• The weight loss effort has hit a definite stall.  Not losing any ground, but not gaining any either.  Very frustrating.  Yes, I know it will pass in time, but it still sucks.

• Haiti.  Am I the only guy that can’t tell much of a difference in the “Before” and “After photos of that country?  Don’t get me wrong, I have strong sympathy for the people of that country.  Like nearly everyone else on the planet, I’ve made a donation or two because Lord knows those folks need all the help they can get.  However, it wasn’t exactly paradise before the earthquake hit.  I think most of the blame can be assigned to the corrupt, ineffectual leadership in Haiti.

And speaking of corrupt, ineffectual leadership…

*pause while I unlock the mental barrier which has been containing my anger*

• This country is doomed.

The ‘American Experiment’ is a failure.  “We The People” are too short-sighted, too self-righteous, and too uneducated to make a Constitutional Republic succeed.   Unlike many of the voters who voted for Barack Obama, I don’t think he’s the second coming of Christ.   I actually believe that if he got everything he wanted passed through Congress it would be a Bad Thing.  On the other hand, the Republican Party has gone from Clown Shoes to the completely absurd.

In government’s zeal to confer rights and privileges on their corporate supporters that individual humans do not enjoy, this country has become run by ‘The Highest Bidder’. (We can thank the Supreme Court, and the Republican-appointed majority, for this one…)

The Republican Party has become content to be the kid in the back of the classroom who shouts “nuh-uh!” whenever someone else tries to make a point.  If they can stop Obama from doing anything until the mid-term elections next year, all they will do during the campaign is say “See? Obama can’t do anything!” and ask the voters to put them back in charge.  And “We The People” will fall for it.  If you are one of those people who takes Limbaugh, Beck, or O’Reilly seriously, please… shoot yourself.   I’ll be the first to admit that they can be fun to listen to sometimes.  I am a big fan of Rush’s “Demonstrate Absurdity by Being Absurd” routine.  However, if you don’t realize that they bend and distort facts in order to support their own skewed world view then you lack the mental faculties necessary for effective exercise of your sovereign responsibilities in the political process.  (Translation: You’re too fucking stupid to vote.)

And the Democrats…  How, exactly, can you be so ineffective when you have a 60-40 majority in the Senate and a clear majority in the House?  Are you that scared of a filibuster?  Call their bluff and make them do it!  Make them stand on the floor of Congress for 48 hours and read a phone book or something.  Use some tricks of parliamentary procedure and force cloture.  For god’s sake don’t back down from a fight!  You want to know why voters are becoming upset with you?  Because you are the spineless cretins that your political opponents say you are.  Brew a few dozen pots of coffee, and camp out in the Senate chambers until the GOP runs out of steam on their filibuster.  Make them talk for a week if you have to.  Congressionally speaking, there isn’t one Democrat in either house with the will, leadership, or charisma to take the fight to the GOP.  Obama is the balls, brains, heart, and soul of the Democratic party right now, and would-be Presidential candidates would be well served by getting out there and kicking some butt right now.

Oh yeah, one more group…

Libertarians/Ron Paul-ites/None of the Above’rs

The reason that nobody votes for you is that you don’t run a candidate who can play the game.  I’m not saying you have to play by “their” rules, but you should at least know enough about how things are done in Washington to avoid tripping on yourselves once you get there.  Find a candidate who can engage people and has a touch of charisma, then hire the best political strategists you can find.  Wade in to the muck in Washington and get something done.  Otherwise, you’re a bunch of dilettante debaters whose Ivory Tower theories will never have the chance to be proven right or wrong.  Raise some money and win an election or two, then maybe you’ll be taken seriously enough to get your ideas into the minds of voters on a more regular basis than “Some pissed off techno-dweeb’s blog of rage” (you know… like mine.)

I am not sitting in front of my TV watching politicians talk about their latest plan to “save us”.   The only thing I ask of our political leadership is to keep things fair for all of us so that I can succeed on my own merits.   I don’t want to hear phrases like “Too Big To Fail” in the future.  I don’t want to hear politicians talk about “what’s fair for…” anyone that isn’t an individual (preferably ALL individuals) in our country.  “They” are spending way too much time and energy defending and serving interests other than the people of this country.  Why do I tell you this?

Because “They” are all crooks.  Every single one of them.  The whole rotten structure of our government is run by a bunch of opportunistic whores who would shoot their own kids if it would get them the votes they would need to stay in power.  Do you know whose fault it is that they are still there?

Ours…

and that is why we’re doomed.

As if this isn’t wrong enough, now according to Fox News, thieves have stolen the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign from the entrance to Auschwitz.  For those of you not up to date on your “Nazi Death Camp History”, Arbeit Macht Frei is German for “Work makes Freedom” and the sign (seen above) was the first thing Jews saw when they arrived at the camp.  Of course, for many of them, the next thing they saw was a gas chamber, making Arbeit Macht Frei perhaps the most cynical Nazi slogan of all.

I could understand stealing priceless works of art or archaeological treasures from antiquity, but is there really some sort of black market for this?!?  Is some Nazi sympathizer or racist moron out there thinking “Ya know?  I’d pay me a couple million bucks for that sign from Auschwitz.”  I can’t imagine anyone remotely sympathetic to the plight of Jews (or gypsies, or homosexuals, or Communists) in WW II thinking “Gee, I’d sure love to have that sign.” or even wish to see it destroyed since it is such a visible and well-known reminder of what happens when intolerance and racism run amok.

This definitely belongs in the “WTF” file.

UPDATE:  According the BBC News, Polish police are questioning suspects and the sign has been recovered.  The thieves cut the sign into 3 pieces and just walked off with it.  No word on if they’ll be asked to screw in a lightbulb anytime soon. (Sorry, that’s just too easy.)

What makes this ten times funnier is that the GOP is seriously considering running a moron like Palin for President in 3 years.

Oh, and you’ve already heard my go off on the Health Care system in this country, but I thought I’d throw in a gratuitous chart which might make my point a little clearer.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to this. “Do you want to live a longer, healthier life?” Or do you think it’s going to be ok to hear “Sorry that you can’t afford proper medical care. You’re going to die.”? Is “Tough Shit” a good enough answer for you? Or are you willing to rein in anarcho-capitalism long enough to come up with a solution that works for everyone? People who rail against “Socialized Medicine” live in constant fear of having medical decisions made by government bureaucrats, but would you rather live at the whim of insurance company executives who see you as nothing more than an account ID? Choose your poison folks.

While trying to get past my general level of disgust for the Richardson and the “Good Samaritan” (TM) that turned the harlot Mercado in I’ve come up with a few quips. This is what happens when Conservative Family Values and Political Correctness fuck each other and spit out some horribly deformed assbaby. Also, come on, there are Boobs and Food, surely no man in the world can find something wrong with that.

Look joking aside, if you are reading this and are in a position to help Jacqueline Mercado and Johnny Fernandez or know someone who can please don’t sit by the sidelines. If nothing else, spread the word and help make sure people out there know what’s going on.

Here are a few other images of child pornography according to Texas.

Now most journalism professionals or bloggers who get paid for their trouble will take the time to temporize or moderate their words out of a sense of respect for the topic or person in question.

I am neither, nor do I have any respect for the person in question.

Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska on the 4th of July weekend.  Did she think we wouldn’t notice?  She quits her job only 2 1/2 years into her first term as Alaska’s governor, with her only other executive experience being Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a town of 7,000 people.  Let’s put this in perspective.  As a director at Dragon*Con, *I* have experience managing a community with more people than that!

From the Washington Post:

Palin offered few clues about her ambitions but said she arrived at her decision in part to protect her family, which has faced withering criticism and occasional mockery, and to escape ethics probes that have drained her family’s finances and hampered her ability to govern. She said leaving office is in the best interest of the state and will allow her to more effectively advocate for issues of importance to her, including energy independence and national security.

Hey, bitch!  Who was it that decided to have their pregnant-unwed-teenage daughter tour as a spokesman for “abstinence education” in the first place?  Who was it that engaged in unethical behavior?  Who, exactly, is going to give a damn what you think about anything now that you hold no office and no realistic chance of regaining one?  How is it our fault that you have managed to fuck up everything in your life from your family to your state?

More importantly, why would any sane human being give you another chance to do it again?

And now you’re talking about suing a blogger because she has reported some of the various rumors surrounding you and your administration?

Oh, PLEASE give me a piece of that action!

In fact, I’ll make it easy for you.  Here is a laundry list of all of the rumors, none of which have been asserted as fact, that have given you cause not only to sue bloggers in a clear violation of everything that the 1st Amendment stands for, but also have given you cause to quit your job after 2.5 years, most of which was spent on the McCain’s campaign trail.

Naturally, with the overwhelming doubt in the minds of the public that these could possibly be the real reasons she was stepping down, questions were asked. Phones started ringing in Alaska from friends and relatives who wanted the “real story.” Alaskans were even asking each other what they thought was really going on. Questions were many and answers were few.

There seemed to be dozens of rumors circulating about the governor at any given point in time, and this week was no different. People were muttering about personal family problems, about new ethics complaints, about legal cases involving her use of personal off-the-radar Yahoo email accounts to conduct state business. Then there was talk about the legality of her legal defense fund which is currently being questioned, or maybe even personal illness. But the ones that seems to have gotten under the governor’s skin were reports involving rumors floating about town that there was some kind of shenanigans going on with the simultaneous building of the governor’s house, and the Wasilla Sports Complex, and a supposed IRS investigation. Was this the infamous rumor of an “iceberg” that could sink the S.S. Palin as had been reported on another Alaskan blog? Are any of these rumors actually true? Who knows. Are they being talked about in open conversation at holiday barbeques all over the state today? Oh, yes.

There it is, I’m blogging about it too.  Sue me.  I fucking DARE you.

In fact, I’ll make it even easier!

Here are some other instances where I have blogged about you.  Surely you can find something to sue me over.

• Sarah Palin’s connections to Scientology
• Sarah Palin is full of it alright…
• Sarah Palin, You’ve got FAIL!
• Sarah Palin, the ultimate hypocrite.
• Sarah Palin, The Master Debater *snicker*
• How I am more qualified to be Vice President than Sarah Palin

Somewhere in that twisted mind of Palin’s, she is seriously considering running for President in 3 years.  Let’s take a look at just some of the strategic missteps that she has made.

1. She has quit the only significant elected office that she has ever held. (Sorry dear, Mayor of Dogpatch doesn’t make you qualified to be President.)
2. She has stated as one of her reasons for quitting the aforementioned job that the press’s “withering criticism” and “mockery” were too much for her to handle.  Really?  If you think the reporters on the political beat in Anchorage are a riot, just WAIT till you meet the Washington Press Corps.  Oh, that’s right.  You did, and they had a field day with you.
3. She is catering to the nutbag-conservative-Christian base, but has an unwed teenage daughter with a child of her own who is going around preaching the virtues of abstinence.  (Sorry, but this cracks me up every time.)
4. Her husband makes Larry The Cable Guy look like Noam Chomsky.

I don’t know how many of you remember when the Clinton’s came to Washington, but the endless “Here come the Clampett’s” references were a staple of early 90′s comedy.  How the GOP managed to find an even more inbred, unsophisticated, simple-minded clan to foist on the American electorate is still a mystery to me.  At least the Clinton’s belied their image and proved to be remarkably sophisticated operators in Washington.  Could you even fathom the possibility of Todd Palin becoming Secretary of State someday?

I think I just cracked a rib.

So please, Sarah… Add me to your list of bloggers that are going to be hit with a lawsuit for reporting rumors about you and your administration.  I’m begging you.

Oh PLEASE make Scientology part of the 2012 campaign.  I can’t wait to hear the following phrases uttered during the campaign in all of their delicious irony.

• “Hollywood Elites“
• “He’s not a Christian!” (or any of the various variants of NonXtianphobia)
• “Traditional Values”

Palin doesn’t have a snowballs chance of beating Obama in 4 years, 14 years, 40 years, or 400 years.  She’s stupid, corrupt, and completely beholden to the very worst parts of the Republican party.  Catering to that base will lose elections.  Sound fiscal and regulatory policies are the only thing that will win an election in the foreseeable future, and a platform of “return to the past” isn’t going to win her any votes.

• Lower taxes, but balance the budget.
• Reduce needless regulation, but enforce the regulations you do have.
• Promote both sides of Laissez-Faire capitalism and allow unsuccessful businesses to fail and allow new talent to enter the markets. (Are you listening, AIG?)

Here’s the thing, and you heard it here first.  If Obama accomplishes even half of all of the things he has said that he will do (condensed list “Get us out of Iraq”, “Health care reform”, “Energy independence, no foreign oil”, “Cut deficit in half in 4 years”, “Get Bin Laden”, “Education reform”) you could run Jesus H. Christ, Himself, as a candidate in 4 years and he wouldn’t stand a chance.  The economy could still be in the toilet in four years, but it won’t matter if Obama is successful in building the foundation that he has promised.  Bad times are completely tolerable IF (and this is a big, HUGE, if…) people see that relief is coming.  I’m not talking about empty promises.  I mean real, tangible signs that things are heading in the right direction.

Of course, if the Republicans insist on running Lady Chuzzlewit in 3 years, Obama could win a debate simply by managing not to shit himself while on stage.

Expect Us.

For those of you blessed enough to live under a rock, “Kwanzaa” is a made up holiday which is celebrated by certain, misguided, members of the Black community in this country.  The only reason this, so-called, holiday gets to see the light of day from the rest of the country can be summed up in three words. “White Man’s Guilt”.

First, the facts.

Kwanzaa is the creation of one Ron Karenga, born Ronald Everett.  Mr. Karenga (He has legally changed his name, so I’m not going to employ the “Cassius Clay” technique here.) invented the holiday in 1966 while a member of a Black Nationalist group called “Organization US“.

We are going to ignore, for the most part, the fact that this organization was at odds with other Black Nationalist groups such as the Black Panthers and that the organization was responsible for killing two Black Panthers over the issue of who would take over a teaching position.

We won’t even focus on the fact that Karenga and a couple of his followers were sentenced to prison.

“In 1971, Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault and imprisoned for allegedly assaulting and torturing two women members of US, Deborah Jones and Gail Davis. A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women: “Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis’ mouth and placed against Miss Davis’ face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters.”

We’re not going to talk about the fact that Karenga is a scumbag because the case against “Kwanzaa” can be made much more easily without those facts getting in the way.

Let’s start with a simple test.

Who celebrates the virtues “Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith”?

1. Marxists
2. People who celebrate “Kwanzaa”
3. All of the above

If you took option number 3, congratulations!  Karenga doesn’t deny that he “cribbed” these principles directly from Marxism.  “Collective Work”?  “Cooperative Economics”?  Meh.

Then, of course, there is the name itself.  “Kwanzaa” is derived from the Swahili phrase for “First Fruits” (or “First Harvest”) matunda ya kwanza. Now call me crazy, but isn’t December an odd time of year to have a holiday celebrating “First Fruits”?  And Swahili?  Now, I admit that I am no college professor of history, but I do know a couple of things.

1. African slaves that were sent to North America came primarily from West Africa.
2. Swahili was spoken primarily in East Africa.

This would be roughly equivalent to creating a Spanish holiday based on Muscovite culture and Russian traditions on the grounds that “It’s all European, isn’t it?”  Now I realize that all white people look alike, but c’mon, will ya?

So we have a Convicted Felon and erstwhile 1960′s radical who is making up a holiday based on Marxist beliefs and a culture that he isn’t even a part of.  That’s a Charlie Brown special waiting to happen, isn’t it?

Far be it from me to piss all over a cultural holiday that isn’t my own.  I don’t write rants saying that Ramadan isn’t a real holiday because I’m not a Muslim.  I don’t claim that Hanukkah isn’t worth celebrating or acknowledging because I happen not to be Jewish.  Hell, my claim to Christianity is so thin that I could pick my teeth with it, but that doesn’t stop me from celebrating Christmas every year.

So why hate on “Kwanzaa”?

Because it is a lie, based on lies, and perpetuated by liars.  Because every time some idiot with an attitude tries to “correct” me by saying “Happy Kwanzaa” every time I wish them a Merry Christmas, I want to scoop out their entrails with a rusty spork.  The only thing worse than not knowing your history is to make it up and expect the rest of us to believe it out of an expectation of racial guilt.  The world didn’t buy it when it was called “Aryanism” and perpetuated by some “German” named Adolf Hitler, and it shouldn’t buy into it now.

Fuck that, and fuck “Kwanzaa”.

Merry Christmas!

-Grim

There are a fair number of commentators out there who think Obama is nothing more than a reaction to 8 years of George W. Bush.  What I want to know is… How can I get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to make such obvious observations?  Certainly 8 years of Bush has left the country in the mood for something, ANYTHING, different, but it took a candidate like Barack Obama to step up and articulate his message in a way that resonates with the voting public.  Past candidates like John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, or even Hillary Clinton, could not have inspired the voters the way Obama has.

Now it falls on Obama to lead.  Inspiration is only part of the equation, now he has to execute.  Fortunately, if we can extrapolate from how his campaign was run, he appears to be an effective organizer.  Set up your organization and then let your people do what you hired them to do.  That is why close attention will be paid to his initial appointments.  There have been no surprises in his staff choices, most of whom are Democratic party veterans with ties to Chicago. (In other words, people he knows well and can work with.)  These positions are not the time or place for him to “reach across the aisle” as he needs people who can march in lock step with what he has in mind and who are familiar with Obama’s leadership style.

The cabinet appointments, however, will be far more interesting.  A cynic might come up with the idea that he would tap a Republican Senator or two (especially one who’s state has a Democratic governor) for a cabinet post.  This would be an obvious Machiavellian move to tilt power in the Senate further towards the Democratic party, but the Republicans are in the unenviable position of looking bad (and partisan) if they refuse.  Here is a list of Senators who fall into that category, in case you were wondering.

• John Kyl – Arizona
• Wayne Allard – Colroado
• Chuck Grassley – Iowa
• Sam Brownback – Kansas
• Pat Roberts – Kansas
• Jim Bunning – Kentucky
• Mitch McConnell – Kentucky
• Olympia Snowe – Maine
• Susan Collins – Maine
• Judd Gregg – New Hampshire
• Richard Burr – North Carolina
• George Voinovich – Ohio
• Jim Inhofe – Oklahoma
• Tom Coburn – Oklahoma
• Gordon Smith – Oregon
• Arlen Specter – Pennsylvania
• Lamar Alexander – Tennessee
• Bob Corker – Tennessee
• Mike Enzi – Wyoming
• John Barrasso – Wyoming

Last, and most certainly not least…

• John McCain – Arizona

Obviously, the Obama transition team is more familiar with these Senators than I am, but if I had to guess, some senators would be elimated from consideration because they are too partisanly Republican to work well with an Obama administration (Arlen Specter comes to mind immediately).  Others would be eliminated because they have shown a willingness to buck the Republican party line on occasion, particularly with respect to fillibuster votes. (Olympia Snowe, for example)

Possible targets, if I were making the list, would be Lamar Alexander (former Secretary of Education under Bush 41) or Sam Brownback (who has expressed Presidential ambitions, and has self-imposed a term limit on himself so that he will not seek re-election to the Senate in 2010).

This would not be a strategy that you could apply more than once within the Senate or House, but it would satisfy Republicans that the Obama administration is, in fact, willing to reach across the aisle, while simultaneously benefitting the Democrats by tilting the advantage by a vote or two back towards themselves.  In a Senate that appears to be split (results aren’t in for a few races, Georgia has a run-off election scheduled for December 2nd.)  58-40 with two “Independents”, that could be an extremely important vote.

I am not referring to his personal politics which are no more or less malignant than any other Neocon.  I am not scared of him because his campaign tactics are just slightly less reprehensible than those of Hitler.

This man managed to make Dubya palatable to the American people.

This man convinced John McCain that “Sarah Palin is a good idea”

But most importantly…

Here is Rove’s projection from the day before the election.

And here are the actual results from last night’s election…

For those of you not paying attention, Rove’s prediction is precisely and absolutely correct so far.  There are 3 states that are “too close to call”, and if all 3 go to John McCain, then Rove will be exactly correct.  He predicted an electoral vote margin of 338 for Obama to 200 for McCain.  Obama has reached 338 electoral votes on the nose, and if Rove is wrong, it will be because Obama won one of the three remaining states. (According to the latest numbers, Obama is ahead in two of the three states.)

Whatever else you can say about Karl Rove, you cannot deny that this man has his finger on the pulse of American politics.  The fact that I disagree with his politics in no way diminishes the fact that he is a frighteningly effective campaign organizer.

There is a common theme in all of the coverage I’ve seen.  Reactions in Europe, the Middle East, Black America, White America, and Latin America all focus on one theme.  Hope.  There is something magical about believing in an idea.  The belief that you are truly witnessing the dawn of a new day.

Barack Obama captured the moment very well in his victory speech.  Even John McCain recognized the moment and delivered one of the warmest speeches of his campaign.  There were celebrations as far away as Kenya.  I saw blacks, whites, latinos, men, women, young and old all eagerly showing hope that today was a new day in this country.

Tomorrow morning, nothing will change.  The same issues that existed yesterday will exist tomorrow.  However, the first step to fixing it is believing that you can fix it.  Today, I saw a country believe in itself once again.

President Obama has a lot of work ahead of him if he is going to back up that belief and turn it into action.

Good luck and congratulations Mr. President-Elect.  May your hand remain steady on the helm, and may you be the leader we can all be proud of.

Polls haven’t yet closed on the west coast, but I’m going to do what every network is too chicken shit to commit to saying.

It’s over.

Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.

(Right now, at 10:10 PM EST, most projections have Obama at or around 200 electoral votes.  California + Oregon + Washington = 73 electoral votes, and McCain gave those states up a long time ago.  Book it. Done.)

Don’t be this guy.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand his rage.  I know that just about every election is yet another example of the eternal struggle between “Turd Sandwich and Giant Douche“  Here is why it is important to vote anyway.

You do not change the country in 4 years.  It took us many years to become the nation we are today, good or bad.  There will never be a candidate who can make this country into the perfect place for you to call home.  There is no such thing as Utopia.  All you can do is pick the one who is closest to the direction you want to go, philosophically speaking.  Maybe you want a Socialist Workers Paradise or a fundamentalist Christian theocracy.  You’re not going to find a candidate who can take you there in 4 years.  Even if he promises everything you ever wanted in a government, there is a difference between striving for something and actually making it happen.

If John McCain wins tomorrow, we will not become “The Holy United States of Jesusland” on January 21st next year.  If Barack Obama wins tomorrow, we will not have free health care for all and the rich will not be taxed into the poor house by Valentine’s Day.  Governments, especially ours, are not designed to move quickly.  That’s a good thing.  In a nation where pandering to the mob can get just about anyone elected, it’s good to have some brakes on the machinery of state.

The gentleman in the above video is right, kinda.  Your vote will not cause the Earth to tremble, nor will it shake the halls of power and send politicians scurrying about like cockroaches when the kitchen light is turned on.  It is a voice.  One voice in a chorus of millions.  Some of you will vote for third party candidates in order to make a statement.  Some of you will vote because you believe strongly in your candidate.  Others will vote because they believe strongly against the other candidate.  What is important is that your voice is heard.  Even if it is drowned out by others.  Even if you are a lone voice crying in the wilderness.  Your voice will still be part of the bigger chorus.

Refusing to vote because you believe it doesn’t matter or because you believe that “all politicians are crooks”, is the civil equivalent of “taking your ball and going home”.  You’re still subject to the same laws as the rest of us.  You’re still paying the same taxes.  You’re still under the same obligations, but you’ve given up your one privilege.  Your petulance is causing you to behave like the spoiled brat at a restaurant who is upset because his favorite meal isn’t on the menu.

Do you realize that making your voice heard, even if it is for some crazy candidate like Cynthia McKinney, might encourage others of a similar stripe to speak up.  One day, maybe not in 4 years, maybe not in 20, but someday, a politician will notice that there is a large group of people who aren’t being represented in Washington.  They will notice that people like you vote, and that you will vote for a politician who advocates the policies you feel are so important.

Stop thinking in terms of 4 years and take a big picture view.  This country didn’t become what it was overnight.  It took people with a vision and an idea and the patience to make it happen.  Stop whining and start working.  One day your “crackpot” ideas might become part of the mainstream.

Look at our recent past.  Reaganomics was once dismissed as “Voodoo” by a man who later became Reagan’s Vice President.  The notion that a black man might someday be the Democratic nominee for Preisdent was unthinkable 50 years ago.  Back then, some members of the Democratic party were even members of the KKK (One of whom, Senator Robert Byrd, still serves in Congress today!).  Politicians like Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich might be seen as “fringe” today, but by voting and keeping their names out there in the public eye, someday they might have a chance to kick in the door for someone else.

That will never happen if the voters who feel most strongly about these issues give up and sulk at home on election day.

The man in this video speaks of “walking away”, of “refusing to play their game”.  To him, I would say “Where are you going to move?  Is there some country out there that is doing things better than we are?  Is there anywhere else in the world where you would even have a chance of making things different?”  This is no game, and you can’t quit just because you’re losing. There are millions around the world who would die (and HAVE died) for the opportunity to make their voices heard to those who would govern them.  Think very carefully before throwing your voice away.

Vote.

Too bad.

The good news, for you, is that in two days will will get a break from the incessant political ads which are about as truthful as a 16-year old who promises to pull out in time.  The bad news is that the sniping will continue until the next election cycle begins in two years.

I’ve received plenty of responses to my last little diatribe, and rather than respond to each of them one by one, I’d like to offer a blanket response.  First, I’d like to respond to one post in particular.  How can you shoot down the concept of government subsidized health care while simultaneously advocating an arrangement shared among extended family (I believe you called it “clan”)?  You’re making the same arrangement from a smaller base.  Instead of looking at all of the United States as “your clan”,you break it down into smaller social units of people that you happen to be related to by blood.  There’s a difference?  You have no problem “chipping in” to help others, as long as they’re family.

There are two fundamental arguments at work here.  Obligation is not something that can be forced upon someone else indefinitely.  At some point an individual must accept responsibility or he will either be negligent of, or actively resistant to, that obligation.  On the other hand, living in a society is a social contract.  In accepting society’s benefits and protections (police, roads, armed forces, etc.) you implicitly agree to obey that society’s laws.  The law is not an “ala carte” menu.  You don’t get to pick and choose which laws you obey and which do not apply to you.  Law applies to all equally. (at least, in theory)

The question that must be answered is “Can government perform this societal function better than the individual, and would the benefit of such activity be beneficial to all?”  In a comment from Data Vortex, he includes a link to a story about a Congressman who votes to give money from the treasury to a family who is burned out by fire.  Indeed, in the story cited, it would be inappropriate for Congress to vote to give money to an individual or single family.  The story fails to pass the test of the above question.  It does not benefit everyone equally.

However, what if Congress had voted to create a trust fund that could get all families who are burned out by fire back on their feet?  What if such a fund were available to any families who needed it?  Such a concept would pass the test of “beneficial to all”, and if such a plan were possible, the government could employ the economy of scale required to make it happen.  It does not answer the practical details of such a plan, and I believe that is our greatest weakness as a government.  Too often, we pass bad ideas as law in the interest of “doing something”.  “Something”, in this case, has to be the RIGHT thing.

I would not support “Universal Health Care” if the plan is “a blank check for every medical procedure”.  Such a plan would invite waste and fraud.  I do not believe that means that there is no solution that would provide benefit to all, but I believe it is a problem that should be addressed, and soon.  I believe that promoting competition in the medical and insurance marketplaces is beneficial.  I believe that transparency in the insurance industry is a good idea.  I believe that if an individual can do better on their own that they should be encouraged to do so.

But I also believe that “Tough Shit” is not a good enough answer to those who can’t.  At some point, it is in our interests to look out for our fellow Americans.  Not on every issue, and not all the time, but at some point it makes things better for us as individuals if we make sure our neighbors are in good shape.  There is a continuum between “every man for himself” capitalism and “nanny state” socialism.  The question is where we lie on that continuum.

Some argue that government inefficiency is so endemic that the private sector can do things better in nearly every case.  Extreme Libertarian views would have every road be a toll road, every police force paid for by private citizens, and every social safety net run by a charity or other private organization.  Failure is met with the response “Tough Shit”, and to the victors go all spoils.

I’m going to tell you a different story.

I have a friend named Jay.  Jay’s son, Tyler, was born just 2 days before 9/11.  Just after Ty’s 3rd birthday, he started showing some symptoms of illness.  At first, they appeared to be allergies.  Then he started having headaches and nausea.  The next diagnosis was Bell’s Palsy.   After Jay pushed the doctors to give Tyler a CAT scan, they found a tumor on Tyler’s brain stem in June of 2005.  After surgery and more than a year’s worth of chemotherapy, Tyler was symptom free.

In order to pay the expenses associated with his medical care, Jay and his wife went deep into debt.  Insurance didn’t cover everything, and even his friends started a PayPal donation fund to help make ends meet.

When the symptoms returned later in 2007, Ty had to endure more chemotherapy and radiation treatments.   Now it wasn’t just Jay and his wife being stretched past their financial limits.  Their extended family and friends were pitching in even more money.  The community around Jay and his family went to the mat for Jay and his brave little boy.

It wasn’t enough.  Tyler Hibinger passed away last night.  He was 7 years old.

Having adequate insurance would not have saved Tyler’s life, but the crushing financial burden of this unspeakable ordeal isn’t going away just because Tyler lost his struggle.  There is no damn reason that this country and it’s people can’t get together and provide a safety net for families like Jay’s.  There is no damn reason that “We the People” can’t chip in together and provide coverage for families who need it.

“Tough Shit” is not good enough.

If my taxes have to go up a few percentage points per year in order to make sure that no more families have to face a financial burden like this in order to save their child’s life, then I’ll fuckin’ pay it and be glad I could help.  If others want to look at this and say that government is taking their money at the point of a gun, then let’s tell them “Tough Shit” and see how they like it!

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Our Union is pretty fucking far from perfect when citizens can, in good conscience, tell a family like Jay’s “Tough Shit”.  We’re doing a pretty lousy job of promoting the general welfare when we tell millions of our fellow citizens “If you get sick, you’re on your own.”.  There are no Blessings of Liberty to a family who will be in debt for a significant part of the rest of their lives because they had to take care of a sick child.

There will come a day, and I don’t think it’s that far off, when folks look up and see no perfect Union, no Justice, no general Welfare, and precious few Blessings of Liberty.  The step after that will pretty much kill the notion of domestic Tranquility.

If we are the nation that we all say that we are, it is time to step up, pitch in, make sure your friends and neighbors aren’t left to the tender mercies of Social Darwinism and come up with a solution.  Insurance companies aren’t going to do it.  Doctors and hospitals aren’t going to do it.  We have to do it as one nation, under God (or Allah, Buddha, Vishnu, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Insert the deity of your choice here), indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, not just those who can afford it.

R.I.P. Tyler.  Uncle Grimmy loves you.

Here is a sign that your campaign is coming apart at the seams.  At a rally at Iowa State University, the heart of “Red State Country”, your campaign starts booting out college students because they “didn’t look right“.  Now I’ll admit that the word “tolerance” makes me itch because it has been overused by the hypersensitive granola-eating wimps who want us all to join in a rousing chorus of Kumbaya every night, but turning away people from your own political rally because they “didn’t look right“?  If your campaign is so worried about hecklers that you have to canvass the crowd ahead of time to get rid of troublemakers whose only sin is “not looking right”, then how do you expect anyone to trust you long enough to let you lead the country?  What does “looking right” mean?  Is there a dress code for Republicans now?  Are you kicking out anyone who isn’t quite white right enough for you, Senator McCain?

So ya thought ya might like to go to the show.
To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow.
I got me some bad news for you, Sunshine.
Pink isn’t well, he stayed back at the hotel,
And he sent us along as a surrugate band.
We’re gonna find out where you fans really stand.
Are there any queers in the theatre tonight?
Get ‘em up against the wall. — ‘Gainst the wall!
And that one in the spotlight, he don’t look right to me.
Get him up against the wall. — ‘Gainst the wall!
And that one looks Jewish, and that one’s a coon.
Who let all this riffraff into the room?
There’s one smoking a joint, and another with spots!
If I had my way I’d have all of ya shot.

- In the Flesh from Pink Floyd – The Wall

That said, a couple of things have happened recently that have made me rethink my opinion.

For starters, about 40 call center employees in Indiana walked off the job rather than read a prepared script bashing Barack Obama for things like:

• Electing Barack Obama will put your children in danger
• Barack Obama is soft on crime
• Coddling criminals and putting them on the streets early

Willie Horton, there is a call for you on the white (fear) courtesy phone!

Of course, the only reason they were asked to read this script was because it illegal to robo-call in the state of Indiana.  If you’d like to hear the ad as it ran in other states, here you go.

If you don’t feel like listening…

Hello, I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC, because Democrats are dangerously weak on crime. Barack Obama has voted against tougher penalties for street gangs, drug-related crimes, and protecting children from danger. Barack Obama and his liberal allies have a disturbing history of coddling criminals. so we can’t trust their judgment to keep our families safe. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008 at 866 558-5591. Thank you, bye

Hey Senator McCain, if minimum wage phone monkeys can see through your bullshit, how well do you think this is going to play with the rest of the country?  Maybe you could outsource the calls to India since they neither know, nor care, about you or the American public.

Think about this for a minute, telemarketing is one of the slimiest professions known to man, even prostitution is more honest about what it is than a telemarketer who calls during dinner asking to speak to Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so about something “REALLY important”.  If these guys are saying “No thanks, I have standards.” to your message, then maybe you should re-think the message.

Maybe if you were more like this guy, you could have Sarah Palin do something useful for your campaign.

That said, I spent most of my adult life as a political conservative.  I believed that a government that governs least, governs best.  Unlike many of my southern brethren (and sistren), I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the “Religious Right” or other elements of the Republican party that differed from my own philosophy of “government has no business in my business”.

Then, one day, I woke up and the religious kooks took over the asylum.  Dubya was out there doing his best “guns, gawd, and gub’mint” routine, and there was no place in the Republican party for a guy who just wanted to be left alone to live his life his own way.  I couldn’t go with the Democrats because they were the party of “liberal college kids, poor people, Yankees, and Ted Kennedy”.  I really didn’t care what they had to offer, which is fortunate because they had very little to offer except opposition to Bush.

In 2004, I held my nose as I voted for John Kerry.  I wasn’t voting for him as much as I was voting “no” on 4 more years of Dubya-nomics.  John Kerry is about as inspiring as a pep talk from Ben Stein.  I was dreading 2008 because I assumed that it would be the coronation of Hillary Clinton, and like most other southerners, I believed that she was one step away from the Antichrist himself.

A funny thing happened on the way to her coronation.

I started paying attention to some of the rhetoric coming from the Democrats.  I started hearing words like “middle class tax cut” and “balanced budget”.  Instead of the “I’d like to teach the world to sing” foreign policy stances of Liberals past, I was hearing “We’ve got to go into Afghanistan and Pakistan and get Osama bin Laden”.  I was hearing criticism of the Iraq war, not because they were defeatist, or pacifist, but because our government was going after the wrong guy.  Meanwhile, our “Conservative” administration was promoting things like the Patriot Act, and engaging in a systematic erosion of rights, civil and otherwise, in the name of some nebulous “War of Terror”.

In all of this, I still held the belief that “Socialism is Evil”.  I was particularly fond of the canard that Socialized health care would be run with the cost-effectiveness of the military and the bedside manner of the IRS.

Then I started reading stuff like this…

One of my favorite political authors is James Carville.  When he managed Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992, he had 3 issues on the white board in his “War Room”

1. Change vs. more of the same.
2. The economy, stupid.
3. Don’t forget health care.

Sound familiar?  It’s a winning formula for any election.  If things are good, you want more of the same.  If not, go the other way.  I’ve heard that somewhere else, but I can’t remember where.

One of Carville’s most memorable phrases is one that he got from his momma.  “Tell me who you run with, and I’ll tell you who you are.”  In fact, I seem to remember stealing that phrase for something, but I can’t remember precisely what it was…

It is an article of faith in some parts of this country that Europe is a Socialist cess-pool where nobody works, and the government is nanny to a bunch of lazy malcontents.  Of course those of us who have actually spoken to a real live European know that they seem to be happy, well-adjusted, and oh-so-amused at the continuing hijinks of “Those crazy Americans”.  We work harder, for more hours and get less for it than our European friends, and yet we’re the ones turning our collective noses up at them.  While Europeans are enjoying between 4 and 6 weeks of vacation (PAID!!!) per year, many Americans don’t even take the 2 to 3 weeks per year that we receive.  Some might argue that adopting a European approach would “slow us down”, however the overall health and welfare of a society is measured in terms that go beyond mere economic output.

When you consider that much of our economic “productivity” is based on borrowing, lending, and speculation, maybe a more pragmatic, “slower” approach is in order.  Maybe re-channeling some of that economic activity directly into things that benefit all of us such as health care, or more worker-friendly labor regulations might be better for us in the long run.

Oh, by the way… Last year the European Union surpassed the United States as the largest economy in the world.  Maybe we could learn something from them.

• Since when do Liberals have a monopoly on “Big Government”?  The last Liberal President ran a budget surplus.  The current Conservative President is running record deficits.  Liberals might be guilty of “tax and spend” on occasion, but that is preferable to “tax cut and spend”.  When the time comes, and we have to pay off this debt, it’s going to be ugly.

• Candidates who deliberately misstate issues in order to score easy points with voters are one of the biggest problems we have in Government.  Jim Martin, the Democratic candidate for US Senate here in Georgia, is calling the Fair Tax “a 23% national sales tax” without mentioning that it completely eliminates Income Tax, Estate Tax, Capital Gains Tax, and half a dozen other taxes.  I voted Democrat in more than a few races this year, but this one ad was enough for me to vote for Saxby Chambliss, who sponsored the Fair Tax in the Senate.

• Thanks to Barack Obama, I am now forced to root for the Phillies to win the World Series in 5 games.  He’s gonna get killed in the polls if he winds up pushing back the start of game 6 just so he can blanket the airwaves with a 30 minute speech.  Does he really think that voters in Pennsylvania and Florida (two states that are very much “in play” this year) are going to want to hear him talk instead of watching their teams in the Fall Classic?  I don’t care how important the election is to you, you have to understand the audience, and the audience just wants to watch the damn game.  Would it really have killed Obama to schedule his speech half an hour earlier or, even better, on the day before? (travel day for both teams)

• Thank you, Penn State, for making sure that Ohio State will not be in the BCS Championship Game for the third year running.  If only you could do something about USC.

• Please, mighty gods of college football, do something about Alabama and Georgia.  Maybe let Auburn bring back a half dozen NFL alumni for a game or two?

• Wrath of the Lich King drops on November 13.  Don’t expect me to be social, coherent, or even willing to leave the house that weekend.  I’ll still be writing, but it will be for that other blog. (You know… the one I get paid to write?)

Bravo!  Some McCain supporters with sense chased away some folks who were offering more “Obama is a Muslim” rhetoric at a McCain/Palin rally.  I have been a very loud voice in bashing the bigots among us, but it makes me hopeful that there are those who support McCain who will not stand for this foolishness.  It pleased me even more to see a representative of the McCain campaign flatly state that they do not want these bigots and their so called “support” in the upcoming election.

Kudos to you, Woodbridge, Virginia!

It explains much…

Greetings from a former Dittohead.  Back in the early 90′s, I was an avid listener to your radio show.  I thoroughly enjoyed your sense of humor and your willingness to lampoon and annoy politicians and public figures that took themselves and their causes a little too seriously.  I embraced your brand of conservatism that held the idea that Americans could look out for themselves without the help of Big Government.  I was 21 years old and in college.  I didn’t need Government to help me get anywhere and I didn’t see how anyone else did.

Then I grew up.

When I was in college, I believed that the decisions and agreements that individuals made were the result of negotiations between two equal parties.  I believed that people made decisions based on rational self interest.  I believed that getting a job was just a matter of performing work for an employer to the best of my ability in exchange for a salary.  I believed that it was in the company’s best interest to look out their employees because the employees looked out for the company’s best interests.  I believed that buying a house or a car was simply a matter of determining how much you could reasonably afford, then negotiating in good faith with the seller  to buy the house or car that you wanted.  I believed that people were basically honest and fair, and that only a few bad apples were the kind of “bad guys” who made the evening news.

Then I grew up.

I lost a job that I had been in for years because someone else, who had no idea what I did, told the man in charge that he could save money by firing me. (“All he does is… I can do that!“) This very same person was on the phone a week later asking me how to do the very things that were my job responsibility.  I had a house payment and credit cards to pay off, and unemployment insurance (there’s that Government thing again) was the difference between me staying in my house and having to foreclose or even declare bankruptcy.  Government didn’t fix anything for me, but it sure as hell helped.  My employer certainly wasn’t looking out for me.

I eventually picked myself up from that fiasco and became gainfully employed again.  It was time for me to purchase a new car.  I was smart enough to know that car salesmen aren’t the most trustworthy characters, but I had no idea…  We had agreed on a financing package. The interest rate and terms were reasonable and we shook hands.  When I double-checked the paperwork, the terms in the contract were completely different than what we had agreed on.  If I had trusted the handshake deal, I would have been stuck paying an extra year’s worth of payments on a car, paying 5000-6000 dollars more than the car was worth.  I would have had nobody to blame but myself, but it galled me that the person whose hand I had just shaken in agreement would try to rip me off so blatantly.   These are the people who am I supposed to trust without needing the recourse of an effective government?

You see? When I was a dittohead, I didn’t understand what Government did well.  I knew they funded roads and the military, and I knew that everything they touched turned into a monstrous bureaucracy.  What good is Government when it comes to issues like health care, or employment law, or the environment?

Then I learned that rather than being “basically honest and fair”, most people are opportunistic jackals who will steal you blind then sell you a shopping cart to carry around the remainder of your worldly possessions.  Doctors don’t prescribe drugs that are best for you, they push what the drug companies pay them to sell.  Bankers don’t care that you’re out of a home.  They just want to earn 400,000 dollars on a 30 year, 150,000 dollar loan.  Employers don’t care that you have a wife and daughter that you are working to take care of, they just see you as a line on their payroll budget.  If times get tough, they’ll cut (you) and run, taking the remainder of the company’s assets in the form of a golden parachute and leave you twisting in the wind.

Is Government any better?  Not really.  Government bureaucracy is a nightmare of byzantine rules that can result in paying 600 dollars for a toilet seat.  But do you know what the biggest difference between government and the private sector is?  If government does a bad job, I can vote the bastards out every few years.  I can punt them to the street and give the other guy a chance to make things better.  If I get screwed by the corporate conglomerate who tries to weasel their way out of a severance package, or who outsources my job to India in order to make his stock options worth a few more dollars I have no recourse.  I have no leverage.  I have no power.

With power comes responsibility.  I am responsible for learning about the candidates and the issues that are important to them.  I’ve said elsewhere that the only deciding factor for a voter in an election is the answer to the question “Are you better off now than you were…?” and that’s true to an extent.  No candidate agrees with every voter on every issue.  In a two party system, you have a choice to keep going in the same direction or change direction.

Which brings us back to you, Rush.  I can understand why you would not support Barack Obama on one level.  He’s not conservative in any sense of the term.  He is going to expand the power and scope of government, and I understand why that isn’t always a good thing.  On the other hand, how in the world can you support John McCain?  The Bush administration has been one of the worst examples of Big Government run amok in history.  McCain has toed the party line 90% of the time and represents a logical continuation of the last 8 years.  Is this the “get government out of our way” type of government you were looking for when I was young?

I might understand if it were a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils, but your demonization of Obama’s supporters is out of line.  This weekend, I watched a respected former member of the current administration, General Colin Powell, detail his reasons for supporting Barack Obama.  I watched him articulately state the reasons that Obama was a better choice than John McCain.

Then I watched you say “Powell is only supporting Obama because he’s black.”

Then I went back in time a little bit and remembered this bit from your brief stint on ESPN.

Then I went back and found some clips like this one…

Seriously?  Really?

Rush, you have become a caricature of the very worst traits of the Conservative movement.  Instead of acting as a leader for your audience and elevating the debate, you shamelessly pander to the most ignorant and uninformed among us.  You march in front of a mob claiming to lead a great movement, but you spend your time looking over your shoulder to make sure that the crowd is still behind you.  You are the most feckless, callow, and weak talk show host in a crowd of cowards.  The only reason this upsets me at all is that I remember a time when I thought otherwise.

Then I grew up.

BOOGA BOOGA

Thank goodness we found out in time!

It seems that the good folks at In Jesus (Mexican Gay Porn?) have solved the mystery of why a formerly respected Republican “Maverick” has turned into a doddering fool in only 8 short years.

Barack Obama’s family in Kenya is cursing him and Sarah Palin.

I especially like how they refer to Senator Obama as “B. Hussein Obama”.  Nice touch, as if we didn’t quite get the hint that Obama was a “Scary black Muslim who practices witchcraft and is going to kill us all once Satan makes him President of the United God Fearing States of Holy Jesusland.”

Among the more ludicrous claims…

• Obama is 75% Arab and a Muslim. (so which one of Obama’s grandparents is the non-arab?  Would it be the ones from Kenya? or the two who lived in Kansas all their lives?)

• Obama’s cousin, Odinga, wakes up at 3:00 AM every morning to lay a new curse on John McCain and Sarah Palin. (“Hear me mighty mum-fu-fu, spirit of politics!  May Sarah Palin be forced to appear on a weekly comedy show!“)

• Obama’s family are simultaneously Muslim, Satanist, and “Tribal” (Does that mean that Obama finances his campaign from Casino revenues or something?)

• Oprah and her “200 million followers” all support Obama (This one might be close to truth, although I am not sure the number is as low as 200 million.)

• “Dick Morris of Fox News” was sent to Kenya to help Obama’s cousin run for president of the country! (OH THE HU-HANNITY!!!)

I think the most interesting bit of information from these lunatics is that even the rabid Krispy Kristian Koalition thinks that McCain “looks confused and like an idiot”.

There’s a campaign slogan for you.  “John McCain, even the religious nutbags think he’s lost it.”

In case you need a refresher on the circumstances behind Powell’s departure as Secretary of State, the Bush administration forced Powell out because he was frequently at odds with cabinet members such as Donald Rumsfeld.  Powell never went public or spoke negatively about his time in the administration and has consistently taken the high road in all discussions on the matter.  As a result, he has maintained favorable opinion with most of the American public, and his endorsement of Obama is a severe blow to the McCain campaign.

Predictably, McCain has moved to counter the blow by mentioning that every other living Republican former Secretary of State has endorsed Senator McCain.  To paraphrase Chris Farley… La-deee-Fricking-dah.  Republicans endorsing one of their own is no surprise, and frankly, not much of an endorsement.  Is there anyone out there who thinks “Well, Nixon’s Secretary of State endorses McCain.  That’s good enough for me!”

Having a former member of the current administration endorse the candidate from the other party, on the other hand, speaks volumes about the ineptitude of Bush and, by extension, a presumptive McCain administration.

Under this structure, the question is not whether or not we pay taxes, but how much, and for what services.

The United States, given the size of it’s population and economy has one of the lowest individual tax rates in the industrialized world.

Of course, that doesn’t stop us from spending more money than all of these countries. Perhaps you’ve heard, but the national debt is up to 10 TRILLION dollars. In the last 8 years, our administration has done two things (among others)

• Lowered the highest marginal income tax rate to 35%
• Gone from a budget surplus to nearly a 1 trillion dollar per year deficit.

Do I need to draw you a freakin’ map?

To the argument of “It’s our money! We deserve to keep it!”

Yes, you earned the money. Of course, we paid for the roads that you take to work, the infrastructure that allows your to enjoy electricity and clean water without having to produce it yourself, and the police that keep you safe at night. We also chipped in 700 BILLION dollars recently to keep your investments from going in the tank.

If you think you can do it all on your own, you’re wrong.

If you don’t like the things that government spends it’s money on, you get a say-so. You get to vote on the folks who are going to spend those tax dollars. You get to help decide where the money goes. Stop acting like “Government is THEM”. Government is YOU, it’s all of us.

But if that won’t persuade you, then how about this?

Using numbers from 2007

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_States_federal_budget#Total_spending)

• Education: 90 billion
• Unemployment and Welfare: 290 billion
• Community Development: 27 billion

Total: 407 billion

• Government Bailout of Wall Street: 700 billion.

Tell me again about “redistribution”?  In fact, the bailout was more than any individual budgetary category in the Federal budget including Social Security and National Defense.  You could even throw in the budgets for the Justice Department (43 billion), Environmental activities (EPA, etc… 33 billion), Foreign Affairs (32 Billion), Agriculture (27 Billion), Science and Technology (25 Billion), Energy (20 Billion) and General Government Activities (20 Billion) and STILL not add up to the size of the Wall Street bailout.

Government is not “Robin Hood”.  Government exists to perform functions in a scale that is typically more efficient and effective than if that function was performed in the private sector.  We may disagree on what those functions are, but it is indisputable that we must pay for the functions that government performs whether or not we agree with how they perform them.  As long as there is government, there will be taxes.  A 10 trillion dollar debt means that we have not paid our collective tab.

Hey Grim, “Change” isn’t supposed to be an acronym!

Well, a certain 7th grade teacher in Florida would beg to differ.

A Marianna middle-school teacher has been suspended for 10 days without pay after he wrote a racially charged interpretation of a commonly used phrase in the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.

While some parents and community activists were outraged by the actions of Greg Howard, Jackson County NAACP officials want to gather more facts before the group considers taking action. But some parents feel Howard should be fired.

Larry Moore, deputy superintendent for the Jackson County School District, said school officials determined Howard wrote an acronym with an explanation on a dry-erase board in his class Sept. 26 at Marianna Middle School.

It said, “C.H.A.N.G.E. — Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected.”

I would like to take a moment and applaud Mr. Howard and salute his courage.  Sure, it would be easy to join in the chorus of folks demanding his head for being a racist prick.  Sure, it would be easy to point out that this redneck has no business being near children, much less teaching them.  Sure, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another member of the inbred-slack jawed-hillbilly-terra cotta toothed-sister fucking-redneck morons in this country who still think that the color of a person’s skin matters when it comes to holding the office of President.

No.  I think more Americans who think this way should make themselves heard.  I think every racist imbecile in America should speak up loud and proud and declare their feelings for all the world to see.

That way, I know where they are and can avoid contact.  That kind of stupidity might be contagious.

Years ago, back when he was still funny, Dennis Miller had a line about racism in the public discourse.  He had words for all of those who were galled that groups like the KKK could hide behind First Amendment protections while parading their idiocy in front of the entire world.

(loosely paraphrased)

“Having the First Amendment in this country results in politicians like David Duke.  No First Amendment results in politicians like Adolf Hitler.”

While it might frighten you that hicks like this have a vote that counts just as much as yours does, take heart that there are a lot more of “us” out there than there are of “them”.  Making them part of the public discourse will further marginalize their viewpoints and make it much for difficult for a political party to cater to that base.  It’s not like those ideas are going to survive very long in the glare of the public spotlight.  Racism is a mushroom.  It thrives when in the dark and surrounded by bullshit.

Sure, you might see the Al Jazeera logo at the bottom of this screen, but those are Americans that are making us look bad, not the announcer who just happens to be speaking the truth.

Let’s address these comments one by one…  They are all ludicrous to the point of hilarity, but for the sake of argument, I’m going to tackle them anyway.  I need the laugh this morning.

“I’m afraid that if he wins, the black will take over”

Yeah, because he’ll pass that “Kill Whitey” law that the black community has been clamoring for all these years.  Pay no attention to Congress or the Supreme Court or the fact that the President can’t pass any laws on his own.  Whitey is gonna PAY when Obama is in the White (racist) House.

“He’s not a Christian! This is a Christian Nation!”

Oh, so then the Reverend Jeremiah Wright scandal was completely made up!  How could Obama have anything to do with Reverend Wright if he isn’t a Christian in the first place!  It still amazes me that a constituency that can recite the Second Amendment so passionately and eloquently is completely ignorant of the First Amendment.  You remember that one, right?  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”?  You can find it just before you get to the part about “Freedom of Speech” which is another clause that the Republican Party likes to ignore.

“When you’ve got a nigger running for president, you need a first stringer.  He’s definitely a second stringer”

Maybe if Obama broke into a chorus of “Mammy”, he could move into the starting lineup, eh?  What’s the matter?  Is Obama not “uppity” enough for you, Mr John Deere hat?

Fuck.  We’re 30 seconds into a 2 minute video.  It gets worse.

“He seems like a…wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Now Palin… She’s filled with the holy spirit.”

She’s filled with something alright.  Seriously, if Christians are this stupid, how did that religion survive for 2000 years?  I know this is a fundamentalist minority in Christianity, but let’s compare a list of atrocities between Christianity and Islam some time.  It’s easy to blame “Islam” for the world’s ills, but don’t forget that our side has a few extremists too.

“He’s related to a known terrorist”

Who?  Did Bill Ayers adopt him or something?

“He is friends with a terrorist of this country”

This would be an inconvenient time to bring up the connections between the Bush family and the Bin Ladens, eh?  The Bill Ayers story has been beaten into the ground already.  The fact that this “connection” is gaining traction with members of the Republican base says more about the intelligence of the average republican voter than it does about Senator Obama’s character.

“Just the whole… Muslim thing and everything”

Sorry lady, you can put it in vague language all you like, but you’re still a bigot.  A bigot that is too stupid to understand that Obama is not a Muslim.  You’re part of the problem.

“Obama and his wife… I’m concerned that they could be anti-white”

Project much?

“I don’t like the fact that he thinks us white people are trash.”

Not all white people, lady.  Just you.  In this case, he happens to be right.

The commentator in this news video introduces the video, then does not speak again until 1:20 of the 2:08 video.  The pictures tell the story.  The commentator introduces a pro-Obama protester, who happens to be white and is called “Baby Killer”, “Nigger”, and “Muslim” by the Republicans in attendance.  He plainly states that he is afraid that one of these whack-jobs is going to try to kill Obama, and his fears aren’t that unreasonable.

“The divisive nature of this campaign has brought out into the open what is usually discussed behind closed doors in America.  It’s a reminder that hate and fear are still powerful forces in American deciding(sic).”

The one good thing about all of this is that it is bringing racists and racism out into the open again.  Let the world know where you stand.  Are you a racist, bigoted moron?  Or not?  Why is the Republican party such a stronghold of white racism? Why do racist minorities flock to the Democratic party?  Let’s not pretend that only white people are idiots like this.  What is it that is keeping racism alive, and how do we kill it?

That’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone use “quotation fingers” around the word health.

• “So called ‘heath’”?
• “Alleged ‘health’”?
• “‘Health’ is just a code word for a welfare mom who doesn’t want to hatch out a 17th kid”?

“‘Health’… is the extreme pro-abortion position”

WHAT?!?

Damn those mothers who want to keep on living.  How dare they inconvenience our health care system with their silly desire to breathe.  Sorry, I can’t even mock this idea effectively because it’s too ridiculous on it’s own merits.

Abortion is none of the government’s business and watching the religious right try to fight this issue is a comic exercise in ignorance, prejudice, and stupidity all rolled into one.

Schieffer: But even if it was someone — even someone who had a history of being for abortion rights, you would consider them?

McCain: I would consider anyone in their qualifications. I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications. But I certainly would not impose any litmus test.

Schieffer: All right.

No, it’s not all right.   In one sentence, McCain says that someone who supports Roe v Wade is not qualified to be a judge on the Supreme Court.  In the VERY NEXT SENTENCE, he says “I certainly would not impose any litmus test”.

Litmus Test: A litmus test is a question asked of a potential candidate for high office, the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would choose to proceed with the appointment or nomination. (The expression is a metaphor based on the litmus test in chemistry.) Those who must approve a nominee, such as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, may also be said to apply a litmus test to determine whether the nominee will receive their vote. In these contexts, the phrase comes up most often with respect to nominations to the judiciary.

If you’re going to bullshit, at least put in a couple of sentences of fluff about how you are fighting for a person’s right to life. (even though you support the death penalty)

Then, of course, there is Joe the Plumber…

I have a few questions for Mr. “The Plumber”.

1) Since when do plumbers make more than 250,000 per year? (No, really… I might consider a career change)

2) According to the data provided by CNN and mentioned in an earlier column here, the tax burden for people making between 250,000 and 650,000 dollars will increase, on average,  by 12 dollars per year.  If such an additional burden means that you are now unable to afford to buy your own business, then isn’t your capital stretched just a little thin already?

3) How, exactly, did you manage to appear on Fox News almost immediately after your “spontaneous” encounter with Senator Obama?

Wait just a minute…

In the first few seconds of this clip, you mention that your business makes between 270,000 and 280,000 dollars per year.

You’re seriously telling us that paying an additional 12 dollars per year in taxes (on average), one dollar per month, is the difference between you being able to afford your own business and not being able to afford it?

Bullshit.

In fact, since I will admit that I’m using an “average” figure to come up with 12 dollars/year, let’s look at EXACTLY how much more “Joe the Plumber” will pay in taxes under Obama’s plan.

• FACT:  Obama will raise the marginal tax rate on income greater than 250,000 dollars per year from 35% to 39%.

• FACT: Marginal tax rate affects only the income within a particular bracket.

• CONCLUSION:  Given Joe’s statement that he makes between 270 and 280 thousand dollars, here are the numbers.

270,000-250,000 = 20,000 dollars taxed at the highest marginal tax rate.

280,000-250,000 = 30,000 dollars taxed at the highest marginal tax rate.

Under the current tax code, Joe pays between 7,000 and 10,500 dollars per year at the highest marginal tax rate. (35%)

Under Obama’s tax plan, Joe would pay between 7,800 and 11,700 dollars per year in taxes at the highest marginal tax rate. (39%)

Net difference: 800 dollars per year.

So 800 dollars per year, not counting the elimination of Capital Gains taxes for small businesses is the difference between “Joe the Plumber” being able to afford his own business and not being able to afford it?  Sure, that’s a bit more than the 12 dollars/month cited elsewhere, but we haven’t yet discussed the savings from Obama’s “Making Work Pay” program that would put an additional 500 dollars per year in Joe’s pocket (whoops, final number just dropped to 300 dollars per year) nor have we mentioned reductions in lower marginal tax rates that would bring the overall tax burden down significantly.

800 dollars per year translates to about 16 bucks per week.  (300 ~ 6 dollars/week)

Perhaps if Joe cut out a couple of six packs per month, he’d be able to afford that business of his after all.   The fact is, if the success or failure of his business depends on less than 20 dollars per week, maybe Joe is riding a little too close to the edge, financially, to be successful as a business owner at this time.  Maybe another year or two might help Joe stabilize his financial position to the point where a cup of coffee each day won’t be the difference between success and failure.

While watching the debate last night, I thought that McCain clearly outperformed Obama in the first 30 minutes or so.  The “Joe the Plumber” references were really hitting home and illustrating the difference between McCain’s plan and Obama’s plan.  The problem is that folks like you and me can go back and check the facts, run the numbers, and watch previous speeches and debates to see where candidates have fudged facts or outright lied to us.

In fact, Jon Stewart and friends have made a rather successful TV show based on this concept.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

There are a couple of interesting twists in this case.  First, a judge has ordered Sarah Palin to maintain records of her Yahoo! email traffic.  Second, while Palin has claimed “executive privilege” regarding said email, according to Alaska law, such privilege is waived if the Governor shares the contents of that email with a member of the general public.   As it happens, her husband is NOT an elected official or employee of the state and qualifies as “a member of the general public.”  Since Palin has forwarded copies of some of these emails to her husband, executive privilege does not exist for any email going to or from that account.

Whoops.

The final footnote in this article mentions that an entire week’s worth of email from the Vice President’s office has “gone missing” from government archives.  Seems that Dick and Sarah have something in common.

Except for…

As you might have guessed by now, I’m backing Barack Obama in this year’s presidential election.  If this surprises you, I would invite you to click on the Politics category and ready pretty much anything you find there.  While I knew, intellectually, that Alabama was “Red State” country and largely in support of John McCain, I really didn’t understand, in my gut, what that meant until I went to the game on Saturday.

Maybe you’ve heard those stories about people at McCain rallies who say that Obama is ‘an Arab’ and dismiss them as the rantings of scattered morons in a sea of otherwise rational human beings.  I talked to more than a few McCain supporters at the game (a local politician was giving out McCain/Palin stickers, and nearly everyone in the crowd of over 80,000 people had one on), and ‘Arab’ is only the first in an alphabetical list of things I heard Obama called this weekend.

• Arab
• Communist
• Foreigner
• Mohammedan
• Muslim
• The “N-bomb”
• Non-Christian
• Socialist
• Un-American
• Uppity

I heard more than one person state flatly that although they knew nothing about Obama’s policies, they would vote for McCain because they didn’t want a black man in the White House.  I honestly thought we were past this kind of thing as a nation.  These weren’t “Bubbas” wearing overalls and driving pickup trucks.  These were men and women whose only distinguishing superficial characteristics from an otherwise intelligent human being was an eastern Alabama accent.  These were doctors and lawyers and otherwise educated men and women saying things like “Obama should know his place” and “I won’t vote for any Muslim.”

To be fair, not every person wearing a McCain/Failin’ sticker was racially motivated.  I heard folks talk about how Obama was going to raise taxes for them despite the fact that none of the people who voiced this fear were in a tax bracket affected adversely by Obama’s economic plan.  I heard folks talk about how Obama was going to make the US weaker even though the current President has done more to damage the United States around the world than any President in my lifetime and McCain’s plan is to continue those policies.

I don’t know what scared me more.  The fact that they didn’t know any better? or the fact that the information is so easy to find, yet they don’t care enough to look for it.  In a way, it is a testament to the power of the Conservative Christian movement in the south.  I saw very little curiosity and a great deal of lock-step dogmatism masquerading as intelligent thought.  Having lived in the south for my entire life, I know for a fact that not everyone falls into that stereotype, but seeing such a large number of those people in one place was a bit frightening.  Those votes count just as much as mine does, and they put as much thought into who will be the most powerful leader in the world as I might put into which football game I’m going to watch next weekend.

Barack Obama, man of the cloth?

My best friend has called me onto the carpet and charged me with that most heinous of journalistic crimes, lack of objectivity.

Guilty.

I’m biased as hell.

Now that we have that out of the way, my friend has challenged me to bash Obama on some point, ANY point, just as an exercise in intellectual honesty. I must admit, after doing some digging into the matter, that there are a fair number of points to choose from.

First, there is his association with the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright.  Let’s pick a few quotes and have a look, shall we?

• “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”

Factually accurate.  We did bomb Hiroshima.  We did bomb Nagasaki.  It is hypocritical to call your own civilian deaths “an act of evil” while simultaneously calling the deaths of someone else’s civilians “a necessary act of war”.  War is hell, and September 11th was an example of the other side taking the initiative and getting in a first strike.  We shouldn’t be fighting terrorists because “they’re evil and we’re the good guys”.  We should be fighting them because if we don’t they’ll kill more of us.  The question of “how we got here” is best left to historians.  Right now, we need to fight to win, which means killing more of them than they do of us.

• “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sep 2001)

Again, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.  Is Wright saying that we “deserve” the attacks? or is he saying that he isn’t surprised that they are happening.  Would any serious student of history doubt that a foreign policy based on intervention will eventually make enemies around the world?  Pro-Israel/Anti-Palestinian… Same thing.  We chose our friends in the world, and in so doing, chose our enemies as well.  Do we really expect them to lie down for us while we exercise our influence unopposed?

• “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)

I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.  Wright is clearly using the phrase “God damn America” as the polar opposite of “God bless America”.  It’s a rhetorical device designed to “shock and awe” the listener.

• “Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

Would any rational human being find inaccuracy in this statement?  The fact is, “rich white people”, have called the shots in this country from the very beginning.  Is that inherently evil? No.  But if you are NOT one of those “rich white people”, might you feel a bit of desire to get a seat at the table?  Might you resent folks who were fortunate enough to be part of the “power demographic”?  The black community has made a lot of positive strides in recent history, but can you, just for a moment, imagine what is at stake emotionally now that Obama is running for the White House and appears to be winning?  Should blacks vote for Obama solely on the basis of his skin color or ancestry?  No, in an ideal world, elections should be decided solely based on the character and policies of the candidates.

I would try to come up with an example of such an election, but um… I’m still looking.

As for Bill Ayers, former 1960′s radical and member of the “Domestic Terrorist” organization “The Weather Underground“, that one’s even easier to counter.  Let’s ignore the fact that Ayers and friends were engaged in their “terrorism” when Obama was all of 8 years old.  How exactly are these two men related?  They served together on the board of the Woods Fund in Chicago.

What is the Woods Fund?

Woods Fund of Chicago is a grantmaking foundation whose goal is to increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities in the metropolitan area, including the opportunity to shape decisions affecting them. The foundation works primarily as a funding partner with nonprofit organizations. Woods supports nonprofits in their important roles of engaging people in civic life, addressing the causes of poverty and other challenges facing the region, promoting more effective public policies, reducing racism and other barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community and common ground.

Well that is certainly contro-fucking-versial.  Ayers donated 200 bucks to Obama’s campaign for the Illinois State House.  That’s practically an inexorable bond! (sarcasm alert)  A 1960′s radical backing a Democrat?  Say it ain’t so, Joe!

Of course there are other “scandalous” charges against Senator Obama.  Let’s look at a few of these in depth, shall we?

Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein.  In case one of my readers is both smart enough to read this far, and dumb enough to believe that this has anything to do with… anything, let me remind you that Obama was named after his father, and that Obama had just graduated from high school by the time Saddam came to power in Iraq in 1979.

Barack Obama is “secretly a Muslim“.  Um… no.

Barack Obama was sworn into office using the Quran.  You’re thinking of Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and so what?

Obama says “We are no longer a Christian Nation“  I can only hope… but alas, this is false too.

Obama was not born a US Citizen, and is a citizen of Kenya.  Well, technically, since Kenya was a British colony at the time Obama was born, that would make him British.  Of course, in 1963, Kenya gained it’s independence and granted citizenship to all former British subjects with ties to Kenya (like Obama’s father, which would, in turn, grant Senator Obama Kenyan citizenship)  Since Kenya does not allow citizens to hold dual citizenships after they turn 21, Obama lost his Kenyan citizenship in 1982.

Of course, all of this is rendered moot by the fact that he was born in HAWAII to a mother who was from KANSAS, thus making him as American as “Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet”.

Are you getting the idea yet?

In fact, the only real political haymaker thrown at Obama that I might be legitimately concerned about is his tax plan.  McCain, and others, try to paint Obama as a “tax and spend Liberal” who will raise all of our taxes.

Let’s look at the numbers, shall we? (numbers below taken from Cnn.com)

By the way, did I mention yet that the National Debt just passed 10 TRILLION dollars?  I *might* know a couple of people who’s tax bill will go up by 12 dollars per year under Obama’s plan.  Aside from that, the only folks paying more taxes under Obama’s plan are the folks who have been getting all of the tax cuts that put us under this debt in the first stinkin’ place.

I’m not saying that Obama is perfect.  I’m not “drinking the Kool-aid” from the Democratic party.  However, as I said before, the only question of interest to me is “Am I better off now than I was 8 years ago?“  Do I want more of the same? (McCain) or something different (Obama).  For me, personally, the question is a no-brainer.  Give the new guy a chance and let’s see what he can do.

That said, I recently read a column from him that chilled me to the bone.

You see, like many others, I’ve dealt with the death of a parent from a long and debilitating disease.  I’ve been there and done that, and if watching a family member die isn’t hell itself, then it’s at least a suburb.  I watched the toughest sonofabitch in the known universe (my dad) say “Enough.  No more.  I want to die.”

But oh no, he didn’t get to choose the hour or day.  He didn’t get to go out on his own terms.  He fought for as long as his will could hold out and reached the breaking point.  Is that dignity?  Sure.  He fought with everything he could until he couldn’t fight any more.  I can think of no finer epitaph for a man than that.  However, when the fight was done, Cancer wasn’t.

His body wasted away to less than half of his “healthy weight”.  A man who, just 3 days before he died, helped his son lift a 500 pound slab of concrete and move it into place in the back yard.  A man who, on the last day he would ever see his son, got out of his death bed, walked to the living room and said “Gimme my fuckin’ hearing aid, I want to talk to my son.”  A man whose greatest fear was not death, but becoming so infirm that he would soil himself and be embarrassed in front of his family.  The same man who refused to tell his son that the cancer had spread from his lungs to his brain because he didn’t want to be a downer at his son’s wedding.  The same man whose last words to me were “I love you, son.  I’ll see you next weekend.”

He said “Let me go.  It’s time.  I give up.”

When he lost the ability to speak and spent his last 48 hours unconscious with a temperature of nearly 104 degrees, there was no need for the suffering to continue.  There was no possibility of recovery, or even regaining consciousness.  Instead, he laid there while the hospice nurses were powerless to do anything but watch.

Lawmakers who vote against legalizing assisted suicide apparently want you to have this experience too.  There are precious few things in this world that an individual can control.  I would like to say that I cannot imagine the kind of pain that would cause me to choose to end my own life, but I couldn’t imagine it for my dad, and I saw it happen anyway.  Your life.  Your body.  Your choice.

Do you think Terri Schiavo wanted to be remembered like this?

or like this?

Simple respect for your fellow man dictates that we respect the wishes and the dignity of the dying.  If a person chooses to die peacefully rather than suffer the pain and indignity of a lingering death, then what right do we have to deny him that?

Considering there is already a website selling t-shirts at http://www.thatone08.com I’d say that McCain fucked up big time by pointing to a US Senator and calling him “That One”.

At least he didn’t say “boy”…

The “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” bit is another story. No, McCain can’t control what his crowds say, but he *can* show the leadership skills required to stop his speech and say “No. Barack Obama is an American like all of us, and as much as I disagree with him politically, there is no call for demanding his assassination. You are wrong, sir.”

If McCain had stones that big, I’d consider switching my vote.

Of course, if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.

The “elephant in the room” (no pun intended) is that despite McCain’s oft-repeated tales of heroism nearly 35 years ago, Senator John McCain has repeatedly shown a willingness to sell out his principles for personal gain.

He unceremoniously dumped his first wife, the same wife who waited for McCain to come home from Vietnam all those years, to marry a woman, 18 years his junior, who just happened to be worth a ton of money.

Karl Rove, who outrageously and unjustly used racial apprehensions to scuttle McCain’s primary campaign in 2000, is now backing McCain’s campaign.

Of course, such “unwavering loyalty” cuts both ways, this is the same John McCain who opposed Bush in the 2000 primaries, then embraced him during the general election and for the next 8 years, but is now working hard to distance himself from one of the most unpopular presidents in American history.

]]> http://www.grimnews.net/2008/10/that-one-wont-hunt/feed/ 0 http://www.grimnews.net/2008/10/does-mccain-poop-in-the-woods/ http://www.grimnews.net/2008/10/does-mccain-poop-in-the-woods/#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:35:25 +0000 Grim http://www.grimnews.net/?p=133 Hey kids, remember this soundbite?

So, McCain is willing to throw 700 billion at Wall Street, but as for 5 million to protect an endangered species, he’s against that, right?  I find it slightly ironic that he got the dollar figure wrong on this study.  He claims that he’s against spending 3 million to “study bear DNA”.  The actual amount approved was 5 million.  He should know that because he voted for it.

Just to make it clear…

700 billion for endangered bankers = good

5 million (or less than .001% of the bailout money) for an endangered species = bad

Not only is it bad, it’s so bad that he voted for it before railing against it in his campaign.  Is it sinking in yet that McCain is a hypocrite?  Even if you don’t trust Obama and think he would do a lousy job as President, you have to admit that he doesn’t have a track record of hypocrisy and outright lies that Senator McCain has.

Retirement Plan Investment Tip:

If you had purchased $1000.00 of AIG stock one year ago, it would now be worth $56.91.

With Washington Mutual, you would have $120.36 left of the original $1000.

With ‘Fannie Mae’(FNM), you would have $11.34 left.

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Lehman Bros one year ago it would now be almost worthless; less than $0.86.

If you had purchased RH Donelley, you would have $45.69 left.

But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling refund you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle. This is called the 401-Keg Plan.

Let me see if I have this straight.

John McCain “knows how to win wars” even though his war experience is mostly limited to serving as a POW on the losing side of one of the most ill-advised, mismanaged wars in US History.

John McCain is “going to tackle corruption” in the banking industry and on Wall Street even though he was one of the primary figures in the Keating 5 scandal which rocked the Savings and Loan industry.

John McCain is a “champion of the common man” despite the fact that his source of income and wealth is a rich wife.

John McCain knows what homeowners and small businessmen are going through despite the fact that he has lost count of the number of houses he owns, and has never worked in, much less owned, a private sector company of any size.

At least “Dubya” had the experience of running a company (and a baseball team) into the ground before becoming a full-time politician.

That said, I was nonplussed when Olbermann threw his hat into the ring of political commentary.  What does he know about politics?  He’s a jock.  Gravitas ain’t in his lexicon…

Oops.

I don’t agree with every position he takes, but there are times when he gets it spot on.

To wit:

Remember that whole 700 billion dollar bailout thing that was such a popular topic of discussion back in the olden days (you know… last week?) ?   Looks like it wasn’t all that urgent after all.  In fact, some of the more vocal opponents of the bailout happen to work in the financial industry.

The Washington Post ran a story about how smaller financial institutions were thriving in the current economy.  It seems that they aren’t too thrilled that government is stepping in to bail out “Mega Banks” that were too bloated and heavy to compete in the marketplace.  Government appears to be rewarding bad decision making if the bad decisions are colossal and stupid enough to do real damage rather than letting the risk takers deal with the risks involved in business at that level.  “Privatize the reward and socialize the risk” seems to be the mantra of the day among ‘Conservatives’ in Washington and on Wall Street.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, it seems that the banks would rather “handle it themselves” instead of accepting a government bailout with all of that “mean, nasty regulation” attached to it.  Wall Street fatcats would rather suffer than accept a bailout package if it means giving up their multi-million dollar bonus plans.  If you still requrie proof that the bailout was a “holdup” orchestrated by Wall Street robber barons and their willing accomplices in Washington, look no further.

Both Senators McCain and Obama voted for this bill, however McCain’s history with Savings and Loan scandals, combined with his penchant for deregulation at all costs puts him squarely on the wrong side of this issue.  Obama doesn’t have much of a history on regulatory issues, but what little history there is, is generally positive.

Last night represented a first for me.  I parked my ass on the couch with my wife and watched a Vice Presidential debate in HD.  Normally, such attention is reserved for weekend football games and Jeopardy, those being about the only two things my wife and I agree on with respect to the idiot box.

I was about to witness a complete and total meltdown on live television, and there was nothing the McCain camp, or Palin’s “handlers” could do about it.  Imagine if Captain Smith saw the iceberg on “over the horizon” radar, and still sailed the Titanic right into that sucker.  This was going to be the best television since Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction”.

So it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that I was slightly disappointed with the debate itself.  Make no mistake, Biden’s “shit eating grin” spoke volumes about Palin’s babbling also rambling and did I mention that McCain is a maverick too, also, stumbling bumbling approach to the debate… also. (had to throw that last one in there to tie the whole sentence together, otherwise it might not have made sense)  Palin is the only candidate I’ve ever seen who can answer a question on foreign policy with a statement on her energy policy while governor of Alaska.  In fact, it seems like she answered EVERY question with a statement on her energy policy while governor of Alaska.

As for her delivery, can we give the hockey mom thing a rest?  I played hockey for a short time, which means technically my mom is a “hockey mom” too.  If she had talked like that around our house when I was a kid, we’d have had her locked up for being mentally incompetent. (let’s throw in one more “also” for good measure)  The constant winking at the camera and ham-handed cribbing from Ronald Reagan’s debate with Jimmy Carter in 1980 came across as fake instead of genuine and warm which is what made that approach so effective for Reagan in the first place.  (in fact, you can see a clip from that debate elsewhere on this very website)

What actually impressed me was Senator Biden’s performance.  I knew very little about Joe Biden aside from the fact that he had failed in the Democratic primaries twice, lead the Democratic lynching party against Robert Bork, and was considered someone who couldn’t keep his mouth shut at times. (my kind of guy, now that I think about it…)  I thought his approach was understated, yet more effective for that.  Instead of tearing into Palin’s rambling approach with a stream of soundbites and pithy comebacks, he either responded with the facts to correct her statements (effective) or threw a dazzling shit-eating grin into the camera as if to say “You don’t need ME to tell you she’s full of shit”.  Both he and Barack Obama appeared relaxed and ready to handle the pressure of a debate on live television.  McCain and Palin appeared nervous, uncomfortable, and unwilling to answer the questions asked of them.  It was Kennedy v Nixon all over again in vibrant HD color goodness.

What really got me, and I think this was the clincher, was Biden’s emotional response to dealing with family issues.  When Palin slid so easily into her “hockey mom” routine, Biden came back with a simple, yet emotionally powerful statement.

“Look, I understand what it’s like to be a single parent. When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it’s like as a parent to wonder what it’s like if your kid’s going to make it.

I understand what it’s like to sit around the kitchen table with a father who says, “I’ve got to leave, champ, because there’s no jobs here. I got to head down to Wilmington. And when we get enough money, honey, we’ll bring you down.”

I understand what it’s like. I’m much better off than almost all Americans now. I get a good salary with the United States Senate. I live in a beautiful house that’s my total investment that I have. So I — I am much better off now.

But the notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is going to — is going to make it — I understand.

I understand, as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it’s like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They’re looking for help. They’re looking for help. They’re not looking for more of the same.”

Who would have ever thought that a 36-year Senator would “get it” more than a self-professed “hockey mom” who’s entire image screams “Mom, apple pie, and baseball hockey”?  I don’t care how much you rehearse before a debate, or how much you cram, if your message is wrong then the preparation is worthless.  Obama and Biden stayed on their message, a message that resonates with the voters.

Sarah Palin came across as “one of us” in the debate last night, and no doubt the McCain campaign considers that “Mission Accomplished”.  The problem is, we don’t want “one of us” in the White House.  We want someone who is more prepared and more informed than we are to make the decisions.  It is too much to hope for to ask for someone smarter than us, or better than us, but at least give us someone that we can look in the eye and come away with the confidence that they can get the job done.  Palin should be running a boutique in a shopping mall somewhere, not one heartbeat away from Air Force One.

…makes a really valid point.  If the US cynically uses the threat of WMDs as justification to invade another country, why not Russia?  Or China?  or India?  As much as I love my country, our biggest flaw is our deeply rooted belief that “the rules” apply to everyone else.  “Fairness” is defined in terms of reasonable profit to ourselves and not what is equitable between two parties.

There is a fundamental different between *being* the best and most powerful country in the world and *acting like* the best and most powerful country in the world.  If we have to spend time telling the world what we stand for, then we probably aren’t doing a good enough job of actually standing for those things.

I can’t take credit for this information, the inspiration came from a debate with Ronald Reagan many years ago.

If you’ll remember, this debate effectively gut-punched Carter’s campaign.  Jimmy “Nobel Prize” Carter, who many consider to be the best EX-President in American history, is a good man who advocated many positions that are central to today’s campaign.    Health Care, Energy Independence, Education were all key points in Carter’s campaign message, yet Reagan beat him in the general election like a pinata filled with cupcakes at Rush Limbaugh’s birthday party.

Why?

“Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?”

It’s JUST THAT EASY! (now do you see why I use the Popeil reference?)

Ask any sane human being and you’ll hear the conventional wisdom that promises made by politicians aren’t worth the airwaves that they travel on.  We all know that politicians lie.  We all know that they’d sell their mothers for another 4 year fix.  We know this, yet the public insists on getting swept up in campaign speeches and debates where nobody remembers the salient points, but everyone parrots a clever soundbite.

When was the last time you checked a voting record in detail?  If Senator Whatshisname “voted against the troops”, did he do it because there was too much pork included in the bill? Or was it because another version of the same funding bill was circulating in a House committee and he preferred that version instead?  Nuance may not sell with Joe Sixpack, but it is a fact of political life.  Sometimes politicians have to hold their noses and vote for things that will get them in deep shit with their constituents.  That’s how the game is played.  If reporters, who are paid to do this sort of work, can’t keep up with all of the nuance, how can the American voter be expected to do the job well?

Some folks take a shortcut and listen to their friendly neighborhood radio talk show host.  Others hang out on their favorite political blog among like-minded individuals where their preconceptions are reinforced by a sympathetic audience.

Same sheep, different color wool.

The great thing about most elections is that they are not held in a vacuum.  There is always an incumbent and there is always a challenger.  If you like the way things are going, you vote for the incumbent.  If you don’t, then you vote for the other guy.  Simple? Yes.  Your job is to form an intelligent opinion on the state of the world and make your decision.  It’s not that hard.

Why have Republicans had a stranglehold on the Presidency since 1980? (well, except for the Clinton years, which I’ll get to in a moment)  The economy was booming, we were top-dog in the global kennel, and the vast majority of us were thanking whatever divine providence was in vocal range that we were fortunate enough to live in the U-S-of-by-god-A.  Back when uttering the phrase “I’m an American” in a foreign country earned you a certain amount of deference, or even a free drink, depending on where you travelled in the world.

Try walking into a bar in Europe these days and loudly proclaiming “I’m an American!”.  At best, you’ll just be sniggered at.

How did Clinton break up the Republican streak?  “It’s the economy, stupid!”  The economic recession in the early 90′s got everyone refocused on the question of “Are you better off today…” and it cost Bush the election.  4 years later, when things had improved largely on their own, the same question kept Clinton in office for another 4 years despite galvanized opposition from the talk-radio crowd.

But Grim, you ask…

“What about 2004?”

We were still reeling from the 9/11 attacks in 2004.  We had just gone into Iraq the previous year and stomped the holy hell out of Saddam’s army.  We were fresh off of “Mission Accomplished” when election season came in.  The economy appeared to be rebounding, and Americans were disinclined to change direction at that time.  A very good argument could be made that 9/11 guaranteed Bush an 8 year term since the American public rarely votes for a challenger in time of war (or at least a war that we appear to be winning).  Were we “better off” in 2004 than in 2000?  No, but being unable to see the forest for the trees, the American public had the perception that better days were on the way really soon.

Even if Barack Obama spends his entire presidency trying to push through his campaign promises, it is a virtual certainty that he will fail to get everything he wants.  Even if John McCain is such a Maverick that he fights every bit of pork-laden legislation that crosses his desk, it is a virtual certainty that he will trend in the same political direction as his predecessor.  The only thing you can count on is that Obama will be a change of direction, and McCain will “stay the course” politically speaking.

So I put it to you again…

“Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago?”

In the bizarro world of contemporary politics, being “average” makes you better than someone who is part of the “elite”.  Let me see if I have this straight.

The candidate who “represents the Average Joe”:

• 26 year member of the United States Senate
• Son and Grandson of Navy Admirals
• Married to an heiress
• Owns so many houses and cars that he cannot apparently remember them all
• Has never been gainfully employed in the private sector

The candidate who “is part of the liberal elitist establishment”

• Son of a single mother
• In elected office (at any level) for just over 10 years
• Recently announced that he has just paid off his student loans
• Has a net worth that is not much higher than my own, and I work for a living
• Worked as a Community Organizer and college professor before going into politics

I’ll grant you that working as a professor (“Lecturer” to be completely accurate) and as a “Community Organizer” is only classified as work under the loosest possible definition, but it’s more than Senator McCain has done in all of his 72 years.

While I’m sure I could write several thousand words about Sarah Palin, if you aren’t hip to this scam by now, nothing I say here will make any difference.  This chuzzlewit is one 72-year-old-with-a-cancer-history heartbeat away from having access to the “Big Red Button”.  She makes Dan Quayle look presidential, for Christ’s sake.  If I wanted a sit-com (in the ‘stereotypical’ sense… not implying that she actually has the talent to act on television) mom in (or next to) the Oval Office, then why couldn’t it be Claire Huxtable?  At least she was intelligent.

In a last ditch attempt to convince the fence-sitters out there of the danger that Palin poses to the entire Western World, let me leave you with this…

She made Katie Couric look like a hard-nosed journalist.

US National Debt Clock

After all, it is only around 7% of what we currently owe.  What is of slightly more concern is the fact that we are about to run out of digits on the aforementioned debt clock.  Maybe that means it will reset to zero and we won’t have to pay it back!  To give you an idea how what it is going to take to repay 9 trillion dollars, consider the following:

(Numbers based on estimates shown in this 2007′s tax receipts memo)

If we spent EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR of tax revenue to pay down the debt, it would still take between 3 and 4 years to pay down the debt.  That is 3-4 years of zero military spending, zero Social Security, zero courts, zero government activity of any kind.

Yes, I’m using Wikipedia as a source for this one.  When you start paying me to research like a real journalist, I’ll start working like one.  The average family annual income is around 50,000 dollars.  Looking at the debt clock above, we could work for over 18 months while giving every dime we make to the Federal Government and still not have the debt paid off.

Instead of being one of the many voices decrying the government’s intentions to bail out Wall St. fatcats with MY taxpayer dollars, let me offer a slightly cheaper solution to the problem.  One that won’t require us to buy a new sign with more digits on it.

Dave Ramsey (Oh gawd! a talk show host?!?!)  has a good idea which he calls Three Steps to Change the Nation’s Future.  I’ll pass on the “Pray for our leaders” bit.  The kind of God that I would worship would expect us to solve our own problems, especially when they’re our fault in the first place.  However, the Common Sense Fix is good stuff.

• Insure Sub-prime mortgages with FHA-style insurance.
• Rewrite all delinquent mortgages insured in this manner to a fixed 6%, 30-year mortgage.
• Bring homeowners with said mortgages current and remove all penalties and late-fees accrued.
• Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage payoff of these mortgages
• Eliminate all “Golden Parachutes” for investment companies that hold these government backed mortgages.
• Change to “Mark to Market” accounting rules
• Eliminate Capital Gains Taxes to flood the market with investment dollars.

There are additional details in his document. Yes, the rich can get richer from this plan but at least we’ll be using their money to fuel the recovery instead of a blank check given to a Treasury Secretary who is a walking-talking example of Crony-Capitalism run amok.  Ramsey estimates the cost of this plan at around 50 billion dollars.  That is a lot more palatable to Main Street than 700 billion.