Uh Duh

Somebody gets it. I wish it was one of our leaders, but really it was Iranian president (which would make not a dictator, you ignorant slut)Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
“The US government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades. First, the imposition on the US economy of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world . . . the war in Iraq, for example. . . These are heavy costs.”
McCain-Palin must feel that the economy hasn't been run far enough into the ground, because now they want war with Iran. Maybe it will go as well as Afghanistan. But that's one sure way of distracting people, starting WWIII.

O Brother!

JUNIOR
Well people like that reform. Maybe
we should get us some.

Pappy whips off his hat and slaps at Junior with it.

PAPPY
I'll reform you, you soft-headed
sonofabitch! How we gonna run reform
when we're the damn incumbent!

O Brother, Where Art Thou? by Joel and Ethan Coen

How indeed! It seems that one of the planks in the Republican platform this year is reform. Yeah, and when the junkie in charge of the medicine cabinet says he's going to fix things, he doesn't mean with a hammer and saw. And yet, there are people who are stupid enough to buy it, because like Junior O'Daniel, they are dim and thick and incurious.
The themes of the recent convention were all hypocritical in their own right, reform, service prosperity and peace.
Peace?
McCain has already suggested he may reinstate the draft, hardly something we'd need in a time of peace. And McCain was the one who was pushing for an invasion of Iraq on the morning of 9/11. With McCain's incompetent and poor VP pick has stated that war with Russia may be needed, and the imbecile-in-chief is sending special forces into Pakistan, there is no "peace" in the Republican agenda.
It's as if they just took buzzwords that resonate well with American voters and didn't put anything behind them. It's pointless and meaningless, like applying the term maverick to a politician who voted with the president over 90% of the time.

Unfit For Command

Quick question: How many houses do you own? Not how many houses have you lived in, or how many houses did you stay at, but how many properties do you have in your name? Most of us people can answer that with maybe one, or possibly two, or three, some rental property, we all keep tabs on what we own because as responsible home owners, we need to keep up these properties lest they fall into disrepair. Well, John McCain has no idea how many homes he owns.
When you mention the fact that McCain is unaware of how many homes he owns to his campaign, or the slew of McCain apologists within the corporate media, their response is give him a break, he was a POW! As The Carpetbagger Report points out, a noun, a verb and prisoner of war is McCain's excuse for all his mistakes. The fact that he cheated on his first wife with his now second wife? He was a POW!. It has become a standard McCain campaign defense from criticism for things like his health care proposals, a fall back position to be exploited at every opportunity, or as a defense against every accusation. As with Bush, who couldn't be criticized for five years because of 9/11, McCain cannot be criticized for events that happened thirty years ago.
But to those who spent time with McCain in the Hanoi Hilton, McCain's finger should be nowhere near the red button. The right wing likes to paint McCain as a "war hero", while others have the temerity to ask what has he actually done to earn the "war hero" qualification? Drop bombs on civilians? Lose an Air Force jet fighter?
It should be obvious to anybody who has two brain cells to rub together that if events that happened over thirty years ago are still having a negative effect on John McCain's behavior today, that maybe he shouldn't be in the White House. Perhaps he shouldn't even be in the Senate. John McCain belongs in a veteran's home, where, hopefully, he can receive the counseling he needs to get himself beyond the events in the past. We don't need him being excused for annihilating the planet because he was, well, you know, a POW.

McCain's Health Care Policy Is Nothing But Sunscreen

(Tip o' the cap to the wonderful folk at The Carpetbagger Report)
In a speech last week, Sen. John McCain outlined his health care proposal:

He urged "all Americans to wear sunscreen, particularly this summer, to stay out of the sun as much as possible

Now McCain has a position that’s frankly ludicrous. He suggested if we all wore sunscreen, hat we would solve the problem. Think about it. You ought to take that clip. I think that clip is far more devastating than today because it’s loony toons. What is he thinking?
Sure, wearing sunscreen may prevent burns that may lead to melanoma, but does nothing to help the nearly 47 million Americans with out health insurance coverage, nor does it do anything to stop the rising cost of health care for all Americans. In fact his whole policy is just one big handout to Big Pharma. Americans need solutions for existing problems, not ones that may occur down the road. It's as if suggesting keeping our tires inflated will solve all energy problems.
(Cross posted at The American Insurgency)

Pissing Over The Airwaves

The right wing noise machine is desperate. They thought they cruise into the White House this November on the strength of "national security" and "fighting the war on terror" with "war hero" John "Depends" McCain. But with the publication of Scott McClellan's book and the recent Senate committee report affirming what those in the progressive blogosphere have known for six years, that intelligence was manipulated and the media exploited to sell the war in Iraq, McCain can no longer run on that issue, because support for the war will continue to dwindle until the only ones backing it will be the Bush cronies making billions from it. And Barack Obama, who has opposed the war from the start, will appear more desirable as chief executive, as he seeks a way out of the war.
Forget saving face, America was embarrassed by the invasion in the first place. Nothing this side of New Orleans made this country look weak and worthless than our inability to manage a war against a country run by a dictator hampered by years of economic sanctions. All the finest weaponry in the world can not impose the neocon's will against people who do not wish to bow to it.
Forget about victory, it is impossible because it can never be clearly defined. Every reason given as justification (WMD, 9/11, alQaeda) has turned out to false, and the ones who allegedly attacked us are still holed up in the mountains of Pakistan. With the exception of Osama Bin laden, who has been dead for years, new audiotape notwithstanding.
And forget about running on a strong economy, the GOP's anti-regulatory nightmare has weakened the dollar, driven up oil prices, and sent the housing market into a tailspin.
So all they have now are these nonsensical attacks by "balanced" Fox News that accuse Obama of plagiarism because he and Mario Cuomo both gave speeches that were written in the English language. Which leads to the question, who's stupider, the writers at Fox News who hought they could pull a fast one, or the millions of mouth breathing television watchers who buy into the whole lie?

You Can't Have It Both Ways

John McCain claims to be an agent of change. He also claims to be anti-lobbyist. So where was John McCain yesterday? At the Aipac conference, arguably the most powerful lobby in Washington, calling for more of the same Bush-style "diplomacy" against Iran
McCain is so full of shit the only change that can be associated with him is when he fills his Depends, and they need to be changed.

Yeah, And I'm Like Buddha

The difference between the right and left is the level of their delusions, with the right being better prone to believing their own bullshit (With the exception of Hillary Clinton, who hasn't seem to have received the message. It's over. When Barack Obama can attract 80,000 people to a rally in Oregon, over half the state, and you can only muster a thousand mullet headed mingers to a state you plan on carrying, well, as Stan Lee might put it, 'nuff said). Just today, I had a conversation with a man concerning the high gas prices who said be grateful I'm not buying bottled water by the gallon. I told him I don't need bottle water to drive to work, and that right wing meme is such crap you can smell the stink from here.
Yes, there are roughly 30% or less people who still think that Bush is doing a fantastic job, and why shouldn't they? Not because he is, but because to admit otherwise would crack the facade of their lives enough for all those horrors to flood out. Just keep humming, popping your Xanax and watching Fox News, and everything will work out. Just wait.
How much more evidence do you need? Take Sue Everhart, state chairwoman for the Georgia GOP. She actually believes that John McCain is kind of like Jesus. I think I remember that episode. That was the one where Jesus became a fighter pilot and dropped tons of Napalm on the civilians in North Vietnam. Or the time Jesus called Mary Magdalene a cunt. Yeah, I can see the similarities, McCain with his PTSD, lashing out at critics and colleagues alike, Jesus, uh, singing "Bomb Iran", just for laughs (well, Mike Huckabee thought it was funny, and we all know what a great sense of humor he has)These kind of people have gone way past drinking of the Kool-Aid straight into full-fledged addiction to that sugary and artificially flavored fruit drink.
And how does Ms. Everhart think McCain and the Christian saviour are alike?

"John McCain is kind of like Jesus Christ on the cross,He never denounced God, either."

Well, I'm sure at some point Sen. McNasty probably took the Lord's name in vain.

Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grade Teacher?

Today, my oldest came over after school, just like every other weekend and posed a question. Who started the war in Iraq? The answer is easy, I told him, George Bush. that's when he told me I was wrong, according to his teacher, Congress authorized the war in Iraq.
You see, his class is learning about government, which is an odd time to be learning about democracy, when it's been pretty much wiped out by the current administration, with it's signing statements and all. I informed my son, that no, Bush started the war in Iraq.
Congress approved a war resolution which gave Bush the authorization to start a war "if Saddam Hussein did not give up weapons of mass destruction, as required by UN resolutions". Since Saddam didn't have any weapon of mass destruction to give up, Bush had no resolution to start a war with them under the provisions as defined by Congress.
Bonus points: Who said "Giving peace a chance only gives Saddam Hussein more time to prepare for war on his terms, at a time of his choosing, in pursuit of ambitions that will only grow as his power to achieve them grows"?
Saddam didn't want a war with the US. He never attacked us, nor did he show any predisposition to do so. And since "we went to war in Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction" that didn't exist, why does John McCain feel we need to stay there for "100 years"?
So the Bush administration threatened, bullied and harassed UN members to get UN resolution 1441 passed. It then used that to get authorization from Congress to go to war over reasons they themselves knew were blatantly false. And even though it has destroyed the lives of thousand Americans, millions of Iraqis, helped destroy the US economy, as well as our standing in the international community, Bush, McCain, and the Republican party feel we should stay there so non-existent "terrorists" don't get their hands on Iraq's oil. (even though it's not about the oil, or maybe it is, since it's hard to understand what McCain means because even he's not sure what he's saying) Every American should be angered over the war, and if you're not, you're just plain dumb.

One Picture Is Worth A Thousand Smear Campaigns

This is so funny. The Republicans intend on using Barack Obama as a liability. Where do they live?
Back in the US, President Bush has the lowest approval rating of all. The economy is fucked, the wars in the Middle East are utter failures, strangling our economy even more than the high oil prices, which is another by-product of those wars and the propaganda machine is gearing up for the next.
You see, it doesn't matter if John Hagee backs off his prior homophobic statements, all any Democratic nominee has to do is point out that McCain is no different than Bush, and they should win by a landslide. And if they don't, the Democratically controlled congress should immediately begin an investigation into vote fraud.

What Some People Will Do To Win Elections

Somebody's an idiot.
I don't know who, but doesn't it seem strange that John McCain, who sought out the endorsement of John Hagee who has made a career of calling the Roman Catholic church "the great whore", "false cult system" and "the apostate church" yet had no problem with attending the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
Is this just another cynical ploy by the Republican party to get people to vote against their own interests by courting both the Catholic and anti-catholic vote? The Pope has criticized the war in Iraq while Hagee feels we should be fighting war with Iran as well. Obviously, McCain hopes that one side, or both, are too stupid to figure out that he can't give them both what they want. At least he can't be accused of flip-flopping, because he doesn't have a position to flip-flop on.

Invasion of The Obama Bashers

While senators McCain and Clinton act like pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, shrilly screeching because Obama dared to speak a little truth (Sen. Clinton coming out in favor of guns a position polar opposite to the one she held back when she was First Lady appealing for gun control. Will she change her position on the Colombian Trade Agreement once she gets elected president? Let's hope we don't find out), Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) was acting like a true progressive, linking the US recession to the Iraq war.