Oooh, nuance!

Let me just say that I think people should vote their preference, for whatever reasons they feel are important. Some reasons are based in fact, and some in emotion, as I think we all realize. But when Obamans start telling me that one of the fact-based reasons they are voting for Senator Obama is because the media won't be as mean to him as they will to Hillary, I just can't believe it.

Seriously, Obamans. Do you remember Al Gore, perchance? How we shouldn't vote for him because he sighed and wore earth tones and was not a Real Authentic Guy? And also how he invented the Internet and was a serial liar and...

Okay, maybe that's too far back. How about 2004? Ah yes. The theory then was that our nominee, Senator John Kerry, a genuine war hero, couldn't be attacked by Bush on his war record. After all, our Commander Guy was snorting coke off coeds' backs during Vietnam! But what happened then? May I remind you Obamans where the word "swiftboating" came from? Add massive election fraud (covered up by the ever-cooperative traditional media) to the 24-7 campaign of the ironically-named "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" and...buh-bye, Senator.

And oh, what about my beloved Howard Dean? The guy got a little excited and the mikes were hot. The media played his scream over and over till Americans thought he was craaaaazzzzzy. Does that ring a bell?

I know the media has given Barack a pass up until now. Wake up, as Michelle Obama would say. That's because they WANT HIM TO BE THE NOMINEE. Why would they want him to be the nominee? Because they think he will lose to McCain the McMaverick. How can you not get this?

The utter lunacy of this argument would not bother me so much, except that it is symptomatic of the OTHER reasons people say they are voting for Obama. Even Ted Kennedy has drunk the Kool-Aid and is saying the Senator from Illinois is representing a "different kind of politics." Hey Ted, I'd love some specifics on how Obama's approach is so new and different. How about it?

[cricket cricket cricket]


The fact is that Obamans do not understand who the enemy is. They think it's some amorphous, personless entity called "politics," or perhaps the dreaded "partisanship." It's not.

Politics and partisanship are merely tools in the hands of PEOPLE. People are the problem - specifically, REPUBLICAN PEOPLE like President Bush and his cronies, who are doing everything they can to turn back the New Deal and foment permanent war for profit and resources. Say what you will about Democrats, but I will guarantee you that if they had been in charge for the past 8 years, not one single Bushian disaster would have happened. 9/11? Preventable. (No excuse, of course, for Afghanistan and Iraq without 9/11.) Breaking of the levees during Katrina? Preventable. Collapsing of infrastructure? Preventable. But the sociopathic Republics were too busy lining their pockets and drowning government in the bathtub to care.

By the way, Barack - how does it feel to have said you'd consider Arnold Schwarzenegger for your Cabinet, only to have him endorse John McCain? Get used to that pain in your back. You're going to be feeling it again and again - from REPUBLICANS.

Senator Obama is campaigning as if all difficulties, including the extremely obvious and well-documented anti-Democratic bias in the traditional media, will simply melt when he turns the heat ray of his "new kind of politics" on them. I don't know if he believes his own propaganda or not, but as he says the same things over and over again, I have to take him at his word.

Obamans, however, have completely bought into the Senator's propaganda, and that is terrifying. Because it Will. Not. Happen. If "Barack Hussein Osama/Obama" is the nominee, the media and the Republics will be only too happy to "swiftboat" him 24-7 with accusations of his being a Muslim, while constantly fellating McMaverick as the best, most independentest, most reasonablest candidate EVAH. They will attack Hillary Clinton with equal ferocity, and would have done the same to John Edwards.

Will the inevitable media blitz work? Will Americans elect a 72-year-old warmongering Republic who's joined at the hip with Mr. 30%? I certainly hope not. But please, do not insult my intelligence by saying it's not coming. Any Democratic nominee had better get ready for a shitstorm of epic proportions. And if that nominee isn't ready, it will be that much worse for him or her.

Dumbest. Reason. Evah.

If we implemented the madamab election strategy, the only people who would select our candidates...would be We The People. Not the media. Not delegates, Seated, Unseated or Super. And most certainly not the Electoral College.

Just sayin'.

It's amazing. Even though Bush was supposedly set to veto any extension of the Protect America Act, which was put in place temporarily in August to prevent the telecom/Bushie immunity from passing the Senate, he suddenly, miraculously agreed to let the PAA be extended for 15 days. What does that tell you?

It tells me that Bush really, really wants immunity from warrantlessly wiretapping Americans. Why? Two reasons: 1) Because the fact that he did so is one of the strongest reasons for impeachment; and 2) The FISA court doesn't grant warrants to spy on Congressional Democrats, and that's what they've been doing. Whoooooooops!

If Bush and his minions allow the old FISA law to be reinstated - which it will be, if the Senate cannot agree on a more permanent "fix" than the Protect America Act - then he will not get immunity. Today, it looks like immunity may be off the table. And you know, impeachment proceedings can be begun after a President leaves office. Not gonna look too good in the history books, eh, Worst President Evah?

In my never-humble opinion, Senate Democrats should be doing everything they can to allow the Protect America Act to expire. After all, Bush was warrantlessly wiretapping us BEFORE the attacks of 9/11, and 3,000 people still died. And what about the anthrax killer? Despite all the spying, we somehow haven't caught THAT terrorist either. So no Osama bin Laden and no anthrax killer. Gee, I feel so much safer since Bush started his destruction of the Bill of Rights!

I'll take the old law and my civil liberties back, thank you. And can I have a side order of impeachment with that?

Mmmmmmmm, that looks delicious!

Wow. It feels really, really good to win one.

Yesterday afternoon, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama came back to DC to stand with Senator Chris Dodd against the Senate Republics' latest middle finger towards the Democrats. The Republics thought they could stop any discussion on whether "retroactive immunity" should be included in the FISA bill. That immunity is not just for telecoms that illegally wiretapped Americans - it's for Bush, Gonzalez and Cheney too. I can't believe we're even debating whether we should give MORE immunity to the Bushies for breaking the law. They've had a free ride for eight frigging years, beginning with stealing the 2000 election from Al Gore!

For once, the Republics didn't have the votes to pull it off. And thanks to thousands of phone calls, letter, emails and faxes by patriots all across America, our Senatorial Presidential candidates were right there on the teevee. The message was clear: "Enough is enough!"

I hope Harry Reid likes the feeling of strength that comes with standing up for the rule of law. I hope he likes it so much that he starts doing it more and more often.

Give 'em Hell, Harry! And should you feel so inclined to encourage his spinicular fortitude, why not write him a letter or give him a call to say thanks?

I guarantee that if we knew Bush was going to say this, the SOTU address would have the highest ratings in the history of television.

Mah fellow Americans,

Ah hereby tender mah resignation as Preznit of these You-Naghted States. Ah am fully aware that there idn't enough Jack and Coke in the world tuh keep me standin' no more. Ah'm goin' back tuh Crawford so Ah kin clear Condi's brush.

As for Unca Dick, well, he's on his tenth baboon hart and we don't think he can make it much longer, so Nancy? It's up tuh you. Good luck! Heh-heh-heh.

[BUSH STUMBLES AWAY FROM THE PODIUM]

[STANDING OVATION FROM CONGRESS EXCEPT BOEHNER, WHO BEGINS SOBBING UNCONTROLLABLY]

Waaaaay before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton declared their Presidential ambitions for 2008, there was a lot of speculation that they were running despite their denials. I thought at the time, "Hillary - Barack - don't do it!"

I didn't think either one of them would make a bad President - in fact, I've usually liked what Hillary has done as my Senator, and I didn't have much of an opinion about Barack except that he gave a kick-ass speech - but I just felt that the country was not ready for a black or female President. As is often the case, I feel I was right AND wrong at the same time.

What the country was not ready for was a black President, a female President...and eight more years of the Clintons.

We can all see how ugly this campaign has become. I do think a lot of it has been fueled by the traditional media, whose antipathy to the Clintons is psychopathic in nature; but let's face it, this country is very far from healing the self-inflicted racial wounds of slavery. Barack's overabundance of melanin has not passed unnoticed by the press, and I would need a database bigger than the NSA to document all the misogynistic labels the punditry has slapped on Senator Clinton.

A lot of the problems, however, have come directly from Bill Clinton himself. His role in his wife's campaign has surely been (kindly stated) a mixed bag. He is such a giant figure in Democratic history; beloved both by most Americans and party faithful, he was one of the most popular presidents in recent history. Sadly, we remember the bad things as well; the constant innuendos and sexual scandals; the far-too-friendly corporate policies; and the definition of "is." Had Hillary waited one more term in office, she could possibly have run for President in 2012 or even 2016, when another Democratic President would served as a buffer between the somewhat unappetizing dynastic idea of Bush-Clinton-Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton-Clinton. Perhaps Chelsea could run against Jeb in 2016! [shudder]

I understand that right now, due to the presence of SuperDelegates, it may be impossible to determine who the nominee will be until after the Democratic convention. I wonder if it's possible that John Edwards could be nominated even if he doesn't win a single primary?

If Bill Clinton continues to have a strong and negative effect on his wife's campaign, and if America is not ready to vote for an extra-tan Senator whose biggest assets are his speech-making abilities and Oprah Winfrey, I believe it could indeed happen.

It was too soon.

Wow. $600 per person - in MAY at the earliest - from Our Great Deciderer-in-Chief! That will surely:

• Bring down the price of oil, and the price of everything else that is affected by the price of oil;
• Stop the U.S. from spending $2 billion a week on the never-ending occupation of Iraq;
• Help people pay off their ARM's whose interest rates have suddenly ballooned to 25%;
• Create jobs for the unemployed or under-employed; and
• Prevent illness-related bankruptcies.

It won't? Oh. Then I guess I'll just put it in the bank for the next time I have to fill up my tank or put food on my family.

I have to say, I think most people knew this crash was coming. I knew back in August, and I'm just a dumb opera singer. But in a weird way, I'm glad this happened now. I'm glad that people see that when Republics are in charge, this is what happens to the economy - and these are the types of solutions you get - because I think the Rovian plan was to try to stave off disaster until 1/20/09, and then blame the Democrats for the Bush Recession/Depression. Na. Ga. Hopin.

I don't think the American people are going to forget those pathetic little checks at the voting booth in November.

It's the economy, stupid.