2008 Presidential Election

Poor Dennis… Maybe You Should Never Have Latched Those Lips On To Barry’s Ass

You Sold Out And It Cost You!

Watching my site stats over the past day, I wondered why all the sudden I was getting a huge amount of hits on this old post, “Flilf – Not Flilf“. Then I read that ass-kisser lost his recent election attempt to Kaptur, after the party he loves so much instigated a redistricting.

I call him  ass-kisser because of this.

Back in 2008, I wanted him as POTUS because he was one of the few anti-war candidates who also was a proponent for Single Payer, Medicare For All Health Care (the only sane system we could have implemented, were it not for the fact that Health Insurance owns Congress and Obama). He was one of the few that seemed to stand up to the Liar-in-Chief. He even wanted to impeach Bush/Cheney (I now see this as political maneuvering to gain anti-war votes, knowing it would be impossible, but at least he tried). He wanted an end to the Federal Reserve. In so many ways, he was the demoRAT Ron Paul, except he seemed to have a heart.

I wrote about him here many times and campaigned for him, as well. I went so far as to suggest he and Ron Paul (another wolf in sheep’s clothing who has fooled many like-minded individuals to myself with his stump rhetoric) run together as POTUS VicePOTUS.

This blog’s search stats tell me that people are searching for Elizabeth, not Dennis (I know they don’t care about Huckabee), so that in itself is telling.

Poor Dennis. You deserve what you get, you wimp. Now join me and the rest of the poor folks without a job.

At least I still call ‘em as I see ‘em.

Who Selected A Junior Senator Who Hadn’t Even Got His Foot Wet…

LOL

It is no different than selecting a nobody yahoo from Arkansas or a frat kid from Texas Connecticut.

They are all selected, Louis. All our “kings” are made and it is idiotic to think that we actually “elect” anyone. But thanks for telling it.

I think that I will pray that the man will be impeached and forcefully removed from office (but I thought the same about the last 5 presidents).

h/t Kelso

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At Least He Is Not McCain and Other Faux Two Party Memes

I had a discussion with a friend on Facebook last night and added more early this morning referencing the “faux” two party system and all the culprits that are a part of this division strategy (including Michael Moore). In this discussion with a friend, it occurred to me that he, along with many other Americans, are still hoodwinked into believing and perpetuating this bogus system. And this from a very smart man.

The argument, as always, is that Obama is better than Bush or McCain. And I asked him to explain how so.

In what reality can anyone say such a harebrained thing? Does it come from the reality I live and every other American lives? Or is the reality better based off of the innocent people being bombed to smithereens by the guy who mind-melded these people into thinking that he would change a damned thing and hence, brainwashed them into voting for the lessor of two evils?

So, what was the tactic of response to my issues? A grammar lesson. And a bit snidey one, at that.

Thanks, Jack. That tact was extremely telling.

He also told me that this is the way it is,  insinuating that we should work within the system (and that I am so far removed that I can’t understand or see this). This is perfect for those who want us to continue the divide and plays right into their game… how convenient. The argument is, “well, no matter what you say, we HAVE a two party system and we must use it.” There is no, “we must CHANGE the system”. No. Work with what they give us to work with, right, Jack? Just do what they say and everything will work out.

Excuse me, but… Baaaaa.

But wait, there is more. Now, I am a hypocrite because I call Michael Moore on his capitulation to the Corporate Control of America by his endorsement of Obama just a few years after his vehement diatribes against that very two Party system I am railing against right here. And what was MM’s rationale. Obama is not McCain. Forget what I said kjust a couple of years ago. Now I am BACk to the bogus two party system I preached against and am now telling you, the lemmings of America, that you need to foget that shit from two years ago and trust me now.

Yeah. Right.

Now, because I call MM on his bullshit, I am the hypocrite. Fine. If so, then someone, anyone, show a damned link at this blog where I have written such a thing. Show me where I have changed or where I ever endorsed a party.

But, it would seem that MM can shift-change his position radically and that is acceptable. The comparison must be that I changed my mind from pancakes to eggs this morning. Yeah, I’m the hypocrite.

Forgive me, people, for calling you a bunch of mindless lemmings who are just as much of America’s problem as these criminals YOU keep electing. It is because of YOU, the mindless sycophantic water carriers for your party of choice, that we are in the state of affairs we are in. It is because of YOU and your inability to break the chains of brain washing that have you so convinced that “this is the way” and we can’t change it. It is YOU who are holding America back. Get that through your thick skulls and wake the fuck up.

It causes me to question every smart person I come into contact with, for if someone who seems to have brains cannot rid themselves of this mind fuck, intelligence may not be their strongest suit.

I appreciate the grammar lessons, folks. really I do. But maybe, just maybe, there are a few more important details to attend to than the intentional diversion from the important points at hand.

On another note: has anyone from the south ever heard the expression “shift-changer”, referencing someone who changes their mind a lot? Is this just a southern expression? For some reason, this was a thorn in the teacher’s side.

Yes You Can Vacuum Clean Change You Can Believe In

Can you feel the change?

Michael Beckel at OpenSecrets doesn’t appear to (and neither do I). He explains how the game is still the same in Big Donors & Bundlers Among Obama’s Ambassador Picks.

The rhetoric is the same every election cycle: Vote for me because I am not near as bad as that last asshole. In this case, a man rode in after one of the most vile and hated administrations and used every available instance to lie and manipulate the voters into electing him and now he does vast changes in those promises if not downright negating those promises.

There is not a smidgen worth of difference in them.

And they do like to reward those who donate (obviously a frequent occurrence in other administrations):

Here’s the money-in-politics breakdown for Obama’s recent ambassador picks:

• Louis B. Susman: This lawyer and investment banker has reportedly earned the nicknames the “vacuum cleaner” and “big bundler” for his prowess as a bundler of campaign cash. He bundled nearly a quarter-million for Obama’s presidential campaign and at least $300,000 for his inauguration, according to Public Citizen. This includes $50,000 from his personal funds. Further, he and his wife have contributed at least $581,400 to federal candidates, committees and parties, with 99 percent of that sum going to Democrats, including at least $12,800 to Obama. He has been nominated to be the ambassador to the United Kingdom.

• Daniel M. Rooney: Owner and chairman of the Pittsburgh Steeler’s football team, he and his wife have contributed at least $152,400 to federal candidates, committees and parties since the 1990 election cycle, including $500 to Obama. Ninety percent of their funds have gone to Democrats. Rooney also endorsed Obama in the run-up to Pennsylvania’s heated presidential primary in April of 2008. He is a co-founder of the Ireland-related fundraising organization, The Ireland Funds, as well, and he has been nominated to be the ambassador to Ireland.

• Charles H. Rivkin: The head of the entertainment company W!LDBRAIN, he served as a delegate to the Democratic National Committee in support of Obama last summer. Moreover, he sent at least half-a-million towards Obama’s campaign committee as a bundler and another $300,000 toward his inaugural committee. Since the 1994 election cycle, he has personally contributed more than $97,500 to Democrats, including $6,600 to Obama, and now he has been nominated to be the ambassador to France.

• John V. Roos: This lawyer has bundled at least $500,000 to Obama’s presidential campaign. He and his wife have also contributed at least $77,500 to Democrats since the 1992 election cycle, including $6,900 to Obama. Roos is the CEO of the technology-oriented law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and has been nominated to be ambassador to Japan.

• Laurie S. Fulton: The long-time lawyer who also served on the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace from 2004 to 2008 bundled at least $100,000 for Obama’s presidential campaign. Moreover, she has personally contributed at least $48,900 to Democrats since the 1992 election cycle, including $4,850 to Obama. She has been nominated to be the ambassador to Denmark.

• Vilma S. Martinez: The former head of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a litigator with Munger, Tolles & Olson, she has contributed more than $9,800 to Democratic candidates and groups since 1989, including at least $1,900 to Obama. She has been nominated to be ambassador to Argentina.

• Miguel H. Díaz: A professor of theology at St. John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, Diaz contributed $1,000 to Obama’s campaign last fall, the only disclosure-worthy federal political contribution he has given since 1989. He also served as a Catholic adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign. He has been nominated to be the ambassador to the Vatican.

• Michael A. Battle, Sr.: The president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Ga., Battle has no known history of giving federal campaign cash. He has also been an administrator at several higher education institutions, including Chicago State University, Virginia State University and Hampton University, and he has been nominated to be the U.S. representative to the African Union, which has the rank of ambassador.

• Robert S. Connan: Working for the U.S. Commercial Service within the Department of Commerce since 1980, Connan has not made any contributions exceeding $200 to federal candidates, committees or parties. His most recent position has been with the European Union, and he has been nominated to be the ambassador to Iceland.

• Patricia A. Butenis: A career officer with the U.S. Foreign Service, which she joined in 1980, Butenis has served most recently in the U.S. embassy in Iraq. She has been nominated to be the ambassador to both Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Butenis has not given contributions greater than $200 since 1989.

• Christopher William Dell: A career officer with the U.S. Foreign Service, which he joined in 1983, he served most recently in the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan. He has been nominated to be the ambassador to Kosovo, and he does not have any known federal campaign contributions.

• Thomas A. Shannon: A career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, which he joined in 1984, he is the current Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Ambassador. He has not given any disclosure-worthy federal campaign contributions, and he has been nominated to be the ambassador to Brazil.

• Timothy J. Roemer: The former six-term Democratic congressman from Indiana was a member of the 9/11 Commission and provided Obama with a hearty endorsement during the contentious primary race with Hillary Clinton. He currently heads the Center for National Policy, a DC-based public policy organization, and has been nominated to be the ambassador to India. He has not made any personal campaign contributions to federal candidates, but he does appear in our Revolving Door database.

Senate, Congress, Presidency… Now What Is Your Excuse?

Does Barack Hussein Obama lie?

h/t Black Agenda Report

B’Man’s Sabbath Watch: The Shiny Little Objects That Command Our Attention

What’s is your biggest reason why you didn’t vote for Barack Obama, redneck? Because he was black?

How about any of them (if you happened to be insightful enough to think outside the box and look at a third party)? Was there a key reason (or two) that decided it for you?

Where I live in SW TN, the majority of folks voted for McCain. Of those I spoke to, the vast majority said because of abortion (it may have been the black thing, but the majority didn’t admit it). You see, in the minds of most of us rednecks, we are more apt to focus on that shiny little object that the people who run shit use to distract us and wedge us against each other… all so that we don’t see the truth. There may be other distractions, but I would say that this is one HUGE wedge issue that divides people.

But, in the scheme of things, is THIS really the most pressing issue that makes a decision for a vote? This ONE issue?

Religion is what keeps the poor from killing the rich

February 26, 2009

by Doug Morrison

Where it is a Duty to worship the Sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the Laws of Heat-
John Marley

One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh-
Robert Heinlein

Pope Benedict XVI recently told Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and one of the most prominent abortion rights politicians in America, that she must reject abortion and become anti-abortion. Unlike George W. Bush, Pelosi seemed to ignore that demand while still expressing pride in her religious heritage and “great joy” that she met Pope Benedict.

In 1960, JFK had to reassure US voter’s worries about the Pope having too much influence in American politics. Today, we have five US Supreme Court who are Catholic, very, very conservative and right wing. Things have changed.

This is not the first time that Benedict has intruded in American politics. Near the end of the 2004 Presidental campaign, the Vatican announced that no Catholic should vote for Kerry because he supported abortion. That statement came from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith- formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Yes, that Inquisition. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, referred to in the Vatican press as “the Pope’s enforcer” and “God’s rottweiler”. Some say he’s the ‘evil Pope’, some say he’s laid back, mild and humble. His shades and red patent leather Prada shoes belay that humble image.

Ratzinger was also in the Hitler Youth in 1941, as all 14 year old Germans were forced to do. There have been a lot of questions about Christianity and Naziism. They are important questions and observations. The belt buckles of the enlisted men in the German Army said “Gott mit uns”- God is with us. Germany has been a Christian country for centuries. There were Catholic Germans and Protestant Germans. The Protestant were much more traditionalist and militant. Then there was the German Christian Church, the Nazi’s own church with their imagery and ideology. Millions of Germans belonged to that church with its Nazi Protestantism. German Imperialism, fueled by Nazi power and Christianity, was on the move again. The Train was moving. Fascism, Christianity, Anti-Semitism, Capitalism plus a hatred of Bolshevikism and Communism were the engines on that Nazi Train. German Christianity would never be the same again.

It’s popular among Christian apologists to claim that Hitler and the Nazis were all consequences of atheism, secularism and liberalism. That wasn’t the reality. Hitler regularly proclaimed his faith in God; Nazi ideology was committed to supporting Christianity (on Nazi terms, of course). The actions of Hitler and the Nazis were about as “Christian” as the actions of people during the Crusades or the Inquisition. People can’t imagine Christians doing the horrible crimes of the Nazis, but it’s true. Hitler explicitly appealed to Christianity on a regular basis and that’s part of why he was so popular. He was most popular among conservative Christians seeking a restoration of “traditional values, Christian Nationalism, anti-communnism and anti-semitism”. Christians may not like acknowledging that Nazi actions had anything to do with Christianity, but Germany saw itself as a fundamentally Christian nation and millions of German Christians enthusiasticlly endorsed Hitler and the Nazi Party believing they showed both German and Christion ideals.

Fast forward to 2009. As far as abortion ideas (or culture war ideas), Pope Benedict has no special information; his views are just his opinion. When Benedict talks abortion, he means that life begins at conception. It’s a very political viewpoint. The Biblical view of when life begins, birth or conception, seems to favor birth.

The Bible often identifies life with ‘breath”, (Gen. 2:7) suggesting that life begins at birth, not conception. In Job 33:4 it states: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Ezekiel 37: 1-14 suggests that which is consistent with Genesis 2:7. Adam did not become a “living soul” until the “breath of life” entered his nostrils, after his body was formed. There are other examples, Joshua 10:40, 1 Kings 15:29 and many otheres where “breath” is treated as a synonym for “life”. In Biblical terms, it seems clear that life begins at birth, not conception.

Jewish law and Jewish Biblical scholars traditionally consider that life begins at birth. That’s good enough for me.

If life begins at birth, then there can be no death or killing of a human being. Life begins when a human being first draws a breath outside of Mom’s body. Until then, it’s just a Potential inside Mom and definitely not separate.

In my opinion, right wing views of abortion are really not about “saving a baby from death”. They’re about demonizing liberals and their worldview. The debate is framed and made to seem that liberals actively seek abortions as a means of birth control. Liberal mothers are shown as the type of mother who would kill her own children for convenience. Right wingers say this shows what kind of people liberals are; the liberal agenda is corrupt, their viewpoints are rediculous and they should never have any political power because they would destroy America from within with loose morals, ethics and decay. Right wingers and conservatives actually believe this.

Oh, what an argument liberals and conservatives have about when life begins. It goes on and is usually a right wing smoke screen to cover their grab for power.

Pope Benedict should go out into the sunshine and look at his passport to see his Birth Date. It’s just like all the passports in the world; there is a birth date, not a date of conception. Everyone marks their life by date of birth, not date of conception. Everyone. Imagine what this says about abortion.

Belief that a human being then exists at the moment of conception is a faith, a wishful thinking, definitely not backed up by the Department of Licensing or the Passport Office. I like it that way.

h/t World Prout Assembly

Hillary Clinton Caught Mouthing Along To Presidential Oath (Just In Case)

Hillary Clinton Mouthing Along To Presidential Oath

WASHINGTON—Network news cameras covering Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony Tuesday captured Hillary Clinton silently moving her lips along with each word of the minute-long presidential oath of office. As she stood watching several yards from Chief Justice John Roberts, the former Democratic presidential candidate could be observed placing her left hand on a leather appointment book and raising her right hand slightly from her hip. Clinton, who carefully followed the swearing-in procedure with her eyes shut tightly, only varied from the president’s words once, when she soundlessly mouthed her name instead of Barack Obama’s. Clinton was later seen at an inaugural ball pretending she was dancing with first lady Michelle Obama.

via The Onion

Talk about ignorant and crazy!!

After Obama’s win, white backlash festers in US

By Patrik Jonsson Patrik Jonsson – Mon Nov 17, 3:00 am ET

AP

Atlanta – In rural Georgia, a group of high-schoolers gets a visit from the Secret Service after posting “inappropriate” comments about President-elect Barack Obama on the Web. In Raleigh, N.C., four college students admit to spraying race-tinged graffiti in a pedestrian tunnel after the election. On Nov. 6, a cross burns on the lawn of a biracial couple in Apolacon Township, Pa.

The election of America’s first black president has triggered more than 200 hate-related incidents, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a record in modern presidential elections. Moreover, the white nationalist movement, bemoaning an election that confirmed voters’ comfort with a multiracial demography, expects Mr. Obama’s election to be a potent recruiting tool – one that watchdog groups warn could give new impetus to a mostly defanged fringe element.

Most election-related threats have so far been little more than juvenile pranks. But the political marginalization of certain Southern whites, economic distress in rural areas, and a White House occupant who symbolizes a multiethnic United States could combine to produce a backlash against what some have heralded as the dawn of a postracial America. In some parts of the South, there’s even talk of secession.

“Most of this movement is not violent, but there is a substantive underbelly that is violent and does try to make a bridge to people who feel disenfranchised,” says Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “The question is: Will this swirl become a tornado or just an ill wind? We’re not there yet, but there’s dust on the horizon, a swirling of wind, and the atmospherics are getting put together for [conflict].”

Though postelection racist incidents haven’t posed any real danger to society or the president-elect, law enforcement is taking note.

“We’re trying to be out there at the cutting edge of this and trying to stay ahead of groups that are emerging,” says Special Agent Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the Secret Service, which guards the US president.

“Anytime you start seeing [extremist propaganda] floating around, you have to be concerned,” adds Lt. Gary Thornberry of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. “As far as it being an alarmist situation, I don’t see that yet. From a law enforcement point of view, you have to be careful, because it’s not illegal to have an ideology.”

After sparking conflict and showdowns in the 1990s – think Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing – white supremacist and nationalist groups began this century largely splintered and powerless. Though high immigration levels helped boost the number of hate groups from 602 in 2000 to 888 in 2007, key leaders of such groups had died, been imprisoned, or were otherwise marginalized.

But postelection, at least two white nationalist websites – Stormfront and the Council of Conservative Citizens – report their servers have crashed because of heavy traffic. The League of the South, a secessionist group, says Web hits jumped from 50,000 a month to 300,000 since Nov. 4, and its phones are ringing off the hook.

“The vitriol is flailing out shotgun-style,” says Mr. Levin. “They recognize Obama as a tipping point, the perfect storm in the narrative of the hate world – the apocalypse that they’ve been moaning about has come true.”

Supremacist propaganda is already on the upswing. In Oklahoma, fringe groups have distributed anti-Obama propaganda through newspapers and taped it to home mail boxes. Ugly incidents such as cross-burnings, assassination betting pools, and Obama effigies are also being reported from Maine to Alabama.

The Ku Klux Klan has been tied to recent news events, as well. Two Tennessee men implicated for plotting to kill 88 black men, including Obama, were tied to the KKK chapter whose leader was convicted in a civil trial in Brandenburg, Ky., last week, for inciting violence. The murder last week in Louisiana of a KKK initiate, allegedly killed after trying to back out of joining, came at the hands of a new group called Sons of Dixie, authorities say.

“We’re not looking at a race war or anything close to it, but … what we are seeing now is undeniably a fairly major backlash by some subset of the white population,” says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report in Montomgery, Ala. “Many whites feel that the country their forefathers built has been … stolen from them, so there’s in some places a real boiling rage, and that can only become worse as more people lose jobs.”

In an election in which barely 20 percent of native Southern whites in Deep South states voted for Obama, the newly apparent political clout of “outsiders” and people of color has been unnerving to some.

“In states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, there was extraordinary racial polarization in the vote,” says Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. “Black Americans really do believe that Obama is going to represent their interests and views in ways that they haven’t been before, and, in the Deep South, whites feel exactly the opposite.”

But for nonviolent secessionist groups like the League of the South, the hope is for a more vigorous debate about the direction of the US and the South’s role in it, says Michael Tuggle, a League blogger in North Carolina.

Mr. Tuggle says his group isn’t looking for an 1860-style secession but, rather, a model that Spain, for one, is moving toward, in which “there’s a great deal of autonomy for constituent regions” – a foil to what is seen as unchecked, dangerous federal power in Washington.

“To a lot of people, the idea of secession doesn’t seem so crazy anymore,” says Tuggle. “People are talking about how left out they feel, … and they feel that something strange and radical has taken over our country.”

President Obama

Thank God it’s over. Now– we need to make sure our new President is safe, not only from terrorists but from his own ignorant citizens. And may I say— John McCain gave a great and inspirering speech directly after his loss.

I Lost The Election For Obama

Funny stuff (thanks Lynda),

But the truth is that Obama should win this by a landslide.

It takes a certain idiocy to equate John McCain with Barack Obama on many issues (altho I am quick to point all of them out). When they set us up for the choice of two evils, one is far worse than the other.

If Obama doesn’t win this election, it is rigged.

Period.

Hope you vote today.

I am shortly and for Nader.

Tennessee (and all other red states) will be a victory for McCain so there is no reason to be worried about your vote losing it for Obama.

Vote your conscience. Vote your desires. Vote for a real American hero.

Vote Nader to prove something. To prove you don’t have to be part of the system they force you into.

Sincerely,

The Loser of this election for Barack Obama,

Ray F.

November 5th brings the testing that WILL come–

The Test that IS coming–

Washington Post

By

Jackson DiehlMonday, November 3, 2008; Page A21

George W. Bush had to react when a U.S. military surveillance aircraft was forced down in China and its crew detained for 11 days. The episode started as an accident, but Beijing used it to measure a new executive with scant international experience. In 1993 Bill Clinton was blindsided by the “Blackhawk Down” firefight in Mogadishu. After 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush, he abruptly withdrew U.S. forces from Somalia — and taught Osama bin Laden not to fear American power.White House agenda. Condoleezza Rice might want to say. The State Department‘s efforts over the past year to negotiate the nuclear disarmament of that charter “axis of evil” member has deteriorated into something very like the status quo the Bush administration repudiated when it first took office. In exchange for not restarting its bomb production line, the regime of Kim Jong Il extracts bribes, like its recent removal from State’s list of terrorism sponsors. Obama (or McCain) team flinch? Not just in Pyongyang but in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo, any such probe will be minutely observed. Iranian Revolutionary Guard — in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and southern Iraq and on the Persian Gulf — have been almost eerily quiet. But they’ve not been abandoned. On the contrary, Israeli sources say long- and short-range missiles are pouring into Lebanon, despite a U.N. ban on arms deliveries to Hezbollah. Since a cease-fire began in late June, Hamas has imported through tunnels from Egypt an estimated 20 tons of explosives; dozens of anti-tank missiles; and tons of metal, fertilizer and chemicals used to build the rockets aimed at Israeli cities. U.S. officials say the camps in Iran where the Guard trains “special groups” for attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq are still busy. Binyamin Netanyahu. It will be preparing for its own presidential election, in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — health permitting — will seek reelection. Will the Guard — the most hard-line of Iran’s competing factions — judge that a flare-up in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq or the Persian Gulf is the best way to intimidate the new U.S. and Israeli leaders, undermine any move toward negotiations with Washington by Iranian doves, and bolster the campaign of Guard patron Ahmadinejad? Though Iranian moves are always hard to predict, that one would not be a surprise. Hugo Chávez, who need a Yanqui enemy, and small Eurasian countries such as Georgia, which need a U.S. shield against Russia. There are the Russians themselves — who measure their country’s power by its ability to thwart American initiatives. University of Maryland. One way to do that is to create a crisis — for example, a collapse of the Palestinian Authority or an Israeli strike on Gaza. Another is a positive surprise — maybe, an agreement by Hamas to a referendum on whether to accept a two-state solution. Either way, if the next president does not soon call on the Middle East, it will find a way to call him.

Of course Joe Biden is right — there will be an early international crisis to test the new president. There almost always is. In April 2001 — long before Sept. 11 —

Chances are the next administration’s first test will be a surprise. Yet some probes are predictable. For the past few months several familiar U.S. adversaries have been waiting out the Bush administration while painstakingly setting up traps they can spring on the incoming president. A few other actors are thinking about the ways they can get their problems onto what will be, from inauguration day on, an impossibly busy

Take North Korea — please, as

It’s not difficult to predict that sometime in 2009 the North will trigger another crisis when it refuses to honor its disarmament promises, threatens to fire up its plutonium reprocessing plant and demands new concessions from Washington. Would a fresh

Next is Iran, another stop on the axis that will remain roguish even after Bush’s departure. In recent months, the military fronts controlled by the

The question is when, not whether, this firepower will be put to use. By the spring Tehran will be seeking the measure of not only a new U.S. president but also a new Israeli prime minister — who could be the hawk

Beyond the rogues are the regulars: the countries that depend on American attention, positive or negative, to fuel their own political cycles — and are good at finding ways to grab it when they feel ignored. There are Latin American demagogues such as

And then there are the Israelis and Palestinians. At the annual Weinberg conference of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in September, two senior surrogates for the McCain and Obama campaigns agreed on one large point: that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would rank far down the new president’s list of priorities. Don’t bet on it. “Both the Israelis and the Palestinians will want to elevate their issues on the agenda,” says Shibley Telhami, a Middle East scholar at the

Richard Noggin Saturday: The American Sheople

Warning: VERY Strong Language (but cuts right to the bone) h/t DeProgram

Fukn News: Election Fraud Nearly Over

Puppet election to end soon
Shit happens but who gives a fuck
In the UK no one outraged by slavery

War For The Whitehouse: Struggling Lower-Class

Still Unsure How Best To Fuck Selves With Vote

October 30, 2008

WASHINGTON—As election day nears, millions of the nation’s poorest voters have reportedly yet to settle on the most profound and enduring way to completely fuck themselves over when they head to the polls this year.

“On the one hand, I’m pretty sure Barack Obama will undermine my best interests by maintaining the same centrist, pro-corporate policies of previous Democratic administrations,” said Jim Estey, 34, a recently laid-off assembly-line worker. “Conversely, I agree with McCain and Palin on abortion, which might just balance out the fact that they’ll further marginalize people like me by supporting deregulation and slashing social programs. So it’s pretty much a toss-up at this point.”

Though such behavior appears to directly undermine their own well-being, lower-income voters have historically supported candidates determined to screw them six ways to Sunday, including Bill Clinton, who incarcerated them in record numbers and cut the welfare benefits many depended on for day-to-day sustenance, and George W. Bush, who widened the gap between them and the rich and sent thousands of them to die in Iraq. This year’s election is reportedly unique in that the nation’s poor must not only weigh how deeply and painfully their chosen candidate will penetrate their rectums, but must also consider unforeseen outside circumstances—such as economic collapse and terrorism—that might allow the next president to bend them over and brutally rape them in ways they never thought possible.

The latest polls indicate that a majority of lower-class citizens might choose not to vote at all Nov. 4, preferring instead to leave the details of how they get fucked to the moneyed classes.

Shall we oust the electorial college?

“In 2000, Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, seen here campaigning in Miami Beach, won more votes nationwide than his opponent, George W. Bush.”

MIT: 10/08

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Is the Electoral College, America’s quirky system of choosing its presidents, on its way to extinction?

Americans do not vote directly for president. They vote for slates of electors in each state.

Collectively, the electors are called the Electoral College. Each state gets a number of electors equal to its membership in the House and Senate. (The District of Columbia gets three.)

Minnesota, for instance, gets 10 electors. If Republican candidate John McCain wins the most votes in Minnesota on Nov. 4, the slate of 10 Minnesota McCain electors is chosen.

All but two states (Maine and Nebraska) use the winner-take-all system. This means that the candidate who gets the most popular votes in a state gets all of its electoral votes.

The next president will be the candidate who gets at least 270 of the total 538 electors.

The system can be idiosyncratic. Four times in the nation’s history, the winner of the largest number of popular votes did not win the largest number of electoral votes, and therefore did not become president.

It happened in 2000, when Al Gore got more popular votes, but lost the election to George W. Bush.

It also happened in:

1824, when popular vote winner Andrew Jackson lost the presidency to John Quincy Adams.

1876, when Samuel Tilden lost to Rutherford B. Hayes.

And 1888, when Grover Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison.

A relic of the early republic
The system is a relic of the early days of the republic when electors were supposed to be independent agents exercising their judgment in choosing a presidential candidate from a list of several contenders.

Today, electors are party loyalists who almost always vote for their party’s nominee.

On Friday, a group of legal scholars, political scientists, and systems specialists gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a conference on the Electoral College. Their focus? How to better engineer the system.

Scrapping the electoral vote system would likely require a constitutional amendment since the Constitution itself created the electoral system (Article II, section 1).

But a group called National Popular Vote says it has found another way.

So far, it has persuaded four Democratic-controlled legislatures (in Maryland, Illinois, Hawaii, and New Jersey) to pass a law which commits those states to give their electoral votes to whomever wins the national popular vote.

The accord takes effect once states with a combined 270 electoral votes agree to it.

The states would pledge to award their electoral votes to the popular vote winner even if he or she had not been the majority choice in their state.

Take Maryland as an example. Say 80 percent of voters in that state cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential candidate. But if a Republican candidate wins the national popular vote, under the state law, Maryland’s 10 electoral votes would go to that candidate.

Powells Other Endorsement– huffington

Colin Powell has officially endorsed Barack Obama for President. But the big news is that this was not even his most important endorsement of the day. As it turns out, the most important thing endorsed by Colin Powell today was an America that’s worth leading and worth fighting for, an America that encapsulates the idea of what some might call a “more perfect union.” To that end, Powell invoked a picture to illustrate his point.

“Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards – Purple Heart, Bronze Star – showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn’t have a Christian cross. It didn’t have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life.”

[New York Times Photo]

So, yeah. Sometimes, America does benefit when we share our wealth with one another. And some people, in fact, do have it harder than Joe The Plumber.