13 months & 1 day ago...

(being my first post in over 2 months, not much has gone on in D.C. other than wheel spinning on health care reform)

...I expressed my desire to have Obama be the next President.

Generally speaking, I have liked the results.

I think/thought he could have been much stronger in whipping some of those asshat Senate Dems to back a full public option; I think he took the wrong lesson from the Clinton fiasco. He took the lesson to be to not make a big public push against the drug companies, when the real lesson was, don't let your wife whom everyone hates run the operation.

However, he is completely failing a lesson from the JFK Presidential years; Or at least a pseudo-lesson.

JFK essentially learned the hard way not to trust the military industrial complex (*cough* Pentagon *cough*); The Bay of Pigs.

Obama is set to deliver an address where he will be sending troops to Afghanistan, but with some sort of strings attached, which includes a reportedly fairly vague endgame.

The problem is simple, once you given the Pentagon people the OK to go, they will create reasons to stay once there. As Keith Olbermann noted tonight in his Special Comment, these people are in the BUSINESS to keep war and/or occupations alive.

Make no mistake about it, WAR is big business. It's what they like to do, and they are like an excellent surgeon who thinks every medical solution to any medical problem is to operate. It's incredibly foolish.

Moreover, it puts troops in harms way for what? What will we really gain from this endeavor besides heartache and pain on many levels.

Finally, this may doom Obama in 2012. Unless something drastic happens, war (much like it wasn't in 2008) will NOT be the top concern of the body politic.

Election year, after election year, James Carville proves to be prophetic: "It's the economy stupid."

I don't know what this will do to any glimmer of an economic recovery, but I cannot imagine it would be good. And if this plans SOMEHOW manages to go on track as planned, it sounds like there is a soft date of 2011 to get out.

What generally happens after a war is over? The economy tanks. Ask Bush 41 what happened to his economy in 1992 after the Persian Gulf War.

No matter what happens tomorrow night at 8:00am, I will be disappointed with ANY troop increase/movement.

Obama & 2012

I steadfastly hate the Republicans and many of the social crap they spew. But, as I have consistently noted on this blog, they do what they do extremely well.

I remember watching my telly, post election day in the winter of 2008-2009 and laughing heartily at Matthews, Olbermann, Howard Fineman, Richard Wolfe (who has since whored himself out), et al. when they predicted the demise of the Republican Party.

I laughed at their baloney crap saying there were no serious potential Republican candidates left for President in 2012, and generally derided the future of the entire party.

What a bunch of fools. The Republicans know how to make a turn-around better than anyone. If I needed a firm to get me some attention, I'd hire the firm of the right-wing Republican party.

In 8? months they have successfully beaten down Obama's poll numbers, have put a serious national health care reform package on the ropes, and after recently holding their first straw poll for potential 2010 candidates, they have some serious people who could contend in 2012.

Simply put: Never underestimate the ability for the weasel Democrats to shoot themselves multiple times in multiple feet with not a handgun, but a freaking bazooka. This fantastic (*sarcasm*) ability to accomplish such a feat is exponentially compounded by the ability of the Republicans (particularly the far right) to throw any and all crap against the wall and make it stick and slime the opponent.

Hate them, but fear them. Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, are all clowns in their own right and in their own ways. But, they get ratings for a reason.

One of the simple problems is the MSM's soft underbelly to the somewhat bogus implication that they lean to the left, so they overkill when given right-wing meat to sling. A right-winger speaks, the MSM is there to cover every facet, no matter how incredibly moronic that asshat appears (cue Rep. Wilson).

It doesn't help that just weeks after Sen. Kennedy dies from brain cancer, the Massachusetts legislature reverses itself from what they did in 2004, and passes a bill allowing the Governor (now Deval Patrick who is in serious trouble come November 2010) to appoint a temporary replacement to fill the vacant Senate seat, but requiring the Governor (whomever it may be) to appoint a Democrat.

This kind of foolishness makes Democrats around the country look bad, and any suggestion that folks in middle America don't hear and listen to this occurrence is moot. Right-wing radio was just given a giant bone with this one, and they know how to chew...

Pathetic Palin Pontification

Ahhh, yes. The soon to be ex-Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is making news because of her quit job.

Speculation as to the cause for this sudden leaving of thy office has ensued. From: She's going to run for Resident. To she's leaving politics altogether.

Clearly, she got her ass kicked and beat up pretty harshly by the media, during and after her VP run. However, she asked for it by getting into that spotlight. I think the woman is seriously misguided in her views, and she's a bit of a lightweight, but I refuse to believe she was so obtuse to not be aware of what she was subjecting her family to when she accepted the Old Geezer's invite to be on the ticket. That said, no one can prepare for the glow of national Presidential politic spotlight.

She could pull a John Edwards after his 2004 run: He studied his ass of an boned up on issues for a solid two years, before fucking a campaign staffer and nearly becoming the next Gary Hart.

She no doubt will make the lecture circuit rounds, and her book will be coming out. This will allow her to get some cash.

She may be making this move in anticipation of a 2012 run, since she's really the only star in the Republican party at this point. Romney, Pawlenty, Jindal, Newt, none of those are sexy to a wide national population in my view. There are other lesser knows as well.

If she is going to make a run, which I don't think she knows yet, she's continuing to make mistakes in her public appearances/statements and/or official actions. Her personal attorney apparently has fired off a letter warning the press on printing 'defamatory material' related to the investigation into whether she embezzled funds during the building of a sports arena in her home town. This action, will undoubtedly call for coverage, which has been largely silent in MSM papers thus far.

Not to mention her "press conference" to make her quitting announcement appeared to be hastily put together, like the dress of the Argentine woman S. Carolina Gov. Sanford was screwing.

Moreover, her quitting because she had some rough patches, should come up if she so chooses to make a run. She wanted to be the VP behind an old geezer who was doomed to die from the stress of the job, and then assume the Presidency. The President of the United States has to make some tough calls, tough decisions, and they can't quit everytime they get some coverage in the press that *in my best whiny and babyish voice* "isn't fair!" She clearly doesn't have the stones, the grit necessary for the job. Quitting an Alaskan governorship that, like Bush's Texas gig, is a fairly simple state to Govern, shows tremendous weakness and a lack of professionalism, and fortitude needed to be a President. She thinks the coverage was tough this time when she was the VP, just wait til she announces her run for President, and the press has MONTHS to dig up all the dirty shit she must have stashed under a stack of mattresses somewhere.

Paling seems desperate in her attempts to keep her name in the news, when she should be doing exactly the opposite. The more Americans hear from her these next two year, the less they will like her. She can go campaign for other Republicans, which I am also sure she will do, in order to build up some cache, and more importantly, favors. But, no more of this national news crap. She needs to lay low if she has any chance.

For she can only play the poor baby I'm a woman card so many times. Too often, she'll look like the lightweight she is, but worse, she'll look overly emotional. And as much as the middle-aged American conservative male may have wet dreams about having their way with her hot ass, they will not vote for her if she is perceived as an emotional train-wreck waiting to happen.

I think she will test the waters and will run, and may even stay in it towards the very end in the 2012 Republican race to lose to Obama. But, there's no way she gets through the Republican gauntlet without doing some serious homework.

Obama is wrong again

A disappointing trend is showing up within the Obama Administration. For a man who ran on the campaign promise of being the most transparent in history, he is failing at this in one very simple area: The Obama Administration is continuing the Dubya policy of not releasing the visitor's logs.

Case law has struck down a Presidential privateer claim that these logs are protected, and are allowed to be kept hidden from the public. Obama has failed to follow the law like his predecessor, and that is a shame.

What is he hiding?

Cheney can suck on it

There 33 international terrorists currently held in supermax prisons on US soil; no one's ever escaped from a supermax prison...

I hate to admit, however, that yesterday's speech duel between Obama and Darth Cheney...the heart attack waiting to happen won.

Only because he has the ease to speak his mind, and be was able to be very direct about his views while mixing in some dubious lies, false choices, and whopper beliefs/delusions.

Dick was also blunt about supposed CIA documents he can claim back up his position, while not having the ability to access them....err...wait, he does have people around who would gladly get them to him to leak or leak them for him...turns out he must be lying because if he wasn't those documents would be splattered all over FoxSnooze by now.

No terrorist attacks since 9/11 eh Dick? Well, thanks for not paying attention so there actually WAS a 9/11.

Moreover, as statistical analysts know, correlation does not mean causation.

Still, Obama better hope NOTHING squeaks through...

Proof positive Obama IS keeping us safe

SUCK IT REPUBLICANS...and especially you...DICK!

Per the Talking Points Memo blog from Mr. Marshall: "four African-American Muslims were arrested this evening in New York City and charged with a plot to bomb a series of sites in city, including several synagogues."

Here's link to updated NY Times story.

The Cheney confessions

It's annoying, and frankly, disappointing that this fat lard ass feels the need to blab his mouth all over the television.

However, the scary part is that I don't think he's doing this for kicks, for the hell of it, or just to throw dirt in the eyes of the Obama Administration, I think he is yapping his fat trap because he honestly and truly believes what he he has cooking in the pot of crap he is stirring.

This is the scariest aspect of this display by the former Vice President.

Finally, FoxSnooze made a big deal about taking on the criticism he's gotten by liberals and Gore specifically by highlighting how Gore came out against the Dubya's policies in late 2002.

Fine, Gore may have been overstating by a bit when he said he didn't criticize the new Dubya Administration publicly for two years...he was a few months off (Jan 2001 to late 2002 is damn near 2 years tho).

But, that is certainly much longer than 100 freaking days into the new administration.

My goodness this man is psychotic and perhaps clinically delusional!

Newt the nominee?

Quietly, ever so quietly, Newt Gringrich has positioned himself as perhaps the leader of the Republican party when that fat fuck Limberger shuts his hole and lets the party move on closer to the 2012 Presidential election cycle.

Don't look now, but 365 days from now, the 2012 Republican race for the nominee will have started.

Likely players at this juncture include: Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul (their version of Ralph Nader), and I'd even say...Haley Barbour.

The only one of those who has been keeping his name in the papers/news, but doing so quietly is Newt. Newt came to popularity in 1994 with his "Contract with America," sweeping the Democrats out of the Congress after they rammed the gay/lesbian issues down Clinton's throat (sound familiar lefty loonies?).

He fell out of favour when he couldn't control his party and he was exposed for being a tremendous schmuck of a husband.

But look out for him making his triumphant return tour. He is constantly on FoxSnooze (I know because I see him every time I fly by that shithole) making what is most likely a sound, rational, reasonable argument for policy X, Y, and/or Z. He is a clever guy, do not discount him or demean him. He's crafty.

I don't think he'd be crafty enough to make it to the nominee status because of his past history. That is probably remembered by most American voters who were around back in the late 90s, but when the glare of the Presidential Campaign hits his dirty, ugly spots...he will hopefully be pushed aside by the Christian people in middle America who found his behavior towards both of his first two wives to be unforgivable.

No matter, however, as he can still prove to be dangerous. He may not be the nominee, but he could be a solid VP pick, and if not that, he can shape the debate in a clever way that can catch people's attention and cause them to vote Republican come 2012.

I'm just sayin'...

The Pelosi-Panetta Problem

The Repos are seemingly thinking that they are smelling blood in the water. I think it's possible there may be blood shed in this little dust-up, but I still think the Repos better be careful for they may reap what they sow. A few thoughts on this development:

1. Pelosi had better be telling the truth. I initially thought she was caught lying like a sailor, but after former Sen. Bob Graham came out and backed up her assertion that they were not told about water-boarding during the first briefing from the CIA, I tend to give her more credibility. However, if she's lying, she's toast, and she'll deserve to be toast.

2. New CIA Chief Leon Panetta says that the CIA did not mislead Pelosi and others during that initial briefing back in 2002. Okay, what else would he say...really?! He just got into the job, he has to back up his men publicly even if he believes they screwed the pooch here. Moreover, this is the case because Cheney still has some people who he has influence with in the inner-workings of that agency, and Panetta needs to win them over. Bashing the former administration and stabbing your people in the back isn't a way for a new Director to win friends, and curry favor for things he may need later down the line. So, what Panetta says is no surprise to me.

3. According to the documents I've seen/heard about, the CIA put out the notes they had from the briefing. A couple easy points here to combat these notes which seem to damn Pelosi:

a. There is that possibility that the CIA has falsified these "notes." I find it particularly appalling and pathetic that Repos are going around saying the CIA would NEVER lie to them during a briefing, or even mislead them. Hello! They are the C-I-fucking-A...that's what they do! They are in the business of lies and deception. Goodness, how obtuse!

b. From what I recall, the documents say something fairly vague about the mention of enhanced interrogation techniques being used and the mention of that during the briefing. Okay, this could be anything, and the CIA briefers could have just not mentioned water-boarding as one of those "techniques." There was nothing in those documents that specifically stated that water-boarding was discussed, so to assume that it was discussed is patently unfair to Pelosi and those who were given the briefing.

I wonder if it's possible that a CIA puppet briefing controlled largely by the strings attached in the then Vice President's office could have been essentially a sham....hmmmmmm...tough call there. NOT!

We know the country was lied into a war against Saddam and Iraq, centering on WMD. If they would lie their way into an unjust, unfounded war for kicks, what would stop the Dubya administration from either lying/misleading during a CIA briefing and/or falsifying documents/notes from said briefing?

Pelosi is now calling for a clearing of the air, and I hope she gets the Repos to bite. If they bite, this will get ugly, but not for Dems...it will get ugly for the Repos and it will cause the Cheney story to dominate the political landscape for months, if not years. This would be helpful to an Obama re-election, but also to the President getting his agenda passed through without much fuss.

More on Cheney in a moment.

Here comes the Loony Left!

One could predict this occurrence like one could predict the rising sun in the morn: The loony left has finally begun to squawk.

As they did to Bill Clinton, the loony left is making a big stink about an issue that most of America is not ready for...Transgenders, especially those in the military.

Clinton made a foolish, foolish mistake early on in his Presidency by giving these loony lefties the time of day and throwing them a bone, which turned out to be a colossal failure and was supported by no one: Don't ask, don't tell.

Whatever these loony lefties want, Obama will do wise to ignore them and use intermediaries to tell them to shut the fuck up.

I am a left leaning liberal myself, as I have often noted on these digital pages, and I completely support the rights of transgenders to marry, adopt, have coitus on the White House lawn, and generally exist without being harassed by the lesser of our beings. However, Obama has a historic chance here to ram home some serious democrat policy that has the potential to shape America for decades to come.

Policy that will show why Democrats should be in charge, and policy that shows that regulation is not a dirty word and it can often be a great thing for the Average Joe American.

Once we get these basics passed through the Congress, and once the economy turns completely around and Obama appears for an easy landslide re-election, THEN we can attack the soft underbelly of the social conservatives by putting forth policy that would give sweeping rights and privileges to our Transgendered friends and enacting other liberal social policies (legalizing marijuana, etc).

So, please loony left...tone down your pressure on Obama. He is but one man. A man who has a ton of shit to clean up after, and you giving him crap is NOT going to help him be as successful as he can be as our President.

Damned If You Do...

...Damned If You Don't.

I smell a stink bomb. Something tells me that if President Obama let all these banks fail as the Repos suggest he SHOULD do, they'd then be bitching, whining, and complaining on how the little man got screwed out of his investment money.

President Obama is in a classic lose-lose proposition. This bites...hard.

Beware the Newt

After Gov. Jindal butchered his response to President Obama last Tuesday night, there smelled of an opening in the Republican party for someone to step up and take the spotlight.

Over the weekend, the Conservative Whackjob Conference straw poll yesterday, nominated one former Gov. Mitt Romney.

I think that's a hilarious joke on Romney, and he will flirt with that party, spends tons of his own money, to yet again, be a sideline watcher come August 2012.

However, the man who has a chance to make some noise, and who could be the kingmaker in none other than: Newt Gingrich.

While I think the country would have to seriously tank for him to be elected, considering his past behavior, he is the man who developed "The Contract with America."

Laugh, if you will. But, with a lost party, struggling for a message, he may be the politician who comes forth with a coherent, cogent, plan for taking on the Obama Administration.

Obama pulling a Dubya??

I am HIGHLY concerned about the direction this stimulus bill &/or bailout has taken. I don't wish Obama to cave into the Reps, because as noted in my earlier post...they have shown no serious willingness to play ball.

However, I am for doing some due diligence here on this buyout to ensure things are watched, and so 6 months from now we don't hear about companies we bailed out giving bonuses to leaving executives, hosting million dollar Superbowl Parties, etc, etc.

Without targeted and meaningful oversight, these people will fleece America again. Obama is trying to push through these bills SO fast, and I a fear he is avoiding answering some tough questions and avoid having to fully explain his plan.

That's been the Dubya Admin's game for 8 years, and frankly, Mr. President...I expected better out of you.

Leon, Leon, Leon

When my ears, check that, eyes first saw the headline that Obama had tapped Leon Panetta to be the new head of the C-I-A, I shook my proverbial head because I wasn't particularly impressed by this development.

"He has no intelligence experience!", I thought to myself, fairly sure I was correct. I was.

However, after 3 hours of pondering this pick by Obama, I am willing to give this a shot.

At least, I realized, he has run a White House. So, there's some solid experience running something that could be considered a weighty organization (although, did he run it well, or was that doomed to be the way it was because of Pres. Clinton's working style?). I seem to remember the Oval Office being a bit of a mess early on in the Clinton era, although it never got better, which may say more about the occupant in reality.

Furthermore, the intelligencia doesn't like the choice, which may be a great reason to actually like it.

I do not know what other names Obama was considering for the post, but I am cautiously endorsing this choice. I hope Leon proves he is more than equal to the task.

Bill Richardson is a big, fat fuck

This is EXACTLY why you FULLY vet people when considering them for the VP nod. It appears Obama has dodged a few bullets here by staying away from Edwards and now Richardson.

It's likely Bill will be found guilty of nothing tremendously serious, but his withdrawal as Commerce Sec. is warranted.

ENOUGH with this crap. No more bad press is needed. Obama needs all the good news he can get right now considering he is inheriting a shitty economy, and a totally FUBAR foreign policy thanks to Dubya and his dorks.

Shame on you Bill for taking this post when you had to know you had stink on you.

Buh bye latino boy

Obama and his administration need to officially and immediately say goodbye to one Gov. Bill Richardson.

Richardson is now embroiled in a growing scandal where he's being accused of "Pay to Play" dealings with state contracts and contributions to his campaign. Perhaps, the whiff of this caught Obama, and this is why Richardson was snubbed for both the VP slot and the Secretary of State position, and only given the silly Commerce Secretary position. Then again, I have to think Obama should have/would have been smart enough to offer Richardson nothing but a rubber duckie if they had such a whiff of impropriety.

No matter, Richardson needs to go, and he needs to go now. No matter his guilt or innocence, this situation stinks to high heaven.

With the Illinois scandal just starting to get behind them, Obama and his team do not need another problem clogging up political capital and eating up news cycles of bad stories.

Dump Richardson and dump him immediately.

Thank You Captain Obvious!!

Dubya today, "I think I was unprepared for war," Bush told ABC News' Charlie Gibson in an interview airing today on "World News."

"In other words, I didn't campaign and say, 'Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack,'" he said. "In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents -- one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen."

Bold emphasis added, and thus my comment: THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IS ALL ABOUT YOU NUMBSKULL. Your the "Commander in Chief"...hint...hint...

Geeeee....really???!!! And here I though it went SO well.

Another stunning revelation from the orifice...errr....oracle.

Here they come...

The leftists have found their voice against the Obama-man and they seem perturbed.

They are annoyed by what they see as old Clinton-era/Admin. re-treads in terms of cabinet posts (most specifically in the Treasury).

Look, lets make this clear, yet again to you left-wing nut-jobs:

To get shit done in big, bad D.C. you need to know how to grease the wheels, how to make the wheels of government at the most incremental level work, and how to go into those backrooms, cut deals and get the job done.

You leftists may not like the Clinton's, you may loathe them, in fact...but they know their way around D.C. and with a progressive Democrat in the White House you should see the more progressive agenda.

When an administration is over, or when people leave an administration, they often go into the power structure within D.C. and they become/maintain their expertise on their specialty issue.

Should you really, truly, be punishing Obama for picking some of the most brilliant minds who just happened to have also be tabbed by the Clinton Administration? Just because they were in the Clinton Administration should be not even look at their curriculum vitae when faced with an economic crisis such as this?

I have a friend I chat with frequently, and he didn't like the idea of Larry Summers being the Treasury Secretary, so he's happy with the latest news I suppose. But, I don't get it. Summers said something inflammatory at Harvard while being their President (something which is not entirely unfounded according science as it may seem), but fine...he's a dick. Should we really punish the guy for being a dick and not avail ourselves of his brilliant economic mind? He doesn't have the best social skills, people who know him say. Are we going to preclude all those with appropriate "social skills" from serving our country, if so, you can probably kiss this teacher good riddance.

Put your petty views aside leftists and give your man, Obama, a chance. You elected him, let him do his work. You owe it to him, you owe it to yourselves, and dammit, you owe it to this country you claim to love.

So, sit down, shut the fuck up, and give the man a year before you start sniping. Geez!! We haven't had a Democrat in the White House for 8 years, be fucking grateful will ya?

Obama MUST be fleet-a-foot

For Obama to get the most out of his Presidency, he needs to move decisively and quickly in his first 6 months in office, and set up priorities beforehand.

I believe he can and will do this, but if he doesn't...his Presidency will be doomed to accomplish very little.

For what seems like a potentially long time, 8 years, is really scant little to get shit done on your terms as President.

A good 6-8 months after your inauguration is the key period.

Too much longer after that, people in the Congress are looking to the next 2 year election cycle. Then you end up in the 4 year Presidential re-election mode, where Presidents often become too cautious and propose anything that can be seen as a radical change.

Once elected, you have maybe another year and then your a lame duck. If defeated, your fubar.

Obama, and his oratory, his history-making moment here may be able to squeak out more valuable "get shit done time" than your average US President.

But, he can ill afford (nor do I think he will get caught up by anything this stupefying) what happened to the ill-disciplined Clinton who got trapped into gays in the military issue within moments of taking office, effectively killing his honeymoon period.

Hurdle 1 - cleared easily

Now onto hurdle number 2...be a successful African-American President.

GO OBAMA!!!!!!!