Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Verified, but limited!

‘Forty-two’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

I showered with Rahm and all I got was this shitty blog.

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

Our job is not to persuade Republicans but to defeat them.

Usually wrong but never in doubt.

A snarling mass of vitriolic vicious jackals

Nevertheless, she persisted

Naturally gregarious and alpha

Just a few bad apples.

What fresh hell is this?

Consistently wrong since 2002

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Han shot first.

Too inconsequential to be sued

This blog will pay for itself.

How has Obama failed you today?

Yes we did.

The Math Demands It!

An army of rabid, anonymous commenters

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Archives for October 2008

An Affair to Remember

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You can get the gist of this appalling Maeve Reston piece about her days with the McCain campaign at David Kurtz’s “Tire Swinging, A Love Story,” but for the more complete rundown, I would recommend Glenn.

It really was an embarrassing piece. And, it is worth remembering, that when the right-wingers bitch about tough press coverage for the McCain camp, the media had to go from all the way in McCain’s pocket to the current state. That is how bad his campaign has been. The tough coverage of McCain is not based on an unending love of Obama, but the result of McCain running a really, really, bad campaign.

A comparison of the treatment Obama receives versus what McCain receives.

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I No Longer Can Listen to Sarah Palin

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The fake, sing-songy voice has me reaching for the remote in minutes. I am not sure what it is, but she seems to put the emphasis on the wrong word in a sentence, and combined with her fake folksiness, it drives me insane.

Right now she is giving an energy speech. I doubt she will point out that the sum total of her energy policy in Alaska is shaking down the oil companies and building a fantasy pipeline to nowhere.

What the hell was McCain thinking with this pick?

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Why Are They Still Allowed On TV?

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Ari Flesicher, former Bush aide and current Bush sycophant, board member of Freedom’s watch, McCain supporter, and all-around scumbag was on Larry King Live last night, prattling on endlessly about… instincts. Got it? The guy who help prop up George Bush for all these years is now worried about Obama’s instincts. At any rate, at a debate a year and a half ago, apparently Obama did not immediately list Israel as an ally, and thus, he has bad instincts. I am serious:

ROSEN: Well, it’s — Ari said something before that must not go unanswered when he said that Barack Obama cannot be trusted to be a friend to Israel. I was in Florida last week, and that is the underground campaign that Republicans are trying to use against Barack Obama. They’re subtly trying to affect the Jewish vote, not so subtly affect the Jewish vote by saying he’s not going to be a friend to Israel, and that is just not true. The United States has always been a friend to Israel.

FLEISCHER: Then why didn’t he identify Israel as one of our three friends?

ROSEN: Barack Obama has committed over and over again that protecting Israel is a top priority for him, and these kinds of smear tactics and rhetorical nonsense…

FLEISCHER: I’m just quoting him from the first debate.

ROSEN: … that’s just trying to address people out of fear, and that doesn’t help American Jews and it doesn’t help Israeli Jews.

FLEISCHER: Hilary, it’s his lack of words. He’s the one who didn’t cite Israel…

ROSEN: You’re wrong, Ari.

FLEISCHER: … when asked.

ROSEN: You’re taking words out of context from two years ago.

FLEISCHER: No, it was a question from Brian Williams at the first debate.

ROSEN: And you’re not listening to everything he has said over the past year and a half. Directly in support of (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Well, all right, let’s ask you simply. Ari, do you think he’s opposed to Israel?

FLEISCHER: No, but I really do worry about his instincts when it comes to Israel. I think that Barack Obama wants so badly to be an accommodationist in the center when it comes to foreign policy.

I do so much love the Jew-baiting every four years. Later, Fleischer tries to spuin this to make Obama look not only anti-Israel, but stupid:

L. KING: Which of the three that he mentioned would you eliminate?

FLEISCHER: I think what I would have said is Great Britain, Israel and Japan. And I don’t think…

L. KING: You would eliminate NATO?

FLEISCHER: NATO’s not a country. He was asked which three countries.

Did he, Ari? To the tape:

Williams: Senator Obama, what are America’s three most important allies around the world?

Obama: Well, I think the European Union as a whole has been a long-standing ally of ours, and through NATO we’ve been able to make some significant progress. Afghanistan, in particular, is an area where we should be focusing. NATO has made real contributions there.

Unfortunately, because of the distraction of Iraq, we have not finished the job in terms of making certain that we are driving back the Taliban, stabilizing the Karzai government, capturing bin Laden and making sure that we’ve rooted out terrorism in that region.

We also have to look east, because increasingly, the center of gravity in this world is shifting to Asia. Japan has been an outstanding ally of ours for many years.

But, obviously, China is rising and it’s not going away.

They’re neither our enemy nor our friend. They’re competitors. But we have to make sure that we have enough military-to-military contact, and forge enough of a relationship with them that we can stabilize the region.

That’s something I’d like to do as president.

Why is Ari Fleischer not in jail or, at the very least, banned from television?

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It Is All Too God Damned Short

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Dean Barnett is dead at the age of 41 from Cystic Fibrosis.

This is a post I do not want to write, because there is always the chance that when you write these eulogies, some jackass will decide that now is the appropriate time to lace your comments section with expletives about the deceased. Be warned- those sentiments will be deleted.

But back to the point- Dean Barnett is dead, and I am sad. He more than likely has no idea who I am, and there really is no reason he should. My opinions of him mirror the trajectory of my own opinions regarding politics in general – I am too lazy to look, but I am sure I waxed rhapsodic about the things he wrote when I agreed with him in the early days of this blog, and recently, when my opinion of his thinking slipped, I referred to him less politely as Hugh Hewitt’s jockstrap or other less pleasant things (and perhaps that says more about me than it does about Dean). In some respect, I agree with Spencer Ackerman, although I would not change anything I said, and I doubt Barnett would have cared.

But that is neither here nor there. What matters is that he is dead, and life is too short. Not a day passes when I do no ponder my own mortality, and not a day passes without me wondering how I will continue without my parents and the people who mean everything to me. A very selfish part of me hopes that I die before them.

Life is too damned short, and right now Dean Barnett’s family and friends are going through hell. I hope they are able to cope, and I am going to call my parents and tell them I love them and then hug my cat. I suggest you do the same thing with the ones you love. This whole racket is just way too short, and at times is a cruel hoax. Forty-one is just way too damned young.

RIP, Dean Barnett.

To donate to to the Cystic Fibrosis foundation go here. I just sent $50 bucks in Dean’s name, and I hope you will toss out a few dollars, as well. We are all human. This show is just way too god damned short.

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Real Americans

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And, no doubt, from pro-American portions of the country:

Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, ATF officials said today.

In court records unsealed today, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Scumbags.

*** Update ***

Ok. The “plot” included dressing in white tuxedos and tophats with guns blazing. I have added the required “clown shoes” tag to this post.

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Stevens Guilty On All Seven Counts

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CNN reporting that Republican Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty on every count. This election just got better.

Links when they become available.

*** Update ***

CNN:

A jury found U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska guilty Monday of all seven counts in his federal corruption trial.

The jury found Stevens guilty of “knowingly and willfully” scheming to conceal on Senate disclosure forms more than $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from an Alaska-based oil industry contractor.

Stevens faces a maximum sentence of up to to 35 years in prison — five years for each of the seven counts.

Legal experts note the judge has the discretion to give Stevens as little as no jail time and probation when he is sentenced.

Of course, it goes without saying that this is excellent news for John McCain.

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What Is Really Wrong With The Post Office?

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You know, I don’t understand this:

If you don’t believe me, just watch how Congress and Barney Frank run the banks. If you thought they did a bad job running the post office, Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the military, just wait till you see what they’ll do with Wall Street.

Ignoring the rest of the stuff, because I have no personal experience with Amtrak or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but I guess I don’t understand the post office hatred. I used to make the same cracks about the post office, but now I guess I just do not get it. For me, the post office works. Yes, the hours piss me off at times, but every time I put something in the mail, with exceedingly rare exceptions, it gets where it is going. And that includes the times that I, in a drunken stupor, put in the wrong zip code or scrawled the address in such a hasty manner that it was damned near illegible. Every day I go to my mailbox and find things addressed to me from all over the world. Sure, occasionally, my mailman accidentally includes a piece of my neighbor’s mail, but by and large, I would have to say the post office works. My sister, hundreds of miles away in another state, can mail something to me for a little more than a quarter, and the next day or two days later, I can walk to a box right outside my apartment in my underwear and slippers, sloshing coffee on the way, and there it is. How is that a bad thing?

So, if Barney Frank is in fact in charge of the Post Office, I guess my overall response is “Job well done.” Hell, unless I am mistaken, the Post Office is no longer even subsidized, right? Or if so, at a minimal level. If I could change anything, I would make it possible to have a mail version of the “No call list” so the idiots at the local newspaper could not send me their seemingly weekly trash, but overall, the post office seems to get the job done pretty well (the time it takes to get a passport pisses me off, but that is the State Department, most likely).

Am I just lucky with my service here in WV, or are USPS horror stories just another bit of lore?

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Harry Ellis for House Minority Leader

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Hey baby, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast

***

The flying spaghetti monster does not love me enough to let this happen:

House Republican Deputy Whip Eric Cantor has spent the last week making calls to fellow Republican House members he believes will survive next week’s election, according to several members who received the call. “He is already lining up support for his next job,” says one member who spoke to Cantor. “I’m not sure what it is, and he doesn’t seem to know, but it’s not going to be deputy job, that’s for sure.”

Please, please, please, Republicans, make this guy your leader:

I am begging you. I think what the Republicans need is this guy on every news show defending the “true conservatism” you all plan to bring us in your comeback.

*** Update ***

I am reminded in the comments that Cantor is the brain trust who, immediately following the failed vote on the bailout (you know, the one McCain suspended his campaign to make sure it passed), stated that the reason it failed was because Nancy Pelosi insulted Republicans:

Railing against her words yesterday, the Republican whip, Eric Cantor, said Pelosi had “frankly struck a tone of partisanship that was inappropriate in this discussion”. He continued: “There is a reason that this vote failed – and that is Speaker Pelosi’s speech.”

That, of course, led to all sorts of awesome, to include having the entire house wingnut caucus being taunted on national television by Barney Frank:

In all seriousness, I hope the Republicans choose Cantor. I am begging. Please.

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Quick Hits

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1.) This explains the McCain campaign better than anything else.

2.) This explains why the Republicans, if the trust their instincts, will be a minority party for a long, long time.

3.) More fail from K-Lo’s House of Crazy.

4.) It is Monday, so you know what that means. Dozens of breathless right-whinge posts about Obama the socialist. As usual, they have NO EARTHLY FLIPPING IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.

5.) Also, a smattering of Obama the terrorist.

6.) The left has idiots, too.

7.) The markets are stable despite overseas routs, so I think those estimating that around 8000 as the bottom may be right.

8.) Political ad fail. However, a minor quibble- they list this ad:

They then state:

“Experience,” gets the nod for its footage – perhaps a first in political history — of the candidate scooping up dog poop in her backyard. We’re still not sure what she was trying to say — maybe she was trying to secure the dog vote. Then again, we don’t pretend to understand Alaska politics.

The message was pretty clear, folks. Send her to congress, she has experience cleaning up shit. I kinda like the ad- it is funny, and most likely got people talking.

9.) Why interrogations should be videotaped. In case you are unaware, one of the things that Obama helped to enact in Illinois was just this type of legislation, which was initially opposed by police and prosecutors but then passed unanimously. Of course, Red State tells me Obama has no experience and cannot reach across the aisle.

10.) The best for last- Politic states this was the best ad of the season. It was ok, although I preferred Helter Skelter more:

Have at it.

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