"BALDERDASH!!"

Why can't a discussion like this appear in the U.S. media....??
H/T to Information Clearinghouse. British MP George Galloway completely blowing every argument for "strategic strikes" on Iran out of the water. Plus, he's got a wicked cool accent.

THIS JUST IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What would we do without the mainstream media? Huh? I ask you...

I am not making this up... Actual headline at msnbc:

"Wealthy Still Traveling Despite Economy"

The intrigued and enlightened reader clicks on this in order to find THIS shocking revelation coming from what must have been some absolutely stunning investigative journalism:

"Wealthy people less likely to feel pinch of rising food and energy costs"

And really...this IS good news, indeed. I was a bit worried about the wealthy...

Seriously...do I file this under completely non-news news - the 'duh' file? Or under the I-can't-believe-they-actually-had-the-audacity-to-report-this-while-the rest-of-us-are-wondering-where-our-next-car-payment-is-coming-from file?

Argh.

Collect 'em All!

Obama just keeps grinding them out. Speeches which, short of declaring that the U.S. should adopt the Scandinavian system, say exactly what I have always wanted to hear a leader say. Uncanny, almost... Seriously, it began with the now famous 2004 Democratic Convention keynote speech and has only gotten better. I have previously posted the 'Race' speech here, and so, like baseball cards, I may as well keep it consistent and collect 'em all. So...enjoy: Obama on "Patriotism".

In Honor of the Supreme Court Standing Up for Habeas Corpus...

"This American Life" ran a piece on Guantanamo called "Habeas Schmabeas" back in 2006 and won a Peabody for it. It was incredibly well deserved. They updated it in 2007 and you can listen to it Here. In honor of the Supreme Court's ruling a few days ago, I thought I would post it here in case you never got a chance to catch it. I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially considering the wingnuts' completely hysterical reaction to the novel idea of upholding the Constitution and, you know, Magna Carta, and whatnot.

"We HAVE to Win...We Have No Choice..."

Um...Nothing Political Here... Just Move Along...

I dunno... Am I giddy about Obama's victory? Well, yeah. Do I have anything to say about it? Not really, surprisingly enough. So, um...well. THIS video is just so cute I just have to post it. Does it reflect the happy dance I wanna do in response to the Obama thing? Yeah, sure. So it's kinda political...? Oh, just enjoy.
Obama/Colbert '08!! H/T to sexymike at youtube.

Despicable...

As disgusting as Hillary's RFK comment was...one COULD give her the benefit of the doubt that she WAS simply referring to the "fact" that the race was still going on into June back in 1968. Alright... let me stop right there. From just five seconds of internet research, it seems that the New Hampshire Primary wasn't until halfway through MARCH in 1968. So Hillary's reference (and equally if not more repulsive "regret" backpeddling statement - pretending that her comment might have offended the Kennedy's, NOT Americans who are concerned about OBAMA) is not only offensive but just plain historically wrong. There is NO comparison from 1968 to today in terms of the dates involved. "RFK was still campaigning in June!" Who CARES? The Primary season hadn't BEGUN until March! She is being disengenuous and she knows it and I have yet to hear a single news media outlet point this out. It's as if the facts of history just do not matter. Grrrr.

But that wasn't what I was posting about. It is this. THIS is the single most despicable thing I have ever heard in the mainstream news media. I am flabbergasted. What have we come to? Who ARE these people? I expect this sort of talk from the Klan or some neo-Nazis or whatever... but....but....WTF????????????

I'm sorry that this isn't some articulate discourse on the subject. But I have nothing articulate to say. What is there to say? HOW does one "spin" this? And they call us un-American...

She's GOT To GO!!

H/T to HotPotatoMash... again. = )

What You WON'T see on Fox News...

Well, at least, not the whole thing. Bradblog has the whole story - and how O'Reilly showed only 5 seconds of it before "discussing" whether now this guy should be sanctioned as well. Sigh...so predictable.

The little twerp interviewer had NO WHERE to go. Just his desperate little talking points. I love how they try to whitewash and sugarcoat MLK. Anyone read this little speech?

Meanwhile, anyone heard that the woman who asked Obama about that all important lapel pin actually proves his (and Rich's) point? I don't want to be cruel, but hope that pin helps her pay her husband's medical bills. Am I an elitist for thinking people like her are too stupid to vote? Obama was being KIND.

Oh....The BITTER Irony...

It's the Rich thesis. Everyone who is jumping on Obama, from McCain and Clinton to the Pundits, knows it. But let's all pretend we don't.

I'm bitter. In fact, I'm proud that I'm bitter. Otherwise I must be rich or a fool. And I'm certainly not rich. I'm George Carlin bitter. I'm Network bitter. "Bitter" was nice of him. Fucking pissed off and mad as Hell is more like it - but he's got some class. Hell, they're lucky we're not all Marxists at this point. And Matalin's dismissive "it's called a dynamic global economy" explanation as a way of saying they have no right to be bitter was just sublime (fast-forward to 10:40). They should clearly just get over losing their jobs, healthcare, pensions. Don't those fine people get it? It's just globalization. Jeesh! What simpletons! But it's Obama that is "demeaning" them. It's Obama who is an "elitist". But of course... why aren't Europeans losing healthcare, pensions, etc.? Aren't they part of a global economy? Hmmmmmm.

As I said in the last post, if Americans fall for this, they deserve everything they get.

It's the Ideology, Stupid!

A photo of the Americans being polled. No insult to Penguins intended.




Americans are so fucking stupid it hurts.

No. Really. They are. And I've had it.

And yet, this is what I've feared would happen, all along.

Let me back up a little. I have been saying, for years really, and I do not consider myself to be a genius, by a longshot, that it is dangerous to simply paint the horrors, politically, economically, socially, and in foreign policy, of the Bush Administration as simply being about BUSH's politics. It is NOT "Bush". It is CONSERVATISM (call it "neo" if you want to but who cares...).

My fear was that people who have at least enough brain cells to recognize the disaster that has been 8 years of Republican rule, will simply chalk it up to BUSH being a bad guy, NOT that CONSERVATISM is a bad IDEA for governing a vast, diverse people and economy. Therefore, when given a choice and the opportunity to get rid of the disaster which they themselves recognize, they willingly go right back to it. All we need is another, actually competent, Republican, they say. One who seems more "reasonable", maybe.

And damnit if they don't want to write their own country's epitaph. I just read this article on CNN's ticker, and, long story short, Americans - 81% of whom apparently think this country's going in the wrong direction, but don't seem to have a clue as to why, or who is to blame; almost 70% of whom claim not to approve of Bush's job performance - prove this disconnect. Yep, Americans would go completely apeshit over a McCain/Condoleeza "I-believe-it-said-bin-Laden-determined-to-attack-in-the-United-States" Rice ticket. Seriously. I am not making this up. It says that this ticket would beat either of the two Democrats, AND, either pairing of the two on a single ticket, in an election. In an election in NEW YORK. I am not making this up. They think that the way to get us out of what they themselves recognize is a disaster, is to elect one of the architects of that disaster, along with her trusty sidekick, the guy who agrees with everything she did. To re-elect the very mindset that is causing the problem.

There is now, officially, a complete disconnect in the electorate's mind between ideology, party, policy, and candidates. This is the result of YEARS of the press treating elections as if they were about competing personalities, not competing ideologies. It is the equivalent of a voter being angry at, let's say, a communist president because of his policy of confiscating private property, and then in the next election, because they think he seems like a "stand up' kind of guy, voting for another member of the communist party to replace him.

Truly depressing. Thoroughly demoralizing. I. Give. Up.

A Politician Talks to America About Race (and class) Like We Were Grown Ups...

Ok... I'm stealing that from Jon Stewart (apologies Jon), but it really did nail it. Sorry, but anyone who is voting based on race or gender instead of class is, with all due respect, an idiot. Working class whites who will refuse to vote for Obama deserve their long slide into increasing financial insecurity. Obama subtly reminds us of this.

I can't even bring myself to listen to any commentary on this speech from the pundit class. I read the speech in its entirety, without the filter of those jaded, agenda driven, soulless nitpickers telling me what I heard, and it was exactly (or almost exactly) what I had hoped he would say. If only Americans would actually listen. These are serious times calling for serious people (ok, now I'm stealing from President Andrew Shepard, sorry Mr. Sorkin), and this speech made the idiots on talk radio and Faux News sound like babbling, inconsequential children.



Edited to add: Winston Churchill once said that the best argument against democracy was five minutes with the average voter. I think it is what we populists secretly fear. We want so badly to believe in "the people", yet we are terrified that, based on the popularity of Fox and talk radio et al, they really aren't worthy of that faith. How can you be a populist and an elitist at the same time? And yet, Obama has now risked his entire candidacy on that faith. It's gut check time. Can we rise above it? A few people better at articulating this than I have commented on this. Check out Michelle Goldberg at informationclearinghouse and Derrick Ashong, who writes, "For days pundits have pondered whether Sen. Obama could weather the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racially polarizing comments. The question at this juncture is not whether the candidate will rise to the occasion, but rather, whether America will.". And on the ultimate double standard of the whole issue, anyway, check out Cenk Uygur and Blue Texan at Firedoglake.

Random Strange Old Propaganda Film... Ghengis Kahn meets the Nuclear Age...

Hope Is Not the Same as Blind Optimism...

h/t to the always awesome HotPotatoMash for this. If you are feeling a little inspired, go here.

Painfully Earnest... and Yet...

I've had an Obama '08 sticker on my car since 2006. I said he would run. And everybody told me he wouldn't. I said he had a chance. And everyone told me he didn't. He's not a saint or a savior and he's not perfect. But I haven't seen a politician like this in my lifetime.
I'm a person whose typical attitude regarding hope is that it kills. Really. That's my motto. "Hope Kills". It's why I'm so afraid to even entertain the thought that this guy could win. I don't want to deal with the letdown. Yet, I'm like Mulder with the poster in his office..."I want to believe..."
Hillary Clinton would make a fine President. But right now our country needs something more than that. I think we've found it, if only we'll embrace it.

Updated to add: Check out the HILARIOUS and SPOT ON parody of this featuring John McCain's inspiring words...Here.