What Happened Mr. Skittles?

Poor Scotty McClellan. All the guy is trying to do is tell the story of What Happened --five years too late-- and he's now catching hell.

I’m sure he was a cute baby, with an innocent--things are just so complicated that I haven’t a clue about what’s going on--look on his pudgy little face. You get the idea that he was the kind of kid that always got picked last for kick-ball and ended up being the target in just about every game of dodge-ball, scrambling around while alternately pulling his slowly dropping pants up with one hand and wiping the sweat from his huge forehead with the other.

What’s a kid like that to do? How to get a couple of seconds with the cool kids? Use your lack of coolness (in a kind of social judo move), and willingness to do whatever it takes, to get you close to them by being the kind of guy that is so nonthreatening and willing to take abuse that they just gotta love you.

He probably perfected his clueless tap dance when he was pledging Sigma Phi Epsilon at The University of Texas at Austin. He wore his beanie so well, in fact, that they made him president of the local chapter.

So it should come as no surprise that this is the kind of guy who might be picked by the Fraternity Boy in Chief, to endure the press-room hazing of having to shill for the most disastrous American administration the world has ever known.

The Bushies loved him…that disarming clueless look on his face…perfect for selling something as ugly as the War. Scotty was feeling the love, and Bush and company knew he was just the kind of guy who would wear wedgies with a smile, a chuckle, and an “Aww…you guys!”

But something changed, and probably more than just one something. Little Scotty was having second thoughts. He realized that the cool kids had been lying to him, making him play the unwitting fool. It hurt, but probably not that much more than usual.

He probably would have gotten over that. Like the time the cool kids in High School told him that Ima Haute-Tass (daughter of Fay Tass), the prettiest girl in the whole school, had a crush on him so they could watch and laugh while he crashed and burned trying to ask her out.

“Aww…you guys! You got me...Hey, is anyone else here hungry? I got some Skittles.”

No there was probably something else--something that would fester over the years since leaving his position as White House Spokesman in 2006. Maybe something like fact that the Bushies refused to back his mom, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, as a Republican Gubernatorial candidate. Strayhorn was forced to run as an independent, and eventually came in third in a three way race. My guess is that that’s the kind of hurt that doesn’t go away, and might change an affable guy’s inclination to share his Skittles.

Whatever the case. Whatever his motivation. We owe Scott McClellan thanks for writing this book. It offers valuable insight into the goings on in the monkey cage during a critical period of American history.

Unfortunately for Scotty, as he tries to work his way in with a new bunch of cool kids, it’s back to dodge-ball hell, as former colleagues and associates (like Ari Fleisher) take aim. Shit, even Bob Dole has risen from his crypt to get in on the action. Looks like Scotty is back to scrambling, tugging at his belt, and mopping his ample brow…for now. But don't count Mr. Skittles out, there's something about a guy willing to be publicly pantsed...how can you not love him.

Skittles anyone?

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Google This: An Open Letter

(Yesterday I noticed something strangely absent. I did a little Goggling and well...there are some things about which I sometimes find myself unexpectedly (and uncharacteristically) compelled to write. This is such a case. )

Dear Google:

You have inexplicably chosen, once again, not to honor America's fallen heroes by failing to graphically recognize Memorial Day on your search page . You found space on the Google calendar to honor the 125th Birthday of Walter Gropius and the invention of the First Laser, but can’t squeeze in a day to honor the men and women who have lost their lives for their country? No fan of the war in Iraq myself, your decision here has even me scratching my head.

George Bush, the War in Iraq, and issues involving the Chimp/McSame skewed view of reality (bananas) are worthy targets of derision and protest, but let’s not confuse the baby with the bathwater. These men and women weren’t (and aren’t) responsible for U.S. policy (many were scarcely more than kids when they were killed).

Take issue with a General or Congressperson if you must (and I must). Read Chomsky and The Nation (I have and do). Scream to the heavens in protest of the injustices you feel have been visited upon the people of the world by past and current U.S. policies. Please though, don’t give the cold shoulder to those that have made your achievement of the American Dream possible.

These are the people who fought and died over the course of American history to: (1) Establish our country; (2) Preserve our union; and (3) put and end to the scourges of two World Wars and Nazi atrocities.

And you know the worst part of your silent insult? You are not even being up front about it. If you want to register protest, at least have the decency to stand and be publicly counted. Don’t weakly issue the likes of the following statement:

We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage.
Furthermore, Google’s special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature. If we were to commemorate Memorial Day, we would want to express reverence, rather than mirth. This would be a particularly challenging design. We would not want to, in any way, create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful. In light of the mail we have received about this, we are actively considering designs we could display on this day next year. We welcome any suggestions you may have.

Your calendar looks pretty uncluttered to me (only 15 holidays celebrated in the first 147 days of this year). As for your assertions that the design would be difficult and the subject too somber, or that you welcome any suggestions ...well... Google this.

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Worth a Thousand Words

Images Courtesy of the Chimp-in-Chief fan club

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No Joke P3: Midnight In The Clinton Soul

OK. Hillary Clinton made some allusion to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy when speaking before the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. That much, you probably already know. Specifically she said:

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it."

Of course, that remark drew immediate criticism from the Obama campaign, and many others for the same reasons Mike Huckabee's asinine joke drew fire (brimstone and damnation). In response to the growing PR storm, she then offered the following half-ass apology/explanation:

"I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns of both my husband and Senator (Robert) Kennedy waged in California in June in 1992 and 1968 and I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That's a historic fact," she said.

"The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy," she added, referring to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a brain tumor. "I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever.

"My view is that we have to look to the past to our leaders who have inspired us, give us a lot to live up to, and I'm honored to hold Senator Kennedy's seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the Kennedy family."

OK, so Hillary's story is that she, not unlike ol' Hillbilly Huck, made some off the cuff, horribly inappropriate statement under the duress of a hectic campaign schedule and within the temporal ripples of the recent Kennedy health crisis zeitgeist. Right? ...Not so fast chica loca.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, for your consideration, I'd like to admit the following ( 2 month old) March 6, 2008 Time Magazine interview excerpt into evidence :

TIME: Can you envision a point at which--if the race stays this close--Democratic Party elders would step in and say, "This is now hurting the party and whoever will be the nominee in the fall"?

CLINTON: No, I really can't. I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual.

So today's comment wasn't a one time thing and definitely wasn't some casually off-the cuff remark inspired by recent news involving Teddy. Given the Clintons' self professed view of politics as sharp elbowed blood sport, I don't know exactly what Hillary's real game is with this one, but I do know that she owes us a more forthright explanation, and a real apology-not some lame ass-umtion that we are so mentally addled that we won't see through this one.

How dark is the Clinton soul? When she says her bedtime prayers, what does she, in the unobserved privacy of her room, pray for before she lays her head down to sleep? In what mysterious ways would she have the (Dark?) Lord work?

Very Calculated. Very Craven... Very Clinton.

Somebody get me a wooden stake, because this bitch is clearly undead.

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The GOP-Michelle Obama "Whitey" Whisper/Smear Campaign

Well, it certainly looks to be the case that the McCainiacs see Michelle Obama as more than just "fair game" in the upcoming election; It would appear that the GOP and their 527 minions are bent on making her THE GAME this Fall.

The GOP rumor-mill has been churning for the last few days with talk of a super-explosive Trinity United piece of video showing her saying things that FOX/Hannity would loop endlessly during a the General Election (à la Jeremiah Wright's much sampled chart topper- "God damn America!").

We know nothing for certain about the tape, or even if there actually is such a tape. In fact, the way Turd Blossom and his crew play their game, they don't even need it to wage a campaign of character assassination by spousal assosciation.

Remember, some of the most effective whisper campaigns have done their damage without ever producing an ounce of evidence (i.e. --ironically---see John McCain in SC in 2000). That may be the case here. The suggestion for now is that this is so big that it's the kind of thing they believe should be saved for later in the campaign, but strangely news of it is being leaked now. Accident?

The original post, from Larry Johnson's blog NO Quarter reads:

"I now have it from two three four sources (three who are close to senior Republicans) that there is video dynamite–Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church. Republicans may have a lousy record when it comes to the economy and the management of the war in Iraq, but they are hell on wheels when it comes to opposition research. Someone took the chance and started reviewing the recordings from services at Jeremiah Wright’s United Church of Christ. Holy smoke!! I am told there is a clip that is being held for the fall to drop at the appropriate time. The last thing Barack and Michelle need is a new clip that raises further questions about her judgment and temperament..."

The GOP (perhaps taking a cue from the Clintons), appears to be preparing to make playing the race card a, if not the, main strategy for taking on Obama. As I alluded to earlier, this one has Karl Rove's pudgy fingerprints all over it, and helps explain why Barack declared his wife off-limits two days ago.

It is beyond sad that McCain and the GOP are preparing to carve an even bigger racial divide in order to avoid having to face Barack on the issues---a playing field on which they will surely loose.

The good news is that Obama has, as his political strategist, the masterful David Axelrod, who is expert at dealing with just this kind of thing and is in top fighting shape after having warmed up with the Wright/Flag Pin/Appeaser salvo the GOP has already launched. The sad news, really, is that John McCain, who promised to run a different kind of campaign, turns out to just be more of the McSame.

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A Real Reformer?

And this is the guy who's going clean up Washington?

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No Joke P2: U.S. Secret Service-- Bloopers, Blunders and Comedy?

Thanks to a PolitiGal1 reader for bringing the first item below to my attention. In it Scott Cortmeister comments on a story that has flown largely under the MSM radar. It is the story of how the Secret Service, while charged with protecting Barack Obama at a 17K plus person rally in Dallas, ordered metal detectors shut down and the search for weapons on incoming guests halted. The story he is talking about can be found in the Feb 21, 2008 edition of The Star-Telegram, here.

(BTW, where was JFK shot again?)

The second and third items are stories which have surfaced recently and have been reported in the New York Times in the past 8 days. I find the "security lapse" more than a little alarming, and I find what appears to be a Secret Service environment hostile to minorities (to both officers and the figures they're protecting) more than a little troubling (this is the 21st century right?), but I'll let you draw your own conclusions after having watched and read.
- PolitiGal1



STORY 1: The Secret Service, Assassinating Jesse Jackson, and Race- Can Anything But Hilarity Ensue?


E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors
Originally Published in The New York Times on May 10, 2008

By DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON — Secret Service supervisors shared crude sexual jokes and engaged in racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to internal e-mail disclosed in a federal court filing on Friday by lawyers for black Secret Service agents.

The filing includes 10 e-mail messages that were among documents the agency recently turned over to lawyers for the black agents as part of an increasingly bitter discrimination lawsuit. The messages were written mainly from 2003 through 2005, and were sent to and from e-mail accounts of at least 20 Secret Service supervisors.

The messages offer a glimpse into the darker recesses of an agency known for protecting presidents and other dignitaries but whose culture is regarded as one of the most insular in federal law enforcement.

The disclosure of the messages follows an incident last month in which a noose was found in a room used by a black instructor at a Secret Service training facility in Beltsville, Md. Agency officials said that episode was under internal investigation.

Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he would not comment directly on the e-mail but said the agency deplored racially insensitive jokes.

“We are deeply disappointed by any communication or action on the part of our employees that exhibits racial or other insensitivity,” Mr. Zahren said.

Mr. Zahren said the messages were the result of a search of 20 million electronic documents over 16 years. He said that an internal inquiry had been opened and that the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, had been alerted.

In some of the court documents, the senders of the e-mail messages are identified only by the jobs they currently occupy and the rank they held when the messages were sent. For example, an Oct. 9, 2003, message referring to a “Harlem Spelling Bee,” ridiculing black slang, was sent by Thomas Grupski, then assistant director for protective operations, who, according to the filing, now heads the Office of Government Liaison and Public Affairs.

A March 3, 2003, message describing Mr. Jackson as the “Righteous Reverend” was passed among several Secret Service supervisors. The message, about a missile striking an airplane in which Mr. Jackson and his wife were traveling, concludes, it “certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

Another message contains what one Secret Service official said was a joke referring to interracial sex. The joke circulated in February and March 2003. It was sent, according to the lawsuit, by Donald White, who heads the Presidential Protective Detail, to Kurt Douglass, an agent in charge of the Secret Service office in Cincinnati.

The legal skirmishing in the discrimination suit has heated up in recent months, with Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson rebuking the Secret Service for failing to produce documents and for destroying relevant records and e-mail.

Judge Robinson had ordered the agency to turn over the documents by late March, but the e-mail disclosed in the court filing on Friday was not turned over to lawyers for the agents until late April.

E. Desmond Hogan, a lawyer for the black agents, said the agents were “shocked but not surprised by the late production of significant evidence of racism at high levels in the Secret Service.”

“The government’s delay,” Mr. Hogan said, “follows a pattern of the Secret Service stonewalling plaintiffs and ignoring court orders, depriving African-American agents of the fundamental evidence of race discrimination that is key to their claims.”

The lawsuit, which has dragged on through years of litigation, was filed in 2000 by 10 black agents who charged that they were unfairly denied promotions. The agency employs about 3,200 agents, about 10 percent of whom are black.

STORY 2: A Pattern?

Obama Secret Service Agent Tied to Sex Joke
Originally published in The New York Times on May 15, 2008


By DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON — A Secret Service supervisor who until recently was a leader of Senator Barack Obama’s security detail sent several colleagues an e-mail message in 2005 that included a crude sexual joke about blacks and American Indians, according to documents disclosed last week as part of a lawsuit by black Secret Service agents.

The supervisory agent, Victor Erevia, sent the Jan. 26, 2005, e-mail message to five other Secret Service supervisors with what he described as a “joke,” one that referred to “popular myths of sexuality” and ridiculed several racial and religious groups. It appears that Mr. Erevia was not the author of the joke, but shared the message after it had been sent to him.

Eric Zahren, a Secret Service spokesman, said on Wednesday that while the agency did not condone offensive material, the e-mail message was “apparently an attempt at humor” and should be viewed in that context.

At the time of the message, Mr. Erevia was an assistant agent in charge of the agency’s office in Atlanta. Later, he was assigned as one of three “detail leaders” to protect Mr. Obama during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Erevia has since been promoted to head the agency’s technical security division.

Douglas DeLeaver, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said the e-mail message was unfortunate, but not aimed at individuals. “Were they insensitive? Yes,” Mr. DeLeaver said. “But should you ruin someone’s career for something that happened five years ago. I don’t think so.”

The message was among e-mail traffic turned over to lawyers for 10 black agents who have a long-running discrimination lawsuit against the Secret Service. The agents contend that they were unfairly denied promotion to the agency’s managerial ranks. But the agency said blacks represented 16 percent of its senior executive ranks.

Mr. Zahren, the agency spokesman, said the disclosure of e-mail traffic was a “deliberate attempt to embarrass the agency” during “an unprecedented presidential campaign.”

Another racially derogatory e-mail message disclosed in the lawsuit last week was received by David O’Connor, now a senior Secret Service supervisor in overall charge of presidential protective details.

The July 23, 2003, message was sent to Mr. O’Connor by his brother, Timothy O’Connor, a former Secret Service agent. The message complained about the Rev. Al Sharpton, favoritism toward blacks, political correctness and affirmative action.

In a reply, Mr. O’Connor asked if he could share the message with another Secret Service supervisor, who is now retired, because he was “worthy of trust and confidence.” The phrase has a special meaning within the agency because it is the motto of the Secret Service.

A lawyer for Mr. O’Connor, Thomas C. Wright, said there was no evidence that his client had forwarded the racially derogatory message to anyone.

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Outpost 22

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No Joke

Lincoln, JFK, RFK, MLK, Banazire Bhutto...hilarious.

Unbelievably, Mike Huckabee---ordained Baptist minister, former Republican Presidential contender, and current John McCain supporter--- made an Obama assassination joke during a speech before the NRA today.

After a loud noise interrupted him, Huckabee joked:"That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor."

Normally I'm of the opinion that anything is fair game when it comes to comedy , but that was beyond poor taste and just plain out of bounds. Agents of change are perennial targets of the lunatic fringe, and such jokes run the very real risk of speaking the unthinkable into existence. Much the same as yelling fire in a crowded theater, something like this is beyond imprudent; it is dangerous and should be strongly condemned. Not cool amigo-not at all.

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Absolutely Fabulous

Now that's what I call brilliant. On a day she should be basking in the spotlight, a bewildered Hillary Clinton has been spotted wandering the dirt roads of West Virginia looking for her thunder. Of course she won't find it, because just as Wednesday's evening news cycle was getting under way, John Edwards stole it and deftly delivered it to Barack Obama. Did I say brilliant?

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Team Clinton Changes Their Game

Hillary Clinton is not playing the same game as Barack Obama anymore. She's yesterday; he's tomorrow, and try as she might, nothing she can do from this point on will change that-not even winning the double-wide vote in West Virginia by a 41 point margin. So what gives?

She used to be competition, but with the nomination virtually guaranteed, Barack has set his sights on Tinker Bell McCain and on healing the rifts highlighted and widened by the win at all costs tactics Clinton has employed. Obama no longer addresses Senator Clinton as serious competition. Rather, he now chooses to use her continued presence in the race as a way of dodging what I'm sure must be a repulsive possibility: The question of whether he would ever consider and Obama/Clinton ticket. For now he can magnanimously reply to any such inquiry with something like:

"It's too early and Senator Clinton is still in the race, so, as a matter of respect, it would be presumptive of me to address the subject"

Barack is clearly running for president, so what you ask is Hillary's game? Interestingly enough it appears to be about power and money (I know, I know...who'da thunk?).

The Team Clinton Power Play-Hillary looks to be gunning for the Vice Presidency. Given the ruthless nature of her campaign tactics, and knowing no one in the Obama camp would freely choose her as a running mate, she is now positioning herself as the missing ingredient in a general election Obama campaign. The pillow talk will probably go something like this:

"Hey Barack, I can pull the extra-chromosome crowd for ya' if you'll just do this one little thing for me..."

The Team Clinton Money Angle-Team Clinton is deeply in debt to the tune of $21+ mil. Campaign finance laws state that if Hillary is to recoup any meaningful portion of the money she has loaned her campaign, she must do so before the nominee is officially crowned in August, after that there is $250k cap on what she can legally recover.

Now, I don't know about you, but I can't imagine donors being willing to throw good money after bad to the tune of $21 million dollars. What's a clever girl like Hillary to do? Well, last night Clinton met with 50 of her campaign financial advisors and I'm guessing they discussed, among other things, an offer from Howard Dean and the Obama campaign to enter into a joint-fund raising agreement between the Obama and Clinton camps. Whatever the discussion was last night, this afternoon DNC Chairman Howard Dean released the following statement :

"The Democratic Party is incredibly fortunate to have two strong candidates who have generated transformational enthusiasm across the country. We've seen historic turnout as new voters have come out to show their support for our candidates and fundraising numbers have been through the roof. While this is a close primary, at the end of the day both of our candidates understand that this election is about the future of our country. In signing this agreement, Senator Clinton and Senator Obama are demonstrating their commitment to unifying our party and ensuring that we have the resources needed to win the White House, no matter who the nominee is. The message is clear. Democrats are unified to put a Democrat back in the White House so we can get our economy back on track, bring our troops home and finally do something about our ailing health care system."

Though the details of the agreement are not yet clear, and as recently as last Sunday there were denials of any plan to assume the Clinton campaign debts, it looks like that may indeed be part of the deal--an the Olive branch that just might start a democratic chorus of kumbayaya.

This could be the beginning a mutually agreed upon end for Clinton (fingers crossed, but not holding breath). If not we can still call in Tyra (vid below) to work her TopModel Diva magic (ooh..she's good!)

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Could Things Be Any Clearer?

Yesterday the news came that Barack Obama has now passed Hillary Clinton in the number of pledged SuperDelegates. That puts Obama ahead in all three voter categories: Popular, pledged, and superdelegate. Could things be any clearer?

It is , in fact, so obvious that Hillary's pledge to push on is a hopeless cause that her doomed and damaging effort has spawned its own cottage business. A reader (thanks Andy), emailed me this link to Surrender Hillary, a site featuring user generated artwork (see pic above ) and T-shirts for sale. It looks like capitalism is alive and well...and as Stephen Colbert would say--Hillary, the market has spoken!

P.S. Fan of SNL ? If so, you might enjoy last night's opening skit:

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Isn't It Time To Pack It In Good Buddy?

Stephen Hawking announced (in his new super-sexy computer voice) today that he is devoting himself entirely to understanding what appears to be the first solid evidence of a parallel universe. He made his announcement yesterday during a lecture at Cambridge University:

"At first I thought that this was merely an anomaly, but the existence of what I'm calling the Clintonverse appears to be a persistent and substantive phenomenon, as it continues to exist in a state that is completely at odds with any reality that I or anyone else has ever witnessed."

Admittedly that's a bit of a fictional embellishment on my part---truth is I think his old computer voice is much sexier plus I hear Stephen prefers Karaoke to CNN, but moving on...

There is something unreal, and relentless about Hillary. Inhumanly relentless. She's politically supernatural. Just when our hero (Obama) thinks he's vanquished her, back she comes vowing to engage in the possessed tactics that only a she-devil, demonic succubus spawn of the Clintonverse (or a Republican wet-dream), would even consider.

Yesterday, she made the inexplicably divisive choice to interject race in a way will only serve to sharpen whatever racial divide already exists between Obama and Clinton supporters. At a time when polls indicate that up to 51% of Clinton and Obama supporters would rather vote for McCain in November than support the opposing democratic candidate, she makes the not so subtly implied assertion that only white Americans are "hard working" Americans.

Unbelievable though it may be, team Clinton is sticking to their guns (aimed squarely at the Party's feet). When asked about the comments, Howard Wolfson, the Clinton campaign's communications director, had the following to say:



And then there is the news that on her visit to Capitol Hill, Hillary is asking uncommitted superdelegates if they would commit to her privately. This scorched-earth approach doesn't sit well with most democrats, a camp which (no duh!) includes me .

When you start getting push-back from CNN on air anchors (as Lanny Davis did on Tuesday night) it is past time to read the writing long written on the wall. The Clintonverse and the Universe the rest of us inhabit cannot exist side by side much longer without risking irreversible damage to Obama's chances in the fall.

It's time to call in the crisis negotiation team (and if all else fails, someone with a tranquilizer gun).

Hillary, it is time to put down the knife, stop the slashing, and step away.... just step away...from the precipice you are pushing us toward. Just step away...or you'll leave us with no choice but to use the Holy Water.

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Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

With the win in North Carolina and the virtual tie in Indiana, Barack Obama appears finally to be in a position to look past Hillary Clinton , and refocus his campaign with an eye toward the general election (though I think Hillary is refusing delivery of that memo at the moment).

For those of you who missed his acceptance speech Tuesday night (It was pure buttah-excuse me I'm a bit vaclempt), Barack was at his inspirational best (as opposed to his sometimes stilted professor-speak) as he rallied the crowd and made clear who his primary target will be from this point forward:

"We can't afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush's third term, we need change in America. And that's why we will be united in November!"

This comes not a moment too soon, as faux maverick John McCain launched another of what I'm sure will be many pointed (if misleading) attacks against Obama over the weekend at a Denver rally. It was a lazy half truth intended to tap into the time-worn hyperbolic caricature of the tax and spend liberal (better than spend and spend Republicans) that the GOP has relied on for decades. But, who’s kidding who here, I suppose if the old pull my finger act worked before who can really blame the guy for letting it rip again (still stinks…and... on second thought...uh... yeah…I can blame him). McCain said:

".... Senator Obama and Senator Clinton have gotten hundreds of millions of dollars in pork barrel earmark projects. One of them being the Woodstock Cultural Museum, in case you missed that one, $1 million of your tax dollars. Senator Obama got a bunch of money for the seed museum."

While the above quote makes for a great sound-bite , that seed museum (The Svalbard Global Seed Vault), described here in WIRED magazine, is actually a serious and worthwhile scientific endeavor to preserve the world's agricultural gene pool in the event of some unforeseen global catastrophe. Definitely not some bridge to nowhere or wasteful vanity library. Which brings me to...



Those in glass houses...

2003 -John McCain tucked $14.3 million (unrequested) dollars into a defense appropriations bill in order to prevent a BRAC closing of Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and an estimated loss of $1.6 billion in revenue per year for the state. The effort, now nearly complete and now totaling $20.4 million in cost, involves buying up land to create a buffer around the base, and thereby save it from the chopping block.

2006 - John McCain teams up with Jon Kyl to request $10 million on behalf of the University of Arizona to further their effort to build an academic center named after the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist.

I understand that there are those who might dismiss the above as something other than true McCain earmarks. In a very narrow and technical interpretation of what one defines as an earmark, a case could be made I suppose (If you stand on your head and hold your breath until hypoxia sets in). But the truth is that those are not critical expenditures, and serve primarily to curry favor with McCain's Arizona constituents, and can rightly be labeled pork.

What America needs now is not a candidate/President who relies on some semantic contortion to sidestep his or her violation of the very beliefs, principles, and standards by which he or she suggests other should be judged. We've been there and done that. Time for real change.

Get you motors runnin' boys.

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Not a Game Changing Night

Well if tonight doesn't do it I don't know what will. Hillary has just had a couple of her best weeks of the primary season, and Barack Obama has just had a couple of his worst and still she couldn't come up with a the kind of game changer she needs.

Her best against his worst and he still wins. She even teamed up (again) with McCain to tag team Obama on Gas tax relief. I can't imagine how anyone could now spin her as a more viable candidate and keep a straight face. As I write this, Obama has won big in North Carolina (56% to 42%) and it looks like a too close to call Indiana might just end up in th Obama win column (Lake County, true to form, is very late to report but looks to hold enough votes put push Barack past Clinton's meager 17, 000 vote lead).

There are those reporting on the campaignwho commented that they noticed a slight change in Clinton's demeanor around noon today, just about the time she would have been receiving the latest internal campaign polls, which may be why she is attempting, again, to change the finish line.

P.S. Clinton has now been declared the winner in a real squeaker, but because delegates are allocated proportionally and not winner takes all, they will both receive about the same amount of Indiana delegates. What does this mean? It means that the tenuous claim Clinton had on a lead in popular vote (made after Pennsylvania) has been erased and Obama is now the undisputed leader in both popular votes and pledged delegates.

P.P.S. My heart and my prayers go out to the hundreds of thousands who need help in Myanmar, and I wish Godspeed to all those endeavoring to provide it.

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Jeremiah A. Wright: Supah- Stah

Good Lord! If you happen to be flipping through the cable channels, and you pause for a moment on The FOX News Channel, you have about a 110% chance of catching O'Reilly, Hannity, or one of the other Fox stooges slamming Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. They've turned this guy into a straw-man superstar in order to begin the Swiftboating of Barack Obama.

It is really unbelievable. No fan of Wright am I, but this really isn't about him now is it? This thing really started jumping off when Wright gave Louis Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award, and the rabid right was off to the races (along with the Clintons). So now they've seized upon Wright, Black Liberation Theology, William Ayres, and the kitchen sink, and are doing all they can to conflate Obama's judgment with the poor judgment of these other characters.

Take a look at the following vid of Hillary's surrogate Gov. Ed Rendell praising Louis Farrakhan (it is an astonishing bit of ass-kissing) and ask yourself why nobody has their panties in a bunch over Hillary's guilt by second-order association. Seriously, if you have an answer I'd love to hear it.

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Happy Birthday Darling Nicky!

It was on this day May 3, 1469 that the first honest to God Machiavellian was born. Yes that was the day little Nicky Machiavelli entered the world, soon after got acne, and later described how to take it over in his seminal and oft referenced treatise The Prince. The End.

OK, I'll admit that that's a bit of a simplification. Nicky did spend some in-between time in the Florence secretary pool as secretary of the ten-man council (from 1498 to 1512). The council conducted the diplomatic negotiations and supervised the military operations of the republic (Check out those legs! Who knew?).

Then the empire fell, and Nicky, long since tired of being chased around the boss' desk, gathered up his courage, quit.

Yes there were lines to be drawn even back then. A proud and defiant (you go girl!) survivor of terrible sexual harassment (He was once quoted as saying "I'ma nota justa pieca meata!" he channeled his energies into understanding the motives of men. Why do they behave so? And if I were one intent on ruling the world one day, what skills might I need?

At first he wasn't received well, mocked by those around him for being to forward...too...well...ballsy. He should know his place. But Nicky persevered, deciphered the behavioral code of patriarchal power, and put it down on paper.

What to call it though? He was initially drawn to the title
THE SECRET, but then thought to himself, nahh...doesn't quite pop. Never sell...something like that.

Weary, he laid his head to rest for the night. As he slept a strange purple ether enveloped him, and a man surrounded by thirteen crying doves and carrying a white guitar appeared. It was the ghost of philosophy future, 19th century philospher Arthur Schopenhauer and the apparition spoke the following haunting words:

"Dude,call it something like..I dunno..The Prince.. oh,and remember-

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

He awoke, a bit confused, but nonetheless inspired, and decided to go for it. Thusly The Prince was born. Strange, that last part though, Nicky thought, but eh...whatev.

And the centuries passed, until eventually the much maligned Machiavelli was recognized as a true genius. It was 17th century English Philosopher Sir Francis Bacon who had the following to say about Darling Nicky:

We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do . For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions of the serpent; his baseness and going upon his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest; that is, all forms and natures of evil. For without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced. Nay, an honest man can do no good upon those that are wicked, to reclaim them, without the help of the knowledge of evil

And Today, almost every politician worth his or her salt has read all or part of the prince, though there are those who prefer the Billy Dee Williams movie version and/or are hoping for a comic book version.

I'll let you be the judge of which politician falls into which category. Far be it from me to even infer which is which. Much Love- PolitiGal.

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5 Years Later: Mission Not Accomplished

Seriously though, if you appreciate nothing else about George Bush, you have to admit that the Chimp in Chief would be an endlessly amusing moron if only he weren't real.

The Coen brothers couldn't have written a more darkly comic script, and Winston Groom couldn't have created a more Gumpish President. But sadly, the last 8 years aren't a work of fiction and we can't consign them to a dark room and the flicker of a projector.

No this comedy of errors is all too real, and the Gump presidency has been a flesh and (Iraqi and American) blood mash-up of just about everything that could go wrong with American foreign policy.

It was 5 years ago that a flight-suited, crotch-enhanced, Bushie-Boy landed triumphantly on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and proudly proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" (Maybe not in those exact words but that's a matter of petty semantic quibbling).


So what has changed in the last 5 years? Turns out exporting a self-serving flavor of "democracy" with less than solid planning and honest intentions is a real bitch. As a freedom loving American girl I'd love to see freedom grow and supplant despotism in every repressed corner of the world, but an American Administration should be circumspect in its evaluation of attempting to forcibly deliver it. Owen Harries over at National Interest Online captured the complexity of and dangers inherent in the whole proposition of attempting to shape a "New World Order" pretty well in the following 2005 Opinion piece:

“Exporting Democracy”—and Getting It Wrong: Some Thoughts

Owen Harries

Americans of all political persuasions believe profoundly that it is their right and duty-indeed their destiny-to promote freedom and democracy in the world. It is a noble and powerful impulse, one not casually to be ridiculed or dismissed. But acting on it-if one is concerned about being effective and not merely feeling virtuous-is a complicated and delicate business with many dangers. Success requires that this impulse be balanced against, and where necessary circumscribed by, other interests that the United States must necessarily pursue, more mundane ones like security, order and prosperity. For these represent not merely legitimate competing claims but the preconditions for a lasting extension of democracy.

Success requires, too, an awareness of the intractability of a world that does not exist merely in order to satisfy American expectations-a world that, for the most part, cannot satisfy those expectations in the foreseeable future. While determination and purposefulness are important ingredients in any effective policy, the attempt to force history in the direction of democracy by an exercise of will is likely to produce more unintended than intended consequences. The successful promotion of democracy calls for restraint and patience, a sense of limits and an appreciation of the wisdom of indirection, a profound understanding of the particularity of circumstances ... . As Carlyle once put it, "I don't pretend to understand the Universe-it's a great deal bigger than I am ... People ought to be modester." Indeed.

Thankfully, this is an election year and we have the opportunity to usher in a new, more intelligent, World-friendly President. Then we can leave our lament largely behind and all look back at unCurious George's half-wit strategery and chuckle at the unreality of it all.

Vote, and vote smart people. Say no to 4 more years of the McSame.

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