Horror of horrors

This is most enduring Bush legacy, and it's awful.

Bumpersnickers

I've seen some great ones lately. My favorites:

"The more people I meet, the more I like my dog."

"Where is Bush taking Americans? And why are we in this handbasket?"

And the last one, presumably an observation about McCain's melodic "Bomb, bomb Iran" reference:

"McCain: Putting the laughter back into slaughter."

Okay, I admit it

When it comes to choosing a Democratic "dream ticket" for president and veep, I'm not perfect.

All the news that's fit to surf

You know you're a political junkie when you visit this webpage, displaying the counties of Wyoming and how each of them voted in yesterday's caucuses, which resulted in an Obama victory. You know, further, that your addiction is boundless when you roll your cursor over the counties to learn the tallies of each, including that of Hot Springs county (in the center of the state) where the vote was 31 Obama, 22 Clinton, 11 uncommitted. I had more people than that in my homeroom class at Sam Hughes elementary.

A day in the life

of the so-called "improving" Iraq.

Time to take the gloves off

Okay, now I'm getting pissed. Here's a video spot on Hillary's website showing a blackened, widened image of Obama, and presenting a lying message about his subcommittee, and here's a detailed analysis of the spot, showing why the HRC campaign must be stopped.

Frozen in place

A two-minute video. Too cool.

I missed my calling

I shoulda hired onto The Onion staff, so I could think up stuff like this. What a great gig!

Tough duty

Over last weekend and today, I've been making Obama-support calls into Texas precincts. We have a script (from which we vary alot), essentially asking voters to support Barack in the primary election and to remember to caucus later that same Tuesday to select more delegates. It's a peculiarity of Texas Democratic politics that they have some combination of caucus and election on the same day, with the primary election itself being an "open" primary, i.e., anybody can vote in it: Democrats, unaffiliated voters or Republicans.

Well, I gotta tell ya, it ain't been heartening. From "Go to hell" to "Go elsewhere" it's been a long, hard telephonic slog. And even those folks who've been knowledgeable about the process have avoided committing to Obama. Some of this may be due to his color, some due to the sections of Texas covered by the area codes I was given (southeast Texas--truly backcountry), but some of it may be due to Rush Limbaugh, who's no dummy.

Touche

YouTube, I love you.

Why didn't I think of that?

If John McCain is eligible to be elected president because, having been born on a US Navy base in Panama, he was born on "US soil," then the US Navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba, is US soil too, and the prisons there are subject to the laws and constitution. Thus, the indefinite imprisonment without charge and trial is illegal under the Bill of Rights, as much there as if it were taking place in Santa Barbara, CA.

The fine print

Ya know, sometimes you've gotta read to the bottom of those bland newspaper articles to get the gist. Like this one that talks about the greater intensity and turnout of Democrats in the primary contests throughout the country.

Second from the last graph, as counterpoint to the Democrats' enlistment of new voters, the Republicans offer this effort in Ohio's upcoming primary:

"Maggie Nafziger, the county GOP executive director, says the database used to target such voters includes things like applications for licenses to carry a concealed weapon.
'I can find the answers to those questions on anyone in Ohio,' Nafziger tells CNN. 'Then we go after them.'"

Life's a bitch

Especially if you're hard of hearing, elderly and wearing a bulky jacket in the winter in Baghdad.

Back to the drawing board

Just last week, pundits, echoing Bush and McCain, reported that Iraq had met one of the important political "benchmarks" by adopting a plan for elections of provincial governments. Well, not so fast. Apparently, the triumvirate of something called the "presidential council," consisting of three men, a Kurd, and Sunni and a Shiite, who were required to approve the measure, didn't. And not on some insubstantial ground: there was disagreement about the power of the national government, particularly when it comes to firing the heads of the regional governments. It wasn't certain when or if these differences would be overcome, the measure having been sent back to the Iraqi parliament for further process, and it's likely that the delay will mean that the scheduled provincial elections, set for October 1, won't take place.

The Bush administration's cavalier reaction: "That's democracy." My reaction: Meanwhile our troops and treasure are being wasted.

Worst of both worlds

Now the "s" word--stagflation--has replaced recession as the most worrisome economic prospect. I remember those dog days. The slow economy, coupled with increasing prices, meant that the idea of lowering interest rates to spur the economy would trigger an inflationary spiral, so there was nothing to be done to stop the ongoing quarters of zero economic growth. Are we there yet?

Killing me softly...

So, it turns out that Osama bin Laden was right: We're gonna kill ourselves, with only a little help from our enemies. Indeed, Pogo was right after all.

Oh, damn

It's with sadness that I report that Ralph Nader has decided to run for President again. Sadness because, although I agree with everything he says about the inadequacies of the stated policies of both Clinton and Obama (and a fortiori McCain), the solution is not for him to become a presidential candidate and thereby to weaken his influence, but rather to work with one (or both) of the Democratic candidates toward his ends. Nader is weakening his influence by these repeated candidacies, weakening his image and his legacy as well. Instead of effectively raising his laudable policies into public discourse, he's isolating himself from the electoral process and diminishing them and himself, becoming now a near-ridiculous footnote in history.

In case you forgot

there's still violence aplenty in Iraq. (Scroll to bottom of Dr. Cole's post.)

Update: This year, only 40 Iraqis were suicide-bombed yesterday on their annual pilgrimage to Kerbala, way down from the 150 or so that died last year. Now, that's progress.

Obamamobile

Two weeks ago I fashioned the following bumpersticker for my SUV and pasted it inside the rear window: "This vehicle is a certified Obamamobile." A nice touch, right? And a unique one, too, right? Not so. Today I learned that Ben & Jerry, the ice cream guys, have come up with the same phrase, Obamamobile, and are cruising around in it to drum up votes in Vermont.

So--I'm not crazy. Or all three of us are.

Okay, I admit it

I stole the following observation from one of the commenters (scroll down about two inches below the cited post) in which Bush is quoted as denying that the present imminent recession has anything to do with the massive federal spending on the war in Iraq, but instead attributing it to the housing crunch in the US.

Bush is right about the wrecked economy being attributable to improper housing, namely, having the wrong person in the White House.