What the fuck are we gonna do??//!?!1?!?1!?/!

Dear Campaign Supporters,

We need action.

We need bold, decisive action.

We need a bold, decisive leader who does not blink, regardless of low humidity and air-borne particulates.

We need Sarah Palin.

Who better to solve the financial crisis than the woman who single-handedly reformed corruption-ridden Alaska. Nevermind that she campaigned with the recently-indicted Ted Stevens, served as head of his PAC, and refuses to call for him to step down. Nevermind she's got her own corruption issues and ethical lapses. Those are pesky things called "facts" that must be disregarded in a crisis. Remember, no blinking.

We need a real reformer, and who better to choose than someone who says the word reform ten times in a fucking sentence. You want to talk about reform, she has reformed the way questions are answered. You ask her about foreign policy, she replies that GodzillaPutin rears his head and flies to Alaska (except that he doesn't). You ask her about the bailout plan, she says its all about health care reform and talks about 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector. You say you can't end a sentence with a preposition, she says "fuck that, Alaska IS the state that I am the executive of!!!". Very mavericky, like John McCain. Did you know that John McCain was known as The Maverick TM? Neither did I.

So in the interest of saving our credit and financial industry, and preventing another Wall Street collapse, we need to call on this highly capable individual to roll up her sleeves and solve this problem for us. We'll give her all the time she needs.

What's that, its gonna take at least 3 days???? Well, the debate is on Thursday. No way to solve it before then, guess we're just gonna have to cancel it.

I know, I know, we all were hoping to get the chance to see this fine woman kick names and take asses in the debate. Because everyone knows she'd do swimmingly. But the stakes are too high, the crisis is too deep, and the need to reform is too urgent.

So lets call on Palin and Biden to agree to cancel their debate this Thursday. Lets put country first. Its not like the public needs to see Mrs. Palin answer questions, she's done that already. She took on and destroyed the three heavyweights of American media....Charlie, Sean, and Katie (Larry King was unavailable). She also took four spontaneous questions from print journalists last week and answered at least two of those questions. She also let the media film her talking to foreign leaders for at least 29 seconds. What more do we need?? Nothing, in my humble opinion. We've seen enough, this woman is clearly ready to lead, so lets get her to Capitol Hill pronto and cancel this fucking debate as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,

Rick Davis
Campaign Manager
McCain/Palin 08

Bailout Plans

Seems the bailout plan has failed. Forget the political implications, as there were large contingents of both parties in the House that killed this. Right now, its impossible to know how the fallout will affect Obama and McCain...which is why both refused to answer the 1st question of the debate. Hopefully, a new and better plan can be hatched out, one with more emphasis on putting people back in their houses and more certain ways of paying for it.

One point that should be raised more forcefully is getting the banks to renegotiate with people that have been foreclosed on. Instead of dumping tax money to buy off bad loans that are worth 20-25% of their former value, make the banks and homeowners go to the courts to renegotiate at 50, 60, or 75% of the value. Or do a tiered structure that rates the loans...some may still be worth 20 cents on the dollar, but others may get a better return.

The second point is to place a small tax on derivatives that would let Wall Street pay this fucker off. Thom Hartmann has an excellent article that you can check out here or here. From the article....

For example, if we were to instate a .25 percent STET (tax) on every stock, swap, derivitive, or other trade today, it would produce - in its first year - around $150 billion in revenue. Wall Street would be generating the money to fund its own bailout.

This tax would also...

have the effect of "mitigating the predominance of speculation over enterprise."

And from the "those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it" file...

When rules limiting speculation were cut during the first big Republican deregulation binge during the administrations of Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover (1921-1933), it created a speculative fever that led directly to the housing bubble of the early 20s (which started in Florida, where property values were going up as much as 70 percent per year, and then spread nationwide, only to burst nationally starting in 1927 as housing values began to collapse), then the falling housing market popped the stock market bubble and produced the great stock market crash of 1929. That speculation aggregated enormous wealth in a very few hands, crashed the housing and stock markets, and produced the Republican Great Depression of 1930-1942.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of the New Deal, put into place a series of rules to discourage speculation and promote investment, including maintaining - and doubling - the Securities Transaction Excise Tax. Other countries followed our lead, and the UK, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, Greece, Australia, France, China, Chile, Malaysia, India, Austria, and Belgium have all had or have STETs.

How's this for a plan? Lets go the FDR route and re-regulate Wall Street BEFORE the crash occurs. Its not like this shit hasn't happened before.

My Debate Wet Dream

Lately I've been reading Eric Altermans "Why We're Liberals". In his conclusions, he argues against eschewing the term LIBERAL, which has been made into some kind of a slander given 30+ years of negative framing by the right wing. Alterman states that instead of accepting that liberal is a dirty word, ala Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry (all failed efforts at the presidency), the left should embrace the word. We must not accept the right's lies and defamation, as they will certainly engage in a campaign against "progressives". Well, they already have, as Bill O'Reilly is well into a phony war against the made-up group "secular-progressives" (or SP's....you know, the one's that are trying to steal Christmas ;)).

One need only be reminded of JFK's answer to the "liberal" charge in his 1960 presidential campaign (BTW, he won the presidency, unlike Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry). Essentially, he stated that if by liberal you meant wasting taxpayer money, elitism, weakness indifference to moral concerns, then he is not that kind of liberal. But if liberalism refers to care for the general welfare, continual efforts to lift people out of poverty, social justice, racial equality, care for the environment, diplomacy and moderation in foreign policy, then yes, I am that kind of liberal.

In the upcoming presidential debates, if McCain's got the nutsac to show up, the Republican will undoubtedly use the "liberal" charge, as if it was somehow an actual insult. Obama cannot run away from it, he must embrace it and define it. Don't let these Republi-fuckers define us or turn a political ideology into a cuss word. If Obama embraces the liberal "charge" instead of running away from it, then that'd be kewl.

But that's not my debate wet dream.

No, my dream involves, other than McCain actually showing up, Obama figuratively bitch-slapping McCain with the septegenarian slinking away. Goes a lil suh-en like dis....

___________________________

McCain: "uh, my frendj,..that's not change we can believe in. (heehh)"





Obama: "Wait!! Hold the fuckin bullshit right there...."





Obama: "Change! You want to talk Change!! What about the change that's in my wallet. The CHANGE you and your friends in big business took from us. Now, what's gonna happen now is that you are going to quickly and quietly reach in that satchel of yours and give my back my wallet. Then you and your theiving friends are going to give back the change you stole from everyone in this country. If you do that, then I will let you leave without having to feel my wrath and you and your 'lady' can go back to one of the many homes you own."


(long pause)


McCain: "uh,.. which one is yours?"








Obama: "The one that says Bad Mother Fucker on it!"







McCain: " (heehh) here ya go "







Obama: "Thank you. Now get your bitch-ass outta here before I CHANGE my mind and stick this thumb up your ass!"





McCain: "Lets go honey bunny."

Palin fix, 9/24/08

Good. Fucking. Article.

When Atheists Attack

We have all now witnessed apparently sentient human beings, once provoked by a reporter's microphone, saying things like, "I'm voting for Sarah because she's a mom. She knows what it's like to be a mom." Such sentiments suggest an uncanny (and, one fears, especially American) detachment from the real problems
of today. The next administration must immediately confront issues like nuclearproliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere),global climate change, a convulsing economy, Russian belligerence, the rise ofChina, emerging epidemics, Islamism on a hundred fronts, a defunct United
Nations, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy,infrastructure and Internet security … the list is long, and Sarah Palin doesnot seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them.
.............

What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world's only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:

"Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child's brain?"

"Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I'm an avid hunter."

"But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind."

"That's just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink."

The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery.

............

McCain is WEAK, fool...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Keys to Winning

Some unsolicited advice to the Obama campaign because I KNOW they are reading this blawg faithfully.

1) Go NEGATIVE - Stay truthful and on point (i.e. McCain = Bush, Repubs wrecked the economy, Iraq, etc). Republicans don't know how to govern, but they know how to win campaigns. And how do they do that? They go NEGATIVE. Granted, the Republicans lie through their fucking teeth, but negativism works. That's how people got it into their noggins that Gore was a serial liar, Kerry shot himself in Vietnam, and James K Polk liked to drip hot candle wax on his nut sac. Seriously, the campaigns of the 1800's were WAY more wild than we have today. But we don't have to do that because the truth is on our side. There is so much f'd up crap that can be laid squarely at the feet of the Republican machine. And it doesn't have to be explained much...the peeps already get it.

And thankfully, the Obama campaign has decided to retroactively take my advice. They waited a mere 4 days before I went on record with this advice, and I cannot forgive them for failing to invest in the "7 day crystal ball"TM. They should have known earlier that an unknown paint huffing blawger would request that they go negative. Alas, it is not totally their fault for waiting so long....I am clearly the only one making this suggestion.....

2) Portray McCain as weak and fearful. This is a corollary to the first as McCain has acted out of fear. Fear is the reason he chose a woefully inadequate and unprepared VP, the reason he went so quickly to smears and lies, etc. Republicans are, by and large, full of fear. The only thing they have....is fear itself. Its the basis of all their ideology and the root cause of their turn toward authoritarianism. The fearful are easily led...why else would they so quickly champion a former mayor of the meth'n'rape-capitol of Alaska who serially lies about her *cough* accomplishments.

Portray him as fearful and weak by focusing on the facts that prove him to be. Americans want a cool, confident president who won't be tricked or cajoled into WWIII...and that is clearly Obama, as he will prove in the debates. The guy handles everything so well and calmly...look how he managed O'Reilly. He didn't need to stall when he got a question, he delved right into it, and totally disarmed O'Reilly.

Compare that to Palin who tried to hide her ignorance with beauty pageant delay tactics and faux friendliness. "In what respect, Charlie?" Gibsons should have followed up with "with respect to the doctrine that Bush has stated on numerous occasions that a foreign policy expert like you, with a view of Russia, should easily be able to answer...that is, unless you are a stealth candidate who has no real business being in this race" Jaysus Fucking KaRiest, this is what passes for a Republican VP candidate? Miss South Carolina anyone? She didn't just use a beauty pageant tactic, she was a borderline Spelling Bee contestant on that one....she was fishing for clues. "In what respect, Charlie?" "Use 'Bush Doctrine' in a sentence, Charlie." "What's the country of origin, Charlie?" Fucking amateur.

Which leads me to...

3) Forget Palin. I know, I know, its hard work. She's comedy gold, I tell ya. But that's exactly what the Republicans want!!! They WANT us to ignore McCain. They WANT to dominate the news cycle. Make this campaign what it should be about....

Obama v. McCain
Obama's clear-headed judgement v. McCain's wild temper
Obama's policy that's preferred by 70% of Americans v. McCains policy (preferred only by end-timers, corporate CEO's, fetuses, the bat-shit insane, and 1 out of 10 dentists)

4) Court Libertarians and other Republicans who are too ashamed to admit they are Republican and/or voted for that dipshit Bush. Word is that Ron Paul (sorry Libertarians, Dr. Ron Paul) might be the running mate of equally batshit crazy Bob Barr. Not to malign the batshit crazy, but these yahoos want to turn everything private, including roads, schools, and sewers. They obviously have more than 2 brain cells working as they realize that the Bush Administration have nothing but contempt for Democracy and the Constitution. They also realize that the Iraq War is illegal, immoral, and nothing but wealth distribution. They also believe in individual freedom, something that runs opposed to warrantless wiretapping, torture, and the War on Drugs.

But whatever their motivation, realize that Libertarians are opposed to McCain and especially that end-timer Palin. Polls and primary results have them courting SIGNIFICANT portions of the Republican electorate. Portions that dwarf those of Nader in 2000 and 2004...you know, the guy that liberals blamed for costing Gore the election, nevermind that it was, uh, fucking stolen in a dozen ways (I never excused liberals from being stubborn and wrong) No, the Libertarians will not support Obama...they dislike liberal policies, and some are as racist as the lock-step Republicans (look at some of Dr. Ron Paul's old newsletters). But that doesn't mean they can't vote for their own dipshit. So ENCOURAGE those dipshits to enter the process and don't demean 3rd party candidacies, even when they appear on your own turf. Remember, you can try to blame Nader for Florida in 2000, but you forget that Buchanan's vote totals in New Mexico and Iowa exceeded Gore's margin that same year, which would have rendered Florida moot.