Iraq war funding when he always said he was against the war. The number of 'whys' are legion and the gnawing at my psyche is sending me over the edge. But the biggest fantasy of all, (insert violins and angels singing) I'm sure shared by millions, is the heavenly fantasy of Obama kicking-ass in his second term. Possible? Probable? Time will tell but No Guts No Glory, Mr. President. I'm all over the place with this but you can see how I might be schizoid.

Moving right along to schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia ( /ˌskɪtsɵˈfrɛniə/ or /ˌskɪtsɵˈfriːniə/) is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness.^[1] It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction.

I hope to god this isn't where I'm headed but it may be too late as Obama keeps piling on with Bushian alacrity. What's up with these 'free trade' deals? But wait! That 'disorganized speech and thinking' symptom...doesn't it make you think of the kooks running for the Republican nomination not to mention those muddled-headed bigots called the Tea Party? They are giving schizophrenia quite the bad name.

My most disturbing burden, though, is philosophical, what I call 'The Dilemma'. The Dilemma is not whether to vote for a Republican instead of Obama; The Dilemma is how badly am I compromising my shabby morals to vote for someone who betrayed me? I am so troubled by The Dilemma that I reached out to my son to help me. He's got a PhD in philosophy so I begged him to find a philosopher for me who can assuage my disquieted soul, someone who will tell me how disgustingly human I am by spinning excuses to vote for O. Obama is like a bad boyfriend who seduces you with a flashy smile (oh, wasn't he adorable?!), whispers meringues of sweet nothings (which it turns out they were...nothing), a hot bod (remember that pic in Hawaii?) and promises you the world with the "C" word, "We will Change the world." (Obama at the Pennsylvania Capitol, Saturday, April 19, 2008) This guy was different. So I happily, dreamily got in the symbolic bed - the voting booth - with him (no sexual apathy here!) And then he dumped me. Just. Like. That. On day one. How dare he have Rick Warren give the invocation at his inauguration?

You can see how badly I need therapy. Maybe you do, too? So, I'm going to sue the President, the White House, the entire administration and his ass-wipe advisors for malfeasance, for taking a gigantic mandate - from middle-class Democrats, progressives, Republicans, blacks, Latinos, women, people who had never felt moved to vote before who registered and voted...students, young people, old people, if dogs could've voted they would have...everyone came out to vote. It was the biggest party, the most positive, charged, electric global, hopeful atmosphere. People were joyful, elated that they rode this prophet, of Hope and Change, to victory on their shoulders, happy to carry this man, this harbinger of better days, after their months and months of hard work and devotion, and love - to victory. To a victory that was squandered by inexperience, arrogance and Obama's weakest link, a pathological need to be liked. As Eric Alterman writes in the Nation Magazine, "Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf has complained of Obama—accurately, in my view—that he “wishes to be President of a country that does not exist. In his fantasy, US politicians bury differences in bipartisan harmony.”" As smart as people says Obama is, he doesn't seem able to pick up the cues of defeat. Or is it pride, the worst sin of all? Are we going to hell in a hand basket because of a prideful President who believes his early reviews?

And here's exactly how schizoid I am. My last post was about forgetting all of this angst and getting on with it...just work your ass off to get O re-elected: http://contrarianbitch.blogspot.com/2011/08/obama-time-to-compartmentalize.html We don't have a choice. And because that choice is so limited, because it compromises my already beleaguered morals, my torment rages on. What to do? What to do?

Say, is your finger also on the dial to your therapist? Are you feeling schizoid, too? Maybe we could join up to file a middle-class-action lawsuit. I did consider raising money for therapy on Kickstarter but I couldn't figure out what I would give for someone's donation...old Obama posters? I have a ton of them, some even signed. No, I'm going direct to the source. He owes me.

My song for Obama:

Baby baby
Baby, don't leave me
Oh, please don't leave me
All by myself
I've got this burnin', burnin', yearnin'
Feelin' inside me
Ooh, deep inside me
And it hurts so bad
You came into my heart (baby baby)
So tenderly
With a burnin' love (baby baby)
That stings like a bee (baby baby)
Now that I surrender (baby baby)
So helplessly,
You now wanna leave (baby baby)
Ooh, you wanna leave me (baby baby)
Ooh, baby baby baby,
Where did our love go?
Oh, don't you want me? (baby baby)
Don't you want me no more? (baby baby)
Ooh, baby
Baby baby,
Where did our love go?
And all your promises (baby baby)
Of a love forever more? (baby baby)
I've got this burnin', burnin', yearnin'
Feelin' inside me
Ooh, deep inside me (baby baby)
And it hurts so bad (baby baby)
Before you won my heart, (baby baby)
You were a perfect guy
But now that you got me, (baby baby)
You wanna leave me behind (baby baby)
Ooh, baby baby baby,
Baby, don't leave me
Oh, please don't leave me (baby baby)
All by myself (baby baby)

Obama Re-election: Time to Compartmentalize

2011-08-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've had this title languishing on my blog for weeks: "Obama: Buyer's Remorse...but..." and now "buyers remorse" is everywhere from Bill Maher to Joan Walsh to Miss Piggy. I waited too long to be the clever one. Oh well. In any case, they certainly popularized it way better than I could have so I have to go with something else. Here is my original thought anyway: As miserable and disappointed as I am with Obama's leadership, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to put aside all expert opinions, brilliant psychological analyses, psychic prognostications, the gray hair count, the disgust, and, ok, the buyers remorse and Compartmentalize! Everyone who's ever been in therapy, or into actual survival, knows this much about compartmentalizing: "This process is performed in an attempt to simplify things, and to defend against anxiety." Get it? We are shifting gears, people. I am proposing ALL of us do this...put all those negative, pissed-off thoughts to bed in a corner of your hippocampus - you can trot them out after the 2012 election. In case you're wondering if I've gone off the reservation, no, I haven't. I'm an angry progressive...and a pragmatic one...just like Obama calculated.

Now, it is time to be our most dysfunctional selves and pretend like it's 2008. Well, almost. It's kind of like masturbating...just try your hardest to conjure the memories of the energy and adoration, the fantasy bubbles of hope and change, the hotness of the candidate himself, to fire you up and get out there to volunteer to re-elect Barack Obama President of the USA. "The American People" (you know who you are), we HAVE to get this done - to work work work to push back the vile Taliban Tea Party and servile, ass-kissing Republicans from ever getting near the White House. No matter what you think. That Republicans have an assortment of Marat-Sade escapees for candidates, DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED.

GOTV, "get out the vote" as it is popularly known among us volunteer cognoscenti, will be critical to winning this election. No issues, no polls (don't listen to them except maybe Nate Silver), no trash talk should deter us from #1: registering voters, and that means not only new voters, but people who have moved, been in prison, changed their names or political affiliation - they need to be registered or re-registered, as the case may be. Then, it's knock on doors time. There is nothing more meaningful than speaking to people in real life, and that's the GOTV part. No, Facebook is not "communicating" - you have to have your feet on terra firma and talk the talk and walk the blocks.

This is not a polemic about Barack Obama. Remember American People, we are compartmentalizing, we are focused. OMMMMMM. We are NOT, I repeat NOT, considering a Hillary, Barney, Russ, Andrew or anyone else to run against Obama. That is silly and non-productive. Get out your 2008 campaign gear, stare at your HOPE poster, pin on your iconic Shepard Fairey buttons and hook up with your local volunteer group to help get this campaign going. Do we have a choice? No. I mentioned this in a post 55 days into O's administration, that he would take us for granted because he already understood that he was the only game in town for liberals and progressives. No matter. History will deal with him. Of course, there's always the fantasy of him getting it right in his second term but that's jumping ahead. The game is ON. Now.

But wait! We have double duty this time. We MUST take back Congress. Dicks though they be, we must also work to re-elect incumbents and elect Democratic newbies. Yes, the system is rigged. Hold your nose and Just Do It.

Obama Reelection Campaign Off To A Smug Start

2011-06-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

True to this blog's name, I will herewith give you my take on OFA's vainglorious kickoff reelection campaign event.

AS you may know, I am a proud progressive, beholden to no political party - a political atheist - and one who volunteered her ass off for Obama from the day he announced to the day he won the election. From the day of his inauguration - when he had Rick Warren give the invocation against all pleas from the LGBT community and signaled that he was already pandering to the right - til today, Obama has been a classic enigma wrapped in a mystery as one who seems so disdainful of the base that was critical to getting him elected - progressives. Why? I do not know. And now that attitude has seeped into OFA's approach to the reelection campaign. At least from my perch.

Resigned to making sure the Taliban Tea Party doesn't impose their crazy sharia-like dogma on us and have us all return our college degrees, I am picking myself up, brushing myself off and volunteering for O's reelection. As per an earlier post, very early, like 55 days after his inauguration, it became clear that Obama didn't feel he had to appease the left because there was no place else for us to go: http://bit.ly/fLj5m1. His calculation is correct but...

So, I went to the first OFA meeting for the reelection wanting to check in and see how they were going to play this, this time around. About 20 showed up...hey, it's early, very early...and the leader led off with a powerpoint of Obama's accomplishments called, Promises Kept (reeking of a subliminal way to reach out to the right, to Promise Keepers?) listed stuff under Rebuilding Our Economy, Historic Healthcare Reform, National Security, Education and Civil Rights. I wanted to blue pencil all of them. Glaringly missing Global Warming/Climate Change.

This was beginning to feel like a propaganda machine as our leader raised the pitch and tone of her rhetoric and picked up steam. She touted Obama's record and excoriated those who didn't buy it telling us that people she had encountered were "out of their minds" "not into reality" "living a fantasy" if they said "he hasn't done anything" or didn't agree with the party line. She was entirely dismissive of anyone who disagreed with "the list of accomplishments" "after all, he's only been in office for 18 months" and so on. Now is that any way to embrace the disaffected? I felt my very measured enthusiasm going pfffft like an overblown balloon.

So, then after being berated for being a progressive, another OFA guy gets up and, again, goes on about Promises Kept...are you getting the feeling this is an indoctrination rather than a welcoming? Anyway, he just sounded smug. But the kicker was the repeated refrain from both these OFAers that - and this was repeated so often it must have been a talking point and a tactic as a way to ameliorate the left - "he's not perfect, no one's perfect". What?! Do you really want to remind everyone that Obama is not perfect? This line definitely doesn't move the needle on my empathy meter. I can't believe they are going to continue with this. Someone call Jim Messina and run this by him.

But back to Obama's calculation that progressives have no place else to go, that they will show up at the polls and vote for him because the alternative is so frightening. Is that how you want to win, Mr. President? Because you're the only option? I thought you were president of ALL America. What happened to Progressive America? Diminished enthusiasm begets apathy, and if OFA is counting on everyone from the last election to jump on board, well, there's campaign fatigue, frustration with wimpy Democrats and disappointment with the administration to distract us so they're going to have to dangle some pretty delicious carrots to get us to volunteer - and vote - again. Oh, that I could believe my own fairy tale that Obama is reserving his fire for his second term when he'll get it done for all Americans...wooohooo, Mr. Red State/Blue State President...we're over here on the left!

“a woman walks into a bar…” at El Chubasco, Echo Park

2011-06-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

“a woman walks into a bar…” at El Chubasco, Echo Park

Thank you, Donald Trump. And It Pains Me To Even Write His Name

2011-04-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

The clear race baiting, the buffoonery of a reprehensible clown - I'm waiting for someone to rush up and mess up that cotton candy comb-over - has achieved one positive thing: he has single-handedly galvanized President Obama's base. There is no turning back. The only way to defeat this ugliness is to work for a gigantic landslide victory for Obama's second term. I've always believed he would be a two-term President, and for anyone who knows me, knows the limitations of my admiration of his policies - but, that said, this is not a policy issue. This is way bigger than that. This is about our humanity, the core of what separates us from...who? aliens? animals? Do animals discriminate on the basis of race? Fur? Leave it to the supposedly highest form of life, humans, to want to destroy one another for some incomprehensible ideal.

We cannot abide the open racism of the right, its fearless expression protected by politicians who validate that racism by not out-rightly repudiating it because they need those Taliban Tea Party votes, after-all, to support their whacked out agendas.

What Trump has managed to achieve, that I'm not sure even David Axelrod and Jim Messina could do, is to have shocked the base to the point of re-energizing them to work hard for Obama's re-election. And that's no small feat given the discontent over a multitude of issues. Trump has trumped the inertia, the disappointment, the discontent with Obama's performance. There is only one issue we can agree on now and that's WINNING! (Thanks Charlie!)

The more the Right sustains its ill-disguised racism, the more the base will coalesce. It's a horrible reason to come together but come together we will. Winning will be the best revenge.

Tea Party Taliban Imposing Sharia-like Law

2011-04-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

With the imminent shutdown of the government by the Teabaggers - make no mistake, they are the ones whose intractability is pushing this country to the brink - they are beginning to look a lot like a cult enacting their own type of Sharia law by imposing their repressive and regressive moral code onto all of us 'non-believers'. NO health screenings for women, NO sex education in school, NO abortion counseling or abortion funding NO matter how you got pregnant, NO arts funding, "Waste of money!", NO learning to read, write or 'rithmetic, "Cut education funding. Now!" It's the uneducated hating to learn anything because it might upset their vacuous core 'values'. And god forbid anyone else should read a book and find out that the Philistine Teabaggers are all full of shit. NO climate change. NO birth certificate. NO government. NONONONONO.

So, the Tea Party is taking a page out of the Al Qaeda handbook. For al-Qaeda, Sharia represents a perfect system for ordering human affairs. And for the Taliban Tea Party, that is exactly how they want the system to be: no room for diversity of thought, a strict adherence to their commandments or punishment by slow asphyxiation of the mind by depriving one of books, classrooms and learning. They want a country devoid of creative thinking, going down the slippery slope to next banning hip hop, all languages but bad English, and just shooting immigrants on site.

Wikipedia calls the Tea party an American populist party and goes on to describe Populism, as a political philosophy urging social and political system change that favors "the people" over "the elites", or favors the common people over the rich and wealthy business owners. Read that, per the Tea Party, as deriding anything that can help “the people” like crushing collective bargaining (I wonder if they know about the Triangle Fire and other apocalyptic worker tragedies and child labor that would still be going on today if it weren’t for collective bargaining aka unions.) And read that as the Tea Party turning the other cheek with regard to obscene corporations, “the elites” (the Kochs), making out like Jesse James in Vegas. As usual, they have everything ass-backwards.

Here’s their mission from their website: “A community committed to standing together, shoulder to shoulder, to protect our country and the Constitution upon which we were founded!” Yes! With an exclamation mark 'n all! It’s like somebody in grade two wrote it. Or the Republican caucus. Meaningless drivel, and yet the political muscle of their miniscule minions is stupefying.

Obama Window Just Closed. Where's Bulworth?

2010-11-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

Mid-term elections 2010 are finally fucking over. There has got to be a better way to touch voters other than interrupt them 15 times a day with phone calls, robo or otherwise. If I weren't such a 'voterphile', I might have slammed the phone, pulled the plug and said the hell with all of yous. There has to be some sort of technology that indicates a phone number has been called before, like a million times. And it would certainly be helpful to know how many times a number has been called in one’s own campaign. This is software just waiting for an algorithm. Someone get busy before the next onslaught of phone calls that's just around the corner.

Ah yes, the presidential campaign starts now, and we are about to endure hours of pundit prognostications, ruminations and colossally boring chit chat about whether Sarah Palin is going to run, can she actually speak in sentences, hours and hours of microscopic dissection of the Tea Party, watch Christine O'Donnell rise from the cauldron of ignorance to reality show freak, and on and on. But, this isn't going to be as bad as watching the Democratic party flounder like a fish on a Republican hook or as bad as watching President Obama being played by the Republicans like a cat batting around a mouse giving it momentary hope that it's life will be saved only to have it gobbled and spit out like a tasty snack.

That's what it's come to since Obama has squandered his window of opportunity to actually govern with the spine of a leader who could see that 'compromise' with the opposition wasn't going anywhere. Obama, who projected his persona to be the avatar as political savior, the man who was going to take the Washington bulls by the balls and change things up like he was supposed to. He went to Washington and did things old school. He never manned up. And now that precious window of opportunity to get things done is down the toilet.

Oh, I can hear the defenders repeat that old saw of theirs that Obama was never what we progressives thought he was. They say we projected onto him what we wanted to see. Well, my friends, that's not exactly true. You see, Obama was hoisted to victory on the backs of progressives who supported him early on, and Mr. Obama never said to progressives, "Look, I appreciate your support but I just want you to know that's not who I am. I'm a squishy moderate who will capitulate to Republican bullying...just so you know." He never said, “Thank you” either. Instead, he took progressives for granted and wouldn’t even talk to them until his recent summit with progressive bloggers. Seriously. The defenders will say it's all in his books, and we should have known better. That we were hoping for miracles. Well, yes we were. But no we weren't. We were going with a guy who let us think he was a leader. Yeah, I know the other old saw about how campaigning is different from governing. So what.

And how about those much sought after independents who also believed that Obama would bring some brio to the White House. While independents may have voted to repudiate the Republicans, they also believed in the change Obama promised so relentlessly, that it would be different from the last eight years of unintelligent design by the ignorant enforcers. And now where are they? Driven back to the other side by an unfulfilled vision of what might have been. Yes, independents are notoriously fickle, but you have to give people some love to keep them interested. They didn't get any and neither did progressives. When your base doesn't think you love them, they're gone, onto the next cute boy or girl with pie-in-the-sky possibilities.

Now, more gridlock and Republican bullying, and any chance that any kind of progressive change will happen is as remote as John Boehner becoming a Democrat. And by progressive, I simply mean 'moving forward'.

My hope is that Obama will use his veto power to at least keep the conservative agenda in check. However, according to the following definition, we could be fucked on that score, too, with the Republican majority in Congress: A presidential veto is the rejection of a bill passed by the majority votes of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. While Congress can vote to override a presidential veto, causing the bill to become law without the president's approvals, this is rarely done. (Ha, ha, suuuure. We'll see.) More often than not, the threat of presidential veto is sufficient motivation for Congress to modify the bill prior to its passage. (Republicans laughing)

Yes, in conclusion, I put this mid-term debacle squarely on Obama's shoulders. He said so himself. And I certainly don't think we wouldn't have lost seats, but if there had been any enthusiasm for how Obama was doing, then his base would have shown him some love and done anything to go out and vote. But disappointment prevailed and that was not to be.

Where's our Bulworth?

For Geezuz Kris Sake...the news of the day according to the Huffington Post for example

2010-10-07T23:53:00.000-07:00

Apologize for format...couldn't fix it...looking for other blog channel. thnx

Senate: U.S. Afghan Bases Employ Guards Tied To Taliban This is so laughable that it doesn't merit comment. Wait...no, "Where was HR?"

Lawyer ARRESTED For Staying Silent During Pledge Of Allegiance shit, I should be in solitary confinement

Fed's $2 Trillion May Buy Few Jobs Fuck, yer kidding, right??

Despite Bashing 'Obamacare' As Unconstitutional, Joe Miller Admits He Got Government Health Care What an asshole.

KNEE JERKS Isn't it amazing that all these so-called smart people are appointed to head these agencies? Makes me sympathetic to Tea Partiers who hate the fucking government...they got that part right.

Facebook Cofounders: Legalize it Right on, man.

Top Senate Dem: Halt Foreclosures Did that just occur to you?

Fed's $2 Trillion May Buy Few Jobs Show me the money? Who gotten the fucking money? Not me. Not my poor slob neighbor who's just about to lose his home cause he doesn't have a shitty job.

Anderson Cooper Takes On Vince Vaughn Movie's Use Of 'So Gay' (VIDEO) If Anderson Cooper is so offended by the use of 'gay' then why doesn't he fucking come out? He's adorable but he's a fucking coward. What an asshole.

Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist Leader, On Yoga: Not Christianity HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaH. What an asshole.

National Christian Group Pulls Support For Anti-Gay Event, Calls For 'Tolerance' That's cause half the organization sucks cock and calls it 'abstinence' and calls it 'tolerance'. Shit.

Obama: Election Groups 'That Receive Foreign Money' Are A 'Threat To Our Democracy' Shit, China practically owns us. We'd be up shit's creek if 'ferinners' didn't invest in this country. What the hell's he talkin' about?

Christina Hendricks Sounds Off On Cathy Horyn's 'Big Girl' Dig Awwww, Christina's 'feelings were hurt' because she wore some big ass dress that the fashionistas who, btw, would never qualify for the red fucking carpet cause they're too bloody awful, and this qualifies as news. Waaaaaaaaaaa. Is this important to some people?

Bristol Palin Hasn't Lost Weight On 'Dancing With The Stars' Aaaaaaaargh.

PHOTOS: Hundreds Of Incredible New Species Discovered What? THIRD PARTIES EMERGE. Buh bye Tea Party. Well, you weren't even a party, really.

Vanity Fair On The 'Real' McCain: 'A Ruthless And Self-Centered Survivor' What an asshole. If ever anyone qualifies for 'asshole of the century', McCain is it. Forget all the POW shit and Mavericky stuff...the man is a charlatan. Thassit.

Karen Owen's Duke Sex-Rating PowerPoint Goes Viral (VIDEO) Oh, Hurray! Finally, a worthy story. Some puerile jealous female wrote: "...the overall glorification of Karen Owen's PowerPoint and the implied sentiment that it was an act of sexual liberation equates "shattering the glass ceiling" with humiliating members of the opposite sex. Why should we congratulate Karen Owen for subjecting men to the objectification, embarrassment and harassment that women have fought against for years." Whaaaat?? You're against this, WHY??? What an asshole. Oh I forgot she dissed a dude for being CANADIAN! What a jerkess.

And, that's it for the news this day Thursday, October 7, 2010...almost Friday, October 8 and more asinine news stories. TTFN (ta ta for now)...

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Presidency SAVED!

2010-03-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

This morning President Obama signed what is being called the Health Care Reform bill. Phew. But what I'm feeling is exactly what Dennis Kucinich wrote, in an article in Esquire, about his decision to support the bill. Happy that it passed, because if it didn't, Obama's presidency would have been dealt a severe/death blow and this was an historical moment after 100 years of trying to do something about health care reform. As much as I am at odds with many of the administration's policies, I certainly don't want it paralyzed for the next three years. Too bad the reason for supporting it, though, is "think of the alternative". All you have to do is hear one minute of the loonie right and braindead Republicans to feel grateful we have a Democratic President and Democratic MAJORITY in office.

So, just to be clear, this bill that was painstakingly signed today, after a tortuous year of smoke and mirrors, is not a health care reform bill by any stretch of the imagination. As Nalini Chilkov wrote this morning, "Let's Be Honest: Health Insurance Reform is Health Care Reform". While the Republicans ponder how to repeal the bill and support, in their silence, their nefarious disgusting shout outs, racial and homophobic slurs in the hope that their negative strategy will stir Americans' family values, as they puzzlingly crawl their way to taking what they believe is the high road (which they self-righteously believe they're on), Democrats all over the nation should now be working hard to get single payer systems in their home states. Single payer is the only way to reduce costs, cover everyone and get rid of the insurance companies once and for all. Learn about single payer here: California One Care has a comprehensive strategy for getting single payer in California. And, as we know, as California goes, so goes the rest of the world!

There is much work to do to fix the bill that just passed. Ahead are contentious years of trying to fix this bill to get it to where single payer already is. So much wasted energy bobbing and weaving lobbyists, making backroom deals, tense confrontations with opponents when all of that same energy could be put toward creating a viable single payer system instead of creating mystifying bandaid solutions along the way.

Oh, it would be ever so nice if OFA decided to put its millions of grassroots troops and organizers behind single payer (I sound like a broken record and will continue to do so) and make a real contribution to President Obama's agenda. After all, Obama did say that single payer was the only way to go...once the Dems took back the White House, took back the Senate, took back the House. And Voila! We have done all of that...and now we have a bill that slightly regulates insurance companies and does nothing for health care, preventative or otherwise. What a victory.

Get to work! Please.

UPDATE: I just got a text from President Obama - bet you did, too - calling this bill a Health Insurance Reform bill confirming my post.

State of Obama

2010-01-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

So I watched the State of the Union, and it felt like I was watching a campaign speech. Sadly, I find it hard to put much stock in anything Obama says...I want to see action. Trying the bipartisanship tact again was a joke except that it might have made the Repubs laff uncomfortably for a second.

A big thing I wish Obama would do is look straight ahead when speaking to the people. I understand the whole tele-prompter thingy but, for god's sake, look us straight in the eye. He did it for about 2 seconds toward the end of the speech but other than that it was left right left right all night long. It would have been so much more effective if he actually talked to 'us'. He did it in the 2004 speech and look what happened! As for any proposals, time will tell. Still waiting for some cajones. Progressive cajones. Yawn.

The Palin Effect

2010-01-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

Oh my, this old quote keeps rearing its ugly head: "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory"...it's almost a mantra for Democrats. And now, the gnashing of teeth and wailing by people "shocked" that Scott Brown beat Martha Coakley, and coming up with every possible scenario about why the election went the way it did. One of the most puzzling blame games is pointing the finger at progressives for party infighting and bickering...and this by an Obama supporter: "...I blame it on liberals bashing Obama and the Dems constantly. Nice going guys. When will we ever learn? When you WIN you don't criticize your leader..." Huh? Hard to even deconstruct that or figure out how it even applies to Massachusetts. Are we all just supposed to march in step once the revered leader is elected? In fact, if Obama had listened to progressives, and not to the voices in his head imploring him to kowtow to the 'right', to Wall Street, to big PhARMA, to Tim Geithner & Larry Summers, for a start, perhaps people wouldn't be so pissed off because they didn't get the ballsy change they voted for...and that includes the much heralded Independents and Decline to State(ers) (me) who voted for Obama.

Here's the thing: Independents and Decline to State voters knew exactly what they were voting for when they voted for Obama...for the carrot that he dangled, and never refuted, that promised CHANGE - change in the way politics is done in Washington. We understood what that 'change' meant, or thought we did. It meant grappling with the Bush legacy that he dumped on us, and hey - to take a page from the Bush playbook - take the bull by the horns and get stuff DONE. But, you know what? Come to think of it, the only change I wanted were policy changes...I'm now down with the way Bush rammed his agenda through Congress. Since Obama has kept many of Bushes policies in place, why can't he just govern like him - except for progressive policy change? Once again, I refer to my post that I wrote 55 days into the administration: Note to Obama: Govern Like You're a One Term President THAT's what people are angry about, not that they want MORE compromise with a move to the center. They want real, visceral change…one that you can almost hold in your hand and say, “See this? Last year, people in the military couldn’t be their honest selves. Now, after the CHANGE, people can be their honest selves out in the open and not get discharged.” Or, “On this hand, last year, banks wouldn’t give people the time of day. This year’s CHANGE, banks are helping people out with their mortgages, giving small business loans, waiving unfair banking fees, and more people are actually banking again.” And one more. Scene One. People yelling happily in the street: “I’ve got a JOB!” That would be real change.

Anyway, so, along comes a good looking guy, in the now famous truck, glad-handing and gettin' down with the people. Hmmmm, sounds like a winning formula...kind of like Sarah Palin...a good looking dame who connected with the people. First thing, if either of these folks had looked like Quasimodo, they wouldn't be where they are today. Oh come on, yes, it's superficial, but it's true. And the folksy approach obviously connects with voters who feel so disenfranchised that they hunger for a little attention from someone, anyone that they think might listen to their woes. What is interesting about this strategy is that it is now the Republicans who have co-opted the populist approach, and it’s the Democrats who are now looked at as the elite, friends of bankers and Wall Street (thank you, Obama) that used to be symbolized by the Republicans. Oh my. Things have indeed changed…just not the way we wanted.

Last bit: I hope Obama invites Scott Brown over for beer and maybe a game of basketball. Make friends with him. Invite the family too and have Ayala sing for the girls. Diffuse the potential animus. “Obama, pal around with Scott. Go for a ride in the truck, loosen up. That's the kind of bipartisanship we Independents will understand.” And so will the PR machine.

What does the health insurance industrial complex have on Obama?

2009-12-17T18:16:00.001-08:00

In lieu of an extended post that I have been preparing regarding Obama supporters - apologists vs. critics - the point seems moot as I am not sure that even the apologists support what is happening with the healthcare bill. Believe me, you can be sure the critics don't feel any joy over the way this has gone down either.

Forget licentious Lieberman and his band of amoral cohorts of both parties; Obama has abandoned all opportunities, from the very beginning, for meaningful leadership on healthcare. The insurance lobby must have some very useful information about the President, or someone in his family, that would make him kiss their asses the way he has...right from the get-go when he made the deal with big PhRMA. Remember his support of single payer when he was a State Senator in Illionois? That was oh so long ago in the Pleistocene Age of politics, right? What happened between then and now?

Obama has chosen to stand on the sidelines while the battle for a decent bill rages on. Why? There has to be a reason. Listening to malignant influencer, Rahm Emanuel, isn't reason enough for Obama to desert his authority. Someone, somewhere knows something he doesn't want us to know. There is simply no other explanation as to why he conceded this whole debate to the health insurance industry. The secret must be a doozy. If it isn't that, please let me know what else it could be. I'm listening. (Please, no tortured explanations of how hard it is lead or what a mess he's had to deal with...)

Afghanistan Weather Report: Cloudy with a Chance of Bombs

2009-12-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

Obama's speech was just so sad - from the invocation of 9/11, to the recitation of wishy washy reasons for justifying his decision, to the circling back to 9/11 at the end of the speech to wrap up the unwanted gift of a continuing war to the American public - well, it was beyond disappointing. To use 9/11 as justification for this escalation, aside from taunting us with echoes of Bush, was intellectually weak and sounded as though he were in some fantasy world about how this new escalation would transform Afghanistan into an embryonic Disneystan...in just 18 months! As I watched the cadets, some so young they still had pimples, I grieved to think that some of those sitting there would be going off to war and never come back. A war for what? The trope is 'national security', but it rings so hollow, except for those generals who get to keep their jobs and keep the military complex employed. Nevermind that 15,700,000 citizens in the United States are unemployed, and 26,950,000 Americans looking for full time jobs.

I don't care how many times they role-played in the war room and in Obama's planning sessions about this escalation, the actual outcome is always elusive...never one that's anticipated. But with this political strategy, at least Obama will get to say he tried and then we can leave. BUT WAIT. THERE'S MORE. We're not leaving. Today Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, testified before Congress that "we are not locked into the timetable", so who's to say that we couldn't be there for 50 more years...just like Korea. And Independent nightmare, Joe Lieberman, patted the President on the back for bucking his own party and siding with the warhorses...well, that's just sick. Obama must be feeling proud about that feint praise. Where is Obama's courage to buck the likes of General McChrystal and his posse, and corrupt contractors drooling for some of that $30 billion that should be staying here, at home, to repair this crippled economy?

Ok, enough about how depressing this is...here's the solution to take back control of our wayward child's misguided ways. Time for some tough love. Since funding for the war needs to be authorized by Congress, we have to work on our representatives to simply NOT FUND THE WAR. I can already hear the chorus of "how can we not support our troops"? Well, what could be more supportive than not funding them so that they can come home. That would be the most patriotic thing to do. We cannot let the war be funded. If ever there was a time for the grassroots to get busy, this is it.

Happy Anniversary. Where’s the Barack Obama we worked our asses off for?

2009-11-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Everybody’s weighing in with a report card on President Obama’s first semester, and, so far, it seems, it’s with a great deal of skeptism. First, let’s put the obvious to rest right away that things would be mighty different if we had elected the geezer and the nitwit. But we didn’t. We worked our asses off for someone who emerged out of the vast political wasteland, like an apparition striding out of the fog of a Republican radioactive cloud, that threatened to strangle us all. Barack Obama was our Clark Kent, human and supernatural, accessible and audacious. Hope and Change weren’t just words to us, but became real tangible goals that, with his election, would finally put our nation back on track.

Is it too soon to use the word ‘disappointment’? Let’s just talk healthcare here. What’s with Obama’s fealty to insurance companies and big Pharma that he is letting them, aside form Olympia Snowe, dictate the terms of health insurance? He has been so careful to parse his "support of a public option", but didn't we all learn, long ago, that actions speak louder than words? Obama has done nothing but set up road blocks to a public option. Here's a good look at the history of healthcare, White House style. Even wussy Harry Reid is taking a stand on including a public option, with a state opt out clause in the bill. What's wrong with that? Where's Waldo aka Obama?

As I’ve said ad nauseum, I'm for single payer, but, at this point, we must fight for a public option. And, since the majority of citizens are for a public option, would it be possible to sue, on a constitutional basis, to get what we want? Anyone know a good constitutional lawyer willing to check it out?

Why isn't Obama out front talking up a strong public option? His behavior seems to be a flagrant disregard for the peoples' will, as he has chosen to watch healthcare get decimated from the cheap seats. To preserve what? His cozy relationship with corporate collaborators? Again, I’ll call him out, again and again, to govern like he’s a one term president.

And, while I'm at it, did you see Obama's speech that he gave the day, October 20th, when OFA supporters made over 300,000 calls in support of his health plan - which, by the way, had NO MENTION of a public option in the script. To me, he was as angry as I've ever seen him, listing all of his accomplishments, so far, as though his ass should be kissed for doing what he's supposed to do. What political narcissism!

Ok, I hear how over the top some of you think this is, and how unseemly it is to call out our President this way. Hey, baby, if you wanna rule Chicago style, then we can play that game. Here's my fantasy: That grassroots supporters be the 'parent' and dole out some tough love to save our wayward 'Obama'. For OFA (Organizing for America) to get some balls, forget the DNC and start to put real pressure on Obama to get back on course...on all issues.

Where's the disconnect?

Are the skeptics about Obama's inexperience proving correct? Is his desire for consensus, bipartisanship, need to be liked his weakest link? Does the combination of his inexperience and that deep-seated inner need for acceptance make him an ineffective leader? Aside from the man himself as a transformative figure, were his speeches and charisma the apex of his ability? Obama's a quick study, but will he be able to overcome his need for love to take the bull by the horns and govern like he's a one-term president?

So, here's the biggest bluff of all. Obama, smart as a whip, knows that he can do, politically, whatever the hell he wants because he will be the nominee in 2012. And, he knows that everyone who supported him in the last election, will again work their asses off to make sure he's reelected for a second term because there's no chance in hell that we would allow a Republican neanderthal to be elected and take us back to the Dark Ages. Aaaah, do you feel like you're being taken for granted? Obama understands that he can sail through to 2012, and still be a corporate shill without paying the price. I haven't even touched on his economic team and Afghanistan. Am I angry? You betcha.

Contrarian Bitch/ing: From Naïve to Nobel

2009-10-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

Contrarian Bitch/ing: From Naïve to Nobel

From Naïve to Nobel

2009-10-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

What a trip! Now that a few days have passed since Obama became a Nobel laureate, thoughts and opinions have settled in: the right wing kookoonuts are in their groove, proving themselves once again to truly be unpatriotic and anti-Obama-American, lambasting the Nobel committee's choice as mindless and degrading; the Progressives are congratulatory with the caveat to, “Now become a real Peace President.” I couldn’t agree more, and I hope Obama lives up to the Nobel’s aspirations of his diplomatic policies.

Remember, during one of the debates, when Hillary called Obama "naïve" for wanting to sit down to talks with Iran? Wonder what she's thinking now? I watched that debate with my group of dear fellow grassroots volunteers - we call ourselves Obamawood - and we watched every debate, primary, speech and big news event together, bonding and gathering energy to keep on working for the election of someone we thought, no, we believed, would change the way business was done in the White House. That moment when Hillary called Obama "naïve"...I remember our outrage and disbelief. How dare she? She was the one who was naïve we shouted, not Obama, who finally expressed the way we believed diplomacy should be conducted. Hillary, in that moment, made us feel that nothing would change if she were elected, that America would continue to estrange our former allies with her isolating and strong arm diplomatic tactics. It just re-enforced the belief that a President Obama would reclaim America’s moral compass and reputation in the world. And, we were right as the Nobel committee cited Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. THIS is what the grassroots movement saw in Obama, among other things, and it is wonderful to have those efforts validated, in this way, for the people who worked so incredibly hard to elect him. BUT.

Neurotic Nation

This symbol, the yin and the yang, represents everything about Barack Obama, from his mixed heritage to his being a President at war(s) and yet being honored with a peace prize, to always trying to find the ultimately unpopular middle road, to stirring yin and yang feelings in his supporters that revere him while being mad and frustrated with him. We are in a constant state of neurosis over him: “He’s not moving fast enough, but wait, he’s only been in office 8 ½ months and we need to give him a chance.” “He was elected to take bold steps and has a majority, so why isn’t he making any bold moves?” “He said, when he was a State Senator in 2003 that he was for single payer, so why did he make a deal with Big PhRMA over drug prices (and more) and is wavering on a public option when the majority of people, including doctors and nurses, are for it?” “Why is he staying in Afghanistan? Iraq? Where’s the responsible exit strategy?” And so on. Where’s the courage to take the audacious positions that will really effect change? Yeah, I know…back off, give him space, give him time. Even Michael Moore wrote to get off Obama’s back. Sorry. No. Now is the time to keep the pressure on, now is the time to let this President know that he cannot, and should not, try and please everyone, for as it's been said, you end up pleasing no one. Please Mr. President, you have transcended so many mores, so many obstacles, that I reiterate my earlier post to govern like you’re a one term President.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.htmlover drug prices and is wavering on a public option when the majority of people, including doctors and nurses, are for it?” “Why is he staying in Afghanistan? Iraq? Where’s the responsible exit strategy?” And so on. Where’s the courage to take the audacious positions that will really effect change? Yeah, I know…back off, give him space, give him time. Even Michael Moore wrote to get off Obama’s back. Sorry. No. Now is the time to keep the pressure on, now is the time to let this President know that he cannot, and should not, try and please everyone, for as it's been said, you end up pleasing no one. Please Mr. President, you have transcended so many mores, so many obstacles, that I reiterate my earlier post to govern like you’re a one term President.

Back to Hillary

I just want to go back to Hillary for a moment because she announced that she will not run for President after Obama’s term. Interesting timing. She can’t be thinking that she was 'passed over' for the Nobel, but the thought must have occurred to her that, she - the woman who has put in years and years of political toil, blood, sweat and tears - has to watch, once again, as Barack Obama, upstart and President, with merely 8 ½ months in office, manages to clinch the esteemed and noble Nobel Peace prize, without even trying. Poor Hillary. She has won lots of awards, like, she was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame and is the 36th most powerful woman in the world according to Forbes. But this must rankle in some way. Barack Obama, the Mohammed Ali of Presidents, just seems to float like a butterfly and this must sting like a bee. I can’t imagine what morning coffee must have been like with Bill (if he was in town) because he hasn't won either…the Clintons, the ultimate power couple, being passed over for the new, hot kid in town.

And so it goes, the never ending merry-go-round of distortions, contortions, money and politics. Soooo much money being spent buying our Congress. How can it be that the people who elect those frauds and criminals have so little influence with regard to policy? The grassroots is weary, and the powers that be count on activists falling away from exhaustion, but now more than ever, we must stay energized and continue to make our power work for us. I certainly hope I can take my own advice.

Is Assassination Patriotic?

2009-08-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a question: Is assassination patriotic? If you listened to the right wingnuts, you would, like, totally think assassination was the patriotic thing to do. The questions posed, and answered as 'a joke', about assassinating Obama to the right wingers who are running for office, or who just want to flaunt their ignorance, or who are out and out homicidal racists, is an amazing show of (I'm at a loss for words, here, but am thinking hard) well, fucked up logic, spin...ok, sick messed up thinking. From birthers (where are they? did they crawl back into their wombs?) to jolly candidates who joke about assassinating Obama this seems to be the acceptable joke du jour for the folks right of the Sanity Line. Can you imagine the outrage if this had been seriously put forth as a righteous and eminently legal way to dispose of one's spuriously elected President, who's name rhymes with 'tush', and to dispose of him thusly forthwith?

There is a serious virus going around, and it's not the H1N1 that's about to invade our complacency about all things 'not on our immediate radar'...it's a virus that invades peoples' id - mostly those who lean right. There is simply no other way to explain the acceptance of the idea of assassination, that is in any way acceptable to those who seemingly 'look normal' but who are in the deep throes of a serious viral brain-altering illness. You haven't seen them?! Ok, so you're admitting you haven't been to a town hall! Some of them do not care to disguise themselves, but are right out there as cloned LaRouchie's. Note: if you look into their eyes, you must seriously contemplate whether these are pod people right out of Invasion of The Body Snatchers. Hitler is their touchstone and they respond like bobble-heads if you ask them a question.

But, seriously, folks...why is it okay to wear an AK47 or assault rifle strapped to your leg whether the President is nearby or not? From the outside, this country has got to appear like the most seriously narcissistic messed up Republic on the entire planet. Here is where I gravely remind people that I was born in Canada and have nothing to do with this national psychosis.

I can't tell you how important the ACLU is to the machinations of this country (please donate...they are the life blood of the First Amendment); but, honestly, sometimes, I would just like to put the assholes out of OUR misery. You know what I'm talkin' about...

Did Obama Read My Blog?!!

2009-08-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

OMG, did President Obama read my blog? Back in March, I besought Obama to govern like a one term president and, lo and behold, here he is, six months later, even saying so himself. Of course, pundits are predicting he'll only be around for one term because they think he's colossally screwing up; but, from my perspective, I want him to make the tough - read 'progressive' - choices so that in the event he doesn't make it to a second term, he'll have essentially governed as though he were in office for eight years. Time's awastin'. GOBAMA.

Sarah, Sarah, Quite Contrary

2009-07-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

Who can resist weighing in on the Cirque de Sarah Palin. Pundits have written biting (Maureen Dowd) and bitingly funny articles (Gail Collins) about it, but the really pathetic part of this is the support this whack job has gotten from Republican party elders like John McCain and Mary Matalin. John McCain believes, or so he said, that “ ‘she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican Party and our nation.’ He gave no other details.” Well, I’ll give you a detail that says Sarah Palin will never play any kind of leadership role in this “our/MY nation”. McCain can be somewhat forgiven, aside from the fact that's he rather musty, because I'm sure he's trying to cover his laughable tracks having chosen her for his running mate.

And Mary Matalin! Come ON. Listen to THIS: “Reached by CNN at her farm in the Shenandoah valley, Mary Matalin, a top Republican consultant, called Ms. Palin’s move “brilliant” although she said she was initially taken aback by the news. But she seconded the notion that the governor’s decision was smart in the sense that it will free her up, as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been, to travel the country to make inroads with potential voters.” That is totally grounds for James Carville to dump her. Honestly, I don’t know how they live together; but that remark MUST totally have been reactive as I'm sure Mary didn't have a chance to hear Palin go off the rails as she gave her resignation speech because she was probably too busy plowing the sod on the farm. Mary! What's up with you? Do you believe Sarah Palin is a role model for your daughters? Sarah needs to be taken off stage left in that Versace straight jacket leftover from the campaign.

The good news is that half the Republican party has their knickers in a twist over Palin fantasizing about her role as a party leader, traveling about the country ostensibly representing all things conservative while channeling unintelligible speeches from some purported Alaskan Angel hovering over her shoulder. And, the bad news is that the other half are delirious with excitement that Sarah, their Alaskan angel, will be their saviour. All these repressed little Republican boys salivating in anticipation til hot Sarah comes to their home town. I know it's been said before, but it is so painfully obvious that if Sarah looked like the Duchess of Windsor, she'd be on a fishing boat out on the Bering Strait. I thought she might be resigning because her other daughter was pregnant or maybe even Bristol got pregnant again while practicing abstinence. But...whatever.

I can’t wait to see Saturday Night Live reprise this speech.

Randy Republicans

2009-06-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

Sigh. The hypocrisy. That really is the question, of course, about these Randy Republicans who swing so facilely from keepers of the family values flame to ever so tritely apologizing before the media, and the world, about their salacious little indiscretions. It's really breathtaking how these dapper self-righteous right wing Lotharios keep parading up to the mics to commit symbolic seppuku as though it were some part of a Republican patriotic hazing, and then the word "apology" is spoken like some special absolution from Jesus. Their sense of invulnerability and entitlement has nothing over the Power of the Dick to render them amnesiacs about their families, their values, their promises. The fact that they are on record vilifying and condemning every one else who screws around, makes their fall from grace all the more delectable. Who cares who's screwing who? Everybody's doing it but nobody likes a hypocrite. I bet Bill Clinton would like to throttle these guys.

So far, interestingly, women have been missing from this parade of philanderers. Hopefully, they're too smart to be caught playing at work. But then again, somehow the aura of power as aphrodisiac doesn't play the same for women as it does for men. There is definitely a disconnect when it comes to female legislators as sex objects. Is it that men are afraid of powerful women? Are they a turn-off? But, oh, wouldn't it be lovely to be able to dab a little Power on one's pulse points to equalize the playing field? Having experienced the political life, I can tell you, you don't have to be a pretty boy to attract aggressive female attention. Just the smell of power, at every office holder level, as long as you're elected to something, women will be hovering around you like you're something special. Hey, forget online dating. Run for office and babes will come out of the woodwork for you.

So, who's going to emerge as the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 what with almost every potential candidate going to marriage and family values rehab? The last unscathed politician standing, so far, looks like it might be squeaky clean Mitt Romney. What a way to get to the head of the pack...by default. And Mitt could turn being a Mormon into an attractive alternative to people who are fed up with the sanctimonious Christian right, even though they were scared to death of him last year. That really was so last year.

Oh, did you see that Fox news said that Sanford was a Democrat. God, these people are wily. They later 'corrected' it but when their own farts stink, they look around as though it was the other guy.

Today at Buchenwald

2009-06-05T12:59:00.001-07:00

Today at Buchenwald concentration camp, President Obama made a heartfelt speech about the ability of humankind to perpetrate evil and asked "for a just, peaceful and tolerant world; a world that has no place for anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, and right-wing extremism." You can read the whole text here.

But, when Elie Wiesel spoke, it was almost too much to bear. You feel the weight of his heavy heart, the weight of all of those he left behind, the weight of his bearing witness to the most heinous Holocaust, the sorrow in his all seeing, all knowing eyes. The passion and urgency in his plea for understanding and tolerance. His humanity. Take heed.

So, Elie Wiesel's call for all of us to come together, "where people will stop hating one another; where people will hate the otherness of the other rather than respect it.", touched on something very personal to me...opposing views on Israel within my own family that instigates the very intolerance he talks about. Without going into detail, my brother and I have not agreed on the Israeli/Palestinian issue for years; he on the 'extreme conservative' side, me on the 'liberal' (if you want to give them labels).

My brother's conservatism has so alienated him from me because he finds it, literally, intolerable that anyone could possibly not see things exactly as he does. Once, we did not speak for two years because he was disgusted by something I said. Since that time, we have managed to tentatively reconnect, mostly skirting talk about politics. But recently, it was too tempting for him not to comment on the subject, his voice was dripping with disdain. I didn't address his comment; rather I asked him - more like pleaded - to simply respect the idea that we could have differing opinions and still be 'friends'. I haven't heard from him since.

When will my own brother "stop hating" my "otherness", as he sees it, rather than simply respecting the idea that I can think a different way, and still be called human? I am sure that mine is not the only family to be going through this - a microcosm of the world's intolerance. If family is where intolerance starts, then how can we hope for anything bigger?

The full text of Elie Wiesel's speech follows.

MR. WIESEL: Mr. President, Chancellor Merkel, Bertrand, ladies and gentlemen. As I came here today it was actually a way of coming and visit my father's grave -- but he had no grave. His grave is somewhere in the sky. This has become in those years the largest cemetery of the Jewish people.

The day he died was one of the darkest in my life. He became sick, weak, and I was there. I was there when he suffered. I was there when he asked for help, for water. I was there to receive his last words. But I was not there when he called for me, although we were in the same block; he on the upper bed and I on the lower bed. He called my name, and I was too afraid to move. All of us were. And then he died. I was there, but I was not there.

And I thought one day I will come back and speak to him, and tell him of the world that has become mine. I speak to him of times in which memory has become a sacred duty of all people of good will -- in America, where I live, or in Europe or in Germany, where you, Chancellor Merkel, are a leader with great courage and moral aspirations.

What can I tell him that the world has learned? I am not so sure. Mr. President, we have such high hopes for you because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place, where people will stop waging war -- every war is absurd and meaningless; where people will stop hating one another; where people will hate the otherness of the other rather than respect it.

But the world hasn't learned. When I was liberated in 1945, April 11, by the American army, somehow many of us were convinced that at least one lesson will have been learned -- that never again will there be war; that hatred is not an option, that racism is stupid; and the will to conquer other people's minds or territories or aspirations, that will is meaningless.

I was so hopeful. Paradoxically, I was so hopeful then. Many of us were, although we had the right to give up on humanity, to give up on culture, to give up on education, to give up on the possibility of living one's life with dignity in a world that has no place for dignity.

We rejected that possibility and we said, no, we must continue believing in a future, because the world has learned. But again, the world hasn't. Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia.

Will the world ever learn? I think that is why Buchenwald is so important -- as important, of course, but differently as Auschwitz. It's important because here the large -- the big camp was a kind of international community. People came there from all horizons -- political, economic, culture. The first globalization essay, experiment, were made in Buchenwald. And all that was meant to diminish the humanity of human beings.

You spoke of humanity, Mr. President. Though unto us, in those times, it was human to be inhuman. And now the world has learned, I hope. And of course this hope includes so many of what now would be your vision for the future, Mr. President. A sense of security for Israel, a sense of security for its neighbors, to bring peace in that place. The time must come. It's enough -- enough to go to cemeteries, enough to weep for oceans. It's enough. There must come a moment -- a moment of bringing people together.

And therefore we say anyone who comes here should go back with that resolution. Memory must bring people together rather than set them apart. Memories here not to sow anger in our hearts, but on the contrary, a sense of solidarity that all those who need us. What else can we do except invoke that memory so that people everywhere who say the 21st century is a century of new beginnings, filled with promise and infinite hope, and at times profound gratitude to all those who believe in our task, which is to improve the human condition.

A great man, Camus, wrote at the end of his marvelous novel, The Plague: "After all," he said, "after the tragedy, never the rest...there is more in the human being to celebrate than to denigrate." Even that can be found as truth -- painful as it is -- in Buchenwald.

Thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me to come back to my father's grave, which is still in my heart.

Danger in Plain Sight Redux

2009-06-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

The shocking assassination of Dr. George Tiller, seemingly sanctioned by insane "pro-life" conservative right wingers, highlights the lurking homegrown terrorist threat that I referred to in my February 27th post. Albeit, it was about the right wing threat to Obama, but also pointed out the distinct possibility that they would resort to violence whenever it suited them. I wrote about this a couple of months before the April report by the Department of Homeland Security that assessed the threat of right wing extremists. Jason Linkins wrote about it today in the Huff Post.

The conservative movement must take responsibility for fomenting this doctrinaire response. Everyone of those seriously unstable bobble heads on Fox, and their resident 'experts', need to get mental health checkups. Social scientists have recently been studying the physiological differences between liberals and conservatives, and need to continue that study by going deeper into the extreme conservative mind. It wouldn't be a surprise to find that there is brain damage of some sort, some grim synapse misfiring, potentially compounded by emotional damage, that produces fanatics in suits who somehow have managed to worm their way on television and spout their hateful diatribes to their devoted extremist, automaton counterparts existing in their little cells just waiting for their moment to carry out some delusional directive.

Just witness the bigoted, misogynist spoutings directed at Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. I hope she has security protection now. There are sick, sick people out there who have platforms, seemingly legitimized by their television presence, that need to be reigned in. These people are serious threats, and hopefully will be seriously monitored from now on.

Full Circle

2009-05-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

Last night completed a circle for me. President Obama (huzzah!) was in Beverly Hills for a fundraiser for the DNC, and a lot of grassroots volunteers got to go, both as a way to thank them and as a way to fill empty seats. Fundraising these days is a bitch, as you might imagine, but I won't go into that now. The great thing is that so many people got to see, up close and personal, the flesh and blood embodiment of all of those hours phoning strangers in outlying states, walking precincts in boiling temperatures in the Nevada desert, redeye from inputting data into the wee hours, tabling at every event possible, registering voters everywhere, and god knows what else...those volunteers, the backbone of the campaign, got to see Barack Obama, no longer Candidate Obama, but the very real PRESIDENT Obama. What a ride!

The circle for me began on February 20, 2007, my first volunteer gig at Rancho Park right after Obama declared his candidacy...I got to shake his hand then. Last night, I got to shake his hand again, now as President. My certainty, from Day One, that he would be President was validated, sealed and delivered. It was a transcendent moment, as it was with every successful campaign moment along the way. He gave the usual political pep talk about his administration and how much he had accomplished in just four months, ticking them off one by one, and then he said...which I absolutely loved..."You ain't seen nothing yet!" implying that he had just scratched the surface of his agenda. Thrilling, eh? But, I have to say, the poor man looked tired...when 'we' shook hands, I really wanted to say, "Get some rest, man. Take a nap." but I just said, "Thank you, Mr. President." He wouldn't have heard me anyway above the din.

Ok, back down to earth, he didn't actually look at me either time we squeezed fingers as he floated by to press the flesh of insistent hands out-stretched to touch him, and I wondered if his Secret Service detail carried hand sanitizer for him. You know, swine flu, I mean H1N1, and all. And, hey, remember when George Bush used sanitizer after shaking Obama's hand...and then offered him some? How easily I digress. But it was a wonderful moment. Dreamlike.

The entertainment was stellar. Jennifer Hudson sang with the Crenshaw High School Choir and they were fabulous together, singing, Bridge Over Troubled Water and I forget the other song. And Earth Wind and Fire, just the three front men, really got the audience rocking. The back up band was fab. Also performing, was a talented ten year old flamenco guitar player, Ricardo (damn, can't remember his last name and for some reason I didn't get a picture), whose poise and dexterity astonished the crowd. Later in the evening, when he and his dad were leaving the hotel, we learned more about this amazing kid...he is totally home schooled, never had a tv or a computer, is an aspiring botanist, learning to speak Spanish, built his own pond on the family property, plays a variety of music genres, has a claptrap memory and belies the rubric that home schooled kids aren't properly socialized. He keeps up with the news by reading newspapers from around the world that his father downloads and prints out for him every day. Listening to it all, I suddenly felt like a miserably inadequate mother. Why hadn't I thought about no tv? Moved to the country to get away from urban temptations? Planted a sustainable garden? Taught them Urdu and the sitar? The fact that (I'm going to brag here, which I may have done before...so if you can't stand it, just skip to the next paragraph) my sons graduated from Harvard, Columbia and one's going to graduate school at Princeton, doesn't help to alleviate the thought that I could've, should've done more. God, I hope they forgive me.

All in all, it was a terrific evening, and being that a large grassroots contingent was there, there was lots of talk about how to move forward with OFA (Organizing for America), and brainstorming in general. There is a lot of restless activist energy out there waiting to be tapped in a concrete, strategic way. We just have to figure out the best way to engage it. ONWARD!

A Meditation on The 100 Days and The Vortex of History

2009-04-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? The titanic, sucking sweep of events drawing us, unwitting spectators whose billions of bodies are flailing helplessly in the swirling corkscrew of economic quicksand, into the vortex of history. We are living in astonishing times.

Forget, for a moment, your miserable unemployed, cash poor self. Forget the tension of living in these remorseless, uncommon times. If ever you wanted to be a part of the history of the world, this is it. History textbooks written about this moment in time will be about you and me and all the citizens of the world, about how we lived, how we coped, how we embraced CHANGE.

This may not seem like the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius that I wrote about back in September, but then again, we haven't yet hit rock bottom. This crisis we're in will, hopefully, work like a global colonic. What an amazing opportunity to cleanse and rebuild. From this front row seat to history, would that we could just enjoy(!) this moment, step back and appreciate where we are, and peer into the future and witness what could possibly be. Will the world break out of its cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly, or remain a stunted caterpillar, not realizing its full potential? If we don't embrace this change, accept the realization that there has been an immense paradigm shift, a global and social power shift, the consequences will be dire.

Will we rise to be our best selves? Will all the cutting back, sacrifices, recycling, backyard gardens, and volunteering invoke sincere politesse and tolerance toward our fellow man? After the shock wears off, can we settle, graciously, into our new way of life? We have to. There is no turning back; no drowning in nostalgia for the good ole days of easy money and easy times. No time for pity parties. We're being tested in many ways, and the jury will be out for quite some time on the results.

This time, too, is an opportunity for reflection on the past two years of the Presidential campaign and the traditional earmark of 100 Days for President Barack Obama. This is something we can relish and celebrate immediately. Who represents a pivotal moment in history better than Barack Obama? And, in just 100 days, he has done much to reverse the violation of the Bush regime that lasted an agonizing 2816 days. Of course, he is not infallible, he is not the Messiah, but he is the right man, at the right time, right now.

We are very lucky to be living in this most interesting time. Yes, it’s scary; yes, it’s unnerving, but now is the time for contemplation about how to embrace this metamorphosis and the adventure of discovery of the unknown…not buy into the fear of what may lie ahead.

This is all so BIG. I can feel the churning cosmos enveloping me.

Note to Obama: Govern Like You're a One Term President

2009-03-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

I know we're only 55 days into Obama's Presidency, but I hope that what we've seen from the Administration these past two weeks is not going to be indicative of their process going forward. Yes, only 55 days considering that 8 years of malfeasance was dumped on Obama's desk on Day One, and the gigantic sucking sound as the economic crisis spiraled into a vortex was deafening, Obama, while maintaining his charming Yodaness, appears to be hedging his bets in all directions instead of taking the road less traveled, the one we thought he would take. He promised us CHANGE... and, OMG, the use of it as a promise is becoming so trite...but what we're getting seems to be the 'appearance' of change. Ok, right, he immediately changed/reversed some awful Bush directives, but his handling of this economic crisis is sadly disappointing.

His appointment of Larry Summers as one of the lead architects to handle the economy was incredibly disheartening from the very beginning, and the following petition sent to Obama's transition team, way back when, says it all. I guess you could say it was successful to an extent because he wasn't appointed Secretary of the Treasury, only head of the National Economic Council (NEC). To put a nice coda to that appointment, here's an illuminating note that Summers sent to Ken Lay, of all people, when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton...note the handwritten post script. With regard to Frank Rich's column Has a 'Katrina' Moment Arrived?, it's not a stretch to imagine that Summers might be Obama's 'Brownie'.

But, I digress. Obama's kumbaya approach to bipartisanship has already proved to be woefully misguided. I guess he had to try it to see that Republican snakes will readily bite the hand that feeds them, and it's a waste of time to try and make friends with them. Obama should take a moment, and think about on whose shoulders he stood that hoisted him over the top to the White House. Answer: The grassroots movement made up largely of liberals and progressives. And, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, that if the progressives didn't support him, we would probably be talking about President Hillary Clinton right now.

If Obama wants to live up to all his promise, and his promises, he would do well to govern like a one-term President, forge ahead without equivocation, and kick some legislative ass. He might even be rewarded with a second term.

P.S. In anticipation of Obama getting his bearings and winning a second term, it's never too soon to get ready for President #45. Join my Facebook group to support Michelle Obama for President in 2016...MObama'16!!

The Year of the Tall Skinny Man

2009-03-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

I was at a Town Hall meeting last night in Santa Monica where Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, spoke about his agenda and his run for governor. Knowing basically nothing about him except for a little scandal or two and his support of gay marriage, I was curious to see him up close and personal. Unfortunately for him, probably 90% of the electorate out there doesn't know much about him either. If last night was any evidence, he speaks like a true progressive, was very well prepared and could go deep into any issue. He was impressive. And, here's a picture of his beautiful wife (always well aware of the camera) and her sister.

So, here are the raw highlights: he has A LOT, no, A TON of hair...admitted to using gel, is very attractive, understands how to move around and where the camera is, is terribly in need of a new suit...his pants were stuck in his crack, needs an antiperspirant...kept his arms close to his body because of large perspiration splotches under his arms. Ok, that's the image, but really he would be the change we need after the miserable failure of the 'Arnold-celebrity-as-politician' experiment.

Newsom is going to be intensely scrutinized, and if the medium is the message, then he's going to have to overcome the many 'messages' on a lot of YouTube videos. For more on the issues, go to his website, and we'll be following him and his message closely as the campaign revs up.

And last but not least, I want to give a shout out to a fellow Obamwoodian, Kelli Dunaway, who made us proud by asking Newsom the last question of the evening about the potential revenue from marijuana sales. Great question. Newsom nervously joked and gagged about it. Nice going, Kelli!!!

In conclusion...so far: Newsom = Obama lite.

Danger in Plain Sight

2009-02-27T09:53:00.000-08:00

Early on in the Obama campaign, one of the biggest fears expressed by people as a reason not to support him was their anxiety about him being assassinated. Slowly, the momentum of the campaign and the realization that he had a real chance at the nomination and Presidency, made people put their anxiety on the back burner, while, indeed, never forgetting the dreadful possibility. Threats to Presidents are, of course, constantly being evaluated, and the news today that a mentally unstable person sent HIV infected blood through the mail, addressed to Obama, underscores that threat.

Of course, there is always a risk that some crazed assassin will find a weak link and break through the tight security that surrounds the President; but, lately, it seems to me that potential assassins are really hiding in plain sight.

The more unnerving possibilities come from the opposition: the conservative right. It has always been that way with the right wing, but lately their vitriol spiked by racist undertones is alarming. Starting early on with Sarah Palin's unbridled attacks on Obama's character and patriotism that unleashed a veritable ungluing of the right's racist/hatred simmering below the surface; to Rush Limbaugh's constant underscoring of Obama's middle name, Hussein, and continual agitating of his retard followers' hatefulness; to the recently published ugly cartoon in the New York Post that depicted a chimpanzee being assassinated; to John Bolton's 'joke' yesterday at the CPAC convention about nuking Chicago (Obama's hometown) with the entire CPAC audience laughing their right wing tails off; that represents a hostility that foments what inexcusably could pass as justifiable violence by conservative instigators.

Watching the news about Bolton suddenly rang alarm bells in my head as it occurred to me that these were the people to watch - that these 'righter than right' sanctimonious self-righteous scarily insecure pod people could be the ones to slip beyond the tight security, no doubt in the name of bi-partisanship, and aim to do harm to our President - to Obama who represents everything they cannot be, and will never be; who with their tiny minds, troubled sexuality and existence full of fear may think that there is only one way to rid themselves of their perceived nemesis.

Am I an alarmist? I am generally not a worrier, but you can never take your eyes off the frightened disenfranchised who feel that they are backed into a corner with no foreseeable way out...at least not for the next eight long years. In this case, it is potentially both your 'friends' as well as your enemies who would do you the most harm. Vigilance is the watchword.

Blogger for Sale

2009-02-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

In light of the brouhaha about Obama calling on Sam Stein, blogger for the Huffington Post, by the White House press corps, who got their knickers in a twist over the definition of 'journalist', I am revisiting my very first blog - and actually the only one that I wrote for about 3 years(!) - as it is kind of apropos of the White House press corps questioning the qualifications of 'blogger'. Apparently, 'blogger' doesn't qualify to ask a question of the President of the United States since, cause according to the press corps, bloggers are not real journalists. In any case, no doubt the White House corps journalists quoted Obama as per Stein's question all day long. Touchy, touchy.

I think they just got pissed off because Obama didn't ask one of them their obviously more brilliant question. Sam Stein's question was a really good one about whether Obama will go after the war criminals that just left the White House. Obama answered as he had before, about how he is looking forward, not back...huh? I'm just not getting this. There is no excuse for not dogging the Bush Cabal for their reprehensible misdeeds. A crime is a crime. This is so puzzling...what's Obama thinking?

Anyway, here's the original blog...I think it still has some relevance.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

BLOGGER FOR SALE

Due to recent disclosures of bloggers being paid as 'consultants' for political campaigns and/or various political agendas, I say, upfront, "Why hide?". My blog is as good as the next guy's. Okay, I've never blogged before but I smell opportunity, and the fact that I am new at this, and now a budding blogger, my credibility is unbesmirched, as I have never endorsed a product, promoted an agenda, flogged a book or movie, or even spewed my own self-righteous opinions...yet. My slate is clean, ready to be sullied by capitalism and adaptable ethics. I am up for sale. Following, please find a list of categories for which I will blog mercilessly depending on my consultancy fees. A sliding scale of money-to-blog ratio is available on request. Pro bono services (I do have a heart) are available for those with little or no ka-ching. For pro bono blogging, I will flog your product by blogging within a blog so you can ride on the coattails of another 'enhanced' product.

NOTE: Whatever it is that I am blogging, be it an opinion, an issue, a law, bad-mouthing, an Oscar, whatever, is heretofore referred to as the 'product'. Here are the categories, so far:

CORPORATE: Are you about to be indicted? Does your mother know what you've been up to? Not to worry. I will blog by taking the high ground and cover your ass with all sorts of spin, and even go the extra mile by writing letters to the editor of tipsily ethical publications and newspapers like The New York Times and The Drudge Report. Any photographs of you in handcuffs will be derided as obvious photoshop enhancements.

POLITICAL: Nominees and office holders...escape the brazen plumbing of your inner sanctum secrets by dirty tricksters and ethics hound dogs...I'll flog you're 'character' til the cows come home about the fact that you knew absolutely nothing about anything that ever happened in your entire life. Character assassination is easily overcome by endless blogging and a certifiable case of amnesia. Never lose a confirmation again. (I accept soft money.)

WAR: Do you have a war you want to start? Let me blog it for you. We can brainstorm any number of cockammie reasons and I will blog it to death. No food for blogs on this one, hard cash only.

LEGISLATION: Not quite enough pork in the barrel? I can target-blog Capital Hill like nobody's business. Please do not confuse paid consultant blogging with lobbying...blogging is so much more cost efficient, no martini lunches or Cohibas in the cloakroom, just straight to your target's e-mail. We know legislators are monitoring the pulse of the blogging community as though it were real journalism...as if.

CELEBRITY GOSSIP: Oy Vey. This is a tough one and, as such, may cost a little more depending on whether you want to cover up asinine behavior or correct dastardly misinformation on, for example, above the title credits, pregnancy, rehab, pre-nups, etc. Blogging outright denials of obvious plastic surgery will be charged double. Compromising oneself, for ridicule, is costly. My entrance into the bloggosphere of self-made pundits is now hereby official. I look forward to bflogging (not a typo) undetectable 'studies' to support your product, quoting unidentified expert sources and keeping your product's head above water for the duration of...whatever it is we're bflogging.

Disclaimer: I proclaim total and unqualified innocence of any connection to anybody - at this point...in time. Contact me through posts. Discretion guaranteed.

Obama and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2009-02-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

YIKES! Could it be worse? Two tax dodgers resign from nominations put forth by the super duper vetting machine of the Obama campaign. Wait. Don't forget...there was more. Remember Big Bill Richardson resigned from his Commerce nomination under a scandalous cloud that everybody who was anybody knew about for years. Ok, so it might not have been that exact misdeed, but there were plenty of treacherous alliances, shall we say, that should have raised the red flag. How the hell did he get vetted? Lucky Tim Geithner, for Treasury Secretary, squeaked through with his tax 'mistake' mea culpa. Puhlease.

Okay, everybody cheats on their taxes; everybody hateshateshates to pay taxes, but for crying out loud, if you're a politician, shouldn't you be very, very sure your ass is covered in taxes? Yes, of course, nobody's perfect...least of all the vetting team. Wasn't Caroline Kennedy supposed to be vetting people? Or was that just for VP? Where's Donald Trump when you need to fire everyone?

And, of all the people who have made it through the nomination/confirmation process, the very one you would have thought would trip up enough alarm bells to bring out the Washington Fire Department, our Madam Secretary, Hillary Clinton...of all people...sailed through without nary a hair out of place. Awesome. You go girl! Side bar: I think Hillary will do a fantastic job.

This mess has got to stop. Obama stopped the bleeding and took responsibility for the 'mistakes'...don't you just love that word, 'mistakes'...hey, where were the IRS with these 'mistakes'? I gotta remember that...'mistakes' is the new 'sorry'. Anyway, I hope Obama is leaving his cool at the door and giving his team a piece of his mind. The Red Party must be popping the champagne corks. But really, they are still way ahead of us on scandals and corruptions. Compared to them, this is small time stuff. (I know I'm ranting.) Anyway, Obama had better get his ship in shape. This is beginning to look like the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight.

Obama as Spock

2009-01-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

While I am not a Trekky or even know that much about Star Trek, I read an interview in today's Wall St. Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123084942774447411.html with the new stars of the upcoming Star Trek movie...the new Captain Kirk, Chris Pine (full disclosure: Chris was a classmate of my son's from K-12 and a terrific guy), and the new Spock, Zachary Quinto. What was striking was the following question and response about Spock:

Why has this character become so mythic?

In this archetypal way, people respond to someone who's able to contain himself. He operates from a place of logic, but always with the betterment of others in mind. He's able to endure things and experience things from a place of balance.

Ok, who does this sound like? If Obama immediately springs to mind, so did it to me. Assessments of Obama's MO continuously refer to his pragmatism and logic. Curiously though, that assessment oftentimes has come from a quizzical perspective as though these were weird/alien traits for the genesis of someone's thinking. But really, coming from the press, I'm not surprised that they would be baffled by that.

More similarities:
- Spock's mixed parentage, half Human, Half Vulcan; Obama's half Kenyan, half White Kansan.
- Their unusual names:

Spock-Vulcan: Spohkh; his full name is unpronounceable to Humans*

The name, Barack Obama, will always be alien to some, but to most Humans, his name slips from the lips like champagne from a flute. As adaptive Humans, we have absorbed his name, can pronounce it properly, and probably have assimilated it to the point that it is now permanently tattooed into our hippocampus, and when activated, can even already elicit a thousand (wonderful) memories (note from self: sappy grey matter activated here).

Prediction 1: While I have expressed from Day One, that Obama is not the Messiah, nor the Second Coming, I do believe that his pragmatism, logic and self-containment will serve him well, and that he will take his place beside Spock as affirmed here:

Spock was a Human/Vulcan hybrid who became one of the most distinguished and respected figures in his lifetime. (United Federation of Planets TOS: "This Side of Paradise", "Journey to Babel")*

And, I dare add to "in his lifetime", Obama will be distinguished and respected "beyond his lifetime".

What is really interesting about this is that Spock offers us a time portal that we can step into to envision future battles (albeit the Galaxy didn't have to contend with economic challenges then...they were well beyond materiality and had smartly dispensed with the pernicious power of money). While these struggles are allegorical, they preview for Obama the nature of the intense tests ahead. On January 20th, we will watch as Obama steps onto his 'Enterprise'** to embark on his journey of monumental trials that await him. If he proves to be a 'descendant' of Spock's, we are in good hands.

A sidebar about Kirk: Is Biden Captain Kirk to Obama's Spock? Personality-wise, it would seem so, and let's hope that they work as well together to save us from catastrophes as the USS Enterprise's Captain and First Officer did when they were guiding their ship.

Prediction 2: In the 24th century, Spock became a celebrated ambassador and adviser to the Federation's leadership.* And, so to, will Obama, post-Presidency and, happily, we won't have to wait til the 24th century.

*Source: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Spock
** "Enterprise" - Boldness, energy, and invention in practical affairs (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, 1963)

Happy 2009...if possible.

2008-12-31T11:12:00.000-08:00

2008. Whadda year! From the heights of glorious imagination, stupendous accomplishment, mindblowing ecstacy - and relief - (all related to the Obama campaign, of course, from beginning to end) to the depths of human contemptible behavior, this year has been a dizzying ride.

It seems that nothing has been done in moderation. Reaching the pristine air of the mountaintop, or plunging directly to the smoldering toxic flames of purgatory, human beings displayed the absolute best and worst of their animality.

The Best: Millions of people dug deep into their best selves to come together, as never before, for a common purpose - electing Obama - and exhibited the inimitable strengths of the human spirit, riding as one on the waves of commands coming from the campaign, demonstrating the best of our pack behavior*. What a result!

The Worst: Politicos and businessmen flaunted the most mind-bogglingly egregious behavior that smacked of a pathological lack of any conscience whatsoever, and narcissism** that was beyond the pale. Whatever dybbuk flipped the switch in these guys (were there any women?), must be laughing its head off at the destruction and chaos these human hurricanes left in their shit strewn paths. Hey, the armed forces need new recruits. Well, here's a group of dickhead tough guys who should be forced to join the Army (Marines won't have them), for at least two tours in Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever their dastardly selves can be regularly humiliated by their awful cowardice.

Whither we go next? Will we be treading water all year, out of necessity, and just be glad to make it through to 2010? Will these really sour lemons we've been handed make it impossible to get even a drop of lemonade out of our lives in 2009? Well, the fact that Obama will finally be taking office, and Bush will be slinking off to Crawford, could well be lemonade enough for me. That said, and as we all know, Obama has some pretty intractable issues to deal with, and we're certainly not all going to be on board with his decisions; but, I'll be happy to be unhappy with them.

Now is the time to reevaluate our priorities - some by necessity, some by taking a good hard look at what really matters to us. Passion for whatever interests us can open the door to so many possibilities through creative thinking, being adventurous and taking risks into the boundless beyond. The world awaits. Well, most of the world. So, here's to an Interesting 2009! ONWARD!

* Dogs have a well-developed social system. This system establishes orderly relations among the members. In order for a group of animals to function efficiently the system must have an order and a process of communication which helps to promote that order.

** Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the diagnostic classification system used in the United States, as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy."

The narcissist is described as turning inward for gratification rather than depending on others and as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power and prestige. Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness. (DUH)

Senator Kennedy I Presume?

2008-12-18T10:05:00.000-08:00

I was googling the words 'disgraced', 'corrupt', 'indicted', 'impeached', 'financiers', 'politicians', 'CEO's', and so on, as I wanted to try and get a count to include in this post; but, lo and behold, the numbers are mind-boggling. The people who, We The People, entrust to represent us in the marketplace or the halls of government and justice, do so with blind faith, and spend little time digging beyond the media and public relations representation of those people. Do we get what we deserve for not holding our representatives accountable? What I do know is that WE need to take more responsibility for who we elect to office, who we place our money with, who we reward with celebrity, who we accept at face value when we intuitively know better. Ideology be somewhat damned...good ole fashioned honesty should be our benchmark. Here are just a couple of organizations that monitor corruption close to home and internationally, and check out, or START a citizen watchdog group of your own: http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/
international group: http://www.transparency.org/

So, where does Caroline Kennedy come into this? Aside from all of the arguments that she doesn't have the experience, hasn't been elected to office, etc., as have many current 'experienced' senators when they started out, Caroline Kennedy doesn't have any tainted baggage, and, I would venture to say, would be incorruptible. That alone makes her qualified. Ok, aside from political chits she may have to pay back. But, how refreshing to have someone who hasn't been in 'the game' and who can bring a fresh perspective to the problems that will be facing her as senator. My only question about her candidacy is whether she has the stamina, and fire in the belly, to withstand the media onslaught that will be sure to dog her forever.

So, even though we have elected a straightforward, honest, transparent President, Barack Obama, We The People, cannot just sit back and expect that, all of a sudden, everyone will drink truth serum and become honest, upstanding citizens. We need to take responsibility, join a watchdog group, and hold these people accountable.

In the famous words of Howard Beale: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore." This should be the rallying cry of every concerned citizen. It is amazing how this rant withstands the test of time...it could have been filmed yesterday. To help us keep up the outrage, and remind us of our stake in governance, let's watch this every so often, and let's get out of our chairs and 'walk the walk': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_qgVn-Op7Q

A Rabid Dog Cornered

2008-12-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

Everybody's weighing in about Governor Rod Blagojevich. I have nothing insightful to add except to say that don't expect him to vacate the office unless he's dragged out of there in a white jacket. He's cornered and has absolutely nothing to lose, so he'll do whatever the hell he pleases and say anything the hell he wants. And if this rabid dog attacks, you can be sure his target will sustain serious injuries. That target could well be Obama as the symbol of everything that Blagojevich isn't and as the one person who was in his path to greater glory.

So, let's send in Tony Soprano to deliver a little message to Rod...one that he would understand. In the end, Governor Blagojevich would be a very wise, happy, and thankful person to be given the opportunity to resign. Otherwise, we'll have to send in Paulie Walnuts.

Obama Backtracks on Windfall Tax...Windfall Being a Misnomer

2008-12-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to educate myself on what exactly a windfall tax is. To put it simply (I think), if oil companies make above a certain percentage of profit, they are taxed on it. The argument seems to be that it is unfair to tax these windfalls as it just disincentives the oil companies to do R & D. Their thinking apparently is, why would they spend money to explore or develop innovative ways to create new energy products when all they're going to do is be taxed on those profits. And, the right wingers say all taxes are bad for the economy. Right. I'd like them to realistically explain where we would be without them.

But, PUHLEASE. I understand that corporations should be free to make barrels of money because they're in business, and that's the whole point of being in business, right? But shouldn't they also have a conscience? There's a diagnosis for behavior that 'withholds' like that, it's called passive aggressive. Corporations that withhold their R & D, or whatever Damocles sword they hold over the government's head, are bad citizens and need therapy.

Now is exactly the time that these corporations should be kicking in $ of their own free will to help out the economy. Instead of paying PR firms to gussy up their image, they could do it themselves by being good corporate citizens and volunteer(!) a percentage of their obscene profits. Just think of the mileage they would get out of it. Let's say Chevron - who has a big reimaging PR campaign going on right now - took that PR money, and, instead put it into an emergency fund to help consumers (and no top-heavy administration costs to fritter it away).

During the primaries, Obama talked about repealing the tax breaks for oil companies that are already in place. What happened to that? Boy, I would hate to think that he is already caving to the oil companies. For what? Why? And, this I don't understand...what difference does it make if the price of oil is down for now? That's ostensibly the reason that Obama retreated from his promise of an "emergency energy rebate" for the beleaguered middle class. We all know that what goes down will also go up. Eventually.

I seem to have posed more questions here than comments...I guess because there are so many unanswered questions about how Obama will make good on his promise of taking on corporations. Please President-elect Obama, show the corporations some tough love, and hold their feet to the fire. Make 'em do the right thing. And, show US, the little guys, some real love, and go to bat for us as you said you would. That's why we voted for you; that's why you are where you are. We love you, but don't piss us off. Please.

Richardson Appointment

2008-12-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

The appointment of Bill Richardson, as Commerce Secretary, must have been a bit of satisfying retribution for the Clintons as they knew how much Richardson wanted to be Secretary of State. Maybe that was even a part of Hillary's thinking as she pondered whether or not to accept the appointment. As we know, they, and all 'good' politicians, never forget and the Clintons considered Richardson's endorsement of Obama the ultimate betrayal.

These two Secretaries are the real rivals, not simply "competitors", as Richardson said in his press conference address. Let's see if this spirit of koombya infects all of Obama's so-called Cabinet of Rivals. This should keep things interesting.

Someone Should Write an Opera

2008-11-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

I have the whole libretto in my head. All I need is a composer. For what you ask? Oh, just for the drama that has been going on for the last two years during this epic election cycle. But that would only be the back story. THAT drama is so yesterday. The staged opera would start with the trimphal victory march of Barack Obama entering center stage, out-sized, gigantic black SUVs escorting him on either side (SUVs being the modern day elephants), fireworks going off, throngs reaching up, rushing the stage from audience level, Michelle beside him and daughters skipping around. Of course, his courtiers, David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Jon Carson, Valerie Jarrett, and Reggie Love a respectful two steps behind, all singing a jubilant chorus of distinct songs about their own roles in the campaign. Sounds like it would be dissonant...not at all. You know, this is the no drama Obama administration, and they would all end up in sync with the President-elect's theme song, "Change, Change, Change".

While everyone is rockin' out, suddenly, the music morphs from ecstatic to ominous, clouds roll in overhead, thunder (love those timpani) and lightening flashes mid-stage, almost striking the leads. Players swirl quickly and disperse stage right and left, when the biggest burst of thunder and lightening lights up the stage. Lo and behold, rising out of the center of the floor is...Queen Hillary! Surrounded by her own cauldron of attendants. Watch the games begin!

This drama was MADE for opera, and I have the rest of it in my head but it would take much too long (I have to be at a wine tasting) to write the rest, but please feel free to fill in scenes and dialogue as you might imagine them. It's so easy to envision...Hillary being courted, scenes of her and Obama meeting, singing arias of entreaty, politesse, refutation, very little humility. Courtiers have their own behind-the-scenes libretto, and all eventually reconvene center stage for Hillary's acceptance of her new role of Madam Secretary of State. And, finally Bill, who has a minor roll in this libretto, strides on stage, shit-eating grin 'n red nose 'n all, with a neon crown and places it on Hillary's head. Michelle and children cheerfully rush through the front door of a model White House, their new puppy bounding around the stage. It all portends to a Lassie ending. Or does it? More to come.

A Smile That Lights Up The World

2008-11-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

First of all, did you catch 60 Minutes last night? There were Michelle and Barack, charming, playful, smart, REAL, and looking Good. Just even referring to them by their first names implies a connection not felt with Presidents for a long, long time. Wouldn't it be great to have dinner with them? Can you imagine saying you loved watching Laura and George in an interview or even just feel a sense of comfort calling them by their first names? (Ok, if you're a Republican.)

It will be interesting to see what the Obamas are like when they are interviewed four years from now. Will they be weary, jaded, grey? Probably. But now we see them fresh and ready to tackle the biggest job in the world. That takes courage, guts and confidence. And we wish them well on this most amazing journey.

And, I know this sounds worshipful, but, without having signed one law or executive order, Obama's smile, all by itself, adds wattage power to the world, and brings much needed light to the darkest recesses of humankind. People all over the world see that smile, it makes them smile, and in turn, it turns up the feel good thermometer. That, alone, is consoling, and it doesn't cost anything. Yeah, I told you it sounds worshipful.

In fact, we just missed World Smile Day on October 3. Check it out here: http://www.worldsmileday.com/ And, if you think I've gone all soft, maybe I have, but smiling has real benefits. Try it. You'll like it.

1. Smiling makes us attractive.

We are drawn to people who smile. There is an attraction factor. We want to know a smiling person and figure out what is so good. Frowns, scowls and grimaces all push people away -- but a smile draws them in.

2. Smiling Changes Our Mood

Next time you are feeling down, try putting on a smile. There's a good chance you mood will change for the better. Smiling can trick the body into helping you change your mood.

3. Smiling is Contagious

When someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the moods of others, and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them. Smile lots and you will draw people to you.

4. Smiling Relieves Stress

Stress can really show up in our faces. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down, and overwhelmed. When you are stressed, take time to put on a smile. The stress should be reduced and you'll be better able to take action.

5. Smiling Boosts Your Immune System

Smiling helps the immune system to work better. When you smile, immune function improves possibly because you are more relaxed. Prevent the flu and colds by smiling.

6. Smiling Lowers Your Blood Pressure

When you smile, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Give it a try if you have a blood pressure monitor at home. Sit for a few minutes, take a reading. Then smile for a minute and take another reading while still smiling. Do you notice a difference?

7. Smiling Releases Endorphins, Natural Pain Killers and Serotonin

Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling is a natural drug.

8. Smiling Lifts the Face and Makes You Look Younger

The muscles we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Don't go for a face lift, just try smiling your way through the day -- you'll look younger and feel better.

9. Smiling Makes You Seem Successful

Smiling people appear more confident, are more likely to be promoted, and more likely to be approached. Put on a smile at meetings and appointments and people will react to you differently.

10. Smiling Helps You Stay Positive

Try this test: Smile. Now try to think of something negative without losing the smile. It's hard. When we smile our body is sending the rest of us a message that "Life is Good!" Stay away from depression, stress and worry by smiling.

Seven Beautiful Words*

2008-11-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

* seven being a nod to George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words...these words, however, are like a breath of delicious cool air that soothe the heat of the angst of the last eight years. Here's the yin to Carlin's yang:

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
The Obama Administration
First Lady Michelle Obama
Obama's Inauguration
Tickets to Obama's Inauguration
First Children Malia and Sasha Obama
The First Family
The Obama Administration
The Obama Administration
The Obama White House Team

Okay, I took a little license here...there are ten, and I'm sure a whole lot more. Bring 'em on. Music to the ears.

Soon, I will never again have to turn down the sound of my radio when I hear that air sucking, sibilant, nasal Bush voice of his on the air...and which never fails to conjure Alfred E. Newman. I will never again have to flip the channel when Bush and his cronies dirty up the screen...and who ALL should be starring on MSNBC's Lock-Up instead of spouting bulls**t from the deep recesses of their neanderthal brains (apologies to neanderthals). I will never again have to weep at the asinine stupidity (can never be too redundant here) of the Bush/Cheney manifesto to steal America.

Let's make sure that the likes of these criminals never 'grace' our national stage again. Please, Bushies, just go away.

Potpourri

2008-11-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, I just read a funny headline: Vatican fires off warning to Barack Obama over stem cell research. As iiiiiffff. Here's the whole enchilada: h ttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5132491.ece So, since when does the Vatican think it has states' rights, a voice in our government or moral authority over the President of the United States because it doesn't like our policies? Did you ever read a headline that said, "American President fires off warning to Pope over birth control"? Puhleese.

Say, have you noticed that Sarah Palin, sans Hollywood hairdresser, makeup artist and stylist, has been kicked down a notch or two on the babe 'o meter. She kind of looks like a tired moose hunter, and for some odd reason, has switched from her hip glasses to a pair that looks like she's wearing windows. Weird. You can take the girl out of Alaska, but....etc.etc. Anyway, I'm stickin' with my prediction that she will lose reelection as governor, and end up with a reality show, "Sarah. LIVE!"

Speaking of speaking...is Sarah Palin a reincarnation of some 17th century evangelical? Her syntax has this strange faux formalism, sort of a tortured way of trying to sound, uh, smart, but it comes off as though she is another person, who has no idea what she's talking about, who found herself in a modern body.

And, the Lieberman brouhaha. Yes, he's a disgusting turncoat and a despicable slimebag, but I'm going with Obama on this decision not to kick him to the curb. Why bother? And, I trust Obama on these strategic political maneuvers. He's the master. So far. Besides, no matter what party Lieberman caucuses with, if he at least maintains a modicum of integrity, he'll still vote domestic policy with the Democrats as he has mostly done. That said, they must mete out some punishment and strip him of his committee chairmanships, one at least. Shunning should make a comeback. And, don't forget, he has to live with himself. That's a nightmare right there.

Oh, the tax code. I don't think that people really, truly consider what place taxes have in their everyday lives. It would be great to have some kind of compulsory course where everyone would take a Taxes 101 course to learn how taxes make our lives livable. Unfortunately, there is a cavaet...it is that the hard earned dollars that we pay in taxes are so often misused and misappropriated that a skeptical and deep mistrust of taxation is totally called for. Ok, forget it. Taxes suck. But necessary.

Never Again

2008-11-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

Since the election, four days ago, I have been absorbing, processing and relishing our well-earned, triumphal victory. So many thoughts have been racing around my brain, and I want to write about all of them, but the one that really nailed me was when I read Frank Rich's column today in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09rich.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin. Bathing in the afterglow of almost two years work, depleted, thrilled, and emotional, this article made me sit up straight.

Whether intentionally, or not, Rich made us look like victims...victims of the Bush administration: "For eight years, we’ve been told by those in power that we are small, bigoted and stupid — easily divided and easily frightened."..."We heard this slander of America so often that we all started to believe it, liberals most certainly included." Um, excuuuuuse me, Mr. Rich, but those are not the people I hang around with. While the majority of people bought into the fear dictum, there were a lot of us who were dismayed that so many people drank the Bush kool-aid and became the lemmings of group think. We wondered how so many people could have relinquished their rights, their ability to think things through, and buy into the wholesale fear of a terrorist golam that was invented by someone who couldn't even shoot straight? Now they cry, "We were hoodwinked!" We, the others who didn't believe the spoonfed rhetoric, were aghast that people, pundits and politicos went along with the Bush doctrine.

Rich goes on to say, "If I had a dollar for every Democrat who told me there was no way that Americans would ever turn against the war in Iraq or definitively reject Bush governance or elect a black man named Barack Hussein Obama president, I could almost start to recoup my 401(k). " Cute, but pathetic. Democrats are notoriously 'cajones-less'. For the record, I am not a Democrat. Why on earth would I want to be associated with such mindless wimps as Rich portrays them? If they had actually paid attention, and done something, then they would have known all of these things that Rich lists were impossible to conjure, were actually totally possible.

But then, these mushy Democrats prayed that someone would come to save them from the mess they let happen. They voted, and felt redeemed by shouting, "YES WE DID!" Yes they did allow Bush to take down this country. Where were the protests, where was the outcry when it mattered? Even last year? Boy, I hope they don't swing the other way and think that Obama is the Messiah. Obama has a shitload of a mess to clean up, and he's going to need everybody's help. Now is not the time to resume your couch potato position because your Saviour has arrived. Now is the time to for you to do a little meditating, and think of why you were so easily lead down the path to hell via the loathsome strategy of fear and division. Get out of your comfort zone, for good, and pay attention. All hands should be on deck now.

And Rich is amazed that young people reversed the thinking that they would be too lazy to vote. Thanks for the confidence. We know that young people weren't participants during the Bush theocracy*, but they are certainly engaged now, and forever, I hope. They showed those cynics, and put their money where their mouths are, worked their asses off and came out in droves to vote. Obama gave them something to believe in, and he embraced them. He tapped into their latent potential, and made them dig deep to prove they could deliver. I would bet that the average age of volunteers running campaign offices around the country was around 23. It was a thing to behold...seniors stapling campaign materials while twenty-somethings ran the show. They delivered all right.

This campaign has shown us one thing, loud and clear...that the Power of One, collectively, has the power to move mountains. If you ever doubted that you could make a difference, this election should permanently put that to rest. We can harness that power and make it known that WE are the bosses, the government our employees. Just as I marched, several times, with thousands of others against the Iraq war (how come we knew?), we can employ all the tools at our disposal, some new, some old - the internet, phone calling, letter writing, marching - to let government know that we have grown skeptical, and we will let our will be known when need be. Obama has promised a transparent government, and I believe him. That is not to say we will always agree with him, and it is also not to say that we must hit the streets with every policy disagreement. All I'm saying is that we should keep in mind our personal power and obligation to participate in our own governance. We cannot let anyone tell us what to think when they give us their version of classified information. We don't have to be paranoid, but we need to be vigilant and scrutinize, scrutinize, scrutinize.

As to my personal involvement in the campaign, I am a proud member of the most incredible grassroots organization this nation has ever seen. I am a PROUD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. If it weren't for the millions of volunteers who sacrificed jobs, money, time with loved ones, who overcame exhaustion and drowned in adrenalin, to make this Obama campaign successful, this victory would not have happened. And that is the power that was sound asleep during the eight years of the Bush nightmare. Now Democrats have seen what they are capable of doing.

Let us take this grassroots effort and keep it going. Let's keep it going so that we, the people, have a place in our own government, and a voice that will not be quelled. Let us never let something like the last eight years happen again...never again.

* Bush theocracy:
1. Mr Shaath said that in a 2003 meeting with Mr Bush, the US president said he was "driven
with a mission from God".

"God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did.

"And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it."

2. read this: http://www.beliefnet.com/News/Politics/2004/11/Did-God-Intervene.aspx?print=true

3. a very interesting article: http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:CKciCa4KPPEJ:www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php%3Fsid%3D808+bush+said+guided+by+god&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us

McCain vetting Joe the Plumber for Cabinet position

2008-10-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

The march to dumb down America has almost reached the nadir. I say 'almost', because I'm sure McCain still has a ways to go before he finally reaches the absolute depths of the shit he's in...up to his elbows and over his head. The only way to stop this man will be the election. Finally.

Now he's trotting out Joe the Fucking Plumber, who, by the way, isn't even a fucking plumber. McCain has elevated some doofus to the national stage and given him credibility as though he were some kind of oracle. In my post, A Confederacy of Dunces, I wrote how the Republicans are glorifying averageness and ordinariness, and stigmatizing exceptionalism. So, here is Joe the Twit spouting off about how you should read and be informed when he can't even put two words together that convey an actual thought.

What a joke. Seriously, the next thing you know there'll be a Cabinet position created just for average Joes, and Joe the Schmoe will be the head of it. A lovely complement to Brownie...remember Brownie of Katrina fame? Book ends, the two of them.

I wish I had more time to write more of what's on my mind but these last weeks have been so intense for we volunteers, and I'm off to Colorado, tomorrow, to pound the pavement canvassing until Monday night. I don't yet have a laptop so I won't be able to write from there. I hope everyone is doing something productive these last few days - phone banking, canvassing, data entry, whatever's needed - as we get our final wind to get us through to the finish line.

Here's to VICTORY, and to the beginning of the age of aquarius (lower case as we want to manage our expectations). ONWARD!

Palin Shopping Spree Sets Women Candidates Back 100 Years

2008-10-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you following this blog, you know that I've already fumed about Palin being selected, unvetted, largely because of her looks (see post: Sarah Palin's Book Deal about the Beauty Myth), but now, with this absurd shopping spree, women candidates will be seen as high maintentance, requiring extra campaign funds to make them look presentable...to men.

If Palin only had mukluks and flouncy dresses in her own closet, and they wanted to streamline her wardrobe, why not go to Target or Ross or thrift stores, where her compatriot hockey moms really go to shop? And, oh, the family, too, has been all gussied up to appeal to the sophisticated Republican voters in the Lower Forty-Eight. What about that little Piper carrying a new Louis Vuitton bag? Are they serious?

Hey, you can you take the girl and her family out of Alaska, but can you take the Alaska out of the girl, or her family? Who knows. Palin's appearance on SNL gave her a taste of Hollywood, of life outside of, as we are reminded endlessly, the coldest state, and my guess is, she liked it, she really, really liked it. You know, hobnobbing with the cast, being told you're 'hot' by Alec Baldwin, all the new clothes, new exposure to life in the medium fast lane. Can she just Go Home Again and be the plain ole Sarah she once was? I doubt it.

But, this whole episode is great, really. It's just another brilliant, Republican revelation that shows just how out of touch they are...and have been...and will continue to be.

High Anxiety & a Potpourri of Other Observations

2008-10-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

You know that expression "deer caught in the headlights" look on someone's face? Well, that's what people here in L.A. look like...a bunch of pod people almost paralyzed by the anxiety of reading the tea leaves of whatever poll Drudge dredges up to scare people. Really, the tension is palpable and you can see the wheels turning when thoughts stray to the possibility of what they should do if Obama loses: "Damn, which country should I move to? I only speak English. Ok, maybe a little Spanish. I knew I should have gone to Paris in my sophmore year...I'd so be speaking French.", "Should I reserve a mover now? God, I hope they don't rip me off.", "Should I sell or rent the house...shit the market's so down and who's gonna want to come and live here, anyway, if McPain is in charge? I should've sold last year. What a dumbass...", and so on.

Well, folks, just relax. I am. I am, because when I started to volunteer for Obama the day he announced, I KNEW he would be President. And that was when Hillary was a shoo-in, when blacks said a black man could never be elected, when Latinos were died-in-the-wool Hillary supporters who said they would never support a black man. Now, there is not one Latino that I have spoken to who is not voting for Obama.

We've come a long way, baby, and take my word for it, come November 5th, you will see headlines that trumpet, President-elect Barack Obama. If you must, drink your way through the next 12 days or take whatever drug gets you through, chant or don't listen to the news, but there is something constructive that you CAN do...HELP (YES YOU CAN!). Find a phone bank near you. Go to: http://www.barackobama.com, you'll see 5 options to VOLUNTEER. Do it. Find a phone bank near you and call call call those swing states, help those undecided voters decide to vote for Obama. You'll feel better rather than hiding under the sofa until November 4th.

As you know, you are not alone in your anxiety. Larry David knows just how you feel, cause he's feeling the same way: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-david/waiting-for-nov-4th_b_137029.html

And, speaking of undecideds, I ran into a friend of mine yesterday who was exasperated by the fact that there were any undecideds at this stage...for either candidate. As he said, what more do they need to know?! Then, coincidentally, the New Yorker had an article by David Sedaris about the very same thing...funny: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/10/27/081027sh_shouts_sedaris

However, the other question that is most on people's minds is voter fraud, caging, suppression, and other nefarious methods the Republicans plan to use to steal this election. The best way to overcome any of that is to have the biggest voter turnout ever Ever EVER. The numbers need to be so big that they overcome any question about votes being counted. That's the first and most important factor. But, IF the race should be close, and there are suspicions or outright evidence of stealing votes, I guarantee there will be blood in the streets. Passivity is over, righteous action will prevail, and Republicans better be wearing their body armour. (This is not a threat...just a prediction.) That's why police in cities, far and wide, will be out there to tamp down any unrest. The police are often the provocateurs, so let's hope they don't ignite a firestorm if things don't go the 'right way' voting-wise.

And here's a creative twist...I was talking to another friend of mine about the disgusting McPain campaign, and he predicted that McCain is so desperate, and will do anything, that even McCain is going to endorse Obama hoping for a numbers bounce. Loved it.

Psycho Jesse Jackson Needs a Permanent Time-Out

2008-10-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

What is with these has-been males that can't bear to be away from the glare of the spotlight? First, it's Bill Clinton hogging the front pages with his absurd, subtextual racist rantings and now, for the second time, super narcissist, Jesse Jackson covers every incendiary flash point that might hurt, or at the very least, slow down Barack Obama's ascent to winning this Presidential election. Read the whole disgusting hit speech by Jackson:http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_o_jesse_knows_133450.htm?page=0

Read how Jackson targets the worst suspicions of conservative Jews with this statement:

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.

I just know my mailbox will be full of condemnation by my right wing Jewish friends and family (yes, believe it or not, I know some right wing nuts) after they read Jackson's outrageous speculative statements. And get THIS, Jackson has the temerity to speak as though he's directly channeling Barack and hits at the worst suspicions of people who believe that he's a Muslim.

"Barack is determined to repair our relations with the world of Islam and Muslims," Jackson says. "Thanks to his background and ecumenical approach, he knows how Muslims feel while remaining committed to his own faith."

What's wrong with being a Muslim? Nothing. It's just that Jackson knows that it plays right into the lies about Barack's background, and feeds the frenzy against him. And, also by saying this, Jackson promulgates bigoted notions about Muslims. With every 'hit' Jackson makes on the fears of the ignorant, he attempts to take Obama down. Call it envy, call it jealousy, call it sheer hubris, it's disgusting and Jackson knows exactly what he's doing. He needs to have a permanent time-out as of right now.

UPDATE:

The Obama campaign has quickly responded to Jackson's tirade; and, of course repudiated everything Jackson made up to satisfy his bloodsucking jealousy. Remember, this is the Jesse Jackson that, not so long ago, was heard on an open mic that he wanted to castrate Obama. Here's the update: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/obama-camp-resp.html

The McCarthy Hearings & Sarah Palin: 54 Years Later

2008-10-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

What do Joe McCarthy and Sarah Palin have in common? Believe it or not, a lot. I'll let this letter from Norman Mailer to friends Charley and Jill Devlin, April 30, 1954, as published in a recent New Yorker, speak for itself, and I quote:

The McCarthy hearings are being televised these days, and I catch them from time to time. If you’ve never seen McCarthy you’ll have a surprise when you do. What all his critics fail to admit is that he has enormous charm and sex appeal, and a characteristic man’s man way of talking which dominates everyone around him, so that to a person ignorant of politics, he would seem just wonderful. The result is that it’s truly terrifying to watch him work, because you wonder how can this man be stopped? Yet, on the other hand it’s possibly not as bad as it seems, for I think a lot of his support is not active enthusiasm for his ideas, methods, etc., but simply the response of ignorant people to his vast and clever charm. The hope there is that when all the showdowns come, his minions may be startled to discover the ideas behind this guy they think is so great. The hope, I believe, is that he remain a reactionary. Just let him pick up a social program, and he’ll be dictator, because as a demagogue he is really extraordinary. Even hating him, you have to admire him because he’s so good at what he does. . . .

Love to you,

Norm

Just substitute Sarah Palin for McCarthy, and where Mailer refers to 'him', sub 'her' and reread it. Frightening. She seems as prone as McCarthy was to wild, unsubstantiated attacks, and fear mongering. Assuming one agrees with Mailer about McCarthy's sex appeal, it is undeniable that Palin's attractiveness and 'charm' give her a platform that probably would be denied someone less so. But, as McCarthy eventually fell from grace, inevitably, so too, will Sarah Palin; and, soon, she will be sent packing home to Alaska...to get ready for her reality TV show, you know is coming. (see earlier post)

P.S. By the way, her about-to-be son-in-law is now a high school dropout. Continuing the saga of Palin family values.

McCain Beyond PTSD

2008-10-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

Stunningly revelatory, today John McCain referred to fellow citizens as 'fellow prisoners'. I won't even say 'mistakenly said' because it's beyond that. John McCain lives in an alternate reality that obviously includes flashbacks to his celebrated days as a POW. And, adding insult to injury (his mental state), he followed that with, "....and now the same standard of clarity and candor must be applied to my opponent." Sounds like he's entreating Obama to join him in the nut house. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7AET4i6L74&NR=1

You'll notice that there isn't even a moment's hesitation or recognition that he misspoke. Palin and McCain's daughter (I think it's his daughter) are standing behind him, and an ever so slightly nonplussed look washes over their faces. Did he mean to say that? That we are all prisoners of this economic crisis? If that's what he meant, then he was positively poetic, but somehow, he just doesn't seem the poetic type. More like an ever more bewildered old man lost in the wilderness of his jumbled mind, completely out of touch with any sense of personal integrity or moral compass. Something broke inside McCain, and it's ugly to watch someone who was once considered a man of honor, morph into a caricature of a man he probably never thought he'd become.

John McCain's suicide attempt and his resulting PTSD

2008-10-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

The issue of John McCain's PTSD has been kicking around for quite a while, and always seems to skim along just beneath the surface of an outright media story. There is so much evidence of his erratic (to be polite) behavior, given the hours of video on him, not to mention articles such as the one that follows, we must make sure this is an issue that is just too important to ignore. There must be a hew and cry to release all his medical and psychological records immediately. Do we want Dr. Strangelove to come to life?

This is from an article by Ted Sampley for the U.S. Veteran Dispatch/December 23, 2007:

"McCain says because he survived 5½ years of brutal torture, while a prisoner of the communist Vietnamese, he is better qualified to be president of the United States than any other candidate. McCain claims his POW sufferings included three years in solitary confinement where he was tortured so badly that he "broke," causing him to attempt suicide.

What McCain's promoters have carefully edited out of their McCain-for-president equation is his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Department of Defense psychiatrists have evaluated McCain for PTSD several times, the results of which remain locked by privacy laws.

PTSD can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which physical harm occurred or was threatened. U.S. government studies have concluded that former POWs "may remain embroiled in a harsh psychological battle with themselves for decades after returning home."

An outcome of PTSD is a subtle web of personal problems including difficulty in controlling intense emotions such as anger and an inability to function well under stress.

Psychologist Patricia B. Sutker of the New Orleans Veterans Administration Medical Center and her colleagues reported in a 1991 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry that as many as nine of 10 surviving U.S. servicemen taken captive during the Korean War may suffer from PTSD and other mental disorders more than 35 years after their release."

For the full article: http://www.usvetdsp.com/dec07/mccain_suicide_ptsd.htm

Sarah Palin's Book Deal

2008-10-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

You just have to know that, after last night's debate, publishers are sharp elbowing their way to get to Palin's future publicist...or agent, as in Hollywood agent. And, I can hear the keyboards clicking in Starbucks around the country where screenwriters are getting out those 'Sarah' screenplays as fast as you can say, "Bridge to nowhere." I wouldn't be surprised, either, if reality tv goes knocking on the Palin bunch's front door for the next season of "Sarah: LIVE!"

Sarah Palin will get millions of dollars in book, tv, and movie offers which will move her far far away from that middle class kitchen table, or else buy her a new one. This chick has a bright celebrity future...and, I dare say, will be a bright star in the Republican constellation for years to come.

The interesting thing about this is that if Sarah Palin looked like Josephine Six-Pack, a beer bellied, plain Jane with nose hairs and unplucked eyebrows, Sarah would still be dressing moose(es) and watching out for Putin's plane from her front porch. The fact that female looks prevail over intellectual substance is not a new notion. It's been covered in Naomi Wolf's book, The Beauty Myth, and is so blatantly personified by Sarah Palin. Look, the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, made an international ass of himself because he couldn't resist telling Palin she was ''gorgeous". Now, if she had used that encounter to make Zardari help us get Bin Laden, then that would have been a positive way of using her looks. But, did she do that? No. She smiled coyly and thanked him.

Tons of accusations of sexism were made during the Primary, and most of them were a real stretch; but, the kind of sexist criticism targeted at Hillary's hair, Hillary's clothes, Hillary's makeup, Hillary's voice, and more, are never leveled against men. I mean, there was a story recently about McCain's $5000 a day makeup artist, who had to cover up his hideous 6 inch scar from his recurring cancer, but the item was hardly noticed and died a tractionless death. There certainly is a higher 'looks' bar for women. If Palin were the female equivalent of Fred Thompson, do you think we'd even know her name, even as the most popular governor of a cold state? Where would Golda Meir be if she had been a candidate in the good ole U.S. of A.?

Look, it's pretty discouragin', that beauty trumps intellect, lucky if you have both, but gosh darn, I'm not gonna let this get me down. I'm gonna keep readin' my books, and I sure do look forward to readin' the one about Sarah sometime soon, cause ya know it's in the works, you betcha.

A Confederacy of Dunces

2008-10-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

On the eve of the Vice Presidential debate, I am sickened by the attitude of the Republican spin machine that is now glorifying ordinariness, and stigmatizing exceptionalism. It's as if it's not cool to be educated, to aspire to high-mindedness, to be well read, to get a PhD., be an intellectual. You're to be ridiculed if you are smart and know the answers to simple questions about U.S. history and books or newspapers.

Sam Stein in the Huffington Post writes: "McCain aide Meg Stapleton was also playing up Palin's "Joe Six-Pack" attributes, even arguing that Palin's "experience as an ordinary American" qualified her to be "one heartbeat away" from the Oval Office..."

You have got to be kidding? I'm afraid not. There's more: "if she becomes president of the United States, she is ready, and that is because she has the experience of an ordinary American who can get in there and knows what is on people's minds and what people need."

Simply put, the Republicans are advocating that your friendly couch potato, next door neighbor is qualified to be President of the United States. Is this the message we want to tell the world? Or ourselves? "Kick it DOWN a notch...or two." This is terrifying. More than the bail out.

The United States already has grim illiteracy rates: http://tinyurl.com/3x23wp

Illiteracy Statistics

42 million American adults can't read at all; 50 million are unable to read at a higher level that is expected of a fourth or fifth grader.
The number of adults that are classified as functionally illiterate increases by some 2.25 million each year.
20 percent of all graduating high school seniors can be classified as being functionally illiterate.

Source: National Right to Read Foundation

Where Illiteracy Leads

70 percent of state and federal prisoners can be classified as illiterate.
85 percent of all juvenile offenders may be classified as functionally or marginally illiterate.
43 percent of those whose literacy skills are lowest live in poverty.

Source: National Institute for Literacy

This is what happens when you can't read. You end up in prison or in a lifetime of poverty. But the Republicans want you to believe that, if you do read a bit or know just enough to 'get by', and have a cute personality, guess what? You can, at the very least, be Vice President of the United States.

If, as Jonathan Swift said, "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Does that mean that we simply haven't recognized the true genius that is Sarah Palin? If not, I will happily be called a dunce.

The Thrilla in Missoura!!!

2008-10-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

Holy cow! This VP debate is bigger than the Thrilla in Manila! Bigger than "One small step for Mankind"! Bigger than the Oscars!!

There's a sense that people are scurrying around trying to leave work early (out west) so they can get to their debate watching parties on time. And, while there's no red carpet, the excitement everywhere is palpable, people are hyped (without the assistance of caffeine or other substances), and as one blogger (or someone) mentioned, this debate is like watching a NASCAR race and just waiting for the car wreck.

Biden has to answer questions skillfully - he already knows some of them and the plan of the Palin attack - be relaxed, funny and charming, and let Palin talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. The way Palin spouts her answers, she reminds me of Silly String...all that brightly colored plastic mousse getting entangled everywhere and making a hideous mess. (By the way, Silly String is banned in Canada, and hopefully, this Palin can of hot air will also be dispatched.)

Well, let the countdown begin, tighten your seatbelts, and hang on for crazy ride!

Interesting Poll Analysis by FiveThirtyEight

2008-10-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Real Credibility Problems

Last week, I (Nate Silver) discussed Real Clear Politics' decision to exclude the Research 2000 daily tracking poll from their national averages. After a lengthy discussion with RCP founder John McIntyre, I decided to defend them, pointing out that while RCP may have a debatable framework for deciding which polls they do or do not include, they at least appeared to have applied this framework consistently.

My gut-level takeaway from my conversation with McIntyre was somewhat different from what I represented, however. My gut-level feeling was that RCP was in fact cherry-picking those results that were to its liking, and then coming up with post-facto rationalizations to justify its decisions.

For the rest of the article: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Sarah Palin ...You're Not in Alaska Anymore

2008-10-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Gawd, can I just say how sick I am of this whole debate 'low bar', 'raising the bar', winning without a 'bar', talking heads blabbering on about who's gonna win the Biden/Palin debate...enough already. Let the debate begin!

Listen, pretend for a moment you're Sarah Palin. Really small town gal in the big city. How 'bout in a big country? And what about being on the World Stage? As clueless as she's appeared, Sarah's got to be thinking about how the eyes of the world will be on her. But, then again, maybe she's not, as her misconstrued self-confidence glows like the halo of an impenetrable bubble of ignorance around her pretty little head. A bubble that filters the ways, and news, and facts of the outside world for her. She seems to live in a Wonderland of denial.

So, Sarah, you can snow people in Alaska, but the lower 48 actually read papers (is that elitist?) and have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the world; they may even know some facts. Hey, you're about to wake up and realize, "Sarah, you're not in Alaska anymore!" This is gonna be fun.

Age of Aquarius?

2008-09-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Instead of looking at the 'bailout catastrophe' as the end of the world, why not see it as the beginning a new world order? Without hyperbole, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to right the egregious imbalance of the 'haves' and 'have nots' or 'haves very little'. First of all, there is no need to rush to pass a troubled, "less than perfect" bill just to appease the fat cats without considering creative, viable alternatives. And that takes time. Time that, in the end, would prove time well spent to come up with solutions that make sense for everybody.

This doesn't mean that Karl Marx would be riding into town, that there would be an automatic redistribution of wealth - although it would be nice, but an equitable solution could bring people at the top, down to earth - well, they'd still be hovering above ground, for sure - and would, at least, give people who are struggling, a sense that their concerns are being addressed, and dealt with.

My hope is that Obama takes a real leadership role in this, has the courage to not cowtow to pressure from Wall Street, but does, indeed, take the principled stand to stand up for Main Street (new buzz words).

I have believed in Obama, the man (not his every stance on issues) as have millions of others, and I have volunteered for him from the very first day he announced his candidacy to run for President, opining that with his ascension to President, we might all rise to become our better selves...that materialism, greed, and abject self-interest would drown in the Swamp of Avarice, and penury would be offered a helping hand. We can see the Age of Aquarius just peeking over the horizon...all we have to do is have the fortitude to not succumb to the forces at the top, to those who want to keep their status quo while not improving ours.

Here is our opportunity to right the ark...the ark that is so lopsided that it is in danger of sinking with the majority going down first while the 'ruling class' at the top claws desperately to try and save themselves by clinging to the rotten starboard rails.

Here's your chance to be heroic, Obama. Be the White/Black Knight that gallops onto stage left, and "saves the day!" Bring all sides together, as you say you're good at, and don't leave the stage until you have brokered a sensible bill. The Age of Aquarius is depending on you.

National Enquirer Coming Through as Predicted!

2008-09-24T15:49:00.001-07:00

Ok, the story's breaking as per my post of September 8:
The World Will Be Saved by the National Enquirer

Here's the latest: http://www.nationalenquirer.com/national_enquirer_world_exclusive_sarah_palins_secret_lover_revealed/celebrity/65481

The Enemies List of the Obama Campaign as Compiled by Me

2008-09-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Public Obama Enemy # 1. BILL CLINTON
This is what happens when deep psychological pathology intersects with unbridled ambition and lust for power with a vengeful, reptilian nature with a Rushmore-like ego with a sickening paucity of a moral compass. Here's the disgusting non-endorsement by the spiteful, Bill Clinton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dns6oX4p98

Email conversation between me and my son:

Son: i don't think Clinton understands how much he's hurting his standing with this stuff. i dislike him way more than i dislike his wife.

Me: i never liked the sonofabitch, and now i have nothing but contempt for him. if the clintons think that, if Obama loses, we will rally around her in 2012 (the year the world is supposed to come to an end), they are clearly smoking something very strong. i never understood that thinking 6 months ago, and it doesn't make any better sense now. do they think that no one else will emerge or be worthy to run then?

Obama will win November 4th. Period. The Clintons can start their own country. Maybe they can hook up with the Palins, have Alaska secede from the Union and form some kind of monarchy. Then they can battle amongst themselves. Possibilities abound.

Info re: current EV = Electoral Votes

2008-09-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

Also from my polling friend (numbers as of 9/19/08):

Obama: 311 McCain: 227 Others: 0 MoE: 50 (Obama leads McCain by about 1.68 times the MoE)

Critical states: NV(Obama), CO(Obama), NM(Obama), IN(McCain), OH(Obama), PA(Obama), VA(Omaba).

Other states that could shift based on the perception of the debates: NH(Obama), WV(McCain), WI(Obama), MI(OBama), MN(OBama), MO(McCain), MT(McCain)

Obama has more to lose from the debates than McCain, but this is not surprising. When you are in the lead, you have more opportunities to lose.

NOTE:
The meaning of the MoE can vary from poll to poll. When some polls say MoE 4% they mean +/- 4%. That is the %-age for a candidate can be from 4% higher to 4% lower. Their MoE is twice as wide as our MoE.

Some polls use MoE to mean standard deviation. So their MoE means that there is a 68.2% chance that the actual results will lie within their +/- MoE.

BTW: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com has good analytical methodology. I recommend following it as well.

Are you interested in polls and what they mean? Here's some very instructive information.

2008-09-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

If you're at all interested in what the hell the polls mean, here is one explanation, from a friend of mine who works in a polling group, when I asked what MoE, margin of error, means. Even I understood it. If you're interested in more explanations, leave me a comment and I'll follow up. Here it is:

MoE is Margin of error. So 293 with a MoE of 45 means it could be as little as 270.5 and as much as 315.5. (NOTE: 315.5 - 270.5 = 45, the MoE). Obama has a margin of error range of 315.5 to 270.5 with 293 (the middle of the range) being the most likely.

OK, ignore that fact that you cannot get a 1/2 vote.

The total EV is 538. So if Obama has 293, then that leaves 245 for everyone else.

No 3rd party candidate is even close to getting anything other than 0 so McCain winds up with the remaining 245.

So this is why we say:

Obama: 293 (middle of the MoE range) McCain: 245 (everything else) Others: 0 (nothing even close) with a MoE of 45.

What does that mean in terms of chances of winning? Well ...

The actual vote will lie within the MoE range (315.5 to 270.5) 75% of the time. This means 25% of the time we are outside the margin going either higher or lower than the MoE range. When the election is this close you can think that 1/2 of those "outside the margin" casses or 12.5% of the time the vote will be above the MoE range. So 12.5% of the time Obama could get more than 315.5 EV.

The same goes for below the MoE range. So 12.5% of the times Obama could get less than 270.5 EV.

This is not exactly the case. The above MoE case is a little less than 12.5%. The below the MoE case is a little more than 12.5%. However for a race that is not a land slide, splitting the 25% into two equal parts for above and below the MoE range is a good enough approximation.

Back to the "good enough approximation":

So 12.5% of the time, it could be higher than 315.5 (Obama wins by an even bigger margin then we expect) and 12.5% of the time it could be lower than 270.5.

Obviously, if it is higher than 315.5 Obama still wins. What about the below the MoE case? Well, Obama has a narrow win at 270. At 269 there is a tie.

What happens if it is a 269 to 269 tie? When no candidate has 270- votes, the selection of the President is made by the house and the selection of the Vice Preside is made by the senate picked from the CURRENT 110th congress membership. Assume that house and senate members vote along party lines.

In the senate each member has 1 vote. Voting along party lines means that Biden would be selected VP, winning by 1 vote.

In the house each state casts 1 vote. States where the membership is split 50/50 would be unable to vote and would cast present (voting for none). For example AZ 8 house members are split 4 D's and 4 R's. McCain's home state would not be able to vote for him. So if the Presidential election where thrown into House and members vote along party lines, Obama wins by 9 votes (with two states AZ and KS not voting for any candidate).

So Obama and Biden both win on a 269-269 tie with McCain.

Anything at or below 268 for Obama and McCain wins.

Now you need 270 to win, so with Obama at 293 with a 45 MoE, we mean that he has slightly better than 87.5% chance of winning IF the election were held today. (Sept. 19)

When you bring in a number of minor technical factors (2nd order effects), the 87.5% win chance becomes about 87.8%.

=-=

So when you lead by the MoE, about 7 out of 8 times you will win.

It turns out that when you lead by 1/2 the MoE you will win about 2 out of 3 times.

And when you lead by twice the MoE you will win about 19 times out of 20

A True Elitist in Commoner Clothing

2008-09-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

This woman is a true elitist in commoner clothing who wields her alleged prominent social position like a Sarah Palin moose rifle, and suffers from an extreme sense of self-importance. Read my earlier post of Tuesday, July 8: Hillraisers behaving like Hillbrats Check her out and write her a letter...but make sure the stationary is engraved.

September 16, 2008

Posted: 10:07 PM ET

A prominent backer of Hillary Clinton is endorsing McCain.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president on Wednesday, her spokesman tells CNN.

The announcement will take place at a news conference on Capitol Hill, just blocks away from the DNC headquarters. Forester will “campaign and help him through the election,” the spokesman said of her plans to help the Republican presidential nominee.

Forester was a major donor for Clinton earning her the title as a Hillraiser for helping to raise at least $100,000 for the New York Democratic senator’s failed presidential bid.

In an interview with CNN this summer, http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/09/clinton.obama/index.html?iref=newssearch#cnnSTCVideo Forester did not hide her distaste for eventual Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

“This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don't like him,” she said of Obama in an interview with CNN’s Joe Johns. “I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”

Forester is the CEO of EL Rothschild, a holding company with businesses around the world. She is married to international banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. Forester is a member of the DNC’s Democrats Abroad chapter and splits her time living in London and New York.

Biden Resigning. The Devil Made Him Do It.

2008-09-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

Who is the Devil that made Biden resign, you ask? Why, it's that special someone who bought John McCain's soul, Ms. Sarah Palin. See, her last name has the exact same amount of letters as the word 'devil', two letters are the same, and the 'p' looks like an upsidedown 'd'. That's proof enough for me. A She-Devil with lipstick is still a devil. Enough said about McCain and selling himself out for cold, blind ambition, but it is a wonder to watch someone morph into the dark side of himself. If there really is karma, then here's a perfect opportunity to witness it.

So, Joe Biden said something stupid. Here's the whole miserable quote:

“Make no mistake about this,” Biden responded. “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight. She’s a truly close personal friend, she is qualified to be president of the United States of America, she’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America, and quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me. But she’s first rate, I mean that sincerely, she’s first rate, so let’s get that straight.”

Ya know what, Joe? Why dontcha just resign and let Hillary back on stage for her close-up. Between the lines, you practically said she was more qualified than Obama, and you said she's a better pick than you. So, seriously, resign. It's easy. It's been done before. You're never gonna be Prez. And, heavens knows, we could use more drama in this ho hum campaign.

Really, just think of it. Biden resigns. Hillary gets a 3am phone call from Barack, "Hill, this is, uh, uh, the 3am phone call you've been waiting for. Get, uh, up, and get your sunny pantsuit self over here. Uh, Biden's, uh, resigned and you're next up...uh, uh, I mean, I should've picked you in the first place but, uh uh, well, hey, that's water under the bridge, so, I'm askin' you, Hillary, will you, uh, uh, be my running mate? This ticket needs a kick in the ass and you're the shitkicker we need. Uh, Uh, just a joke. C'mon, let's take the Gold together." She accepts. Man, that would be AWESOME.

Is it fantasy? It could be fact. Nothing has been stranger or more surprising than this election.

Skip One Starbucks & Donate the Dollars to Obama

2008-09-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

Skip One Starbucks & Donate the Dollars to Obama

Target: Very Concerned Citizens

Sponsored by: Money is the Mother's Milk of Politics
Sign this petition and forward to everyone you know: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/skip-a-Starbucks-give-Obama

PLEASE skip just ONE Starbucks drink (sorry Starbucks), and donate that amount to the Victory for Obama campaign: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

It's a little sacrifice to make sure there is enough money to battle the McPain smear machine. Give more, or more often, if you like, but even a little goes a long way.

Thank you, and here's to an Obama victory November 4th!

The World Will Be Saved by the National Enquirer

2008-09-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Never has a tabloid been so crucial in an election...nevermind a Presidential election. Actually, The National Enquirer is my go-to source for all things scuzzy, disreputable, potentially career-ending, but TRUE dirt on celebs and hypocritical politicos. I am placing all bets on The Enquirer to uncover the dirt that matters about Sarah "faux Hillary" Palin. You can run, Sarah, but you can't hide behind a moose (moose cliches already worn out but I hadn't used my cliche allotment yet), or little Trig, for that matter.

I have total confidence that The Enquirer will ferret out, and dole out the dough, to find out the details of Sarah's affair with First Dude's business partner back in the go-go 90's, despite all attempts of the McPains to seal all divorce files. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that Sarah read Shakespeare in one of her 5 colleges, as this runner-up beauty queen puts Lady Macbeth to shame. But I doubt it. There's so much more one can skew SP with, but I'm not going to expend any more energy on her...I'm leaving that for The Enquirer, and when they do, they should get the Nobel Peace Prize for averting a McPain administration that would have us at war around the planet.

Enough said. I can't wait for the next issue: http://www.nationalenquirer.com/

The PALINdrome Syndrome

2008-09-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

palindrome: noun - a word or phrase that reads the same backward as forward

Much ado about nothing: Sarah Palin. The 'much ado' part is what's distressing because this feels like a pod blasted into the atmosphere, tumbled to earth, then exploded and brought forth an alien invader in the form of Sarah Palin. Here is where the movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, conjures a sort of déjà vu except that Communism is replaced by right wing extremism. Here's a synposis of the movie:

"The theme of the cautionary, politicized film was open to varying interpretations, including paranoia toward the spread of a harmful ideology such as socialistic Communism, or the sweeping mass hysteria of McCarthyism (read: evangelical, right wing conservatism) in the 1950s (in 2008!) and blacklisting of Hollywood (read: blacklisting of anyone who has read a book), the spread of an unknown malignancy or virulent germ (read fear of annihilation by 'nuclear war'), or the numbing of our individuality and emotional psyches through conformity and group-think (read: FEAR). Yet its main theme was the alien (read 'Communist') dehumanization and take-over of an entire community by large seed pods (found in basements, automobile trunks, a greenhouse, and on a pool table)(found in communities in Alaska and red states that are, unfortunately, too numerous to mention) that replicated and replaced human beings (Mission Accomplished in red states...okay, not every single person). And it told of the heroic struggle of one helpless but determined man of conscience, a small-town doctor (McCarthy) (OBAMA), to vainly combat and quell the deadly, indestructible threat. "

Let's hope the election ends as well as the movie. Ok, back to "palindrome". Sarah Palin feels like someone who is both going forward and backward (the 1950's) at the same time. All of a sudden we are thrown back to the post war 50's...over 50YEARS ago... by some small time mayor from a small time town, now a governor of a state with a population less than the south side of Chicago, to a time when everything seemed, on the surface, so black and white. (No racial reference intended while, at the same time, it is quite apt.) Sarah Palin feels like a life threatening virus we have all suddenly contracted, and don't know exactly where we picked it up. Did we not wash our hands thoroughly enough while we were watching the Republican convention? Did we leave the room at exactly the wrong time and the virus jumped through the t.v.? Who knows, but this is a time for heavy antibiotics and the doctor says: don't stop taking them til November 5th.

Cirque du McPain & How to End It

2008-09-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I'm a little sick of hearing about Sarah Palin. The circus that has become Cirque du McPain has more sky high acrobatics, spin and truth twisting derring-do rhetoric than it is possible for all the bloggers, and the National Enquirer, to verify. I have made a pact with myself that I will leave all the hand-wringing, angst ridden outrage to everybody else; and, I recommend you do the same. It's an energy sucker. We need that energy to stay focused on our task...get Obama elected. We've got work to do and don't need to pay attention to this asinine distraction manufactured by the Republican Rove machine - well, Steve Schmidt machine, a Rove alumni - that would keep us from thinking clearly and strategically.

First of all, get out your wallet. Yes, I know...I've heard it all, "Obama has a ton of money". Fortunately, it's true, and he's sure gonna need it. I don't need to tell you how much the Republicans have and will use every last penny on trying to demonize our man. I just beg you, give til it hurts. This is an investment we can't afford not to make, and come November 5th, when President Barack Obama addresses his legions, you'll be happy that you bought this stock. Better than Google. Donate here: http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

The next this thing to do, is VOLUNTEER. Obama has built an extraordinary grassroots field organization (I've been a proud volunteer since the day he announced), and it is people on the ground who are going to make the difference by reaching out to phone bank undecideds, visit battleground states, and eventually, GOTV - Get Out The Vote - the day of the election. Sign up here: http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/volunteer

Look, the McPain's are going to be around no matter how passionately you point out to your friends that, "Can you believe how that bitch (oops) lies about her record? Bridge to nowhere? She should be on it." or "Did you see how she was exploiting little Trig (the names and her family sound like they're straight out of The World According to Garp), carrying him around like a badge?" If you can change the reality of the McPain's, then more power to you. But, if you are a mere mortal worried about the outcome of the election, then stop thinking about them and do something positive.

Here's a way to release your frustration and outrage...have you ever heard of The Primal Scream? Here it is in a nutshell: get yourself in a padded room, think of the McPain's...let the feelings build until you're about to explode, and here's the kicker: let out a good, long blood curdling scream. You'll feel better, honest, and you'll be able to move on, out of the McPain orbit.

Once you've done that, you may read a maximum of two bloggers a day about the idiocy that is the McPain's, and then get to work. Later then.

Excellent editorial from the Washington Post

2008-09-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402842.html?referrer=emailarticle

The Stunning Hypocrisy of the GOP and How They Play the Game

2008-09-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

Once again, the Republicans are masterfully spinning, what they would ordinarily find so reprehensible, into the proverbial Lemonade/Kool Aid. Can you imagine if one of Obama's daughters were 17, unmarried and pregnant? Or even if one of his, or Michelle's close relatives, were? The idea that having an unmarried, pregnant teen is a real family value that humanizes Palin, and puts her in touch with real families, is stunning in its concept, and the fact that the conservative base is swallowing this sugar-coated faux birth control pill is...well, I can't wrap my head around it.

That said, Dems better take note as so articulately stated in this article: LAKOFF: PALIN APPEALS TO VOTERS EMOTIONS...DEMS BEWARE: http://www.alternet.org/election08/97193

And, I know this notion will raise it's "I told you so" head...that Hillary should have been the VP nominee, cause Sarah Palin probably would never have been nominated as the experience question would have been dead in the water. And, even on the daughter front, Chelsea vs. Bristol, would have made it hard to validate Bristol's fall from grace. But, there would be challenges with any VP nominee, and I believe Hillary would have energized the Republicans in another very ugly way. We were dealt this hand and so be it. By the way, did you notice how much Bristol's boyfriend looks like her dad?

While the spotlight is now on the Republicans, the real final bout of this election will come after the final convention curtain, and now is the time for Democrats to step out of their prissy comfort zone and fight back with cajones. The world is at stake.

Headlines Happening Now...an ongoing drama

2008-09-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

ALASKAN GOP FAMILY VALUES
Britney's sister, unmarried mom, Jamie Lynn Spears, was thrilled to hear that Bristol Palin, 17, is unmarried and pregnant, and laughingly admonished Bristol by asking, "What took you so long?! I did it when I was 16!" Jamie turned serious and offered to mentor Bristol, and immediately offered advice, "Hey, why marry the dude, he'll just be a ball and chain for your social life. Oh, I heard your mom was running for Vice President. I'm sure she's so proud that you're making her a grandma at this time. Hey, text me whenever...I'll get back to you as soon my mom relieves me of this little toy, I mean boy."

MITT ROMNEY TO ENDORSE OBAMA
A shock and a shudder rippled through the Republican party, as assumptive nominee for VP, Mitt Romney announced that he would endorse Barack Obama for President siting John McCain's colossal lack of judgment in passing him over for Sarah "faux Hillary Clinton" Palin. He did not throw a hissy fit, however, and maintained his Ken doll affect when he said, "What a senile old coot. That's the last thing we need in the White House...a woman." Romney was immediately informed of Sarah Palin's impending grandparenthood, and released a terse statement: "Congratulations to Sarah Palin for being such an awesome mother."

HA, HA, HA...YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING

By NATHAN THORNBURGH/WASILLA

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837862,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
In Wasilla, Pregnancy was no secret
"Well, here's the deal: small towns have their own value systems, and in this situation those values are more a lot more valid than the dispassionate, pushy inquisitiveness that political journalism encourages."

Puhlease. This 'unbiased' journalist is actually spinning that in small towns it's cool to have unsafe, teenage sex, get pregnant, be unmarried, and the press should lay off, and the mother of said pregnant, unmarried teen is McCain's VP choice? This guy should get sober before he writes up his stuff.

More Denver Convention Stuff Up Ahead (like maybe tomorrow)

2008-08-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

APOLOGIES to those who were left high 'n dry after the second Denver post. Once the convention started, it became impossible on 3 1/2 hrs. sleep a night to function, much less blog. So, I promise I will write about the convention, but must go do my share of phone banking to Nevada as this is a BIG priority. Swing states rule and must be swung for Obama. Later then, J

Pew Political Leadership Survey: Men or Women?

2008-08-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

While this survey is totally discouraging for women, in so many ways, at the same time, it does not bode well for presumptive Republican VP, little Sarah Palin. Take a look: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/932/men-or-women-whos-the-better-leader

"McCain and Granddaughter Stump for Presidency"

2008-08-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

AP Wire
What a thrill for little Sarah Palin to have been chosen by her "Pappy", as she calls him, to help him run for the Presidency of the USA. When asked if he was her grandpa on her mother's or her father's side, Sarah looked perplexed and said, "Why, that's a great question. I've never seen him before. I'll have my staff check into that."

This VP choice by McCain really reflects the strong family values he represents as it shows how much he trusts his very own grandchild to step into the Presidency should he bump his head real hard this time, or should another pesky melanoma bubble to the surface. McCain, though, was somewhat confused when a reporter asked him if this granddaughter was on his first, dumped wife's side or drug rehabbed Cindy's, and he referred us to his staff.

Unspecified sources have revealed that little Sarah is going to quickly morph into a policy expert by cutting her hair, dyeing it blond, and start to wear butter yellow pantsuits. The expectation is that stupid people, the media for example, will think she's Hillary Clinton, and will applaud Pappy for the one lucid moment he had when he appointed his granddaughter, little Sarah "Hillary Clinton" Palin, Vice President.

Addressing the issue of experience, McCain put on his best piranha smile and explained that Sarah was enrolled in a class in foreign affairs at The Learning Annex; and, since she is so smart, expects her to graduate at the top of her class. Phew. That assuaged the media completely, and they felt that they did not have to dig deeper for more of Sarah's experience credentials. Well, let's hope she graduates with flying colors!

DENVER - DAY TWO

2008-08-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

Denver Day Two and the convention hasn't even started...only Day Two of my being here, and it was a beautiful day indeed.This is gonna be quick, and pedestrian, because it's really late and I have to be up to volunteer for the California delegation at 7AM.

Funny sighting: a 'didn't get the memo' conventioneer wearing a Gravel t-shirt earnestly telling someone why he still matters. Now that's Hope.

Saw a group of Mennonites, seriously and beautifully, singing peace hymns as old and young hippies, bikers, tenacious activists, and a couple of goths, thrown in for good measure, gathered for a good ole peace march while police in riot gear and on horseback, made their presence known. In fact, it looked like there were more of them than the protesters. The peace parade eventually made its way to the Pepsi center (the convention site) where they apparently blocked traffic for a few hours, irritating the media folks who couldn't get inside to do their setups, no way no how.

Went 'undercover' to a cell meeting of Hillary supporters who met in a small room in the basement of a kind of nice restaurant. God knows what nefarious stuff they were cooking up, but the whole thing was rather lacking sexy energy, and so we left. That was disappointing cause I was hoping to invade a coven of harridans but they didn't look angry or anything....just tired. Apparently they're planning to make a big to-do at the convention though. Pathetic.

Then went on to a panel discussion of Live from Main Street...some progressive blah blah, but I was there mostly to see who was there, and I scored BIG...saw Rachel Maddow, who is cute as a button. She saw me taking a picture of her so she waved. Listen, I've got a bunch of pictures of everything, but I'm not on my computer and I don't have the time, right now, to download, etc. so hope you can wait to see them.

I just saw what time it is, so I've gotta go...will have to finish up tomorrow. Til then.

DENVER - EVENING ONE

2008-08-23T20:17:00.000-07:00

All's quiet on the western front, til tomorrow, when delegates slowly start trickling in. Everyone with a badge, and almost everyone has a badge of some sort, is walking around purposefully, making you wonder what you're missing. No major, or minor, celeb spottings as yet or else I just haven't recognized them.

Lonnee, my roommate and fellow blogger - barackoblogger.com - and I went to check out the blogging 'tent', sponsored by Daily Kos along with a variety of corporate sponsors. Hey, what are corporations for except to vilify and then take their corporate bucks?

The place was in somewhat of a shambles as they were only 3/4 of the way through getting everything up and running, and will probably work thru the night, but it looks like it's going to be the place 'to be' if you want to rub elbows with the virtual world, and even some real live pundits. MSNBC is just down the block and has invited everyone to watch their live telecasts. It's hard to watch Chris Matthews on the little screen, nevermind a giant, outdoor tv with Matthews head 10 stories tall. Some people, however, can't wait to see the oh, so smart, Rachel Maddow up there.

I must say, Denver has gone all out to make things convenient and easy. There are volunteers on practically every corner, ready in their bright yellow shirts, to give you directions, advice, but no money. The rapid transit system is one we, in L.A., can only conjure in a wet dream...trains zipping every which way, on schedule and often, clean and cool, and some even for FREE. Imagine. Actually, I can't...it'll never happen in L.A.

Ok, then, time for some rest, and get ready for the hoards to descend mañana. Should be fab!

DENVER - DAY ONE

2008-08-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

I'm here in Denver, and from the moment I got off the plane, you knew you were at the Dem convention. Obama and/or Dem logos are plastered on everybody and everything...t-shirts, signage welcoming delegates and conventioneers, the welcome committee and helpful volunteers wearing convention ID's, everybody all set for the big deal. Airport security is tight with killer dogs, and cops, ready for anything. I doubt if there is Republican left in this city. If they had to stay, they're probably covered in hives.

Haven't hit downtown yet, but will keep you posted on important stuff like celeb and politico sightings, and general goings-on. I feel like we're starting out on our best behavior, smiling, and thumbs-upping perfect strangers cause now we're all on the same page...or most of us, anyway. The Hillbrats are probably walking around with intense, glum sourpusses etched on their battle-weary faces, itching for a fight, ready to explode in a hissy-fit majoris. They'll be easily identified as the only people not wearing Obama gear.

Ok, I've gotta go...leaving for downtown to check things out...see ya later then!

Please sign: Petition to Hillary Clinton to...

2008-08-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

...unequivocally support Senator Obama at the convention in Denver. Let's give Hillary a chance to reclaim the high road by requesting that she pull her demonstrators off the street, and strongly support Obama and his candidacy in her convention speech. The window of opportunity is small, and it is critical that the world see a cohesive Democratic Party coming out of this convention. There is strength in numbers, and our unified support will ensure a Democratic victory in November.

As the powers that be have agreed to let Hillary's name be put into nomination, let's call for Hillary to turn over her delegates immediately after the roll call. Hillary, hear our plea!

Please sign the petition. It will be delivered to her next Sunday:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/please-Hillary-do-the-right-thing

Thank you for your efforts and support.

Contrarian Bitch/ing

How to Motivate Democrats. Think Pod People.

I'm suing you, Mr. President...for my therapy sessions.

Obama Re-election: Time to Compartmentalize

Obama Reelection Campaign Off To A Smug Start

“a woman walks into a bar…” at El Chubasco, Echo Park

Thank you, Donald Trump. And It Pains Me To Even Write His Name

Tea Party Taliban Imposing Sharia-like Law

Obama Window Just Closed. Where's Bulworth?

For Geezuz Kris Sake...the news of the day according to the Huffington Post for example

Presidency SAVED!

State of Obama

The Palin Effect

What does the health insurance industrial complex have on Obama?

Afghanistan Weather Report: Cloudy with a Chance of Bombs

Happy Anniversary. Where’s the Barack Obama we worked our asses off for?

Contrarian Bitch/ing: From Naïve to Nobel

From Naïve to Nobel

Is Assassination Patriotic?

Did Obama Read My Blog?!!

Sarah, Sarah, Quite Contrary

Randy Republicans

Today at Buchenwald

Danger in Plain Sight Redux

Full Circle

A Meditation on The 100 Days and The Vortex of History

Note to Obama: Govern Like You're a One Term President

The Year of the Tall Skinny Man

Danger in Plain Sight

Blogger for Sale

Obama and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Obama as Spock

Happy 2009...if possible.

Senator Kennedy I Presume?

A Rabid Dog Cornered

Obama Backtracks on Windfall Tax...Windfall Being a Misnomer

Richardson Appointment

Someone Should Write an Opera

A Smile That Lights Up The World

1. Smiling makes us attractive.

2. Smiling Changes Our Mood

3. Smiling is Contagious

4. Smiling Relieves Stress

5. Smiling Boosts Your Immune System

6. Smiling Lowers Your Blood Pressure

7. Smiling Releases Endorphins, Natural Pain Killers and Serotonin

8. Smiling Lifts the Face and Makes You Look Younger

9. Smiling Makes You Seem Successful

10. Smiling Helps You Stay Positive

Seven Beautiful Words*

Potpourri

Never Again

McCain vetting Joe the Plumber for Cabinet position

Palin Shopping Spree Sets Women Candidates Back 100 Years

High Anxiety & a Potpourri of Other Observations

Psycho Jesse Jackson Needs a Permanent Time-Out

The McCarthy Hearings & Sarah Palin: 54 Years Later

McCain Beyond PTSD

John McCain's suicide attempt and his resulting PTSD

Sarah Palin's Book Deal

A Confederacy of Dunces

Illiteracy Statistics

Where Illiteracy Leads

The Thrilla in Missoura!!!

Interesting Poll Analysis by FiveThirtyEight

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Real Credibility Problems

Sarah Palin ...You're Not in Alaska Anymore

Age of Aquarius?

More From Public Obama Enemy #1

Bill Clinton: Don't 'Overly Parse' McCain Request to Delay Debate

National Enquirer Coming Through as Predicted!

The Enemies List of the Obama Campaign as Compiled by Me

Info re: current EV = Electoral Votes

Are you interested in polls and what they mean? Here's some very instructive information.

A True Elitist in Commoner Clothing

Biden Resigning. The Devil Made Him Do It.

Skip One Starbucks & Donate the Dollars to Obama

The World Will Be Saved by the National Enquirer

The PALINdrome Syndrome