Actually, though humor and satire, certainly, can be sucked out of it, it was, when you really think about, pretty disgusting.
We speak of the Bush Clan(the former lackey President 41, the Court-Appointed President 43, and the one that will, mainly due to the previously-mentioned two, never get to be President) calling the "cheeseburger that sweats" (H/T Barry Crimmins), aka Rush Limbaugh, to congratulate him on 20-years of polluting the airwaves.
What Rush Limbaugh has provided this country far exceeds his lucrative income, the result of what Rush calls “confiscatory advertising rates.” For every dollar he has earned over the years, his encouragement to millions of loyal Dittoheads has surely generated much more in new wealth for us all.
Make no mistake about it. Bob Herbert kicks Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain's ass today, than knocks his teeth out for mumbling about it.
In his column, "Running While Black", Herbert eschews the games most of the MSM pundits have been playing all, week, looking at this issue as if there were two sides of it, and calls out the McCain Campaign (and RNC as well) for what they are doing - playing the race issue on Obama, no If, Ands, of Buts about it.
Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as “the American president Americans have been waiting for.”
There was nothing subtle about that attempt to position Senator Obama as the Other, a candidate who might technically be American but who remained in some sense foreign, not sufficiently patriotic and certainly not one of us — the “us” being the genuine red-white-and-blue Americans who the ad was aimed at.
Go read "Running While Black" ... It's excellent, and so dead on the money (you know, those dollar bills with the presidents that don't look anything like Barack Obama).
The title of his post is “Did Obama Accuse McCain of Running a Racist, Xenophobic Campaign?” He then goes on at length to extol the virtues of John McCain, who does not have a racist bone in his body, we learn. The piece would have been embarrassing for the stupidity alone, but the shameless boot-licking really put it over the top.
For his excellent work, Jake Tapper is the first ever winner of the new Balloon Juice award for shameless media fluffing of John McCain, The Golden McPenis. Congratulations, Jake. The award is below the fold as it is NSFWish.
With the brouhaha this past week, over the negative, and outright false, charges in Stumblin Bumblin' John McCain's campaign ads, particularly attacking Barack Obama for not visiting troops in Germany, and then defending the ad, and the lies, as "creating a narrative", Jill, over on Brilliant at Breakfast takes the SB McCain gameplan, and extends it out.
"Narrative." Even if it isn't true, even if it's utter horsepuckey, they believe that outright "lies" constitute a legitimate "narrative."
I propose we create a "narrative" in which John McCain has a habit of buggering little boys in the choir loft in the Baptist church he makes a point of saying he attends.
We've finally seen some movement on our call of a year ago.
Last July, The Garlic put forth, since the 110th Congress wasn't going to do anything (apparently, due to a lack of tables) regarding the lawlessness of the Bush Grindhouse, that it would be up to us, everyday Americans, to jump into action, and make a "Citizen's Arrest".
And there would be benefits to it;
There must be some tiny hamlet, some Main Street USA berg that would be willing to put themselves on the map, become the saviors of our nation. A Sheriff with balls, a U.S. Attorney ready to swing back for justice.
Leave history for a moment. For starters, think of the economic boon it would be.
The MSM media camped out for weeks, eating in your diners, sleeping in your motels (if you have a hotel, even better), shopping in your stores. Same for the protesters that will show up.
Last Friday, police in Des Moines, Iowa arrested four people who attempted to make a citizens’ arrest of former top White House aide Karl Rove, who was in town to speak at a GOP fundraiser. A retired minister and three members of the Des Moines Catholic Workers community were cited for trespassing. However, according to a press release, the judge presiding over the case praised their efforts ...
Bravo!
They've broke the ice, and the aim needs to be higher, but there you go.
The first, of hopefully many more, effort to bring this criminal regime to justice.
I've been taking it easy the past week, or so ... Partly due to the flow of things on the homefront, and also, kicking back a bit, an unannounced venture into "summer hours", and to catch a rest before the busy August on the horizon, with the Olympics and both conventions.
Jesus, he might as well just start walking around in a bathrobe, like that old Mafia guy did, to play out that he was crazy.
Just ride around in the Dead Campaign Express, make some stops (kicking away the empty beer bottles to exit), shuffle around in the robe and slippers, shake a few hands, maybe pick up a few Slim Jims at a convenience store ...Toss out a few bon mots on his heroism, his POW days, as he rips off a piece of Slim Jim, perhaps dribbling some of the dark juice on his bathrobe.
I mean, he's down to just makin' shit up now ... Seemingly not caring what he says, how it sounds, what it looks like ... Just blathering on like ... Well ... Like an old guy shuffling around in a bathrobe, muttering incoherently
He couldn't do much worse than he has for the past two weeks.
So, rather than wax on, we'll keep it short and simple.
First, a tune that is likely to be playing by the time the Dead Campaign Express hits Minneapolis, and will grow louder and louder as we hurtle towards November.
So You Can Catch Up With Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain
There are three great posts out on the World Wide Web that can give you a good running start in, knowledgeably calling McCain's bluff, and tracking the death of his campaign. 1. TPM Election Central's exhaustively-researched "Critic or Cheerleader? The Definitive McCain Iraq Timeline"("A comprehensive time-line of John McCain's statements on Iraq, from the inception of the conflict to the present")
3. The Jed Report's Jed Lewison's "John McCain's Neverending War"(McCain "in his own words -- the lie behind his claim that he was the war's "greatest critic." It demonstrates his chilling commitment to fighting this war no matter what the people of America -- or Iraq -- want.) John McCain's Neverending War
From here, to November, whatever Stumblin Bumblin' John McCain does, well, it's just icing on the cake.
What is, however, was his target - Unitarians. Members of a church renown for its pacifism, compassion and tolerance. We welcome anyone - men and women of any colour and nationality, of any religious or ethnic background, or sexuality. We even welcome conservatives.
My anger instead is concentrated on those people who callously use such vulnerable people, stirring up their bigotry and discontent, egging them to acts of violence. People like Michelle Malkin, Michael Savage, Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh who have made lucrative careers out of liberal-bashing. People who write things like “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder”, “Let Freedom Ring,” and “The O’Reilly Factor,” - all literature found in Adkisson’s home after the shooting. People like Ann Coulter who advocated attacking liberals with baseball bats. The hate-filled spewage from the right-wing media mavens is and should be held accountable for inciting such acts of violence and murder, those heartless, soulless, conscienceless opportunists who have gleefully participated in encouraging the Adkissons of America to take out their anger and hatred and frustration on liberals.
And in the wake of the anger is pride. Despite my sadness that people were targeted for their choice of church, I have never before been so proud to be a Unitarian, as well as a liberal. Those liberals the rightwing continue to denigrate as weak-kneed cowards proved to be anything but. McKendry was the first to confront Adkisson, to stop him from going any further into the church, before several men rushed Adkisson after several shots had been fired, his victims already covered in blood. They have names too: A history professor, John Bohstedt, and Jamie Parkey, just ordinary people. But people who still prove the very best in America still exists. ‘Someone grabbed the gun and we just kind of dog-piled him to the floor’, Parkey said. His wife, Amy, described Adkisson - not as a villain, not as an evil man, not with hatred - but as ‘a man who was hurt in the world and feeling nothing was going his way. He turned the gun on people who were mostly likely to treat him lovingly and compassionately and be the ones to help someone in that situation.’ I wept when I read those words.
Some Right Wing Freak Show blog, or publication - perhaps the Wall Street Journal, again - will run an essay comparing the newest Brokeback Batman, err, The Dark Knight, to Monica Goodling.
She could be equally tough and ruthless, coming out with The Commander Guy's "You're either with us, or against us" ethos, asking prospective Justice Department hirees "What Is It About GWB That Makes You Want to Serve Him?"
In sum, we concluded that the evidence showed that Goodling violated both federal law and Department policy, and therefore committed misconduct, when she considered political or ideological affiliations in hiring decisions for candidates for career positions within the Department. In particular, the evidence showed that she considered political or ideological affiliations in deciding several waiver requests from interim U.S. Attorneys, in promoting several candidates for career positions, and in disapproving a candidate for an EOUSA career SES position
Yeah, I know, another "I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling going on here ..."
It may become easier to line up all the people, all of them, who worked in, and for, the Bush Grindhouse the past eight-years, and ask whoever hasn't broken the law, violated the Constitution and otherwise went about their work completely unethically, to take one step forward.
You could probably count them on one hand.
Now, one would think of the terrible scandal, the hours of hearings, followed up by indictments, trials and perp-walks to jail, however, you only need to remember that it is the 110th Congress in session, so, likely, this will slowly fade away, no trials, no jailbirds, just quietly falling off Nancy Pelosi's infamous table.
He's bummed out over a Obama bumper sticker that asks "Got Hope?"
And he is dreading, fearful like that the old bed wetting problem may surface, and to the point of hyperventilation, of a Obama Presidency, presiding over a Democratic-majority Congress;
"Later that day, I read a report of a fund-raising letter from Obama on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, arguing that “We must have a deadlock-proof Democratic majority.”
Yikes.
But then it occurred to me that one man’s “deadlock-proof” Democratic majority is another’s unchecked Democratic majority. Given the unpopularity of the current Democratic Congress, given Americans’ tendency to prefer divided government, given the voters’ repudiations of the Republicans in 2006 and of the Democrats in 1994 — isn’t the prospect of across-the-board, one-party Democratic governance more likely to move votes to McCain than to Obama?
So I cheered up once again. For it will become increasingly obvious, as we approach November, that the Democrats will continue to control Congress for the next couple of years. But if the voters elect Obama as president, they’ll be putting Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in untrammeled control of our future.
He later relieved the tension and pressure, with some flailing masturbation, how Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain will raise his dying campaign from the ashes, swat down Obama, and give the German writer a "Dewey Beats Truman" slap in the face.
Now, if you were a 'Brother from Another Planet', just recently beamed down here and happen to read Little Billy's boogeyman swipe, you might think, God, what an awful thing to happen.
But then, someone comes along and presents the reality, apparently overlooked by the NYT Editors, that Little Billy Kristol completely, and disingenuously, ignores in his shaking boots; GOP Obstruction Has Shattered Previous Record
Such inaction would strike a more depressing note if it were not the norm. Republicans in the Senate have filibustered more than 70 pieces of legislation (73) in the current session of Congress. Not all of these attempts have ended in success. Bills have passed. But the modern rate of obstructionism has been historic, far surpassing the previous record of 62 cloture votes.
What have conservatives obstructed this year? Here’s just a partial list:
Ending the disastrous occupation of Iraq.
Providing health insurance to millions more kids.
Empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices.
Taking away handouts to Big Oil so we can invest in renewable energy.
Repealing the effective ban on embryonic stem cell research.
Investing more in health research.
Making it easier for workers to join unions.
Investing more in fighting poverty and training workers.
Is obstructing all of that popular legislation “working” for Republicans?
And that doesn't take into consideration, the pre-2006, Republican-majority Congress, that rubber-stamped everything and anything the Bush Grindhouse wanted, including dragging us into the false choice of invading and occupying Iraq.
Considering Stumblin Bumblin' John McCain's considerable campaign skills, a convey of bulldozers and payloaders won't "move votes to McCain than to Obama".
It was just last Wednesday, that we wrote about Right Wing Freak Show columnist Robert "No Facts" Novak running down a pedestrian in his black Corvette, fleeing the scene and claiming he didn't realize he hit anyone.
Novak said he was diagnosed Sunday with a tumor and will soon begin treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
He issued the following statement:
“On Sunday, July 27, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I have been admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment. “I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period."
The fact that "Manny gets to be Manny", and a whole bevy of today's other baseball players are tremendously rich fat cats is, to a large degree, possible, due to the efforts of one man. Marvin Miller.
Miller became the first director of the baseball players union, and soon, the word "collective bargaining" become as often used as "take me out to the ballgame".
Miller cut the chains and created free agency and every player since the early 1970's has benefited from it, or, at least, has the opportunity to do so.
With the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies yesterday, Miller, again was odd-man-out, being excluded of inclusion, less to do with the odds of such a thing, but more to the efforts of those that control baseball, and the Hall of Fame.
Many high-profile Hall of Fame players agree. Pitching great Tom Seaver said that Miller's exclusion is a "national disgrace." "Whether you agree or disagree, he was one individual who had as large a ramification as anybody on the history of the game," Seaver, a Hall of Famer, told the New York Times a few years ago. "If the Hall of Fame is an historical repository, he deserves to be there."
Hank Aaron wrote that "Miller should be in the Hall of Fame if the players have to break down the doors to get him in."
When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999, legendary pitcher Nolan Ryan devoted part of his speech to paying tribute to Miller. Ryan reminded the audience that when he broke into the major leagues in 1966, he had to spend the winter months working at a gas station from 3 pm to 9 pm, while he wife worked at a local bookstore, to make ends meet. Because of Miller's efforts, Ryan said, "we brought that level up to where the players weren't put in that situation."
In 1992, the Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber said, "Marvin Miller, along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, is one of the two or three most important men in baseball history."
