Yes, but. . .

Did Florida redeem itself last night? It depends. Yes, there were enough Homo Sapiens to put Obama over the top, but the Neanderthals won far too many local contests. The miserable bastards of Martin County Florida voted heavily Republican and no Democrat, including Barak Obama came anywhere close to winning. I'm at a loss to explain it.

This is a small county, much of which is rural and much of it is state and federal park land. It's a county that prides itself as conservation minded and it shows, A recent poll showed than nearly 90% of us favor slow and limited growth and many favor no growth at all, but it's a county that regularly -- invariable votes for councilmen owned and operated by rapacious developers. That is to say they vote Republican.

I've regularly been chastised for hinting that Sarah Palin isn't qualified. People bristle at any criticism of Bush, at any suggestion that there is any option for the voter than to go straight Republican. Wealthy people, upper middle class people; you can almost see the reptilian nictitating membrane blink over their eyes at the suggestion that there is no official state religion, that the Constitution does not mandate that people pledge allegiance to (the Christian) God and that we stamp our mandatory faith on our coinage.

Yes a slight majority of Floridians voted for Obama. Counties containing Universities, counties with a high African American population, even Miami-Dade with it's very large Cuban population voted for Obama, but not Martin County with it's relatively large population of billionaires and multi-multi millionaires and a very large number of retired military personnel. This county votes in lock step with the people of central Florida: the people in the rusted out trailers and tar paper shacks and dead cars in the yard.

These fine folks also passed a constitutional amendment banning any kind of same-sex domestic or civil contracts, even though Florida law already prohibits same-sex marriage. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that a State with such a diverse population would have such an affinity for small minded, authoritarian and puritanical politics, but I am and I'm disgusted.

Yes, Florida voted for Obama, but. . .

YES

I would love to say something eloquent, but I can't. Our country has done something eloquent, or at least a majority has and all I can say is

YES

Long day's night

Now it is election day and the rising hopes and the long road to who knows what. Before the date changes we will probably know whether the rage of the right has been able to overwhelm the national desire for a departure from the Republican juggernaut, with the lies, the slander, the invented scandals and fake outrages we've seen lately. Obama hates coal miners, Obama is a Maoist Muslim who broke the law by visiting his dying grandmother and Joe the Plumber says he hates Israel. I'm tired of hearing it, tired of arguing with demented idiots and religious ravers and condescending crackpots.

Of course we'll hear from them regardless of the outcome. Ideas and candidates come and go, but the ugliness of American politics endures. The gods themselves fight stupidity in vain, said Schiller and he was right. We're hardly as powerful.

I'm looking forward to being able to fly the flag again without being mistaken as a supporter of the worst administration in our history and its misbegotten war. I'm looking forward to an administration that at the very least will respect our constitution and laws and most of all will respect our citizens who have been living under suspicion and surveillance for so long. I'm looking forward to not being ashamed of my country's attitude and actions and of its crude, ignorant, egotistical and stupid President, but it's going to be a very long day.

Joe the Maoist

I picked up the clip below at A Silent Cacophony, one of my regular reads. Looking for Joe the Plumber in the crowd, John the Candidate tells the audience to stand up because they're all Joe the Plumber. I'm sure the man with umpteen houses and cars and a private jet wishes it were so. I'm sure the Man who has never had a private sector job, much less a blue collar trade, would like us to think of him as a man of the people, a Maoist hero.

The idea of the wise peasant, the log cabin born leader is nothing new and it's typically American, but it's also a central mythology of Marxism. We remember Mao Zedong's cultural revolution during which the professional, academic and educated classes were all but exterminated in favor of leadership by peasant farmers, coal miners and yes, plumbers. That one learns to swim by swimming was a Maoist cliche that implied that education was not only not necessary, but not desired. It took China a generation to begin to recover from the destruction.

The idea still lives here in America, despite our continuing obsession with Communism and Socialism. We still believe in the wise fool; in the wisdom of those untainted by information and intelligence and culture and we still believe in superstitious suspicion of all others. We still believe that Joe, whose name is Charles, and isn't a plumber and can't do basic arithmetic much less understand the tax codes, has the answers we need because he's one of us and not one of them. We're still yearning for the Worker's Paradise promised by Communism. We still admire Forrest Gump and marvel at his wisdom, but we still can't seem to differentiate between the people who exploit us by invoking our class identifications and snobberies and class prejudices, and people who actually serve our best interests. All we seem to see is the working class uniform and not the wolf wearing it.

Only in America would the accusation of Marxism arise from a plan to add 4% to the burden of the top 2% elite in the interest of recovering some of the debt we have incurred in making them rich. Only in America would the accusation of Socialism arise from restoring the top tax bracket we had under Reagan; the progressive structure advocated by Adam Smith and Teddy Roosevelt and that we have had during the most prosperous years of our history.

I could go on endlessly about the irony of invoking a worker's paradise and the bogeyman of Communism to sell economic feudalism, but odds are, if you've read this far, you don't need me to do that. It's the dumb people that can be fooled all of the time. It's Joe the Plumber and everyone who stood up when John the Rich Man asked them to who enjoy the flattery and the snobbery and the smug, stupid certainties sold to them by Sarah and the old man.

You're no Maverick

John McCain, you're no Maverick and you're certainly not the original. In fact the original Mavericks are so disgusted with you, at least two of them say they'll shoot. . . . the TV if they see your face on it again.

The Real Mavericks in fact are Liberals with affiliations going back to FDR and the New Deal, not to George Bush and the shady deal.

But don't take my word for it:

Can't win for losing

Fed Chairman Bernanke says that failure to pass the trillion dollar bailout will threaten the economy. He may well be right, but experience with bailouts in other economies suggests that passing it may do the same thing; at least for a number of years.

Although most Americans treat the idea that what applies elsewhere may apply here too, Finland, Sweden and Norway faced a similar crisis in the early 1990's and the 5 years of economic misery that followed may provide a lesson to us. The Nordic bank bailout didn't end the recession which continued to deepen as unemployment rose. Would a recovery have occurred without the bailout? I certainly can't say, but if the Bernanke/Paulson plan is implemented, the new president may well have to deal with the continuation of the problems caused by deficit spending and revenue reduction for his or her entire term.

If by some miracle, Barak Obama is elected, the Republicans certainly won't show any restraint in blaming the cesspit that laissez faire supply side economics dug, on him and on the Democrats. Continuing recession may even persuade voters to return to the party that caused it - and make no mistake, most Americans do blame the Republicans for this mess.

If McCain wins, they'll blame the Democrats for everything, whether the bailout is implemented or not. They can, as always, depend on the loyalty of their flock and impugn the more objective voters as Libarals and Elitists. They will get away with it.

In short, I think it's hard to see a Democratic win in November as a win for the Democrats. It's hard to see an unqualified win for Americans no matter who wins.

There's no tomorrow

"I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money,"

said the man, and the man isn't a farleftliberal weenie with McCain derangement syndrome. It's Alan Greenspan talking about the tax plans of Lyin' John McCain who likes to brag that he knows nothing about economics so that the proletarian snobs he panders to will think he's a regular guy who keeps a fridge full of Budweiser in all 9 houses - and on the jet.

Of course Joe Sixpack and Mary Mooseburger are happy to tell you he'll cut spending to offset the 3.3 trillion dollar loss in tax revenue, but there isn't that much to cut unless it's the military budget and the reality is that he will borrow, borrow, borrow like there's no tomorrow.

John who said he never once has flipped or flopped, now supports the same Bush tax cuts he once opposed and apparently no longer believes in his call to "get the best minds in America together and fix this tax code." Unless of course he's begun to believe in the wisdom of those who also know nothing - like Simple Sarah Palin. I mean what does Greenspan know? He has hardly any experience and he went to some elitist, la-de-dah school without a football team.




Cross posted from The Reaction

The secret Cindy

The smokescreen of "family values" surrounding the distasteful activities of our Republican candidates isn't all that hard to penetrate. Perhaps that's why they have to distract us with constant spurious and concocted attacks on their competitors. Take Cindy McCain's smug little off-center quip that followed Michelle Obama's statement about being really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life: "I don't know about you, if you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country." I'm still hearing comments unfavorable to Obama resulting from that, but I'm hearing no comments at all about how proud Cindy founded a charity and used it to steal drugs to feed her habit. Until today I heard nothing about how she payed a doctor to make out prescriptions for her own use in the names of charity employees and summarily fired one Tom Gosinski when he objected to being used as an accessory.

Ariel Levy's New Yorker article on Cindy relates how the McCains retaliated against Gosinski when he rightly filed a wrongful termination of employment suit. The doctor of course lost his license, Gosinski lost his job, while McCain cooly avoided any unpleasant side effects from her multiple felonies and any damage to her flawless makeup. It's good to be rich and white, ask Rush Limbaugh who did much the same thing.

Cindy McCain has been described as being very concerned with secrecy. Perhaps we can begin to understand why when we discover that Cindy, who is fond of calling herself an only child, has two half sisters. Being an only child serves to diminish discussion of why Cindy inherited her father's fortune while her father's other daughter got ten thousand dollars -- and of course it hints at why Cindy avoids her sister or any discussion of possible unfairness resulting from some inexplicable family value. It doesn't explain how she could smoothly eulogize her father's generosity at his funeral and claim to be an only child while her disinherited sister sat there sobbing. However much she values family, one is tempted to think that she values something else far, far more.

Those Americans sober enough to remember John's first run for the presidency remember how the family values party smeared him with allegations of having an illegitimate daughter by a black woman. Of course the daughter in question was an orphan from Pakistan whom Cindy brought home from a trip claiming Mother Theresa asked her to. It would have been a moving story if Mother Theresa had actually been at that orphanage.

Cindy's a Republican. As a Republican, you say what sounds good and you do what you do in secret and you scream at the "biased" press when you trip on the facts. As a newly minted Republican saint, she has enough hounds at her side to drown out any protest with their barking.

We Buy Old Lies

For a former news junkie, it's not easy to give up TV news, but for someone with high blood pressure, I'm afraid it's mandatory. It's not that I'm missing anything; the little cliques of talking heads aren't doing anything but pretending the propaganda is something that needs to be presented with respect to the liars who produce it. There's very little coverage of anything else. There may well be laws against repackaging canned cat food as Fillet Mignon, but there's no law, for instance, against presenting McCain's tax proposals as though they really were lowering taxes more than Obama's. There's no law forcing the media to do the math and present it to us and if they do, they'll probably be dismissed as "Liberal."

Still, you can't avoid that GOP stench unless you do as I now do: record it all and skip through the commercials. Still, when you're a hurricane target and you're "in the cone" (all Floridians know what that means) you watch the weather reports and you endure the crudely fashioned ads insisting that St John and Sarah Magdalene are "mavericks" and reformers while the Democrats won't balance the budget as Republicans do and will get us into huge debt as Republicans never do. I assume the media aren't dissecting those claims either.

They also aren't telling you how the Maverick Reformer Palin billed the State for attending basketball games and dogsled races. There have been bills of $45,000 picked up by the state so that her daughter and husband could attend a Thanksgiving game and her husband has run up bills of a similar amount. So much for being a cost cutter in a state that claims not to be able to afford to help unwed teenage mothers and of course she really didn't sell the state plane for a profit on eBay like Smilin' Jack told us. No wonder she has to be kept in a bunker until the shredding is done.

But what's the point? Is the country even worth saving from itself? I'm already preparing to leave and who would want to come back to a hellhole full of religious doodlebugs where the Statue of Liberty holds a banner saying: We Buy Old Lies.

Debt is to Republicans as blood is to vampires

The government emergency takeover of Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac will place trillions of dollars of risk on the shoulders of American taxpayers. How does this fit with the "hands off -- the market will take care of itself" twaddle we've heard from Republican pulpits since Herbert Hoover?

It doesn't, but it fits nicely with the Republican practice of saying one thing and doing another and having their constituents not notice. It certainly would have brought down fire and brimstone from Olympus if the Democrats had hinted at such "interference." Americans don't care; it's easier not to have to think that such massive failure could have resulted from Republican policies in the first place, and it's probably only God's wrath for picking on Larry Craig and Mark Foley and tolerating non-Republican homosexuals.

It's good though that Poor Little Sarah won't have to tell us her feelings about it and be exposed to any less than deferential treatment though. She won't have to answer questions about why she left Wasilla deeply in debt or whether she knows Freddy Mac from a Big Mac. We know she will feel our pain when we're out on the street, even though she won't be able to find the funds to build poorhouses and shelters because that would be like Socialism. Meanwhile we get raped at the gas station while Alaskans get a subsidy from the oil companies. I'm sure she'll she'll be able to explain the Alaska First idea as soon as she finds a deferential reporter.

McCain however, even though he brags about not understanding economics, assures us that everything is just fine and all these troubles will go away as soon as trickle down economics starts to work and the ultra rich will be able to hire you to work in their gardens and plantations after we chase out the Mexicans.

Of course your personal share of the 5 trillion, 400 billion isn't that much, but it comes on top of the monstrous war debt and John has no plan or desire to pay it down - it's cheaper and more effective to pretend it's all about those big spending Democrats.

I almost sound like I'm gloating, don't I? Perhaps I am. Perhaps the only way the good gullible citizens of Americaundergod will ever notice what's being done to them is when they're on the bread line and it's starting to get cold out. Even then they'll have the consolation of knowing that Mythology has replaced science in the schools and any 14 year old who gets knocked up by Uncle Fester won't be able to have an abortion. God will be so happy. I'll so be living in the Caribbean and laughing.

The candidate in the Iron Mask

Poor Little Sarah's handlers pretend that the only interest the Evil Press has in her is digging up more dirt about how well her "sex education begins at home" program worked. Can you smell the Red Herring? There are some signs that we may be able to view the candidate some time soon, but the party faithful aren't being specific. I'm sure she'll be getting a cram course and will be pulling all-nighters until later in the week so that when reporters ask her her opinion about the bailout of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, she can do a convincing job of pretending she knows what those entities are.

Meanwhile, campaign manager Rick Davis told us last night that what is normally afforded the press without delay will be forthcoming

"when we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it."

One hopes that when that 3:00 AM call comes, she will think it's time and will feel comfortable doing it.

" We run our campaign, not the news media. And we'll do things on our timetable"

said Davis. It's nice to know the Imperial Spirit is still alive amongst the Party of the People. I mean, the nerve of America, asking to know something about who the Master Party tells them God's choice is! She's against abortion - that's all the GOP is about and all you need to know.

If it's not all over, it's all over.

I'm keeping a plastic bucket under my coffee table. One too many McCain ads right after dinner is sure to bring it all up before long. Have you seen the one that was running last night: the one where they're saying that electing Obama will bring wasteful spending and soaring debt? If that doesn't make you hurl, you've got the stomach to work on a Bering Sea crab boat.

Of course you don't need an investigative reporter to remind you that bloated bureaucracy, record debt, and a level of spending that surpasseth all understanding have been the hallmarks of the last three Republican presidents; each outdoing the previous one. It's the one that inexplicably flashes a picture of Chick Schumer looking like Fagan the Jew as it tells you how the Democrats will borrow. No one lies like a Republican. No one believes like a Republican

Of course these days you need to watch comedy shows if you're looking for anyone to check the facts, compare the contradictory claims or do any investigative reporting at all, so it's a bit of a surprise to see AP doing even this mild form of keeping it real. Stretching the truth may be an understatement the BBC would be proud of. Damned lies is the epithet that occurs to this American.

All in all there were more whoppers told last night than in Burger King's fondest dreams. Will exposing the lies change any Republicans minds? Perhaps it's better to ask how many Republicans have such things, but my opinion is that there won't be enough of them to matter. The the incessant chant of Liberaliberaliberalibral, throbbing like drums in the jungle night will continue and the faithful will continue to dance around the fire

Some Republicans however are more pessimistic. Peggy Noonan it seems, was overheard telling Mike Murphy that "it's all over." I hope she's right, because if it's isn't all over, it's all over.

Sarah who?

Perhaps only in Alaska can you find such a perfect woman: huntin', fishin' wildlife preserve drillin' Oil industry sympathetic, NRA member and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who might just pull in a disaffected Hillary supporter or two. As Creature at The Reaction says this morning:

" hasn't McCain has just blown his experience argument out of the water?"

Experience: did anyone really place much store in that trope of desperation anyway? Nixon had all kinds of experience and Dan Quayle was a Vice President. Abe Lincoln had practically none. Still it's amusing and glaringly inconsistent amidst the constant yapping about Obama's inexperience. Of course I wonder whether anything John McCain ever said or did exhibited any consistency other than the passion to win at all costs?

Fixing boilers with Biden

One of the most constant things about the United States is our set of criteria for choosing candidates. Although we regularly elect aristocrats; aristocratic in terms of money and power at least, we place great store in their sometimes real and sometimes fabricated proletarian roots. Although our first presidents could be numbered amongst the landed gentry, at least by American standards, we have always had a very obvious love of the log cabin bred, self-made man, and that image has been important in the selling of candidates from Andrew Jackson to Abraham Lincoln. It played a part in such diverse campaigns as Jimmy Carter's and Richard Nixon's, Ronald Reagan's and of course George W Bush, the AWOL, drunk diving, president's son born with a silver spoon in his nose.

My take is that we Americans hate to be looked down on by anyone; we hate even to imagine that anyone is smarter or has better ideas, particularly if they actually are and do. I don't remember any president more condescending toward those of his fellow citizens having more brains than money than our current Commander Guy, but somehow his cowboy boots and vacation ranch bought him a lot of sympathy and a lot of time before his ratings began to slide. Of course intellectuals like Kerry or Dukakis never really had a chance because they never were able to play the part well enough to seem natural at it and indeed were worse off for trying to drive tanks and shoot ducks. We forgave them nothing, least of all their education and accomplishments and ability to run a government.

So it's no surprise that we're already being officially reminded of Joe Biden's "regular guy" credentials. James Rowley writes today at Bloomberg.com about Biden's ability with hand tools and how quick a study he was at learning boiler maintenance, even though the writer doesn't seem to know the difference between a boiler and a furnace, we can bet Biden does -- and of course Joe can swish a basketball from half court too, just like Barak.

I'm no different than anybody else. I give credit for being able to adjust a gas burner and knowing the difference between a Morrison tube and a firebox, but having been in the boiler business and having worked in a boiler plant, I don't recall any of my friends there being prime presidential material. In fact I know more than one ex-prisoner of war and the same thing applies.

If we've learned nothing else, we should have learned that regular guyness at G8 conferences comes across as childish and ignorant buffoonery, but of course we probably haven't. We haven't even learned to tell a rich New England playboy phony from a real cowboy or rancher. Perhaps we even prefer the sedentary slug with a larcenous, condescending and failing heart ( and bad aim) to the real hunter.

So OK, Biden does not appear to be pretentious or socially condescending, and those who insist that Obama is "elitist" are simply referring to the fact that he's a damn sight smarter than most of us and far better educated in things that directly relate to the job description of president. That's snobbery of the worst sort, which brings me at last to my point: we're not hiring a boiler inspector or basketball coach or ranch hand. We don't need a hero or a mediocre pilot and even though we don't need a guy like McCain, for whom money does indeed grow on trees, to tell us how to fix a failing economy, ability and integrety and intelligence and honesty are independent of nearly everything we seem to be looking for. Presidents aren't going to drink beer at Your Moose lodge and no matter what they think about abortion or gay marriage, they don't decide such issues. Whether their faith in some invisible entity is unshakable or non-existent has no effect on your life or mine any more than their ability to bowl or shoot baskets or hunt or even wind-surf. Fulsome promises of unconditional love for America, its flag and each and everything the country has done speak more to dishonesty than anything else, but we go on being snobs with the conceit that nobody who might in any way feel socially superior shoule hold the office. And so we elect the greedy, inept, corrupt and basically stupid who feel so superior that they don't obey our laws or tell us the truth. Odds are we'll do it again.

Will the real man please stand up?

There's a divide and you're either on one side or another and whether genetics or experience is the greater factor, one can tell your polarity even without discussing politics. No, I'm not talking about Liberals and conservatives; I'm not quite sure what those things mean any more, I'm talking about the cultural divide that puts John McCain in the same camp as the fellow I know who lives in a shack out by lake Okeechobee, whose tattooed torso is shirtless all Summer and who has never owned anything but old, beat-up trucks. Those in the category I know personally, include a retired engineer who used to design ordnance, several retired military pilots and others who share very little in life but the "me against the world" attitude, an appreciation for John Wayne movies, authoritarian governments who never the less govern less - and the distrust of intellectuals.

Now that the media has decided to tell us that violence in Iraq has declined dramatically, it seems that such people are seeing John McCain as someone who can be most obstinate and forceful in dealing with the Iraqi Government's desire for the kind of freedom and independence and sovereignty we have made such a fuss about giving them. Barry says we're going while the Maverick shows his "maverisciousness" by saying "not so soon" to the colonials. That's what we can see John Wayne doing and that's what they fear Obama will not do: give us a settlement that seems more forced than negotiated; a settlement that makes us look more victorious than negotiated; that makes the whole misguided enterprise look like a glorious demonstration of imperial power.

Whether or not violence has decreased and whether or not the Iraqi government is now strong enough to fight its own battles, the gap between McCain and Obama, at least in the polls, seems to be closing as it becomes more likely that the glorious and victorious peace with honor we were denied in Vietnam is more likely with the former than the latter, under whom it might just quickly and quietly end.

An accord has apparently been reached however and if the Iraqi Parliament approves, the matter may be settled before any election. Perhaps McCain will have to invent a new attitude for himself as regards the 100 year occupation he's apparently comfortable with. Regardless of what that might be, the below average pilot who nearly flunked out of the academy his father got him into, will be seen as better be too many people simply because he wore a uniform than the far more intelligent and accomplished Obama.

Inflate your tires

The government says it may not be until 2030 before any oil we might refine from additional offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico affects gasoline prices in the US. John the Con-man says months. Barak Obama presents a list of measures to ameliorate the high price of fuel and Fox begins to pretend that it only included keeping your tires up to pressure.

Is the public buying it? Seems to me that I heard boos and I know I heard umpteen million V-twin engines drowning out his voice when he tried to snicker and sneer, pander and prevaricate before a crowd of leather clad bikers in Sturgis, South Dakota.

For sure he's a gold mine for comedians, at least those now beginning to have the courage to criticize. I do remember only a few years ago when Jon Lovitz faced a suddenly hostile audience here in Florida after he made a slight reference to the lack of perfection in George Bush and you know how Michael Moore has become the Burning Man after insinuating that the truth about George Bush was the truth about George Bush. Things are changing as you can see on Wednesday's Daily Show.

McCain seems more desperate that deliberate. Desperate to the point where he was stupid enough to humiliate his botoxed beauty queen of a wife by volunteering her for a "beauty contest" that traditionally includes raunchy behavior such as banana fellatio. I'm still not willing to express hope that the evil Rpeublican empire can be overthrown simply using the incompetence and unsuitability of its candidates, but it's funny and it takes a lot of humor to wash down current events these days.

Watch this.

The Wisdom of McCain

I guess John McCain has said so many things that it's hard to know just where and when he supported the administration's actions and when he was in maverick mode.

The Institute of Expertology remembers. It's a storehouse of wise sayings and predictions of gurus. pundits, wizards and prognosticators. Where else can we see just how good these people are at providing plans for the future. Have a look at McCain's Nostradamus-like insight into the future and ask yourself, would an educated and highly intelligent man be a better choice even if you don't want to drink beer with him down at the VFW hall?

Stupid Liberals

It's only been a few years since my prediction that we would find ourselves in recession if Bush's economic blundering continued, but the difference in how Americans see things has changed a bit. I get called an anti-American commiepinkoliberaltraitor far less today although the "stupid Liberal" trope still turns up now and then. Only a while back, people on Fox and elsewhere were insisting that we were on the verge of another boom based on the voodoo of lower taxes and that all negativity about unlimited deficit spending and massive waste was the work of satanic Liberals seeking to undermine the economy. The media is promoting nothing but negative economic news was the headline. It's a conspiracy and we have a study to prove it, said the Fox. The real indicators are all up - way up. One of the most angry exchanges on this blog was about the liklihood of a downturn. I haven't heard from that guy for a long time.

It's not too surprising that such optimism is as difficult to maintain today as was the optimism the Republicans were being so militant about in the first year after the Iraq invasion. Even though opponents have been vindicated, the vindictiveness remains. They're still burning straw liberals.

Those who remain optimistic that we can borrow and taxcut our way to the promised land have dwindled to a few percent, but they still think they are a majority and they're still looking to fix the blame on others. Gone, or at least quiet now are the people who viciously condemned the "liberal media" for telling us only the bad parts 7 years ago; the people who said the schools were back open, the streets were safer than in Washington and the elections proved the mission was accomplished and peace was just around the corner. Waiting for a retraction or an apology won't be productive, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Inflation, that infected camp follower of deficit spending campaigns is beginning to hound us, but the Fed is afraid to raise interest rates because of the stagnating economy. They must be Stupid Liberals too.

John McCain has the answer of course -- it's called more tax cuts and more borrowing and more railing and screaming about Liberals. Anything less would involve being a surrender monkey. Is McCain following in the footsteps of his Bush administration optimist forbears with his continued optimism?

"Iraq will not require sustained aid"

-Mitchell Daniels, director White House Office of Management and Budget. April 2003

"We are talking about a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."

-Paul Wolfowitz, testifying before the House Appropriations Committee 2003

". . . before we turn to the American Taxpayer, we will turn first to the resources of the Iraqi government and the international community"

-Donald Rumsfeld, 2003

"The costs of any intervention would be very small."

-Glenn Hubbard, White House Economic adviser, 2002

"They can finance, largely finance the reconstruction of their own country. And I have no doubt that they will."

-Richard Perle (who stands to make a personal fortune from selling Iraqi oil to foreign interests)
2002

"It is unimaginable that the United States would have to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars and highly unlikely that we would have to contribute even tens of billions of dollars."

-Kenneth Pollack, former director for Persian Gulf Affairs, National Security Council. 2002
(The cost has surpassed half a trillion so far, not including the half trillion annual interest on the debt and it's likely to run to three trillion in total.)

" Under every plausible scenario, the negative effect will be quite small relative to the economic benefits."

- Lawrence Lindsey, White House economic adviser. 2002 **

So how many used ideas would you like to buy from this party of geniuses, you stupid Liberal?

**Quotes, thanks to the Institute of Expertology

The last refuge

My inbox is like a lobster trap. At night while I sleep, it's out there collecting crawly ugly things from the creepy critters that live under rocks, eat nasty stuff, pretend to be outraged at Barak Obama's obvious lack of patriotism and insist that we immediately send some infected bit of racist outrage to "everyone you know."

Today's prize winner is titled:

Obama The Patriot -
Removes American Flag From His Plane

Of course that's not quite the truth.The truth is that the airline he was using featured a flag on the tail and when his campaign leased the plane and painted his name and slogan on it, the flag was moved to the fuselage, as you can see. According to the author, this indicates gross lack of patriotism and disrespect to the flag. While it would be easy to eviscerate such an idiotic argument, perhaps I can save a thousand words with a few pictures. Look at McCain's plane. Not only no flag, it's a French airplane. That's right French! OhmyGod - ohmyGod tell everyone you know!


But wait, there's more! look at McStraightalk's tour bus. NO FLAG! Is he ashamed? Is he not a patriot? Is he a:




Commieliberaltreehuggingelitistamericahating
democratsurrendermonkeyfrancophileterroristappeaser?



Send this to everyone you know before it's too late!

In a way, I should be gratified that racist right wing America can't come up with anything but this shell game, but I doubt it will backfire on them and if Obama is elected, I'm positive that his administration will face more vicious opposition from enemies domestic than any president in our history and the better he does, the worse it will get.

Tin Pin Patriotism

Sigmund Freud talked about the narcissism of small differences; the tendency toward making the biggest fuss over people who are most nearly identical to us. It calls to mind the Clinton/Obama Celebrity Death Match the media are promoting for their own ends. They're the most nearly alike politically candidates we've seen in a long time, in my opinion, but that's not good for the 24/7 yackathon that the nattering nabobs need to maintain to keep ratings up.

You'd think nothing was happening on planet Earth other than bitter debates about lapel pins and every manufactured nuance of expression is chewed to a disgusting mess like a rawhide dog toy. I don't wear a lapel pin and I won't as long as the people who made my country into a quasi-fascist imperialist plutocracy are in power. I don't trust anyone who wears one and I have not since the darkest days of the Viet Nam War when it was a symbol of support for that fraudulent, mismanaged and vicious enterprise.

I don't trust people who make an issue of a candidate not wearing a toy flag and it's obvious that many people who do are dishonest, because I and others like Crooks and Liars have noticed that John McCain is often seen without his Taiwanese Token of gumball machine patriotism too. Toe tapping Larry Craig, as T Rex points out, wore one for his police mug shot and if the hero of stall three wears one, you know it means something.