Bush Contemplates His Legacy

And it even makes him sick to his stomach.

Either that or his bullshit has finally backed up on him and his head is going to explode.

But then, I'm an optimist.

The Way It Is, Baby

What can I say? Hey, is this thing on? I knoe you're out there, 'cause I can hear you burping. How 'bout some comments, y'all?

Bipartisanship Is for Weaklings

And here are two of them, so terrified of the Republicans who fucking LOST the House, the Senate, and the White House, that they are going to piss away the opportunity to put this nation back on the path of progress.

Get rid of these losers and put some leadership in Congress that understands what having power means. If there is one thing that should have been learned in the last eight years is that you do not bargain with ideological extremists--you destroy them.

But the Democratic Party, co-opted by money as easily as the Republicans (there's really just one party--the party of power over YOU), will fail to create a comprehensive health care system (read single-payer, eliminating insurance companies), will fail to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (defense industry lobbyists, anyone), and will be as effective at turning the economy around as a eunuch at an orgy is at knocking up the entire harem. Pelosi and Reid have spent so much of their integrity and capital gaining the power they now relish, that they will do nothing that might, even in the remotest sense, require them to go to the mat with the opposition.

And that makes them the opposition. They're worthless. Dump 'em.

And meanwhile, Dr. Howard Dean, who more than anyone deserves credit for restoring a Democratic majority, is totally dissed by the Obama team.

I thought there was change in the air. But it's just the same old stink of chickenshit and bullshit.

First Lorena Bobbitt, Now This

Guess we'll be sleeping on our stomachs for a while longer.

It's funny but also terribly tragic. The guy died, and his home was destroyed, and with his wife (who set his genitals on fire) going to the clink, his three kids will be essentially orphaned.

Atheists Speak Up

Here's one for the A-team--a group in Britain has countered biblical slogans on buses with their own message on London's red double-deckers: "There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." The Guardian UK has the story and a nice video with Ariane Sherine explaining why she started the campaign, and Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, commenting. One interesting point Dawkins makes is that whenever atheists state their point of view, it is considered strident, but it's perfectly acceptable to pronounce that all non-believers will burn for all eternity in a lake of fire.

And take note of that "probably" in the bus poster. That's the sign of open minds.

Pinnacle of Incompetence?

Any part of the world where things aren't worse? The latest blowup in the Gaza strip reveals how stunningly weak the US has become in influencing anything anywhere, short of military intervention, which, under the Bush clown car team, can go either way, but is generally equally failed as everything else. But Condi Rice is on a whole other plane. Now she can claim total failure in the mideast as Secretary of State, terrible relations with Russia as our alleged "Soviet Expert," and, of course, being National Security Adviser while 9/11 happened and two wars went horribly wrong.

Heckuva job, Condi! I'm sure you'll be rewarded with a cushy job back at Stanford.

The Winter So Far

This is our situation in the early morning. Actually, even with all the shoveling involved, it's still pretty cool to have this much snow. Perhaps the drought is over for a while.

Meanwhile, the Chimpie Disaster Project is trying to wring every failure and fuckup out of the last fifteen days of its tenure. I can only hope their plans to torch the White House will be scuttled by their unparalleled general incompetence. "I thought you had the matches?"

I Think Something May Be Wrong with Our Water Supply

Happy New Year and welcome to Otto, the newest addition to the Rotkohl household. We adopted him--he'd been dumped, apparently--and now he's fattened up, denutted (so he can't reproduce), and totally at home. I've not really been a cat person, so I have been amused at how he just came in and took over, compared to doggy Dorothy who has remained obedient, deferential, and loyal to a fault. And yes, the two tolerate one another quite nicely, although Dorothy occasionally annoys Otto by trampling him in her enthusiasm to go for a walk.

What, you say, no snarky or rage-filled diatribes? Not today. I feel mellow (it may be the single-malt I sipped for a while). Take it while you can get it.

Bankers and Senators vs. the Working People

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans, plus a couple of Democrats, after handing over, without question $700 billion to Wall Street, now threaten to block a minimal $15 billion bridge to the Big 3 automakers.

Wall Street makes nothing. It is a massive factory of illusion in which shell games are run to create a myth of money making money making money. However, by threat of destroying the economy, they get carte blanche with hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars as fast as a bootlicking Congress can effect it. Detroit, on the other hand, with union labor, makes actual stuff. And the powers that run this country HATE workers who organize, because they might actually manage to get a fair share of the wealth they create.

The propaganda machines of the right wing and the moneyed classes have been running day and night to paint auto workers as the cause of Detroit's problems. Don't buy it, unless you actually believe that sitting in a cubicle selling financial "products" to foolish investors is actually the equivalent of working on a factory assembly line.

I would rather see a million bankers and stockbrokers homeless and begging than to see one assembly line worker lose even more benefits because his or her management is totally incapable of predicting the obvious about the future of the automobile industry. Remember, workers do not plan, market, or design the automobiles, yet they are the first to suffer when such planning and marketing and design prove to be faulty.

The downstream effects of bankruptcy of the auto companies are incalculable, but even worse is what will happen to what remains of the American labor movement. If you are a wage earner, know your enemies in the Senate and House of Representatives. Let them know you know what they are doing. Call your own senator's and representative's offices and tell them that you will not tolerate any more attacks on American workers.

One great heartening development, however, is the workers' occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago after the Bank of America tried to shut them down. I hope this is an inspiration to all threatened workers. Do not go politely, do not go gently. Those who actually create the wealth deserve their fair share.

Bertold Brecht Wrote...

“It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk.”

It's called an inside job, I believe. And note that the inside men are still inside, even in the new administration. Not satisfied with emptying the treasury and the investments and the pockets of working people, they want to ensure that all future generations are indebted to the maximum so that they can continue to own their seven homes, drink their $700 scotch, and sleep on mattresses stuffed with the downy thigh-hair of a million sacrificial virgins (okay--I made the last one up).

These people hate you and me, and they do more damage with the stroke of a pen than any terrorist could even imagine. Through so many means, and spread over such a wide swath, they are in every sense agents of death and despair to millions upon millions of honest people.

An $8 trillion bailout, and how will it be paid? Ultimately by inflating the hell out of the currency, so that lenders can be paid off with worthless money and collaterally destroying what's left of our savings...and I was about to say "pensions" except that no one really gets those anymore.

There once was a first world, a second world, and a third world. Now there is a fourth world of nations that once belonged to the first world. Then they let the robbers take control.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy the turkey!

Thank You, Texas!

How about that? On November 12, Olaf begged that Cheney be indicted before he croaks, and damned if a grand jury in Texas doesn't do it, and Fox "News" reports it (so has CNN and other outlets, but Fox was the first I saw, so why not give 'em a nod--even those fuckers know which way the wind is blowing). And BONUS--Alberto Gonzalez is on the indictment too!

As Craig Ferguson likes to say, it's a good day in America.

Oh, Shut Up!

Here he is again, El Presidente Stupido, making us all proud as the spokesman for global capitalism, American-style, at the G20 summit he's hosting:

He made his argument even as the U.S. government has set billions of dollars for taking stakes in banks to help jump start lending again. "I'm a market-oriented guy, but not when I'm faced with the prospect of a global meltdown," he said.

Exactly. It's like saying, "I'm a big boy. I'm on my own." And then, when trouble comes, "Mommy! Daddy!"

And Mr. Genius continues,

While acknowledging that critics from across the ideological spectrum are "equating the free enterprise system with greed and exploitation and failure," Bush argued that the crisis was not a failure of the free market system.

Shit, man, greed, exploitation, and failure are what the system is based on! Ask any stock trader. Volatility and instability rule, dude! Unless you're a poor working schmuck. But then they're just suckers, right? They don't deserve any of the wealth they've created, or any security, or respect. After all, George W. Loser and McCain got their money the right way: inherit it, or marry it.

The Irony Meter Just Exploded

I'll let the AP blurb speak for itself:

"Our aim should not be more government. It should be smarter government," Bush said during a speech in New York, a day before about two dozen world leaders converge on Washington for a weekend summit he is hosting.

You can't make shit like this up.

War Criminal Watch

Please indict this man before he dies on us. Hell, even if he is already technically dead, indict him anyway.

Please Go Away...

...and take your rat-pelt collar with you.

With a son who's a high school dropout, and a 17-year-old daughter who's been knocked up by another high school dropout, you'd think that Sarah Palin would have considered Piper Palin's school attendance to supersede the governor's own political ambitions. But even now that the campaign is over, she's dragging little Piper onto television shows as her prop to show what a great mom she is.

Palin doesn't get it at all. Nobody cares about what she thinks, her state elected her to run business up there, and her remaining school-age children need to get educated enough to know what a US vice president does and that Africa is a continent, and, let's hope, that Jesus did not ride a dinosaur to the sermon on the mount, not to mention being able to put one god damned coherent sentence together.

Sarah, please, for the sake of those you've spawned, GO AWAY.

Thank You, Dr. Dean

Those of us on the left owe a great ovation to Dr. Howard Dean who ran for president in 2004 and has since been the Democratic National Committee chair. Dr. Dean insisted on a 50-state strategy for the DNC, doing grassroots operations everywhere, rather than simply focusing on states that typically are in contention. His insistence on building left-looking organizations in every single state is largely responsible for the impressive results of this past election.

I had the privilege of seeing Dr. Dean in person in our part of the country, and my friend MB got her picture taken with him, which is tres cool. Dr. Dean is a genuinely warm, smart, and determined individual, and as he leaves the DNC chair, I hope all who celebrate the change in our country's direction will remember to thank Dr. Dean for his savvy, skill, and foresight. He's made this a better place.

A Happy Day

This is my favorite image of Barack Obama so far, as a teacher. After eight years of an administration rife with dark ignorance and stupefying incompetence driven by batshit ideology, the country desperately needs a president who can, and desires to, explain and illuminate the way ahead.

As for the reports of the rifts in the McCain/Palin camps regarding her astonishing ignorance, appalling temperament, and skanky behavior, I'll leave that to Fox to elucidate.

And then there's the towel story.

I don't know if these are true or mainly attempts to divert blame from McCain for choosing so, so badly, his running mate, but either way, it reveals how fractured and vicious the Republican party is. Thank your lucky stars that enough people in this country finally woke up.

Olaf Channels Trotsky

Since the Wingnuts are certain that we're on the eve of a Communist takeover, I thought I'd do my best Lev Bronstein.

McCain's Big Head Finally Outthinks His Little Head