Republicans! Blather rinse repeat

Modern America:

Late 1980s:

WE MUST DEREGULATE BANKS!


Mid-1990s:

YAY, We've Deregulated Banks and we're exploiting the masses to become richer than ever!


EARLY 2000s:

Look at how awesome De-Regulating the banks has been, you people criticizing it are engaging in class warfare! All these bankruptcies are abusive of us rich people, we need to make those laws tougher...WE NEED TO REGULATE THE MASSES!


About 2007:

Nothing is wrong except the masses are suckers, don't blame us. We're rich. They need to pay off their loans. Good thing we made bankruptcy so hard for 'em.


Mid- 2008:

GODDAMN, WE'RE IN TROUBLE, WE NEED THE MASSES TO BAIL US RICH FOLKS OUT OR WE'RE TAKING ALL OF YOU BASTARDS WITH US!!!!!!!!!!

WHY DID YOU LISTEN TO US THE FIRST TIME?

Not corrupt at all

Naturally this is reported in a BRITISH newspaper:

The Sunday Times reports Stephen Payne, a Bush pioneer and a political appointee to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, was caught on tape offering access to key members of the Bush administration inner circle in exchange for “six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.”

In an undercover video, Payne is seen promising to arrange a meeting for an exiled leader of Krygystan with Dick Cheney or Condoleezza Rice. (Not President Bush because “he doesn’t meet with a lot of former Presidents these days,” Payne says. “I don’t think he meets with hardly anyone.”) All it will take for him to arrange this high-level meeting, says Payne, is “a couple hundred thousand dollars, or something like that”

And yes, the link HAS THE VIDEO.

Watch it get absolutely no play over here, other than from us Dirty Fucking Hippies.

How about that...

I sure wish the media would keep telling me about John McCain's strength in foreign policy and security matters:

For look who said this about one year ago:

The U.S. should shift troops from Iraq to pursue al-Qaida along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Saturday.

He said President Bush's war-fighting policies have left the United States at greater risk from terrorists. The first-term Illinois senator said decisions by the Republican president had allowed Osama bin Laden and his deputies to elude capture.

"We cannot win a war against the terrorists if we're on the wrong battlefield," Obama said. "America must urgently begin deploying from Iraq and take the fight more effectively to the enemy's home by destroying al-Qaida's leadership along the Afghan-Pakistan border, eliminating their command and control networks and disrupting their funding."

And look what the NY Times says the Bush Administration is thinking of doing now:

The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago.

Such a withdrawal would be a striking reversal from the nadir of the war in 2006 and 2007.

One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there.

And I'm betting John McCain will declare this his victory -- and the fawning media will let him.

Oh those alternative realities

On the one hand:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians have never been closer to a peace deal than now.

I'm sure this will really move that forward:

President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran

There is simply nothing funnier than this

No not the snark from Thers...though it's obviously quite fine.

No...it's the fact that 'No Quarter' is simply the dumbest bunch of blogging trolls in the Universe.

It's like mistaking George W. Bush as capable of putting of tying his own shoes.

They're making Confederate Yankee look almost sentient.

Replace Nancy Pelosi

With Cindy Sheehan, that is... check out here position on many issues.  I really wish she was the Speaker of the House right now... just look at some of her positions:

*Restore Workers' Rights to Organize & Bargain Collectively/Repeal Taft-Hartley, Restore the Right to Strike Repeal All "Free Trade" Agreements

*For Single-Payer Healthcare and Affordable Housing

* We should bring our troops home from all countries where our troops are deployed to promote occupation, corporate greed and empire.

* No Child Left Behind -- a Democratic as well as Republican plan -- should be repealed, and teachers, schools and school districts should be free to respond to the needs of their classrooms and communities and not be limited to teaching to stringent performance-based tests in order to receive federal money.

* Deregulation of airlines, telecommunications, media, energy, banking, insurance and other industries has created a dangerous and unhealthy environment for working people and for our entire society. The deregulation of these industries has allowed the corporate profiteers to destroy proper oversight and health and safety regulations.

* The deregulation of the media and telecommunications industry has not only cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, it has intensified the monopolization of the media. The media conglomerates (Fox, Murdock, Clear Channel and others) are able to manipulate the media and destroy local programming. This has prevented the public from getting independent news and information, particularly on the effects of deregulation, privatization and war.

* I will oppose multiple ownership of newspaper, cable, broadcast, internet and all other media operations.

* I also support federal funding for public labor-community broadcast and internet systems, including Wi-fi and other technologies, to allow the use of these new communication technologies for all working people, especially for low-income workers.

* I support the U.S. Postal System and oppose all efforts to privatize it through contracting-out operations, including joint ventures with private corporations. I will support Congressional investigations, with managers and workers placed under oath, to examine the health and safety conditions in the USPS that have led to the "going postal" incidents across the country, including in San Francisco.

* I support legislation making it illegal to force workers into jobs with independent contractors in which employers such as FedEx use the "independent contractor" status to prevent unionization and to transfer the costs of unemployment, social security and workers' compensation to the individual worker.

*  For a National Energy System, For a Mass Transit System

I could go on... but do check her out and support her.

We may have disagreed...

While we may have disagreed with... well, everything that Mr. Snow represented in his conduct as a Fox "news" talking head and as a White House press secretary, we still send our best wishes to his family on his untimely passing.

I'm no statistician

In fact, statistics is one substantial reason I'm not Atta J. Turk, Ph.D.

However, even I think that Newsweek really needs to figure out what the fuck they are doing in their polls.

In their June poll Obama was up by 15, now he's up by an insignificant 3.

Alarming?

Well, not really when you look at the sampling.

June:

231 Republicans sampled, 23%, 36% with "lean Republican" included
324 Democrats sampled, 38%, 55% with "lean Democratic" included
307 Independents sampled, 35%

July:

315 Republicans sampled, 28%, 42% with leaners
324 Democrats sampled, 35%, 47% with leaners
357 Independents sampled, 33%

Imagine that, when you poll the same number of Democrats, but 84 more Repoublicans (increasing their number by about 25%) and 50 more Independents, McBombBomb does better.

I think the first Newsweek Poll was pretty much overstating bullshit; and the second is almost a mirror image of bullshit.

I think PEW or Gallup or some other period polls are far more reliable then this wacky and unweighted variance.

Polls should be much more forthcoming about their sampling.

Family Feud

This is funny. Failed CEO and McBush economic adviser and surrogate Carly Fiorina says robber baron and McBush economic adviser and surrogate Phil Gramm is the chief culprit in the mortgage meltdown. (Okay, technically she implied it, but do these McBush people think before they speak? Doesn't seem so. And I hope that's standard operating procedure going forward to November.)

John McCain's very bad week

Not that you heard about it...barbecue sauce inhibits typing - David Corn does not eat the ribs:

* McCain adviser Phil Gramm remark: Americans who worry about the economy are "whiners" and there's no problem with the economy, just a "mental recession." McCain response: Gramm doesn't speak for me. But, um, that day Gramm was speaking for McCain, explaining McCain's economic policies to the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

* Called the fundamental funding mechanism of Social Security a "disgrace," essentially attacking the whole program.

* Released list of 300 economists who supposedly support his economic plan. Guess what? Not all of them do.

* Became visibly uncomfortable when asked whether health plans that cover Viagara should also cover birth control for women (after McCain surrogate/adviser Carly Fiorina raised this issue).

* Joked about killing Iranians with cigarette imports.

* Attacked Obama for not voting for a bill designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group. Whoops--McCain didn't vote for the bill, either.

* His campaign accused Obama of flip-flopping on Iraq. Politifact.com said that's not true.

* Denied ever saying he's not an expert on the economy. Well, he said it. Memory problems?

* McCain wants to stay in Iraq for as long as it takes and routinely blasts Obama as a defeatist for proposing a timetable for withdrawal. Yet Iraqi leaders said they now want to set up a timetable. There goes that issue.

* Campaign accused of screening reporters allowed to ask questions on its conference calls for the media, and did not declare, we do not screen.

* Claimed to have a perfect voting record on veterans affairs. Veterans groups disagree. (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave him a grade of D.)

* Pledged to cut the deficit by end of his first term. Prominent experts said not possible.

* McCain campaign ad charged that Obama voted to raise taxes on people making as little as $32,000 a year. Factcheck.org said this is false.

* Pro-McCain RNC ad said Obama has no new energy solutions. But Obama proposes $150 billion in new tax credits for alternative energy.

Naturally, media tool Mark Halperin declares McCain the week's winner.

July 12, 2008

That nation waits to hear who Brett Favre is ready to declare a flip-flopper!

Mr. Straight-Talk

Oh, how noble, how brave, how willing to be challenged:

It was Sen. John McCain's staff who asked security at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to remove people holding protest signs at the venue — not U.S. Secret Service agents, who were not involved in Carol Kreck's ouster from the galleria.

A video of the incident circulating widely on the Internet shows a DCPA security guard saying that he was told by the Secret Service to remove Kreck, who was holding a paper sign that said "McCain = Bush."

But Thursday, after two days of being vilified by bloggers, letter writers and others, the Secret Service emphatically denied involvement.

"Contrary to some recent reporting, the Secret Service had no involvement in Ms. Kreck being removed from the area," said Malcolm D. Wiley Sr., spokesman for the Secret Service. "It was not done at our request or suggestion. Any assertion to the contrary is inaccurate and inconsistent with our established policies and procedures."

via the Huffington Post.

Location. Location. Location.

And the hits keep coming here in New York.

This time, it's my congressman, Charles Rangel, who's somehow managed to avail himself of four rent-stablized apartments in a city where rent stabilized apartments are as rare as Republicans in an ethics seminar.

I have to tell you that this pisses me right off. I have a schoolteacher friend who was recently pushed out of her rent stabilized apartment. I know two other people who could effortlessly afford to live in one of the "luxury" condominiums that line our fair streets, but who live in rent stabilized apartments due to the lame, fat-cat-friendly "luxury de-control" rules this city implemented a few years back. It's increasingly difficult -- near-impossible, actually -- for anyone earning less than six figures annually to live here and I can tell you that the city is worse for it. A bunch of boorish hedge fund hangers-on, drunken trustafarians, and jaded Euro-wielding zillionaires moving zombie-like between Coach store, Marc Jacobs boutique, and celebrity-chef-of-the-week boîte does not a community make.

Part of me reads this story and gets frustrated. The NYT obviously spent a lot of time digging into Charlie Rangel's personal life to expose this particular injustice. I wish they'd spent half as much time into Judy Miller's back in the day. But I'm going to table that. If Rangel doesn't fit within the luxury-decontrol rules, he ought to give up those apartments. With a net worth upwards of $500,000 he can afford it -- and then maybe four households that couldn't otherwise afford to live here can stay.

Ruh-Roh!

I'm sure an attack on McCain's fidelity is somehow out of bounds because he was shot down in 'Nam, but nonetheless...

McCain, who is about to become the GOP nominee, has made several statements about how he divorced Carol and married Hensley that conflict with the public record.

In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.

"I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow," McCain wrote. "I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980."

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

[GOP BASE: YOU'RE IMPUGNING HIS SERVICE!!!!]

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

[GOP BASE: BUT HE'S THE CANDIDATE WHO WILL UPHOLD FAMILY VALUES...AND HE'S THE WHITE GUY!...HAVE I MENTIONED YOU'RE IMPUGNING HIS SERVICE?!!!!]

Adultery...virtual bigamy...plain deceit

It's all so "Straight-Talkin' & Mavericky!"

The Texas Oil Man

Has his dreams come true!

Oil jumped over $4 to a new record high near $146 a barrel on Friday, spurred by growing worries of threats to supplies from Iran and Nigeria and a strike of Brazilian oil workers next week.

U.S. crude was $4.17 at $145.82 a barrel by 6:56 a.m. EDT, off highs of $145.98, after jumping $5.60 or 4 percent a barrel in late trading on Thursday.

London Brent crude was up $4.25 at $146.28 a barrel.

Torrential

As you read yet another installment in a relentlessly downbeat torrent of financial news courtesy of the Republican party (because, after all, the germ of the mess is Ronald Reagan Proved That Deficits Don't Matter), first remember not to whine, because it would John McCain and his trusted adviser Phil Gramm cry; then, soothe yourself by listening to Jim Cramer tell you, "Hey, people are lined up to buy iPhones! How bad can things possibly be?"); and then take a look at these pictures of a June protest outside the Fed. (Be sure to click so that you can read the signs the protesters are carrying.) These folks are going to have something to say about this:

Finally, for taxpayers and the United States government, the risks posed by Fannie’s and Freddie’s declining share prices are potentially overwhelming.

As government officials discuss various rescue plans — including taking over either or both companies in a conservatorship, others are pushing for more immediate action. “We are potentially looking a crisis in the face, and we must not allow this to happen,” said William Poole, who retired in March as president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve. “The government must intervene.”

If a bailout were to occur, it would most likely make it more expensive for the United States government to borrow money in the future, since the government’s potential obligations, which currently stand at about $9 trillion, would rise by an additional $5 trillion. Moreover, such a bailout would potentially put taxpayers on the hook for billions to offset Fannie’s and Freddie’s losses.

“The major banks are taking write-downs of 20 percent to 50 percent of their assets,” said Sean Egan, managing director of Egan-Jones Ratings, an independent credit ratings firm. Just a 10 percent write-down in the value of Fannie Mae’s assets would be “a loss of $150 billion that taxpayers would need to offset. So you’re talking about the cost of another Iraq war.”

What will you say?

/pictures via The Cunning Realist

"Oh yes just as I told the 'Cong in the mid-1960s..."

"The line-up of the mid-1970s Pittsburgh Steelers. Coached by Chuck Lombardi."

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)


McCain made this pure pander yesterday while IN PITTSBURGH and then said "oops it was a mistake."

Anybody who could recite the defensive line up of the 1960s Green Bay Packers is too devoted an NFL fan to make this mistake -- there is NO FUCKING WAY you make this error, no fucking way. Pure, bullshit, pander.

Nice job "Mr. Straight-Talk" -- but in the words of the press corps...

OH THAT'S JUST McCAIN BEIN' McCAIN, DON'T YOU LOVE HIM?

"No Senator..."

"For the hundredth time, I am not Juan Williams."

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

"My friends, finally you whiners can vote..."

"...for a man you want to drink yourself to death with."

REUTERS/Rick Scuteri

On Kings

What he said.

Last night I saw Russ Feingold on television saying that we had to elect a congress with deeper Democratic majorities and a Democratic president so that we could "fix" this and, well, I couldn't believe my ears. Your faith (or was it hope?) that any politician (save yourself a few very select others) -- Democrat or Republican -- wants to "fix" it and your trust (or was that hope, too?) that they will do so is, well, quaint, senator.

Update: And what she (and he) said:

What's most fascinating about [Barack Obama's] efforts to appeal to the American center is the extent to which Obama, as a constitutional law professor and Harvard Law Review president, has repeatedly chosen the Bill of Rights as his vehicle for doing so...

But Obama appears to be compromising on the wrong constitutional issues while backing away from fights on the right ones. A liberal re-examination of
constitutional philosophy need not involve a capitulation to conservative values. Obama can certainly move to the right on gun-control policy or support a limited death penalty if politics demand that he do so. But he should not, in so doing, shift to the right on the Constitution itself.

The Maverick Man

John McCain sings of his courtship of Cindy:





Well a woman who'll kiss on the very first date
Is usually a hussy.

And a woman who'll kiss on the second time out
Is anything but fussy.

But a woman who waits 'til the third time around,
9-figure estate, yet willin' to pound!
She's the girl he's glad he's found--she's his

Cin-Poo-Pi! Cin-Poo-Pi! Cin-Poo-Pi! Cin-Poo-Pi!




Boys:
The Pre-Nup's hard to get!

McCain & his lobbying buddies

Tried to pull a fast one...screw over an American company in favor of a European one that the lobbyists work for...get caught...and McCain declares he was against it all along.

THAT'S SOME STRAIGHT-TALKIN'!

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it would reopen bidding on a $35 billion contract for midair refueling tankers, allowing Boeing to continue its effort to wrest the business from a partnership of Northrop Grumman and the European parent of its rival Airbus.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that the tanker contract, which was won by the partners Northrop and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company in February, would not be awarded until the Pentagon reviewed the rival bids again.

The companies have battled fiercely to land the Air Force’s largest contract, with a potential value of $100 billion. The struggle has been caught in issues of national pride, trans-Atlantic relations and even presidential politics.

Mr. Gates’s action was a public rebuke to the Air Force, which had selected the offering of Northrop and EADS, the parent of Airbus. Shortly after the Air Force made its selection, the Government Accountability Office, acting on a protest from Boeing, said that the Air Force’s decision-making process was flawed and that the tanker contract should be reopened.

And then it gets really interesting:

One of the central players in the tanker contract is Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Several years ago, Mr. McCain stopped the contract from being granted to Boeing, after the terms of a tanker lease arrangement between the Air Force and Boeing were revealed. Some have seen him as favoring a European company over an American one, an impression was not eased by the fact that several of his top campaign advisers had worked as lobbyists for Airbus.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. McCain praised Mr. Gates’s decision as a step toward “full and open competition.”

Oh, but there can never be an appearance of impropriety over the Maverick screwing over Americans in favor of the group his lobbyist buddies got money from....he was shot down in Vietnam y'know.

We can only question John Kerry's three-purple hearts and silver star. Furthermore, George "35 Bombing Missions" McGovern still a pussy.

That's Patriotism!

Even More Awsome

Good thing there's an allegedly angry black man to talk about...that way our so-called journalist don't have to talk about stuff like this:

(Reuters) - Home foreclosure filings jumped 53 percent in June from a year earlier, although they were down 3 percent from May, and foreclosures are expected to rise further, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday...

One out of every 501 U.S. households received a notice of default, auction sale or bank repossession in June

Don't let the media tell you (because they won't) that John McCain's #1 economic guru, Phil Gramm, was instrumental in this AWESOME developing AWESOMENESS!

Not reporting for duty

99 Senators were present for this:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts walked triumphantly into the Senate on Wednesday for the first time since learning that he had brain cancer, hoping to provide Democrats with the crucial, single vote that they need to reverse a cut in Medicare reimbursements to doctors...

Mr. Kennedy’s dramatic entry gave the Democrats a stunning victory, and was a humbling setback for Republican leaders who had vowed to block the Medicare measure. The shift of nine more Republicans in favor gave the Democrats a veto-proof majority. The House had already approved the bill by the overwhelming margin of 355 to 59, meaning that if support in the Senate holds, a veto, which has been threatened, by the White House could be overridden.

And the reversal was overturned by a 69 to 30 vote.

Ted Kennedy just had brain surgery and wasn't expected back until September. He showed up.

The one missing Senator, John McCain -- the man who constantly proclaims his devotion to "DUTY" as being above all else.

And while one can expect a Senator running for President to miss a significant chunk of time from the Senate (Clinton and Obama) McCain's absence is particularly galling.

McCain had his parties nomination effectively wrapped up by early March. Yet he still hasn't bothered to show up to even vote in the Senate, while Obama and Clinton were slugging it out until just a few weeks ago.

As of June 25th:

In April, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) became the most absent member of the Senate. According to the Washington Post’s votes database, McCain has “missed 367 votes (61.4%) during the current Congress.” In fact, CQ reports today that McCain hasn’t voted in the Senate since April 8.

I'm pretty sure McCain still has not shown up in the Senate since April 8. He has been doing nothing but speechifyin'; lyin' and whinin'.

Because he's full of 'Mavericky Goodness"

McCain apparently gets to call Obama a flip-flopper on votes he can't even be bothered to show up for.

With impunity - as ever.

Don't call him AWOL, you'll be mocking his service.

Zogby giggles

Is not exactly my choice for MOST reliable pollster, but like most of them he can spot trends.

And while we bang our head about the gutting of the 4th Amendment, this at least is pretty hilarious.

Obama, according to Zogby, is edging McCain in Arizona.

Ari-fucking-zona!

Thoroughly Sprinkled

In the past three months, the AP has called Obama, Osama; joked about McCain with doughnuts; completely and repeatedly misrepresented Obama's positions - and excused away any number of McCain's flops & mistakes.

And that was the high point.

It's beyond parody now.

So Close...

But somehow Bush found out where the photo-shoot was.

(Jim Young/Reuters)

A "G-8" Tradition comes to an end...

"I just have to tell you, I love Jiffy Pop, lemme have some"


REUTERS/Jim Young

Bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran

Well, I mistakenly left the dial on MSNBC this morning where Joe Scarborough and his guest blonde airhead (leave brain outside studio...Joe demands it)...Ms. Greenspan, who not only does a fair Mika impression, but a dynamite Ayn Rand impression ("your orgasm is your responsibility Alan).

Today's topic de jour -- "Oh my Gawd, Iran tested some missiles, when do we bomb them back to the stone age?"

Co-starring Pat Buchanan, author of WWII:The Unnecessary War as the voice of moderation!

Which brings me to today's look at how fuckin' lazy I am Firedoglake cross-post:



Ladies and Gentlemen, a self-described foreign policy and national security expert.

McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was responding to a report that U.S. exports to Iran rose tenfold during President George W. Bush's term in office despite hostility between the two states.

A rise in cigarette sales was a big part of that, according to an Associated Press analysis of seven years of U.S. trade figures.

"Maybe that's a way of killing 'em," McCain said to reporters during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh. "I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 28 years, 29 years," he added, laughing.

*rim shot*

How many flippant statements has John McCain made now about killing Iranian citizens?

There was last year's "Bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran"

Both jibes accompanied by McCain's patented creepy giggle.

I would have titled this post "How a President isn't supposed to talk" but then instantly remembered who is currently holding that title.

Come to think of it, still applies. I think after seven and a half years, people have, indeed, figured out how a President is supposed to talk and it isn't with flippant remarks about killing civilians.

John McCain and his "Insane Clown Posse" of Lieberman and Graham canoodle around the globe together forever decrying the danger of Iran and its members only wearing--non-ruling--President citing the latter's statements incessantly as a potential justification for potentially killing a lot of other Iranians. All while happily obtaining the endorsements of folks who constantly pray and call for the bombing of Iran -- all in the name of the "Prince of Peace". Yet, McCain is supposed to get a free pass.

From Beer To Paternity™ (to Obscurity)

The laughs keep coming here in the Empire State.

Republicans to disgraced family values man Vito Fossella (R - Of Course): "Viiiiiiito! Viiiiito! Why you do this to us?!"

TPM: Top Key Republican Concedes They Are Likely to Lose Seat

In yet another sign of the disarray gripping GOP ranks, a top Republican in New York is now flatly stating that the party is such a mess that they are very likely to lose a key House seat in the state.... "The overall lay of the land is that the Republican Party in Staten Island is a great big mess," said former Rep. Guy Molinari, an elder statesman among Staten Island Republicans, when I called to check in on the state of the race. "It's shameful and embarrassing to people like myself, who've been active since -- actually decades."... Molinari said that the Democrats have quickly rallied around Michael McMahon, a New York City Councilor, and conceded that McMahon is in a strong position to win. "I wouldn't jump to that conclusion yet, but I would say this," Molinari said. "Based on the candidates that have surfaced so far, yes, we're going to lose the seat."

There is literally no Republican who wants Vito's job! Tragic!

Thank you, Vito Fossella. Best of luck to you and your family ... both of them!

More Republican's Not Caring

The outrage that is Katrina never seems to go away:

Prisons in Mississippi got coffee makers, pillowcases and dinnerware -- all intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The state's Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks took more coffee makers, cleaning supplies and other items.

Plastic containers ended up with the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration.

Colleges, volunteer fire departments and other agencies received even more.

But the Mississippi hurricane victims who originally were intended to receive the supplies got nothing, a CNN investigation has found. VideoWatch victims tell why they need the items »

"It's scary to know that there are supplies that they are harboring and people [are] in need right now as we speak today," said Sharon Hanshaw, director of Coastal Women for Change, a nonprofit group helping storm victims.

Last month, CNN revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had stored $85 million worth of household items in warehouses for two years. Instead of giving the supplies to victims of the 2005 hurricane, FEMA declared them surplus and gave them all away to federal agencies and 16 states in February.

The state of Louisiana -- the most hard-hit by the storm -- had not asked for any of the supplies, prompting outrage in the community after the original CNN report.

Because Louisiana was never informed the supplies existed.

This is George Bush's "heckuva job" FEMA at work.

The FEMA that Joe Lieberman, McCain's most ardent and assiduous lover, refuses to look into or hold accountable for shit as Senate Committee Chairman of Homeland Security.

Don't look for the media to quiz anybody over this, especially his most Holy Joe.

Beloved overseas

(AP Photo/Kimimasa Mayama, POOL)
What has two thumbs and an asshole?



(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
This guy!

(jeebus, learn how to fuckin' walk Jethro)

Well, thank goodness they're asking the "important" questions

CNN would say this is too close to call:

If the presidential election goes to the dogs, John McCain is looking like best in show...

The apparent Democratic nominee Barack Obama, on the other hand, doesn't have a pet at home.

The pet-owning public seems to have noticed the difference.

An AP-Yahoo! News poll found that pet owners favor McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners particularly in McCain's corner.

As a founding member of the non-existent group, "Dog Owners for Obama" I proclaim this perhaps the most moronic poll ever.

Besides, how many people are aware of the numerous times McCain has put down his old dog in favor of a newer model with better breeding?

Thanks so-called liberal media!

So much for that whole "Sovereignty" deal

It seems just like last election I was hearing things like this:

US President George Bush celebrated the early transfer of political power to Iraqis, saying that "the Iraqi people have their country back."

So there should be no problem with this:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki raised the prospect on Monday of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of negotiations over a new security agreement with Washington.

In fact, I think I've heard that would be just fine:

President Bush said in an interview on Thursday that he would withdraw American forces from Iraq if the new government that is elected on Sunday asked him to do so

"Sovereignty, what's that again?"

In a rebuff to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Pentagon said Monday that any timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq would depend on conditions on the ground there.

That's It. I'm sold.

Catching up on my Econonomists this weekend, I read this:

The main worry about [Senator Jim ] Webb, however, is that he is a genuine fire-breathing economic populist. He appears actually to believe the sort of stuff that Mr Obama only says during Democratic primaries. Since vice-presidents sometimes become presidents, this matters. American workers, says Mr Webb, “are at the mercy of cut-throat executives who are vastly overpaid, partly as a consequence of giving [the workers'] jobs away to other people.” Illegal immigration and globalisation “threaten to dissipate” the American middle-class way of life. He predicts that, unless the government acts to restore “economic fairness”, America “may well go the way of ancient Greece [or] greed-ridden Rome”.

This is actually their only worry, by the way. And remember Webb's great Wall Street Journal opinion of last fall?

If The Economist thinks that "Jim Webb would make a poor running-mate for Barack Obama," I am 100% positive that he'd be perfect.

Oh, here he is on "The Daily Show" (h/t commenter FireMonkey):



Update: People are telling me that Webb just told MSNBC that he won't be BHO's VP. Oh, well. Here's my second choice:

The Rich Are Different From You and Me

They pay $600/hour to see qualified mental health professionals, for one thing.

Dear NYT,

No one cares about the troubles of rich people, or of the psychiatrists that treat them. The fact that the rich are angst-ridden over the state of their tennis games doesn't assuage the rest of the population's anxieties over $4.50/gallon gas, $3.50/gallon orange juice, or $2.00/trip subway rides. And by the way, we don't need $600/hour shrinks to tell us that their problem is a surfeit of narcissim. Sheesh.

xxx...res

P.S. Rich people may also want another billionaire to be our next mayor, but that doesn't mean that the vast majority of people who live here (who are not rich, by the way), do. Just because a bunch of fat cat Republican thugs think we're in a "golden age of New York City government" doesn't mean New York City is experiencing a golden age. And by the way, Bloomberg is a Republican.

Now watch these golf shoes

Fresh off saying this:

And I am proud of the decision of this administration to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

"NOW WATCH THIS DRIVE!"

QUESTION: Now, I understand you started your Independence Day weekend with a round of golf?

RICE: I did...three years in August that I’ve been playing and playing a lot. A lot for me.

Meanwhile,

Bush Sacrificed Golf to 'Honor War Dead'

What has Rice sacrificed?

- Shoes?

- Scratching the Decider's balls?

- Her dignity?

Prepare for the Hissy Fit

Just think, FoxNews and the rest of the right-wing will be beside themselves in a fit of self-enclosed rage over this possibility?

Plans for a visit by Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic candidate for President of the United States, have moved forward -- slowly -- in Berlin, where he may give a speech before the Brandenburg Gate this summer...

The place where Kennedy proclaimed himself both a Berliner and denied he was a doughnut, where Reagan talked about tearing down walls etc. All they'll have is that Obama is presumptuous. And that isn't much to go on.

The visuals will be undeniable.

Meanwhile, McCain's foreign speeches consist of having an audience of Lieberman & Graham standing behind him and flashing their adoring 'Nancy Reaganesque' smiles.

Diplomatic Impasse

REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (JAPAN)

Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev not as impressed with Bush's act of snorting and scratching himself as the latter anticipated.

Oh, No! Karoke!

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Just what we need, Bush singing the Righteous Brothers.

Looking for Alternative Music

From Dr. J -- friend of this blog even if he has never had me on his radio show.  I, at least, feel obligated to send this...                                                                                                                      --------------------------------------------------------- Hello fans of great music!

We here at the School of Rock HQ are scouring the Internet for great undiscovered music that is off the radar of the super-large-enormous-music machine.  If you are an artist or in a band that is looking for some airplay, please send your FCC Clean mp3 track to drjwudr@gmail.com and we promise at least one airplay. 

And which genre, style, type of music you play does not matter.  We give all styles of music a chance on our "School of Rock w/ Dr. J show."  And yes, he really is a Dr who teaches about the history and development of popular music and popular culture.  He's got the letters after his name and time spent working in radio to prove it.

We are especially interested in Ohio and Cincinnati-Dayton-Columbus, Ohio area independent musicians and artists.  But if you are not from that area do not hesitate to send us some stuff or information.  So let us know what you are doing and we promise to give your music a serious spin. 

Hey, its a lot better than the deal you get from the record labels. We will not steal your soul and hopefully turn some people on to your music.

Your musically obsessed pal, -Dr. J.

----------------------------------------------------------

So, what are you waiting for, send the guy something.  Then maybe he'll ask me to be on the show.  Attaturk and Res get on the show all the time!  At least I am not bitter or anything.

Too Cool For School

What strikes me about these clips are not so much the interviewees' views and statements about sex, dating, and rape, but their too-cool-for-school attitude. At twenty-nine, these women seem a little long in the tooth to be so terribly blasé not just about subjects that deserve to be taken seriously (and no, taking sex seriously is not the same thing as being a prude), but about, well, everything. They remind me of junior high kids who will stampede disabled infants to shout to anyone who will listen that they couldn't be bothered to study for the exam, or put on clean clothes for mass, or give their parents the time of day. I'm all for a little snark, but I watch them and feel relief that I'm not and never have been that jaded.

In any case, on July 14th, the "Thinking and Drinking" segment of Shoot the Messenger will happily go from the ridiculous to the sublime, as Amy Goodman will be in the house.

(And yes, full disclosure: Lizz is an acquaintance.)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The President of the United States.


(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

But you've been fine with pissing off Americans for nearly 8 years?!

Bush wants to be nice to his creditors:

President Bush said Sunday he does not feel the need to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics to state his opposition to China's human rights record. Skipping the event would be an "affront" to the Chinese people, he said.

Because obviously the Chinese people are a-okay with human rights violations against them.

Um, yeah.

REUTERS/Jim Young (JAPAN)

Here's my post-Presidency Proposal

This is George W. Bush, Jan. 21, 2009 (sooner would be okay too):

...a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho.

But first we all get a chance to buy a bb-gun.


(AP Photo/Jeff Barnard)

Meet the New Rove, Same as the Old Rove

At this point should we really be surprised that the McCain campaign is another Rove-inspired series of lies and attacks?

The liars just have different employment, that is all.

Is anyone surprised?  Anyone at all?

Deluded to the bitter end

Irony with rich 'Bob Evans Sausage Gravy':

re: Civics [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A totally crazy Saturday-morning thought: Wouldn't George W. Bush make an awesome high-school government teacher?...Whatever you think of President Bush, he's a likable guy in love with his country with some history and experience to share.

1. He's NOT a likeable guy, he's an asshole. People do not like him.

2. If George Bush was qualified for any post, it would be a shop teacher -- known as "Seven-fingers" Bush.

3. He's not in love with his country, he's in love with George W. Bush.

4. You are a moron.

A Very Delicate Situation

NYT:

What if your family was planning a big end-of-summer bash (a Grand Old Party, you might call it) but preferred that you not be seen — or heard?

That is the question hanging over President Bush, with eight weeks to go until Republicans gather in St. Paul to nominate Senator John McCain as his successor. Convention planners, the White House and the McCain campaign are wrestling with how to choreograph a proper send-off for Mr. Bush — sure, his poll numbers are in the tank, but he is still the party leader and president of the United States — while hustling him out the door in time for Mr. McCain to look like his own man.

First of all: too fucking bad. You own Bush, Republicans, and all that he implies. He's hanging out there like a gigantic turd in the global punchbowl. You figure out what to do with him now.

Now you know how the whole thinking and feeling half of the country has felt for the last eight years. Every time we found ourselves thrust on the world stage (which is pretty much all the time, America somehow being, despite its obvious Republican-piloted death spiral over the last eight years, still the biggest kid in the sandbox) we had to hang our heads, look the other way, or cringe like siblings, cousins, parents, and grandparents at a family reunion as our obese, not-too-bright, drunk, hyper-aggressive uncle did or said something stupid, ignorant, bigoted, or violent. I'm sure you'll figure out a way to keep your embarrassing uncle in line at your Minneapolis family reunion. Thank God for us you'll have to do it live on national television. Have fun!

(By the way, NYT, thanks for your usual false equivalence. Dems do not "face a similar quandry" re Bill 'n Hillary this year. BHO supporters are not thrilled with Bill and Hill, for sure, but the Clintons didn't, you know, wreck the country or anything. So I have no doubt that both of them are going to receive a warm welcome at the Dems' little party. In fact, I expect that Bill's arrival is going to be analogous to the arrival at the family reunion of the uncle everyone loves. You know the guy -- the one who tells great stories, loves to laugh, and arrives with a great bottle of something for the grownups and pockets packed with candy for the kids. I also think he's going to make a great speech.)

Pathetic

So much for the principal of showing support for democracy & freedom (I know, what a shocker):

President Bush will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics next month, ignoring a boycott by other world leaders over China's crackdown on religious freedom in Tibet.

"He's going to China to support first and foremost our athletes. He sees this as a sporting competition," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Thursday.

Bush had planned to attend sporting events at the games, but considered passing on the opening ceremony to protest China's violent treatment of Buddhist monks and individuals in Tibet. Human rights groups and others, like presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, had urged Bush to skip the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will miss the opening ceremony, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will do the same unless China resumes a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the two leaders said.

But Bush couldn't pass up those AWESOME seats.

Besides, China's such a prime investor in Bush (and McCain's) War.

How low could he go?

I don't know exactly how much ego one has to be driven by to "want" to be President. But hooking up with the guy who once smeared your own young child seems to be a sell-out no "Straight-Talkin' Maverick" would ever make.

Never Speak Ill of the Dead

Rather, let them speak for themselves.

Jess Helms (R - Of Course) on some of his fellow citizens:

The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights."

On Carol Mosely-Braun, the first African-American female elected to the U.S. Senate:

"I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries."

On the then-president of the United States:

"[Clinton] had "better not show up around here [Fort Bragg] without a bodyguard."

On the SCLM:

"The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian."

On his Senate opponent, Harvey Gantt:

Have a Happy Fourth of July!

Hilarious and honest film about voting Republican.

Plagiarism is as Plagiarism Does

I have to wonder if the NYT and the George Mason School of Law would have gone as easy on a Democrat!? One has to wonder if such sloppy work methods would disqualify someone from being on the Federal District Court...

How utterly predictable

And what utter bullshit:

The White House said Thursday that dangerous detainees at Guantanamo Bay could end up walking Main Street U.S.A. as a result of last month's Supreme Court ruling about detainees' legal rights. Federal appeals courts, however, have indicated they have no intention of letting that happen.

The high court ruling, which gave all detainees the right to petition federal judges for immediate release, has intensified discussions within the Bush administration about what to do with the roughly 270 detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"I'm sure that none of us want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed walking around our neighborhoods," White House press secretary Dana Perino said about al-Qaida's former third in command.

Once again, the Bush Administration starts out 'Independence Day' by trying to make everyone afraid and dependent upon his incredible lack of competence. Apparently, we are supposed to forget the Kafkaesque nightmare revealed just this week of some of the folks wrongfully kept at GITMO once they got their limited hearings.

And thank goodness our press is made up of morons completely in the tank for their barbecue dipped Maverick.

Oh look, it's "Bad Touch the Clown!"

The enthusiasm is palpable. And apparently, to Bush, so are little girls.

White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

That's mighty white of him

John McCain kisses Christian Conservative ass -- in order to get their endorsement -- by coming out against Gay Marriage.

After all, who would know more about the sanctity of marriage than the guy who cheated on his first wife numerous times until he found true love with the synthesized beer baroness?

IOKIYAR.

This week in miracles!

Seems like a pretty good couple of days for St. John McCain on the ever shallow surface.

First, he had his second miracle in about a week caused by his mere presence with the "well-timed" hostage freeing in Colombia. This followed his mere presence at the memorial service with the miracle of veteran home wrecker & Protestant sociopath Sally Quinn eating of the transubstantiated body of Tim Russert (it tasted of hot wings & blue cheese). Two miracles down and only "victory" in Iraq away from full-frontal canonization [apparently having a 'Captain's Chair' in your plane doesn't count when both Lindsey Graham & Joe Lieberman are fighting to be Gopher to your Captain Stubing].

Plus he got the endorsement of Christian Conservatives on the ever-reliable basis of "not being the black guy". Truly, John McCain is going that extra amount to make sure his Presidential campaign continues its flight into the sky, ever higher (never mind being shot down now being a sound basis for being President -- how did Wrong Way Corrigan not end up in the White House anyway?).

In effort to keep the Mentholatum induced McMentum going, John McCain has officially put this guy in charge of his Presidential Campaign*:

It's a completely predictable non-miracle.

How totally out of pre-fabricated and pre-packaged character.


[cross-posted at Firedoglake]



*Note, not actually Steve Schmidt, who looks more like this guy. Photo was supplied by FoxNews, which regrets the error and promises to make all further supplied photos look "far more jewy".

You've Got To Hand It To Him

"Him" being one Brad Reed. Because culling this list down to 10 was no small feat. Ladies and gentleman: The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency.

/via Sadly, No!

He Couldn't Make It Here, Yet He Made It Everywhere

And still, he whines, like the typical Republican that he is:

“I assumed there was a fraternity of broadcasting guys in New York,” he told me. “I thought my success would launch me into a circle of accomplished people. Look, I admired these people. Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather — people watched these guys. I thought they would welcome me as one of them. I was wrong.”

(In the immortal words of Ricky Roma, "Who ever told you that you could work with men?")

Eventually Limbaugh came to a rather obvious conclusion. “I realized that my professional achievements were discounted because of my conservatism and
my constant criticism of those who I thought would welcome me.”

No, actually, they were discounted because you're an asshole, a vulgarian, and a charlatan. (There's also your little facism problem, your relationship with illegal narcotics, and your contempt for your audience, the country, the Constitution, and anyone else that can't stuff your fat paws with cash, your big mouth with cigars, and your even fatter gullet with red meat and drugs. But I digress...)

Why on earth did he expect people he was mocking on the air to embrace him, I asked.

“Immaturity,” he said.

Whoa! Insight! (albeit momentary)

“I was shocked by the visceral hatred. Nobody hated me growing up. Nobody hated me in Kansas City. Even in Sacramento, which is a liberal town, nobody hated me. That didn’t happen until I got to Manhattan.”

No doubt he'll whine that this (if this ever actually happened) was the result of "elitism," but what it really was the world-class New York bullshit detector at work. All New Yorkers have it, whether they're born and bred here, or come to make their fortune. This whiner par extraordinaire has millions of fans, but still, the little voice at the back of what's left of his druggy brain persists: "Why don't they like me? I want them to like me!" -- in spite of his ceaseless demands for Asshole Rights, his contempt for democracy, and his perennial boorishness. The fact that it's still bugging him tastes good, if you ask me. Tell it to a mental health professional, loser. You can make it your personal improvement project for the eight-year duration of the Barack Hussein Obama administration.

Riddle me this...

Is this picture of Hitchens after being waterboarded, or Hitchens about 1 a.m. on any given night when they run out of Johnny Walker & Crown Royal?

This has really got to break his little heart

And the press coterie like Liz Sidoti cannot get over it!

People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack Obama than with John McCain.

While many are still deciding who should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Obama than McCain to their summer cookout, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday...

Having Obama to a barbecue would be like a relaxed family gathering, while inviting McCain "would be more like a retirement party than something fun," said Wesley Welbourne, 38, a systems engineer from Washington, D.C.

Ouch!

In Colombia - The Insane Clown Posse

(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

McCain meets the right-wing's latest heartthrob, Uribe. Meanwhile, once again Lieberman & Graham accompany McCain overseas on yet another souped up photo-op.

Is he able to go anywhere without those two assholes? Do they literally have noting else to do?

By the way, is Lieberman looking Cindy "up and down", or McSame?

UPDATE: forgot to check Watertiger's site.

McCain shows off his "activist" President agenda for America's domestic problems

Sitting in his lazy-boy demanding Cindy find the "goddamned remote"!

(AP Photo/LM Otero)

Oh, the harsh light of reality

(AP Photo/LM Otero)

The Pier Lights Her Carnival Life, Forever

Madam Marie (a/k/a Marie Castello), the Jersey Shore fortune teller of Bruce Springsteen's famed "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," has died.

Sandy, the angels have lost our desire for us

I spoke to 'em just last night and they said they won't set themselves on fire for us anymore

Every summer when the weather gets hot they ride that road down from heaven on their Harleys they come and they go

And you can see 'em dressed like stars in all the cheap little seashore bars parked making love with their babies out on the Kokomo

Well the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do

This boardwalk life for me is through

You know you ought to quit this scene too

As far as anyone knows, Dynamite (the one in the belfry, playing with the bats) has not quit this scene, too.

R.I.P.

Plagirizing Commie Symps

Oh, and a-holes -- can't forget to add they are a-holes:

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Remember when the right-wing (and some competitors) tried to accuse Obama of lifting or slightly modifying Deval Patrick speeches? Well, here's some real plagiarism for you, George Bush's DOD copied Chairman Mao's little red torture book. A technique used specifically to elicit FALSE CONFESSIONS! Something for the reelection campaign (like trumped up terror warnings) no doubt-- surely that's what Jesus would do?

We made much, deservedly so, of the torture methods used by the Russians, Chinese, North Korea and, ironically considering this was done at GITMO, Cuba during the "Cold War". John McCain himself has used the story of his torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese -- using the playbook passed down by the Soviets and Chinese -- as not only a key, but they key, to his life story. And despite the over wrought nature of some of its use of it this week, there's little doubt it is the most compelling and sympathetic thing about him which is why his recent cave on the issue of CIA torture is so disappointing.

And here is the Bush Administration, nineteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, seventeen years after the official

We're Number One!

Reuters:

The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday.

Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine....

"The United States, which has been driving much of the world's drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of use of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies, as well as (in many U.S. states), a higher minimum legal alcohol drinking age than many comparable developed countries," they added.

"The Netherlands, with a less criminally punitive approach to cannabis use than the U.S., has experienced lower levels of use, particularly among younger adults."

Something else we need to get sane about.

Second Half

Lookit the pretty flowers I got from my dear four-legged friend!

Another dear friend made a valiant attempt to address a profound gap in my cultural literacy by giving me this.

I gave myself these. And some friends and I went here to eat pizza and drink life-sustaining red wine.

So all in all, a good (birth)day. Now ... onto the second half...

I'm giving up TV news and pundit shows -- cable, network, and otherwise -- in July and August. Waking up and screaming at Joe Scarborough is not good for me. It counteracts the health benefits of the aforementioned red wine, for one thing. It's also pointless. The stuff on the show is, as a good friend likes to remind me every time he witnesses me work myself into paroxysms of rage, "noise." There are 500 people watching and all of them are either Village Idiots or those who despise them. I honestly don't think anyone else is paying attention at this point (I think they're focused on vacation or on finding the money to pay for gas so they can go on vacation), and so my outrage is way out of proportion to the actual impact these gasbags are having. I'll turn it back on after Labor Day. In the meantime, I shall rely on COT's distillations and Shoot the Messenger's (see below) spoofs of such stuff.

Meanwhile, Staten Island Republicans still have no candidate to run for Vito Fossella's soon-to-be-vacant seat. Party elder and scourge of New York City Guy Molinari is confused:

Whatever decision the party leaders make, it will have to come soon. Although they are calling one another and discussing the matter, no meeting of elected officials had taken place and none was planned.

“It’s mystifying,” said Guy V. Molinari, who is the former Staten Island borough president and is considered the unofficial dean of the island’s Republican leaders. “I’ve made scores of phone calls and asked the elected officials to convene to discuss potential candidates. But there is no meeting scheduled at this time, and I
don’t know if we’ll hold one. Someone needs to clue me in as to what’s really
going on.”

Poor dear! He doesn't realize that he's not clued in because NY Republicans are clueless. Maybe the national party has written the seat off? Or perhaps it's just the Curse of The Big Dick. Only one thing is sure: somewhere, Steve Gilliard is smiling ...

Are you coming to New York this summer? If you are, you could do worse than to stop by the Green Room Theater to catch Shoot the Messenger on Monday nights. The show recently incorporated the comic stylings of my aforementioned dear friend, so if you like her blog, you should definitely check out "Shoot." Find me in the audience on Bastille Day, July 28th, or August 11th, when Amy Goodman, Rachel Maddow, Paul Reickhoff, and Bill Moyers will be the respective guests during the show's "Thinking & Drinking" segment.

July 4th weekend: doing anything? I'll be here at some point and here at another and probably here at yet another. In other words, I'm keeping it local -- and keeping it real.

The "target" of email smears...

In action, from the Fail blog:

Query

Based on the logic of yesterday...

Is it now wrong to question a carpenter's capacity to be the Messiah?

The "Right" STUFF

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

After all, the last eight years has definitely proved the value of occasionally flying a military airplane.

This man has definitely proven that because he can fly a jet, he's fully capable of crashing the entire country!

So let's just extrapolate, the latest indication that a 4-star ground pounder is completely unable to question the ability of a military pilot to lead the country on the basis of flight training and skills.

If only this had only been the policy in the past.

We could have been spared this guy, who not only couldn't fly, he couldn't walk.


Just think, if we followed the philosophy of just admitting those who can fly, can better lead, we would have managed to avoid all that World War II unpleasantness by having summit meetings between the President of the United States and the Chancellor of Germany:


And nothing bad ever happened again...*

Golly, Who Would have Anticipated, they'd exaggerate to us 34 straight times?

Now that the press releases have been duly reported, the actual truth will be generally unnoticed -- again!

Pakistan's fitful military operation against Islamist extremists pushed into its third day Monday, but there was no sign of overt combat — and growing criticism of the army's failure to crack down on the Taliban and al Qaida, which operate out of the country's lawless tribal belt.

A senior official in the North West Frontier Province, Afrasiab Khattak, said that despite the election of a civilian government in February, the army — with the support of President Pervez Musharraf — continues to dictate Pakistan's policy toward Afghanistan and to use the tribal belt sanctuaries to undermine the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

The military operation has consisted primarily of isolated assaults on buildings used by warlords in Khyber agency in the tribal belt, which have met almost no resistance.

And hey, about that area that Bin Laden is believed to be in?

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said that it would be "premature" to start an offensive in South Waziristan, a part of the tribal zone known for more hard-core militants, as the government still hoped for a peace deal there. "This operation is to clear the suburbs of Peshawar," Abbas said.

So let's get that "peace" (wink wink) deal done and make it 35 straight times!

Huzzah!