Category: Politics

I just can’t believe anyone is taking Sarah Palin seriously any more.

In picking Palin for his running mate, it looks like John McCain was trying to appeal to women voters and “just plain folks.” And initially, his strategy appeared to work. It gave him a good boost in the polls.

A young, vibrant woman – a former beauty contestant and now governor of Alaska at the tender age of 44, she’s certainly a rising star – “Sarah Barracuda” – what a great nickname. And topping it off, she’s very, very conservative. Basically, she was a dream candidate for the republicans. The perfect foil to attract the disgruntled Hillaryites.

However, if you take a close look at Palin, things start to fall apart.

First, there was the interview with Katie Couric, where Palin stumbled badly. Question: How does being governor of Alaska prepare you for foreign affairs? Answer: because Alaska sits right next to Russia. Here’s the clip, and then another clip here. The whole interview was pretty much a disaster.

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It’s hard to imagine one man creating so much havoc, but George W. Bush really takes the cake.
In just a little under eight years, he’s managed to:

• Ruin our economy, plunging the United States into the worst recession since the Great Depression;
• Take us to war against Iraq for no good reason at all (other than to steal their oil – or maybe it was because Saddam tried to kill his dad);
• Take us to war against Afghanistan looking for bin Laden, only to withdraw most of the troops before their job was done, insuring bin Laden could safely escape;
• Taken away many of our civil rights in the name of combating “terrorism”;
• Condon the use of torture against what in many cases were innocent civilians, again in the name of combating terrorism;
• Promote the raping of our wilderness and public lands to find gas and oil, as well as generally raping the environment;
• Allow oil companies to post record profits at the expense of consumers and the economy in general (in 2000, the average cost of gas was $1.48 a gallon; contrast that to the $4.00 a gallon we recently had to pay). That’s a 170% increase in the eight years Bush was President!

And those are just the high points. The bottom line: His rich buddies got richer; the rest of us paid their way. Bush and his cronies raped the world.

Without the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush would have been a one-term wonder. Pre-9/11, he was a rudderless, bumbling non-entity. His presidency distinguished itself by creating no distinguishments. He was mediocrity incarnate. No plan to do anything. A caretaker president. His approval ratings were abysmal. Bush was going nowhere, fast.

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I would like to protest the Bush administration’s proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.

What Secretary Paulson is asking for is a blank check – no controls, no real plan no nothing. And that, coming from the Bush administration is laughable.
Perhaps they can contract out the reconstruction of our financial industry to Halliburton? And if you’re willing to buy that, I have a nice bridge you may be interested in…

The single over-riding reason the country’s economy is where it’s at right now is because of the Bush administration, and the feeding frenzy they’ve allowed to exist for the last eight years. Capitalism in its finest hour. Bush’s whole economic plan for the last eight years has been recycled Ronald Reagan era trickle-down economics coupled with lax regulations and no meaningful oversight.

So what happened?

What happened is they’ve raped the economy, they’ve raped the American taxpayers, they’ve raped Iraq and Afghanistan, and basically, they’ve raped the whole world.

Greed run rampant, without controls; without reason or care.

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Jim McDermott Does It Again

Seattle (AP) – Riding the success of his revelations of a cell phone conversation featuring former Speaker of The House, Newt Gingrich, Congressman Jim McDermott (D – Seattle) today made public the transcript of a new cell phone conversation – this one between President George W. Bush and presumed Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain (R – Arizona).

Mr. John W. Dean, a ham radio operator in the Washington DC area, recorded the conversation on June 4th by accident. After sitting on the tape for several weeks, debating what to do, Mr. Dean finally decided to approach Mr. McDermott with the tape on July 12th.

In a press conference today, Congressman McDermott stated, “After conferring with my attorney and my friends and my family, I’ve decided to come forward and make a transcript of the call between Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain available to the public.” Mr. McDermott continued, “Privacy concerns aside, I think it’s important that government be as transparent as possible and the public has a right and a duty to know the full story about its leaders.”

According to Mr. McDermott, independent experts have verified the authenticity of the tape.

Initial reaction from the Whitehouse was to deny the existence of the tape, then later, characterizing it as a bad practical joke. But yet later this afternoon, when confronted with certain facts guaranteeing the tape’s authenticity, Whitehouse Spokesperson Dana Perino issued a curt, “No comment,” then moments later stated Mr. Bush would have a formal reply about the tape later tonight.

Despite repeated attempts to contact the McCain campaign, Presidential candidate McCain’s spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

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Spokane (AP) – At a press conference today, perennial candidate for Washington state Governor, Dino “Italian Stallion” Rossi (pictured at right with his head up his ass, as usual), unveiled his new campaign poster for the 2008 race.

The theme of the campaign is that nasty Seattlites stole the last election, by demanding ballot recounts. The actual text of the new sign, is, “Dino Rossi for Governor – Don’t let Seattle Steal This Election.” Billboards featuring the ads have popped up all over the state – except around the Seattle area, of couse.

When asked about the negative connotations of the new billboards, Rossi said, “I’m just tellin’ it like it is. That bitch stole the last race. I shoulda been Gov, not her.” When asked to amplify what he meant, Rossi continued, “It’s all them Seattle assholes that got her elected and that’s really fucking unfair to the farmers and the good righteous conservatives that make up this great right-wing, Christian state.” He went on to add, “All those gay, Seattle assholes oughta move to Commie-fornia or something and leave us God-fearing Christians alone. I’m gonna smoke that bitch’s ass. Fuck me blue!”

In a prepared statement, Governor Gregoire responded suggesting the public might better be better served by a candidate that didn’t have his head up his ass. She asked that this coming election should focus on today’s important issues like the home mortgage crisis and the price of gas, and that the lame rhetoric from the last campaign be buried and forgotten – which is where it belongs.

In a late breaking development at press time, it’s reported that a large group of several thousand people gathered tonight at Seattle Center and burned a likeness of Dino Rossi in effigy. Reportedly, vendors there were also doing a lansdlide business selling Dino “Italian Stallion” Rossi voodoo dolls as well.

Said Rossi about the voodoo dolls, “Well fuck me blue!”

So the Seattle Supersonics are off to Oklahoma – what a deal. As far as I’m concerned, it’s for the best.

Maybe we can get them to take the Mariners and the Seahawks off our hands as well.

Pro sports teams are just not a big turn on for me. The way I see it, they’re a bunch of whiny millionaires feeding at the public trough.

In the case of the Sonics, we went through all the whining and the threats of leaving only a little over ten years ago. It went on incessantly for months. All the, Nobody loves us! Refurbish our home or we’re taking our team and leaving! Wah! Nobody loves us!

The whining paid off. At that time, Key Arena was fully renovated at a cost to the public of over $74 million. The NBA execs hailed Key Area as one of the great basketball venues in the country.

Now 10 years later, it’s all of a sudden too old, too small and just plain unfit for an NBA franchise. Yeah, right.

Well fuck them. Let them go – they can become the Oklahoma Okies or whatever. Bunch of losers, anyway.

The way it stands right now, Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen have their budgets stretched to the max. Every month, they wonder if they’re going to be able to make that new, higher mortgage payment. They can just barely afford gas for their cars and to put food on their table, much less buy expensive tickets to a pro basketball game.

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We’ve all heard the excuses on TV. Oil company executives sitting in front of congress, answering questions about why gas prices are so high, and explaining away their record profits.

“Well we’re really only making pennies on the dollar. The profits aren’t really that high.”  “We don’t have any control over gasoline prices. The prices are all set by market forces”
“We need more refining capacity and we need to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

I find it totally amazing that anyone at all would believe the current gasoline prices are not 100% wholly contrived by the oil companies.
The facts are that 2006 and 2007 were the very best years ever for Exxon Mobile: in 2007, Exxon surpassed the 2006 windfall of $39.5 Billion with a record smashing profit of $40.6 Billion.
The number two US oil company, Chevron’s 2007 earnings were up 9% over 2006, with record profits of $18.7 Billion. Put that in with similar profits from Shell and ConocoPhillips, and you have over $100 Billion in profits from the oil industry in the United States in just one year. Click here for the news story from US News and World Reports.
Of course, that $100 Billion in profits really isn’t such a big deal – pennies on the dollar.
What a load of tripe! These guys must use the same accountants as the movie studios – like where you can have a blockbuster movie that does $100 million in the first weekend, but by creative bookkeeping, it doesn’t show a profit. Complete and utter bullshit.
Nope. What we really have here is a Texas oilman for president, and he’s simply paying his buddies back.
The oil companies are jacking up the prices, deliberately, simply because they can – and no one can do a god damned thing about it. They’ve got protection.

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A Puppet Government In Iraq Equals Disaster for the US

“The will of the people… is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.” —Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waring, 1801. ME 10:23

After five years of trying to impose an artificial democracy onto the people of Iraq, it’s clear the experiment is failing.

Bush’s surge is winding down, and without the American “cops” on every corner, violence is again returning to the streets in Iraq.

Why? Because Nouri al-Maliki’s government is not popularly supported by the Iraqi people. It’s a puppet government set up and maintained by the United States. And puppet governments just don’t work. They didn’t work, for example, in Vietnam, and they won’t work in Iraq.

Why not? Let’s look at some facts:

In Iraq, Shi’a Muslims comprise over 65% of the population; Sunni Muslims about 37%. Christians constitute a much smaller minority.
Through the Ba’ath Party, Sunni Muslims have ruthlessly controlled Iraq, subjugating the Shi’a as well as all the other religious minorities since 1963. Much of that time, the Ba’ath Party worked hand in hand with the CIA, including during most of Saddam’s reign – Saddam really didn’t fall from grace with the CIA or the US generally, until after he invaded Kuwait in 1990. That, of course, precipitated the First Gulf War. (more…)

Hillary vs. Barack
The past few weeks, it’s really been getting to me how much the different candidates – from the same party – beat each other up.
I have to admit that when the republicans do it, I tend to think it’s cute. Gee, let’s watch the stupid conservatives self-destruct… It’s a great spectator sport. I think any democrat (like me) feels that way.

But by the same token, when your own (democratic) candidates are doing it, it takes on a slightly different light.

My point is that the past few weeks, the fights between Clinton and Obama have been getting kinda out of control and you have to wonder if they’re going to quit before one does irreparable damage to the other.

I really want to see the demos win this coming election. But my nightmare scenario: Clinton and Obama both sling so much mud at each other in their desperate bids to become the president that they are both successfully excluded from the race.

Talk about big burning bummers.

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