BartBlog

November 10, 2008

Stacked Deck

Filed under: Opinion — Tags: , — Bob Patterson @ 7:00 pm

The conservative talk show hosts will give President Elect Obama the same chance that a card shark with a marked deck extends to a rich, but dumb “mark.”

Obviously, all human endeavours are flawed to some extent.  Therefore if Obama does well, the Rush crowd will denigrate his accomplishments and point out the flaws and stress that things could be better and imply that if Repbulicans were running the show; they would be better.

If things don’t go well and Obama fails to avert an economic catastrophy, well then the conservative talk show hosts will play the Ann Coulter freedom of speech card and say:  “What did you expect from a democrat.”  If they really want to play dirty they can even imply (or say it flat out):  “What else could you expect from a person of color?”

The conservatives have it made for the time being.  They can stress the negative, ignore the Obama accomplishments, and harangue the listeners about how things would be much better if the Republicans had remained in control.

The liberal pundits will have to defend against all the lies, innuendo, and spin and stress the positive.  If Obama gives every tax payer a new Ford car, the conservative commentators can just say:  “Why not a Rolls?”  If the world experiences a new Great Depression, Rush and Bill & Co. will be relentless in their efforts to condemn him for incompetence and failure.

If Alaska’s Senator has to resign can Governor Palin name herself to replace him in the Senate? 

For Democrats dealing with Republican sin spin and grin attitude will always be a Sisyphus type task. 

For the Republican bankrolled commentators it ain’t over until the fat lady sings and they will gleefully inform you:  she just died.

For Democrats it will always be a case of an eternal Rush (and Bill).

Fitting Bookends

Filed under: Commentary — bobman1234 @ 5:33 pm

Opening Bookend 

bookends_3   

There couldn’t have been a better demonstration of the American people’s rejection of the illegitimacy and the colossal failure of the Geore W. Bush presidency and the damage it inflicted than the two significant but sparsely covered events that bookend his eight year reign. (more…)

Running the country

Filed under: Toon — Peregrin @ 5:33 pm

UR doin it rong

Upgrade

Filed under: Toon — Peregrin @ 5:33 pm

In English!

Transition Prank

Filed under: Toon — Peregrin @ 5:32 pm

bush-mess.jpg

One last parting shot?

Filed under: Toon — Peregrin @ 5:32 pm

I’m an astronaut too!  And so can you!

With new generation of voters, time to change the dialogue

Filed under: Uncategorized — Patrick Murphy @ 5:32 pm

Ronald Reagan started his trickle down revolution with a radio program years before his election. Rush Limbaugh and other talk show hosts took the baton in the eighties and successfully convinced millions of middle to upper class Americans that redistribution and consolidation of wealth to an elite minority was not just a patriotic obligation to protect and defend the Constitution but the highest moral gesture a Christian could offer his fellow poverty stricken Americans unfairly hobbled by “New Deal” and “Great Society” economic policies.  Their talking points have not changed in the last 30 years as evidenced by their last minute salvos such as “Redistributionists, socialists, marxists, communists, protectionist and now terrorists”. But in order to prevent the swing back to this oligarchy, we as progressives must change ours. Thanks to the economic disaster brought on by deregulation, I believe more middle and upper middle class Americans are open to progressive domestic and foreign policies. They only need to be convinced that not only is it Constitutional but it’s also OK with God. Deriding their religion or the size of their member should be replaced with rebutals showing their talking points for what they are.  Charges of capital redistribution should be turned back at the accusers who redistribute from the treasury to the wealthy every business day.  This country’s most basic unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was fought over and should be the pre-eminent civil right that cannot be trampled on by even a voting majority. The battle cry to shrink Government should be revealed for what it really is. The unconstitutional effort to deny the majority of American citizens representation. The insistence that wealthy Americans should be allowed to keep “their” money should be answered by reminding them that their money is minted by the Federal Govt. which functions only by the consent of the Governed. Therefor it belongs to all American citizens and should find it’s way to the pockets of the wealthy only if they provide life sustaining services to American citizens. Even now hundreds of billions of dollars belonging to the future of American citizens are being redistributed to the wealthy who not only are not providing anything of value, their intended purpose to provide credit to American citizens will be denied because of the proliferation of bad credit from individuals to municipalities produced by the current economic meltdown. The recipients of these ill gotten gains should be prosecuted and sentenced not to prison where they have their expenses paid but to a lifetime of minimum wage. Lets see them pull themselves up by their bootstraps then.  

End of an Era

Filed under: Toon — Peregrin @ 6:32 am

Regrets?  Nahhhh.

Accomplishment

Filed under: Toon — Peregrin @ 6:03 am

It’s not too late if we get a move on!

November 9, 2008

The Tattlesnake – More Zippity-Doo-Dah From the Fading Right Edition

In the anguished ‘why we lost’ analyses in the days to come from the Fox News-Karl Rove-Bill Kristol neocons and their compadres in the Big Media, still discombobulated over Obama’s landslide victory in what they think is a ‘center-right’ conservative nation – the ‘liberal socialist’ Obama of November 3rd even magically transforming into a ‘fiscal conservative’ 24 hours later to preserve this incredible myth — you’ll read much about how the economic meltdown in late September killed McCain’s chances after he had pulled even or ahead in the polls. Horse pucky. McCain and Palin’s sour performance in the debates, the GOP’s over-the-top negative ads, a miserably run campaign, Palin’s exposure as an ignorant nitwit, plus the general public disgust with the Bush Republican Party had as much to do with his loss as the financial crisis. Also underestimated are Obama’s superior organization, discipline, massive GOTV efforts in most of the fifty states, and that the country, already centrist-liberal except in name, has been trending more to the left for many years.

McCain got an expected uptick in the poll numbers following the Republican Convention, which is commonplace after any major party convention, but he was receding even before the banks and markets hit bottom in late September. In fact, except for McCain’s brief post-convention bounce, the individual poll margins had remained consistent since summer with Obama in the lead, as this chart shows:

CNN 6/26-6/29: Obama 50%, McCain 45%
CNN 7/27-7/29: Obama 51%, McCain 44%

CBS 7/7/-7/14: Obama 45%, McCain 39%
CBS 7/31-8/5: Obama 45%, McCain 39%

Ipsos 6/5-6/11: Obama 50%, McCain 43%
Ipsos 7/31-8/4: Obama 48%, McCain 42%

Time 6/19-6/25: Obama 47%, McCain 43%
Time 7/31-8/4: Obama 46%, McCain 41%

Pew 6/18-6/29: Obama 48%, McCain 40%
Pew 7/23-7/27: Obama 47%, McCain 42%

NBC/Wall Street Journal 6/6-6/9: Obama 47%, McCain 41%
NBC/Wall Street Journal 7/18-7/21: Obama 47%, McCain 41%

(Hat tip to Rich Gallagher of Fishkill, NY, who compiled and posted these numbers at Altercation, Aug. 8, 2008.)

Obama-Biden popular vote percentage: 52.3%

McCain-Palin popular vote percentage: 46.2%

Obama-Biden electoral vote total: 365

McCain-Palin electoral vote total: 173

(Final numbers from FiveThirtyEight.com.)

What if…

Filed under: Uncategorized — Peregrin @ 6:13 am

Glad it didn’t turn out this way.

If McCain’s Concession Speech Was As Bitter As His Campaign

Though I have to wonder if this is what his supporters actually heard.

November 8, 2008

Fashion Police

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Alwyn @ 12:30 am

Word’s out on the net that ‘Mrs. O’ made a fashion mistake with her ‘black widow’ looking dress. Other people think she looks hot. Which is it? Who cares? I wished I looked that good for people to complain about my outfit like that.

What I liked about it was the way she combined her colors with her husband and her children’s outfits. They were color coordinated with Barack and one daughter in black, the other daughter in red, and looking great. I wasn’t seeing ‘black widow spider’. I was seeing Mamma Obama in the middle. The woman that holds the family together, and in great style, too, I might add, in spite of the fashion police. I guess if we pick our presidents (or their wives) according to fashion, we deserve what we get. (Wasn’t Bush ‘fashionable’ for a while?) At the very least, if that’s the case, I’m going to have to study up…. I wonder what’s the latest colors in mud boots?

country girl reportin’ from the muddy country tonight, where we sit about around the wood fire and say to each other still, pickin’ and grinnin’…. wasn’t that election grand?

November 7, 2008

The Tattlesnake – Some Suggestions for Obama Edition

Filed under: Commentary,Opinion — Tags: , , , — RS Janes @ 7:46 pm

There has been some leftward carping about President Obama’s pick of Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff, but it’s what was required, unless he wanted to play out his first one hundred days in office as another Jimmy Carter. (Carter had his ‘Georgia Mafia’ with him when he came to office and they had to learn the wicked ways of Washington. By the time they did, Carter was ending his first term.) Emanuel, for all of his manifold faults, is good at playing the ‘enforcer’ and knows Congress inside out – he’ll use strong-arm tactics when necessary to push through legislation, and that’s just what Obama needs.

At any rate, here are some suggestions to fill out President Obama’s cabinet, although I’m not delusional enough to think most of them will become reality:

Attorney General: David Iglesias. He’s a Republican, but an honest man who refused to prosecute cases for political reasons, even after pressure from heavy-hitters like New Mexico’s Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson; that sort of integrity alone should qualify him for this job, but he’s also a good lawyer and his appointment would demonstrate a real change of direction for the tattered Justice Department. If not him, how about California prosecutor Carol Lam who was also one of the eight Republican federal attorneys fired for not toeing the line for Karl Rove? Short of that, John Dean is out there, tested, rested and able.

Secretary of State: Bill Richardson is the obvious choice, and on Obama’s short list, but he may not want to give up New Mexico’s governorship. How about a surprise pick – Valerie Plame’s husband and former ambassador Joe Wilson?

Secretary of Defense: Reaching across the aisle, how about Colin Powell? Yep, we’ll have to forgive his despicable performance at the UN and some other unsavory acts he indulged in out of fealty to the Bush clan, but he does know, and is respected by, the military and he was, initially, against the Iraq debacle. Aside from that, it will reassure older brass that Obama can be trusted. If not Powell, ex-Gen. Wesley Clark is looking for work.

Secretary of the Treasury: Either Paul Krugman or Dean Baker since they are both economists who clearly foresaw the current fiscal meltdown, but that probably won’t happen. Clinton retread Robert Reich has been mentioned, and he wouldn’t be bad at all. Obama campaign economic advisor Austan Goolsbee also wouldn’t foul the nest. (Please, no more Paul Volcker’s or Robert Rubin’s.)

Secretary of Labor: Barbara Ehrenreich. (I know, I know, she won’t be asked and probably wouldn’t do it if she were, but she is more of an expert on the subject than the Inside-the-Beltway desk jockeys usually named to this post.)

Secretary of Health and Human Services: Eleanor Holmes Norton. The DC Delegate to Congress has spent most of her adult life working on these issues and she’d be a tireless advocate for the people, for a real change.

Secretary of Homeland Security: Richard Clarke. The former White House Counter-Terrorism chief who was ignored by the Bushites before 9/11 knows his business, he’s competent to do the job and he respects the Constitution.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Max Cleland is the obvious choice, in an upgraded department. He headed up the VA under Carter and intimately knows what vets returning from combat are going through – he was once one himself.

(more…)

Second Step – Engage!

Filed under: Commentary,Opinion — Obi Zen Folksinger @ 2:24 am

 

I’d told someone Tuesday afternoon that if John McCain didn’t concede by 11pm we would be in a civil war. Probably starting out real low key but a civil war all the same. Early reports of machine problems in Virginia and Pennsylvania seemed to merely make everyone grit their teeth a little tighter.

   First it was Ohio and then it was New Mexico. It felt like a knot eased somewhere in the back of my neck. The numbers were there for all to see.

 

Split Post With More

 

   Once the polls had closed in Arizona McCain had his speech ready to load on the prompter screen. It was obvious that the machine had failed. Hundreds of thousands of hard working Americans purged from voting rolls had not been enough. Disenfranchising one fifth of the registered Democrats in the state of Colorado had not been enough. John McCain is nothing if not gracious in defeat. He has a lot of practice being pathetic enough to be let back in the house, much less the Senate.

   Barry “Hay-sus” O’Bama, President-Elect of these here United States, knows how to give a speech like a winner. He wasn’t just a community organizer. He was a trial lawyer who defended “Widders and Orfuns”. Young Barry wasn’t an affirmative action student at Harvard. He was recruited and offered scholarships. He was elected Captain of the Debate team because he brought home the gold. The finest speechwriters crafted a Winged Victory for those who had fought so hard and Barry made it fly. The sing-a-long parts were impromptu.

   Wednesday morning you could sign the petition at ImpeachObama.org. A comment at Fox “News” suggested holding a parade. On November 22. In Dallas. He offered to rent a convertible and give Barry a driving tour of the new condos where the old School Book Depository used to stand. Half of the Republican House has a clear mandate from their constituency to stand firmly athwart any attempt to improve the lives of their children. The party’s hardly over and we’ve got possums in the trash.

   Al Franken is keeping his staff and volunteers laughing to the point of tears even as they over see the hand recount against Norm Coleman (R – Corrupt). Up to one hundred thousand votes may be missing in Alaska. Caribou Barbie can’t replace convicted Republican Senator Ted Steavens if he’s not in the office. This great battle still has skirmishes. Beyond lies the War.

   For the purposes of this essay anyone who impedes lawful government function for either money or morals is considered to be corrupt. That’s just to be clear when we get to “Corrupt Appointees”. When the videotapes of Mike Brown’s teleconference with Shrub were finally released, many were struck by the terror on Brown’s face. After trying to reach his hero for an entire day Brown finds himself trying not to scream at the person he thought would save his unprepared ass. Shrub nods in disinterest as his loyal crony tries not to panic. Public displays are a sign of weakness. Any weakness is treated as fatal. Mike Brown looks at Shrubs glazed gaze and sees his own doom.

   A Civil Rights Division that hasn’t pursued a single civil rights case in seven years will have to be addressed. Tourism Coordinators will need to be combed out of our National Parks. Religious ideologues will be asked to relinquish control of Scientific Thought. Munitions Industries probably shouldn’t be conducting Foreign Policy. We spent several decades in the late 1800’s breaking up large corporate monopolies that were killing small businesses. Hank Paulson just financed the mass forced leverage of all but three national banks. Hank sits on the board of all three banks.

   The Drug Tzar is required by the mandate of his office to tell any lie to keep all forms of Cannabis Hemp bound by criminal law. The executive directorate of the DEA has twice ignored the advice of it’s own Legal Judge to stop busting for pot. Nine out of Ten Hemp issues passed and one major anti-legalization measure was defeated. Barry says that he will not contradict any states’ laws in this matter. We will have to do the actual work of ending the raids.

   War Crimes, Warrantless Wiretapping of Anti-War Nuns, Enron, Swiftboats, Email Archives, Phone Jamming, Nigerian Yellow Cake, Fake News, Over-Nighters W/ Gay Hooker, Mission Accomplished, Neck Rubs, “Just a God Damned Piece Of Paper!”, (my stomach starts to get queasy – OZF)

   Bill Clinton was sworn in on a Tuesday. Republicans met to plan how to take him down on Wednesday. There will be no “100 Days” for President Barry. There will be no spirit of cooperation. The nonstop barrage of legislative napalm that prevented anything getting done for the last two years will seem like summer rain compared to the under backstabbing about to be unleashed.

   The remaining actual conservatives will be sweating blood to do the important work of keeping this great nation free; Goldwater bless ‘em all. They will have the hard job of getting things done so they can get re-elected in ’10 and ’12 while resisting the dominionists and the Silver Shirts hollering for blood.

   Getting rid of DHS will be like puling teeth. Americans, of course, don’t have need of a “Homeland”. We have a Nation.

 

   Meanwhile, winking fascists file to run for the school board just so they can ban books. They hate America.

 

 

”But our present “state” is the dictatorship of evil. “Oh, we’ve known that for a long time,” I hear you object, “and it isn’t necessary to bring that to our attention again.” But, I ask you, if you know that, why do you not bestir yourselves, why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right – or rather, your *moral duty* – to eliminate this system?”

 

Leaflet of The White Rose Society

Germany 1942

www.whiterosesociety.org

November 6, 2008

The Tattlesnake – Tying Up Loose Ends Edition

As your Tattler tries to absorb and process through his thickened skull the startling and emotional events of Election Day, and the elevation of an intelligent, articulate and capable man to the presidency by a landslide – something he hoped for but can still barely believe occurred in Junior Bush’s America For Dummies – it seems prudent to turn to lesser trivia while the brain pan simmers.

Laugh-a-Bull Uno: The ambitious yet intellectually deprived Sarah Palin thinks she has a political future. Note to the Pundits mulling this fast melting ice cube: Alaskans are taking a second, more skeptical, look at their Gov, and she is in for several investigations and probable indictments Way Up North for padding her state expense accounts and Troopergate. (No, that hasn’t gone away.) Until recently, she was attached-at-the-hip to convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens as well, and that connection may soon sprout legs as she was a strong supporter of the Corrupt Old Codpiece and nobody believes she paid for construction work on her own house. (Plus she’s made plenty of enemies from both parties in her home state.) Also, McCain’s campaign staff, blaming her for Mac’s massive drubbing, are about to begin talking on the record; already we’ve read that this Consignment Shop Maverick spent tens of thousands more than initially reported on fancy new duds for her and her family of grasping ‘Wasilla Hillbillies,’ and that Governor Whack Job was something of a pain-in-the-patoot to handle – bringing up Bill Ayers without the official McCain go-ahead and such. The raw reality is the GOP is going to have to change stripes in this new age or be ‘left behind’ to ponder the Rapture as a permanent minority party. Keener classic-conservative intellects among the Republicos realize this, and Palin’s winky-dink Christopublican ‘You betcha’ hokum is not part of their plans. The secular Goldwaterites were willing to tolerate the risible Jesus-of-Betty-Bowers freaks as long as the party was winning, but now it’s been humiliatingly buried under a pile of blue votes, and they’re pinning the tail on Moose-Huntin’ Mom and her extremist ilk for scaring off centrist voters. Milder theocrats such as Mike Huckabee will carry on, if they tone down the creepy ecumenical hellfire, but the Armageddon-minded Palinolithics will be purged, even if the GOP has to lose a couple of elections. Sarah will likely run for reelection as governor of the National Ice Box again, get tromped, and retire to dictate her memoirs that will have a hard time finding a publisher. Either that or she’ll get her own reality show on Bravo – “Life with the Palins” – a mixture of “Hee Haw,” “Queen For a Day” and “The Osbournes” that will go off the air after 13 episodes. (It’s also been rumored that, what with her photogenic face and advanced skill at reading teleprompters, Palin would be a good fit as a game show host – how about something like “Here’s Your Boot and Pour” as a vehicle for her talents?) In two years, the answer to “Remember Sarah Palin?” will be “Who?”

(more…)

A moment to gloat

Filed under: Toon — Peregrin @ 2:28 am

Yeah…that’s the ticket!

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