The Obama Presidency is Officially Over

At least that is what one would have to believe if they had listened to any of the media reporting over the last 24 hours.

OK, Coakley ran a shitty campaign. Democrats took the seat for granted. The DSCC dropped the ball. And, the votes have not even yet been counted!

There are major problems with the MA election, and I am waiting for it to be certified before I cry defeat. (I get it that certification will probably come without the full investigation of the funny machines or the BS ballots, but I can always dream.) I do not understand why Coakley jumped so quickly to concede…I do not get it, unless she planned to lose. Her concession will make it a lot more difficult to actually count the ballots.

Enough said about Massachusetts. It does not mean shit. With Bayh, Landrieu, Lieberman, Nelson, Nelson and the others, we really never had 60 votes anyway.

I spend a lot of time listening to a lot of media. I have Left Wing radio on and MSNBC almost all the time. I never miss the Sunday shows. I read endlessly. I pay attention to what is being said and how it is being said. They are working overtime right now to spin this MA election as the end of the Obama Presidency and they are wrong.

We need to call and write and make clear why it is that the Dems lost the MA seat. We need to tell our representatives the truth. They will not be hearing the truth inside the beltway because the beltway common fucking wisdom is that the problem with Obama and his presidency is the DFH.

Maybe they are correct, but not in the way that they think.

The beltway press wants to spin this that the liberals were getting too much of their way, that Obama was too far to the left, that the Dirty Fucking Hippies ruined the Obama Presidency.

They’ll say that we have to move to the ‘center.’ That we have to act like the principle-less right wing. They are blaming MA on us; it is the DFH’s fault.

The only way that it is our fault is because we have not insisted loudly enough that the Congress follow the Progressive Principles that got them elected. We worked in 2006 & 2008 to send people to congress to get it done.

We want real healthcare reform (and we want it now.) We want a real jobs package, a New New Deal (and we want it now.) We want the Employee Free Choice Act (and we want it now.) We want the banksters thrown out of the corporate world and we want their seats removed from the table at the Whitehouse (and we want it now.) We want control over our own bodies (and we want it now.) We want the ERA (and we want it now.) We want an end to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (and we want it now.) We want marriage available to any committed couple who wants it, gay or straight, (and we want it now.) We want the banking industry reformed (and we want it now.) We want the wars to come to an end (and we want it now.) We want Gitmo closed (and we want it now.) We want fairness for our people and accountability in our government (and we want it now.) We want the bankruptcy laws fixed (and we want it now.) We want the Bush Admin held accountable for their crimes (and we want it now.)

These are the messages that we need to impart to our congress critters. This is what we need to tell them. This is why we lost (if we really lost) Massachusetts. This is what we need to say to our friends and colleagues and representatives and President. This is what we need to tell them; the Obama Presidency is not over, we are just getting started. We want a Progressive congress and President (and we want it now.)

Cross posted at PAS.

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You Can Do Better Obama

I thought Obama was making a major error or was trying to appease republi-cons when he... "announced his intent to nominate" Ignacia S. Moreno to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Department of Justice.

However, after this current report of apparent republi-con obstruction... GOP plans 450 climate bill changes, it confirms Obama is making a huge mistake. He needs to appoint a battler on the environment in the Dept. of Justice, not one who fights for corporate environmental rights. If Obama goes through with this appointment, it would appear to me that Obama is in bed with corporations and could really care less about serious issues involving a Progressive stance on the environment.

His latest turns towards the center, military tribunals, stopping the release of torture photos don't have me as near upset as this chance view on the environment.

Let me clarify... I'm off his mailing list for now. Don't get me wrong, Obama is still 100 times better than bu$h/cheney, but it does appear he is channeling his inner Bill Clinton.

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"Mysteries of Logical Reasoning"

(1) Anyone who favors marijuana legalization just wants to get high without being hassled, and anyone who favors drug decriminalization generally is or wants to be a drug user. (2) Anyone who opposes a return to alcohol prohibition is almost certainly an out-of-control drunk. (3) Anyone who cares about gay marriage or advocates for equal rights for gay couples is a closet homosexual who just wants to have sex with people of the same gender. The only reason anyone would care about that issue is if one wants to have gay sex. (4) Anyone who believes in free speech rights for Communists obviously opposes private property ownership and craves Stalinism. Anyone who believes in free assembly rights for neo-Nazis secretly admires Hitler. (5) Anyone who believes abortion should be legal just wants to have reckless sex without consequences. (6) Anyone who advocates habeas corpus rights for accused terrorists or who opposes torture harbors sympathy for Islamic extremism and approves of indiscriminate violence against civilians. (7) Anyone who opposes unrestrained government surveillance must be doing bad things in private that they want to hide. (8) Anyone who believes in the freedom to practice a certain religion is probably an adherent of that religion and is motivated by a desire to practice it without interference. Why is most everyone capable of understanding the egregious, illogical stupidity of propositions (2)-(8) -- based on the bleedingly obvious premise that one can advocate the freedom to do X for reasons other than a desire to do X -- while so many people embrace the equally illogical and stupid reasoning of proposition (1) as though it so self-evidently true that it requires no discussion? -- Glenn Greenwald

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Action Alert

Sign, Call, Write.

Because Democratic Corporate Tools are more dangerous than Right Wing Corporate Tools.

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The Pope's Hypocrisy

The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, went to visit the Pope... he proceded to lecture her on the morals of abortion and assisted suicide.

The Vatican says the pope lectured Pelosi about abortion and assisted suicide. Pelosi says they talked about poverty and global warming -- and she showed him pictures of her grandchildren.

"His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death," the Holy See said in a statement.

Benedict emphasized that "all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society" should work to create "a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."

Before he preaches about "natural moral law" he should have thought twice about reinstating neo-Nazi Bishop Richard Williamson. I know of no higher "natural moral law" than the lesson we learned from the Holocaust.

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Apoplectic

First of all, I love that word. There are some words that are just plain fun and some that are fun to say (one of my favorites is "Odierno" - say it a few times with the emphasis on the "o"s - fun, isn't it?) Secondly, apoplectic is what every single pundit was today, over the gawd damned Daschle withdrawal.

What is the deal?

I do believe that Idio was correct, this is Monica on steroids and it is bad. I hope that the Dems wake the fuck up now and do not try to deal with the Wingnuts. The friggin' Wingnuts and their buddies, "The Liberal Media," are just falling all over themselves to see who can say that the Obama Presidency is an abject failure first.

It is the media's fault that they are so quick to grab the GOP narrative on everything rather than report the stoopid news as it really is...and they do not even report the fucking news. We have to find the actual news ourselves because the media is so busy trying to make scandals where none exist [target: Democrats] and so busy ignoring actual scandals and catastrophes [target: Republicans.]

I was so furious today because our fucking country is going down the shitter and it is going down quick - due to the Republican hacks who fucked us endlessly. The People got busy and threw the bums out. The media seems not to notice that the villagers are restless and instead of reporting on what is really wrong, what we are really mad about, these pricks spend all of their time creating problems where none exist. Why do the media dumb asses hate this country??

Listen, and this is to us impatient Liberals too, Obama was handed over a shitstorm of nasty that he has barely even had the time to uncover, the GOP are being the obstructionists that they are (I do not think that they are capable of being anything else - even when they are in charge,) the GOP has managed to block Obama's Cabinet on top of their other sabotage activity, the media is reaming him endlessly and the whole fucking country is asking him why everything isn't better yet and because the whole world has not miraculously changed in the two fucking weeks that he has been in office does that mean that he has broken his campaign promises?

Jeebus people. Everyone is freaking out because Bushco has not yet been indicted and is not yet sitting in prison when Obama's Attorney General was not even sworn in until today! Crap!

Let's all just take a deep breath, settle down, relax, take a chill pill and at least allow Obama to have his staff in place and sworn in before we demand that all things be better. Apoplexy be damned!

/Rant over.

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Fuck Bi-Partisanship

I am done. It is only one week into this new flowery world of getting along with the rabid Right and I.Am.Done.

(Rest of the rant on the flip side.)

These bastards are spreading their lies and their fairy tales all across the TeeVees all weekend and the gawd-damned Democrats – who we elected to stand up against these dickwads – are clueless as to how to play this game of political theatre. Do we not have one single friggin’ Democratic spokesperson who can speak in sound bites? Is there no one on that Hill who can get our message across? What is wrong with these people? Jeebus.

Then, I hear on the MSNBC this morning, and also find it here, that the Democrats might drop the Medicare change provision from the stimulus that waives the waiver waiting period for contraception to be included in state programs. Are you kidding me?! Just because gawd damned John Boehner released a sound bite about birth control that freaked the Dems out they are going to cave rather than explain to the sheeple what this provision really does? That pisses me off to no end. (What you are reading now is an only slightly expanded upon version of what the staffers at my Senator’s and Representative’s office heard this morning…)

I realize that that the pundits spun this provision to sound like we were becoming China in advocating birth control…but, it was not a mandate for Christ sake – it was offering people choices! When people have to cut costs what is the first to go? Usually it is medications that we justify that we can “skimp” on. After you have cut every other friggin’ thing out of your life that you can, then we start to look for things that are “luxury.” And, unfortunately, birth control can end up on that list because people play the denial head games like “I’ll be careful.” Well, gawd damn it you stupid Right Wing pricks, it only takes one!

Then, your cut of the $25 dollars - that we might pay for birth control pills - turns into thousands and thousands of dollars to pay for a child that was not wanted to begin with. Then you have a kid growing up in poverty who has to deal with all of the crap that poverty brings and will, quite often, end up in the “system” where we are paying for them in one way or another – either through institutions or because they end up having babies while they are still babies and the friggin’ cycle continues just because you tight assed “conservative” freaks cannot abide by paying for a low income families birth control. Gawd you are stupid!

I realize that Obama’s goal of “one Country” and “we are all in this together” is a noble one. I get it. I also get that it makes sense when we are dealing with reasonable people. I can do that in my personal life with some Right-Wing people who are human and who understand compromise. Yes, it can work.

However, the Republican Hacks on Capitol Hill are not reasonable. They still cannot even take responsibility for the disaster that they caused. They cannot admit that they were the ones who screwed everything up. These assholes do not understand that it is their philosophy that wrecked everything.

President Obama: You cannot work with these people to restore good government because the core of their philosophy is that “government does not work.” Sorry, Dude, but this is what they believe. When you go to them, to work out this legislation and “compromise” you will never, truly, find any common ground.

You are standing on different fucking planets…Ours is the planet of a government that can work for the people, theirs is a planet where government’s only role is to give “tax cuts” to the wealthy and the corporations. They do not give a shit about the majority of us – we are only here to make their beds and serve their meals and cut their lawns and fill their privately run (but federally funded) prisons. These people are criminal hacks and they are Anti-American. Sorry, but you cannot “work with them.” There are only a handful of reasonable, moderate Republicans left and they have no voice inside their caucus; the rest of them are Fascist Pigs. To hell with them.

The American people get it. The American people took the 8 years of Bill Clinton and compared them to the 8 years of George Bush and said “hey, I rather liked the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years…let’s do that again.” And this – Democratic Party – is why you were elected. This is why we worked our asses off and dug deep into our pockets to elect you assholes. Now, our request is friggin’ simple: Act Like the Democrats That We Elected You to Be!

/Rant Over

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Hello, Hello, Hello

Is There Anybody Out There?!

I get it, everyone is busy and sick and completely bored by the blogosphere. The fight was won. Bushco and his criminal crew are gone in just a few short days. We are on to a new chapter in this country...a blissful new chapter of Peace and Love. [Pay no attention to the multiple wars and the economy in the crapper.]

There is nothing left to fight for. Right?

Wrong.

Dammit. We have more work to do than we did when we were fighting the criminality of the Bush Administration and the corrupt Republican Congress over these last 8 long fucking years.

Obama needs a movement.

And, the thing is, Obama recognizes this. Obama knows that he will not be able to implement any significant change unless the people are louder than the lobbyists. It is not enough to police the Democratic Congress and then bitch about it when they do wrong. This will not get us anywhere except for providing us a place to come and bitch and agree with each other. This is not what we need.

This is what Change.gov is all about. It is also why Obama continues to send us a zillion emails. It is not about fundraising right now...we won. There will not be an election for President for four years. All of this communication with us is not for show - it is because Obama needs a movement. Without us screaming louder than the frickin' lobbyists the change will not happen.

There is also Change.org which is a division of Democrats.com. This is the people's side of the Change movement. (Don't go to change.com unless you want to jack-off; change.com is the underwear manufacturer.)

The bottom line, even though we are tired and we are bored, we have work to do. I warned about the let-down and people seemed to agree with me that it would happen. I thought that it would have happened earlier and been over by now...but, I am thinking, the Holidays might have postponed it and might have added to it (family really is a pain in the ass.)

Consider this the pep-talk. (I can only give them, I have a hard time actually following them up with action - so I expect you all, my friends, to call me on it when I start whining...) We have work to do people. Our blog should be more active than it was while fighting the GOP. There are hearings to watch and policing of the Congress to do. Phone calls to make and letters to write. Volunteering to participate in. Movements to initiate. Media to watchdog.

Just nod if you can hear me - Is there anyone at home?

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Guess What? God Causes Teenage Pregnancy!

Jesus causes teen pregnancy
This I know
Because Sarah and Bristol
Tell me so

Not in so many words, but that is what I got from their beautiful statement, that they had to release because the horrible awful press inquired and there was "erroneous" information flowing around.

Bill McAllister, the governor's office communications director, adds: "The governor's office previously declined to comment to honor the family's wishes that the event remain as private as possible. However, the high volume of press inquiries, along with some erroneous information that was published, prompted the governor to make a statement."

The great news is that Bristol and Levi, because they are so blessed with God's Will and are such hard workers, get to set aside any plans that they ever had for their futures, because God saw fit to bless them with a baby. It really has nothing to do with the fact that Bristol's mother is anti-birth control and anti-sex education. Because, if Bristol had been armed with proper information about her body and had the opportunity to approach her mother and father with honest information about her sexuality, she still would not have been able to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. The baby was God's Will; it had nothing to do with lack of communication or shame inducing guilt trips in the Palin household.

"We are over the moon with the arrival of this healthy, beautiful baby," Governor Palin said. "The road ahead for this young couple will not be easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Bristol and Levi are committed to accomplish what millions of other young parents have accomplished, to provide a loving and secure environment for their child. They are both hard workers, they're very strong, and have faith they've made the right decision in setting aside their own interests to make this child their highest priority."

For that baby's sake, I am happy that they are both hard workers. Extremely pleased. I hope that they will teach their child the things that were denied them.

Regardless of my snark, at least Sarah Palin has made it clear that God turns "circumstances" (circumstances are unfortunately defined as "an unessential or secondary accompaniment of any fact or event; minor detail") into blessings. I have a really difficult time referring to a "baby" as a circumstance; but, hey, I am just not as close to God as the Palins.

Palin added, "When Bristol and Levi first told us the shocking news that she was pregnant, to be honest, we all at first looked at the situation with some fear and a bit of despair. Isn't it just like God to turn those circumstances into such an amazing, joyful blessing when you ask Him to help you through?"

God's Will - the greatest excuse for shitty parenting, evah!

Crap.

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What I Refuse to Learn

Discouragement is the death of most good ideas. And so it is with Idiosynchronic’s shoe plan. I refuse to allow discouragement and a bunch of cranky turn the page cynics to ruin a good idea. Spplttt! Phoeey! No way.

First of all, Id, what can we do to help? Seriously. What tasks do you need help with? The answer is always “no” until you ask.

I saw over on TLC that one of the commenters had already sent a pair of size 10 shoes. It is happening organically; we will just take the organic movement and add to it. The idea is to make certain that enough people send the shoes that the media picks it up. They are still reporting on the story – we have a short period of time.

This is what I see as the steps that need to occur.

1. Do not get discouraged by the dicks. There are always dicks...we shall overcome!

2. I do not have Adobe. Does anyone here have the ability to create a PDF?

3. Let's actually get the PDF created before we proceed. Let's keep it simple. What are the things that should be included in the PDF?

a. A statement. My vote is for something like "We stand with the citizens of Iraq. We are sorry for the invasion and the destruction of your country. This is for the women and the children" [or whatever it was that the journalist said...it will not take long to find the quote.]

b. Something to the effect of "Mr. Muntadar al-Zaidi should be released immediately and President Bush should apologize for not coming to his aid sooner. Although we do not advocate violence in any way, we understand the frustration of the Iraqi people and Mr. Muntadar al-Zaidi should be released and an envoy should be sent to hear him, to understand his concerns and to understand why he felt that he needed to take the actions that he did. The only way that healing can happen is for open dialogue to take place."

c. “These shoes are a statement of our frustration. The American people have been ignored for far too long in this process. You work for us. We do not want this occupation in Iraq to continue. Bring the troops home now."

d. “These shoes should be donated to x, y, z and a... [List the charities, contact info and the recycler.]"

e. What else should we include? Trying to keep it simple - but what else do you think that we should include?

4. Include also shipping options. SoS votes UPS [are they completely US and completely Union? Let's state that.] I like the USPS, because the post office has been suffering for so long and these are government jobs and government monies so it will help the National Debt. Government jobs are Union [at least they had that right up until last week when Dubya changed some BS rule.]

5. After the PDF is created then we all need to branch out and post where ever we can. I will post at TPM, someone post again at KOS (we can all go and recommend) someone can post again at TLC (maybe we can email Erin) and someone can post at HuffPo, SoS can post at Left is Right, I will post at PAS (not that anyone goes there...but the web crawlers will pick up the words) and we should make sure that we include a link to the stories at NYT and WaPo, etc because those links bring traffic.

Let's get busy. We can do this with very little effort. Especially if we act as a team.

(Note: previously posted in the comments.)

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Sons-a-Bitches

Those Southern fucks killed the bill.

Those gawddammed Southern Senators - who hate the unions and love their foreign automaker's plants - killed the auto bailout bill.

How these bastards think that they can get away with this is beyond me. Do they think that we will not remember? Do they think that we will allow them to kill manufacturing, American Manufacturing, and not come after them when they are up for re-election? Do they really think that President Obama, with his army of friggin' email organizers, will allow them to run for re-election without us going door to door and reminding everyone that they killed the unions, manufacturing and brought on the next Republican Great Depression!?

Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!

Please, call the Congress tomorrow. Make three calls. Call both your Senators and your Representative and tell them what you want.

The Bastards.

UPDATE: Support the auto industry here, and at the UAW

UPDATE 2: (by id) The Senate vote, by yea or nay. Courtesy of dday, who says:

The 52 votes don't include Biden, Kerry (in Europe, I believe), Kennedy and Wyden (?). Add in those 4 plus Reid (who voted no for procedural reasons) and you're 3 votes away. Lame ducks Gordon Smith, John Sununu and Series of Toobz Stevens sat this out by not voting. Merkley, Shaheen and Begich would be likely to vote yes, and add in Biden and Obama's successors (whenever that is) and you have more than the votes needed to pass this come Jan. 6 when the new Congress is sworn in

So the automakers have to hold on for 25 more days as the new Congress will convene on January 6th.

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Obama’s First Scandal

The RNC demands to know “what did Obama know, and when did he know it?!?!”

The media has had their tits in wringers for two days now. All that the talking heads seem to be able to do is express their abject horror about how Blagojevich is the most corrupt politician ever [and he is a Democrat in Chicago and there are all kinds of webs and strings and common friends of Blagojevich and Obama.] There has been more insinuating on the TeeVees the last two days, than one usually receives in a topless bar in Canada.

It is worse than guilt by association; it is The Hunting of the President – The Sequel.

Id talked about this not long ago. We have actually discussed in several threads how this will be “the 90s on meth.” I am afraid that it might be worse. If we allow them even an inch on the rope that they are tying into a noose, if we let them draw even one line on their map to the witch hunt, it will easily get out of control. We have to stop this now…even before the oath. We cannot allow the Right Wing nuts to control the narrative. We have to quit bringing knives to gunfights and quit putting our faith in “the process.”

The process has changed and it is time that we Liberals figure out what game that we are really playing. We can’t allow goals to be scored while we are still trying to figure out the rules. It is a whole new ballgame now. One need only look at the hypocrisy of the “Great Chicago Scandal of 2008!” Consider that were actual connections between Right Wing Queen Palin and seven-time convicted felon Ted Stevens and we never saw the media reporting on these connections or even mentioning Stevens and Palin in the same sentence. The standard is so double that it has been divided into something that is not even a standard at all.

We might have to lower our standards a little to figure it out; I am not advocating immorality or the ends justify the means. All that I am saying is that when we are swimming around with a bunch of bottom feeders we cannot always expect to use the sunlight to see.

I do agree that Coyote is right, laugh at the bastards and call their absurdity what it is. I also think that we need additional strategies. I see things getting awfully ugly – the Right is digging in their heels and they are hanging on tight. They will not give up their hundred year rule wet-dream easily, they just won’t.

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David Fucking Gregory?

Are you gawddamned kidding me?!

Look, I get it, Brokaw was killing MTP. I know that in his "attempt" to be fair he overdid the whole Right-Wing friggin' stance on everything; and that this was the last thing that the American people wanted, but you do not fix that by going even further to the Right.

Jeebus, NBC. What.Are.You.Thinking!!??

David friggin' Gregory has killed your 6 pm programming with his "Race to the Whitehouse" show, AKA "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." Now, you really want to put the last nail in the coffin of MTP?! You really want MTP to die with Tim?!

Admittedly, I loved Tim Russert. I really did. I cried for 3 days when he died.

I just think that the talent to choose from was a much greater pool than the likes of gawddamned David Gregory. Any friggin' body would have been better.

My vote was for Phil Donahue or Bill Moyers. At this point though - anyone but Gregory would do.

Jeebus. It feels like the end of an era.

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The Wackiness Continues

Unbelievable.

Petty, childish, immature, selfish, clueless, vindictive, rude, out of touch, stupid and disgusting.

John McCain feels so used.

Mitch gives Harry the silent treatment.

Karl thinks he is some kind of respected expert, (so we can add delusional to the list.)

The solution, according to the GOP.

Fabulous. These dumb fucks really believe that they have a solution to their problems. They actually posit that the reason that the people have rejected them fully and what they need to do to fix it, is that they have not been Right Wing enough – so they need to move further to the Right and that will solve everything.

More power to ya, dumb asses.

Conservatism and Neo-Conservatism and “Compassionate-Conservatism” and Republican and GOP…whatever these dinks want to call themselves, is dead. It is dead. They have proven that their philosophy of lawlessness and Market-As-King and offering up the country to the wealthy and Pre-Ventative War; this philosophy is dead. The mask is off, the people have seen the truth.

Go, go farther Right. I will pay your train fare.

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Taking Bets: How Long Until it is Pulled

(Picture courtesy of Whitehouse.gov via Politico. By now, though, you can probably find it all over the web...it has been out for a few hours already.)

Dubya has never been known as "bright" - he is, contrarily, quite gullible. Not bright plus very gullible, leads to pictures that one will regret for the rest of one's life.

I saw this in Politico.

The comments led me to the definition of "the shocker." Unbelievable. When I read the definition, I too, spit coffee.

If I were in college and had the opportunity to meet the Pres and get my photo taken and the President were Dubya....I imagine that I might have done the same.

Holy Fuck.

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Rabid

The Right Wing has become increasingly rabid. I become ill, literally, when Sarah Palin comes across the TeeVee screeching her disgusting lies. She really is a piece of work and her bullshit has encouraged the other hate mongers to come out in droves. Here is a small compilation of the hatred that they are spreading.

Click read more to see the disgusting actions of the Right Wing.


Cunningham alleges that Obama wants to “gas the Jews.”

Savage accuses anyone who supports equal rights in CA of being anti-family and anti-God.

Hannity refuses to apologize for his hate spreading.

Rose Tennent claims that the people in Obama’s ad aren’t really struggling.

DHS helps in smearing Obama.

Conyers makes clear that the DHS leak is illegal.

GOP mailer suggests Obama presidency could lead to a second Holocaust.

Anonymous Liberal tells the truth about the “redistributionist” smear. h/t Paradox

Liddy claims that the “welfare class” will elect Obama.

McCainism

Palin’s angry mob rally (yes, another one.)

Another Obama socialist mailer.

Obama repeatedly compared to Hitler.

All of these disgusting tactics are new. They just popped up on websites today. What's worse is that I could have kept going, there were more everywhere that I looked.

How horrible is the GOP to continue this shit? They want to divide us. They want to exploit fear and hatred. They want to kill the goodness in America. When they kill the goodness then what is left?

The contrast between Obama messaging and McCain messaging is so stark. I cannot imagine anyone being pulled into the McCain-Palin mind set. Their hate fests are evil. I just do not understand it.

What I do know is that if we are going to stop this crap in our country, then we absolutely must stop this. We cannot allow these people to be rewarded for their hatred. Every single vote for John McCain rationalizes and legitimizes what they are doing. That alone is enough to vote Obama. Let’s take back our country. Please, America, stop the hatred.

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Did Anyone Else Catch the Confession?

Maybe it was because I was napping while watching Meet the Press and my zoning in and out of consciousness tuned me in to something apparently overlooked by everyone else. I have not yet heard or read anything about this on the nets (though I have not researched it completely either.)

I double checked the transcript just to make sure that I heard what I heard.

From Meet the Press on Oct 26th, 2008:

MR. BROKAW: Four years ago I interviewed President Bush at a time when it looked like he may be in trouble against John Kerry, final weekend of the campaign. I showed him a map. He said, "Oh, I just don't do that. Karl Rove does that." As soon as the interview was over, he said, "I'll win here," and pointed to southeastern Ohio. Where will you win if you win?

Interesting. So, after the camera's were turned off, GW Bush pointed to Brokaw exactly where they were going to steal the election.

Now, look at the transcript from Oct 24, 2004. It is also very interesting. This is not the show that Brokaw was referring to, this show features Ed Gillespie and Terry McAuliffe.

From MTP, Oct 24, 2004:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me talk to you about some of the things that have been in the paper about both political parties. This is The New York Times from yesterday. "Big GOP bid to challenge voters at polls in key states. Thousands recruited as monitors in Ohio," some 3,000 people being paid money per hour to go to the polls and monitor them. Democrats are saying you're trying to suppress the vote.

Gillespie answers Tim with a bunch of crap about "fictitious registrations" for "Mary Poppins" and "Dick Tracy," (this year it is "Mickey Mouse.")

Tim then responds:

MR. RUSSERT: But if you have monitors at the voting booths challenging perspective voters, you could delay the balloting, causing huge lines and discourage people to go home without voting.

Which is exactly what happened in Ohio in 2004. Long lines in the cold rain and millions of people left without voting.

Then McAuliffe goes on:

MR. McAULIFFE: Let's be very clear on this, Tim. The goal of the Democratic Party is to make sure that everybody who has a right to vote in this country can go into those polls and can vote. We know what the Republicans are trying to do. They're going to try and disenfranchise voters. We want everybody to vote. It's the Republican Party today that is still under a consent decree because of 20 years of a history of voter suppression.

Now, who gets disenfranchised? Predominantly, it's the African-American community which supports this party 92 percent of the time. It's the Hispanic community that votes for this party 66 percent of the time. There are two statewide investigations going on right now because of a company that was paid a half a million dollars by the Republican National Committee. In Nevada and in Oregon, a young man, a registered Republican, who worked for this company was told he wouldn't be paid and to rip up any voter registration cards for Democrats.

We're not going to tolerate it. We know what happened in 2000. We know about the tens of thousands of people who were disenfranchised in Duval County, in other counties of Florida. Our promise is we are prepared for it this time. It will not happen. I want to encourage everybody to go vote in this election. This is the most important election of our lifetime. And I have spent four years dealing with these issues, started the Voting Rights Institute to make sure that we are promoting and protecting that right to vote in this country. So I want everybody to feel comfortable. When you go vote this time, we're going to make sure that you can go in, you can vote, and we are going to make sure that those votes get counted. There's a big difference between our parties.

McAuliffe goes on about all of the attorneys that they have in place and how they will not allow this election to be stolen, blahtity, blahtity, blah...

The problem is that they did allow that election to be stolen! I will never forgive Kerry for that concession. I cried compulsively that morning. He conceded before the votes were counted.

Obama - it appears - is ready and he says that he will not stand for voter suppression and that he will not allow this election to be stolen too. But I wonder, after reading the above.

We thought Kerry was ready too. I am still convinced that someone got to Kerry between election night and that concession speech. We will probably never know what happened, but something changed. He was ready to fight for us and then he did not. We have to make sure that Obama does. AND we have to make sure that we fight too. That we are ready to make sure that every vote is counted. We cannot allow a concession speech until the votes are counted - not this time. No way.

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Good For Campbell Brown & MSM

My highlights:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- You may find it hard to believe that this remains an issue in this campaign, but it does.

The candidates, both candidates, are still getting questions about Barack Obama's ethnicity and religion. If you are even semi-informed, then by now you already know that of course, Barack Obama is an American.

Of course, Barack Obama is a Christian. Yet just a few days ago, there was a woman at a rally for John McCain incorrectly calling Obama an Arab:

Woman at rally: I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab.

Sen. John McCain: No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about. He's not, thank you.

Now, I commend Sen. McCain for correcting that woman, for setting the record straight. But I do have one question -- so what if he was?

So what if Obama was Arab or Muslim? So what if John McCain was Arab or Muslim? Would it matter?


When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in our country? When did Arab and Muslim become dirty words? The equivalent of dishonorable or radical?

Whenever this gets raised, the implication is that there is something wrong with being an Arab-American or a Muslim. And the media is complicit here, too.

We've all been too quick to accept the idea that calling someone Muslim is a slur.

I feel like I am stating the obvious here, but apparently it needs to be said: There is a difference between radical Muslims who support jihad against America and Muslims who want to practice their religion freely and have normal lives like anyone else.

There are more than 1.2 million Arab-Americans and about 7 million Muslim-Americans, former Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, successful business people, normal average Americans from all walks of life.

These are the people being maligned here, and we can only imagine how this conversation plays in the Muslim world. We can't tolerate this ignorance -- not in the media, not on the campaign trail.

Of course, he's not an Arab. Of course, he's not a Muslim. But honestly, it shouldn't matter.

Of course I bet Brown was channeling Digby here but I can't find Digby's article.

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Infectious Disease

We have been talking alot about the disgusting tactics of the McCain campaign.

It can also be said that McCain has not only lost control of his supporters, he has also lost control of his campaign.

What we have not yet talked about, though Idiosynchronic touched on it, is what this vitriol actually means for our country. How are we going to be living with each other, Left and Right, if Obama is elected?

I have attempted to allow myself to think about that prospect, rather than the terrifying 'what ifs' that the McCain campaign behavior evokes, and unfortunately, that is frightening as well.

We know that there is nothing that ties people together more than a common enemy. With some shame, I have to admit that even our very own behavior during the primary proved this. As long as we could attack the Right Wing, or the President, we were all united and stayed together and stuck up for one another. We attacked the trolls together; we were united in a common cause.

During the Primary race, however, some of us turned on each other. There were the Clinton people and the Obama people and although our little blog has put that behind us, we can see at TLC that some of that wounding still bleeds. It is a sad thing to admit to - human nature and what that says about us, our common enemy mentality...sad or not, we have seen this repeat itself over and over again throughout history.

This is the danger of what the McCain campaign is doing. Even more so, maybe, than the frightening prospects of what kind of crazy that they might be bringing out, I am afraid of what awaits us when we have an Obama presidency.

People are friggin' desperate right now. People are afraid and they are getting down to the very base of survival: food, clothing, shelter. When people are facing an economy like we are facing there are two directions that they can go (sometimes they will participate in both, simultaneously). These directions are either to pull together as one people, holding each other up, helping out, feeding neighbors and friends, housing each other. The other way that people can go is to form a mob and attack the one who they "blame" for their circumstances.

In this terrifying video, of McCain/Palin supporters in line for a rally, we can see which direction these people are going. The people in this video blame Obama personally for everything from 9/11 to the housing crisis. To these people, Obama is the demon that Palin and McCain have painted for them. They have drawn out this clear picture and they cannot take it back. They cannot change what they have done.

Not only is this devastating for the election, but they seek to tear apart our country in such an extreme way that we might not be able to recover from all of the challenges that we face. Obama, at every one of his rallies, calls for us to come together and states clearly that we must come together as a unified country if we are to survive what we face. McCain and Palin have proposed division. Violence begets violence and in this case they are spreading the disease in such a way that we are all in danger. Not just Obama. These people want revenge and any Liberal will do.

This cannot be over soon enough. My fear though, is that even after McCain and Palin shut the fuck up...we will have Hannity and Rush and O'Reilly continuing the hate fest.

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When Desperation Reeks

The McCain/Palin campaign has slithered into the depths of hell.

Not only has this latest display exposed them as the frauds that they are; no real ideas, lying about "honorable" campaigning and their inability to focus on a unified message that relates to something that the American people care about. This latest episode in the erratic McCain campaign has also shown that John McCain is completely unable to even control his own crowds.

If he cannot get a handle on the few hundred radicals in his crowds, how on earth can he be expected to be able to handle being Commander in Chief?

As President, McCain will be expected to handle all kinds of frightening and overwhelming tasks. He will have to control the unruly and provide leadership in really trying times. His latest town halls have proven that he is not a leader, not in any way, shape or form. He has appeared impotent and weak...not at all the reassuring leader that we need at this time.

McCain and Palin are playing with fire. They can't control it and they do not have any ideas of how to deal with what they have created.

McCain now looks even more feeble and weak than he did before. Their "tactic" has backfired and they have proven that they have no strategy. Their Desperation Reeks and the smell is overpowering even them.

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