Predictable

Unsurprisingly, the House has passed the emergency the-sky-is-falling $700B Wall Street Speculators Conservation Bill. Actually, it’s going to cost much more than that because of all the sweeteners and bribes they put in to buy the bad little representatives who didn’t obey their mommy and daddy the first time on Monday. Chalk another one up for the ruling (bipartisan) Business Party.

Hey

What if all those people, good solid citizens, I’m guessing, who do these innumerable charity runs for this and that disease instead ran downtown and occupied their Senator’s and Representative’s office? And demanded some serious funding for public health, for medical research, for a simple system of national health for all Americans? And demanded some reasonable health priorities instead of the Pentagon's death priorities? And demanded that we as a nation put people above corporations? Sign me up for that run, kids!

McCain/Palin 08

John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin tells you everything you need to know about the man’s willingness to be President, as well as his readiness. The choice was short-sighted, cynical, and incompetent. For someone whose major overt claim to the office is his experience, military background, and appeal to national security, it was a disaster. He wants to put her a heartbeat (an old weak heartbeat) away from the Presidency. But of course, he’s a Republican, and his Party has been captured by the American Taliban, apocalyptic fundamentalist know-nothings who claim to be Christian, and he was desperate for their vote. The “Maverick” needs a new trademark.

And Palin herself tells you everything you need to know about contemporary American politics. She’s sold as a product summarized in little blurbs and jingles like “pitbull in lipstick,” and “hockey mom” that change like soap commercials over time. The contempt of her handlers for American democracy knows no bounds. Not that there isn’t any substance behind the marketing façade. It’s just that it’s so ugly, as grotesque as that which gets revealed when a rock is overturned. A creationist, she’s a tool of the oil industry. She’s a book banner. She’s vindictive and ready to go outside the law just like Cheney and Bush. She’s as fine a daughter of the American Taliban as the GOP’s turn to fundamentalism has produced. She proudly touts her daughter’s “choice” about her pregnancy while wishing to deny the rest of American women any choice at all in such matters.

Flame out

An excellent analysis of the "pity party" stirring in the media over the awful things that are being done to poor Sarah Palin, the erstwhile pitbull who is now revealed as a deer in the headlights. Cry me a fucking river says the author, Rebecca Traister...“When your project is reliant on gaining the support of women whose reproductive rights you would limit, whose access to birth control and sex education you would curtail, whose healthcare options you would decrease, whose civil liberties you would take away and whose children and husbands and brothers (and sisters and daughters and friends) you would send to war in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and wherever else you saw fit without actually understanding international relations, I don't feel bad for you.”

Succinctly

"The $700 bailout bill is being driven by fear not fact. This is too much money, in too short of time, going to too few people, while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings…Why aren't we considering any other alternatives other than giving $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect the investors? Why aren't we directly helping homeowners with their debt burdens? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy? Isn't time for fundamental change to our debt-based monetary system...?" Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Palinomics

Like Dan Quayle before her, the disaster that is Sarah Palin must be kept isolated, allowed only before well-managed crowds of the faithful and fed in tiny portions to the powderpuffs of television. They’re not even letting her fundraise. She must have special treatment in the one VP debate, where there will be no follow-up questions. In that context, she should by rights be squashed like a bug as a lightweight nutcase, but o, that would be disrespectful, wouldn’t it, for the greatest case of GOP affirmative action since hanging judge Clarence Thomas?

Bullshit Meter Breaks

From zero (“our economy is fundamentally sound”) to 90 (“Panic! Crisis! Disaster!”).