No Choice Election Choices

Rod Blagojevich

douchebag


Just when you start to feel pride in the president-elect's party* you get some douchebag like William Jefferson of New Orleans and now Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. You have got to be fucking kidding me on this one. William Jefferson was in Louisiana so stupid criminality is expected. Now this Blagojevich has the opportunity to fill the Senate seat of Barack Obama and he turns it into a bidding war. You don't think you're going to be watched like a hawk during the process of making this decision? Does everything have to be bartered? Do any of these people have souls***? Can we find a way to filter out scumbags?

*OK, "pride" is much too strong of a word. This is more like the absence of the ordinary feeling I have for the Democratic party which is chalk-in-the-back-of-your-mouth-you-can't-quite-incorporate-into-your-spit-and-get-it-out-of-you ickiness.**

**In comparison my feeling about the GOP is please-stop-fucking-me-in-the-ass-with-that-very-wide-hot-poker agony.

***Rumor has it that the reason this has been caught by the Justice Dept. is Blagojevich approached Rahm Emanuel who then pushed the investigation.

Lipstick on a Pig

I hereby declare this to be one of the stupidest diversions the Nazis (a.k.a. Republicans) have come up with yet. Listen to this NPR piece and tell me you believe Obama was referring to Sarah Palin. They play the lines preceding the pig and lipstick lines and it is obvious he is talking about McCain's policies. Palin is not mentioned at all. You will hear several other politicians, including John McCain using this old saw in their speeches exactly as Obama used it.

The phrase "lipstick on a pig" is commonly employed by politicians including Senator John McCain, Vice President Dick Cheney and Rep. Charles Rangel. Farmer Joel Salatin of Swoope, Va., talks about what actually happens when one attempts to put lipstick on a pig.

Do you smell Karl Rove? Makes me wish for the smell of pig shit.

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Once again from Media Matters:

There has been a fairly big stink lately about Obama opting out of public financing in this election. His reasoning seems pretty right on to me: 1. He can raise far more money from small donors the way he has been than he could get under the public finance rules. 2. The big money interests that stand against him are free to spend unlimited amounts to oppose him. These big money interests will not be attacking McCain therefore giving him a huge advantage even though his campaign itself will be raising less money.

A bigger problem with the big stink being made in "the media" is that McCain did the same flip-flop though in his case he backed out after he had legally accepted public financing. And true to Republican style, this may be a crime that could put Mr. McCain in prison. Oddly enough this is not being reported by the press for the most part, especially considering the amount of blithering that is coming from the pundit class about Obama openly backing away from public financing in a legal manner.

And the right wing press has gone so far as to state that no 527's have attacked Obama while there have been at least four ads released already. It would appear that the media covering McCain is so enamored of him they feel disinclined to point out the hypocrisy (and possible criminality) of his own tinkering with campaign finance. This from the man that co-wrote the current legislation! It must be nice enough to be able to write loopholes into the law for yourself, but even better if you can just ignore the law that your wrote. Ah, to be a Republican and be free of all ethical and moral values.