Recount

The damn movie hasn't even come out yet, but is that going to stop the right-wing from blasting it and the "leftist loons" for broaching the subject? If James Baker himself said the movie was a fair and accurate depiction of the facts, why are conservatives blasting the "liberal media" over the damn thing? You'd think that if you were on the winning side of the Bloodless Revolution you'd be eating this up.

I, for one, am not going to watch the movie - it would be just too painful. To think about all that we've lost as a nation, to think of all our troops throughout the years, throughout the wars, that needlessly wasted their lives fighting for a democracy that came to such an abrupt end in 2000. And to show it during Memorial Day weekend? That's just too much.

Now, Hillary and Barack have both been wasting valuable time in Florida recently, as though it mattered. There are only 49 states in America - the Supreme Court made that decision eight years ago.

So, instead of watching Recount, I think I'll watch a real Kevin Spacey classic, The Usual Suspects.

What say you?

Later, Charlie Black

Average voters don't really care about this kind of stuff.

Really?

There are now five - let me repeat FIVE - top advisors to John McCain who have been "let go" because of their day jobs. That would be lobbyist. But we're supposed to be too stupid to care about the fact that McCain is in league with guys who were paid, and paid quite well, thank you very much; by the military junta running Myanmar and the post 9/11 Saudis.

McCain doesn't want to be tied to Bush. He's supposed to be the straight-talkin' Maverick saviour of the Republican party.

Well, so far, he's doing a damn fine job. He's even more in bed with big-business, even more eager to go to war, and even better at straw-man fear-mongering than Dubbya.

McCain is wrong on fiscal policy, foreign policy and social issues. Why the hell would anyone vote for him?

1979

1979 was the year that started all this trouble. That was the year the Republican party decided to try out a new sales-pitch. The GOP was in serious decline after the Watergate scandal, even to the point that an upstart ex-governor from Georgia came out of nowhere to beat Gerald Ford for the presidency. So after much deliberation, big-business insiders came up with a new plan. Abortion was a very divisive issue on both sides of the aisle. Now, the oil companies were pissed at Carter for trying to turn the country Green. The Evangelicals were pissed at Carter for using the IRS to end segregation in Christian schools. How to unite these factions to bring down the president?

They came up with the Moral Majority, which was, in fact, neither very moral or much of a majority. They put Jerry Falwell front and center and told him to rant about abortion. They knew they could scare enough simple-minded voters into thinking that voting democratic was the same thing as voting to kill babies. The fiscal and social conservatives united under the "pro-life" banner and swept their way back into power in the '80 election.

But, wait a minute, that was, what, 28 years ago. Isn't abortion still legal in this country? Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Bush; seven out of the nine Supreme Court Justices we have now were appointed by Republican Presidents. Hell, Congress was under Republican rule for a freakin' decade. So why are so many bitter people clinging to the GOP because they are the "pro-life" party? Will voting for John McCain bring about an end to abortion? Of course not. That's the whole point. If abortion were no longer an issue, Republicans would be right back where they were in 1979.

What say you?

Unforgivable

President Bush did the unthinkable yesterday, he went before the Knesset and invoked the name of Hitler. Not only that, he used the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel as a stage to stump for John McCain. Even beyond that, he used pretzel-logic to attack McCain's opponent on the worst issue the republicans face in the upcoming election: foreign policy. And you know what? It worked!

Instead of making a statesmanlike speech extolling the greatness of Israel, he dug around in the trash talking about the worst human being in the history of the Jewish people. He said Barack Obama's plan to hold discussions with Iran's president was the exact same thing as Neville Chamberlain's decision to give Hitler half of Czechoslovakia if Germany promised to stop their aggression.

Please understand, what Bush did was even worse than if he had given a speech before NASCAR fans and said don't drive at all, look what happened to Dale Earnhardt.

But you know what's the most discouraging aspect of this mess? Daily tracking polls showed McCain actually gained three points on Barack due to Bush's inexcusable actions. Apparently, a lot of Americans are just stone-stupid.

What say you?

The Gospel of Albert

Why were so many people shocked to discover that Einstein believed the idea of the biblical God was childish? I'm not going to pretend I'm in the same league as the smartest man of the last century, but even I knew that!

Fundamentalists are fundamentalists, no matter what their religious affiliation, and "childish" is the perfect adjective to describe their worldview. I'm not being mean or anything, and I don't think Albert was trying to be mean either.

Look, kids say "my dad can beat up your dad" all the time, and they really believe that - until they mature and realize the world is a bigger place than they thought and that there are very few absolutes in the universe. Is Jehovah stronger than Allah, or can Jesus kick Mohammed's ass? Or what does the Evangelical hymn Our God is an Awesome God mean?

Extremely intelligent people from Newton to Einstein to Stephen Hawking posit the existence of a First Cause. Who or what that is or was is beyond our understanding. So why fight about it?

What say you?

Liar Liar, Pants on Fire

Major General Kevin Bergner ended a news conference in Baghdad last Wednesday listing 20,000 ammunition, explosives, and weapons captured or uncovered by U.S. and Iraqi government forces in Iran during the last few weeks. When U.S. explosive experts took a second look, they said none of these items were from Iran.

It took until last night for this news to reach the general public. As I heard Keith Olbermann report that startling revelation on Countdown, I could only shake my head in disbelief. Not that I couldn't believe the story, but that it wasn't front page news immediately. Keith ended the brief segment by saying, "You do realize THEY'RE MAKING THIS STUFF UP!"

Look, the GOP needs a "bad guy" to say "Vote for us, we'll protect you from - (insert appropriate enemy here). That's how they get elected. With all the sabre-rattling going on in Washington aimed at Tehran, some people think we'll attack Iran before the November election. Wrong. John McCain needs to scare voters into thinking that he alone can save us from the boogeyman hiding in the closet.

"All politicians are liars, but not all liars are politicians. Some of them are used-car salesmen." - Kurt Poleet

What say you?

Sean and Al

Why is Sean Hannity so obsessed with Al Gore? He devoted the majority of his last show to attacking the former Vice-President and winner of the 2000 election over global climate change. Again...

Hannity has an interesting take on what "fair and balanced" means. Calling climate change a "scam" and painting Gore as a bitter little man just out for himself. Why? Because Al Gore decided to put his money where his mouth is by investing in green technologies.

I'm not quite sure who Hannity was citing when he said the scientific community has rejected Gore's dire warnings. For every scientist that disputes climate change there are ten thousand who have acknowledged the plain truth.

Hannity is either too stubborn or too stupid to understand what a serious problem we're in. The only other possible conclusion is that Exxon-Mobil is bankrolling him big time.

What say you?