PolitiGal1

A More Perfect Union: The City on the Hill Shines Again

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:44:00 +0000

A World Rejoices as a Dream is Fulfilled: Barack Obama Elected America's 44th President

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Japan: "Obama Girls" dance in celebration in the Fukui city of Obama

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Paris, France: Obama supporters celebrate with the Eiffel Tower in the background

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In Jerusalem, Israel the crowd goes wild as Barack Obama becomes President Elect

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In Moscow, Russia a man turns to a gathered crowd raising his arms in victory

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London, England the London Times declares the happy rebirth of The New World

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In India, a sand sculpture offers congratulations.

Phot Credits :Spiegel Online

Through the Republican Looking Glass: Prosperity=Socialism?

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:12:00 +0000

My last post highlighted the sharp divide between what Republicans believe (and want you to believe) and reality. Truth is they're a hot mess of a coalition which exists in an alter-reality. It is there that an echo chamber of groupthink reinforces a collective psychosis and an often angry delirium, within the depths of which it is reasonable to believe that man lived with dinosaurs, the earth is 6000 years old, and that America was a hotbed of Marxism until the arrival of God's candidate in the year 2000 (read on).

Johnny McSame used to present himself as someone who took great relish in railing against the absurdity evident in the through the looking-glass reasoning of George W. Bush and his half-witted minions. Then in 2000, the GOP handed his head to him in South Carolina and Johnny decided to venture through the looking glass himself...abandoning all pretense of reason for sycophancy and the promise of power.

Nowhere is Johnny's journey into the GOP twilight zone more evident than in his criticism of Barack Obama's plan make the necessary corrections to the fiscally ahistoric and irresponsible Bush II tax cuts for the wealthy at a time of war-- the very tax cuts which have turned the the robust middle class of the Clinton Administration into the dying and besieged working and middle classes of a dark Bush/McCain 2008 economic reality.

Once the healthy backbone of the American economy, the shrinking middle-class has fallen victim to the McBushenomics redistribution of wealth upward, through which the greatest disparity in wealth between the super-rich and everyone else since Great Depression has been created in less than eight years.

You see, while Johnny now opposes Obama's planned tax cuts for 95% for Americans and a return to Reagan era tax progressivity, in 2001 and 2003 John McCain not only supported what Obama now proposes, but railed loudly against the very same Bush II tax cuts he now seeks to extend and expand. In 2001 Johnny not only thought that Clinton's tax policy was fair, but that the wealthy should bear an even greater tax burden than they did under Wild Bill Clinton, and that the middle class should be the ones targeted to receive tax relief.

You see, McCranky was for Obama/Clinton tax policies, before he was against them and firmly believed that the Obama/Clinton approach was not only fair, but THE ONLY WAY way to assure the long term fiscal health of the country

Today however, John McCain sees the fiscal policies of the Reagan era and the hyper-economic-growth Clinton era as dangerous experiments in socialism (or even...gasp...Communism). Why, he says, should we abandon the wildly successful Bush II economic policies (heck...business at soup kitchens is booming!) in in favor of revisiting the horrors of the Clinton fiscal policies, which yielded unbearably good times and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. Why would anyone be crazy enough to settle for a return to Clinton's massive Federal Budget Surpluses when it is so clearly the case that continuing Bush's record breaking half-TRILLION DOLLAR DEFICITS are the path to a new American heyday!

Sure Ronald Reagan might have been a communist at heart, after all it is rumored that he tried to join the Communist party (and that they rejected him), but I had no idea that he was visiting a red-menace of his own upon 1980's America by signing into law a capital gains tax of 28% and signing off on the wildly Marxist tax policies of the Reagan/Bush I era!

And Bill Clinton...the 1990's...don't get me started. I think we all remember the sheer hell of rising wages, cheap gas, low inflation, and booming business (Damn you Robert Ruben!!). Thank the gods (you know...gods Greed and Power) for the enlightened approaches of the Bush/McCain era!

I think you'll find that it is possible to find McCain's plans sensible, but only if you are willing to stand with him, and view reality from through the Republican Looking glass. Yes, give yourself to the collective psychosis that characterizes Republican thinking and it all makes sense. Or not.

Now, which pill was it...which one makes the Economy bigger and which one makes it smaller? Red? Blue?

Which one takes us to the reality of a brighter future and which one leads us down the same delusional Bush/McSame Rabbit Hole?

You already know the answer...

VOTE OBAMA/BIDEN '08!

There is a coordinated effort by the GOP to suppress student, minority, and elderly votes (and those of other other likely Democratic Voters), so prepare yourself for any contingencies by VOTING EARLY after having read 7 Easy Steps To Steal Back Your Vote .

Don't let them BLOCK YOUR VOTE!

XOXO
Politigal1

Plumber Schlummer! It's Still the Economy Stupid and Republicans Always Screw it (And You) Up!....Down, Sideways, and From Behind!

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:13:00 +0000

Republican Fiscal Fiction Versus Reality

Who will save the economy? John McCain wants to put Bushenomics on steroids and has now adopted the decades old Republican (provably false...read on) rhetoric of Democratic fiscal irresponsibility and the lie of superior economic stewardship by Republican Administrations. What’s the real truth? How has it worked out for Americans EVERY time we’ve elected a Republican President during the past 40 years? And why is McCain trotting out such dusty attacks on Obama?

First, let’s get McCain’s 20 year rhetorical time-warp to the tired politics of elections past out of the way. The reason for the tactical shift is completely understandable: McCain has discovered that no matter how many times he closes his eyes and clicks his ruby slippers together saying "There's no place like Nam, there's no place like Nam" or screams "Obama!...Ayres! Terrorist BFFs!", Americans aren’t buying any of it. He's desperate.

So will American’s buy this latest tactical shift from Team McCain? Short answer: not a chance. The long answer requires a deeper look at why the American people have become so weary of Republican economic promises by examining the long term effects of Republican policy through the eyes of history from a temporal altitude several decades high.

Lets begin our journey in the present. What is the truth about John McCain’s latest economic proposal? Will it benefit the panicked masses? Or will it be just more of the same Bush giveaways to the super-wealthy and more Bushenomic spit in the eye of the little guy? Jared Bernstein (love Crunch) characterized McCain's plan in the following way:

"The good number crunchers at the Tax Policy Center examined who would benefit from the McCain proposal. The middle fifth of families end up with all of 0.2% of the benefits. That's not a typo. The tax break would lower their annual tax bill by $4.00. OK, that is a gallon of gas, but it's not what you'd call a game-changer. The top 20% end up with 98.3% of the benefits of the cut, and the top 1%, with income above $600,000 get 75% of the gains, for an average benefit of $37,600. The average tax savings for the top 0.1%--income above $3 mil--is $244,000."

So McCain plans to give $4 in tax relief to the Middle-Class and a $244, ooo to the über wealthy top o.1 percent!? Could that be right? Yep, you read that right. It’s obscene and it speaks volumes about where McCain’s true priorities lie in these troubled economic times. His plan is just more of the same old trickle-down flim-flam that has never worked. It's Bush times two. If you like what you've gotten over the past eight years, you'll just love an even bigger helping from a President McCain. If an economy in shambles isn't what you're after, well, read on...

I suppose it might be easier to stomach (and far less insulting one's intelligence) if the whole Republican idea of fiscal responsibility really did have a track record of delivering robust markets, a reduced national debt, balanced budgets and prosperity for all, but ...

Republican administrations yield less to the investor, wildly expand both the National Debt and Federal Deficits, and increase the concentration of wealth at the top while sticking it to the middle class and poor!

Allow me to make my points graphically. Well start with an examination of market performance under Republican and Democratic Administrations over the past 80 years. Time spent in the Whit House has been split roughly equally over that time period with 40 years of Republican control and 40 years of Democratic control.

Lets have a look at what a $10,000 stock-market investment would've gotten you under the Republican administrations during their 40 years of control, and what that same $10,000 would have gotten you under Democratic administrations during their 40 yeas of White House control.

Whoa! Didn't see that one coming did you? It's not even close: Democratic Administrations would have turned your $10,000 into $300,000 and Republican administrations wouldn't even have kept pace with inflation over their four decades of control with a pitiful $1,733 in capital gains (and that's best case--with Hoover's disastrous administration left out). Bottom line, if you want to see your 401k grow, pray for a Democrat in the White House.

But what about revenue and spending? You know, fiscal responsibility. Who really is a better steward of Government finances? One political Party ALWAYS keeps Federal deficits, the National Debt, and spending under control, and one Party ALWAYS puts America deeper in the hole and more indebted to countries like Japan and China. Which is which? The answer might surprise you but the facts (from the far left folks at the U.S. dept of Treasury) are crystal clear.

Take a second and really soak in that graph. The Republican rhetoric sure doesn't match American fiscal reality at all, does it? Turns out Republicans over the past 40 or so years have always run the country like 12 year olds with a their parent's credit card, and Democrats have always kept the American financial house in order. If you don't want to leave your kids and grand kids an even bigger bill than Chimpy already has...Pray for a Democrat in the White House.

(Be sure to check out the chart below too, it really makes clear who consistently spends America into massive debt.)

OK, you say, so the Republicans always screw the pooch when it comes to market performance and fiscal responsibility, but what about their promises of prosperity for all? Surely they deliver on THAT perennial promise right? Once again...nope. The chart below shows the growing gap between the super-rich and the bottom 90% of Americans, a gap which has become increasingly pronounced under the Bush Administration's policies (the chart is from The Nation's June 30th issue The New Inequality...a must read issue for understanding the New Guilded Age. I'd also recommend Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman's The Conscience of a Liberal).

As the top chart points out, in 2006 the insanely wealthy 0.01% of Americans averaged more than 976 times more income than the bottom 90%. The bottom graph shows what the effective tax rate is for the those making millions and billions. Turns out they don't pay the marginal tax rate at all, but through utilization tax-loopholes pay only 23%--even less than someone (maybe you) earning $32,550 - $78,850 (marginal rate 25%).

Doesn't sound much like "prosperity for all", now does it? It sounds like an unfair redistribution of wealth upward. Against all reason (he's workin' that extra-chromosome thing like a champ) McCain wants to continue, and even intensify the Bushenomic policies so that the already advantaged become even more advantaged and the other 80% of Americans are effectively told to get bent. McCain really is MORE OF THE SAME, and he is hoping against hope that you don't figure out that his new-found "Joe the Plumber" populist message is nothing more than...well..lipstick on a pig.

So who should you trust to fix the economy? Well, if you are all for doing the same thing and expecting different results (ie. clinically insane), then vote McCain. If what you are after is an effective, thoughtful, new approach to dealing with America's growing economic challenges...don't just pray for a Democrat in the White-House--put one there! Put an end to the insanity! Vote Obama/Biden in '08!

PolitiGal1

FOR VH:
Charts from U.S. National Debt Clock FAQ
The charts below illustrate the growth of the U.S. Natioal Debt from 1940-2008. The first is not adjusted for inflation and the second has been adjusted for inflation.

As you can see when adjusted for inflation, the graph provides an even more pronounced illustration of the almost exponential (not quite a J curve though) expansion of debt under both Reagan/BushI and under Bush II. It also illustrates the effects of the Clinton Administrations move from huge Bush I deficits to the Surplus of 2000, evident in the leveling of f just before Bush II's disastrous eight years at the helm.

Sean Hannity = Anti-Semite? Flipping the GOP Script

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:33:00 +0000

About those glass houses they're always talking about...

During and after the debate last night, there was scarcely a mention of William "Bill" Ayers...unless of course you were watching Fox. They droned on and on about it, with Sean Hannity leading the charge and trumpeting importance of a person's associations (especially the impersonal, passing, tangential kind) when evaluating that person's character and judgement. Then he met Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs...

Andy Martin, is a main player in the creation/propagation of the wholly disproved idea that Barack Obama was and is a (Secret?) Muslim.

In addition to being the source of wildly hateful lies about Obama, Andy Martin also has a long history of Antisemitism (2), so when Sean Hannity gave such a reprehensible human being a wide audience and the "Hannity sanctioned" air of authority on his special Obama & Friends: A History of Radicalism, what's a girl to think? Is it wrong to hold him to his own high standards, and draw similar conclusions? Eh...it was just the one time right? Wrong.

Ealier in his career Sean Hannity befriended Neo-Nazi Hal Turner, who "was regularly welcomed on Hannity’s show, even after saying on the air that if it weren’t for the graciousness of white people, "black people would still be swinging on trees in Africa."

In fact, instead of breaking his contact with turner, the two became close, with Hannity allegedy at on point "offering encouragement to Turner as he struggled to overcome a cocaine habit and homosexual leanings. Turner has boasted that Hannity once invited Turner and his son on to the set of Fox News's Hannity and Colmes"

Is there a pattern here? Those are some pretty unsavory associations, and Sean sure seems to find the same kind of people again and again...What guilt should we infer from his associations?

"If putting lipstick on a pig still leaves you with a pig, does putting half white genes in a nigger still leave you with a nigger?" -Hal Turner

Clearly some reasonable (unreasonable) truths (untruths?) can be logically (illogically) inferred about Sean Hannity by invoking the "Hannity-RNC Rules of Guilt By Association"----based upon his more than passing associations with Noe-Nazis and White-Supremests , it is only reasonable (isn't it?) to conclude that ol' Sean holds the same racist beliefs as his pals, and is himself an Anti-Semitic White-Supremest who agrees that Jews are dirty and African-Americans would be little more than apes were it not for the white man...

Maybe Sean should engage in a little self-examination, though I doubt he's psychologically equipped or inclined to do so. . Hmmm...I seem to recall something in the Brick (LEGO) Bible about all this.......

Politigal (Politgal1)

Fresh Off The Presses--"That One" Won!

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:15:00 +0000

In order for John McCain to have won the debate tonight, he would have had to leave the American public with no doubt about who had won the debate. He left no such impression. Instead John McCain proposed a massive new government program to buy up failing mortgages:

You know that home values of retirees continues to decline and people are no longer able to afford their mortgage payments. As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes -- at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those -- be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.

Now, a $300 billion dollar buyout of bad home loan mortgages is the kind of prima facie big government liberal program that is likely to have those Republicans that count themselves as fiscal conservatives shaking their heads vigorously just before they stroke out. But fear not evil ones, there is one man who is committed to making sure all government spending is frozen, except for a few critical items (and a home mortgage rescue program isn't on the list), and that man was at the debate too.

That man's name....JOHN MCCAIN! Yes my friends, good old two face returns...or maybe it was an MPD McPenguin...you be the judge (is it a sin to mix Batman memes?).

Yes, the schizophrenia that has plagued McCain's campaign almost from the beginning reared it's beautiful head again tonight as Johnny (McPenguin #2), took a position diametrically opposed to Johnny(McPenguin #1) by uttering the followingl:

So we're going to have to tell the American people that spending is going to have to be cut in America. And I recommend a spending freeze that -- except for defense, Veterans Affairs, and some other vital programs, we'll just have to have across-the-board freeze.

Zoinks! Surely things couldn't go further south for the Johnnies...could they?

Oh yeah! I'm not sure which Johnny McPenguin it was (maybe cranky-ass JohnnyMcPenguin... who am I kidding, that's pretty much all of 'em) but one of 'em unforgivably refused to call Barack Obama by his given name, and chose instead to refer to him as "that one":

"You know who voted for it? You might never know. (pointing dismissively at Obama) That one. You know who voted against it? Me."

Wowsa! Johnny McPenguin, you got some 'splainin' to do! Now you've gone and done it! The Right is pissed, the American Public confused (are you a spender or cutter?), more than a few folks are offended, and your chances to become President are falling faster than the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

But lets be clear, McPenguin didn't loose the debate all by himself, Barack also clearly won it on points and charisma. On more than one occasion Obama absolutely owned McPenguin (all of 'em), pointing out the laughable chasm between who John McCain says he is and who he actually is. Responding to an attack by McCain that Obama should be more like Teddy Roosevelt, speaking softly and carrying a big stick, Obama launched the following scorching salvo:

Sen. McCain, this is the guy who sang, "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," who called for the annihilation of North Korea. That I don't think is an example of "speaking softly."
This is the person who, after we had -- we hadn't even finished Afghanistan, where he said, "Next up, Baghdad."
So I agree that we have to speak responsibly and we have to act responsibly. And the reason Pakistan -- the popular opinion of America had diminished in Pakistan was because we were supporting a dictator, Musharraf, had given him $10 billion over seven years, and he had suspended civil liberties. We were not promoting democracy.
This is the kind of policies that ultimately end up undermining our ability to fight the war on terrorism, and it will change when I'm president.

Ahhh...was it good for you?

More later,
PolitiGal1

Palin:"There's a Place in Hell Reserved for Women Who Don't Support Other Women"

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:13:00 +0000

HUH? Burning Bush? Blinding flash of light? No, it was a steaming cup of coffee.

God apparently spoke to Sarah Palin Saturday in a "provincial" moment while she was drinking a cup o' joe (Size: Godly Latte Flavor:Joya del Dia Blend™...to die (a on a cross?) for...just divine!) from Starbucks. It would seem she looked down at her cup, and no doubt, using her LensCrafter Barbie Superpowers, managed to see something that wasn't explicitly there...a Heavenly admonishment for women to (and a damning of those who don't) support her run for VP as part of the McCain/Palin VP ticket:

"I'm reading on my Starbucks mocha cup, okay? The quote of the day... It was Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State [crowd boos] and UN ambassador. ... Now she said it, I didn't. She said, 'There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women."

Today Madeline Albright set the record straight about her quote and which ticket she believes smart women should support:

"Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women. The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden."

Whoa...Lourdes, Fatima, and...Starbucks? Last time God spoke to her like that she was holding a math book (she's never actually touched an English book) with no name yet chosen for her new baby...and then...God spoke...

Definitely some mysterious ways afoot here...or not.

Is this girl special or what? Ya'Betcha (Wink)!

-Politigal1

Uh,..Looking Back? Not Really...Just Trying To Make Sure An Ugly Yesterday Isn't Dragged Into Our Brighter Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:16:00 +0000

Who's your daddy? Really, that's the first question we're asking you Mack Bush (totally rhetorically BTW), because that guy beat the hell out of us (half the team is unconscious, and a quarter is dead) and we're still trying to stop the bleeding.

The second question we're asking you is--in what ways are you different than that bastard daddy of yours, Chimpy Bush? None? You say you don't see ANYTHING wrong with what he did and want to continue the beatings...only harder?

Well excuse us trying for to keep the beatings of our yesterdays from becoming a featured part of our tomorrows. It's kinda hard to see rainbows and blue skies through swollen shut eyes. Protecting ourselves from future pain isn't what we call looking back, it's what we like to call "lookin' out".

Listen, Mack, a few years ago before you "growed-up" all ugly and mean (same flavors as your dad only uglier and meaner) we'd hoped you'd turn out different from your old man, but guess not.

Forgive us for pointing out the obvious---you have no soul, and more importantly no remorse, and there is no way in hell we're letting you take over the team. You say you want change, but the only change you're talking about is changing the the name of the guy beating us.

Our real friend, young hopeful Barry O, is the guy we've decided to go with to run the team because he promises some real changes. He knows the beatings were wrong (is that looking back too?), has never beaten an anyone he was charged with protecting in his life, and promises to get the swelling down so we can see those awesome blue skies again, feel the sun on our skin, and fully appreciate majesty of the occasional rainbow.

Let us say this slowly for you, because that extra chromosome of yours is really slowing your thinking down...Making sure the tragedies of our yesterdays don't become the tragedies of our tomorrows isn't looking back, its looking out. And pointing out our abusers isn't blaming (this ain't a case of who spilled the milk Mack), it's protecting ourselves and anyone else in earshot from getting beaten or fooled into taking a beating in the future.

Palin the P-O-T-A-T-O-E Speller or Palin the Debater Tonight?

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Though this past week of Katie Couric interviews with Sarah Palin presented the portrait of a LensCrafter Barbie more likely to be elected Mrs. South Carolina (errr Alaska) than Vice President, don't expect the same cracks in her brittle, ill-informed, and incurious mind to be on display tonight. She will (appear to) be a different woman.

The differences in formats and purposes between a network interview and presidential debate will necessarily yield different results.

Many in my camp are privately hoping for a Dan Quayle-ish performance from the Alaskan Governor. Publicly they are spinning Palin debate performance expectations upward should she somehow exceed the low expectations the public and media have set for her. I would remind my wishful friends and you, that when it came time to debate, Dan Quayle (the debater) was no Dan Quayle (the potatoe speller).

He held his own. One need only watch the following 1992 vice presidential debate footage between the intellectually gifted Al Gore and the intellectually impoverished Quayle to understand:

Tonight, the difference between Palin the Potatoe Speller and Palin debator will be equally stark. You will see the illusion of competence evident in the Palin Gubernatorial debates of 2006 on display here tonight, not the fumbling, unsure interviewee of the past week or so.

The apparent dramatic shift in competence is an illusion (like making a horse look like it can count) borne of the different task specific demands of being interviewed and those of debating. In the interview, where one interviewer probes one interviewee, there are an almost infinite number of possible questions that might be posed, and any non-answers will almost certainly be followed up upon by a competent interviewer(see Charlie Gibson).

In a debate the questions are generally limited in scope to current events and policy positions. Time for answering the questions is strictly limited, and the moderator's ability to chase down an evasive answer is nullified by debate duration time concerns.

Additionally, in preparation for the debate, each of the candidates will, in the course of preparing for the debate, have memorized several "on message" responses to be given in the event of a knowledge or willingness gap.

Charlie Gibson was able to toss Palin a question about the Bush Doctrine that threw her embarrassingly off, and had the time to press her into a painfully revealing corner. If she were to have been asked the same question in a debate by a moderator she would have replied:

"John McCain and I are well aware of what's laid out by the Bush Doctrine, but I think the American people are less concerned in these troubled economic times with any policy of the previous administration, and more with finding ways shoring up our failing economy and fixing the dysfunction and special interest infected Washington system that has landed us in this mess. The want maverick change...and thats what they would get in a McCain-Palin administration...maverick change."

The above answer could easily but modified to be used if faced with a question about Alan Greenspan's policies or those of the Clinton Administration's Robert Rubin, and in each case Palin would appear to be reasonably bringing the conversation back to the crisis facing the American people today and rather than avoiding the question asked.

That, my friends, is how you make a fool seem a genius, and a potatoe speller a debater.

******POST DEBATE UPDATE**********
Did you notice how fervently Palin was shuffling through her note cards during the debate, barely lifting her head during each of Biden's responses? She was madly looking for prepackaged responses provided beforehand by McCain advisers, one answer per card.

The Advisors (who, incidentally, also wrote her well practiced one liners) tried to anticipate all possible questions, but not being psychics, couldn't. The times Palin refused to answer the asked questions were the times she either had no prewritten response or couldn't find it amongst the hundred or so cards she had to shuffle through to find it.

This should make you smile (laugh aloud?) next time someone points out how bold Palin was in refusing to answer the questions Gwen Ifill (the moderator) asked in order to talk directly to the American people. She wasn't bold...she was desperate.

Did she meet the low expectations set by the media and her republican handlers? Ya'Betcha (Wink)! Would she have been able to answer any of the questions without her raft of notecards? Nopester...she woulda been refusing questions all night long in order to speak directly to the American People (that bold babe!).

Was it a success?...."In what respect, Charlie?"

Politigal1

Double Vision

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:47:00 +0000

Holy Mash-Up Barackman!

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:00:00 +0000

What happens when you take one part Presidential politics, one part Batman, and two parts PolitiGal1 imagination and shake vigorously? You get the kind of super kick-ass amalgamation (my humility is legendary by the way)) capable of at once assaulting both sense and reason by offering just enough by way of picture and prose to entertain (and perhaps even inform.)

The Cast:

Bruce Obama/Barackman…..Barack Obama

Hardhead Dent/Two-Face….John McCain

G.W. Joker………………...George W. Bush (the frat-boy evil clown)

His Dick……………………Dick Cheney

Krusty Karl………………...Karl Rove (Turd-Blossom)

Poison Ivy………………….Katherine Harris (Cruella)

When Hardhead Dent decided to run for president in 2000, he worked hard to shape his message and position himself as a reformer willing to thumb his nose at the politicians and K-street corporate shills in order to fundamentally change the way things got done in that alter-reality of Washington politics.

Independent voters to the right of center (most of the left knew better) rejoiced at the idea of having a maverick bull in the partisan china shop at the heart of Washington politics--the White House. These hopeful masses, tired of the Lewinsky/Starr nonsense, looked forward to a day when Presidential decisions wouldn’t be made to cover up an adulterous past or based strictly upon partisan considerations of Right or Left, but rather on the basis of right and wrong, regardless of political consequence. Hardhead Dent was their guy, and his message was contagious.

Meanwhile, Dent’s opponent, G.W. Joker and his crew of amoral thugs were busy plotting what would be the greatest heist in American history—stealing the White House. Theirs was a diabolical two phase plan, with absolutely no unethical holds barred (much like the eight years to follow). Phase one: eliminate Dent, then Phase two: render the voices of the American voters mute and meaningless as they seize illegitimate power.

At first they were pretty confident, but the crew was shocked by the massive ass-whuppin’ Hardhead Dent put on G.W. Joker in New Hampshire. The first Republican primary went to the reformer and many of those who had once abandoned hope began to believe, against their better judgment, that real reform might be just around the corner.

Willing to overlook Hardhead’s long history of ill-tempered behavior, moral failings, and the political malfeasances emblematic of his life and career, Hardhead Dent’s followers charted a course to what they were sure would be glorious victory in the 2000 presidential race.

Stunned, but not dissuaded by the unexpectedly lopsided loss and the growing numbers of those willing to believe in Hardhead Dent's vision, G.W. Joker and his crew shifted their plans to brutally and publicly disfigure Dent’s character into high gear. Employing the kind Machiavellian tactics that could only dreamt up by the super-evil Krusty Karl, G.W. Joker and his thugs set about demolishing Dent in the upcoming primary battleground of South Carolina. And demolish him they did.

It was ugly…It was appalling… And it has become the stuff of legend. By the time it was over, there were many wounded strewn about the bloody post-primary political landscape of South Carolina and all of the casualties belonged to Dent:. His family; his hard earned reputation as a Vietnam War Hero; and his chances at the 2000 nomination...all casualties of the insane guerrilla warfare practiced by team Joker.

They lied about the daughter he and his wife had adopted from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mothe r Teresa. They turned the truth and nobility of his innocent child’s adoption into a sordid tale of interracial adultery. They used his little girl to engage in an appeal to the racial prejudices that then percolated beneath the surface of the blue collar, working class electorate of South Carolina (not much has changed in eight years)

They had called him a traitor—portraying him as a Hanoi Hilton songbird, guilty of conspiring with his Viet Cong captors against his fellow soldiers for nothing more cigarettes and a softer bed. They stole the honor of his years in captivity and fashioned his suffering into a weapon capable of reopening old wounds.

Twitching madly and standing bewildered amidst the carnage, something snapped in Dent. Hardhead the reformer was gone…replaced forever by the newly morally (even more than before that is) disfigured and insane politician who would come to be known as Two-Face. An evil echo of the man he once was, Two-Face had been bitch-slapped so hard that he was now willing to bend over and take it anyway they wanted to give it to him, managing with some difficulty to wince out a spasmodic smile while simultaneously screaming “Harder! Harder! Faster! Faster!” At first it was painful, but soon he would grow to love it.

Phase one complete, G.W. Joker’s crew began phase two of the big heist by employing the evil Poison Ivy to purge 50,000 law abiding (and demographically inclined to vote Democratic) voters from the voter registries in the critical swing-state of Florida..

When it became clear that even that wouldn’t be enough, G.W. Joker pulled the Supreme Court card, enlisting his father’s appointees Clarence Thomas and David Souter and 5 other Republican Justices of the Nation's Highest Court to rule against both disenfranchised Florida voters and State’s Rights to steal the Presidency from Al Gore and deliver the it to the dim witted boy/Joker who would be king and his unseemly associates.

Two-Face didn’t disappear though…he learned to play the game their way as he found creative ways to endorse chaos and criminality of team Joker at every turn. Hell-bent on never being on the wrong end of the GOP stick again, Two-Face began flip-flopping like a tazed fish on crack. Rumor is it went a little something like this:

Q: Would you be willing boldly abandon the truth and lie about the need to go to war with a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9-11 and presented no grave and gathering threat?

A: Absolutely…I mean I know what I said about honesty and straight talk, but that was before I fully bought into your "the truth just gets in the way" approach to getting whatever you want with lies, deception, and trumped up scare tactics. Plus I really dig war.

Q: Support Torture?

A:You mean exactly the same kind I slammed Mitt Romney for supporting?

Detainees don’t get a vote…do they? (followed by crazy guy cackle, glaring crazy guy eyes, and maniacal crazy guy twitchy smile.)

Q: How do you feel today about those you once labeled “agents of intolerance” like Jery Falwell and John Hagee?

A: Hi-diddly-oh, neighbor! No hard feelings eh?

And so America itself today staring simultaneously at the

horrific carnage left in the wake of the past eight years of G.W. Joker and the possibility that a new, potentially more dangerous, madman might take over: that cranky old bastard Two-Face.

Right wing extremists see in Two-Face their shot at new (and profitable) wars, more environmental irresponsibility, the continued destruction of the middle class, and more government by corporate coup d’état.

But fear not America, there is one man committed to combating the evil of the radical right at every turn. One man committed to the kind of change that will bring about a brighter and more secure tomorrow. That man is Barack “Bruce” Obama…The Barackman.

So people, do your part to light the Barack signal this November by voting Obama in ‘08 (and when you do make sure you don’t leave any chads hanging!)

Barackman Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:44:00 +0000

OK...I've been a bit busy (OK, super-busy) lately, but I haven't forgotten about you all (still out there?). I'm here to proudly announce that I finally got to see the oh-so-yummy Christian Bale and and the tragically brilliant Heath Ledger in the latest Batman film. I know I'm probably the last person on the planet to have seen it (again..super-busy), but I gotta say it was one of the few films that I've ever seen that proved to be better than everyone said it would be.

That's a difficult thing to do, as I've always found that good movies are (sadly) bound by my seemingly immutable law of expectation-- the higher the expectation, the more likely I am to find the movie disappointing. Oh there's an upside (happily) to the law too ...strangely, I've also found that that works in reverse--I've had friends tell me a movie was total crap and then gotten around to seeing it on DVD and thinking to myself ... hey that movie wasn't so bad...I kinda liked it. Anyway...I digress...

Even as my disbelief was being willingly suspended and the movie began to transport me to the dark world of Gotham City, that little chunk of subconscious responsible for interpreting Rorschach inkblot tests hung on and worked its magic in the background. As I left the theater, I couldn't help but turn the conversation (After a few "That was friggin' amazing"s) to the magically addictive sport of teasing allegory from the obvious with my friend.

Nothing too, too deep--mainly fun-- but did get me thinking ( a sure sign of trouble to come), so when I got a chance today, I decided to entertain myself in PhotoShop (it's almost meditative) and the pic above is a teaser of what my monkey-bars, jungle gym of a mind came up with... more tomorrow...a

Until then...tell me, what do you see?

The Lie of Limited Supply : The GOP Land Grab Is ON

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:52:00 +0000

U.S. Oil Supplies Are Higher Today Than at Any Time During the 90's

Yesterday the Senate failed to advance the Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act (S3268), a bill which would have eliminated excessive speculation by changing the definition of “legitimate hedge trading” to include only those producers and purchasers of actual physical energy commodities, and places limits on trading by those who are not trading actual physical petroleum products."

The vote was 50-43, 10 votes shy of the 60 necessary to invoke cloture, end debate, and get some real oil/gas price relief underway. The vote fell along party lines--with Democrats voting to restore sanity to an out of control market by reigning in speculation and Republicans voting to keep the lie of limited supply going and the hope big oil has (and has had since 1980) for a land grab alive.

Given the choice to make what many experts believe would be an almost immediate and drastic difference (up to 60% reduction) in the price of oi and gasoline, the Republicans chose instead to side with big oil and speculators and against closing what is the real culprit behind crippling energy prices--the "Enron Loophole."

Their plan? Lie and hope no one with bothers to check the facts. Hope that no one fires up their browser and checks out the Bush Administration's own Energy Information Administration figures. Hope against hope that if a person does check those numbers that they don't graph them and put the visual kibosh on GOP LIES by posting such graph of the data on their blog. See the pretty bar graph at the end of this post?. Oops... (got a plan B boys?).

They are betting that they, along with help from the Bushed Administration, can pull the wool over the American public's eyes and get environmentally protected areas opened to exploitation by oil companies for what amounts to what even John McCave-in admits will be nothing more than a short term psychological effect on a financially pained American psyche.

For those unfamiliar with the "Enron Loophole", the following short clip (from the must see documentary film Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room) should prove equal parts enlightening and infuriating. Energy traders laughed about steeling money "from those poor fucking grandmothers" then, and they are doing it again today (as Ben Stein has pointed out). The the Right refused to protect Americans then, and it's doing it again now. The arguments being made now on behalf of drilling will one day look as preposterous as Cheney's defense of Enron back then.

"The problem you had in California was caused by a combination of things: an unwise regulatory scheme, because they didn't really deregulate. Now they're trapped from unwise regulatory schemes, plus not having addressed the supply side of issues. They've [Californians] obviously created major problems for themselves." —Vice-President Dick Cheney, May 17, 2001, on PBS's Frontline

The Lie and The Lang Grab:

Republicans, and those in the Energy and Financial industries, say that increased demand and decreased supply are at the core of high oil and gas prices. LIES. This disingenuous rallying cry of Republicans (soulless oil and financial industry shills that they are) has found resonance with the same uncritical masses on the right who swallow whatever poisonous pablum the right shoves in their mouths. Talk Radio tools and Fox News satisfy their need to be told what to think rather than actually having to think for themselves.

The short supply LIES being shamelessly put forward by the GOP are destructive and craven, and the people who can't find Iraq on a map are eating them up.

Some have even been duped into signing petitions demanding we "Drill Now!" The whole thing would be laughable if the situation weren't so serious. There is almost universal expert agreement that opening environmentally sensitive protected areas to drilling will never have any significant effect on the prices of either gas or oil and would provide only a very short term fix (12-32 years of oil at the low and high estimates) for what is a very long term energy, environmental, National Security problem.

With an economy on the ropes, stagflation in full effect, Republicans are bent on using the glint of fools gold to distract the American public from getting behind any effective redress of high oil prices or any a real plan for energy independence. The Gas and Oil industry have long sought access to Anwar and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and the GOP plans to do whatever it takes to give their corporate masters what they want (and what their lobbyists have paid handsomely for).

The Right has absolutely no shame in using the crisis (which they created (thanks Dr. Phil) via deregulation) of high gas prices to create a ginned up rationale for drilling, and to use that false argument not only to give Exxon what it wants on a platter but also as subterfuge to kill the re-regulation necessary to avoid this speculation fueled crisis in the future. No, given enough cover, GOP Congressional lackeys will continue their attempt make the land grab before the American public wises up.

In what may only be sadly described as a a yet another low in a long pattern of lows, the Bush administration's farce of an energy secretary, Sam Bodman, is joining in the misinformation effort by making false statements himself to bolster the GOP's completely manufactured case:

"Market fundamentals show us that production has not kept pace with growing demand for oil, resulting in increasing prices and increasingly volatile prices. There is no evidence that we can find that speculators are driving futures prices for oil." —Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman, June 21, 2008, on MSNBC

The truth, of course, is that Oil Prices are almost exclusively the result of speculation. Just listen to what that left wing bastion of tree huggers over at BusinessWeek has to say on the matter:

On January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year. Ronald Bailey of Reason Online has pointed out that worldwide production of oil has risen 2.5% in the first quarter, while worldwide demand has grown by only 2%.

The information presented below has been taken directly from that radical far far left bastion of statistical insanity, the Bush Administration's own Energy information Administration. It should be apparent to all but the legally blind (I'm working on a braille version) that Domestic Oil supplies, far from decreasing, have actually increased during the Bush administration and in large part mirror the upward arc Oil Company Profits have taken during the same period.

In short, THE TRUTH is that Domestic oil on hand is higher today than it was when Bush took office, and significantly higher since 2004 than at any time during the previous 13 years.

Believe your eyes (and the government's own data) and reject the Republican hype. Don't let the Republicans use the fuel cost crisis that they created to grab the land their Big Oil benefactors have been after for decades. They're in it for the money, not America's long term best interests, and they're betting you won't bother to check the facts. Don't let them twist the facts surrounding this crisis in order bypass critical thought and put into action drilling plans long on the books of Big Oil backers.

But hey, it's not like Republicans would ever use a crisis to get what they wanted all along? Is it?

Now That's Outrageous(ly Brilliant)!

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:14:00 +0000

OMFG Serena, did you see that bitch, The New Yorker last week? She thinks she's soo Queen B now! Well I've got news for her, she's no “It Girl”! Doesn't she know that this is a Vanity Fair, and there's only room for one bitch at the top of this heap!? (Hair flip)

Speaking of Satire...It's Time For Some Campaignin'!

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:02:00 +0000

This one comes from our friends over at JibJab.com, and no Donkeys, Elephants or Cows are sacred. Enjoy! Might take a sec to load...but it is totally worth it!
Campaigning

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Kvetching About Unintended Consequences and Media Effects

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:19:00 +0000

The problem I have with the latest New Yorker cover and accompanying article isn't one of intent. The editor has described his goal in publishing the caricatured image of a Tribal/Muslim garbed Barack fist-bumping a militant Michelle as an attempt to "hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imaginings about Barack Obama's — both Obamas' — past". Got it. Good. But road to hell is paved with the best intentions (Dukakis...tank).

My problem is that the image itself, when added superficially to the aggregate American collective unconscious, will likely do more to fuel these dark imaginings than to dispel them. Tune into MSNBC, CNN, or Fox (if you must), and you'll see the image repeated again and again. Most will catch it while channel surfing and process it no further than what confronts them at first blush--backstory and nuanced explanation lost...Secret Muslim meme fueled...yet again.

Edward Bernays himself would be marvel (but not be shocked) at just how effectively and easily the Secret Muslim meme has been propagated and how pernicious this particular untruth has been. If you doubt the disproportionate weight viewers/readers give images over the words spoken/written you needn't look any further than Leslie Stahl's experiences with the Reagan White House and the way the substance of her stories was overshadowed by the accompanying images (excerpted from criticism.com):

In his book Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, James Fallows shows how TV images smother speech with an anecdote about a CBS reporter doing a story on President Ronald Reagan in 1984. The reporter, Lesley Stahl, had documented the contradiction between what Reagan said and what he did by showing him speaking at the Special Olympics and at a nursing home while reporting that Reagan had cut funding to children with disabilities and opposed funding for public health.

After Stahl's piece was broadcast, she got a call from a White House official, who praised her. Surprised by the compliments, She asked the White House official why he wasn't upset, pointing out that her piece had nailed the president. The official replied: "You television people still don't get it. No one heard what you said. Don't you people realize that the picture is all that counts. A powerful picture drowns out the words."

I love satire (can you tell?), even when it's pointed at my guy. But when someone who should know better publishes a cover image that negates the very story he is ostensibly trying to tell, well, that I have a problem with. Dave, maybe you should give Leslie a call. Just a thought.

Recommended Viewing

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:46:00 +0000

This $55 million, 7 part mini-series follows 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, an elite unit of Marines during the initial phase of (first 40 days) the Iraq Invasion/War in 2003.

The mini-series is based upon Evan Wright's book, Generation Kill, which was such a naked and brutal (and humorous at times) portrayal of the obscenity, irreverence, and effects of war that there were repercussions for those involved: Evan Wright was attacked, handcuffed, and threatened by Marines at a 1rst RECON BN homecoming he'd been invited to attend, and some of the men he wrote about experienced difficulties as a result of military reaction to what was written (Wickipedia):

"Sgt. Espera was forced to leave the battalion, Sgt. Eric Kocher was disciplined and one Marine's promotion from corporal to sergeant was canceled as a direct result of the publication of the original articles"

Eventually though, Arthur Schopenhauer's phases of Truth willed out, and Generation Kill and Wright's articles became recommended reading for new(and old) officers of 1st Reconnaissance, offering them insight into the realities of war they themselves may face in Iraq.

If the potency of the original material weren't enough to guarantee a truly compelling and gritty viewing experience, David Simon and Ed Burns ( remember The Wire?) bring their brutal and alternately humanizing story telling skills to this mini-series as producers of Generation Kill.If you loved the documentary No End In Sight, you'll enjoy this one. If you haven't seen No End In Sight, well... add that to your Netflix cue! Definitely recommended (and delightfully infuriating) viewing for inquiring minds.

(PS, tomorrow night, same time, same channel, you'll find the heartbreaking documentary CHINA’S STOLEN CHILDREN. Definitely worth a couple of hours. Gotta warn ya' though...it is more than slightly disturbing.

Robert Anthony Snow : 1955-2008

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Tony Snow, reporter and former White House Press Secretary, succumbed to the tragic effects of colon (ulcerative colitis)/liver cancer today at the tragically young age of 53. He had been battling the disease on and off for more than 3 years.Tony was born June 1, 1955, in Berea, Ky. He was the kind of guy you could sometimes comfortably agree to disagree with, and was capable of at least occaionally seeing beyond blind boiler plate politics.

Sure he was a Conservative, but having once called the President "something of an embarrassment" in conservative circles, he was clearly a guy not completely affected by the red Kool-Aid at all times. He was also a guy who loved to play guitar. The world is indeed a poorer place with his passing. My heart goes out to his wife of 21 years, Jill Ellen Walker, and their three children.

Books You'll Never See - P2

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:47:00 +0000

***********TOP SECRET **************

(and only barely related to the pic above) --------FOR YOUR EYES ONLY------------

Operation Elephant Enema

**************************************

Dear Super-Duper- Democratic-Obama Secret Undercover Operative (SDDOSUO) "Dr. Phil" Gramm:

We at headquarters applaud the devastatingly effective rhetorical skill employed while conducting Sub-Op Whiner! Another nail in the coffin-Bravo! The political aftershocks will continue for days.

Agent Gramm, your hard work and personal sacrifice over these many years has helped to lay the groundwork for Operation Elephant Enema's ultimate success. In agreeing to go "fake rogue" in 1981 by switching parties you put your true blue "take one for the team" spirit out there for all of the Top Brass to see, and we appreciate your efforts more than we could ever convey in a simple letter. So why try, right? Sub-section #13427-98 of the SDDOSUO regulation #86- 1980, that's why. One day school children sing (mmm...maybe not so much sing as hum) songs in your praise (Maybe not so much about you necessarily...the humming 'll probably happen only around Christmas and most likely involve the Batmobile losing a wheel), but for now we must persevere as the Operation enters it's final stages.

Anyhooo...back to why I'm writing in first place. The boys back in Control have voted you the Super-Duper-Secret Undercover Democratic-Obama Operative of the month! It's not just the Whiner thing (though, again, bravo), it's also the way you fully sabotaged the GOP by introducing the Enron Loophole and laid the ground work for the Sub-Prime Crisis. Though you can't hear it, we're all applauding here (ok..ok..mostly 'cause the Suitcase Babes just showed up...OMFG!). Whatev, right? Congratulations!BTW, you may use the enclosed "Wild Card" to claim up your prize T-shirt (see enclosed pic) after the debreifing in early '09.

Be sure to watch Monday night for coded puzzle updates to your next and most difficult to date assignment-- Sub-Op Chunky Peanut-Butter. Pay close attention to the second prize puzzle and Vanna's dress. You have your orders soldier! This letter will self destruct in 60 seconds, so be sure to remove your Wild Card/ POOP (Proof-Of-Overachiever-Prize). If you loose it...no T.Sincerely,Dr.RsTLnAnd Remember...The Wheel is Always Watching.

Books You'll Never See - Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:16:00 +0000

Vote Repugnican!

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:56:00 +0000

This thing is viral!

Death Of A Republican Icon: The McCain VP Field Narrows

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 02:43:00 +0000

The Dream is dying people! One by one, the extra chromosome crowd is going belly up. What will the party that derides book lernin' and smarts do when all that's left are five fingered people who can read? Hell, even the mentally challenged are offended at the thought of being lumped in with Republicans.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the mouth breathers (self help) are still hanging on...just take a look at the button that was being sold at mid-June at the Texas Republican state convention:

Then of course there's the famous and now reluctantly discontinued Sock Obama Monkey Doll:

And lets not forget the Curious George T's sold in Georgia and sent to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington and other African American Organizations by by Kelly Newcom of Ash Flat, Ark :(

The racist dream/nightmare is dying slowly, but it is dying. Though I've mentioned it before, it bears repeating:The kind of Conservatives (it's not all of 'em) that fan the flames of and respond like Pavlovian dogs to Dominionism/regressive populism/Theocratic Governance are provably mentally deficient when measuring ability to engage in adaptive and dynamic thought. They should be pitied and put in homes to save the world from the shoot yourself in the foot, short sighted, fuck the world over while claiming to be the promoter of Democracy Wilsonian iteration of the Monroe Doctrine. And let's not forget the renewed and romanticized Republican/Racist fantasy of a return to the horrific all-white power patriarchy of American 1950's.

I say good good riddance to the likes of Jessie Helms (Died today but lived 86 years too long), Strom Thurmond, and William F. Buckley---three cancer cells vanquished forever from from the shrinking conservative/racist tumor that will one day finally and forever R.I.P (Rest In Pieces.) For now though, the open mouthed knuckle dragging continues on the right, where real monkeys, apes and neanderthals proudly proclaim the value of ignorance and cling to their tattered hoods and charred crosses. One day they will all be...

Breathe Deep America

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:25:00 +0000

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism."Erma Bombeck

July 4th--Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so. Mark Twain

Tim Russert 1950-2008

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:53:00 +0000

Tim Russert collapsed and died today at the NBC studio while working on voice-overs for a Meet The Press show shot earlier this morning. The world of politics and those of us who count ourselves as political junkies and devotees are shocked by his unexpected death.

My heart goes out to his family, his wife Maureen, and especially his son Luke, who just graduated from Boston College. Tim Russert had just returned from a European vacation celebrating Luke's graduation.

Creepy Johnny

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:48:00 +0000

Dear Johnny,

You've changed. We used to think you were kinda sweet, in a crazy old grandpa way, but something's changed, and your just not the same guy we thought you were. We used to think you were one of the good guys. That smell of Old Spice used to put a comfortable smile on our faces, but ever since we caught you sniffing our dirty panties...well...the smell of Old Spice makes us wretch. It's not the smell of a kind grandpa anymore, it's the stink of an old whackjob! So we've been doing some thinking.

You say you want what's best for us, and and we used to believe you, but your doing things now that really, really scare us and creep us out. Remember when the building super, George, got drunk, kicked in the Susie's apartment door over in building #2, and dry humped her leg? Remember how you screamed at him, and told him he was a disgusting, power abusing pile o' crap, and that you'd kick his ass if he ever pulled anything like that again? That's the sweet sweet Johnny that was the kind of crazy we thought we could trust. That Johnny's gone--nowhere to be found. Where'd he go?

Ever since you found out George's contract was ending (the owners didn't have the balls to fire him) we've seen you hanging out with him and his friends. We know you've applied for his job, and we heard you telling him how friggin' awesome it was the way he dry humped Susie's leg. Susie's scared that there's nothing you won't do to get the job. What's your damage Johnny?! Three quarters of the owners can't stand the site of George or his friends, so for you to be hanging out with him and his gang of moral degenerates in hopes of getting the job...well...all we can say is that it looks like you've really lost it.

I mean, yesterday I heard you yelling at little Ahmed Shia, telling him to stop bouncing his ball in the hall and to go back upstairs to his family's apartment so they could deal with him. Johnny... the Sunnis live Upstairs, and the Shias live DOWNSTAIRS. Always have. Have you stopped taking your meds? Or are you just making this shit up as you go along?

Whatever the deal is, your not the guy we thought you were, and you really scare us. George was a power drunk moron who let that Dick of a friend of his talk him into doing some really crazy cacca, so when he did what he did it pissed us off, but we knew he was gone when his contract ended, and were sure no one would be crazy enough to try and pull more of the same crap again. Boy, does it ever look like we were wrong.

You're doing what your doing stone cold sober, and we'd never put you in the same sub-human IQ group as that Chimp George, so we're left to wonder if you might be even more dangerous than that nutcase and his friends were. Susie says she overheard you plotting with some of George's friends to break into the next apartment building and dry hump some more legs while your at it . Please tell us it's not true, because that's some really twisted shit. I mean the whole neighborhood knows what George did and the whole building's got this really horrible reputation already, so if you do what it looks like your going to do, everyone will really hate our building.

You were amusing for a while Johnny, but it's over, and we've got our future and the job of repairing our building's reputation in the neighborhood to think about, so we're writing this letter to let you know that all of us and a bunch more of our friends are going to do all we can to keep you from getting the job.

We've found our own guy to run things around here, and once we get him on the job things are going to change for the better. He'll run the rats out of the building, patch the holes George left in the walls and in our reputation, and make the whole neighborhood safe for us and the kids who want a brighter future than you could ever offer.

Sincerely,
The PolitiGals of Hope Lane,
Building #1, Apartment 21

Terminated

noreply@blogger.com (Politi Gal) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:20:00 +0000

It wasn't a pleasant scene in the underground Team Clinton Bat(shit)-Cave in Arlington, Va Wednesday as Hillary's Lieutenants tried to convince her that it was time to accept the inevitable. Politico.com described the scene in the following way:

She huddled at her Arlington, Va., headquarters Wednesday with top advisers, discussing her diminished options and leaving supporters free to mount a campaign on her behalf for the vice presidential nod. Even close supporters were unsure what she was waiting for, beyond a chance to clear her head, and all assumed she would be leaving the race within days.

A staffer apparently broke the news to Hillary that Barack was being universally hailed as the Presumptive Nominee, and then all hell broke loose. Hillary totally lost it. A staffer shot the following cell vid of the meeting just before her 4pm conference call with donors and supporters. Tell the kids to leave the room for this one, it's so ugly that its in German with subtitles!

Still bent on a course of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), it took a 5pm conference call from Charlie Wrangle and a team of 22 skilled negotiators to talk her down from the ledge she had pushed herself and the Party onto, but in the end Hillary decided that she wasn't suicidal after all (still strong homicidal tendencies though). So it's officially over now, and Hillary "The Terminator" Clinton has been successfully reprogrammed to help protect the future of mankind (Barack "Connor" Obama) against the soulless assault of the GOP attack machines.

With Hillary's status resolved, the newly tasked Clinton and now Nominee Obama met for about an hour last night at Sen. Dianne Feinstein's house to begin the healing in a follow-up to a brief conversation the two had back-stage at the AIPAC conference earlier this week. As she left the meeting, Hillary was overheard saying "I'll be Back..."