3/30/2009:   John Boehner (rhymes with "loner"), he of the orange-hued spray tan, led a gaggle of hucksters from the GOP in creating the Wizard of Oz inspired illusion that they had a budget plan that trumped Obama's budget. He waved a blue official looking folder in front of the press corp and stated that they had a budget that was far superior in every way.

And then the press corp opened their copies, looked them over, and realized that the only actually numbers, the only digits at all in the entire "budget" were the ones describing a MASSIVE tax cut for the rich.

MASSIVE. As in from Bush's ginormous tax cut down putting the top end at 35% down to just 25%. They also offered a pathetic tax cut for the middle class and none at all for the poor, but the rich would get 10 full points lopped off. That's a 28% reduction in taxes for people that DON'T NEED THE MONEY.

Did I mention it was a MASSIVE tax cut?

So the press corp started asking pointed questions such as, "Where are the numbers?", and "You're kidding, right?" Well, not all the questions. One reported from a right wing rag tried to help out a bit with, "So when you give us the details next week, they'll follow the guidelines and principles in this document?" Which Boehner picked up on quickly and parroted, "Principles...yes..." And shortly after that Boehner and crew exited stage left.

It was one of the stupidest, "Ignore the man behind the curtain and the complete lack of substance in our 'budget'," con job I've ever seen. Talk about desperation. They are seriously hoping that the soundbite of Boehner saying, "Well, Mr. President, here it is," will be played by itself on enough right wing channels that the GOP faithful will feel more confident in their elected morons.

What idiots. If Boehner only had a brain. Or a plan. Or an actual budget...

3/30/2009:   Ashley Biden, a very attractive 26 year old and the daughter of the Vice President of the United States of America, inspired the following write up in "Delaware Today": "[She] says she has been faced with scrutiny her whole life, but instead of retreating into a shell, she’s directed her energy toward helping people. Biden is a job developer with the Delaware Department of Children, Youth and their Families, where she lobbies businesses and corporations to find positions for kids on release from juvenile detention centers. “I believe it takes only one person to believe in you to get you where you need to be."

Ashley helped her father campaign during the historic 2008 election, and whiel she had a run-in with a police officer while trying to convince him not to arrest one of her friends outside a bar, she has, for the most part, presented the image of a socially conscious young woman with an easy path to power should she decide to turn her career in that direction.

Well, up until now, that is...

Seems Ashley has a thing for coke, and I'm not talking about the soft drink. There's purportedly a video running around of her not only snorting some lines, but complaining that the lines weren't big enough.

Y'know, a lot of people make mistakes, but if I was the son of the VPOTUS, I think I'd keep my nose clean (pun partially intended) for fear of not only shaming my father but for fear of the public flogging I'd get from not only the public but my father himself. Joe's a good man, and Ashley is clearly a good woman, but she's made a terrible error in judgement. She needs to publicly make amends as quickly as possible for the sake of herself and her family.

3/18/2009:   There may be a time when the United States has been brought so low and attacked with such sustained ferocity that our military must be committed to fight without regard to what the future may hold, without thought of future comforts or even the most meager respect. There may come a day when this country is fighting for the lives of its children with no hope of anything more. And maybe then making those that come back from battle tend to their own health and special needs will make some kind of pathetic sense.

But Mr. Obama has taken a sad and dangerous turn in economic policy if he thinks he can actually look the veterans of this country in the eye and tell them they are on their own.

There are some things a country as rich as ours cannot afford to pretend we cannot afford, and one of those things is the healthcare, rehabilitation, and retraining of troops that we put in harm's way to protect this country and its interests.

I have to agree with the veterans that oppose Mr. Obama's proposal to place the burden of care for battle-related injuries on the veterans and their privately obtained insurance. They must be able to afford and secure that coverage, and private insurance companies will not cover pre-existing conditions or potential mental issues that may arise later. To force the veterans to essentially forego medical coverage under the guise of saving $540 million is to blatantly ignore the obvious and to turn a monied yet jaded nose up at the sacrifices of our war heroes.

3/12/2009:   Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money", has been in a running verbal joust with John Stewart of the "Daily Show". Now, I've always held Stewart to be wicked smart and devastatingly witty, but he was all hammers and nails on March 12th when he invited Cramer on his show to have it out.

Stewart's usual humor was almost entirely absent. He was pissed, and he came to hold Cramer's feet to the fire the way no current TV journalist would. He ripped his skin off on national television, and he had the old video clips to justify it.

Cramer, on the other hand, voice cracking and backpedaling the entire time, tried to shift the blame to the CEOs he talked to, the financial market's "shenanigans", and to the once in a lifetime disaster that no one could have seen coming.

None of which Stewart was tolerating.

He just kept putting the blame on the self-ascribed financial expert to know how to do his job, backing Cramer into a very claustrophobic corner and beating him mercilessly. Cramer, as the discussion wore on, was clearly there to take his lumps, admit he'd been wrong, and try to convince Stewart to just leave him alone.

Rush Limbaugh has shown you can derive great power from holding a big microphone and saying what stupid people like to hear. Stewart has shown that you can derive even greater power by holding a big microphone and being smart, fair, uncompromising, and funny as hell.

3/11/2009:   I guess you've heard by now: Karl Rove lost his case in court to avoid a subpoena by the United States Senate to appear for questioning. He tried to cite immunity given to him by Bush after he assumed the title of *former* president (Hallelujah!). He either must show up or be found in contempt of Congress, which is punishable by five years in prison. And I can hardly WAIT to see Rove do hard time!! Man, that would be so cool! Someone could sell posters of it, and if they don't, I WILL!!

3/11/2009:   Poor Chuck Norris. His candidate lost embarrassingly, his party got its butt handed to it, and he's crying about it to the press now, saying that he'd be more than happy to take his ball and go home. If someone will first give him a ball to take home, that is. And the ball he's got his ambitious, stunningly self-important eye on is the great state of Texas itself.

“I may run for president of Texas... That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state.”

I swear I'm not making this up.

Chuck opined that “thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation.” He claimed that Texas would give the rest of the union the finger and pull out. “Anyone who has been around Texas for any length of time knows exactly what we'd do if the going got rough in America."

No really, I'm really not making this up.

Aside from the absolutely ridiculous notion that Texas would attempt to secede and expect to succeed, unless Chuck Norris actually is actually starting to buy the Internet hype and thinks the jokes about him are real, and that he could realistically take on the entire U.S. military single-handedly, I think he needs to sit his phony kung fu butt down, shut his wannabe actor mouth, and stick his uninformed and unenlightened opinions right in his.... pocket, and leave them there.

President Norris. Now *there's* an out loud laugh if I ever heard one. You have got to be kidding! Chuck needs to put down the crack pipe. What a moron... Besides, if he ever was elected president of anything, one would have to wonder what cabinet position he'd give to that bandacoot living on his head...

3/9/2009:   In keeping with his views on peace, intelligent discourse, and the unclenching of fists, Mr. Obama is taking his money and putting it where his mouth is: He's announced that he's open to meeting with moderate voices in the Taliban.

I gotta be honest here, I see absolutely no hope in this gesture simply because, by definition, the Taliban has no moderate voice. Everything I've ever heard, seen, or read about them indicates they are violent 16th century throwback religious whackjobs who consider it not just mandated but *cool* to kill Americans and post the videos of it on YouTube. I don't want to discourage Mr. Obama in any way if what he does -- y'know, talking *before* you get to the killing? -- works. I'm a firm believer in talking softly and carrying a big stick. Our military, as diminished as it is thanks to Bush using it like he was playing a life-sized version of "Risk", is the biggest stick on the planet, so he can certainly afford to talk to anyone he chooses. But it's not like the Taliban didn't know we were coming to avenge 9/11. Bush's administration contacted them, demanded cooperation and the transferal of the perpetrators of the WTC attack. The consequences for not cooperating were made quite clear. The Taliban chose to protect Al Qaeda at all costs. Even now they are taking Afghanistan back, killing members of the multinational force protecting Khabul. They aren't interested in negotiations. They aren't interested in playing nice. They like killing, and they scream that their god is great while they kill. You're not going to convince these guys to enter the mainstream anytime soon.

I think there's a limit to what intelligence, charisma, and even luck can achieve. But I wish Mr. Obama plenty of the latter.

3/9/2009:   I *really* like Meghan McCain. You would think that, as a politician's daughter, she would toe the line and protect Daddy's brandname, but Meghan is her own woman. Having complained that political talk ruins her dates, regardless of who her date supports, she has turned her well-grounded and brutally honest views on Barack Obama and Ann Coulter.

I was laughing out loud when I read that Meghan thinks President Obama is “the hippest politician around” and says being a Republican is “about as edgy as Donny Osmond.” Oh my gosh... (wiping laugh tears away)... hoo.... "edgy"....hehe...

(I kind of feel bad for Donny, though. But that's funny, I mean, come on...)

But then Miss McCain threw Ann Coulter under the bus saying that she “perpetuate[s] negative stereotypes” about Republican women. “I straight up don’t understand this woman or her popularity... I find her offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time.”

Oh, honey, we all feel that way if not moreso... Ann Coulter is an evil, sniping, ugly inside and out, bony bitch. Coulter likes to pretend that she doesn't have time for dating and kids, but we know the truth. Friends don't let friends inseminate Ann Coulter, no matter how many roofies Ann slips him...

She even skewered Ann on her popularity with CPAC: “When your competition is a teenager who has a dream about the Republican Party and Stephen Baldwin, it’s not really saying that much.” A very classy, intelligent SMACKDOWN!!! Aw yea...

3/9/2009:   "In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said before signing an executive order repealing Bush's ignorant, superstition-based order that denied stem cell researchers federal money and allowed other nations to make the advances we should have been making.

And when he autographed the paper, you could hear the angels singing. Or maybe that scientists coming out of exile, I dunno...

Actually, in case you haven't read the Constitution, Mr. Cantor, the President's duties, which are not typically defined by the Congress, entail much more than just fixing the GOP-wrecked economy. There's the GOP-wrecked healthcare system, the GOP-wrecked ecological problem, the GOP-wrecked education system, the GOP-wrecked science research system, GOP-wrecked infrastructure, etc. And heaven forbid Mr. Obama stand around and wait for you to pass any effective measures to deal with the economy. Maybe you still expect the president to be on vacation a third of the time he holds the office, like George Bush? No, Mr. Cantor, I think you'll find that the American people aren't that easily distracted, and that we like the multi-tasking that President Barack Obama is practicing just fine.

3/4/2009:   The head of the RNC, Michael Steele, knelt before Limbaugh, tendered an apology for insulting the radio talk show host and entertainer, and pledged his loyalty to the King of the dittoheads and holder of the all powerful microphone.

What a weenie.

Not that he's alone -- Steele, that is. Apparently Phil Gingrey and Mark Sanford also grovel before the power of the booming voice of the Oxycontin-scarfing sex tourist, who's latest quotable quote voiced his sincere desire that Obama, and the nation by proxy, fail.

Y'know, when Bush was getting young men and women killed in a fraudulent war, I can honestly say that I wished that he was actually right, just so that what was happening would have a just cause. It never happened, and Bush will go down in history as the worst president ever, but I never, ever wished that we would fail in Iraq. I never wished that our soldiers would die, or that we would be defeated. Never. And Limbaugh is doing no less than wishing that the nation's economy would fail completely, that we would be pressed into a crushing and interminable depression.

But I digress...

Steele is a weenie. There. That's pretty much what I wanted to say.

Well, okay, that's not all. The RNC is irrelevant, CPAC is evil, and the GOP leadership at this time has completely lost its spine. There, that'll do for now...

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.

I'm going to leave this up for a while yet. These traitors have not been held accountable for their crimes, and I want to make sure they never quite leave the public eye. Bush and Cheney deserve to be in jail, but even if that justice is never meted out, our nation deserves to have the crimes publicly recognized and measures taken to ensure that such a presidency can never happen again.

3/4/2009:   There is a line of thought that says that the President should, in some measure, be above the law, able to execute orders and to operate with some expectation that the those orders will be followed even if they do not fall within limits of the law and the outlines powers of the president. I subscribe to that line of reasoning only in certain circumstances and only up to a point. Clearly, when an amoral and overly ambitious individual with self-enriching and/or self-aggrandizing goals takes the seat of President of the United States, there is a very real possibility, as demonstrated by George Bush and Dick Cheney, that this principle can be abused to an astonishing degree and with devastating impact.

I can't stress enough how important it is that the current administration, which appears to be less inclined to indict the former president than would seem to be called for, give free reign, at a minimum, to investigators who would research and fully document publicly the full timelines and details of the Bush administration's actions. That would at least allow the public forum the choice to discuss remedies and whether to implement those remedies. It is the suppression of knowledge that will be the most egregious mistake of this admimistration should it decide to prevent such investigations, and our future generations will lay the blame at the feet of the Obama administration even more than the Bush administration for allowing the precedent to stand unchallenged of an outlaw presidency, power-mad, murderous, secretive, dismissive of the will of the people, and belligerently unrepentant.

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.