This is what I like

Atrios:

[. . .]

If "values" are the new battleground, which I mostly doubt, then I say bring it on, Larry Flynt-style. Let the scarlet A's be handed out, the closet doors swung open, and weekly church attendance records of members of congress and the administration be compiled. If sinning godless heathens are the problem, then let's be clear about who the sinning godless heathens are.

[. . .]

Yeah, let's get all that dirty laundry out there. Let's see how many folks in favor of outlawing gay marriage have taken it in the ass. Let's expose the hypocrites for what they are. Anybody got videotape?

Oh, Maureen! Oooh, Baby......

Ms. Dowd of the NYTimes in today's Op-Ed in a rant about Karl the Nerd and how his insecurity and anger at the 'cool' guys is forcing our 'rush to darkness'. Here's some highlights, but read it all or I'm coming for you.

Just how much did Karl Rove hate not being one of the cool guys in high school in the 60's? Enough to hatch schemes to marshal the forces of darkness to take over the country?

Oh, yeah.

Even as a child, I could feel the rush of J.F.K.'s presidency racing forward, opening up a thrilling world of possibilities and modernity. We were going to the moon. We were confronting racial intolerance. We were paying any price and bearing any burden for freedom. We were respecting faith but keeping it out of politics. Our president was inspiring much of the world. Our first lady was setting the pace in style and culture.

W.'s presidency rushes backward, stifling possibilities, stirring intolerance, confusing church with state, blowing off the world, replacing science with religion, and facts with faith. We're entering another dark age, more creationist than cutting edge, more premodern than postmodern. Instead of leading America to an exciting new reality, the Bushies cocoon in a scary, paranoid, regressive reality. Their new health care plan will probably be a return to leeches.

America has always had strains of isolationism, nativism, chauvinism, puritanism and religious fanaticism. But most of our leaders, even our devout presidents, have tried to keep these impulses under control. Not this crew. They don't call to our better angels; they summon our nasty devils.

The new evangelicals challenge science because they've been stirred up to object to social engineering on behalf of society's most vulnerable: the poor, the sick, the sexually different

Back in 1994, Newt Gingrich said he wanted the government to mold the moral character of Americans and wipe out remnants of the "counterculture McGoverniks." He got derailed, but now he and his pious friends are back in full cry, messing with our psyches and excluding themselves from the rules they demand others follow. They'll eventually do themselves in, but will they do us in first?

That's the only question left, isn't it? To Chris Matthews, Tim Russert and all y'all big-ass pundits: This gal's got the balls you left behind in your climb to fame and fortune. Up with her and fuck you.

Back Door Draft

Just heard this on CNN, but could find nothing to link to yet. [link here - The Fixer] Mr. Miyasato of Hawaii, an Army veteran of the Gulf War, has been recalled to active duty for duty in Iraq due to his critical MOS of fuel truck driver. Mr. Miyasato completed his eight year obligation nine years ago and is not in the Reserves. He is married, a father, and has just started a business.

His Congressman, Rep. Case, has inquired of the Army as to what the hell is going on, but has received no reply, although Mr. Miyasato has been granted a 30-day delay before he has to report to North Carolina for duty.

The Congressman thinks the Army is just trying to get warm bodies anywhere they can. Anybody who falls for this, in my humble opinion, is 'HaHa! Shame on you! Fooled ya, sucka!'

Draft? Oh, no, Fearless Leader wouldn't do that! Wouldn't he? Don't be so sure. His lies are starting to unravel as we speak. Good.

I'm sure there will be more on this later.

More Whining On The Bright Side

After reading Fixer's post I have to admit something out loud that I've thought for quite a while now. I haven't wanted to because it's unpalatable, to say the least, but now it's unavoidable: Bush's election may very well have been for the best.

Naturally, we all wanted his madness to end right fucking now! Guess what. Ain't gonna happen and the sooner we realize we had our collective ass kicked by masters, the better off we'll be and the sooner we can plan for the rematch.

When the world hands you lemons, make lemonade. We've been handed the biggest lemon in history, so we oughta be able to make a lot of lemonade. So much that we can make those bastards drown in it. If the Lemon Laws applied to politicians instead of used cars, we'd have 'em by the short n' curlies. But I digress.

It should be obvious to even the most casual observer that the Right does not care about facts, truth, performance, or serious issues to select their "leader". Instead, they care about bullshit issues like their so-called "moral values". Moral values are fine. I have them and voted accordingly for the more moral candidate, but their side believes in selfish, negative, bigoted, intolerant, ritualistic values as opposed to spiritual values. Style over substance. Rove realized this and played to it and it paid off big time.

The Dems made their big mistake, it seems in retrospect, in thinking that Americans do care about what's right about the real issues. If we become more like the Right and pander to the dark side, then we've lost for good and all. Someone once said, "I'd rather be right than President", and that's where we stand now.

What do we do? Good question.

First, we all gotta do a lot of thinking. The better minds among us will come up with something. We've got time now, two or four years.

Second, HAMMER! HAMMER! HAMMER! We gotta keep hammering away at everything we see the bastards do that's wrong, which is nearly everything. We'll have a lot of unwitting help with this from the administration, I am sure. Also, there are quite a few administration insiders that will be bailing soon, like rats leaving a sinking ship. I hope some of them turn on their former masters and let us in on some of the behind-the-scenes shit we need to know to bring the bastards down. It would help if the various media realize what patsies they've been and grow a pair. We need that, but don't count on it. If it happens, it will help a lot, and be a pleasant surprise.

While blogging around, I've noticed that there are generally two responses to our defeat. There are those who say to try and come together and heal the wounds and division in our country. Like that'd work. It's a noble idea but it plays right into their hands. It would help them consolidate their power and, worse, they'd be more convinced they were right. To all who follow this road I say, while you're down there on your knees........

I wish I had the patience to look this shit up, but someone else said, "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees." This is the other response. We're down now, but by no means out. I've had my ass kicked before, and it always went a lot better on the second go-round. We now know the oppo's strengths as well as their weaknesses. If they try that double-throw-down secret sucker punch again we can be ready for it. Their strength will become their weakness. Political Judo, so to speak. With a little Kung-fu, Karate, and fuck-'em-up waza thrown in, plus the old number tens in the crotch for good measure. This is the camp I am firmly in. I am going to get a copy of "The Art Of War" by Sun Tzu and study it.

This administration may implode from within. That is good, but we gotta help it along.

By the time you read this, I will have thunk up a whole bunch more I wish I had said, so stand by.

I regret that I have but one keyboard to give for my country.

It is most definitely on.

I Thought I Had More Than That...

All I know about currency fluctuation and the state of the dollar is to be able to tell what's going on when I open my wallet and peer inside, but this article in the Washington Post even helped ME understand what's going on.

The gay perspective

See Genia at Sisters Talk.

McCarthyism and ideology

Go read Jeff's latest.

[. . .]

It seems that all that President Bush has to say these days is that America comes first in the world and his audience goes wild! All he has to say is that he wants to spread democracy and freedom to the entire world and his audience again, goes wild!

[. . .]

Bringing in an America vs. the rest of the world political climate that Bush seems to aspire to will MOST DEFINITELY lead to our downfall.

Whining on the bright side

In my cruising around the Blogosphere since 3 Nov, I've noticed a lot of bloggers on the Left complaining about the vote count in certain 'battleground states' (FL & OH), and whether all the votes were counted or not. My 2 cents? Shut up and quit whining. We had a corps of lawyers that was division strength, how come no suits were filed, no restraining orders were filed, nothing? What would be the point, even if there were voting irregularities, to attempt a recount now? The best we could hope for now would be that Kerry actually did win, probably by less of a margin than Bush took Florida in 2000. What would be the point?

Do any of my Left-wing colleagues think that Kerry could actually have gotten anything done with a Repub majority in both Houses of Congress? Don't you think he would have been ratfucked at every turn? Don't you think that four years of gridlock and partisan squabbling would do anything for this country? A draft will be necessary, unless Bush just leaves Iraq and lets it completely degenerate into anarchy. Do we want John Kerry (or any other Dem) to be linked to that? Have we forgotten what Vietnam did to the Democratic Party? No, what we got last Tuesday was a gift, and we just have to look at it that way.

Bush has no excuses, and the Congress neither. If Iraq degenerates even more (and you know it will) do we want a Dem being accused of "screwing up what Bush had started"? You know the Rovians would play that hand. No, now that I've gone from wanting to turn Jesusland into an Air Force (Nellis 2) bombing range, to as much rational thought as I can muster, I see now that the results of this election were the best gift the Dems could have received. Early Christmas. Our hands remain clean as we heckle from the sidelines. And heckle we must, loudly and frequently, to anyone who'll listen.

We have to start framing the issue now (think Newt and the boys when Clinton was elected in '92 and what happened in '94), set up now for a run at the Congress in the '06 midterms. "Look at what the Republicans have done. Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Deficit, deficit, deficit. They've had X years, what do we have to show for it?" Beat them at their own game. We have to raise an issue and beat them over the head with it. If we keep 'em looking over their shoulders for the next few years, they're bound to make mistakes.

Tell the reality-based folks the truth, but keep it simple for the Jesuslanders, 2 issues for them. Iraq. Do you want one or more of your 12 kids going there as cannon fodder? Deficit. You work 2 jobs to make ends meet. If it keeps going like this, how many jobs will your children have to work in order to keep their heads above water?

So, quit whining and forget about the past. What's done is done and it's time to look toward the future. Remember THE MISSION. By the time we put a Dem in the White House in '08, we want a Dem majority in Congress to welcome him/her. Don't tell me it can't be done. Think Boston and Philadelphia 1776, think Paris 1812, think Appomatox 1865, think MLK a hundred years later. We do want a mandate in '08. Not a Bush (51%) mandate, but a Reagan-Mondale mandate. A thorough beating with at least half of Jesusland receiving redemption in addition to all of Realitystan. That's what we want and will settle for nothing less.

Because it's on.

Update: 07:15:

And one of the talking points for '06 will be the housing bubble, which will surely burst before the end of Bush's reign. When that goes, so will mortgage interest rates, straight up. Let's see what all of these defaults will do the the banking industry. You see, folks, most of the people buying new houses while interest rates were low were just barely affording it. When higher interest rates (thanks to the deficit) blow their budgets out of the water, the banks will be left holding the bag. (Never mind those who have refinanced at variable interest rates.) Let's hammer this too, as hard as possible.

An' Spliff Too, Mon...

G.D. Frogsdong at Blanton's and Ashton's has a good thought:

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights, get up, stand up, don't give up the fight

We need a Bob Marley in this country. Eminem just doesn't cut it for me.

I'll buy it. Can I be the one who gets to shoot the Sheriff?

I Kid You Not

Go read Are You Effin' Kiddin' Me? 'til your eyeballs hurt. Here's a coupla excerpts:

To put it another way, the animals can now be let out of our cages. There is no more reason to hold us back.

And we will make them curse the day they left the left with nothing left to lose. (my emphasis)

You, dear readers, are hereby drafted as soldiers in the opinion wars. You must strike early, strike hard and strike often. Go for broke (my emphasis).

And where are they getting this data on morals? EXIT POLLS?!? ARE YOU EFFIN' KIDDING ME?!? How can you have one story that says "Exit Polls Blow It Out Ass, Will Never Be Used Again" sitting right next to a story that says "Exit Polls Show Election Was A Referendum On Morals"? H-h-h-h-how?!

Just in case anyone isn't sure, remember what "moral values" means:

Gays shouldn't have rights

"Abortionists" should be killed

The poor do not deserve your help

It's better to be sectarian in all aspects of life

None of the above applies to rich people

This guy is good. He must be. He links to US!

That Explains It

Saw this one on PST, at the bottom of the page:

"The Cracker Belt hates us because of our freedom."

Read, don't scroll, your way down to it.

17 Reasons Not To Slit Your Wrists

I got this one in an e-mail from my old friend Bev over at Lake Tahoe. It copied easier at michaelmoore.com.

Read it. It'll make you feel better.

Friday, November 5th, 2004
17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists...by Michael Moore

Dear Friends,

Ok, it sucks. Really sucks. But before you go and cash it all in, let's, in the words of Monty Python, “always look on the bright side of life!” There IS some good news from Tuesday's election.

Here are 17 reasons not to slit your wrists:

1. It is against the law for George W. Bush to run for president again.

2. Bush's victory was the NARROWEST win for a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

3. The only age group in which the majority voted for Kerry was young adults (Kerry: 54%, Bush: 44%), proving once again that your parents are always wrong and you should never listen to them.

4. In spite of Bush's win, the majority of Americans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction (56%), think the war wasn't worth fighting (51%), and don’t approve of the job George W. Bush is doing (52%). (Note to foreigners: Don't try to figure this one out. It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts.)

5. The Republicans will not have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate. If the Democrats do their job, Bush won't be able to pack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues. Did I say "if the Democrats do their job?" Um, maybe better to scratch this one.

6. Michigan voted for Kerry! So did the entire Northeast, the birthplace of our democracy. So did 6 of the 8 Great Lakes States. And the whole West Coast! Plus Hawaii. Ok, that's a start. We've got most of the fresh water, all of Broadway, and Mt. St. Helens. We can dehydrate them or bury them in lava. And no more show tunes!

7. Once again we are reminded that the buckeye is a nut, and not just any old nut -- a poisonous nut. A great nation was felled by a poisonous nut. May Ohio State pay dearly this Saturday when it faces Michigan State.

8. 88% of Bush's support came from white voters. In 50 years, America will no longer have a white majority. Hey, 50 years isn't such a long time! If you're ten years old and reading this, your golden years will be truly golden and you will be well cared for in your old age.

9. Gays, thanks to the ballot measures passed on Tuesday, cannot get married in 11 new states. Thank God. Just think of all those wedding gifts we won't have to buy now.

10. Five more African Americans were elected as members of Congress, including the return of Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. It's always good to have more blacks in there fighting for us and doing the job our candidates can't.

11. The CEO of Coors was defeated for Senate in Colorado. Drink up!

12. Admit it: We like the Bush twins and we don't want them to go away.

13. At the state legislative level, Democrats picked up a net of at least 3 chambers in Tuesday's elections. Of the 98 partisan-controlled state legislative chambers (house/assembly and senate), Democrats went into the 2004 elections in control of 44 chambers, Republicans controlled 53 chambers, and 1 chamber was tied. After Tuesday, Democrats now control 47 chambers, Republicans control 49 chambers, 1 chamber is tied and 1 chamber (Montana House) is still undecided.

14. Bush is now a lame duck president. He will have no greater moment than the one he's having this week. It's all downhill for him from here on out -- and, more significantly, he's just not going to want to do all the hard work that will be expected of him. It'll be like everyone's last month in 12th grade -- you've already made it, so it's party time! Perhaps he'll treat the next four years like a permanent Friday, spending even more time at the ranch or in Kennebunkport. And why shouldn't he? He's already proved his point, avenged his father and kicked our ass.

15. Should Bush decide to show up to work and take this country down a very dark road, it is also just as likely that either of the following two scenarios will happen: a) Now that he doesn't ever need to pander to the Christian conservatives again to get elected, someone may whisper in his ear that he should spend these last four years building "a legacy" so that history will render a kinder verdict on him and thus he will not push for too aggressive a right-wing agenda; or b) He will become so cocky and arrogant -- and thus, reckless -- that he will commit a blunder of such major proportions that even his own party will have to remove him from office.

16. There are nearly 300 million Americans -- 200 million of them of voting age. We only lost by three and a half million! That's not a landslide -- it means we're almost there. Imagine losing by 20 million. If you had 58 yards to go before you reached the goal line and then you barreled down 55 of those yards, would you stop on the three yard line, pick up the ball and go home crying -- especially when you get to start the next down on the three yard line? Of course not! Buck up! Have hope! More sports analogies are coming!!!

17. Finally and most importantly, over 55 million Americans voted for the candidate dubbed "The #1 Liberal in the Senate." That's more than the total number of voters who voted for either Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or Gore. Again, more people voted for Kerry than Reagan. If the media are looking for a trend it should be this -- that so many Americans were, for the first time since Kennedy, willing to vote for an out-and-out liberal. The country has always been filled with evangelicals -- that is not news. What IS news is that so many people have shifted toward a Massachusetts liberal. In fact, that's BIG news. Which means, don't expect the mainstream media, the ones who brought you the Iraq War, to ever report the real truth about November 2, 2004. In fact, it's better that they don't. We'll need the element of surprise in 2008.

Feeling better? I hope so. As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, "My Romanian grandfather used to say to me, 'Remember, Morton, this is such a wonderful country -- it doesn't even need a president!'"

But it needs us. Rest up, I'll write you again tomorrow.

If that didn't work for you, slit 'em long ways. Do it in the bathtub so it'll be easier to clean up. Unless you have a Republican landlord. In that case, do it in the living room, stick your arms out sideways, and spin around while going from room to room for as long as you can. With your last breath, extend both middle fingers and SMILE!

I guess we gotta keep Michael Moore. Now, if we can just do something about that potty-mouth Whoopi Goldberg.

The Chimp Is Bigger Now

William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut.org wrote this article. From AlterNet.

It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired." – Robert Strauss

I've been working on digesting the results of the election. Mark Moford of the San Francisco Chronicle gave perhaps the best description of how I am feeling: "It simply boggles the mind: we've already had four years of some of the most appalling and abusive foreign and domestic policy in American history, some of the most well-documented atrocities ever wrought on the American populace and it's all combined with the biggest and most violently botched and grossly mismanaged war since Vietnam, and much of the nation still insists in living in a giant vat of utter blind faith, still insists on believing the man in the White House couldn't possibly be treating them like a dog treats a fire hydrant."

There are a few bright spots to point to in the aftermath. John Ashcroft will reportedly resign his position before the inauguration. While it is certain that Bush will nominate another far-right lunatic to replace him, unless that nominee is Atilla the Hun, any new Attorney General will be an improvement. There is also the brewing fight between the conservatives and the neo-conservatives within the Republican Party. A number of old-style conservatives were secretly hoping for a Kerry victory, because it would give them an opening to purge the GOP of the neo-cons and the far-right religious fundamentalists from the party. Now that Bush has a second term, this fight will probably break wide open.

If the first four years of this administration are any indication of what is to come, and if the movement continues to hammer him for the next four years as it has for the last four years, the name of George W. Bush will wind up echoing down the hallways of history as the single worst President the nation has ever known. The name of George W. Bush will stand as a grave warning and a strident reminder of how badly and how quickly things can go wrong in our democracy.

This is an excellent article. Highly recommended.

America, China, and energy

From Asia Times:

TEHRAN - Speaking of business as unusual. A mere two months ago, the news of a China-Kazakhstan pipeline agreement, worth US$3.5 billion, raised some eyebrows in the world press, some hinting that China's economic foreign policy may be on the verge of a new leap forward. A clue to the fact that such anticipation may have totally understated the case was last week's signing of a mega-gas deal between Beijing and Tehran worth $100 billion. Billed as the "deal of century" by various commentators, this agreement is likely to increase by another $50 billion to $100 billion, bringing the total close to $200 billion, when a similar oil agreement, currently being negotiated, is inked not too far from now.

[. . .]

It is perhaps too early to digest fully the various economic, political and even geostrategic implications of this stunning development, widely considered a major blow to the Bush administration's economic sanctions on Iran and particularly on Iran's energy sector, notwithstanding the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) penalizing foreign companies daring to invest more than $20 million in Iran's oil and gas industry.

[. . .]

China is staking out its reserves knowing full well that, at the rate their economy is expanding, they will come into direct conflict with the U.S. sooner rather than later over energy availability. They also want a political say about what happens in the Mid-East, about protecting their share of the oil and gas that they need as desperately as we do. It would not surprise me if tensions between the U.S. and China escalated during the next four years of the Bush (p)residency. With the heads of U.S. energy corporations making policy here, how could it not? Should tensions arise, it would not take much (an incident between Taiwan and the mainland) to touch off hostilities on a grand scale. A best case would be another Cold War fought instead by proxies in oil-rich nations as opposed to Southeast Asia.

It's begun

A Taylor police dispatcher took the call at precisely 12:44 p.m. on Oct. 18.

A 49-year-old man said he'd just blasted a man with a revolver and a shotgun because the man said he didn't believe in God.

The dispatcher said the alleged shooter told him he'd just shot "the devil himself" and was still armed and standing over the body of the 62-year-old victim "in case he moved."

"I want to make sure he's gone," the alleged shooter told the dispatcher.

[. . .]

Just another day in Jesusland. Link via Lean Left.

Orcinus has more on the subject of hate.

Life after Arafat

One of the most insighful people on the subject of Middle East affairs, Jon at The Head Heeb, takes a look at the impact Arafat's death will have on the region.

Are you surprised?

Graphic stolen from Jesus' General.

Saturday Cattle Dog blogging

No pics of the monster today. I gotta scan a few more while the Mrs. is in Atlanta this week. Shayna will return next week at her regularly scheduled time.

Social Justice

From Matt Yglesias:

Mark Schmitt is bored of all the Jesusland business and wants to ask the right question about religion, namely "why it is that the current flourishing of religious faith has, for the first time ever, virtually no element of social justice?"

I think the answer is that it does have a strong element of social justice. Who's working to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa? Who's trying to help refugees in Darfur? Who's trying to stop global trafficking in women? Why, that would be socially conservative religious movements. For that matter, who's charged off on a neo-Wilsonian quest to spread democracy at gunpoint. The efficacy of the religious right's preferred means of spreading liberty around the world can and should be questioned, as should the sincerity of at least some of the architects of the strategy, but there's every reason to think that many -- if not most -- of the people who vote for George W. Bush and his forward strategy of freedom are perfectly sincere in their belief that this is what's happening and that it's a good idea.

[. . .]

Matt compares the Repub efforts in their social initiatives to the push toward Prohibition.

Musta Been A Democratic Lion

From The Hindustan Times via CultureGhost:

'Come bite me. Jesus will save you!'

Reuters
Taipei, November 4

A man leaped into a lion's den at the Taipei Zoo on Wednesday to try to convert the king of beasts to Christianity, but was bitten in the leg for his efforts.

"Jesus will save you!" the 46-year-old man shouted at two African lions lounging under a tree a few metres away.

"Come bite me!" he said with both hands raised, television footage showed.

One of the lions, a large male with a shaggy mane, bit the man in his right leg before zoo workers drove it off with water hoses and tranquiliser guns.

Newspapers said that the lions had been fed earlier in the day, otherwise the man might have been more seriously hurt ... or worse

Actually, Jesus did save him. JC saw to it that the lion had been fed, and provided two handlers to bail the damn fool out.

I'm glad he's there and not here. He's stupid enough to have voted for Bush.

I wonder how Jesus is gonna bail us out.

Bad Language, But Right Fuckin' On

From mnftiu:

CHIN UP.
We're smarter than those motherfuckers.
We can learn more quickly than those motherfuckers.
We can be more ruthless than those motherfuckers.
We can be some six-million-dollar motherfuckers ourselves.

Chin up.
We're more American than those motherfuckers.
We're more responsible than those motherfuckers.
We're more compassionate than those motherfuckers.
Hell, our atheists are more Christian than their Bible-thumpin' motherfuckers.

There's an election in two years.
There's nothing we can't do.

Chin up.
Because it's on, motherfuckers.
It is on.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Thanks, yelladog.

Our Future

Just discovered Campaign For America's Future. Might be worth a look.

What You See Ain't What You're Gonna Get

Jonathan Chait writes in the LATimes:

Dear rural/exurban Christian conservative voters: Congratulations on your election victory. By going to the polls in unprecedented numbers Tuesday, you overwhelmed an enormous Democratic turnout and returned President Bush to office, along with a number of very conservative senators. Now Bush is preparing to repay your efforts by moving immediately on your highest priorities: a flat tax and privatizing Social Security.

Oh, wait. You didn't particularly hanker for those things, did you? The election is so far in the past now that it has receded into a hazy memory. But as I recall, you voted for Bush because of his position on one issue — he opposes gay marriage — and on the general principle that he is a godly man who shares your values. Now Bush has decided, conveniently enough, that those values are identical to those of his wealthy financiers. (Go to any meeting of the Club for Growth, a group of affluent, libertarian-leaning Bush backers who mostly live in Washington and New York City. I'm sure you'll find them, like victorious Okla-homophobe Sen. Tom Coburn, deeply concerned about rampant high school lesbianism in the Sooner State.)

What that means is that all you small-town folk voted for him not to pursue an agenda but just because he embodies family values. That gives him political power that he can use for purposes utterly unrelated to the source of his popularity. Sure, Bush mentioned some of these purposes in the campaign. But the references tended to be perfunctory and in code. Start with taxes.

He goes on about taxes and Social Security and ends with this:

Meanwhile, what about opposing gay marriage, the one mandate Bush might legitimately claim? Earlier this year, Bush barely lifted a finger in support of a constitutional amendment banning it. (Compare this to the furious arm-twisting he performs to get moderates to back his tax cuts.) If he has a mandate to do anything, it's to bring up the amendment again. However, he's said nothing about doing so, and nobody expects him to.

No surprise there — it's hardly in the Republican Party's interest. If gay marriage is banned everywhere, what's going to bring all those heartland conservatives to the polls next time?

You know, I always thought that 'Go fuck yourself' was, besides being a little rude, an anatomical impossibility, but the Retarded Right has managed to do it beautifully, and to the rest of us as well.

What if?

Dean would have won? Via Tom Tomorrow.

Oops

(New York-WABC, November 4, 2004) — A frightening story out of New Jersey, after a school found iteslf the accidental target of an F-16 fighter jet.

It happened Wednesday night in Little Egg Harbor, in southern New Jersey.

The Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School was hit with 25 rounds of ammunition. A National Guard Jet on a nighttime training mission was supposed to fire at a target three miles from the school, but he somehow missed.

A custodian was the only person in the building at the time. Luckily he was not hurt.

[. . .]

Figures it was an Air Force weenie. I know at least one old Jarhead who's laughing his ass off. I bet that janitor had to clean his pants. 20mm makes big fucking holes.

"Red" Is Definitely Their Color

From Baghdad Burning:

To the red states (and those who voted for Bush): You deserve no better- I couldn't wish worse on you if I tried. He represents you perfectly... and red really is your color. It's the color of the blood of thousands of Iraqis and by the time this four-year catastrophe in the White House is over, thousands of Americans, likely.

I think "Reds" is a good name for them. During the Cold War (the first Cold War - this will be the second one) that's what we called Communists. For those too young to remember, the "Reds" tried to bring down America from the outside. This time, they're trying to do the same thing, but from the inside.

Our modern "Reds" are mis-guided (literally) to the point of sheer lunacy, and we must fight them with the same zeal and fervor that we fought the old "Reds". Whatever it takes.

After the lecture, here's some fun. Kinda like getting a free sandwich at the mission after listening to a sermon, huh?

I'm thinking of offering up the idea of "Election Condolences" to Hallmark or Yahoo Greetings. The cards can have those silly little poems inside of them, like:

Condolences and heartfelt tears-
You get Bush for four more years!

or

Sympathies in advance
For when they reinstate the draft!
We hope (insert_name_here) stays as safe as he/she can
And writes frequently while in Iran!

or

Bush and Cheney- what a pair!
Who said life isn't fair?
While Iraq gets tanks and occupation-
You have idiots to run your nation!

Not for very long, if me n' Fixer have anything to say about it.

The new look

Dear Readers,

I know I took some of you by surprise with the new look around here, but I've wanted to make this place a bit more unique for a while. After all, Gord and I are certainly unique, just ask our wives. And I didn't want a stock Blogger look so I stole . . . er, found this template that I adjusted to suit our needs. Looks a little classier too, and old folks like Gord and me can read it easier.

Things changed after 2 November and we're fighting a new battle now. To find the best ticket to represent the Left in '08, to get a Dem majority in the Congress in '06 (or at least be on the way to that goal), and to get Chimpy and Co. out of office ahead of time, like we did to Tricky Dick 30 years ago. The goal is (p)resident No Nuts' resignation or impeachment. Criminal indictments would be gravy. That's The Mission now, folks.

Hey, even the Jarheads got new BDUs. Look at this as our new issue too. While the mission might have changed somewhat, Gord and I will continue to provide scintillating conversation and wit, just as we did before 2 November. Thanks for your understanding. As always, comments, good or bad, are welcomed with enthusiasm.

The Fixer

Arafat in a coma

And supposedly brain-dead. That now qualifies him to run for the highest office in our land.

Update: 16:50:

Yo, Yasser, can you please die already, you stubborn old miscreant.

Worldview

From the Globe and Mail:

[. . .]

"I had previously told my friends that I support the American people but that I do not support their leader, who they did not truly choose and who did not represent their beliefs," a Parisian student said on Radio France last night.

"Now I understand that there is truly unity in their beliefs, and I am not so confident about America."

Others chose the opposite response: Realizing that Mr. Bush is now a permanent fixture and a genuine reflection of political views in the world's most important economy, leaders scrambled to mend fences.

Leaders in France, Germany and Spain, who had been hostile to Mr. Bush over the Iraq war, were unusually lavish in their efforts to talk of a new relationship with the United States.

While much of this was perfunctory diplomatic praise, senior journalists in France and Germany reported that the re-election had taken their leaders by surprise and forced a reassessment of the frayed transatlantic relationship.

"Because the Americans cannot imaginably build, direct and inspire the world all by themselves, it is necessary to try to restore American confidence in the European project," French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said yesterday. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Thanks to my brother-in-law(the one I like) Bob for the tip.

The Jesuslanders will see this as a good thing or will just be indifferent because their worldview only consists of what happens between the Rockies and Appalachians. If we think that we will be allowed to march around the world with impunity, we've got another thing coming. There will come a time when other nations, instead of just throwing up their hands, will attempt to actively block our imperialistic forays into the Middle East. And mark my words, the next place we go is Sudan. As opposed to the remaining members of the 'Axis of Evil', Sudan has an unstable government, no army, no WMD, and a LOT of oil. Prepare to sacrifice your kids to the sands of Africa too.

Bankruptcy

[. . .]

For his second term, Bush envisions reshaping Social Security so workers can use some taxes they pay to support the system to create personal savings accounts. He has not advanced details or cost estimates, but some analysts have estimated the 10-year price tag at between $1 trillion and $2 trillion.

Bush wants to make 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent they will otherwise expire by this decade's end at a roughly $1 trillion price tag. He said Thursday he wants to simplify the tax system at no net cost, but in the past such exercises have often resulted in tax cuts as part of the drive to get lawmakers' votes.

It is hard to estimate the long-term costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but this year's expenses alone may approach $100 billion. Domestic security costs several tens of billions annually, while his initiatives for education and foreign aid are relatively small, just a few billion a year. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

From ABC News.

That's it, bankrupt us and turn future generations into ignorant morons. Half the population qualifies already. Fucking insane.

Update: 05:10:

More bad news from Josh Marshall:

The dollar continued its decline in global currency markets yesterday, intensifying worries among some economists that mounting U.S. budget and trade deficits could send the U.S. currency into a tailspin.

But John B. Taylor, the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, defended the Bush administration view that the deficits pose no danger of a dollar collapse. He issued a detailed rebuttal of what he called "scare stories."

The dollar fell yesterday to within a fraction of a cent of its all-time low against the euro of $1.2930 , trading as low as $1.2898 before rallying slightly to close at $1.2867. It fell modestly against the Japanese yen, and continued a sharp slide against the Canadian dollar, which rose to 83 U.S. cents yesterday for the first time in 12 years.

[. . .]

Update: 06:00:

From WTF:

The Bush misadministration announced Wednesday that it will run out of maneuvering room to manage the government's massive borrowing needs in two weeks, putting more pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling when it convenes for a special post-election session.

A kick in the ass

All our prayers and best wishes to Elizabeth Edwards, John, and their family. Hopefully they caught this cancer early and she will make a full recovery.

Nothing's changed

From the BBC:

Human Rights Watch says it is likely crucial evidence for the trials of Saddam Hussein and other former Iraqi officials has been lost or tainted.
US-led coalition forces failed to secure relevant sites after last year's invasion of Iraq, the group says.

[. . .]

But it says it is likely some evidence has been tainted or lost because of inaction or negligence by US-led coalition forces.

Human Rights Watch alleges that the coalition's failure to prevent or minimise the looting and destruction of government buildings in April 2003 led to the widespread removal of state archives, which are now virtually impossible to trace.

[. . .]

Link via WTF Is It Now??

Wouldn't it be something if Saddam worms his way out of trouble and returns to run the country? You laugh. Marion Barry was elected to public office, again, on Tuesday.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Nothing's going to come from this, probably, but it's ve-rr-y interesting. From Tom Paine, by Greg Palast.

Not bad

From the Pink Bunny:



I haven't heard any better ideas lately.

Update: 19:35:

And reader Knox Rover turns us on to this.

Tell me

Tell me if this page looks fucked up to any of you. There's supposed to be a sidebar on the left with the links and shit, and I'm not seeing it on my laptop, but I can on my desktop. Is anybody else having this problem?

Update: 19:00:

I think I got it fixed. Lemmie know if there's any problem displaying the page though. I try to optimize it for most browsers.

I know

I know, leave me alone until I get done tweaking it.

The Hangover Of A Lifetime

I think we're all feeling that way right now. TomDispatch offers his view:

Now, I look at my son and I imagine a draft. I look at him and I think of the young Americans who should never have been but are desperately in harm's way in Iraq. I think of the Iraqis and try to wrap my brain around the next 100,000 of them who will die in the urban killing fields of that country, while the second Bush administration pursues its mad, murderous policies. I think about those northern glaciers and the polar ice, and try to imagine them gone in a globally warmed world. I think about being in the heart of the heart of a vast (possibly failing) empire and my heart sinks -- and so, unfortunately, does Tomdispatch's.

In the meantime, a little over half of voting Americans -- and there were a lot of voting Americans this time around -- have now signed on to the rashest presidency in our history (short perhaps of that of Jefferson Davis); they have signed on to a disastrous crime of a war in Iraq, and a losing war at that which will only get worse; they have signed on to whatever dangerous schemes these schemers can come up with. They have signed on to their own impoverishment. This is the political version of the volunteer Army. Now, they have to live with it. Unfortunately, so do we.

My small guarantee. Much of this will change over the years to come. This world of ours already spins on a dime, economically, politically, militarily, environmentally. (Just wait, for instance, until the tactic being developed in Iraq, thanks to our President, the blowing up of oil pipelines, spreads beyond that country's boundaries, as it certainly will, and then check out oil prices and the stock market.) But, to sound a small note of hope, as the world spins on a dime, so often do administrations. And you just never know when one of them will indeed implode. Take Richard Nixon, who sailed through a disastrous war in Vietnam and into office as second time in 1972 on a veritable landslide of votes, and then slide slowly into Watergate and disgrace. These will not be quiet years and, I suspect, they will not prove good ones for George Bush.

I hope for his head on a pike. Read the rest of the article.

Chicken-Killin' Dog

Molly Ivins writes about the election in this article via Working For Change:

Some people think you cannot break a dog that has got in the habit of killin' chickens, but my friend John Henry always claimed you could. He said the way to do it is to take one of the chickens the dog has killed and wire the thing around the dog's neck, good and strong. And leave it there until that dead chicken stinks so bad that no other dog or person will even go near that poor beast. Thing'll smell so bad the dog won't be able to stand himself. You leave it on there until the last little bit of flesh rots and falls off, and that dog won't kill chickens again.

The Bush administration is going to be wired around the neck of the American people for four more years, long enough for the stench to sicken everybody. It should cure the country of electing Republicans.

I hope I don't have to hold my nose for that long, but, damn!, I Love Molly Ivins. She ends her piece with:

So, fellow progressives, stop thinking about suicide or moving abroad. Want to feel better? Eat a sour grape, then do something immediately, now, today. Figure out what you can do to help rescue the country -- join something, send a little money to some group, call somewhere and offer to volunteer, find a politician you like at the local level and start helping him or her to move up.

Think about how you can lend a hand to the amazing myriad efforts that will promptly break out to help the country recover from what it has done to itself. Now is the time. Don't mourn, organize.

There's a lot more in the article, so read it. Read this fine woman regularly. She knows all about Bush, the 'Pubs, and God, Guns, and Gays from many years as a Texas political journalist. She's tried to warn us for years about these bastards.

Division Is His Co-Pilot

Maureen Dowd in the NYTimes:

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues."

Read the rest of it.

What this president knows about morality wouldn't fill a thimble with a finger already in it. He sure can work the crowd with lip service to it, though.

Advance To The Rear

The op-eds are starting to fly thick and fast. Good. Garry Wills in the NYTimes:

The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.

Where else do we find fundamentalist zeal, a rage at secularity, religious intolerance, fear of and hatred for modernity? Not in France or Britain or Germany or Italy or Spain. We find it in the Muslim world, in Al Qaeda, in Saddam Hussein's Sunni loyalists. Americans wonder that the rest of the world thinks us so dangerous, so single-minded, so impervious to international appeals. They fear jihad, no matter whose zeal is being expressed.

It is often observed that enemies come to resemble each other. We torture the torturers, we call our God better than theirs - as one American general put it, in words that the president has not repudiated.

I find it peculiar that I grew to sentience in the fifties, the dark ages of racial intolerance, less-than-equal civil rights, back-alley D&C's, and gay-bashing. The Nation came a long way for the better since then and that was a good thing. Now it seems we are to head back to those ignorant times. So my declining years as well will be spent in an ignorant, fearful, and intolerant society. Life as a bell curve of truth. Pitiful.

Stocks

Just look at any Wall Street report over the last couple days and it'll tell you who stands to gain under another 4 years of Hit . . . er, Bush. Let's see, pharmaceuticals, insurance, energy . . .

Dear Europe, I'm sorry

From the eloquent Patrick at Yelladog:

It would be difficult to fully communicate my disappointment in a simple email. On the other hand, slipping out into the hall and drowning myself in the mop bucket would mean that someone else would have to feed my dogs.

Kerry has not yet conceded defeat, but I have. Even if someone finds that crate full of votes for Kerry bobbing down the Cuyahoga River, the American people have spoken, and they have sent the world a message: "We're barely bright enough to chew our own food."

Incompetence, incoherence, inarticulateness, pettiness and random savagery apparently do not deter the majority of Americans. The thing that really, REALLY matters to Americans? Homos. And foreigners. Both must be stopped at any cost.

Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of bigotry, amending state constitutions around the country to prevent same-sex couples from having any rights beyond the right to live on the margins of society. We clearly have far more to fear from The International Homosexual Conspiracy™ than we do from North Korea and the collapse of the American health care system.

Apparently, we are truly a nation of slackjawed yokels, awed only by grotesque displays of wealth and violence, reverent only of the bossman and beholden not even to our children, since we seem content to mortgage their future in favor of a $300 tax refund that we have traded for decent jobs, healthcare, and a just society.

We make pious noises about worshipping a Just and Merciful God, while doling out destruction and horror upon the innocent, pausing only to pat ourselves on the back for waging a "just" war to rid the world of tyrants that audaciously aspire to exist after they lose their utility to us in endless low-level conflicts to control the world's oil supply.

We seem to have become cheap, venal, vulgar and petty while we apparently don't have the ability to reason our way out of the dilemma of taking care of the sick, watching out for the elderly, and teaching our children not to be credulous, callow dupes.

To my friends from the UK, France and anyone to whom they choose to forward this, I feel that I owe you an apology. It is as if I have brought an orangutan to high tea... While he flings shit at you and tries to snatch pastries from your plate, I am left wondering how I might make it up to you.

The world's richest and most powerful nation seems to have lost its moral compass. We have lost interest in leading by example in favor of taking by force. I would like to say that I believe that one day in the future America might regain its senses. Unfortunately, I am not terribly optimistic. The best I can offer you is to remind you that Nixon also won a second term.

Your friend,

Patrick

I sent this to my cousin in Germany, who is really pissed at us. If you haven't been to da Dog, you are shirking your duty. Go visit Patrick now.

The Uniter

I'm sick and tired already of hearing the talking heads in the news media talk about uniting the country. (p)resident Jerk-off has no intentions to unite any-fucking-thing. You heard Darth Vader when he introduced Chimpy before his acceptance speech. In case you didn't hear it, the word 'mandate' has been bandied about a lot in the last 24 hours. Dicknose is gonna do what he wants and fuck what the other 48% of America thinks. After all, he's a lame duck with a mandate. Do you think the fucking news media will get off their collective ass now? Do you think they'll actually do research and begin to question Bush's motives honestly? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Mission Planning

The mission has changed, boys and girls. We are no longer trying to get our boy elected and the chimp out. Now we can concentrate on just getting the chimp. Think OPERATION: Lewinsky. Think Chimpeachment. We don't have to wait 4 years to get rid of this asshole. With Iraq fucked to Hell and the corruption at the top, we should be able to bring him down. Think Spiro Agnew. Think Dick Nixon. Think Democratic Congress in '06.

You'll see changes at this site too. I don't know what yet, maybe a different look, but I have to do some housekeeping around here that I put off in the heady rush toward the election. Little changes at first until I talk it over with Gord. Remember, we are FREEDOM FIGHTERS now. Our hearts, minds, and souls for the cause.

31 Down, ? To Go.....

Today is me and Mrs. G's 31st wedding anniversary. We have planned to go to Zano's, a new and pretty good Italian restaurant in our town. We had hoped to celebrate a Kerry victory as well as our nuptial milestone, but that ain't gonna happen.

We're gonna go anyway, of course, and we'll have a damn good time. We have a lot to be thankful for: Our union, our dogs, a nice home, a little financial security, our good health. If we let the election results deter us from living our lives in any way, then the terrorists in the White House have won.

Fuck them.

Update: 7:12pm OWT

Two interesting topics came up at dinner.

The first, and least interesting was brought up by me, of course. There was a young couple having dinner with their son, a cute kid of about two years old. I was watching him because he had really cool shoes. Everytime he moved his feet, little red lights would flash. I wondered if his parents knew how much money the kid owed already due to Dumbya.

Mrs. G said something real heavy. She said that the way she felt today was just like the way she felt when Bobby Kennedy was killed: To see your hopes and dreams for a better America irrevocably dashed. Only this time it wasn't a crazed Arab, it was our fellow citizens that did it.

As far as I am concerned, the Red v Blue thing no longer centers on Bush, although I hate him even more. The center has now moved to the larger half of the American public who voted for him. I have gone from just despising him to being disgusted and disappointed with my fellow citizens. Thanks for nothing, you stupid assholes. I want to be there when you realize what you've done. It'll be way too late and you'll probably find someone other than yourselves to blame. After all, that's your fearless leader's example, isn't it?

Observations

Just a couple, probably many more as the days go by and sanity returns, replacing disgust and wonderment at the deadly folly of my fellow citizens:

If we've learned anything from this election, it is that you cannot, as was previously believed (by me, anyway), motivate people by appealing to their higher natures, such as hope, optimism, and truth. You must appeal to their fear, greed, intolerance for others not of their ilk, greed and base desires, even if you have to invent things and lie about their importance. You have to know your market, and this Bush (Rove) did very successfully.

Apparently, most Americans agree with Osama Bin Laden about who should be our President. I feel that there will be an awful terrorist attack fairly soon so OBL can show his pleasure at their choice.

More later, I am sure.

Why I aughta . . .

If I hear another New Yorker say "I wanted to vote for Kerry, but I voted for Bush because I wanted him to clean up the mess he made", I'm gonna beat them within inches of their lives. That has gotta be the worst reasoning I ever heard and you should be killed for being stupid beyond redemption.

Clinton/Biden '08

So, what do you think?

Must Read

Thank you, Factchecker from SouthKnoxBubba for this one from Ess Eff Gate.com. Excerpt:

The GOP steamroller appears to be just too powerful, just too well oiled and blood soaked and fear inducing to be stopped just yet. After all, the Right has been working on this master plan and building their takeover strategy for about forty years. It's gonna take those of us working for change and progress and raw spiritual juice a little more than one or two years to dissolve it away like the cancer it so obviously is.

Apparently, there are lessons yet to be learned. Apparently, we must hit some sort of new low between now and 2008, attain some sort of seriously vicious status in the world before we will snap out of it. You think?

This much is clear: We are not, with a grim Bush victory, headed for buoyancy and friendship and sincere hope for something new and refreshing. We are not, with another four years of what we just endured, headed toward any sort of easing of bitter tension, a sense of levity, or sexual openness, or true education, or gender respect, or a lightness of spirit and of step.

Don't miss this one.

Organize

"Activism, not one election, changes the world." So says Sean Gonsalves in The Cape Cod Times via Working For Change. I tend to agree with him.

If I didn't have such deep family roots in this land that I love, I'd seriously consider moving to the Dominican Republic, where the weather is warm and baseball is played all year round.
Having said that, one of the unfortunate aspects of American politics is this fetish we have with presidential elections as if the office of the presidency were some omnipotent seat of power.

The body of the article describes meaningful societal changes over the years, and how whomever the President was didn't have a hell of a lot to do with it. Well worth reading, especially right now.

One of the many narrowly focused political slogans of this election season among young people is "Vote or Die!" The fascist implications of that slogan aside, I say vote and organize or die. If you just vote, the death of democracy isn't far behind

Where the hell is Joe Hill? Joan Baez? Someone or some thing is bound to turn up to help lead us out of this mess. I hope we're not kept waiting very long.

Acceptance

I'm watching Bush making his acceptance speech and I can't help thinking. 'Where is John Wilkes Booth when you need him?' (p)resident Dicknose is talking mandate. Any time now, they're gonna start rounding up us Untermenschen.

Maybe This'll Cheer You Up

Lord knows, we need it. Will Durst via Working For Change.

I still have no idea why Bush does so well in the middle of the country. I think it's got something to do with why Trojan doesn't make petite sized condoms.

Four more years. Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

The good news is: Air America still has a raison d'etre.

In the 2000 election, only 17 percent of Americans aged 18-25 turned out to vote. But in this election -- with all the attendant hype about mobilization and energizing the youth vote -- it's estimated a whole 17 percent of those aged 18-25 voted. Kids. I hope Bush brings back the draft.

Go read it. Graveyard humor is the only thing we got going for us this soon after the Hindenburg of elections.

Yes, we are

Via TBogg:



Update: 14:35:

As for my comment this morning:

My first order of business when I get home from work today is to start checking the real estate listings . . . in Paris.

I was angry and this is the only one I'll take back. I ain't running out on my country when she needs me the most. Yes, the Mrs and I still have plans to retire in Europe, but I ain't leaving until this country works the way the Founding Fathers intended. Sgt. Fixer, locked, loaded, and ready for a firefight. You ain't heard nothing yet. This is still America and I can still speak my mind and I will until the pry my keyboard from my cold, dead, hands.

Thanks For Giving Me The Government YOU Deserve, You Stupid Bastards

I am very discouraged right now. On the bright side, I'm angrier than I have ever been in my life. As soon as I get these emotions under control, I'm sure I will be better able to write something constructive, but not quite yet.

In general, I agree with Fixer, but I'm not making any plans to leave. I was born an American and I'll die an American and besides, I have no place to go.

I have always thought Americans, in general, were pretty intelligent. Not any more. What those idiots thought they were voting for is beyond me, but I know what they've gonna get. See Fixer's post. And much more besides. And they took me down with them. Bastards.

I think perhaps the Democrats (me included) gave people too much credit for having brains, that they could not fail to see what these bastards have done and do the right thing and vote Bush out. Wrongamundo. The lowest common denominator prevailed.

I think , over the next four years, the United States is going to come to resemble Bush's beloved Saudi Arabia a lot more than it will resemble the country I grew up in. A forcibly enforced white male chauvinist theocracy. I don't like it already.

I don't think civil war is out of the question, but I hope not. I don't think it will take the bloody path of the last one. There's only a few Americans I want to kill and they're not where I can do it. Lucky for them and lucky for me.

This country will survive four more years of Bush. Germany, after all, survived Hitler. It wasn't a very pretty place by then, and I hope our country doesn't get to that point. It will survive.

What will not survive is our standing in the world. It's not at its lowest point yet, believe me, and it's on its way down more today than yesterday. The rest of the world was holding its breath, not believing that a country as supposedly good as the United States would actually elect an evil person like Bush. Now they know, and we will suffer for it. People who don't give a shit what the rest of the world thinks are in for a rude fucking awakening.

One of the things we might have going for us, believe it or not, is the Republican party. The old-style Conservatives say there's going to be an internal civil war within their party. They don't like the neo-con cabal and the borrow-and-spend element that has taken over their party any more than we do. I hope they can get their party back. I think it'll be fun to watch, at any rate.

The media, maybe, hope against hope, will finally wake from its slumber and realize they could have done something about Bush and feel bad. They should feel bad. It's way past time for them to get started and get started they must or we're sunk forever. Grand Juries and Impeachment Proceedings will be a good place to start. The goods on Bush and his cabal are out there somewhere and it's up to the press, probably not TV, to find them and get them out in public.

For now, we must get over this giant shock a little and figure out where to go from here. One thing I know for damn sure is this: I will never get behind Bush's presidency. Small 'p' from here on out when referring to him. As far as I am concerned, we have no President, but rather a junta. Screw the people who voted for him: They were stupid, pure and simple. If anybody thinks our national dividedness, Red v Blue, is going to go away, well, they got another think coming. You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Fixer, from this point on, we ARE Freedom Fighters. Rifle inspection in thirty minutes.

I hope you're satisfied

I hope everyone who voted for Bush gets what they wished for. Has this country lost its collective mind? This is not the nation I put my ass on the line for. Depressing. My first order of business when I get home from work today is to start checking the real estate listings . . . in Paris.

Anybody interested in a 3200 square foot, 4br, 2 bath home on a 1/2 acre plot on Long Island? Time to leave.

Update: 05:44:

Andy Card just came on and declared victory for Bush. Well that settles it. I just re-looked at the Ohio count and it looks like it's gonna be Bush there. Here's what you can look forward to:

Repeal of Roe v. Wade.

Supreme Court removes the barrier beween Church and State.

Homosexuality will be illegal.

A Draft.

Oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

Even less standing in the international commuity.

Evangelical Christianity becoming the official religion of the nation.

The end of Social Security.

The loss of even more of our civil rights

A Republican majority in the House and Senate that will rubber stamp every one of GWB's hare-brained schemes.

Faith-based everything

Yup, time to learn French.

Oh, and you know how they always say that the nation has to come together to support the President? Fuck 'em. I ain't supporting anything Republican. I've gone from sad to really pissed off in the past couple hours. I'm even thinking a Blue State cessession from the Union. Fuck 'em. Leave em everything between the Rockies and the Appalachians and we'll take the rest. At this point, I'm so pissed, I think I'd support a Civil War redux.

Update: 06:15:

Oh, and a word of warning to YOU, Mr. Bush. If my wife gets hurt or killed in another terrorist attack in Manhattan, you're gonna answer to me personally. You don't want to put me in a position where I have nothing to live for. Yeah, I know what I'm saying, Secret Service be damned.

Not Looking Good

1:00 AM PST

Bush - 246

Kerry - 242

Looks like Ohio will go to Bush.

Nevada and New Mexico not in yet.

If Bush wins, and it looks like he will, by a slight majority, the brain dead of this country will have elected one of their own, Stupid bastards.

I'm almost ashamed to be an American right now.

Good Night.

Ohio (Election blogging)*

MSNBC says Ohio too close to call. NC and VA also.

Update: 20:00:

Ohio still too close. So's Florida. Kerry gets Vermont, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, Delaware, and D.C.

Missouri too close. NC still too close.

Update: 20:10:

Obama in for Illinois Senate. Yeah!

Update: 20:25:

NC went under. Shit.

Update: 20:40:

Ohio's REAL close live results here.

Update: 20:45:

VA went to Bush too. Looks like it's split along the Mason-Dixon.

Update: 20:53:

MSNBC reports long lines in Ohio. A federal judge has ruled that people stuck on staggeringly long lines may file paper ballots. They're looking at 6 hour waits. Amazing turnout.

Update: 21:05:

Kerry gets NY (Yay!) and RI.

FL, CO, NM, OH, MO, too close.

Electoral Votes 156-112 for Bush.

21:15: The lids are gettin' heavy and I gotta shut off the laptop before I fall asleep and dump it on the floor. Been up since 3 and 4 comes awful early in the morn. I leave you in my partner Gordon's more than capable hands. I hope to wake to a victory by John Kerry. If not, I've decided to go from being a blogger to freedom fighter. See ya in Gitmo!


*At least until I fall asleep.

The Nine

Most important reasons to vote for John Kerry. From Bob Harris:



If you haven't voted yet, put down that burrito and go. NOW!

Turnout

Is outstanding in the swings. See Kos.

Melanie too.

Update: 17:50:

Zogby calls it for Kerry. Atrios.

Paper posts Bush Win

From Blue Lemur. They only forgot one little thing.....the election! Thanks again, Bubba.

A pat on the back

To all of us from one of the big fish of the Left Wing Blogosphere, Kevin Hayden at The American Street. Thank you too, Kevin.

Why You Should Vote

Molly Ivins has some good reasons why. Via Working For Change.

Look at it this way. Voting whitens your teeth, sweetens your breath and perks up your sex life. Voting is new and improved, stops the heartbreak of psoriasis and improves your gas mileage. Voting makes you feel virtuous, is your patriotic duty and entitles you, absolutely free, to four years of guilt-proof gritching about what's wrong with the country. Those who do not vote forfeit the right to complain.

Voting prevents underarm stains, ring-around-the-collar, carpet odor and dust bunnies. Exercising your franchise will firm and tone both your abs and your glutes, as well as lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. Casting your ballot makes that unsightly flab on your upper arms disappear, while toning the biceps. Using your suffrage takes weight off your thighs and makes you a more pleasant person all-around. There are countless recorded cases of people whose personalities improved dramatically after voting.

Voting improves your children's manners, renders your dog more obedient and prompts your spouse to take on more household chores. Also, voting is the only way to make political ads go away.

Boy, I feel and smell better already!

A Smattering of Wolcott

James Wolcott is in rare form today. Here are some excerpts from several posts:

If the press who hailed Bush after 9/11, salivated over his aircraft-carrier landing, and immediately (erroneously) claimed the Bin Laden tape gave his campaign a last minute fillip is in the tank for Kerry, they've done a genius job of disguising it. And I admire the way every conservative blogger manages to omit Fox News, talk radio, Clear Channel, and Sinclair broadcasting from their j'accuse of media interference.

I am preparing myself for either outcome today. Should Kerry win, I will post an important statement called "A Time for Healing," or something equally noble-sounding. Should Bush win, I shall post a statement of philosophical resignation tentatively titled "Good, Go Ahead, America, Choke on Your Own Vomit, You Deserve to Die." The latter will probably require a little more tweaking.

Don't let anyone con you that New Yorkers are so tough, resilient, unphased by adversity; practically everyone I know is a neurotic basket case over this election, ready to call their mothers to see if they can have their old womb back should Bush win. My plan is, If Bush wins, I'm going to allot myself 48 hours to mope and dread--okay, 72--okay, maybe 96--but 96 tops--but after that it'll be time to get on mental war footing. If Kerry wins, do you think conservative Republicans are going to take to their beds for soul-searching? They have no souls to search, most of them. No, they'll be scheming to ratfuck a Kerry presidency, and if history is a reliable guide they'll have allies in the elite media who can't wait to start snarking over Teresa as First Lady and the timidity of Kerry's cabinet picks, whatever. Reporters and pundits who've paid scant attention to the casualties and carnage in Iraq will suddenly find their consciences tucked away in a file drawer, and start wondering when Kerry will show the strength and resolve we expect from our leaders. They will hound him about Bin Laden in ways they never did Bush.

Is this guy good or what?

Cardboard and Trash Bags For Democracy

Mrs. G and I arrived at our polling place at about 10 after 7. There were about twelve people ahead of us. I don't know if that's unusual or not as we usually vote in the early evening. Today, Mrs. G wanted to wear her "I Voted" sticker to work, so we went early. The most dramatic moment occurred when the line stalled for a minute right beside a table holding a couple dozen donuts for the poll workers. The drama ended with Mrs. G's withering look, which said in no uncertain terms: "Eat
their donut = walk home."

Our polling place is in the Truckee-Donner Public Utility District building, in the Board meeting room. A lot of local political drama takes place here and some of it is televised on our local cable access channel. Water and power is heady stuff in a small town.

We have seen a lot of stuff on TV about all the fancy new electronic voting machines and how they may all be rigged by 'Pubs or hackers. It's not going to be a problem in Truckee.

We were issued our two-page ballots in a folder along with a #2 pencil and proceeded to a voting booth. Our voting booths are made of cardboard, with half a trash bag for a privacy curtain. Nothing but the best for us! Democracy will stand for no less!

For the devil-may-care types, there were tables at which to sit, out in the open for all the world to see. I chose a booth, Mrs. G the table. She's a wild woman, I tell you!

The poll lady tore the stubs off our ballots and directed us to put the ballots in the ballot box, but not the folder. I remarked that it was like not putting the McDonalds tray in the trash along with the empty McFood wrappers. This got a laugh. These people are bored. They have to be there 'til 8pm, too. Patriots all.

There was no line when we left. We were parked next to a car with a B**h-C****y sticker. I managed to wrest control of the wheel away from Mrs. G and foiled her attempt to ram it.

We stopped at 7-11 for a fancy coffee for Mrs. G and a breakfast burrito for me.

Now the waiting. For once, I'm glad my teeth are safely in a jar. Otherwise, I would likely chew my fingernails off down to about my elbows.

Yeah!

The Mrs. and I were the 3rd and 4th people to vote in our precinct, the 'D' line all the way. We were there 20 minutes early and the parking lot was filling up as we left. All the poll workers said the same thing. They've never seen it this busy so early and they were expecting a record day. This is NY, solidly for Kerry and turnout is supposed to be record. I love it!

Election Day

I'm wound up and I can't sleep. It's 3:30 a.m. in NY and the polls open in 2 1/2 hours. The Mrs. is working from home today so we'll be waiting there when they open. I haven't had this feeling in close to 20 years. Like the balloon's just gone up. This is D-Day, the troops have been training up for four years, and all that's left is to get to it. My rifle's clean, my gear is squared away, and the straps on my 'chute are tight. We're standing in the door, ready to jump out into the night. Tally ho, boys and girls. We'll count the dead and wounded when it's over.

Apropos Of Nothing...

On my "Welcome to Dellnet powered (?) by MSN" home page today was a picture of Dubya. Right next to it, entirely unrelated, was a topic line for a news story: "Calming a Moody Toddler." Ha! I just wanted to share.

Marine Vet Sounds Off

Corporal Sean Huze sounds off after being back from Iraq for a while. From AlterNet.

I know the real transition in me happened when my eyes were opened – when I realized that there were no weapons of mass destruction. I realized that Saddam Hussein was not a threat to not just the United States but to any of the countries on his borders. That there was no tie to Sept. 11. And these were what I now believe were intentional misrepresentations and manipulation.

When you realize this, then you don't have anything to balance everything you've seen and been through. You're just stuck with it. And it hurts. You have to deal with what you've already been through – the death and destruction that's haunting you. But now you're also dealing with a sense of betrayal that you'd trusted most. That's what I was left with – what I'm still left with.

So in terms of change, I now don't have any faith in the policymakers of this administration. We all collectively as a nation allowed ourselves – and I was part of that – to fall for this "You're either with us or against us" and therefore "You're either a patriot or with the terrorists" thinking. And if those are the only two choices, then of course I'm a patriot.

So one of the things that has changed for the positive is that it helped me realize that true patriotism is questioning our leaders. That's what our country is founded on. That's what men like me put our lives on the line to defend. So protesting the war does not equate with protesting those of us in uniform. It's not unpatriotic to want to get our guys home from the war zone.

My immediate hope is a change of leadership right here in this country. I think regime change in the United States of America is the most important and critical regime change needed in the world right now.

Ask the man who's been there. Read it.

A good idea

Bring a camera.

Security moms

I got something for you whiny, 'I'm scared of my own shadow' women who are voting for Bush just because he promises to keep you safe. Shut the fuck up! That's right, shut the fuck up and quit whining. Do you think John Kerry won't keep you safe? He's killed women and children, for God's sake. He actually knows how to 'smoke folks out of their holes and kill 'em'. If you're voting for Bush for that reason, you're a fucking moron. ANY woman who would vote for this right wing, Christo-fascist agenda is a fucking moron. Do you want your womb under surveillance? In another four years, Ashcroft just might be checking around in there. Wake up and quit worrying, you're really pissing me off.

Update: 16:35:

More. Kevin T Kieth at Lean Left.

I dunno . . . some women might think they'd have more control over their lives if they had fewer children and didn't let someone else make their decisions for them . . . but those wouldn't be right-wing women.

Cronkite On Rove/Osama

From CNN Transcripts. Larry King talking with Walter Cronkite about the OBL video. The transcript is way too long to read unless you really like this shit, but here is what I think is the best part after scrolling right to it using my patented center-scan-key-words speed-reading technique:

KING: OK, Walter. What do you make of this?

CRONKITE: Well, I make it out to be initially the reaction that it's a threat to us, that unless we make peace with him, in a sense, we can expect further attacks. He did not say that precisely, but it sounds like that when he says...

KING: The warning.

CRONKITE: What we just heard. So now the question is basically right now, how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of, as a principal subject of the campaigns right now, get rid of the whole problem of the al Qaqaa explosive dump. Right now, that, the last couple of days, has, I think, upset the Republican campaign.

The next few hundred paragraphs are worth reading as well, as they expand on this.

Hey, Cronkite single-handedly pointed out the futility of the Vietnam War. Age has certainly not diminished his capacity for clear thinking. Get 'em, Wally!

Republicans Fear Bush

See, there are some smart Republicans. The ones quoted in this article in The Nation are not your snake-handlin', gun-totin', trailer-trash types, either.

Also, at the top of the page you can sign a letter from some prominent American Hebrews to the Next President calling for a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. They'll see my decidedly non-Hebrew name and wonder what's the goy up to. Update: Maybe you can sign it. It wasn't there when I checked the link.

If the United States had major media that covered politics, as opposed to the political spin generated by the Bush White House and the official campaigns of both the Republican president and his Democratic challenger, one of the most fascinating, and significant, stories of the 2004 election season would be the abandonment of the Bush reelection effort by senior Republicans.

Former Republican members of the US Senate and House, governors, ambassadors, aides to GOP Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush have explicitly endorsed the campaign of Democrat John Kerry. For many of these lifelong Republicans, their vote for Kerry will be a first Democratic vote. But, in most cases, it will not be a hesitant one.

"In a dangerous epoch -- made more so by a president who sees the world in stark black and white because simplicity polls better and fits into sound bites -- John Kerry may seem out of place. He is, in fact, in exactly the right place at the right time to lead our country."

"I have always been, and I still am, a registered Republican, but I shall enthusiastically vote for John Kerry for president on November 2... If the Bush administration stays in power four more years, it will pack the Supreme Court with neocons who reject the idea that the Constitution is a living document designed to protect the freedom of the citizens."

"Mainstream Republicans believe in fiscal responsibility, internationalism, environmental protection, the rights of women, and putting middle-class families ahead of big business lobbyists. Moderate Republicans should not be asked to swallow the right-wing policies of George W. Bush."

The fact is that the Bush administration might better be called radical or romantic or adventurist than conservative. And that's why real conservatives are leaning toward Kerry

If you think I overdid the quotes, it's because this article warmed the cockles of my heart. If these high-power 'Pubs are saying this kind of stuff against Bush, it must be true. They're showing themselves to be almost as smart as me n' Fixer.

*Mein Führer, mein herz . . .

It's part of a saying they taught my aunt when she was in grade school. The year was 1937, when the Nazis were just beginning to make their powerplays in Western Europe, part of the groupthink that was taking over the German people after the Nazis came to power. They were promised a better Germany should they only swear their loyalty to Adolf Hitler. This bothers me to no end.

A couple days ago we noted Chris Suellentrop's mention of the 'Bush Pledge', the loyalty oath attendees at a Bush-Cheney event in Florida were called on to recite.

I've got a question: How often is this happening? At how many events? In how many different states?

[. . .]

Scary. When people are willing to do this, they are willing to do anything. From Josh Marshall. I would also like to know how widespread this is. If this is the norm rather than the aberration, what will Rove get these people to do if they lose? **Arschlöcher.

Update: 14:10:

From Corrente:



Update: 15:25:

From WTF Is It Now??:


*My Leader, my heart . . .
**Assholes

Your country needs you

From Jesus' General. Patriotboy, the General's inner Frenchman pulls no punches:

[. . .]

The last four years have been a nightmare for me. Things I never dreamed I'd see in this country are now so common, they've become the new normal. Our government has tortured and "disappeared" people. It has betrayed intelligence agents. American citizens have been held incommunicado for years without being charged or allowed to talk to attorneys. Dissenters have been beaten, arrested, fired, spied upon, and denied access to air travel. People have been arrested for criticizing the President. The party in power is actively trying to disenfranchise people of color.

That's just the short list--the tip of the iceberg. David Neiwert writes in Orcinus that he believes a new form of fascism, an American form of fascism, is taking hold in this country. Some of you might call that hyperbole. I challenge you to read his works, Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An Exegesis and The Rise of Pseudo Fascism before you pass judgment.

It's clear to me that conservatives like Grover Norquist are actively trying destroy any and all opposition in this country. We must do everything in our power to stop them.

[. . .]