America's Only Hope

After weighing the merits of the arguments for or against Obama, I am now more convinced than ever that Barack Obama is what we need in a president for this country, for this world.

The Wright controversy puts us squarely in the politics of the last 7 years. Politics of distraction. Politics of negativity. Politics of distortion. This has been cooked up by the Republicans (it took fire on Fox), has been seasoned by Clinton (to swing momentum in her direction) and burnt by the Media pundits (clips played over and over to shape public opinion). I am a steadfast supporter of Obama and that hasn't changed and will not change.

As a matter of fact, I don't have to look at the news shows to know what their next move will be. I'm so used to it. This is the same thing that has been happening for the last 7 years. And what the right wing, the military infrastructure and the Clintons would like is nothing better than to have politics continue as it's been for this generation and beyond.

Obama represents a break from what has been, what hasn't worked for Americans and what will serve our long term interests through out the rest of the world.

Clinton will not be able to change our politics of destruction because quite simply she's of it, is married to it, is indoctrinated by it. She has bought into the belief that since the Right wing is better at Politics that she will play the game their way and if she should be so lucky to win the nomination, she will have a chance to shape a few of her policies if again she should be so lucky to make it past the right wing in the General Election.

Her strategy is a flawed one and one that will never carry her where she would like to go because she's made her bed with the lot of the right wing. She has bought into the notion that she can only win by playing the game their way.

Obama's strategy is a better one because it benefits more people. It includes everyone. Be clear on this... the Wright story is a side show that the neo-cons want to play to get everyone in the country to question Obama's run for the presidency. This tells me that the media, Clinton, the entire republican party want to continue to take this country down the wrong path. When that many people jump all over statements that Obama never said and when that many people want to glue Obama to the statements and activities of people he knows without looking at their own actions then I know I'm backing the right candidate. Obama is that candidate. Someone I can believer in. Someone who didn't authorize a war all democrats detested is the right candidate. Someone who didn't vote for a bankruptcy bill that strapped more debt to poor people is the right candidate. Someone who did not take lobbyist money to influence the help he would give all Americans is the right candidate. Someone who will set the mission to bring all U.S. forces home and leave no permanent base in Iraq is the right candidate.

The media - hijacked by the Republicans - will have you believe that Wright is the only issue we care about. It isn't! I don't care about Wright in the quest for the presidency. I care about this country and a president who can lead us out of the same dumb kind of politics we've all come to hate. Obama supporters talk more about the attributes of Obama and stay away from the peripheral issues the Media and the Republicans will have you salivating over.

The right wing lives on hypocrisy. That's why I know I'm on the correct bandwagon. A candidate that acts in the best interest of his own party, in the best interest of his country, in the best interest of a people, in the interest of hope and optimism is the only candidate who can lead us out of this darkness.

Obama should be and will be the next president of these United States.

Above The Law?

The lawyer for US vice-president Dick Cheney claimed today that the Congress lacks any authority to examine his behaviour on the job.

The exception claimed by Cheney's counsel came in response to requests from congressional Democrats that David Addington, the vice-president's chief of staff, testify about his involvement in the approval of interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.

Ruling out voluntary cooperation by Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn Wheelbarger said Cheney's conduct is "not within the [congressional] committee's power of inquiry".

"Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by law what a vice-president communicates in the performance of the vice president's official duties, or what a vice president recommends that a president communicate," Wheelbarger wrote to senior aides on Capitol Hill.

The exception claimed by Cheney's office recalls his attempt last year to evade rules for classified documents by deeming the vice-president's office a hybrid branch of government - both executive and legislative.

The Democratic congressman who is investigating the legal framework for the violent interrogation of terrorist suspects, John Conyers, has asked Addington and several other top Bush administration lawyers to testify. Thus far all have claimed their deliberations are privileged.

However, Philippe Sands QC, law professor at University College, London, has agreed to appear in Washington and discuss the revelations in Torture Team, his new book on the consequences of the brutal tactics used at Guantanamo.

Excerpts from Torture Team were previewed exclusively by the Guardian earlier this month.

Two witnesses sought by Conyers, former US attorney general John Ashcroft and former US justice department lawyer John Yoo, claimed that their involvement in civil lawsuits related to harsh interrogations allows them to avoid appearing before Congress.

In letters to attorneys representing Ashcroft and Yoo, Conyers shot down their arguments and indicated he would pursue subpoenas if their clients did not testify at his May 6 hearing.

"I am aware of no basis for the remarkable claim that pending civil litigation somehow immunises an individual from testifying before Congress," Conyers wrote.

Conyers, who chairs the House of Representatives judiciary committee, also questioned the reasoning of Cheney's lawyer in a letter to Addington.

"It is hard to know what aspect of the invitation [to you] has given rise to concern that the committee might seek to regulate the vice president's recommendations to the president," Conyers wrote.

"Especially since far more obvious potential subjects of legislation are plentiful," he added, mentioning several: US laws on the use of torture on terrorist suspects, the 15-year-old War Crimes Act, and the rules that allowed the Bush White House to receive legal advice from a specialised office within the justice department.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/29/dickcheney.usa

Leave It Up To A Stupid Republican

Things you can count on the Republican leadership to fuck up:

• The deficit.
• Body armor.
• Medicare reform.
• Social Security reform.
• The minimum wage.
• Port security.
• The National Guard.
• Diplomacy.
• The Geneva Conventions.
• Fair elections.
• Clean elections.
• Intelligence.
• Protecting the Constitution.
• Protecting the Bill of Rights.
• Government transparency.
• Oversight.
• Separation of church and state.
• The middle class.
• The poor.
• Tax reform.
• Tax cuts.
• Bankruptcy law.
• Global warming.
• Disaster management.
• Defeating terrorists.
• Saying no to lobbyists.
• Saying yes to public opinion.
• Pre-war planning.
• Post-war planning.
• Competence.
• Civil rights.
• Civil liberties.
• Civil debate.
• Veterans' benefits.
• Hiring based on ability.
• Legal surveillance.
• Morality.
• Energy policy.
• Energy independence.
• End-of-life decisions among spouses.
• Inclusion.
• Learning lessons from history.
• Learning, period.
• Drug policy.
• Fiscal responsibility.
• Trusting the generals.
• Trusting the experts.
• Basic honesty.
• Basic health care.
• Education.
• Creating jobs.
• Keeping CIA operatives' identities secret.
• Catching Osama.
• Playing nice.
• Playing fair.
• Refilling ice cube trays.
• Making paper airplanes.
• Or coffee.
• Tying their shoelaces.
• Making friends.
• Blowing their noses.
• Counting to ten five three.
• Sharing their toys.
• A one car funeral
• Telling the truth.
• Uniting the country.

This is just a short list of things a stupid republican can and will fuck up every god damn time.

Save your country. Vote democrat.

The Military Loves Its Women - A Bit Too Much

The Department of Defense statistics are alarming - one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military.

The warnings to women should begin above the doors of the military recruiting stations, as that is where assaults on women in the military begin - before they are even recruited.

But, now, even more alarming, are deaths of women soldiers in Iraq and in the United States following rape. The military has characterized each death of women who were first sexually assaulted as deaths from "noncombat related injuries," and then added "suicide." Yet, the families of the women whom the military has declared to have committed suicide strongly dispute the findings and are calling for further investigations into the deaths of their daughters. Specific US Army units and certain US military bases in Iraq have an inordinate number of women soldiers who have died of "noncombat related injuries," with several identified as "suicides."

Ninety-four US military women have died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Twelve US civilian women have been killed in OIF. Thirteen US military women have been killed in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Twelve US Civilian women have been killed in Afghanistan.

Of the 94 US military women who died in Iraq or in OIF, the military says 36 died from noncombat related injuries, which included vehicle accidents, illness, death by "natural causes" and self-inflicted gunshot wounds, or suicide. The military has declared the deaths of the Navy women in Bahrain, which were killed by a third sailor, as homicides. Five deaths have been labeled as suicides, but 15 more deaths occurred under extremely suspicious circumstances.

Eight women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, (six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division) have died of "noncombat related injuries" on the same base, Camp Taji, and three were raped before their deaths. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq. Two military women have died of suspicious "noncombat related injuries" on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as "suicides."

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

OK, I'm bitter. I lost my American flag lapel pin while I was rolling gutter balls at the bowling alley.

And afterwards they were out of orange juice at the blue-collar diner where I go for my photo opps with "Cup of Joe" Lieberman. Also, I don't own any guns so I can't bitterly cling to them or vent my anger on the few remaining critters within driving distance of the one tank of gas I can afford for my Hummer.

And my flag lapel pin ... honey, have you seen my flag lapel pin?! I can't go out in public without the flag lapel pin! That's like streaking!

Have you noticed we live in a stupid nation now?

It's little wonder. We've had eight years of pure stupid in the White House. And during that time, we the people have been massaged by a stupid media, hectored by stupid hypocrites and stupid moralists, terrified by stupid extremists, pandered to by stupid politicians, lied to by stupid military experts on the TV (see last Sunday's New York Times for details).

It's the natural law of Stupid in/Stupid out.

Welcome to the United States of Stupidity.

It used to be that just the so-called "Red States" (come to think of it, the Red-Blue thing was pretty stupid) were allergic to facts. But now it's all of us. We just sit here and take it all in, complain about gas prices when oil companies run the White House, wonder why the airlines are collapsing and there is no transportation alternative: It's the stupidity, stupid!

While we were sidetracked by John Edwards' haircuts, the oil companies got Congress to destroy Amtrak for them — Bangladesh now has a more efficient passenger rail system than we do. While we sat transfixed by the magnificence of Angelina Jolie's lips and Britney Spears' shaven crotch, Croatia, Latvia and Albania moved ahead of the United States on the global Environmental Sustainability Index. While we munched freedom fries and stockpiled duct tape, our national treasury was looted. And so on.

We the people didn't used to be this dumb.

Maybe we're just stupefied by all the stupid.

We Can Learn A Lot From Animals

One morning a blind bunny was hopping down the bunny trail and tripped over a large snake and fell, kerplop right on his twitchy little nose.

"Oh please excuse me," said the bunny. "I didn't mean to trip over you, but I'm blind and can't see."

"That's perfectly all right," replied the snake. "To be sure, it was my fault. I didn't mean to trip you, but I'm blind too, and I didn't see you coming. By the way, what kind of animal are you?"

Well, I really don't know," said the bunny. "I'm blind, and I've never seen myself.

Maybe you could examine me and find out."

So the snake felt the bunny all over, and he said, "Well, you're soft, and cuddly, and you have long silky ears, and a little fluffy tail and a dear twitchy little nose.

You must be a bunny rabbit!"

The bunny said, "I can't thank you enough. But by the way, what kind of animal are you?"

The snake replied that he didn't know, and the bunny agreed to examine him, and when the bunny was finished, the snake asked, "Well, what kind of an animal am I?"

The bunny had felt the snake all over, and he replied, "You're soft, you're cold, you're slippery, and you haven't got any balls...

You must be a republican.

Time To Strike!

The following is a release put out by the Vermont AFL-CIO, with thanks to reader Richard M. for sending it along ...

The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their "unequivocal" support for the first US labor strike against the war in Iraq.

Montpelier, VT -The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their "unequivocal" support for the first US labor strike against the war in Iraq. The strike, being organized by the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), will seek to shutdown all west coast ports for a period of 8 hours on the day of May 1st 2008. The Vermont AFL-CIO is the first state labor federation to publicly back the Longshoremen; other state federations are expected to follow.

The resolution, among other things, calls the war in Iraq "immoral, unwanted, and unnecessary", states that the vast majority of working Vermonters oppose the war, and contends that the war will only be brought to an end by "the direct actions of working people." Many other Vermont labor unions and organizations, including the Vermont Workers' Center, have also made official statements condemning the war.

The resolution also calls on working Vermonters to "discuss the actions of the Longshoremen, to wear anti-war buttons, and to take various actions of their own design and choosing in their workplace on May 1st, 2008."

"Workers in Vermont and all across this nation are against this war. We have already demanded that the government end it, but they have consistently failed to heed our words. Therefore working people are beginning to take concrete steps to make our resistance known. If the war does not immediately end we, the unions and working people of Vermont, will also be compelled to take appropriate action," said David Van Deusen, a District Vice President of the Vermont AFL-CIO.

Talkin' Bout My Generation

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat and we discovered and experimented with drugs of all shapes and sizes. We smoked pot and discovered alcohol.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer's and no Internet or chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from the accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

Something that the kids today will NEVER understand.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with
scissors, doesn't it?

Billary Needs To Be Medicated

The latest findings from ABC News and the Washington Post finds that a majority of respondents find the former first lady untrustworthy, compared to a majority who trusted her before the campaign began.

Clinton is viewed as "honest and trustworthy" by just 39 percent of Americans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared with 52 percent in May 2006. Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. And now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.

A Republicunt In A Democrat Hat

Okay, good and honest Hillary supporters, men and women, let's have a little history lesson for some context.

Back in 1984, our then President, Ronald Reagan, no doubt in the early stages of Alzheimer's, made a little joke while testing a mike. Not thinking anyone beyond the studio would ever hear, he said, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

When the quote got out, Reagan's lead over Walter Mondale slipped (very temporarily) by seven points. The Left was justifiably in an uproar over it. And Reagan was making a joke - a bad one, one that no doubt revealed his actual mindset, but, still and all, a joke.

For the third time now, Hillary Clinton, your candidate, has non-jokingly threatened to destroy Iran if that nation launches a nuclear strike on Israel. At the debate last week, she said Iran would face "massive retaliation." On Olbermann this week, she reiterated that and added, as if to clarify, that Iran's "use of nuclear weapons against Israel would provoke a nuclear response from the United States."

Today, she took it even further, into territory that, c'mon, admit it, Clinton supporters, if a Republican had said it, you'd be going fucking crazy about the fearmongering and paranoiac fantasizing.

Said Clinton on Good Morning America, "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

Yes, she claims to be saying it only to offer deterrence. But, really, isn't that understood about the United States?

That if we wanted to, we could "totally obliterate" most of the Earth?

So, by saying it, Clinton accomplishes something of a pandering trifecta: she lets the Israel-humpers know she's willing to wreck shit for them, she lets the pro-military people know she ain't scared of shit, and she lets gun owners know she's willing to fire the largest gun of all.

No Fool Like An Old Fool

McCain Hates America

By the standards set forth by dems, stupid republicunts and morons in the media.

You know, I'm SOOOOOOOO glad there's no other issues more pressing like the economy, the occupation of Iraq and things like that.

How un-American can you be? Not to wear a flag pin on your lapel.

UPSIDE DOWN.

Is The Voice Of The People FINALLY Being Heard?

Today Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced legislation to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The bill, dubbed the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008, marks the first time in decades that Congress has considered removing criminal penalties for marijuana. Congressman Frank's legislation would decriminalize the possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana (3ozs) and the not-for-profit transfer of one ounce of marijuana. It would not affect laws prohibiting drug sales or the cultivation of marijuana, and it would not affect state or local laws regulating marijuana possession.

"It's time for the politicians to catch up with the public on this ," Congressman Frank said. "The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly."

The bill incorporates the basic recommendation of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (also known as the Shafer Commission). The commission, which was administered by the White House and published its findings in 1972, recommended that then-president Richard Nixon decriminalize possession of marijuana in amounts that constituted "simple possession."

Thirty-six years later, Rep. Frank will try to do just that.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Hey, remember 2000?

We had an election that year!

Let's recall then-candidate George W. Bush's pitch about how he'd lower gas prices, which at the time were averaging $1.66 per gallon:

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude.

"I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply," Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. "Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.''

He'd just build up a boatload of goodwill within the Arab world and then tell those rag-heads to open up the spigot! Unlike that loser Clinton ...

Implicit in his comments was a criticism of the Clinton administration as failing to take advantage of the good will that the United States built with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Also implicit was that as the son of the president who built the coalition that drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait, Mr. Bush would be able to establish ties on a personal level that would persuade oil-producing nations that they owed the United States something in return.

''Ours is a nation that helped Kuwait and the Saudis, and you'd think we'd have the capital necessary to convince them to increase the crude supplies,'' he said.

Asked why the Clinton administration had not been able to use the power of personal persuasion, Mr. Bush said: ''The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?'''

I guess that is the fundamental question, and if we were to reduce the measure of "successful foreign policy" to the profits raked in by Big Oil, then Bush's FoPo would indeed be the most successful ever.

When Bush made that oath to put the squeeze on his Saudi cousins, crude oil was trading at about $35 per barrel.

Skipping forward to the present, Reuters reports on a new poll that finds, "Eight out of 10 Arabs have an unfavorable view of the United States."

"The price of New York oil hit a record high 115.54 dollars per barrel on Thursday."

Average price of a gallon of gas today: $3.50

Chicago's Finest Kill Defenseless Animal

Good job you cowardly fucks. Did you kill it just because it made one of you assholes look bad by walking behind you in your hunt for blood.

Fuck you CPD.

What Matters Most?

I've been talking to a lot of friends of mine about the presidential election.

Some are very conservative; others are extremely liberal. And some like me fall in the middle, or lean slightly one way or another.

But there is one issue I have raised that EVERYONE I talk to seems to agree on:

We are all sick of discussing stuff about candidates that has NOTHING to do with the important issues of this election.

We all want to hear more about the candidates' different viewpoints and ideas about:

• The economy
• The Iraq War
• The War on Terror
• Foreign Relations (China, Russia, Middle East, NATO, etc)
• Immigration
• Health care
• Energy
• The Supreme Court and social issues

We do NOT want to hear anymore about:

• Obama is an elitist who looks down on small town America.
• Hillary lied about being under sniper fire.
• McCain is too old to be President.
• Obama is tied into radicals like Reverend Wright and William Ayres.
• Hillary is power hungry and will say anything to be elected.
• McCain has anger management issues.

...you get the picture.

But politics seems to care more about ALL the bullshit and NOT the issues at hand. Is it any wonder America is so fucked up?

Enough of the "gotcha" politics and the swiftboating.

But the ultimate blame falls directly in the lap of the American citizens, NOT the politicians. After all, it is us that put these idiots in the position of getting elected. America doesn't seem to really give a shit about the issues. THEY WANT DIRT!

Thats why more people vote for the "American Idol" instead of the elections of their political leaders.

Ayn Rand wrote in The Fountainhead that if you want to attack someone, you don't attack what they do. You call them an atheist or a womanizer or something worse, and this way you distract attention away from this issues at hand. This is what has been increasingly happening to American politics, and no matter what side of the issues you are on, it is detrimental to all of us.

It needs to stop.

Does anyone else share my opinion on this?

A Bitter Pill

Apparently on the campaign trail Obama made a mistake in telling the truth.

Imagine, saying that Americans are "bitter" about the economy.

And that stupid cunt Hillary is calling him an elitist about it along with her republicunt colleagues.

Strip down what Obama was saying: He addressed the trouble his campaign of hope and change was having in "places where people feel most cynical about government."

While he has tried to speak concretely about the conditions of peoples' lives, his campaign continues to have trouble making inroads among white working class voters, and "old economy" voters whose idea of change isn't hope but rather losing a job or a pension. Yet he is narrowing the margins.

In Muncie, Indiana Saturday morning, Obama was counterpunching, as he should be-- explaining and expanding on his remarks:

The problem is our politics doesn't let the American people get heard. People know that it's not easy solving some of these problems but they want to feel like at least someone is fighting for them.

It's interesting. Lately there has been a little typical sort of political flare up because I said something that everybody knows is true which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois who are bitter.

They are angry.

They are Fed Up American's!

They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they're going through.

So I said well you know when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community.

And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country or they get frustrated about how things are changing.

That's a natural response.

But what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they are being listened to.

What we need is a government that is actually paying attention. A government that is fighting for working people day in and day out making sure that we are trying to allow them to live out the American dream.

At a time when 81% of the country thinks we're heading in the wrong direction (aren't these people bitter?) , isn't it pretty clear that our economy has not performed well for most people for at least a generation, and is now heading into what everyone sentient would agree are likely to be some very tough times.

Recovery from this recession is also likely to be even slower than the essentially jobless recovery from the last. The traditional means of jump-starting the economy -- dropping interest rates, or boosting consumer spending -- have been substantially exhausted, and their pell-mell unregulated pursuit is a large part of what got us into our current mess.

The political discontent is obvious--and Obama is trying to speak to that.

Americans are fed up with government's failure to do anything much for them, or that they're proud of being part of. " Here's how it is," he said in his April 6 remarks. " In a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania people have been beaten down for so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it." Here's where the Right's generation-long attack on government has done real damage to citizen confidence in government. We see it all around us everyday. But. surely the other critical source of citizen doubt is that government has in fact done little recently to measurably improve their lives and give them a sense of national purpose. After all, Bill Clinton, long considered the master politician of his age, was basically in the business of lowering expectations of government even faster than they were disappointed. Obama is trying to amp up expectations which the Right and Clintonism have tamped down.

The right wing is clearly desperate. ready to seize on anything to change the subject and hide how out of touch they are with an America in financial pain. But how cynical of the Clinton campaign to claim Obama was condescending to the people of Pennsylvania.

She perhaps is the most desperate.

The kitchen sink is quickly emptying.

Unemployed

Alberto R. Gonzales, like many others recently unemployed, has discovered how difficult it can be to find a new job.

Mr. Gonzales, the former attorney general, who was forced to resign last year, has been unable to interest law firms in adding his name to their roster, Washington lawyers and his associates said in recent interviews.

He has, through friends, put out inquiries, they said, and has not found any takers. What makes Mr. Gonzales’s case extraordinary is that former attorneys general, the government’s chief lawyer, are typically highly sought.

A longtime loyalist to George W. Bush dating to their years together in Texas, Mr. Gonzales was once widely viewed as a strong candidate to be the first Hispanic-American nominated one day to the Supreme Court. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he carried an impressive personal story as the child of poor Mexican immigrants.

Despite those credentials, he left office last August with a frayed reputation over his role in the dismissal of several federal prosecutors and the truthfulness of his testimony about a secret eavesdropping program. He has had no full-time job since his resignation, and his principal income has come from giving a handful of talks at colleges and before private business groups.

“Maybe the passage of time will provide some opportunity for him,” said one Washington lawyer who was aware of an inquiry to his firm from a Gonzales associate. “I wouldn’t say ‘rebuffed,’ ” said the lawyer, who asked his name not be used because the situation being described was uncomfortable for Mr. Gonzales. “I would say ‘not taken up.’”

Well, unless he is collecting unemployment, I don’t think he needs to worry about skewing his buddy’s unemployment figures…

Nice to see karma biting him on the ass, though, isn’t it?

Stupid Republicans

Recently I was arguing with one of my dumber friends about the Iraq war. (OBVIOUSLY a STUPID REPUBLICAN)

He loves Bush, and thinks bigger bombs is the answer in Iraq. I wasn't gaining any ground in the argument until I used a simple analogy. I said, "Your solution is like shattering an expensive vase and then saying, 'We need to keep smashing it until it's fixed.'" I stumped him. He was silent. So here's a brief list of other analogies you can use on your dumb friends. And the truth is, I've seen similar ones work on some of the smartest political pundits.

1) The country of Iraq has essentially been demolished. The right-wingers keep saying the answer is continued large-scale military action. That's like if someone got into a car accident, went into a coma, and the doctors believed the patient could be healed by more car accidents. So they just keep putting him into cars and sending him off cliffs.

2) I've heard people say that being against Bush or Petraeus or the war in Iraq is equivalent to being against the troops. That's like if I knew someone who repeatedly sent brave puppies out into traffic. I called that person an asshole for abusing the puppies and abusing their power. Then you accused me of being anti-puppy.

3) The administration talks about the success of the surge because violence has decreased, but we're in fact paying the militias not to kill each other or our soldiers. It's like if you were treading water, two sharks approach and begin biting you, you give each one a small piece of fish to distract them. While they take a moment to eat the fish, you sit there treading water and yelling, "Problem solved!"

4) At the Petraeus hearings, he refused to give any sort of definition for "victory" in Iraq. That's like running a foot race, you've gone 30 miles, you're exhausted, and when you ask your coach driving along next to you how much farther, he just keeps saying "You'll know it when you get there." He keeps saying that until you collapse and die.

5) KBR, Halliburton, Blackwater and other companies have huge pull in our government (such as the vice presidency). So essentially they decide when the war is over. They also happen to be making millions upon millions of dollars from the war. So asking them to decide when the war is over, is like asking an ugly guy cast in a threesome porn movie to decide when the scene is over. Chances are the scene would go on for months, if not years. The entire crew would be standing around asking, "It's not over yet? When will we know when it's time to end it?" And the ugly guy would respond, "Um, it's a bad idea to set timetables. Just trust me on this."

6) Lastly, President Bush is like a colorblind child with a Rubik's Cube.

Significant Progress?

Yesterday, speaking from the White House, the president boasted, “American and Iraqi forces have made significant progress” in Iraq. It got me thinking, haven’t we heard that phrase before in relation to Iraq?

• White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan on October 27, 2003: “In the north and south [of Iraq], we have made significant progress.”
• bush on November 13, 2004: “Fighting together, our forces have made significant progress in the last several days.”
• bush on June 28, 2005: “In the past year, we have made significant progress.”
• Vice President Dick(less) Cheney on October 19, 2006: “We’ve made significant progress.”
• bush on February 23, 2007: ” I think we have made significant progress in Iraq.”

Indeed, it’s a phrase the White House has used to describe events in Iraq several hundred times over the last five years. I can’t imagine why anyone would be skeptical about the claim now.

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