Monday Update

• With all the debate about what the Iraqi PM said or didn't say, let's read the actual transcript from Der Spiegel and find out.



• Perhaps there's some dark, secret genius behind President Bush's otherwise absolutely imbecilic and dangerous corporate-whore move to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling, a ban placed there by his own father. Then again, Mark Morford thinks not. And just because I'm a bit late with this update, here's another Morford I just can't resist: "The Remote Control Penis."



• John McCain has called the Social Security System "a disgrace." Yet he doesn't turn down his $1930 monthly check. What possible reason could he and his $100 Million wife need that money for? Parking fines?



• Frank Rich rips McCain for his response to our growing economic crisis with "It's the Economic Stupidity, Stupid."



• Every American city should follow San Francisco's lead and name a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush. Only fitting, don't you think?



• The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 345.



• p.m. carpenter comments on The New York Post: Prozac for the Left.

Weekend Update - July 12th

• Is this the end of the nutball Christian right? Mark Morford offers this proof. To go.


• Here's a treat. Karl Rove writing an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal explaining to all of us "Barak's Brilliant Ground Game." Gotta love this pudgy little nutbag.


• Does John McCain hate Social Security? Or does he just have no idea how the whole thing works? Paul Krugman ponders.....


• p.m. carpenter comments on John McCain's "Straightjacket Express." Poor ol' John has indeed had a bad week.


• Never underestimate the ignorance of the American voter. The latest Newsweek poll shows Obama leading McCain by only 3 points. What the hell is going on?


• It's not easy to be a Republican. The McCain campaign scrubbed its website today to remove all references to its Alabama campaign chairman, Attorney General Troy King. King, who has frequently made homophobic statements, including calling gays the “downfall of society,” is the subject of rumors that his wife recently discovered him having sex with another man. Oops.


• Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has died of cancer. At least when he lied he did it with a cheerful and sincere manner. RIP Tony.


• “We need to send a message to the next President that if he conducts himself in a similar capacity it would be met with a response from the Congress that you are going to be held to account. … There is a point at which you reduce Congress to a debating society.” Dennis Kucinich.

Phil Gramm, Nasty Piece of Work

I went looking for data on Phil Gramm because I was curious. I wondered, "How many homes does Gramm own?" If he is friends with McCain and the McCains own seven, shouldn't Gramm own at least three, to keep up with the crowd he runs with?

But the Internet is strangely silent on the number of dwellings that Gramm has acquired. I'm still betting on three, but will have to wait and see. From these articles it is clear that America owes Senator Gramm a particular debt of gratitude, for screwing up our economy and ruining millions of lives. What a guy! and this is the man that John McCain says he relies upon for economic advice?

Whoo-boy. I've got a bad feeling about this.

Arthur

This Is Who McCain Is Thinking About as a VP?

Carly Fiorina is widely considered to be a fairly impossible human being.

When she was forced out at HP, it was because her acquisition of Compaq was going badly and the company's stock price had fallen. Fiorina still managed to leave with an eight-figure severance package. (Eight figures means $21 million smackers)

And here is a Bush Labor Dept underling trying to explain what is up with this pesky economy. And sweating and stuttering while he does it. When a guy like this is in such obvious distress we ought to be very, very worried.

Arthur

FOX News Is Now Backing Obama?

(The following was written by Arthur, as opposed to the "Thinking" piece below, which he gleaned from the internet and added his own special style to. To those of you dear readers who feel it's their patriotic duty to stand watch and protect us all from the evils of plagiarists, we thank you for your vigilance, and we're sorry for not making that point clear. Ed.)

Is NOTHING sacred this election year except all the talk about "faith" and "values"? Obama is ahead in a poll in reliably-red Montana?

Joking aside, Obama is making an important point. For too long Democrats have not been competing in all parts of the country, preferring it seemed to stay on the two coasts and the Northeast and concentrate on those more reliable votes. But I agree with Howard Dean and Obama that there is a lot to be said for a 50-state strategy. Why? Congress. All states, large and small, get the same number of Senators. Okay, so that is all pretty well-known, so what's the point? The point is that no President can get a damn thing done if a bunch of Republican Senators from Idaho and North Dakota stand in their way. And the costs of running a campaign in some of these smaller states is apparently next to nothing. They don't give television advertising away, but close to it. I would also argue that the image of Barack and Michelle Obama and their cute kids riding in a float in a parade in Butte, Montana is going to be a lot more evocative than whatever private fundraising BBQ McCain't hosts at his "ranch" in exclusive Sedona, Arizona. A friend of ours who makes her living decorating the homes of the exceptionally wealthy has just transitioned from decorating the homes of Silicon Valley moguls to move to Sedona. She is like a heat-seeking missile, but in her case it is money-seeking. A "ranch" in Sedona is very, very unlike a ranch in Montana. More like a ranch in Aspen.

And then there is Fox News, setting up the story to make McCain seem delusional and out of touch. What's going on? Has Rupert Murdock looked at some internal polling and realized there is a tidal wave coming? One that he'd like to surf on top of rather than having it hit him head-on? Remember, Murdock has a TV channel in China where he cosies up to those in power. He has NO politics, other than getting ahead and making lots of money, however he thinks will help him do it. He would support a political party that advocated eating the children of the poor, if he thought they were a lock to get elected. Seriously. He is a weather-vane. And right now, he is blowing increasingly towards Obama. If I am right, exactly how the Fox News bile-spewers are going to make this transition should be fun to watch.

I hope that none of their heads explode on camera.

In Montana, Republicans hold the historical advantage, but McCain has
no staff there and has yet to visit this election year.

The McCain campaign remains confident.

Weekend Update - July 5th

• Like a rogue rash, an STD, flaring up at unexpected times and in unexpected places and when it fades, you gently let yourself forget all about it until it suddenly erupts and hits hard and ruins your day, and then you can only sit back and moan softly, slather on ointment, shudder. Mark Morford reminds us the brutal effects of the Bush regime will be felt for generations.


• John McCain's changing direction and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. To have Karl Rove acolytes in charge of his campaign certainly shows that he is an agent of change, doesn't it? Lobbyists and hit men, side by side.


• Jesse Helms has passed on to whatever fate has awaited him. We'll hold all comments out of respect for the dead, or something. Here's a New Yorker article from September 2001.


• Who among us can think about the founding of our great nation without thinking of American flag bikinis? "Happy Fifth," I always say...


• Christopher Hitchens gives waterboarding a bad review. Tsk tsk. But on a lighter note, we give you The Vagina Spa. It's "the dental floss of feminine fitness."


• Ready for some not-so-lite video watching? Here's Ben Kingsley narrating "Islam Empire of Faith," in seven parts ferhevvinsake.


• Poor George. Now I understand why he doesn't get out much anymore. Look what happens when he just tries to make a little Holiday Speech.


• Here it is, read it in full. One of the most radical revolutionary statements ever written. Shocking!

Message From a Recovering Thinker

(From Arthur...)

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- to just loosen up a bit. One thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- 'to relax,' I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to turn sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.

I began to think on the job. I know that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, 'What exactly are we doing here?' One day the boss called me in. He said, 'Listen, I like you and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another place to work.'

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. 'Honey,' I confessed, 'I've been thinking... ''I know you've been thinking,' she said, 'and I want a divorce!' 'But Honey, surely it's not that serious.' 'It is serious,' she said, her lower lip quivering. 'You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!'

'That's a faulty syllogism,' I said impatiently. She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with a tawdry emotional drama. 'I'm going to the library,' I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors... They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the cold glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. 'Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?' it asked. You probably recognize that line. It is the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster.

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was 'Porky's.' Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I was able to keep my job and things are a lot better at home. Life just seems... easier, somehow, since I stopped thinking. I am happy to say that the road to recovery is nearly complete for me. But it still is just one day at a time, one step at a time.

Today, I registered to vote as a Republican.

What That Crazy Obama Dude Is Doing This Week

Those who have been reading my sputterings of amazement these last weeks will know that I am becoming obsessive-compulsive over Barack Obama's outreach to the American Evangelical community. Talk about driving a truck through the front wall of a rough bar in a bad part of town where they don't much like his kind, this is it. And while I find a lot about that effort that has me hyperventilating, you've got to admire the raw nerve involved in it.

Obama has a couple of big problems:

1. He is black, or at least cafe au lait in color

2. The Republicans have owned the Southern race-conscious voters since 1968

3. Bush has bribed the heck out of the fundies, to his shame and theirs

4. 20% of Amurikans think Obama is secretly a Muslim

So what could he do to have not a triple-run homer, but a grand slam?

Steal a big chunk of the "values voters" from the GOP. A lot of the GOP stalwarts don't really trust McCain. They aren't sure whether he is an Episcopalian or a Baptist (and seemingly neither is he) and they aren't sure he even goes to church. They are increasingly catching on to the idea that Obama is kinda evangelical in an odd way, certainly a lot closer to their core beliefs than McCain is. And then Damned if the guy who performed the marriage for Jenna Bush came out and endorsed Obama! Say what?? Heads exploded across America. Surely if Obama was a secret Muzzie, the Bush pastor would know, right? So if he thinks they are okay, then... wow, this is getting confusing. And now Obama wants to EXPAND the "faith-based" program? Whew, this is really strange. McCain doesn't even seem to know what it is, or whether he likes it or not. This is really, really strange.

But in the end, while they dither about what KIND of a Christian Obama is, they are forced to forget and distrust those who claim he is a Muslim. And if that happens, and younger evangelicals vote in decent numbers for Obama, then he will win the election. And he who laughs in the Oval Office laughs best.

Arthur