9/26/2008:   Tonight was the first presidential debate, and personally, I thought McCain came off as grouchy, flip-floppy, misleading, and disengenuous. Obama came off as sincere and truthful. I'm not saying McCain didn't have some good moments -- he's been a good speaker in the Senate and he comes off staunch and focused. But if you've been paying attention and know the facts, you know he was loading up the air with half-truths more often than not. I suppose because that's all he has. And in the end, he didn't even scratch Obama.

More later...

9/26/2008:   I won't try to chracterize Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric. Let me just transcribe the best part of it for you:

Couric: "Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle class families who are struggling with housing, healthcare, gas, and groceries, allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?"

Palin: "That's why I say I like... every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been... put in, where it is the tax payers looking to bail out. But ultimately what the bailout does... is... help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, um... helping, uh... Oh! It's gotta be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track, so healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans, and... Trade... We've got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh... competitive, um, scary thing, but... one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've... we... we've got to look at that as more opportunity... all those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that."

...

(heavy sigh)

...

Wow. I mean, really. Wow. I don't think Miss South Carolina could have answered it any better. And this was the BEST CANDIDATE JOHN MCCAIN COULD COME UP WITH! OH MY GOD! THIS WAS MCCAIN'S CHOICE TO TAKE OVER AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO HIM! HE REALLY THINKS SHE'S READY TO BE PRESIDENT!

Lord, save us from John McCain and Caribou Barbie. How does anyone support this guy with a straight face?

9/26/2008:  

"It looked like Bring Your Daughter To Work day.'"

9/26/2008:   Top 10 Reasons To Vote For Obama:

1. Isn't it time we had a president that got better than C's in college, *sounds* like he's got some intelligence, and has a reasonable grasp of the duties involved in being a President?

2. "I can see Russia from my house" is not a foreign policy doctrine, and, "it's all part of God's plan," is not a domestic policy doctrine (well, except in Iran).

3. Because killing nearly one million civilians and nearly 5000 of our own troops didn't make the world any safer against terrorism.

4. If John McCain wins, it's not clear how much longer you'll have your house. So you might as well get the most out of it while you can.

5. Because Ronald Reagan wasn't much of a president either once he got past 70.

6. Because fearful and murderous is not the kind of country for which our founding fathers risked it all.

7. Because "smaller government" is becoming "no government" while costing us more than "big government" did, and that's working so well with energy and financial institutions, schools, air and water quality, global warming, jobs, ...

8. Are you *really* better off than you were 8 years ago? (Bill Gates, don't answer that.)

9. A trillion for the war, a trillion for Wall Street. Soon we'll be talking about real money...

10. Because you're tired of losing your Constitutional rights with the only reason being because the boogeyman will get you.

9/25/2008:   The GOP on the Hill are proposing bailing out financial institutions that are sitting on bad investments. Everyone's wondering why tax payer money is going to offset the financial bad decisions of people who deal in trillons of dollars while millions of those same tax payers are crashing financially, losing their homes and all their property.

I have a better idea.

Let the big boys crash. We're talking about corporations, and they always come back. Breaking up the big corporations will lead to smaller corporations working their way into the market and the restoration of competition.

Take the $700 billion and use it in conjunction with U.S. bond sales as an investment instrument to give low interest, 30 year mortgages to anyone facing foreclosure. The qualifications should be stringent but processing should be quick. Let's say you can only qualify one house, the current mortgage must be one with balloon payments or increasing interest. Don't require that the person be in the poor house -- forcing people to cash out their retirement funds or college funds for their kids just shifts the crisis to later in life. Then buy their current mortgages for 50 cents on the dollar and have them making payments to the U.S. Housing Crisis Bank, whose sole purpose is to extend credit one time to each qualifying individual, to stop processing mortgage conversions by the end of 2009, and to collect the payments for the mortgages it has extended.

Throw in a means of saving those whose homes have already been foreclosed by either giving them zero down mortgages to get back into their foreclosed homes if they're still available or into homes that match their ability to pay, and you'll have saved the people that really need saving, the taxpayers, by putting their money to work for them.

Oh, I'm sorry. Was that too obvious? Y'know, I'm new to this "saving America from the Great Depression II" thing. George "Herbert Hoover" Bush probably has a better plan, right?

9/25/2008:   In a document to insurance actuaries, John McCain referenced himself in a way that's going to bite him in the butt: "Openiing up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation." Um. Hm... Okay...

Johnny, if you think your work in deregulating the banking and financial industry has been an improvement over regulation, then you, sir, are a moron. And God forbid this country unleashes you on our health care industry with similar effects. Insurance companies with little or no oversight will lie to customers for years, collecting their money and then failing to cover them when they need coverage the most. Thinking that market pressures will apply over a long time-line when the consumer has so little individual power and resources and the pay-out for cheating is so huge is, at best, disengenuous. I think McCain's advisors, who are all lobbyists, see a chance to fleece the common American, and they're steering Johnny based on their personal checkbooks.

9/24/2008:   In response to news that he now trails Obama by 9 points in a poll of polls, John McCain has asked for a time-out. He has asked that the presidential debate scheduled for Friday be postponed and has announced that he's suspending campaigning until the economic crisis has been addressed.

Translation: His party may not get the bailout from the government that would save their fortunes in financial investments, and he has to choose between watching his party lose its collective shirt or spinning naked, desparate greed as concern over the economy. From his perspective, it's an easy choice.

Okay, people, critical thinking exercise for today: What good does it do to have John McCain and Barack Obama sitting in the Senate? Can it not carry on without them? There are 100 Senators in the federal Senate. Would having only 98 mean that the economic crisis could not be resolved? Do John and Barack have super economy-healing powers? Or is John McCain trying to shake up the polls, paint himself as concerned if not educated on fiscal matters, and delay the presidential debate until he's more prepared? I'm going with the last option.

Keep in mind that this was the same man who claimed last Monday morning, just before the announcements that Lehman had been purchased and AIG was going bankrupt, that the economy's "fundamentals" were "strong". He's getting his ass kicked for that statement and he's hemorrhaging polling numbers. He's desparate to stop the slide, and Palin's insistence that the press be excluded from her talks with world leaders combined with her refusal to honor subpoenas from the Alaskan congress for the TrooperGate investigation have completely undone the flash she brought to the party.

(About Palin: she'd have done better standing really still, smiling, and never saying a single word. Every time she opens her mouth, something stupid falls out.)

Whatever. McSame challenged Obama to join him in Congress until the economic crisis is over. Obama should tell the world that he's already in contact with his party via email and teleconferencing, things that would never even occur to McCain, but if it will make John feel better, he'll be glad to fly there until McCain has managed to feel useful.

9/24/2008:   This just in, it seems outspoken anti-gay rights John McCain has a gay chief of staff.

I'll give you a minute to recover from the high school giggles...

Yes, seems Gampy McSame unknowingly -- or (gasp!) knowingly -- hired a gay man, Mark Buse, as his chief of staff. I wonder if Palin, who devoutly believes that her church is capable of "converting" gays to heterosexuality, is warming up to do an exorcism as you read this? When asked about this, McSame replied, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?"

Too funny.

9/24/2008:   The ban on off-shore drilling that was intended to save our oceans and beaches from toxic spills has been allowed to lapse because Democrats got tired.

Yeah, you heard me. Because Democrats just plain got tired of trying, we will allow oil companies access to areas off-shore for drilling oil. No compensation if there are spills, no plans for monitoring drilling practices, no permission required from the affected states, no oversight, nothing. Just stepping away from the gates and letting the corporate mob stampede in.

26 years of ecological wisdom and integrity flushed down the drain because our elected officials got tired.

I'm sure part of the lack of impetus came from Dianne Feinstein, whose husband's $50 million contract awarded to him by the Bush administration has turned her into a DINO. It's like the old saying, "All that's required for evil to win is for good men to do nothing."

One thing you can say about Republicans: they may be completely controllable through their fears, but they don't get tired when it comes to greed and power. Never. They'll do whatever they have to do for as long as they have to do it to wring every penny and every dram of power out of any situation. It's depressing how powerful evil can be...

9/22/2008:   A recent study showed that foreign policy conservatives tend to be more easily startled, whereas foreign policy liberals tend to be less easily startled. And since Republicans are the poster children for "Kill'em all and let God sort'em out" foreign policy, I must assume that they're afraid of their own shadows. Having personally talked to people that are aggressively freaked out by the image of a Burka and are visibly agitated by the ululation of Muslim women. You can practically see their trigger fingers itch. One in particular, asked in detail what she believed, was pained to admit that she was okay with killing thousands of innocent people just so she could feel a little safer.

Yeah, I know. It was an eye opener for me, too.

So basically, the Republican faithful are killers because they're wussies.

9/22/2008:   He fought for complete deregulation of the financial industry, and now that we're all reaping the benefits of his extreme efforts to let his rich buddies run wild sucking the life out of this country, now that the United States economy is crumbling and it's affecting his chances of getting elected, he doesn't want to take the blame. He doesn't want to lay the fault at the feet of the Republican Party and George Bush. He cut the SEC's budget to a third of what it was, making simple monitoring of practices nearly impossible, and now he's calling for Monkey Faced Frat Boy that stole the presidencey to fire the chairman of the SEC.

The amusing part being that the president doesn't have that authority. The SEC is a Congress appointed and controlled body. Johnny got an F in U.S. Government, I guess.

What an ass.

John McCain's Keating Five proclivity for corruption surfaces again, along with the same disassociation from reality that confuses him on the exact location of Spain. Don't give him the top job. Don't put our military and economic security in his corrupt, elitist hands.

9/18/2008:   Bob Barr, the Liberterian Presidential candidate, has filed suit in Texas court to have Obama and McCain removed from the official ballots because they both missed the filing date. Of course, given that Texas is a "red" state and such a ploy can only help Obama in the November election, naturally I'm all for it! But hilarity aside, Bob Barr needs to sit down, shut up, and let the two major parties move forward. The Liberterian Party isn't going to put someone in the White House this year, and Barr knows it. If he's smart, he'll stop before he guarantees Texas will never participate in the Liberterian Party.

9/16/2008:   Palin, who originally said she'd cooperate with any investigation into Trooper-Gate, has reneged, refusing to honor subpoenas. So has her husband, Todd, and her staff. The investigation was proposed and approved unanimously by all 14 members of a bipartisan congressional committee, but she's now saying it's just a political ploy.

Liar. Wussy. REPUBLICAN! Geez, do these people ever get tired of flaunting the law in the faces of the American public? Have they no shame?

9/16/2008:   McCain wants his rich buddies to stop paying taxes. To achieve that, he needs to cut spending to ridiculous levels, effectively eliminating the purpose of the social contract. To wit, he opposed flood-prevention projects in Missouri and Virginia, new levees for New Orleans -- New Orleans for crying out loud! -- drought aid for Nevada and New Mexico, economic development for Pennsylvania and West Virginia, funding for the Florida Everglades. Yellowstone National Park, and Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, funding for schools, bridges, military bases, disaster relief, military housing, senior housing, renewable energy programs, job training programs, health care for veterans, and services for disabled kids, to just scratch the surface. Those weren't pork projects, although he'll tell you they were. They were needed for those areas. But McCain doesn't want the states to unite and look out for each other. He doesn't want the government to promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He wants you non-rich slackers to fend for yourselves, nevermind that you no-rich slackers are the reason he and his friends are rich in the first place.

John McCain calls this cutting pork. These were earmarks for projects that were needed by the states requesting the funding. I mean, how do you defund a school or refuse to rebuild the levees in New Orleans? The man has no soul.

9/15/2008:   Hey, you! Yeah, you -- the GOP koolaid gargler with the sign that says, "Country First." Keep in mind you're supporting the party that put our troops in harm's way for 7 years now, 5 of those being in Iraq where we should never have been, and the guy you're rooting for supported and continues to support that action compeletely and without question. He's not a maverick, he's a NeoCon.

You want to put your country first? Vote for ANYONE except a Republican. I'm not even going to tell you to vote for the best choice, Barack Obama. I'm going to leave it up to you to vote your conscience, but if your conscience says to vote for McSame, then you're an idiot that doesn't understand what "Country First" really means.

9/15/2008:   People have the audacity to complain that Palin is getting beat up with tough questioning by the media. Well boo-hoo. If you're in the dark as to why she gets this treatment, try this:

Call you insurance agent. Seriously -- pick up the phone and call. Insurance agents are there to serve you. You're paying them every month; might as well make use of them. Call up and ask what the odds are that a 72 year old former POW with a history of skin cancer will die or have a disabling medical event in the next four years. Believe me, they have actuarial tables that tell them, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, what those odds look like.

I'll save you some time: the odds that McCain will drop dead in the next four years are 34%. That's right, there's about a 1 in 3 chance that Palin would be president because he died out-right. Throw in debilitating strokes, Alheimer's, or other diseases or events, and you're looking at better then 50% chance that Palin will be our first woman president.

Better than 50% that you'll have someone in the White House that is a religious extremist, was a member of a secessionist group, is anti-environment, anti-science, pro-global warming, anti-women's rights, and pro-Bush doctrine (although she doesn't understand the term). She has no national economic knowledge, no foreign policy stance except "bomb them back to the Stone Age", and recites the line, "I think we should support Israel," every single time she's asked about her views on Iran.

So if you think Palin is getting abused because she's asked the kind of hard questions that a presidential candidate would be asked, that's why. Because she needs to be ready to serve as the President, and she so clearly isn't.

9/15/2008:   I finally got a chance to see the Charlie Gibons interview of Sarah Palin. I lined up the videos on YouTube and watched the entire interview. And then I replayed portions just to make sure I got the full flavor.

Wow. What an idiot.

My 14 year old could tell you more about the "Bush Doctrine", without me having to explain it, than this individual that McCain slapped onto the ticket out of sheer desperation. I don't care if his VP is a male or female, pretty or ugly. Dan Quayle was a youngish, handsome guy with a charming manner and a good smile, but he had more on the ball than Sarah Palin. And if McCain is going to continue marching her in front of the media, he should have her coached better than this.

In a word, she kicked her own butt.

Sarah Palin has no idea how to be a vice president and said as much in an interview the day before she was selected. She certainly has no idea how to be president and has an alarming deficit in knowledge and prior critical thought on her positions on domestic and international affairs.

9/15/2008:   Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., the 158 year old investment firm, filed chapter 11 Friday after losing 94% of its value since January. It's the biggest bankruptcy in history. Buyouts by Barclay's and BofA fell through when the government turned out its pockets and said it didn't have the resources left to guarantee the investment instruments being transfered. The other investment giant, Merrill Lynch, was taken over for a mere $50 billion by B of A. Waves of home foreclosures continue to roll across the country long after last year's projections of a stablization in March. Millions of middle class citizens stuck in upside down mortgages and frozen equity lines have stopped spending and are laying low, saving what money they can. The wheels haven't fallen completely off the economy, but the bolts holding them on are gone and we're creaking along on a hope and a prayer.

And today Bush finally admitted there's some "financial pain." McSame followed suit, admitting that perhaps the economic fundamentals weren't as "strong" as he originally thought. Of course, that was right after he said that he still felt the fundamentals are strong. He got slapped for that and retracted it. Dolt.

Don't even ask what Palin thinks. She doesn't, much. She recites the lines she was given and smiles. That's about all you're going to get out of her.

The only people telling the truth about the economy are the Democrats, led by Obama and Biden. Oh, and the newspapers, but Republicans apparently don't read unless the author is a NeoCon wonk.

9/15/2008:   I'm an uppity Democrat.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville, GA was born in 1950 and raised in the segregated South, but he swears he didn't know that calling Barack and Michelle Obama "uppity" was using a derogatory term for blacks seeking equal treatment.

Lynn Westmoreland is a damned liar, and I'll tell him that to his face anytime.

"Uppity" meant you were trying to assume a station in life that you didn't deserve. Some blacks in the 60s embraced the term, equating it with ambition and drive that flaunted hateful tradition. I'll go with that second definition in saying that I'm an uppity Democrat. I guess I just don't know my place. I think I'm tired of the Republican party treating the Democrats like a beaten wife. It's time we stood up, took back the reins of power, and undid the harm that Bush has done.

This uppity Democrat wants Barack Obama to assume the mantle of President and lead us back to glory.

9/12/2008:   The ladies of "The View" kicked John McCain's ass. Pure and simple. Having Palin as his V.P. did not win over every uterus-equipped citizen of our grand nation.

And yet he steadfastly adhered to the lies. When told point blank that the ads he's running saying Obama supports sex education for kindergartners and that his reference to putting "lipstick on a pig" was equating Sarah Palin with the pig were known lies. And he had the audacity to sit there on national television and say they weren't lies and then immediately start blaming Obama for running negative ads. It's the classic schoolyard, "No I didn't, but he did it first!" Give me a freakin' break. Yeah, y'know what, he's right. He hasn't changed a bit. Not since he was a womanizer in the Navy, not since he was a screw-up at West Point, not since he was a back in the third frikkin' grade pushing other kids down and laughing at them. "I didn't touch him! He started it!"

Great. The koolaid drinking Republidolts are chimp cheering another moronic frat boy. Way to go, you morons.

9/12/2008:   I didn't watch the 9/11 tributes on TV. I certainly didn't watch that stupid idiot George Bush walk the WTC memorial with Donald "Some People Tell Lies And Get Away With It" Rumsfeld. The day is too painful to watch the people who have leveraged it endlessly to mislead this country and take advantage of its people walk stiffly, make empty speeches, and be applauded by the koolaid junkies. No thank you.

9/11 is not just a reminder of those who were attacked, those who were forced to ride on the planes used in the attack, and those who died heroically attempting to save the survivors of the attack. That part of 9/11 lives forever and nothing I can say can add or take away from it. It hurts my heart to this day to think of it.

9/11, thanks to George Bush, is also a reminder that the people who planned, organized, and directed such a horrific crime are still alive and planning new crimes, building their organization, and mocking us. While George fiddles in Iraq, Osama bin Laden is alive and laughing and planning more evil. While George enriched himself, grabbed power, and pissed on our Constitution, Al Qaeda has gotten bigger and stronger behind its rock star, Bin Laden.

Seven years later, George Bush is just now frustratedly flying the occasional unmanned drone across the Pakistani border to fire missiles at villages, killing large numbers of civilians in their attempt to get lucky and perhaps hit someone important, and in the process damaging our relations with Pakistan. There is no diplomacy, just blindly fired bombs. No ground troops, no multinational support; in other words, none of the things we would have enjoyed had we simply focused on Bin Laden rather than pissing away our window of opportunity in order to invade Iraq for oil, which we never got anyway and never will.

9/11 is a yearly reminder that my nation allowed George Bush to retain power in 2004, and nearly half of them still support a political party that is complicit in Bush's crimes. And until we have a president that can fix the horrible damage done to our country and the world, it will continue to be tainted this way.

9/9/2008:   From factcheck.org:

Lies, lies, and more lies. The GOP at its desparate finest....

9/9/2008:   The uber-Rock band Heart has asked the McCain-Palin campaign to stop playing "Barracuda" to honor Palin. Nancy and Ann Wilson, the heart of Heart, have stated that, "Sarah Palin's views and values in no way represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image."

McCain has replied that the necessary licenses were paid, and they're going to continue using it regardless of the views and feelings of the women that created the song. So much for respecting women. And Palin is perfectly happy to continue grinning for the koolaid drinkers as she walks out to a song created by women that revile her. Nice. She's used to telling people to screw off as she plunders all she surveys, though. Get used to it.

9/9/2008:   Today figures came out that the United States is going to be working with a budget deficit of $407 billion. That's a one year figure. Last year it was $161 billion, but this year Bush increased spending dramatically without coming up with a single way to raise more income. That means we'll have to go to our creditors and ask for more money to keep us afloat. Is that crazy or what?

See, Bush isn't completely stupid, he's just greedy. Every penny we go into debt gets paid for by the tax payers, and as long as he isn't one of them, he's okay. When a Democrat gets into office, the stock market will jump, taxes will be evened out to include the rich, and the rich will get stuck with what's left of the bill. But for now, stick the middle class with as much of the bill as possible and let the rich shovel in the interest off investments made with the money they don't have to spend on taxes.

Check Palin's positions -- she wants to do the same thing, but more.

9/9/2008:   Okay, so maybe now is the time to put a woman at the helm and let women see that it doesn't matter who is in the big chair, they'll screw it up as bad as any old white guy. Because, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if the president can pull off a fabulous skirt-blouse-heel combo, what matters right now is whether the president will put Iraq to bed, build trust in our allies again, deal with our enemies diplomatically, use our military only when absolutely necessary, and try to deal with the crushing debt created by George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan. We need to have money for our schools, our healthcare system, our infrastructure, our domestic defense, our borders, our poor and our elderly. We need the money that we pay into the system to start making the system work, not making the rich richer or destabilizing the world's governments.

See my next note above about how bad a job Bush is doing. According to Palin herself, she will just dial up another notch.

And I guarantee you, Palin will do nothing less than screw up things even worse than George W. Monkey Faced Frat Boy Bush did. Because, when you peer past the former beauty queen exterior, there's just another evil by-the-book GOP whack job who thinks that God wants the United States to unilaterally bring about Armageddon and the end times.

There were never any WMDs in Iraq.
No links to Al Qaeda.
No ties to 9/11.
Bush, Cheney, and Condie lied to you.
You ignored the facts.
You re-elected a liar and a murderer by proxy.
But now it's time to show your support for the troops.

9/8/2008:   Did I mention that Palin is a religious whack-job? As a Pentecostal for decades, she spoke in tongues, participated in faith healing, and prepared for the "end times."

No, I'm not making this up. Geez, I wish I was...

So peer with me now through the lense of fundamentalism that guides her thought process as we review her positions on various issues...

Creationism. Not just a religious tradition -- to her, it trumps all the evidence and science behind evolution because the Bible says so.

Women's Rights. They don't have any, especially over their own bodies and medical decisions. Why? Because, don't you know, life begins at conception. A sperm and an egg merge, and that single fertilized cell can be represented by an attorney in a court of law and sue the woman it's floating around in for 18 years of food, clothing, housing, education, and medical care. If the mother drinks, can it also sue the mother for damages associated with child abuse? I'm pretty that would make perfect sense to Palin. And don't think for a minute that she cares if you were raped and became pregnant. Too bad for you; give the resulting baby life whether you like it or not, no matter how early you caught it, and then if you don't think you can handle raising it, put it up for adoption! Because in God's plan, there's no such thing as a baby with the genes of a rapist growing up with predetermined criminal tendencies, right?

Global Warming. She doesn't believe man contributes to global warming. Of course not! Disease, pestilence, and natural disaster all comes from God, so why shouldn't heaven have a thermostat for Earth? Combine that with an unhealthy conviction that God is going to scoop up the believers into heaven any time now, and you can see why she doesn't care about exploiting 100% of the natural resources and loading the atmosphere with carbon, methane, and CF3 as fast as she can. Doesn't matter! The end times are upon us! And who cares about the animals she flies over in a helicopter to shoot them with a high powered rifle? As keepers of the animals and plants of the earth, we have carte blanche to use and abuse them at will. After all, it's not like they have souls, so they're not going to run complaining to God after they're dead, right? Oh brother...

Ear-Marks. Nothing wrong with sucking the blood of the nation to grease some palms back home, because this nation isn't going to be around after the Second Coming anyway, right?

War, ANWR. Dude, she actually said in June, while speaking at the Pentecostal church she grew up going to, that Iraq and drilling for oil in ANWR were part of God's plan! (And Glenn Beck can kiss my butt -- I saw the video, it's on YouTube on here and here, she really did say that.) She believes she is part of God's plan. She believes everything she does is guided and approved of by God, including her support of bombing Iran!! I am not making this up!

Gay Rights. No such thing. Are you kidding? Did you really think she'd want equal rights for the homos? Really? You actually thought that Christian fundamentalists were Christ-like? NO WAY! You were actually fooled into thinking that? Poor you!

No, sorry, I can't vote for that. If you think she's not going to load up the Supreme Court with uber-conservative whack job justices and overturn every law that doesn't square with her religious beliefs, there's something besides tobacco in your pipe. Get ready to have the entire Constitution completely subverted and your Bill Of Rights overturned, buddy, because the fundies are taking over the government. YEEHAW!!

9/6/2008:   Jack Cafferty's wife of 35 years, Carol, passed away this morning. It has been said that behind every great man is a great woman. Mr. Cafferty's down-to-earth, self-deprecating, common sense approach to the topics of the day belie a greatness that, according to the idiom, serves as a testament to the woman that stood behind him. Jack is not shy about telling the world where that greatness came from, and that his wife was a moulding and strengthening force in his life. If he is the result of her influence, then she was a great woman indeed.

Mr. Cafferty, our prayers go out to you.

9/5/2008:   Two days ago, Fred Thompson told the RNC that the "liberals" think the country is in a recession.

Today, the fed released figures that showed that jobless claims were up 6.1% as more companies trim their staff to deal with a... wait for it... recession.

Fred, we only think that because your boys are telling us that. Maybe your crowd of equal parts geriatry and mental deficients buy your brand of alternate reality, but the rest of us are voting anything but Republican.

9/4/2008:   You probably aren't hearing it here first, but in case you are, there's a juicy rumor going around that Sarah Palin had a freak nasty affair with her husband's business partner. Completely unsubstantiated at this time, but apparently there's been a LOT of scrambling by the Palin campaign to halt or at least slow down this story.

Interesting...

9/2/2008:   "McCain and the MILF."

Don't ask.

9/3/2008:   Caught on an open microphone today:

Mike Murphy, one-time McCain campaign strategist and aide, now a political analyst for MSNBC: “I come out of the blue swing-state governor world, Engler, Whitman, Thompson, Mitt Romney... It's not going to work."

Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal columnist and former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan: ""It's over. Most qualified? No! I think they went for this — excuse me — political bullshit about narratives... Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it."

Murphy:: "You know what's really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical."

Mr. Murphy, two things: First, McCain's greatness is behind him. He's on the losing end of history right now, and Palin is his Hail Mary pass. Second, did you know that southern children are sometimes taught to refer to going to the bathroom as "visiting Mr. Murphy"? It's true, and strangely appropriate given that you think anyone in the GOP right now deserves the descriptive "great" when the entire extant membership is complicit in Bush's crimes, especially John McCain.

9/3/2008:   Fred Thompson said that the RNC has a different take on the state of the country. He said that Democrats:

Yup, he's pretty much pegged us. We really do think that. Perhaps because those are the facts, unless of course you're rich and part of the koolaid drinking RNC sheeple. Perhaps they live in a privileged and thoroughly disconnected sub-culture.

He goes on to blame our current condition on the Democrats and particularly on Barack Obama. The only people that would believe that would be... wait for it... the koolaid drinking RNC sheeple.

9/2/2008:   There are three flavors of koolaid the GOP is forcing down everyone's throat about McCain as a candidate. First, that he was a Vietnam POW and that he was almost uniquely courageous and strong in spite of being tortured. Second, that he served his country admirably. And third, that he's a "maverick" and an independent thinker.

To those people I say, first, that McCain's service record was mediocre. Second, that being a POW was not unique nor does it serve as a qualification for president. And third, "maverick" isn't a good label for being a hot-head, and independent thinkers don't follow the party line when the party is responsible for lying to the nation about the reasons to go to war.

But don't take my word for it. Check out Philip Butler's essay on Military.com. He's got better than twice McCain's commendations, spent more time as a POW, remembers McCain from West Point, and think's he's a bad choice for president.

Keep in mind that, while McCain will tout his membership in the "Gang of Fourteen," a group ostensibly formed to prevent Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees, he was directly involved in aiding the appointment of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Alito is a NeoCon whack job that believes in the "energetic executive" theory. And if the Supreme Court tips towards the NeoCons, and they succeed in eliminating our vaunted system of checks and balances between the government branches and the office of President is elevated to the level of monarch, it will be John McCain's fault.

So let's get this straight: John McCain is a Republibot, toeing the party line to the detriment of this country and to direct harm of 99% of the population. Why would you vote for this man?

9/2/2008:   Last month I opined that McCain's choice of VP, Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, was a smart choice and would likely give him the edge he needed to actually compete.

I was wrong.

She has no experience.
Absolutely no foreign relations experience. The closest she can come to is a vacation Germany and a business trip to Kuwait to discuss oil.

She is corrupt.
Palin has hired a private lawyer in the trooper probe ethics investigation, in which she is accused of firing the public safety commissioner for not firing her former brother-in-law from his job as a deputy sheriff. (Side note: She replaced him with a man that had to be fired two weeks later for sexual harassment. Great executive skills, huh?) That wasn't her first abuse of power -- oh no! She also attempted to get the Wasila library director and police chief fired as retribution for not supporting her run for mayor. She was nearly recalled over that one.

She is a typical GOP pork barrel politician.
She'll spew all day about fiscal responsibility and reduced government, but she was a huge supporter of Alaska's infamous "Bridge To Nowhere." Of course, now that she's been thrust onto the national stage, she's against it. Can you say, "Flip-flopper"? Just like Daddy McCain... And that's the least of it: she's wheedled and lobbied for hundreds of millions of ear-marked dollars in federal funding for local projects as both governor and as mayor of Wasilla. What's an "ear-mark"? In legislation, it's the rider that gets attached to a completely unrelated bill. So Congress passes a bill for, say, medical benefits for veterans that earned the Silver Star. Sounds like something no one would veto, right? They're war heroes, for crying out loud. So along comes someone like Palin that gets an little addendum put on the bill for $100 million for research into how fast ice cubes melt in saltwater -- wait, no, that sounds too much like global warming science -- let's make it for putting a sidewalk from one side of Alaska to the other. It's stupid, it's not related to the original bill at all, and it's only real purpose is to put money in the pockets of companies that will hire a handful of people to research the project and never actually do anything.

She's an Anti-American whack job.
Palin has been a sometime supporter and speaker for the Alaska Independence Party, a group dedicated to secession and the creation of Alaska as its own country. Joe Vogler, the president of that party, once said, “The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." Yeah, you and Bush's entire cabinet, ironically enough...

She's anti-environment and pro-global warming.
She has actually voiced the opinion that global warming isn't being caused by humans, and that the current pipeline has actually helped wildlife in Alasak flourish. She's HUGE on drilling through every inch of ANWR. She'd sink the drills herself if she knew how, and she's a great shot when it comes to the natural wildlife. She fought really hard to have the polar bear removed from the endangered species list so she could get herself a pelt! She'd club baby seals for laughs if the TV cameras weren't rolling.

She's a religious whack job.
She wants creationism taught in school science courses. Science courses. Really. She also supports discrimination against gays and thinks life begins at conception.

All of which boils down to a me-first, elite, opportunist lacking in critical thinking skills. Yeah, a typical NeoCon, and a typical GOP member.

McCain is supposed to be "ready to be the commander-in-chief," but he only met with Palin once and had one phone conversation with her before offering her the job. I think Grampy McSame's crystal ball was on the blink, because his gut steered him all wrong. Was it pure arrogance that made him think that his hunch was as good as actually knowing anything about Palin? Who the hell vetted her? And why isn't that guy's head on a stick right now? Is pandering the only reason he selected her? Because she has, in the words of Oprah, a "vuh jay jay"? What the hell?

9/2/2008:   Someone needs to hurry up and put Golem... erm, Fred Thompson... into an assisted living facility where he'll do less harm. This ass offered up at the RNC convention this little tidbit about McCain: "It’s pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, ‘Who is this man?’ and ‘Can we trust this man with the presidency?’”

Actually, Fred, we know who the man is, but it's not the man being advertised to the GOP faithful. And we absolutely can't trust him with the presidency if we ever want to save our children and grandchildren from the draft, fighting unnecessary foreign wars, crushing debt, a devastated public education system, bankrupt social net programs, class warfare, poverty, starvation, and oppression from a democracy corrupted into an monarchy with the elites raping the non-elites, then we need to tell the GOP, "Thanks, but no thanks."

9/2/2008:   I ran into someone that still thinks waterboarding isn't torture. This person is a Republican that voted for Bush twice and is set to vote for McCain -- surprise.

When asked to describe waterboarding, this person described it as putting a wet cloth over someone's face. They characterized it as creating the illusion of drowning without actually harming the subject.

It's the koolaid that folks like Hannity and O'Reilly have been serving up to the GOP sheeple.

Waterboarding is a little deeper than that. The person is bound to a board and tilted back so the head is below the level of the chest. The person is blindfolded. A wet rag is forced into the person's mouth. One interrogator puts pressure on the subject's chest while another interrogator continues pressing on the gag while pouring water onto it. Because the subject can't close his mouth, the rag allow water to fill the mouth and back of the throat. Water also flows into the nostrils and, from the mouth, up the back of the throat, filling the nasal cavity. The head being full of water, any attempt to breath pulls a mixture of air and water into the chest, which again is being compressed by an interrogator. The overall effect is one of being underwater, but the drowning is not purely an illusion. Water is being inhaled. There is pain in the lungs, gagging, puking, inhalation of vomit, and if the process goes on long enough, risk of serious respiratory infection, scarring of the lungs, and even immediate death or death from complications.

The agony of being subjected to this procedure would, by itself, merit the label of "torture." But don't take my word for it. The following clip shows Malcolm Nance, former Interrogation Instructor for the U.S. Navy and an expert in a stunningly wide variety of torture techniques. The clip shows a short outtake of him testifying before Congress as the United States' leading expert on the subject, and then goes into an interview of him by a CNN reporter.

Side note: Dianne Feinstein is one of the traitors to our country that cleared the way for Michael Mukasey to make a travesty of his position. Mrs. Feinstein need never again worry about getting my vote. She'll never enjoy my support again, and I will be making every effort to have every Democrat that supported the Mukasy nomination removed from office.

The following people voted against the Constitution, against the Fourth Amendment, against your rights, freedoms, liberties, and protections. A version of the FISA reform bill that grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that broke the law at the president's behest and gives the president the ability to grant immunity without oversight or further authorization, has passed the United States House of Representatives on Friday, June 20th, 2008. These are the people that voted for that measure. Included among them are Democrats that have betrayed their constituencies, including my own Jerry McNerney. Let us not forget these traitors at election time.