Vote "NO" On Prop 8!

I no longer live in California. If Prop 8 passes, I likely will never go back. Why should I support a state whose voters legalized discrimination?

If it passes, and it looks like it may, then likely it should be challenged on the basis that it violates the US Constitution, specifically the First and 14th Amendments. The First Amendment argument is subtle, nuanced, and utterly correct: Prop 8 DOES impose unambiguously 'sectarian' prohibitions on all citizens regardless of their religious (or irreligious) affiliations.

But Murkins, even the ones wearing the black robes of jusice, do not DO "Nuance." So the best approach is via the 14th Amendment. Gay marriage is a slamma-jamma ginormous DUNK under the 14th Amendment, as long as states continue to ratify marriages between hetero couples...These are very good ads, btw...







Note: I am not a lawyer, but have played one in the movies...AND have stayed at a Holiday Inn.

The First 100 Days

Barack Obama seems to be heading for a victory in the election next week.

Since FDR assumed the reins of Govt in 1932 and used his "First Hundred Days" to launch the New Deal, it has become almost a cliche to discuss every new President's "First Hundred Days" as the best--or perhaps her/his ONLY--chance to create an agenda.

So, the question:

If you were in the circle of close advisors to a newly elected President Obama, what FIVE measures would you want (or, alternatively, recommend) him to adopt or press for in his "First Hundred Days" following Jan 20, 2009?

(Cross-posted at MLW and WWL.)

"The NEW Kleptocracy": An interview with Dr. Michael Hudson.

That darn Aristotle, always butting in:

“Considering that there is an $800 billion giveaway, to be followed by another trillion and another trillion after that, this is the biggest giveaway since the land giveaway to the railroads in the mid-nineteenth century and just as that giveaway created a power elite that would rule America for a century and a half, this is creating a new power elite that has changed America from a democracy into an oligarchy. And as Aristotle said, ‘what is democracy but the stage immediately preceding oligarchy?’”

From Michael Choussadofsky's Centre for Global Research, GlobalResearch.ca: Dr. Hudson is a Financial Economist and Historian. He is President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trend, a Wall Street Financial Analyst and Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. His 1972 book “Superimperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire” is among the first pubilications to critique how the United States exploited foreign economies through the IMF and World Bank. He is also author of “The Myth of Aid” and “Global Fracture: the New International Economic Order”. Dr. Hudson has written several articles on the recent Wall Street meltdown and Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson’s Plan. These articles have included, Financial Bailout: America’s Own Kleptocracy--the Largest Transformation of America’s Financial System since the Great Depression. The Paulson/Bernanke Bailout: Will the Cure Be Worst than the Disease? Financial Fraud: Mr. Paulson and the New Yazoo Land Scandal. And Thinking the Unthinkable: a Debt Write Down and Jubilee Year Clean Slate. The interviewer is GR's Bonnie Faulkner.

It starts well:

BF: Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson’s $700 billion so-called bailout, first called “The Plan”, was defeated in the House. Then a modified version called “Troubled Asset Rescue Plan or (TARP)” was passed by Congress in it’s “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008”. Still others refer to this legislation as “Cash for Trash”. What would you call it?

MH: Cash for trash is exactly what it was, and the emphasis should be placed on “Emergency “ for Emergency Plan. It was rushed through without giving any opportunity to debate. Dennis Kucinich protested, for instance, that this was the first time a major plan that was going to create the equivalent of 700 billionaires, people who are going to become the next power elite to govern America for the next century --that this act was done without any hearings, without specialists--despite hundreds and hundreds of major economists throughout the world saying that it was a disaster and a giveaway. It is cash for trash. It will not resolve the problems.

The dollar will plunge. The stock market already plunged.

It is purely a giveaway to Mr. Paulson’s colleagues on Wall Street and a giveaway to Mr. Obama’s and Mr. McCain’s campaign contributors. The Democrats were the major supporters of Mr. Paulson while even the Republicans sought to dissociate themselves from the plan so they couldn’t get blamed when the inevitable failure of the plan shows that all that was done was a giveaway of $700 billion to Mr. Paulson’s colleagues and pals on Wall Street.

And gets juicier and meatier and more trenchant as it goes along.

It is relevant, and germaine, of course, because one of the foremost supporters, and advocates, for the plan is the all-but-President, Barack Obama. Dr. Hudson has a thing ot two to say on that score, too:

MH: Mr. Obama is the man who is giving it all way to Wall Street and his major campaign contributors. Look at what’s happening with Mr. Rubin, there’s no difference at all between his financial advisor Robert Rubin and the Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.” Instead Mr. McCain shifted gears, reversed himself, gave in and said, “now I’m supporting the plan too”. So the result of the Friday debate, if you remember the first half hour, Mr. Lehrer kept trying to press both presidential candidates on ‘how do you feel about the bailout, what do you think? ‘

And they talked about anything else. Mr. Lehrer tried to be more polite and finally he was laughing, and he said, “Aren’t either of you guys going to answer my question?” And they both of them said, “No.” Now when they refused to give their position to the bailout to the American people. When they refused to take a position on a plan that most voters “overwhelmingly” opposed and then they support the plan this shows they’re just in the hands of their financial backers.

Later, we discover that what the over-TRILLION-DOLLAR bail-out has bought, basically is "worthless junk."

BF: Now is the government buying real assets or just worthless toxic junk?

MH: Well no real assets will be bought at all, although the government will end up foreclosing on them. Let’s say what the real problem is: the real problem is that the volume of mortgage debt far exceeds the ability of debtors to pay and the willingness to pay. Mr. Paulson’s pretense, which is an absolute lie and which should lead him to criminal prosecution because he knows it’s a lie, is that the problem here is a liquidity problem. But its not a liquidity problem, it’s a bad debt problem. Suppose that people bought a house for $125,000 and have a full mortgage on it for that price and suppose the house has fallen to $80,000. I know a number of houses like that. I know a professor in western Illinois that had a house that she bought for $125,000.

The highest bid she has it on: $80,000, fully mortgaged. Dennis Kucinich tells me that the house next door to him in Cleveland, Ohio was bought for $125,000 and now it’s only worth $80,000. So this is typical. Now imagine a bank responding to a borrower who wants to say, “Well gee, I want to be able to pay my mortgage can you lend me enough money to pay my mortgage?” What bank can be expected, when already the house is 50% over-mortgaged… who is going to lend more mortgage than a property is worth? That era is over! No bank any longer is going to lend more money than a house is worth. And already Mr. Paulson said that 5 million Americans are in arrears and facing foreclosure.

The figure was then corrected by other economists to 10 million Americans in the coming year are going to lose their homes! Now no amount of liquidity is going to provide them with the money to stay in if already they can’t afford the mortgage. And in fact the government is now supposed to make money “quote” for taxpayers “unquote” by coming in and acting as debt collector. Now, in order to make money for taxpayers, the government now has to come in and say, “We’re going to enforce the Adjustable Rate Mortgages that are exploding in interest rates. You are now going to have to pay much higher interest rates. Penalty rates. Back fees and penalties or we’re going to throw you out of your house because we have to make money for the taxpayers. We are now the collecting agents not Countrywide Financial or Fannie Mae or Washington Mutual or the others.

So the debts of homeowners will remain in place. The debts of cities and municipalities will remain in the place and all that happens is that people who have the mortgages are supposed to be bailed out now because under Mr. Paulson’s plan as he wrote it and the plan that the house originally rejected, the terms were that the government would buy the bad mortgages and bad debts from the banks and other investors and insurance companies for what they had paid for them. In other words insurance companies will not take a loss for their bad investments. Banks won’t take a loss for their bad investments. Hedge funds won’t take a loss for their bad investments. Now how many of your listeners would love to be able to say, “geez I made a bad stock investment. I’d like the government to buy back these stocks that I bought that have gone down.”

That’s not what the government is doing because these aren’t the major campaign contributors. So this is the asymmetry. The inequity. And the irony is that the Democrats have supported this so strongly. A week ago last Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Hillary Clinton of all people came out with a wonderful wonderful plan. She said that the government should insist on rewriting the bankruptcy laws. She said the government should rewrite the mortgages down to the current market price and the government should replace exploding interest rate mortgages with normal interest rates or the teaser rates that had been signed. So she obviously knew what the right thing to do was.

And that’s the plan that would have worked. And yet she went and voted for the plan as it came out of the Senate when they passed it on Thursday. So she met the criterion of evil that Milton described in Paradise Lost: somebody who knows the right thing and yet does the wrong thing knowingly. That is also the definition of a crime. A criminal has to knowingly and consciously be making a mistake. And Hillary, and the other Democrats, Obama… just about all the Democrats who supported the bill said, “We don’t like it. We know its wrong but we’re voting for it because it’s an Emergency and if we don’t vote for it the stock market will go down.” Well as you saw on Friday the stock market did go down and it will continue to go down because foreign investors realize that this money that is being given away is going to flow out of the country very quickly and that’s going to put downward pressure on the dollar. And even if housing prices only fall another 20% or so, if the dollar declines by more they’re going to take a heavy loss that they basically can’t afford to take.

Read the rest at the link. Or don't. I'm about past caring, one way or the other...

Is The Climate Fixed, The Water & Air Cleaned Up?

You'd think so if you thought for a moment about where those issues were in the Presidential "debates."

Did any of the "moderators" or 'citizens' either for that matter, ask a single question?

McCumstain is an avid proponent of more conventional energy development, including more Nukes, more (oxymoronically labeled) "Clean Coal," and "Drill Here, Drill Now."

Obama, the Candidate For Change, is also firmly in the pocket of "conventional energy," supporting ethanol for fuel, and (ever oxymoronic) "Clean Coal" for electricity.

The question also occurred to Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, who put up a compendium of recent stories about the great disappearing climate stories yesterday:

environmental news sunday

protecting the planet. as the seemingly endless presidential campaign season winds down, attention has focused on bread-and-butter issues: the economy, jobs, taxes, health care. no one is uttering a word about clean air, water, land conservation, global warming, endangered species. gainesville times


coal's time bomb. every year, south carolina's power plants burn enough coal to fill 10 large football stadiums, leaving behind a stadium-size pile of toxic ash.- charleston post and courier

reports of toxic spills spiking. rural counties struggle to respond to calls, and cleanup often is left to the polluters. (good luck widdat. ed)denver post

europe's secret plan to boost gm crop production. gordon brown and other european leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread gm crops and foods (so-called "frankenseeds and frankenfood") in britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents reveal. there is a LOT of resistance to the introductions among European farmers - london independent

palin pipeline terms curbed bids. gov. sarah palin's signature accomplishment - a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from alaska to the lower 48 - emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an associated press investigation shows. - ap

sioux honey, researchers probe bee colony collapse. billions of honey bees nationwide have checked out of their hives, never to be seen again. - sioux city journal,

where have the orcas gone? the disappearance of seven orcas from b.c. coastal waters is being blamed on a "double whammy" of low chinook salmon numbers and toxins being dumped in the ocean. - vancouver province,

scottish dolphins becoming endangered species. dolphins are in danger of disappearing from the Scottish coast as temperature rises and food shortages drive them away. - edinburgh scotsman

saving the working class with green-collar jobs. van jones, a charismatic 40-year-old yale law school grad who has emerged as a major green star over the past year, argues that environmentalism won't just be about the environment anymore. - time magazine.

Some cretinous, brain-dead executive fucknozzle from Duke Energy a couple of weeks ago said the country had a choice: we can have an economy now, or our heirs can have a liveable planet. But, apparently not both. I reckon you know what side he came down on, innit?

Makes a fella proud to be a Murkin!!!

This blog has hosted every vid I find illustrating the vicious stupidity of Middull Murka. Here's a new one.
(DOTOF™ to Driftglass, that unequalled paragon of the photoshop and inchoate rage)
This “race” is about nothing BUT Race.

The “Left” wants to make it a referendum on Bushevism/neo-con assholery, but with a black man at the top of one of the only two tickets that can be ‘elected,’ this was always gonna be about race. If Hillary had been the candidate, the race would have been about ‘gender.’ Which is why whichever one was the eventual nominee virtually was required to name the other as running mate, and why Obama’s failure to do so was both a tactical and a strategic mistake.

Race, more than any other social marker, dominates discourse in the USofA. It’s (justifiably) the default critically interpretive position. Nothing like a presidential election has EVER focused the national attention on the matter before. Not MLK’s assassination, not the civil rights movement. Nothing other than having a Black president has ever promised to make white people, especially the ones i call “MiddullMerkins,” confront the full consequences of successful integration, and their resistance to it.

Is "Early Voting" A Neo-Con Ploy? Mark Crispin Miller's Not Sure It Isn't

From Miller's News From Underground blog, a piece called "12 Ways You Can Safeguard Your Vote," included the following admonition:

Early voting really won't enable the protection of your vote, as you are likely to be voting on the same corrupt machinery, or to have your ballot counted by the same corrupt machinery, that's used on E-Day proper. Also, all those voters who vote early will mean that many fewer voters in the turnout on Election Day-- and we need a record-breaker, to make yet another theft that much more inexplicable.

So if you do vote early, try to turn out on Election Day as well--not to vote, of course, but just to be there to enlarge the crowd, and also to help keep an eyes on things.

(And if you have a problem with the machinery--a problem that you can perceive--be sure to report it, by calling 1-866-OUR-VOTE, or telling the election protectionpeople, or the videothevote team, assuming that they're there.)

The "12 Ways To Safeguard Your Vote" are:

BEFORE ELECTION DAY
1. Check your registration. Even if you think you're registered, you may not be. Check online at www.CanIVote.org.

2. Vote now. Check if early voting is possible in your state. If you're voting by mail, check carefully where you need to sign, how to seal the envelope, and how to mark the ballot. And note: Some ballots require extra postage.

3. Practice your vote. Electronic voting machines can be difficult to use. Verifiedvoting.org is preparing links to video demos of how to vote on the machine you will find at your polling station. If you'll be using a paper ballot, check out the sample included in your voter pamphlet.

4. Find out who's in charge. Make a phone list of your county and state election officials-it may save valuable time on Election Day if you need to get registration verification or other information.

ON ELECTION DAY
5. Vote early. Avoid the frustration of long lines. Also, if you encounter problems, you'll have time to sort them out and may be able to help others.

6. Take your government-issued ID and your cell phone, if you have one. If you have problems, or see problems, call a hotline immediately (see point #9). You may not need ID to vote, but it's best to have it. If you have trouble with your registration, ask for a provisional ballot.

7. Avoid Straight Party Voting, if it's an option in your state. Vote for each race individually, even if it takes a little longer.

8. Verify your vote. If you're voting on an electronic voting machine, check the review screen to make sure it reflects your vote. If the machine produces a paper record, check as you go along that everything is working correctly. If not, speak to a polling attendant-don't leave until you're sure your vote has been properly recorded.

9. Document and report. If you encounter difficulties, or see others experiencing difficulties (excessive lines, voter harassment, malfunctioning machines, etc.), make a detailed record. Get all the facts you can-location, names, specific problem.

The best way to report problems is to call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683), which has volunteer lawyers in 15 locations standing by to provide rapid-response assistance. You can also contact your party of choice. We have more suggestions here.

AFTER ELECTION DAY
10. Call your candidate. If there are questions about an election result, urge your candidate to ask for an audit. Ask how you can help.

11. Call your election officials. If you have concerns, let your county and state election officials know, and monitor their response. Ask them not to certify the election before all challenges and recounts are finished. And send a copy of your message to your local newspaper editor. If you're confident about the election result, thank the officials for a difficult job well done.

INTO THE FUTURE
12. Work for fair, transparent elections. 66% of Americans don't trust the electronic voting machines many of us will be voting on this November. Join the movement for election reform in between elections. Use our YES! Tools to find out how.

US Ranks 36th In World Press Freedom Survey

Reporters Without Borders today released its annual Press Freedom Index. Think Progress had the report I lifted for this post...

Interesting, innit, that in spite of all the 'exceptionalist' rhetoric in which most of Murka wallows contentedly--despite, that is, purporting “to be a beacon for the rest of the world” for human rights protections and freedom of thought--the U.S. has been ranked 36 out of 173 countries — a spot also shared by Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ranking, tied with 6 other nations, marks a decline since the first survey was conducted in 2002. At that time, the US was ranked 17th. This year's standing is, however, an improvement over last year, when the US ranked 48th.

Iceland ranked number one in press freedom, with Ghana, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Surinam, and Jamaica also ranking higher than the U.S.

The report singled out “wars carried out in the name of the fight against terrorism” as a cause for the steep decline in press freedoms around the world.

Electile Dysfunction '08: Greg Palast Investigates

The GOPukes aren't shy. They'll contest any result that isn't them winning...
Dims? Well, probably not...

If You Live In New Mexico, and Want To Check If You're STILL A Registered Voter

There's a LINK you can access to assure yourself.
Open the page, look down for "Voter Registration Information", second from the bottom, click the link. On the new page, look down for "Verify if registered voter by Voter View" and click the tab. This will open a page in which you supply your voter registration information, which is then checked against existing rolls.

If you live in another state, check out the relevant Secretary of State's web sites...

Sarah Palin Sex Tape Discovered

Sarah Palin Sex Tape Leaked - Watch more free videos

Some MORE "Etihw Elpoep" Who Won't Be Voting Dem This Time

AverageBro.com performed the necessary but gross and distasteful Cess-dive into the USer redneck gene pool to recover these classics. This first one is just about PRICELESS:
#1: (Note how the 'pal' on the back of the scoot keeps covering his face?)

#2: Johnstown, PA, (didn't they have a flood one time?)Watches Fox News...

#3: More Johnstown PA: (Where's the damn dam when you need one?)

Sorry if some of this seems redundant: all shit pretty much smells the same...

What I want to know is how in the name of the sweet, slain savior ANYONE believes a President Obama can "heal" this racist, vile, incestuous piece-of-shit 'people.' mebbe "good" people shy away in revulsion. But that isn't gonna shut any of this lot up even the slightest...They're PROUD of their bigotry.

Izzis a GRATE Kunchry, 'rwatt...

Etihw Elpoep: More Anti-Obama Retards

In keeping with my desire to show White-tard Murka in all its GLO RAY, this from Al JAzeera. If they were any more 'objective,' they'd be thrown out of the country for excessive honesty.
Remember, these folks aren't Pro-McCain. they're Anti-Kneegrow. They'd support anybody who was 'white,' though they mighta had some trouble with Romney being a Mormon...

Nailin' Palin: Larry Flynt SHOOTS! HE SCORES!!!

Could "Sarah" get an injunction? Not on your tintype, bubba!


The Young Turks offer an aesthetic, rather than a legal, critique. Cenk doesn't think the Palin-model looks 'real.' Uh, Cenk? Satire, remember?

I love Larry Flynt, in a very manly way...He DOES know his (and OUR) First Amendment. Go Larry!

Erom Yrgna Etihw Olpoep

In Bethlehem, PA, this time...Makes You Proud, Innit?

"Bloodlines show" you betcha...
(DOTOF™ to the fabulous Fafblog.)

"You're fucked, Charlie Brown"

"Peanuts," as it might have appeared had it been written by Charles Bukowski, and not Charles Schultz. "Holey Grief!"

Go on, kick it!

From FAUX On-Line, A Reeking, Festering, Oozing Puddle of Virtual Cess

"What Will You Do If The Election Is Stolen?".

You should read the comments only if you have not eaten recently. Disgusting doesn't put a patch on it...

In fact, you probably shouldn't link there at all. You'll immediately feel the need to bathe, which could upset your whole weekly schedule. It did mine...

Mc/Palin '08: "Revenge of the Etihw Elpeop"

The vids in the two previous posts (below) are instructive, as are the 'comments' attending them on the film-maker's page, as regards the emotional tenor of Etihw Elpeop's opinions about Obama. It's pretty stomach-turning stuff. One thing is certain: These are NOT people who are persuaded by or much interested in, or even seemingly aware of, "nuance." They are unreachable by means of intellection. They believe themselves 'victims,' and they see McC(umst)ain/Sara-cooter as blunt instruments of their vengeance.

Unfortunately, albeit inevitably, Obama seems to have inherited all the racial animus felt by Whites 40 years ago by these people's parents when Rev. King challenged their self-satisfied self-images, showing them--the virtual whole majority culture--to be criminally racist. Obama's doing the same thing, but all the more dangerously, because he's mebbe gonna be president. Not just "president," THEIR "president."

See, Etihw Elpeop aren't completely ignorant of their histories as oppressors, only mainly, congenitally in denial about it. Etihw Elpeop mostly know enough to realize that if they'd been treated the ways that Etihw Elpeop have mostly treated Black and Brown People here for the last 450 years, Etihw Elpeop would be fuuking furious, uncontrollably outraged, murderously discontented, and only waiting for a chance to get even.

And they mainly can't understand how a Black Person (an avatar of ALL those people the Whites have 'mistreated' (putting it mildly) ALL that time) won't undertake to exact vengeance in precisely the ways THEY'D do it if they, the Etihw Elpeop, had such grievances and were in the position to do so.

Which is also one of the reasons why Etihw Elpeop expend so much energy in imagining grievances against not-white people. Ever notice, even Black Fundies don't think themselves as persecuted by non-Xians, in the same ways that White Xians do?

It comes down to this: Etihw Elpeop see themselves owed the chance to 'get even' with the formerly marginalized (mainly Brown) People whom Etihw Elpeop blame for their own inability to take advantage of being Etihw Elpeop in a White-racist culture. Did you notice how those vid-people bit back their replies, spat out short, cursory answers? They can't say what they think anymore without social opprobrium falling on them, and they know it.. They see in McC(umst)ain and the Sara-cooter a way to say undeniably, but sub-vocally, what they feel themselves illicitly forbidden from saying aloud. Mc/Palin '08 is the bludgeon they've been looking for with which to reassert their 'entitlement' to superiority.

"Our" side was scrupulous about accepting the 'process,' and NOT going to the streets over Bush v. Gore. These folks will have no such scruples about cancelling Obama's ticket and forcing a legitimacy crisis, with guns, ropes, and dawgs (along with the complicity of the 'law').

It's gotta be galling to be only a middling 'successful' Etihw Elpeop--to say nothing of being an objective failure--in a culture and a society which still bestows innumerable and mostly invisible advantages on people lucky enough to be born 'White.'

Don't Listen For The "Sweet Voice of Reason"

in the voices of those folks caught with their bigotry showing in vids like the one below and this one which is its sequel and is no easier to watch. Stuff like this makes me uneasy, cuz these folks are such easy targets for fascist demagoguery.


On another blog this morning, one commentor cried: "They betray the founding father’s dream of a rational democracy."

To which I replied:

Duh.
In a word, so to speak, you’ve identified the whole purpose of the USer Information/Entertainment/Education/Propaganda project over the last 75 years.

Rationality is utter anathema to the propagandists of the CorpoRat State. There has been a conscious effort to drive it OUT of the schools for at LEAST the last 30 years.

The success of the campaign to eject rationality from the public sphere is the absolute apogee of state propaganda campaigns for EVER, the paradigm case, the utmost exemplar, unmatched, unparalleled anywhere in history.

Vistiges of reason hang on in some places, but the temper of the USer “public” is distinctly irrational, as the fascination with celebrity, the continued ‘debates’ over evolution/creation, and the campaign to ‘dispute’ global, anthropogenic climate change all demonstrate.

Reason has NOTHING to do with the terrifying revelations the subjects of these vids are endeavoring to conceal...The videographer's probably lucky he didn't get cocked a couple of times. That crowd's capable of it...

(DOTOF™ to my southwestern pal asqv, at WWL.)

Middull Murka Speaks (Haltingly, In Small Words, And Not Without Some Difficulty)

Paradigm cases of the most vulgar kinds of toxic Middull Murkin Whitardity...This is what critics mean when they say racism is endemic in USer "culture." For further examples, read the comments accompanying the text by the filmmaker.

And here, too, in both places, and not incidentally, is the solid, irrebuttable evidence of a claim I've been making (NOT endorsing, just saying) for all year, since Obama became a serious force, based on my extensive readings of the zeitgeist: That (White) Middull Murka is NOT NO WAY ready for, nor is it at ALL happy about the prospect of, ITS president being some uppity, big-city kneegrow with big ears, big teeth and a funny name--and noKINDA way with anything even rhyming with "Hussein" anywhere in it.

This is the GOPuke strategy, through and through: You CAN'T vote for the Kneegrow...!!!!!Fed by the inexorable march to provide every white voter in the country with a guilt-absolving, deniably plausible "reason" for not voting for the kneegrow. They don't want or expect to get Obama voters; they just want to keep 'em away from the polls, which they'll do by threats, if it comes to that. And mebbe it will...

Btw: Isn't the smirk probably the most repellant of human expressions?

(I pinched the vid off My Left Wing DOTOF™ to MaryScottO'C.)

Is Ann Althouse Channeling Rummy?

Ann Althouse.

(If you don't recognize the name, count yourself among the blessed, for you are yet without stain. "Right-click" and then "Back" your screen if you desire to retain your (relative) virginity. For the rest, proceed at your own risk. Ed.)

Althouse is, or at least has become, via the blogosphere, a 'celebrity' law professor, at the University of Wisconsin, who has displayed a disturbing propensity to utter complete embarrassments, to fly totally off the handle at the slightest of rhetorical provocations, to erupt into tirades of vitriolic, self-pitying criticisms of her antagonists, and otherwise raise doubts in public fora as to her qualifications to profess law or anything else. Often a (large, blonde) target of the "erudite" left-blogosphere, she is known for conducting "virtual vendetti," on-line crusades (not unlike those waged periodically by Amy Alkon against those who offend her strangely malleable principles) against critics she deems 'offensive.' Once (self?) regarded as a left-moderate, la Althouse has migrated further and further to the Dark Side, possibly motivated by the heapings of scorn and derision upon her 'blogging' laid there by those who (with some justification, imho) regard her--or at least the avatar she inhabits in this domain--as an idiot.

One of the crew of "erudite" lefties, Sadly, No!, recently caught Althouse in a feat of such superior syllogysmic sophistry and logical and linguistic legerdemain as to qualify as truly Rumsfeldian. In a debate blog post, she asserted unequivocally that Obama was wearing an earpiece. As evidence, she posted a screen capture of Obama in profile, where the lighting on the stage reflected inside Obama's ear. It was that reflection in which AA (is she a pretty notorious toper?) declared she detected an illicit electronic appurtenance; possibly her confusion was amplified by a halo-effect from a light behind Obama, the illumination of which might at a quick glance appear to be a wire.

Or not.

In any case she has subsquently reversed herself, after consulting around the blogg-sphere and being reassured that nothing nefarious was in-train from Obama. Retroactively, she claims herself vindicated in her speculation by the well-remembered news-worthiness of the suspicious, boxy lump in Bush's coat in 2004, and Palin's apparently autonomic replies, as if she'd had a button pushed by some remote operator...

The upshot of all of this is a piece of prose without equal anywhere outside Donald Rumsfeld's memoir for mendacious circularity:

You know, just because the thing I saw wasn’t there doesn’t mean there wasn’t something there that I didn’t see.

UnfuukinBEEE-lievable!

Kucenich Also Hears Democracy's Death-knell Tolling In The "Wall Street Rescue"

Via Bob Scheerer's very busy TruthDigDotCom, Chris Hedges tolls the Te Deum:

“This was the largest single act of class warfare in the modern history of this country,” Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who led the fight in the House against the bailout, told me by phone from Cleveland. “It is a direct attack on the American people’s ability to be able to stabilize their homes and their neighborhoods. This single vote will define the careers of everyone. We are back to taxation without representation, to markets that are openly rigged.”

“We buried the New Deal,” he said of the vote. “Instead of Democrats going back to classic New Deal economics where we prime the pump of the economy and start money circulating among the population through saving homes, creating jobs and building a new infrastructure, our leaders chose to accelerate the wealth of the nation upwards. They did so in a way that was destructive of free-market principles. They ripped away all the familiar moorings. We are in an uncharted sea where the traditional roles of the political parties are being switched. The Democrats have unfortunately become so enamored and beholden to Wall Street that we are not functioning to defend the economic interest of the broad base of the American people. It was up to the Republicans to protect not just a so-called free market but the American taxpayer and attempt to block this. This is an outrage. This was democracy’s Black Friday.”

But, but, but, but...Prince Barack will fix all that, right? He's "for the People," isn't he? He stands for "Change," right? Integrity? Transparency?

Well, judge for yourself. Hedges wasn't/isn't impressed:

Obama arrived on the Senate floor Brutus-like to thrust a knife into the back of the working and middle class. He lobbied hard for the bill. He did so, according to some who met with him on Capitol Hill, because he feared that if he opposed the bailout and it triggered a market collapse it could cost him the election. Better to placate the thieves on Wall Street than stand up for the masses of enraged and swindled citizens.
(...)
Obama has always served his corporate masters. He opposed Rep. John Murtha’s call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq and supported continued funding for the war. He voted in July 2005 to reauthorize the Patriot Act. He did not support an amendment that was part of a bankruptcy bill that would have capped credit card interest rates at 30 percent. He opposed a bill that would have reformed the notorious Mining Law of 1872, which allows mineral companies to rape federal land for profit. He did not back the single-payer health care bill HR 676, sponsored by Kucinich and John Conyers. He advocates the death penalty and nuclear power. He backed the class-action “reform” bill—the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA)—that was part of a large lobbying effort by financial firms, which make up Obama’s second-biggest single bloc of donors. CAFA would effectively shut down state courts as a venue to hear most class-action lawsuits. Workers, under CAFA, would no longer have redress in many of the courts where these cases have a chance of defying powerful corporations. CAFA moves these cases into corporate-friendly federal courts dominated by Republican judges.

Hmmmm. Looking kinda bleak here in Democracy-land, innit? If Obama won't try to fix it, who will?javascript:void(0)

Oh, yeah, that's right. Kapitalism killed democracy last Friday (see D. Sirota, below), and got a 850 BILLION DOLLAR bounty.

New Deal, or No Deal: Capitalism Murders Democracy, Then Robs the Fucking Grave...

David Sirota, in one of his more populist moments:

The marriage of American capitalism and democracy has always been a Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee affair—stormy and erratic since its hasty wedding. But during the debate over a Wall Street bailout this week, we watched that matrimonial knot unwind into a tangled tale of terror.

As a financial crisis became a political panic, capitalism murdered democracy (ironically, while pursuing a vaguely socialist bailout). Only, unlike a typical horror story, the dead body wasn’t hidden, it was dumped in the nation’s public square.

The fiasco started, like most, with unreasonable demands. Under threat of financial meltdown, capitalism’s corporate lobbyists asked our democracy to forsake its usual deliberations and hand over $700 billion of taxpayer money in less than a week.

Many were surprised when democracy responded with such valiant defiance. As television screens split between the floors of the stock exchange and the House of Representatives, lawmakers initially voted with their constituents and against the bailout.

That’s when this husband-and-wife argument escalated into a grisly crime of passion.

CNN’s Ali Velshi frothed that “the banks and the companies don’t care about the intricacies” of democratic deliberations. A CEO angrily told CNN that “the money is being held hostage to the political process”—as if government resources are rightfully Wall Street’s. And as the Dow tanked, the Chamber of Commerce threatened retribution against recalcitrant lawmakers.

The final deathblow came from TINA, shorthand for “There Is No Alternative”—the motto that Margaret Thatcher used to peddle her corporatism, and that Washington and Wall Street used to promote theirs.
(...)
American democracy is defined by vesting government power in systems and rules, not in individuals and whims. We have been, as John Adams wrote, “an empire of laws, and not of men”—until now.

Instead of responding to this meltdown by updating regulatory institutions or investing in job-creating infrastructure, the bailout proposes giving one unelected appointee—the treasury secretary—complete authority to dole out $700 billion to bank executives, with little oversight. And here’s the scary part: That lurch toward dictatorship was motivated not just by crony corruption, but also by a deeper ideological shift.

We now face market forces uninhibited by democratic governance—Chinese dictators and Saudi princes can move trillions of dollars without so much as a press release. This bailout, marketed as a speed enhancer, is an aggressive attempt to discard democracy’s checks and balances and pantomime that kind of autocracy.

In case you missed it, we--you, and i, and everybody else below the level of CEO/Cabinet officer--are not completely, totally, and unremittingly FUCKED.

Don't look for the Mocha Messiah to change anything. Ask yourself: 1) When was the last time that the Congress went back to a bad bill and FIXED it? Oh, that's right: NEVER! Then 2) When was the last time a President gave back to the Congress powers arrogated for the purposes of negotiating a crisis? Oh, that's right. 1792.

FYEIEIO: Think They'll Bring Back "Jeanie"?

The Pentagon “will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to ‘engage and inspire’ the local population to support U.S. objectives.

So says a WaPo story recently. (Incidentally, I caught a glimpse of her on a TV and she's still looking good! Hawt!)

Meanwhile, earlier in the week, "October Surprise 2.2--The Trans-Caucasus" was rolled out when Georgian militias raided into South Ossetia. Cool, you say: "boys with guns will be boys with guns." Too true. Except that a senior Russian peace-keeper and six members of his mission were killed and seven more were wounded in a car-bombing in South Ossetia, on Friday, according to Reuters. And Bloomberg is reporting that the Russians are rattling sabers in the direction of Georgia, again, too. Just what the country needs to take our tiny minds off the financial melt-down by which the Oligarchs extorted the most recent $700 BILLION for the banks, generously allowing a pittance for the rest of us: another foreign, military conflict in which "we" can feel noble...EWE ASS AYY!!!

I (HEART) Matt Taibbi

In an exclusively 'masculine' way, of course: Via JAZZ from HELL

..."Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

"And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed Middle American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant sized bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the sizzlin' picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because that image on TV reminds him of the mean brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning.

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.

Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she’s the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV — and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.”

Below, Jon Stewart uses his evident contempt for Peggy Noonan's posturings to eviscerate Palin and the Pukes: