Somebody Lost Their Ass Today

But perhaps this will give the candidates a theme for this evening's 3rd and final debate. Something besides Ayers and the Weather Underground ideally.

I am so tired of this week already I can't even remember who is in the debate!

Ahh yes...these two. That's the maverick on the left for any others out there having trouble remembering. To the right is every racist bigot's worst nightmare.

Time to go watch the telly. "Let's play Hardball."

The time is nigh. Let's get this game on!

To Sir With Love

Sir, suspend your campaign now until you or someone gets control of it.

I'm paraphrasing only slightly because I had to run in here under a tequila fog and remember as much as I could verbatim from Keith Olbermann.

I Am Supporting the "Terrorist"

How pathetic of the McCain/Palin campaign to harp on this terrorist shtick. Their true colors are showing now and they aren't red, white & blue. More like black & blue.

"You still alive out there?"

Last debate coming right up.

Is that a microphone in your pants or are you happy to see me?

No photos today because Photobucket appears to be on strike against the god of kona.

Mid-Week Haiku

Courtesy of John McCain...

I could be your man
For capturing Bin Laden
If you elect me.

I'm sure I've heard that one before. Or something like it. What's that smell I smell? Bullshit?

Country First; Vetting Tacos Second; Vetting Donuts Third

Found at one of my favorite joints...Cannablog.

"They found me on the Google like ... THAT!"

The 9/11 Game

The Republican Party can go to hell. Want to use 9/11 images to make a case for the election?

The McCain/Palin ticket needs to go down like this.

One Nation Under Ignorance

I have come to the conclusion that a good number of European immigrants who settled this land were not exactly the best representatives of their gene pool.

Granted, I already wasn't in a great mood this morning after rolling to the edge of the bed and planting my feet squarely into a pile of cat vomit as I arose from my not-so-peaceful slumber.

And the sight of an 18-inch tapeworm hanging from Sweet Pea's anus was another bad start to the morning.

All that aside, walking out to the street to pick up the Sunday New York Times would ultimately prove to be the most annoying aspect of my morning.

I simply cannot grasp the concept that so many Americans are straddling the political fence between Barack Obama and John McCain. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. How many people do you know who are undecided on key issues such as abortion, gay rights, Iraq, and the economy?

The differences between the two candidates are as stark as night and day, or if you prefer, black and white.

And yet, I read quote after quote from Americans in this article who simply can't decide. Am I asking too much to expect a little common sense? It's as if there are no issues, only empty, meaningless labels such as "maverick." Just read this.

Judith France and her daughter Holly France-Kremin have been torn about their choice for president ever since Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the Democratic nomination to Senator Barack Obama. Now Senator John McCain has made up their minds, but in different ways, by his surprise pick of Sarah Palin, the little-known Alaska governor, as his Republican running mate.

“It made me like McCain a little more,” said Judith France, 62, of Thornville, Ohio. “They always say he was a maverick, and this made me think, well, he really is. He went all the way to Alaska — there aren’t that many people up there, they don’t have that many electoral votes — and he picked this person. I know people will say she’s inexperienced. But she’s been a governor for 20 months. That’s more experience than Obama has.”

Judith needs to brush up on her facts. Or maybe the Republicans will seize upon that inaccurate statement and use it in campaign ads. Who knows. But Barack Obama served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 until 2004 and has been a US Senator from Illinois since 2004. Do the math. That's a hell of a lot more than 20 months. Maybe Judith doesn't know the difference between months and years.

Thank God her daughter seems to have a brain and is putting it to good use.

Ms. France-Kremin, 36, who lives nearby in Dublin, an affluent suburb of Columbus, likewise has qualms about the seasoning of Mr. Obama, a first-term United States senator after eight years as a state senator. But she also strongly favors abortion rights, and Ms. Palin — more prominently than Mr. McCain — does not.

“That sealed my decision,” said Ms. France-Kremin, who added that she would no longer consider voting for Mr. McCain.

For our next exhibit, we go to another suburban outpost where a vacant mentality apparently abounds.

Shopping at a suburban mall in Michigan on Friday, Cathy Gates, 40, a registered Republican and a mother of two who calls herself a “football mom,” said that the Palin pick was “a big risk” but that it “makes me feel a little better” about voting for Mr. McCain.

“She does appeal to me,” Ms. Gates said. “You would feel she has the same values as you. Having a child with Down syndrome, and being the governor, and she calls herself a hockey mom. I was impressed. She’s very pretty and seems very smart. I hope it works out.”

Some Democratic-leaning women, as well, welcomed Mr. McCain’s barrier-breaking choice as some consolation after their dashed hopes of having a woman at the top of the ticket.

“I wish the Democratic Party had the courage” to pick a woman, said Kimberly Myers, a retired transit worker in Pittsburgh who supported Mrs. Clinton in Pennsylvania’s primary and said she now planned to vote for Mr. McCain.

Ms. Myers said she also saw a bonus in the choice of Ms. Palin: “The fact that she’s a working mom will send a message to America that you don’t have to choose children over career.”

Pardon me, but there's a county to run here. This should not be about thinking a candidate is cool because she calls herself a soccer mom and you're a football mom. But she's "very pretty" so there you have it.

As word of the Palin choice spread, some women said they were intrigued by what they saw as her unusual mix of last-frontier pioneer and suburban supermom. She is a sportswoman, hunter and onetime local beauty queen who married her high school sweetheart, as well as a self-described hockey mom and PTA member.

"Supermom?" Please. This all might be relevant if she was running for mayor again. It is not relevant for someone running for governor and it's sure as hell not relevant for someone on a VP ticket in these trying times.

But wait. There's more! By the time I was near the end of the first section of the paper I was prepared to breathe a sigh of relief and I ran head-on into Peter Applebome's Our Towns column, and this excerpt made the milk in my coffee curdle instantly.

Michelle Drury watched Barack Obama’s speech Thursday night and she swooned.

“I think the guy’s amazing,” Ms. Drury, a registered nurse from nearby Beacon Falls, said on Friday over the low buzz at the Valley Diner in Connecticut’s blue-collar Naugatuck Valley. “I thought he gave a great speech. To be honest, I can’t turn my eyes from him when he’s on. For a 41-year-old, getting-divorced woman, he’s a hottie. I thought he laid out a phenomenal plan and finally told us a lot about himself.”

And whom will she be voting for in November? John McCain.

“I’ve loved watching Obama emerge and evolve, but I don’t vote based on the swing of the fever,” said Ms. Drury, a mother of three who said she thinks of herself as a liberal Republican. “He put out a lot of great words, but we live in a very dangerous world, and I just don’t think Obama’s ready yet. I think he will eventually be a great president, but not yet.”

A liberal Republican, huh? What does that mean exactly? Because from where I stand in the political spectrum, Barack Obama is closer to a liberal Republican than John McCain. Part of the reason we live in a dangerous world is because of the failed policies of President Bush. And John McCain vows to continue trotting down that path. And this "liberal Republican" lives in Connecticut! Wait until we get to some thoughts of the non-so-liberal Republicans in the deep South.

The idea of a member of our armed services not even paying attention is baffling. I suppose that's worse than the tendency to ignore the fact that we have issues facing us.

And then there were the customary wonders of American indifference. Mike Palmieri, 23, is in the Army at Fort Drum in upstate New York and then headed to Afghanistan. You might think he’d have a stake in things, but he said that politics was not his thing and that he was not paying attention. There was the woman who declined to give her name who didn’t know who was running for president.

The person most in limbo seemed to be Geraldine Peter of Ansonia, a Clinton voter in the primary who’s not sure if she will vote for Mr. Obama. She said she would take a longer look at the Republicans with Mrs. Palin on the ticket.

Whatever. This makes me want to cancel my subscription and live in a cave.

William Safire alone is reason enough.

A stern editor could have improved the 4,500-word acceptance by cutting a thousand words of populist boilerplate and partisan-pleasing shots that offend centrists.

Asshat.

Periodically, When I'm Feeling Down I Get Angry

J. Goff at I am Jack’s Non-Blog says this is what Obama needs:

- LESS SYCOPHANTS.

- LESS SEXISM

- LESS TALK

- MORE SUBSTANCE, i.e.:

- MORE EXPLICITLY PROGRESSIVE POLICIES

- LESS HYPE.

I don't believe those are listed in order of importance. I get the distinct impression the #1 issue is sexism. Visit any widely-read feminist blog, find a post about sexism in politics or the media, and watch the fireworks fly in the comment threads.

All of us progressives are, and should be, angry about a multitude of issues. I've been angry since J. Goff was still in his mother's womb, so trust me when I say I'm in touch with what needs to change in this nation.

I'm also a realist on some level and I know there is never going to be the perfect candidate running for any political office. There are 300 million Americans and 300 million different ideas about how to address the problems, let alone fix them! The question is this: are we going to start correcting even a few of them in 2009, or are we going to allow a single hot-button issue to destroy what may be our best hope for real leadership in our lifetime? Or am I just spewing more "hype?"

How many angry feminists does it take to swing an election the wrong way as the result of voting one's conscience or not voting at all? Who knows. This may be a year in which we learn the answer. Feminists don't like having the guilt-card played on them, nor would anyone else. And they are quick to point out that their individual vote is their individual personal choice and their business. I wholeheartedly agree. But there is a "but."

Since I brought up womb earlier, let me tell you what I think.

What you do with your body is your own business and I'm fighting hard to keep that right for you. How you cast your vote is your own business and I'm fighting hard to make certain that vote is, at the very least, actually counted. Your reproductive choices, even as a group of millions, have no recognizable impact on my life whatsoever. On the other hand, your vote as a group most definitely impacts my life and the lives of millions of others who are desperately seeking a new direction for the US. And this is where I get mightily annoyed with some of my feminist colleagues for the same reason I feel raging anger at fundamentalists and other neocons who make the election about preserving the sanctity of marriage and putting God back in the classroom. John McCain picked Sarah Palin for several reasons and I can assure you her position against reproductive freedom was right near the top of that list.

Regardless of who wins in November, even if it's Cynthia McKinney, we are going to be fighting sexism, racism, misogyny, capital punishment, corruption, lobbyists, offshore drilling, global warming, creationists, homophobia, discrimination against the transgendered, right-wing radio hosts, immigration policies, the loss of jobs, warmongering for profit, and a host of whackjobs in every corner of Congress. And I'm certain I didn't name at least 40 other injustices.

In a reply to a commenter on his post, J. Goff had this to say:

I will die for my country. I will not vote for Obama, though, until he starts talking progressively instead of dealing with centralist bullshit.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of politics these days, "centralist bullshit" is what we put up with until such time as a progressive cloaked in "centralist bullshit" can get elected. Politicians will do and say what they have to in order to appeal to the greatest number of voters. And that, much to my never ending dismay, is always going to involve a move to the "center" which is particularly irksome when the current center resides at the 35 yard line of the opposing team thanks largely to almost 30 years of Reagan and the Bush family. Sadly, Clinton didn't move that center as much as he could and should have.

I have spent the bulk of my voting life as a single-issue conscience voter. When I learned that Obama and Biden are both supporters of capital punishment I wasn't sure I could cast my ballot for that ticket. But this year I realized we have too much at stake for me to walk away in disgust. (I will not support them financially with any donation; I have to draw the line somewhere.)

J. Goff does have the benefit of being 25 which is young enough to hope for another chance or two for change in his lifetime even if this one isn't viewed by him as worth it because the candidate is perceived to be throwing women under the bus. (Or supports strapping people -- mostly black men -- into an electric chair, or pumping them with a toxic cocktail.)

Perhaps when J. Goff is my age, 48, and realizing that nothing much has changed, he'll also be getting fast and furiously fed up with waiting for.... something...before reaching retirement age.

I don't like taking baby steps and I really don't like even small compromise when it comes to politics this year. But I am taking a leap of faith because I am desperate for a glimpse of something different, an improvement, a sign of intelligent life in the White House. Being able to relax for awhile without worrying that a member of the Supreme Court is going to drop dead under a Bush or McCain watch is a nice perk.

Under all these circumstances, I am frankly astonished that sexism seems to be a focal point of the resistance to Obama given the fact that sexism is ingrained in our culture. It's not like the guy is out peddling this garbage although I am dismayed if his supporters are doing it.

It's great that the issue is finally getting more attention this year than I've ever seen in previous years, even if it is limited mostly to genuine feminist blogs (as opposed to say, a feminist group like Palin's Feminists for Life. But positive change has to start somewhere. And we must continue to push and fight for the changes we so sorely need. The ultimate question is: which candidate is most likely to listen?

In the end, if McCain is victorious, he and Sarah Palin (only the VP for as long as McCain's ticker keeps ticking) will shred this country for another four years, and it could even be worse than 8 years under Bush. I firmly believe it would be worse.

Such a victory could easily send a signal to future Democrats that the only way to have a chance of being elected is to move more to the right.

Or it could make Democrats so angry, and maybe enough moderate Republicans, to finally swing this country around in the 2012 elections with a progressive candidate who is more explicit with his or her policies, and never, ever says anything remotely sexist, and manages to finally unite the left and center as one big happy family.

I'm not banking on the latter. That's what I was certain 2004 was supposed to be.

Let's ALL get out this November, stand before that touch-screen and vote your conscience, be it McCain/Palin, Obama/Biden, McKinney/Clemente, or another. All I ask is that you let your conscience consider the bigger picture.

If the election tilts to McCain by a slim margin in one state, just don't tell me, or the millions of others who are ready to seize this moment, not to get angry if a few thousand voters in that state were refusing to support Obama because of a dogwhistle.

A Musical Dedication to Sarah Barracuda

But first, some humor. This has been a surreal day.

John McCain having a Sarah Palin fantasy. She may not have Cindy's money but... Cindy's money is hers anyway. Fucking prenups!

Get a fucking room!

I am predicting that on Wednesday morning after election day, that home-schooling, pro-oil drilling, anti-abortion, global warming denier, will be heading back north to resume her normal routine activities.

Clear and Present Dangerous Pandering

Wow. McCain has gone and done it now.

What a clever man. Somebody will make history regardless of the winner. So let's see how many of those Hillary hold-outs are going to be running to the McCain camp now that he had the balls to choose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Palin has a strong anti-abortion record, and her selection was praised warmly by social conservatives whose support Mccain needs to prevail in the campaign for the White House.

Great. Just what we need: a woman who wants to restrict the reproductive rights of women.

McCain needs to shut up about Obama's experience now.

In an announcement, McCain's campaign said that Palin, who has been governor less than two years, "has the record of reform and bipartisanship that others can only speak of.

[...]

A self-styled hockey mom and political reformer, Pallin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 6,500, until she became governor.

Again, I'll say wow. The choice in November could not possibly be more clear.


Update: I found this comment in a thread at Pam's House Blend.

If 72 year old McCain can't finish his term, we would have 44 year old Barracuda, two year governor of Alaska and former mayor of Wasilla!

Perfect. Now I can't get the song out of my head...

All we need now is for a hurricane to hit New Orleans during the Republican convention. Get ready for a ride.