the road forward

i'm not sure about this stimulus. obama has been quick to disappoint. he's a consensus builder when we need a leader. right or wrong, he needs to take the reins and steer this country somewhere. he needs to stop trying to sell his agenda and make things happen.

republican deception continues

factcheck reviews some new (and old) republican claims:

palin not all that

misleading at the rnc

re-educate the elderly

to prevent protest, despite promising to allow it in designated areas, china has sentenced two elderly women to a year each in a labor camp for "re-education." not only is the chinese government a liar, it's cruel too.

wild horses

your government, bush especially, is slaughtering wild mustangs. you should be outraged.

not enough people even know wild mustangs still exist.

ask your representatives to stop this. please.

mugabe mugger

open threats against america in zimbabwe. i wonder whether this is yet provocation for war. bush would be circumspect, you'd think, but the un would strongly condemn any sort of roughing up, or especially murder, of diplomatic personnel. too bad america no longer holds any moral high ground. that goes far when you can back it up.

it's about direction.

does the libertarian party have a chance with mike gravel as their candidate? any more of a chance than one of their other possible candidates? can a third-party president work effectively with a congress divided between two other parties? can anyone really change anything in america?

politics as usual IV (screw corruption, show us your tits)

is it possible that this lobbyist issue might shake the mccain campaign? i doubt it's substantial enough, or arrived early enough, to derail his nomination campaign, but this is certainly fuel for a presidential opponent. how mccain handles this now is crucial for his political future. it would be crazy if it shook his bid so deeply he lost the nomination to huckabee (or somehow romney got back into the campaign--would that be a first?). i don't see huckabee beating either democrat, so alienating is he, but this could be an issue which, if the democrats spin it properly, could seriously hamper mccain's campaign.

that said, supporters will overlook relatively minor improprieties, such as this appears to be, especially when they're petty corruption issues: we're cynical about money scandals. it's amazing to me that we'll jump on a president for having an affair (merely an oral sex affair, no less), but we won't bat an eyelash when our representatives get caught promoting the interests of political donors. i'd rather bill get blow jobs than bush fuck the people of new orleans, but that's america for you: run by incompetents.

regarding that last remark, keep in mind that we're technically a country of the people, for the people, by the people. yes, the electorate is a bunch of incompetents. why else would they vote gwbuttfucker into office? they got what they deserved. everyone who voted for him, or did not vote at all, deserves the economic, cultural, scientific, environmental, and social anal rape bush dealt to them. the rest of us just got screwed.