If You Want to Make GOP Laugh, Tell it Your Plans
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 18, 2012 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Thursday, October 18th, 2012Mitt Romney is glad to hear you’re voting third party in 2012.
One thing I don’t think I’ve heard a Republican say since 1968 is “I don’t know if I like our guy. I think I’ll vote third party or just sit this one out.”
Presidential Campaign 2012 – Bachmann Swingrich Overdrive
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 26, 2011 by admin in Politics
Saturday, March 26th, 2011With a field that so far includes Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and her understudy Michele Bachmann, the 2012 campaign trail promises to be more fun than a bucket full of clown noses.
 Gingrich eats his words so he can spit them out with a new preposition this fall. |
I’ve always felt that politicians embody the most vile manifestation of celebrity, with newscasters hot on their tails. We like “real” celebrities – movie stars and music artists – because they’re pretty, or funny, or put a song in our heart. Newscasting has always seemed to draw people who want to be admired in this way, but fall a little short of silver screen level “star quality” or “It Factor”. But politicians? Dear God. They’re often not very attractive, they talk about things you don’t understand, care about, and exactly 50% of the time don’t agree with, and then they want you to LIKE them so much you actually have to trudge out and SAY SO in a voting booth. Since they’re generally so unattractive and disagreeable, that means that in order to secure this love and admiration they so desperately need, they have to lie and cheat almost constantly. Which is why I was so excited about the idea of the Newt Swingrich 2012 campaign. As such a despicable spouse cheat and hypocrite, he’s well on the way to winning our 2011 Best Politician award. Let’s not forget that Newt was not only cheating on his wife while engineering the Clinton/Lewisnky impeachment circus, he also was one of the key architects of the Contract with America. An interestingly titled document, since the only Americans that actually signed it were all GOP politicians. A document that was also interesting in that it is often credited with giving the GOP a congressional majority for the first time in decades, when this was in fact already well on the way to happening. It was sort of like Reagan shouting “tear down that wall” at a time when this was almost certain to happen anyway. Good timing and good politics, but not really “good leadership” in the conventional sense. In any case, I have much more to be excited about this week than last week regarding the 2012 presidential race. If historians record this era in America with any accuracy, it will be remembered as the era that turned politics into the DC version of “American Idol”, and Frank Luntz – GOP pollster, strategist, and author of the brilliant Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear
Welcome To Biraq Obamastan
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 4, 2010 by admin in Politics
Sunday, July 4th, 2010How Barack Obama taught me that irony is a sorry kind of slapstick.
 I hope the world can handle all the peace and democracy we keep delivering them |
It’s painfully ironic for me to become as cynical as I have about Barack Obama, especially in light of the fact that his remark on the campaign trail that “Cynicism is a sorry kind of wisdom” was one of the things that helped inspire me to vote for him. I know now – and I did deep down inside then – that in spite of his promise of no permanent bases in Iraq (the kind of language that Bill Clinton loved using), and his implied intention to get America disengaged from wars of aggression abroad, there is absolutely no way his presidency means America’s withdrawal from Iraq or Afghanistan. RNC chairman Michael Steele’s bizarre proclamation that the war in Afghanistan is a “war of Obama’s choosing” doesn’t surprise me at all either; Steele confirmed his ignorance back in April when he played the race card by saying that he and President Obama have a slimmer margin of error because of their race. Which of course left him wide open to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs saying “I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card, it’s the credit card“, in reference to Steele’s lavish personal expenses as RNC chair. No, Steele’s idiotic statement fits nicely with a long tradition in politics of creating a problem while you’re in office, and then blaming the new guy when you’re out. Much like Vietnam was perceived as Nixon’s war even though LBJ had every chance to end it, and much like Carter was blamed for the Iran hostage crisis even though – as apalling as the likely truth is – it was Republicans who engineered the hostages’ extended captivity, Barack Obama will almost certainly inherit the two wars the Bush administration started as part of his own legacy; the GOP has already done a pretty good job (via tea partiers) of pinning the bailouts of the Bush era on the Obama administration even though they were legislated before Obama was even in office. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s My Party And I’ll Lie If I Want To
[ Comments Off ]Posted on May 1, 2010 by admin in Politics
Saturday, May 1st, 2010Party switching politicians shouldn’t bother you. I mean, why do you think they call it a “party”.
 Yeah, yeah. I know. This is the Roman god of war. But I think it could get new mileage as the Roman god of politicians. |
The hubbub recently surrounding Charlie Crist jumping ship from the GOP reminded me of how I found it amusing back in 2004 that one of the key strategies that the Bush camp used to beat John Kerry was to peg him as a “flip flopper”. To me, that’s the very definition of a politician. And even politicians I admire seem to adhere to flip flopping as a modus operandi. I personally feel that given the fact that in the states we have what is – in reality – a two-party system that’s manipulated by a corporatocracy, that switching parties or running as an indpendent immediately before an election is a powerful reflection of that politician’s lack of character. Kind of a “Dick Move”. Which is one of the reasons I have so much contempt for one of the most famous Dicks in America, who for some reason prefers to be called “Joe”. Some of the other reasons are that he looks like he probably eats flies for breakfast, drools in his sleep, and lives under a toadstool. But I digress. Charlie Crist’s decision is generating a lot of dialogue, ranging from those who believe it’s more a reflection of Crist’s style, to those who believe it’s a powerful statement about the US political system being broken. But the fact is that party switching is nothing new. If you don’t realize just how common it is, check out the roundup on Wikipedia. You’ll probably be surprised. Just over forty US politicians have done it each of the last two decades.
Bart Stupak, Bishops, & The Family: So Much For Separation Of Church & State
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 12, 2009 by admin in Politics
Thursday, November 12th, 2009Yes, Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak pulled a “dick move”, but the shadowy organization behind it is even creepier than his Liebermanism.
I thought I’d Appoint |
I got a little annoyed when I read that it was a Democratic congressman from my state that engineered the last minute amendment to the house’s draft of the health care bill that limits federal funding for abortion. It wasn’t anything to do with the fact that the amendment limits federal funding for abortion; I’m not sure I think I approve of the government paying for abortion anyway. It was the fact that congressman Bart Stupak was pulling a total “dick move” that will almost certainly advance his career, while otherwise bringing nothing but divisiveness to the party of which he is technically a member. You know when the GOP calls something a “win win” that what they really mean is “we win”. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stupak later pulled a Lieberman and jumped parties completely just to win an election. But the thing that disturbed me even more about Stupak’s political whoring was the quiet but driving force behind it all. We’re all aware of the incredible influence fundamentalist Christian leaders have on policy in the United States, but I wasn’t aware of The Family until yesterday. The fact that the organization’s name sounds more like the title of a John Grisham novel than the name of a faith-based fellowship is apt; the group’s shadowy and mysterious nature is summed up well by Ronald Reagan’s remark that “I wish I could say more about it, but it’s working precisely because it is private.” Stupak’s little career-advancing stunt is heinous enough in its Karl Rovian manipulation of faith issues for voter sentiment, but it was playing out against a heady background of Catholic influence peddling. And if you don’t think The Family is creepy enough because of its basic nature, read a little about how its leader Doug Coe compares devotion to Jesus to devotion to the Nazi Party.