You Want Real Change, America? Choose the Black Democrat, Not the Old White Republican and his Lying Huckabee-in-Drag!

Here we are less than two months away from the presidential election and, as expected, the campaign trail has become a Republican freak-show. The once-maverick Sen. John McCain, who promised to run a clean, honorable campaign, has descended so low into the bowels of dirty politics it's downright despicable, while his grossly inexperienced vice-presidential running-mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, desperately tries to lie herself into the Executive Mansion. With the GOP's Darth Vader, Karl Rove, as their Shaman and strategic guru, McPalin is trying to convince voters that it is they, not the Democrats, who are the real agents of change. This claim would be comical if it wasn't so absurd and infuriating. Yes! Fed up with the last eight years of ruinous Republican rule? Why not vote for change and give Republicans four more years!? But America does have a real choice this year. A real opportunity to bring about real change. And his name is Barack Obama. But a strange phenomenon's occurring: incredibly, McPalin's co-opted Obama's central campaign message.

Tell me something please: How does a party with a rich old white nominee appear to have successfully claimed the mantle of change over the party whose ticket is topped by a black man? This one's even more mystifying than the two draft-dodgers, George Bush and Dick Cheney, successfully convincing voters in 2004 that they were the tough guys who could protect America while the decorated war hero John Kerry could not. Ya gotta give these guys credit. They've mastered the art of propaganda. If you say it, and say it often enough, it must be true.

There's more. How does the party that's controlled Washington for virtually all of the last fourteen years have the audacity to run on change? How does a party that's been rocked by scandal and corruption boast that they're headed to Washington "to clean up that swamp." And while we're at it, how does the party that holds as its #1 priority prohibiting women from making choices about their own bodies get away with attacking Democrats as being sexist while presenting themselves as pro-women? How does the party of rich white people label Obama an elitist? How does the party that gives big tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations paint themselves as champions of the little guy? How does a candidate like Palin, who's cut Special Olympics funding by 50% get to "promise" voters that a McPalin administration would be a "friend and advocate" of special needs children? How does a party which has allowed corporate America to pollute our air and water get to run as environmentalists? How is this all happening? Where is the public outrage? Where is the media scrutiny?

And the campaign continues to get dirtier each day. Earlier this week the McNasty ticket accused Obama of making a derogatory remark about Palin when he said his now infamous line "You can put lipstick on a pig and guess what, it's still a pig" in mocking McCain and Palin's change theme. Perhaps the sanctimonious McCain has forgotten, but he used the same phrase last year to describe Hillary Clinton's health care plan. I guess it wasn't sexist then. Or maybe it's just more of the same old Republican "Do as I say, not as I do" philosophy in action. Lie #1

Then later in the week came McNasty's disgusting, shameful attack ad accusing Obama of authoring a bill while in the Illinois State Senate that would require kindergarten children to be taught comprehensive sex education. The ad was immediately denounced as patently false and intentionally deceptive not only by the Obama camp, but by almost every major mainstream media journalist. The truth is, the measure advocated teaching children how to defend themselves against sexual predators. More complicated subject matter such as homosexuality, intercourse and contraception was not a part of the curriculum. And, the bill received support from a broad coalition of public health and education organizations including the Illinois Parent Teacher Association, the Illinois State Medical Society, the Illinois Public Health Association and the Illinois Education Association. Lie #2.

There was also Palin's revising history on her "Bridge to Nowhere" support, essentially saying I was for it before I was against it. Not only was she for it, she hired a lobbying firm to snag the $200-million earmark. When the bridge deal lost support, she ended up with the dough anyway. Lie #3.

And then came the moment we've all been waiting for, when the anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-stem-cell research, gun-toting, carcass-skinning, book-banning, evangelical creationist Palin faced ABC's Charles Gibson in her maiden interview. Her performance was an embarrassing display of ignorance on the major domestic and global issues of the day, clearly demonstrating to any sane, rational person that the plucky little hockey mom is woefully unprepared to serve this nation as vice president, let alone be ready to step in as president in the event of a crisis.

When Gibson asked if she had met any foreign heads of state, Palin winced and said no, then claimed that if the question was put to most other modern vice presidential candidates the answer would be the same as well. Well, not quite Sarah. You'd be the first veep in 32 years not to have met any foreign heads of state. Lie #4.

Gibson then moved on to global warming, reminding Palin of her position that it's not caused by human activity. In a flip-flop, she stated that some of it is indeed man-made, yet denied her previous position: "Show me where I have ever said that there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on climate change. I have not said that." Well, in an interview last year with a Fairbanks newspaper she said: "I'm not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity." Lie #5.

And when Gibson asked her whether she agrees with "The Bush Doctrine" she was utterly clueless, and it was painfully obvious. Rather than take the honest path and say she wasn't all that familiar with its tenets, she opted instead to take the high school bluff route, answering the question with a question ("In what respect, Charlie?"). Jeff Spicoli would've been proud.

Throughout the interview I felt embarrassed for the little arctic spitfire. With every question, she appeared either like a frightened deer in the headlights, or, as the teacher's pet looking for praise when providing what she thinks is the correct answer. Worse, some of her answers pertaining to foreign affairs were so vague and stilted that they sounded like the kind of "bring peace on earth" vacuous gems offered up by a beauty queen (not a stretch for the former Miss Wasilla and Miss Alaska runner-up).

Though I never though it possible, Palin makes 1988's GOP vice presidential embarrassment, Dan Quayle, finally appear highly credentialed and experienced by comparison when you consider his two terms each in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Perspective is a beautiful thing.

Of course, the McPalin campaign once again shed its crocodile tears, accusing ABC and Gibson of being too harsh on their wondrous gal. Of being too professorial, too condescending. That he was out to get her.

So was Gibson guilty of journalistic high-sticking? Give us a break. What was he supposed to do, toss her softballs? Let's get something straight: McCain appoints a total political neophyte to be vice-president and a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, vehemently insists she's qualified, sequesters her from the press for two weeks, and then when he finally wheels her out of the GOP safehouse he whines that Gibson asked the tough and completely fair and reasonable questions?

Hey Sarah, there's no free pass here just because you're cute and perky. If that's all we wanted we'd elect Katie Couric. If you want to shed the snow shoes and play in the big leagues you're gonna have to pass the smell test with the American voter. You're gonna have to face the media many times between now and November, and you better know what the hell you're talking about. You're asking us all to take you seriously as a potential president, commander in chief of the greatest military, and leader of the free world. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Oh, I'm sorry, was that sexist?

Who's Running for President, McCain or Palin?

My one-week love affair with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP's vice presidential nominee, is officially over. She's no longer charming. Her relentless sarcasm is derogatory and mean-spirited. And, she's dangerous. The smart girl glasses are, like her, a sham, and that Fargo voice now sounds like nails on a chalkboard. To be honest, most of my previous adoration centered around my expectation that the appointment of this political lightweight would be a cancer to the ticket. Instead, I now believe she's Sen. John McCain's meal ticket. Incredibly, this election has become all about her, not him, and if Sen. Barack Obama and the Dems don't get their shit together fast and strip away the layers of this vacuous onion, Palin just might be the reason McCain wins in November.

Once again, Republicans are distracting voters away from the real issues--the war, Afghanistan, the economy, health care--and framing the entire campaign around the fact that Palin's a small town, socially conservative, diaper-juggling Walmart mom who doesn't scare them. Someone voters can feel comfortable and safe with, wink-wink. As MSNBC's Chris Matthews said Monday, "This is to me the cleverest move they've ever pulled....which is the switch from what do you want to who do you want." Matthews also believes that this tactic is rooted more in racial motivations than anything else. And he's right. The McCain camp would just love to reassure voters that their white ticket is the safer bet.

It's safe to say that Republicans are downright giddy over their Everymom. In fact, since her rousing speech last week at the RNC convention in Minneapolis, conservatives have been acting as if it's she, not McCain, who's running for president. The convention was The Sarah Palin Show. Not good for the top guy to be so embarrassingly upstaged by the former Mayor of Wasilla. It's unprecedented in modern American politics for a presidential candidiate to literally rest his campaign hopes on the shoulders of his vice presidential running mate, and to change his entire message to fit her narrow positions.

But nevertheless, Republicans have been smart to elevate Palin in stature knowing just how weak McCain's prospects would be without the charismatic hockey mom on the ticket. This little arctic spitfire has taken his anemic campaign and given it new life. Her convention performance outdrew both McCain and Obama, and she's been on fire since. As proof, a new USA/Gallup Poll released Monday showed a huge bounce for the ticket, putting Grandpa John and Grandma Sarah ten points ahead of Obama and Sen. Joe Biden among likely voters. But before Republicans could really get excited, other new polls, including CNN and ABC, still showed the race as a dead heat.

Just wait. Wait until the currently sequestered Palin has to go before the national news media to answer questions pertaining to a host of domestic and global issues. Despite the intense coaching from Sen. Joe Lieberman and others, Palin's gaping knowledge-abyss will be evident. Gone will be the American flags backdrop, the cheering throngs of kool-aid drunken right-wingers, and the writing skills of Karl Rove and Steve Schmidt. It won't be a Wasilla press conference. She may be able to memorize some sound bytes, but she cannot and will not become miraculously adept with and acutely aware of the nuances of our various national security and economic challenges. There's a reason the campaign has so far kept her from the press: she has no idea what to say.

Back to the polls. Bounce shmounce, I say. Remember, Obama also had a ten-point bounce after the DNC convention. Now it's McCain's turn. And a week from now it'll be different yet again. Voters typically do not focus on elections until after Labor Day. The real campaign is just starting. Not only will Palin have to face the media many times over--shows like "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation" are a must--she will also go head-to-head with Biden on Oct 2nd in the televised vice presidential debate. Can you imagine how woefully unprepared and inexperienced she's gonna look like against Biden and his 37 years of solid foreign policy and domestic legislating?

Additionally, the Obama/Biden ticket will be greatly aided by the Clintons. Hillary's been out stumping quite effectively already in places like Florida, and Obama and Bill Clinton will be lunching Thursday to map out the strategy for getting Bubba fully engaged. The right can mock Bill Clinton all it wants, but he's a master campaigner and still wildly popular among Democrats, moderate Republicans and Independents. His presence on the campaign trail these next seven weeks will prove invaluable.

Stumping in the swing state of Missouri Monday, we got a glimpse of the McCain/Palin strategy in action for the anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-stem-cell research, gun-toting, carcass-skinning, evangelical creationist book-banning Palin. The Repubs know they're weak on the economy, so they had their spunky cheerleader tackle taxes, jobs, government spending, etc. But the speech was short on substance and chock full of catchy sound bytes. Just the sort of knowledge-gap that the media and Biden will shoot Dick Cheney-sized bullet holes through very soon...that is, once she's let out of the GOP safehouse.

"Our opponent, he still can't acknowledge the coming victory in Iraq," Grandma Sarah incredulously declared at the Missouri charade. Did she say victory? The coming victory? I can't wait until the press gets to ask her to (a) specifically define victory and (b) tell us just when that will occur...since she's so damned sure it's coming. Palin also engaged in revising history over her supposed "Bridge to Nowhere" opposition, which we now know was actually aggressive lobbying for the $400-million pork-barrel project. Thankfully, Obama hit back Monday, and hit hard: "I mean ya can't just make stuff up. Ya can't just recreate yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid."

Oh Barack, how we do hope you're right. But judging from the outcome of both the 2000 and 2004 elections, I'm not so sure.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

It's Not Because Palin is a Woman, It's Because She's the Wrong Woman

Enough already with the sexism charge. Not only is it patently false, but it's hypocritical. What happened to the right-wing's chorus of "Why can't we criticize Sen. Barack Obama without being called racists?" Now that the shoe's on the other foot our whiney friends on the right are crying foul over the left's outrage over Sen. John McCain's appointment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Yes, Democrats are upset. They're scared shitless at the thought of this incredibly inexperienced woman one day having to assume the role of president while the nation fights two wars and terrorists abroad and an economic recession here at home. With McCain being 72 and a 3-time cancer survivor, the fear is well-founded. Palin would be but a heartbeat from the Oval Office which, for any sane, rational person, is a little too close for comfort.

On MSNBC Saturday Republican strategist Brad Blakeman repeated the party-line about Palin's readiness to be president: "Should something happen to McCain, she has the 'executive experience' and will be capable of stepping in to lead the country." I often wonder if these spinheads really believe this garbage or if they're so scared and desperate in the face of Palin's gross deficiencies that they simply have to regurgitate this offensive drivel non-stop in order to feel like they're keeping McCain in the game. But Blakeman and the rest of the GOP spinners wo are singing Palin's "readiness" praises ultimately wince at the thought of her taking direct questions from reporters, which is why the campaign has made the calculated decision to keep her away from the media. Obviously, her knowledge of the broader national and international issues is so weak that she's not even "ready" to stand at the podium, let alone sit in the Oval Office.

The campaign's relentless spin is that Palin, unlike Obama, has "executive experience" (for the record, McCain has none either). McCain, Palin and their surrogates are quite disingenuous when they refer to him as a "community organizer," conveniently leaving out his eight years in the Illinois State Senate and four in the U.S Senate. They also forget the fact that Obama's been running for over a year, has been vetted every which way, has appeared in 23 debates, answered question after question about his experience and positions, and ultimately convinced 20-million people to vote for him. Excuse me, but there are no comparisons to be made here.

In the Los Angeles Times last week renowned feminist, author and publisher Gloria Steinem was dead-on when she criticized Palin's sudden and dubious ascension into national politics: "This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need....Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton"...belongs to a party with a "platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for, and that Barack Obama's still does"...and "To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

The GOP's defense of Palin centers on the same framing tactics used with Iraq: that if you're against the war you're against the troops. Hence, not supporting Palin is an attack on women. Of course, this is a ridiculous assertion, as the opposition has nothing to do with her gender but rather the glaring fact that she is a political lightweight and is grossly underqualified to be in her position. Ironically, the very same people Republicans accuse of being sexist are the same people who passionately supported Hillary Clinton. That's hardly sexism.

It's also a sad commentary on John McCain that his campaign has become all about Sarah Palin and not the candidate himself. The passion, excitement and renewed optimism among Republicans about their ticket can be attributed to Palin's one week in the national spotlight, not because of the man at the top or what he stands for. What does that say about conservatives and their misguided expectations? About how low they're willing to place the bar? About how they want to maintain power so badly that they'll pander using the lowest common denominators?

My favorite ReDrunkLican delusionist, Sirius Radio's Andrew Wilkow, railed last week about the hypocrisy of Democrats in their harsh criticism of Palin: "These people are pathetic. They claim to to be the champion of women and minorities." That his party's ticket is headed by a rich old white guy while the Democrats nominated a black man and also had 18-million people vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton seems lost on Wilkow, as are most facts. This from a guy who who refers to the Democrats' lack of support for Palin as "ovarian fascism." Wilkow and his radio/tv cohorts on the right spend an awful lot of time trying to convince voters (and themselves, I think) that over the years the Republican Party, more than the Democrats, has been the true champion of the poor, the middle-class, blacks, Hispanics, women and the elderly. We're talking levels of delusion here that would make Freud's head spin. Either that or these clowns are lying through their teeth.

The Republican hypocrisy in this campaign is embarrassing. How long have they been bashing Obama on the 'experience' issue, claiming he's nothing more than a charismatic orator who gives great speeches? Yet they're so quick to fall in love with a political neophyte who's given voters nothing more than one electrifying speech, albeit one with filled with lies, deception, anger and sarcasm.

Let's be clear: Democrats' opposition to Palin has nothing to do with her being a woman and has everything to do with her being woefully unprepared and unfit for the job. McCain could've chosen any one of a number of highly qualified women as his running-mate, chief among them Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Sen. Olympia Snowe, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and former NJ Governor and EPA head Christie Todd Whitman. He also could've gone a bit out of the box with former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina or former EBAY CEO Meg Whitman, both brilliant women, well-versed in economic matters and who already play strong surrogate roles in the campaign. You would not have heard a peep from the left, just as Sen. Joe Biden's nomination has caused virtually no stir from the right. Biden's unassailable, as would be these women. You may disagree with their positions, but you could not question their experience.

To be sure, conservatives have gotten themselves whipped into a euphoric lather over their gal Palin, and rushed to send the campaign $1-million the day after her speech. The only problem for them is, Obama's supporters sent in a whopping $10-million the same day. Palin's inspiring allright, but not how Republicans had planned.

John McCain: The 25-Year Washington Insider Comically Running as the Washington Outsider

The Republican convention is finally over. Thankfully, my large-screen TV's still in-tact despite three nights of me throwing my enraged liberal Birkenstocks at it. The whole event was a freak-show of deception, scripted by the duplicitous campaign chief Steve Schmidt and GOP operative Karl Rove and executed by a shameless parade of disingenuous conservative liars.

The biggest liar of all is the party's nominee, Sen. John McCain, who is desperately trying to portray himself as the Washington "outsider" and the candidate of change. In fact, listening to the Republicans this week would lead one to believe that it's been the Democrats, not them, who's been running Washington these past eight years. The NY Times wrote Friday that:

"The nominee’s friend described him as a "restless reformer who will clean up Washington." His defeated rival described him going to the capital to "drain that swamp." His running mate described their mission as "change, the goal we share." And that was at the incumbent party’s convention."

"Drain that swamp?" If in fact Washington's been a swamp since George Bush took office in 2000, then McCain's been wading in it with his thigh-high muck-boots along with Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the Bushevik swamp-dwelling, Constitution-defiling cronies.

All week long we heard about McCain and his anti-woman woman running-mate Sarah Palin talk about heading to Washington to shake things up. Watch out DC, McCain/Palin's comin' to town to whip all you corrupt, amoral, wasteful-spending insiders into shape. And the central character in this line of bullshit is Palin herself. That somehow McCain's six terms as a U.S. Senator is negated by his decision to appoint some no-name arctic oil-whore as his running mate.

It's astounding how McCain can attempt to credibly run as a Washington outsider when over the course of his 25 Senate inside years he was a disgraced member of the corrupt Keating Five; enthusiastically supported every one of Bush/Cheney's reckless war blunders; voted with Bush 90% of the time; and has had more lobbyists on his payroll than your average K Street lobbying firm.

But credibility has never been the Republicans' strong suit. They're the guys who dodged the Vietnam draft yet paint war heroes like John Kerry, Jack Murtha and Max Cleland as weak and unable to protect America. They're the guys with the highest wealth and privilege yet paint Barack Obama and Joe Biden as elitists. They're the guys who've controlled power for the last eight years under Bush, and for virtually all of the past 14 years in the House and Senate, yet portray Washington as a Democratic cesspool. And now we have McCain and his 25-year swamp-stained D.C. muck-boots calling Obama the Washington insider.

Let's hope that over the next 60 days McCain and Palin are exposed for the frauds that they are.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

Why I Love Sarah Palin

Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin hit the RNC convention stage Wednesday night with the fiery intensity that Hurricane Gustav threatened but failed to wage on the Gulf Coast earlier in the week. Let's face it, she's beautiful, sexy, smart, funny, sarcastic, tough, oozes charisma and can deliver a rousing speech the same if not better than Sen. Barack Obama. She's the real deal. A true rock star. Pat Benatar with smart-girl glasses. That she's sounds like Frances McDormand in "Fargo" is a special little bonus. It's quite easy to see why Republicans are like high school boys with a mad crush. But fortunately for Democrats, she also has more skeletons in her closet than an osteologist, making her the juiciest target to come along in years. For the left, she could be the election on a silver platter.

As an example, the National Enquirer is dispatching an army of reporters to continue investigating Palin, and explosively alleges in its print edition this week that she had an affair with one of her husband's business partners. And where there's infidelity smoke, there could be fire, especially since the Enquirer recently earned its stripes with its accurate reporting of John Edwards' affair. It also broke the Bill Clinton/Paula Jones scandal back in the early 90's. For any politician these days, having the National Enquirer hot on your trail is definitely not a good thing, especially in the middle of a heated presidential race.

Additionally, an article in The Washington Post Thursday highlights several intense emails Palin sent to former Alaskan public safety commissioner, Walter Monegan, who was fired by Palin in July allegedly for failing to heed Palin's calls to fire her brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, who at the time was embroiled in a messy divorce with Palin's sister. As a result, she's currently under investigation by a bipartisan legislative body for alleged abuse-of-power. To be sure, this story has legs and, long after Palin's much-heralded convention speech, it will continue to haunt her and the McCain campaign all the way to November.

The media has not been too kind on Palin either. During the televised convention coverage on MSNBC, conservative columnist and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan was inadvertently overheard answering a question about Palin’s experience: "Most qualified?, no," adding that McCain had chosen her not based on ideology, but for the personal narrative. "Every time Republicans do that they blow it." I suspect this sort of off-the-cuff honesty from the press, as well as more hard-hitting reporting, will continue, in part incited by the campaign itself.

The McCain camp has been harshly criticizing the media for its coverage of Palin, signaling that the curmudgeonly nominee's lovefest with the press has finally ended, as it should. As the NY Times reports Thursday, the campaign has distributed news releases criticizing individual reporters for their unfair coverage, including CNN's Campbell Brown, over which they cancelled McCain's scheduled Larry King interview; dismissed a NY Times article about Palin's vetting process as "fiction;" and the campaign's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, accused journalists of pursuing a "mission to destroy" Palin with "a new level of viciousness."

Overall, Palin's checkered past is quite troubling for the ticket. Toss in her supposed involvement in the Alaska Independence Party, which advocates the state's secession from the Union; her 17-year-old daughter Bristol's
unwed pregnancy; and her husband's DWI 22 years ago and the picture painted is hardly the desired one of conservative family values. Yeah, she's pretty and gives a darned good speech, but there's plenty of there there, just not the kind that McCain bargained for.

What's more, it's laughable to think she'll attract the disaffected female supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton. There's not a liberal chick alive who voted for Clinton that will throw her support to the anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-stem cell research, gun-toting, carcass-skinning, evangelical, creationist, abstinence-only Republican. I mean, are you kidding?!

Regarding the convention itself, it's so far been a well-orchestrated charade consisting of American flags, cowboys, veterans and the black guy. Twenty thousand fanatic supporters filling the arena and it seemed that all they could find was one lone black dude who kept appearing on camera repeatedly. There sure was a helluva lot of red, white and blue, but hardly any black. If it wasn't so embarassing, it'd be comical.

While Tuesday night's opening mentioned not one single word about the economy, proving yet again how out-of-touch Republicans are with the mounting financial anxieties of the average American, Wednesday's circus contained not one word about Bush and Cheney, proving that Republicans are quite adept when it comes to burying their ugly embarrassments.

In Wednesday night's exercise in revisionist history, speaker after deceptive speaker--including Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and Grandma Sarah herself--were tricked out to distort the truth and lie about the candidates, the war, the economy, taxes and the role of government. These people have no shame. No scruples. They never let facts get in the way of their spinning. And watching their flag-draped BullshitFest was/is enough to make you sick. But what they do have is an insatiable hunger for power, and are doing and saying whatever necessary to win the White House. Obama and the Democrats indeed have a gift in Palin, and with McBush. Let's just hope they know what to do with it before November 4th.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

The Republican Hypocrisy is Enough to Make You Sick

Given the amount of posts to our message board from Republicans yapping about everything from Barack Obama's "bastard childhood" to Bill Clinton's blowjobs, and that Democrats themselves have controversial situations in their lives, I'd like to try one last time to get our conservative friends to understand why those of us on the left pounce on scandals like Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol's pregnancy.

Let me make it simple: hypocrisy. No Democrat would be foolish enough to state that liberals are perfect. That we're scandal-free. Sinners come in both blue and red. The difference is, Democrats don't sanctimoniously lecture everyone else from the bully pulpit about ethics. About what's moral. About what constitutes "acceptable" family values. About how to live your life. About right and wrong. Good vs. evil. That's what Republicans do. It's conservatives who want to tell us all how to live, who to marry, who to sleep with, what to do with our bodies, when to let a sick loved one die. But time and time again, they are proven to be living a lie. Creating a double-standard. They're all about do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do. They often live in the biggest glass house, yet throw the largest stones. So when they fall, when they sin, when they are exposed as the hypocrites they are, we rejoice. Because that's what they deserve.

Bill Clinton may have hugely sinned, but he never preached morality to anyone else. Barack Obama may be the child of a broken home, but he at least had the class this week to encourage voters, both Democrats and Republicans--as he reminded them that his own mother was just 18 when she gave birth to him--to let the Palin family's private matter remain just that: private. That's a helluva lot more than what he or vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden would be getting from the right if the situation were reversed.

And while we're on the subject of hypocrisy, ya gotta love how McCain, Palin, the GOP and all the Conservative spinners out there are whining about how Bristol's pregnancy is a Palin family personal matter, and that the Democrats and the press should leave her and her boyfriend, Levi Johnston, out of the debate and allow them their privacy. Yet, guess who the McCain/Palin campaign trumps out onto the tarmac Wednesday, in some twisted family-values photo-op, to greet McCain's plane as he lands in Minneapolis for the RNC convention? Bristol and Levi. So please, don't lecture us anymore about their privacy. The fact that McCain is surprisingly exploiting this Sin City mess as if it's something to be proud of, and Palin's gleefully going along for the ride, means it's open season on them and the whole affair. Grandpa John and Grandma Sarah can't have it both ways.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

The 2008 Republican Party: Abortion, Abortion, Abortion. Some Things Will Never Change

It's 2008. The country is mired in a deadly, costly war in Iraq. We are engaged in another critical war in Afghanistan, where the Bush administration, distracted by Iraq, has taken its eye off of a resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda. We live in an age of terrorist threats. Our economy is in recession, or at best, on the verge. Oil and gas prices are at record levels. We're saddled with record debt. Inflation is increasing. Consumer confidence declining. Unemployment up, real wages down. A tanking stock market. Our educational and health care systems trail the rest of the Western world. But what's become the central theme in the Republican's insatiable hunger for the White House? Abortion. That's the issue they think will most energize and rally their base as well as independents. That abortion is enough to divert voters' attention away from the miserable failure of the GOP's last eight years in power, and the fact that it's nominee, Sen. John McCain, offers nothing more than another four of the same.

McCain's appointment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate is a cheap attempt to play this incendiary card. She's hard-core anti-abortion. The GOP's banking on her evangelical street-cred to outweigh the fact that she has virtually no experience whatsoever to be placed in such a critical position in national politics. It's the same old Republican bait-and-switch game. When the shit starts to hit the fan, they toss out the social hot-button cards--religion, gay marriage, abortion--to appeal to the lowest common denominator in the electorate. It's dumb-down-America time. Once again, they're trying to get Mr. and Mrs. Middle America to say, "Sure the Republicans and George Bush have let me down...sure, the party isn't offering anything different this time around. I don't have enough money to pay my bills, fill my car with gas and take care of my kids...I can't save any money...my wife lost her job...my groceries keep going up...I don't have adequate health coverage...but hey, I'm voting for McCain and Palin because they'll fight to prevent some sleazy New York liberal women from getting abortions." But will Americans, even Republicans, vote against their own economic interests yet again as they did in 2000 and 2004?

But to the religious right, the stakes are even higher. The GOP's message is not just about abortion per se. The Rovian promise to its myopic base is that the McCain/Palin ticket will stack the Supreme Court with Justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. Indeed, with two vacancies likely to arise within the next president's term, this issue is a major one, and the Repubs are pulling out all the stops. When it comes to God, faith and family values, many Republicans have a funny way of ignoring everything else, even at their own expense. And McCain and Palin know this. And they're milking it for everything they've got because they have little else to run on. It certainly isn't McCain's command of economics, nor is it Palin's national security experience. And when it comes to "family values," McCain's infidelity, Palin's teenage daughter's unwed pregnancy, her abuse-of-power investigation, or her husband's DWI certainly doesn't paint a Rockwellian picture.

In fact, McCain's national security "expertise" is highly overrated. He unconditionally supported the Iraq invasion, helped Bush take his eye of Afghanistan and al Qaeda, and continues to be a reckless war-monger. That he was "right" about the surge should impress no one. Did anyone honestly believe sending in 20,000 additional toops would not have a positive impact in decreasing the violence in a very specific area like Anbar Province? His support for the surge was and remains irrational, as it, like the war itself, has failed to create a sustainable, self-governing American-style Democracy in Iraq, which was the goal (something McCain and the Repubs like to forget). Shift to abortion, abortion, abortion. Divert and distract. It's the classic Rovian playbook.

This time around, in 2008, voters should reject the abortion issue just as they should gay marriage, gun control and anything else that simply doesn't matter. Our nation's in the shitter, for Fuck's sake. They should go to the polls to protest their colossal outrage that Bush's elective vanity war in Iraq has made us and the world less safe from our real enemy, al Qaeda, and that our anemic economy is killing them. But will they....


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

Is McCain Getting Set to Dump Palin?

I love the 2008 presidential campaign. It's not only the most exciting, most historic and one of the most hotly contested races ever, it's starting to become fun too. That is, if you're a Democrat. If you're a Republican, I suspect you're not having such a great time.

The Democrats are coming off a kick-ass convention week where their rock-star nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, has jumped about 9 points in the polls following his brilliant acceptance speech. To the contrary, this week began with a postponement of the much-hyped RNC convention amid controversy, scandal and humiliation. The public reason was Hurricane Gustav. The real reason is more likely the continuing shitstorm created by Sen. John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. That and the embarrassment President Bush, McCain and the Republican party still face over the government's abysmal reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In fact, the anniversary of the mega-storm which hit the Gulf is almost three years to the day of the RNC's first convention day. Embarassingly, on that day, Bush and McCain were in Phoenix celebrating Grandpa John's 69th birthday. Yeah, I'd say this week's delay is to give pause so the party can regroup and figure out just what its next steps are, in particular in dealing with the Palin controversy.

And the Palin mess is getting uglier by the minute. The NY Times Tuesday reports that, in addition to Palin's daughter being five months pregnant, she's hired a private lawyer to defend her in her abuse-of-power investigation; was a member of a political party seeking Alaska's secession from the Union; and that her husband Todd was arrested 22 years ago for drunken driving. Jeez, the Republicans sure have a distorted view of "family values," huh? With McCain's temper, we can only imagine how much yelling and screaming must be going on behind the scenes right now.

But McCain likely has only himself to blame. Word on the street is that no one in his vice presidential selection committee but him wanted Palin. He wanted his pal Sen. Joe Lieberman, but hastily switched plans last-minute in a likely act of desperation following Obama and the Dems Denver blowout. His move, purely political to seduce Sen. Hillary Clinton's disaffected women supporters, hardly is a "country first" strategy. If McCain was/is so concerned about country, he wouldn't be pushing to put it in the hands of the very inexperienced Palin in the event something were to happen to him. He'd give us someone like Sen. Joe Biden, the Dems' VP nominee.

So what is McCain and the party to do? Don't be shocked if there's a surprise announcement early this week from Palin, something to the tune of:

"It is with deep regret that I am withdrawing my name from consideration as the party's nominee for vice president of the United States of America. Given my daughter's pregnancy, the difficulty in raising a Down syndrome child, and the ongoing personal investigation in Alaska, I feel there are too many distractions right now that would not allow me to effectively fill my role as vice president, both over the next 2 months as Sen. John McCain's running mate, and after he is elected president. It is my duty therefore to step aside so that Sen. McCain and the party can replace me with someone who can and will be able to devote 100% of his or her time to this extremely important position. Americans deserve that. Thank you."

Deja vu all over again. Sarah Palin/Harriet Miers. The names are interchangeable. And just like Bush did in replacing Miers with Samuel Alito Jr., Grandpa John will quickly replace her with someone who'll really get conservatives excited. Someone like Gen. David Petraeus, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Gov. Bobby Jindal or, yes, even Lieberman. All in time for the RNC convention to remain a right-winger's dream event. But, while he'll be getting rid of one problem, he'll be creating another: the judgement issue. Either way, he' a loser.

Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having?


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

"Grandma Sarah:" The Gift that Keeps on Giving. McCain's Veep Continues to Sink his Campaign

"This is great!...It really shows courage!...What's the big deal?" Take a spin around right-wing radio and you'll hear the talking heads tripping over themselves to minimize the significance--or better yet, unconvincingly celebrate--the news that Sarah Palin's 17-year-old unmarried daughter Bristol is five months pregnant. Adding insult to injury, Palin likely lied about it all to Sen. John McCain when she was being vetted as his vice-presidential nominee. This ticket is coming apart at the seams. It was McCain's birthday last week, but he gave the Democrats one giant gift in Palin. Indeed, Grandma Sarah's the new Harriet Miers. Watch this appointment implode just like that one infamously did in January 2007.

For several days now Palin's selection as McCain's running mate has created a shitstorm in both Republican and Democratic circles. A self-proclaimed "hockey mom,' Palin's less-than-impressive resume consists of six years as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska--population 6500--four years on the Wasilla City Council, and 1 1/2 years as the state's Governor. Clearly, her appointment is purely for political purposes, as she is far from being the best candidate McCain could've chosen. He simply, and foolheartedly, expects she will attract an appreciable chunk of Sen. Hillary Clinton's 18-million disaffected supporters, most of them female. It's foolish to think Clinton's supporter's will rush to the polls to vote for the anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-evolution, gun-slinging NRA member who can skin a carcass with the best of 'em. Ideologically, she has zero in common with Sen. Clinton. In fact, she's Mike Huckabee with tits.

The major issue here is McCain's age, 72, and his three bouts with cancer, which puts Palin but a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. A testy McCain said last week that she's more qualified than Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrats' nominee, to be president. Unlike Palin, "he's never had one day of executive experience." Well Senator, neither have you. Are you suggesting that being a Governor is the prerequisite now for White House service?

And now comes the teen pregnancy scandal, which is certain to be a colossal distraction to the McCain/Palin campaign. Will her daughter's situation undercut her position as a staunch advocate of conservative family values? Will it once again remind everyone of the inherent hypocrisy of so many heretofore publicly-humiliated Republicans, many of them evangelical religious zealots, who had sanctimoniously preached to the rest of us how we should morally live our lives yet under their own roof it's Sin City. Another tragic irony of this religious fanaticism is that this is the sort of thing that happens when you live a socially-repressed life and try to insulate your kids from knowledge; from sex-education.

So now the Hannity's, Limbaugh's, Levin's, Wilkow's and the legion of McCain's surrogates are pretending like this is some sort of character-building badge of honor non-issue for Grandma Sarah. But underneath the surface, Republicans must be fuming. Livid that Grandpa John's latest demonstration of maverickness just might've cost them the election. Stay tuned. The Palin fun's only just beginning....

Bush & Cheney Won't be at GOP Convention Because of Hurricane Gustav. Karl Rove Makes Deal with Mother Nature

Shrieks of pure, unadulterated partisan joy could be heard from around the nation as news broke Sunday that President Bush and Vice President Cheney will not be attending the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul so that they can "monitor" from Texas the expected destruction in the Gulf of Mexico from Hurricane Gustav.

With Bush and Cheney's combined approval ratings of about 40%, and with the party's presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain jumping through hoops to distance himself from this disastrous duo, the dreaded weather seems quite fortuitous. In fact, knowing how masterful Republican operative Karl Rove can be, I wouldn't doubt that the man Bush affectionately refers to as "Turd Blossom" actually had something to do with the timing of this deadly storm headed for New Orleans; a Hurricane that experts say is more intense than Katrina.

Gustav to the rescue. How lucky now for the Republican Party that it's massively unpopular president, scheduled to open the event with another rambling, unintelligible speech reminding conservatives of the failures of the past 8 years, won't be anywhere near Minnesota to fuck things up for Grandpa John and the empty pants-suited beauty queen.

McCain's Misguided Tokenism

At 72, by presidential standards, Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, is old. In fact, he'd be the oldest president ever to serve. But Grandpa John's age is that much more pronounced when he stands beside his much younger trophy-veep, Alaska's rookie Gov. Sarah Palin. Remember how Karl Rove & Company took the 2000 Gore/Lieberman logo and mockingly turned it into "Sore/Loserman?" Well, this year's McCain/Palin logo should be turned into "Too Old/Too Inexperienced." That she's a governor, as the conservative spinners are touting, does not impress. To put things in perspective, the 115,000 votes she received in the general election is not much more than the 85,000 Coloradans who packed Denver's Invesco Field to hear Sen. Barack Obama' brilliant acceptance speech.

Americans will be faced with a very real, very serious problem should McCain win: Palin would be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. That's a frightening proposition. Should something tragic happen to the 72-year-old McCain, it's absurd to think that the 44-year-old hockey mom with five kids (including an infant with Down syndrome), with less than 2 years as Alaska's Governor and with zero foreign policy experience, is ready to step in and lead America in times of war, terrorism and economic recession. Is there anyone who utters "President Palin" and feels assured? When compared to Sen. Joe Biden, with his 36 years in the Senate and chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee, Palin makes Harriet Miers look like William Rehnquist.

McCain's appointment of Palin is not just patently offensive, it's a gargantuan insult to women in particular, especially those who supported Sen. Hillary Clinton. It's a gross miscalculation of what Hill's highly coveted army of 18-million soldiers valiantly fought for. They did not vote for their gal simply because she has tits. Throw a little liberal ideology in here, for Pete's sake. They supported Clinton because of what she stands for. Because she's been a consistent champion of women's causes for 40 friggin' years. They're not looking for some anti-choice, anti-gay, gun-toting, carcass-skinning, under-investigation right-wing evangelical creationist oil whore in Jimmy Choos as a replacement. That McCain believes they are proves yet again how out of touch he is, and it's another shining example of how the GOP truly feels about women and how it underestimates the potency of the issues that matter to them.

The Palin decision is such a mind-blowing mistake that we should nickname her "Waterloo," for her role in McCain's ultimate demise will equal that of this 1815 battle in Napoleon's. The question, albeit the most incredibly obvious one, is, Why would any female Democrat loyal to Clinton feel inspiration and passion for McCain's pretty little Rovian beauty queen? As Gail Collins acutely pointed out in Saturday's NY Times, "I know Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine, and Governor, you're no Hillary Clinton."

And just wait until the race really starts to heat up and Palin's celebrated nothingness gets put under the microscope where it belongs. The double-talking, hypocritical folks who brought us "Why can't we criticize Obama without being called racist?" will be giving us massive doses of "You're all sexists for attacking poor Sarah!"

By the way, the latest Gallup Poll shows a 9-point bounce for Obama following the Democrats' convention and his speech last week. McCain, who had led by a point on Monday, the first day of the convention, now trails by 8 points. Something tells me that with the GOP's "big tent" charade next week, led by Grandpa John and the empty pants-suited beauty queen, this gap will continue to widen straight through to election day.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

McCain's Birthday Gift to Obama: Gov. Sarah Palin Jumping Out of the GOP's Campaign Cake

August 29, 2008. Mark it down for its historical significance. It's the day that Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party officially lost the presidential election. Chalk it all up to McCain's boneheaded decision to name Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

Now don't get me wrong. Palin seems like a swell lady. I'm sure many of the 5500 citizens of Wasilla, where she was mayor from 1996-2002, or the 115,000 Alaskans who voted for her for Governor in '06, might have kind things to say. But really, who is Sarah Palin? On MSNBC Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a devout Republican, surprised many in her party by saying she doesn't know much about her. Give her points for honesty.

What we do know about Palin is that she's a soccer mom with five kids (two of them named Trig and Track...go figure), knows how to cheer on a youth hockey team, and probably looks great in a one-piece bathing suit (hey, I'm not being sexist; she's a 1984 "Miss Wasilla" and a 2nd place runner-up in the "Miss Alaska" beauty pageant). But wait, there's more. Prior to running the huge Metropolis of Wasilla, she served two terms on the City Council and ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor. And, she's worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations. Hardly a stupendous resume, although she's clearly a big hit in many Alaskan circles.

But when the guy at the top of the ticket, at 72, would be the oldest president in U.S. history, and his health remains a concern given his battle with Melanoma, Palin would be more than a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Is there any sane American who thinks Palin even remotely has the experience and readiness to be president? Commander-in-Chief? Leader of the free world? Is she who we'd want defending our citizens from terrorists and from our enemies abroad? She's so unqualified it's offensive. Her appointment is so inexplicably irrational that we should seriously begin to wonder if there's some sort of early senility settling in with McCain. And he doesn't help his own case when he's on record saying the only real qualification for vice president is whether that person can step in and be president. If he truly thinks Palin is that person, he's worse off than we think.

In one fell swoop McCain has taken the whole experience issue off the table. This had been a key weapon in his arsenal against Obama. Palin is younger than Obama, less experienced, has less national name recognition and zero foreign policy experience. The real take-away here is that in his first major "presidential" decision, McCain so clearly demonstrates poor judgement that it's obvious that it's he, not Palin, who should be nowhere near the Oval Office.

While Sean Hannity and company are trying their best to feign excitement over this disastrous appointment, they, like others in the party surprised by McCain's choice, seem horrified....if their manic, whiney defending of her is any indication. She's an utter nobody who also happens to be currently under investigation by the Alaska state legislature for allegations of abuse of power involving the controversial dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, who allegedly refused to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper, who's involved in an ugly divorce with her sister. Gee, another Republican politician abusing her power for personal gain. What a shocker.

Indeed, I would not want to be a Republican today. As one of my oldest chums Brian, a rabid conservative, said earlier, "I think McCain is going to lose. Who the hell is this Alaska governor? I think your rock star is in." When the GOP's lost the Brian's of the party, so goes the election.

Palin's appointment has Democrats in a lather as well. As my very cute friend Jenny said, the 44-year-old nominee is a "pro life, NRA joining, beauty pageant losing, animal hunting, idol worshiping, pawn of the GOP fool." I believe she left off "ANWR-drilling." McCain's little lady sure does love her oil (have we ever met a Republican who doesn't?).

For McCain, it was a day of grandiose bullshit. Standing with his running mate, he told a kool-aid drunken crowd in Ohio that he was choosing Palin as his running mate the week of the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage. Ironic that both would like nothing more than to overturn Roe v Wade, depriving women of their right to choose an abortion. I guess that doesn't qualify as "suffrage." Obviously, simply being a woman does not mean that you represent the interests of women. McCain's feeble attempt to out-liberal the Democrats seems concocted by a bunch of clueless high-schoolers. As cute-Jenny asked incredulously, "can they be that stupid?" Yes, I think this time they are.

Lastly, just how much passion does Palin have for the job anyway? In an interview recently, the vice presidential nominee dissed her own prospective office: "As for that VP talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration."

Don't worry, Sarah, fortunately for America, you're never gonna have to find out.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

Oh-Bama!

At the Democratic Convention Thursday night in Denver the party finally delivered its Ruthian grand slam in the form of Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech for the presidency of the United States of America. And holy shit, the goosebumps are still here.

Call me Michelle Obama, but I feel damned proud of my country right now. Damned proud of my party. As someone who's pushing 50 soon, I've witnessed over the years the depths of ignorance and intense racial bigotry that America's been steeped in for so long. Though he still has a major hurdle to climb in actually winning the presidency, our nation has truly entered a new era. It was nothing short of biblical to see Obama, that shining embodiment of the American dream, stand before 75,000 loyalists in Invesco Field a brilliant, passionate black man receiving his party's nomination. Our country will never be the same again. As Obama said, "all across America something is stirring." I literally was moved to tears.

Obama not only gave us the soaring rhetoric he's become famous for, he also presented compelling specifics into his policies for health care, the economy, jobs, taxes, the auto industry, education, energy, Iraq, terrorism, diplomacy and national security. He even tackled abortion, guns, gay marriage and immigration. He was, to be sure, inspirational, charismatic and transcendent. But more importantly, especially at this critical point in his dogfight with the Republicans' presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain, he was extremely forceful, tough and the fighter he needs to be.

"It's not because John McCain doesn't care, it's because John McCain doesn't get it." And with that Obama ripped into his opponent for much of the 43 minute speech, attacking McCain for his 90% voting record with Bush, his disconnect with the lower and middle classes, and his ties to the wealthy, the oil companies and special interests.

He was especially tough on McCain when it came to the Iraq war and fighting terrorism, touting his own strengths and that of his party in the area of national security:

"John McCain likes to say he will follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives...We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe."

Here's a few more gems from Obama's highly effective offensive:

"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament and judgement to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have."

"If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that's his choice, but it is not the change we need"

"I got news for you John McCain, we all put our country first."

He continued lashing into the Republican nominee as offering four more years of the current failed administration: "The Bush/McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, have built, and we are here to restore that legacy."

On the social issues, he discussed the need to look beyond our differences, which is "America's promise...the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in commonality." And he dismissed the criticisms of his detractors who call this message of hope and change "happy talk."

On gun control, he challenged the GOP with "Don't tell me we can't uphold the second amendment while keeping AK-47's out of the hands of criminals."

He railed against those who dismiss the Democratic Party's larger goals as "just a Trojan horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values...Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to run on then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from."

And in his stirring close he invoked Dr. Martin Luther King, whose speech 45 years ago on the the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. drew people from "every corner of this land" to "hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream. The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustrations of so many dreams deferred. But what the people heard instead, people from every creed and color, people from every walk of life, is that in America our destiny is inextricably linked. That together our dreams can be one. We cannot walk alone, the preacher cried. And as we walk we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate. And so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix, and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone, at this moment, in this election. We must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise. That American promise. And in the words of scripture, hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess. Thank you. And God bless you. And God bless America."

And then, in a brilliant co-opting of the GOP playbook, the stadium air filled with the good 'ole patriotic country music sounds of Brooks and Dunn's "Only in America" as the candidate stood with his family and his running mate Sen. Joe Biden and family. Nicely done, Barack, nicely done.

It's time now to help Obama fight the bigger fight and win the November election. He's gonna need money. Lots of money. Will you join me over the next several days in making as large a contribution as you can to the campaign? I am personally commited to raising $25,000 for Sen. Obama and you can help me reach this goal. Click here to make a contribution. The White House is well within reach. Let's not let it slip away this time.

HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can successfully combat the GOP's attack and win these states. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

McCain's Housing Crisis. Who's the Elitist Now?

After many years of having Sean Hannity pollute the airwaves, I finally agree with something the right-wing spinhead said on his program Thursday: "People who live in glass houses ought not to throw stones, don't ya think?" The irony is that he was referring to Sen. Barack Obama and the many Democrats who've publicly admonished Sen. John McCain this week for owning a reputed 7-10 high-priced luxury residences all over the country. They've been attacking McCain, and rightfully so, because of the Republican's own accusations earlier in the campaign that the Democratic presumptive nominee is "an elitist." Funny how a black guy from a poor broken family who made his way through school on scholarships and owns one home is attacked as an elitist by a silver-spoon fed Navy brat with 7+ mansions and condos who portrays himself as everyman. And to listen to Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the sorry right-wing attack dogs, you'd think everyone's been piling on poor old Johnny out of the blue. Hannity's indeed right: people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. But it's McCain whose fragile house is shattering now. And now he and his mob are whining like little beeyaches about it. What a joke.

Hannity and Limbaugh relentlessly railed on about how Democrats like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Al Gore, Howard Dean and Chris Dodd also have multiple homes, but you don't hear Democrats criticizing them. "Since when did democrats care about how many houses people own," Hannity asked with fake sincerity. Well Sean, let me makes this easy for ya pal: that's because unlike your desperate, crotchety, name-calling candidate, Obama isn't running around condemning anyone for being an elitist...until now that is. McCain started the elitist wars, not the Democrats. Remember, people in glass houses.....

Obama unveiled his new attack ad Thursday--a real beaut if I may say--where he's incredulous at McCain's lame response this week to a question about how many homes he in fact owns: "I think -- I'll have my staff get to you,...It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you." Huh? Wha? Would seems like a pretty easy question to answer. Are you that stinking rich that you don't even know how many homes you own? Either that or you're too old to remember, and therefore too old to be president. Either way, Johnnyboy, you've just became the gift that keeps on giving. You're clearly out of touch with Americans' economic anxiety. In fact, you're just out of touch period.

Even lamer than McCain's response to how many houses he owns was Hannity's utterly lame-ass defense of the land baron and his $100-million wife Cindy's collection of ritzy properties: "Does anybody talk about how he opened up his house to an orphan who needed a home?...Has Obama opened his house to anyone?" Are you kidding with this shit?! He then added that Obama's new ad "shows how desperate he is and how desperate the campaign is." No Sean, McCain's answer, and your pathetic justifications, show just how desperate you guys are. You can wet your collective pants all you want over the recent polls showing a statistical dead heat, but as NY Times columnist Frank Rich astutely pointed out Sunday, when it comes to historical polling, Obama's right where just about every other Democrat was at this point in the campaign with the exception of Michael Dukakis, who lead George Bush Sr. by 17 points. And remember what happened to him? But what's really ominous for McCain and the GOP, and they know it, is the significant state-by-state electoral college lead held by Obama. They're wetting their pants allright, but not in a good way.

McCain's entire campaign is built on Iraq, the surge and military blah blah blah. But only 15% of voters rank the war as their #1 issue. To most Americans, as in '92, it's still the economy, stupid. And that's where the Repubs know they're behind the eight ball big time.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: Are we gonna let the Right Wing bullies frame this election and define Barack Obama? John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. Obama will need millions more to effectively combat the Republicans' desperate, race-baiting onslaught. I urge you to support Obama by sending the campaign whatever you can afford. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can win these states. We are committed to raising as much money as possible to help elect Barack Obama president. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

Why is Liberal Radio So Inept?

I could sum up the entire difference between political parties by how they position themselves on Sirius Satellite Radio. The left wing channel is called, well, Left, while the right wing channel proudly wears the Patriot badge. Left vs Patriot. That truly says it all.

On vacation, I've had the opportunity to indulge my politics obsession with some daily poolside talk radio, both conservative and liberal. Let's get right to the point: liberal radio is a disaster. It's un-listenable. While the right-wingers are out there relentlessly bashing the hell out of Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in an effort to tear him and it down in their quest for the presidency, our compadres on the left are indulging themselves in sophomoric humor and inane blabbering about nothing in particular. All you need is a 30-second listen and you'll realize just how dreadful and unfocused it is. With the exception of a few ass-kickers like Ed Schultz, Lionel, Rachel Maddow, Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes, the whole lot should be rounded up and shipped to an Ashram somewhere. And here's the other thng about Dems that's infuriating: they finally get a true warrior like Rhodes, but in their spineless quest for political-correctness, they eat their own and can her over some stupid remark during an off-air comedy performance. In all his years of outrageously offensive on-air drivel, has the right even punished, let alone fired, the bloviating Rush Limbaugh? No. They throw him crackers and send him in to do more damage.

To use an American pastime analogy, right wing radio is the 1927 Yankees while libs are the '62 Mets. They've got singularly-focused, rhetoric-spewing vicious attack dogs like Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mike Church, Andrew Wilkow, Bill Bennett, Mark Levin, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham. Like their gods Bush and Cheney, most if not all never served our military but shamelessly co-opt it nonetheless. They proudly assume the role of the tough-talking, patriotic all-American, promoting war and the killing of terrorists. Then they vilify and rip apart the military records of any Democrat running for office, even if, unlike them, they are decorated war heroes like John Kerry, Max Cleland and John Murtha. Unbelievably, they get away with it.

They refer to themselves as "command-dude-in-chief" and cultishly greet each other with "You're a great American" and play stirring music like "Let Freedom Ring" and the official anthems of each branch of the military. Yup, they're the rough, tough, rock 'em sock 'em types who like to let other men fight their actual battles. But on radio, they're a bunch of fucking John Waynes (btw, he never served either).

They've schooled at the chafed knee of ruthless GOP operative Karl Rove, and therefore learned the not-so-secret secret of blatantly lying to Americans because they're too uninformed to know the difference. So, these spinners claim the Iraq war's been won, the surge is working, the economy's strong and that polls show that voters are clamoring for more Bush/Cheney/McCain.

And boy do they know how to stay on message. They have laser-like focus. They name their shows "The Stop Obama Express" and make derogatory, racist remarks about Michelle Obama being a "big, mean-looking, angry woman full of rage." They call Barack Obama "baby killer" for his views on abortion. They relentlessly mock him as The Messiah, The Chosen One. They make up song parodies like "The Bush/Cheney Bash" (sung to the tune of The Monster Mash) which lavish praise on these two clowns while deriding Democrats. They incessently use the word "radical" to describe Obama, and utter in rapid-fire succession the names Wright/Flager/Rezko/Ayers to describe Obama's "deep-rooted radical associations." They say he's a Muslim. They hammer home his past drug use. They call him a Communist/Marxist for his "socialist" economic positions. They refer to liberals as "You America-despising pukes" and make up childish, derogatory names for Democrats like "Nazi" Pelosi, Hillary "Rotten" Clinton aka "Her Royal Thighness" and "BJ" Clinton. They call one highly-respected news wire service "HemmoReuters" when it happens to write something unflattering to the GOP.

While these faithful soldiers in the Rovian army are savagely ripping apart the patriotism and character of any Democrat who stands in the way of their insatiable quest for power, their counterparts on the left--again, with the exception of a few brave fighters, sound like a bunch of stoners and jazz DJ's from the college station. On Sirius's "Left," Alex Bennett, Lynn Samuels and Mark Thompson are the ones who have the least to say. Together with his stereotypical leftist freak listeners, Bennett, an ungracefully-aging hippie himself, offers up more gratuitous profanity than intellectual political thought. It's as if he and his hippie-cool listeners say "shit," "fuck," "asshole," and "douchebag" just because they can. And they say it a lot. He even calls Obama an asshole when he disagrees with his policies. And all this makes his program unlistenable, unless you're into a bunch of ungracefully-aging hippies cursing a lot about nothing. Samuels on any random listen could be whining about anything meaningless, like the day I caught her literally discussing snot and boogers. And Thompson, while a smart, passionate guy, has a program so mellow in tone that it can literally put you to sleep. His voice is so smooth and jazzy that he'd be much better off cuing up a Miles Davis album.

I don't mean to riff on any of these folks, as I'm sure they're all fine people off the air. But on the air I want the sort of Viagra-fueled maniacs conservatives have on the front lines, not a bunch of impotent lefties who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. Democrats need to fill every single radio slot with 24/7 aggressive spinners. Just check out Fox Radio, Patriot or ABC Radio. There's no wasted airtime on the right. Yes, right wing radio is filled with name-calling high-school-bully types who drone on like programmed partisan robots about the same shit over and over and over again. Should we be like them? You bet. These guys are part of a well-oiled machine that has a very good track-record of winning elections.


HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT: Are we gonna let the Right Wing bullies frame this election and define Barack Obama? John McCain and the GOP are going to spend tends of millions on vicious attack ads and aggressive ground teams. Obama will need millions more to effectively combat the Republicans' desperate, race-baiting onslaught. I urge you to support Obama by sending the campaign whatever you can afford. There are many swing states this year--Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri among them. With a sizable war chest, Sen. Obama can win these states. We are committed to raising as much money as possible to help elect Barack Obama president. Click here to make a contribution. It's time to change America.

Why Obama's VP Needs to be a 4-Star General

It's an obvious problem facing Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic Party as both head to the November presidential election. While a majority of Americans are against the Iraq war and believe the Bush administration took its eye off terror organizations like al Qaeda, they see Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive nominee, as being stronger on foreign affairs and national security. Despite thhis clear disadvantage, the odds-on favorites to be selected as Obama's vice presidential running mate are little known state Governors --Evan Bayh (Ind) and Tim Kaine (VA)-- who have no real foreign policy or national security experience. We are a nation at war, targeted by Islamic terrorists, and now back in a potential Cold War with a militaristically invigorated Russia, which has just invaded the Republic of Georgia.

So, why are two neophytes on the world stage, Bayh and Kaine, at the top of the list when Obama himself has zero foreign policy or national security chops? With McCain perceived by voters as the more capable commander-in-chief, leading in the polls by about 25 points on this issue, Obama's gonna need more than Bayh or Kaine if he expects to occupy the White House in January. Which is why he and the party must put the offensive block on the GOP by choosing a retired 4-star general as his running mate. Someone like Colin Powell, Eric Shinseki, Anthony Zinni or Wesley Clark. A move like this would totally disarm the McCain campaign and take away one of it's biggest attack points: that an Obama presidency would be woefully ill-equipped to defend America. Who better than to be at Obama's side helping to protect the United States than his 4-star general vice-president? In an age where, thanks to Dick Cheney, VP's are viewed as having much more influence and power than ever, this could prove to be a critical strategic maneuver on the part of Democrats. It would allow Obama to point to Iraq, Russia, Iran and the battle against terrorism and project strength, experience and resolve...giving voters a sense of confidence that his administration, contrary to the relentless GOP talking points, is highly capable, more capable that McCain, of defending America both at home and abroad. Think of the image of Obama standing beside a uniformed 4-star general. Think of what that image projects to these voters, amny of whom are independants still on the fence.

Conventional wisdom argues that one's choice of VP means little or nothing come November. There's no real guarantee they'll "deliver" their home states and, virtually everyone simply votes for the top of the ticket anyway, no matter how bad the VP choices appear to be. Case in point Dan Quayle and Spiro Agnew. These clowns didn't stop Richard Nixon or Pappi Bush from winning. But, given the global stage these days, and the edge McCain has on foreign affairs, coupled with how the GOP has successfully defined Democrats as weak on national security, the selection of a 4-star general could very well, against 2008's treacherous international landscape, have major impact on the outcome of this election in particular.

Some notable choices for Obama would be retired Army generals Clark, Shinseki and Powell, along with the Marine Corps' Zinni. Clark's a Democrat who's already tried his hand at the presidency in 2004, and failed. But he'd make for a terrific Veep. Given the crisis in Georgia, with his track-record in Bosnia, he'd be a great running mate, as would the others, all of whom have a bone to pick with the Busheviks. Shinseki was fired after arguing that at least 300,000 post-invasion troops would be necessary in Iraq to properly stabilize the country. We now know he was dead-right. Zinni, former chief of the Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters for the Middle East, knows more about what's needed in Iraq than perhaps anyone, and he's been at odds with President Bush over this handling of the war. And Powell, for obvious bi-partisan and celebrity-cache reasons, would be a coup.

No matter how you slice it, this is the image Obama must project for his administration. As with 2004, what will award the White House to Republicans is fear, plain and simple; Americans' desire to feel safe and secure and protected here at home. On this front, McCain wins hands down. Unfortunately, guys like Bayh and Kaine, or any other generally unexciting, inexperienced, relatively unknown potential running mate, doesn't even make a dent. It's time Democrats once and for all trump the GOP on matters of national security.

Putin's Gift to McCain

As if the Iraq war and the fight against terrorism wasn't enough, Russia has decided that it's time to inject itself into the American presidential election and resurrect the Cold War, thus providing Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party even more fodder to bolster their claim to the national-security throne. Listening to right-wing radio yesterday you'd think it was 1987 and Ronald Reagan was urging Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this (Berlin) wall."

But it's 2008, not 1987, and Russia's on the warpath with its invasion of the Republic of Georgia, the western-oriented Democracy to its South which gained its independence in 1991 after the break-up of the former Soviet Union. So now we have the new Red Scare, except this one's coated in black. "Russia will go on a rampage if Barack Obama's elected president," said Sirius Radio's Andrew Wilkow. Fox's Sean Hannity said of the Democratic nominee's reaction to the invasion, "He blew his 3am moment...he looked like a deer in the headlights." Rush Limbaugh said, "Obama I don't think knows where Georgia is on the map. 'Obama, where's Georgia?' He'd look for Atlanta and he'd say, 'It's right there, it's where Dr. King's church is."

What we have here is a case of Conservatives Gone Wild. And we can thank Russian President Vladamir Putin for it all. Remember him? President Bush's BFF? The guy Bush gushed over like a love-stricken schoolgirl in June 2001: "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue....I was able to get a sense of his soul." Seven years later and can you say, Divorce Court? Though I never thought this possible, Putin's big Fuck You to the West last week makes Bush look like an even bigger ass than ever. Can it get any worse for this guy? And McCain's been quick to pounce, mocking Bush by saying of Putin, "I looked into his eyes and saw K.G.B." Oh no he di-int! Did he actually say KGB? What could possibly get McCain, who's practically old enough to have witnessed the 1917 Russian Revolution firsthand, more politically excited than talk of the KGB? It's a Republican war-monger's wet dream, for Pete's sake.

To be sure, as the battle in Georgia intensifies, McCain and Co. will relentlessly exploit this crisis in an effort to weaken Obama's chances in November. And I'm afraid it make have some impact. The major area where McCain polls far greater than Obama is with national security; that he's the more capable commander-in-chief, able to better handle both the war in Iraq and the threat from terrorists here at home. Russia's march into Georgia could not have come at a worse time politically for Obama and the Democrats. Obama needs to get off the ropes in this area and aggressively go after McCain, defining him as a reckless war-monger who was wrong on Iraq and is part of the Bushevik Empire that was wrong on Putin and Russia.