Archive for April, 2009

Sen. Arlen Specter has decided to switch to the light side. This isn’t exactly shocking if you consider that the GOP is panting at the prospect of replacing him with a sheep candidate who is more likely to vote in lock step with them. Many conservatives had already dubbed him a “RINO” long before now. So it was really a matter of time.

I’m left to wonder though — how long before Sen. Snowe and Sen. Collins will be forced to do the same?

The GOP is collapsing. Party insiders better figure something out fast or they’re going to be the Whig Party.

Get a fucking grip, people.

My wife informed me today that I should probably update. So here it is.

I’ve been busy beyond my own understanding of the world and when I’m not, I still feel like I am. It’s rather silly. But I should have something for you soon.

Fox News promoted the living shit out of it. Not surprisingly, they then backtracked from their full endorsement of it in a failed attempt at reporting it objectively. The mainstream media picked up on it. It’s officially news.

Now I could be speaking about any of the objectives of the Bush Administration’s platform, but I happen to be referring to the tea parties that were organized yesterday to coincide with Tax Day. And for all the attention Fox didn’t pay to hundreds of thousands of protesters of the Iraq War, they were all over these things yesterday like flies on shit.

Example A: Bush-league Fox News on-scene reporter referring to Democrats as fascists.

You get the feeling during that frothing display of partisanship that he was about to freak out and start killing folks at random.

But what is most enjoyable is watching what happens when you toss around words like socialism and fascism without also granting folks the ability to know what the terms actually mean. Bless CNN’s Susan Roesgen for trying to maintain a professional demeanor in what is obviously a hostile environment to any reporter who isn’t sporting the Fox News logo on their microphone. Also bonus points for calling out a social retard for tossing out the word fascist while obviously not having the slightest clue what it meant. I mean, aside from ascribing it to an image of Obama’s head on the body of a Nazi.

Wow. I want to buy her a cup of coffee. Remind me if I ever meet her.

Here’s the long and the short of it, folks, and take it with whatever grain of salt you wish:

Obama is cutting most of these people’s taxes. Anyone making less than $250K a year will get a tax cut. This is a fact. He ran on it and, long stretch here, was elected by a clear majority of the American people for it. The sad fact is that the only way out of this fiscal nightmare is to pay off the agencies holding the country for ransom — the ones referred to often as “too big to fail”. Then you regulate the living shit out them. You enact laws like the ones that were in place before Phil Gramm’s bill destroyed them that allowed these institutions to get so fucking big and you move on.

This is going to be comfortable for no one. That is something you’re just going to have to accept. Collectively the American people are that person you know with the huge gambling habit. They’ve run up their debts to the point where the loan sharks need to collect or lose their own shirts. So they’ve come to collect and we can either let us all fail or pay the motherfuckers and go to Gambling Anonymous and get it over with.

To assign blame on this crisis to any one person is ludicrous. And if you did your homework about this nightmare you’d know that already and you would’ve flipped off Limbaugh and Hannity a very long time ago for suggesting anything differently. It’s also not the fault of any one political party folks. Gramm’s bill passed 90-8. Had more folks listened to Sen. Dorgan or Sen. Wellstone back in 1999 there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be in this mess.

As for the tea parties themselves, there’s an awful lot of noise coming from the left that these events were the creation of the right-wing. True or not, the anger and frustration expressed by those who attended, tragically uninformed as they often seem to be, are very real. There’s a lot of pissed of people out there. Sadly, righties, I don’t think there are as many as Fox would like us to believe. Most polling suggests that Obama still has the clear majority of support from the American people. But in order for him to be affective in his goals, folks have to take a deep breath and let him try to do his job.

In the latest update to the Senate Election That Never Ends, the three-judge panel assembled to hear the contest of the election result of Al Franken’s 225-vote victory over incumbent Senator Norm Coleman resulted in Franken officially being declared the winner by 312 votes and a sound verbal lashing by a unanimous panel of judges.

Watching one's reputation being summarily destroyed must be enthralling. (image from theuptake.org)

ORDER FOR JUDGMENT

Based on the above findings of the fact and conclusions of law, and pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 209.12, the Court, DECIDES, DECLARES, AND ADJUDGES that Contestee Al Franken is the party to the contest who received the highest number of votes legally cast in the 2008 United States Senate general election and is therefore entitled to receive the certificate of election.

Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that:

1. Contestants’ Notice of Contest is dismissed with prejudice;
2. Contestee’s Counterclaims are dismissed without prejudice as moot;
3. Pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 209.07, subd. 3, costs of the contest must be paid by Contestants, and Contestee and the Court shall prove up the applicable costs by affidavit after all proceedings in this matter are concluded; and
4. For the reasons stated in the Court’s Order of March 2, 2009, imposing a sanction on Contestants, Contestee is awarded his reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees in connection with Contestants’ failure to disclose, such costs and fees to be proved up by affidavit.
5. Any request for relief in these proceedings not specifically granted herein is denied.

There being no just reason for delay,
LET JUDGMENT BE ENTERED ACCORDINGLY.

I personally find that last statement of legalese quite fitting. “[N]o just reason for delay”. But that’s exactly what the GOP is intending on doing — delaying this decision for as long as legally possible. They have 10 days to appeal. Make no mistake they’re going to use every last one of them.

They have no chance of winning this claim because, as it’s become painfully clear, it’s wholly without merit. Franken won and Coleman lost. That’s the fact. And those who vehemently disagree with Al Franken’s politics can rant and rave all they want about the “disenfranchisement” of voters in Minnesota, they care not one bit about the voters in Minnesota. They only care about that 59th Democrat vote not being in the Senate. And Sen. John Cornyn, the head of the NRSC, is all but gleeful in blocking Al Franken from being rightfully seated as the new Senator from Minnesota.

So here’s the short of it: The Republicans are going to hold this Senate seat hostage for as long they possibly can. And though they are the party that stands for “States Rights”, they will gladly walk the only possible ruling of the Minnesota State Supreme Court over the federal courts so they can hold it up longer. They do not expect to win, only to delay. Cornyn had clearly stated that he expects this process to take “years”. He’s not lying for a change — he really means that.

But this yet again illustrates a glaring problem that the GOP has struggled with time and time again — absolutely no long-term vision. They are only concerned with the immediate gratification they can enjoy, and fuck the long term. What they’re failing to see in this instance is that Norm Coleman will have zero chance of being elected for any office in the future, the Minnesota GOP will continue to watch their numbers in the state disappear with each passing election, and voters will remember this political game-playing when it comes time for the midterm elections in 2010. Translation: More Democrats in congress and a GOP reeling from the third national political drubbing in a row, struggling to maintain viability as a political party.

So as much as I’d like to watch Cornyn impeached from office for being the biggest political game player since Nixon, I’m much more content watching him flush the GOP down the toilet as a result of his lack of vision. The longer he holds the Senate seat hostage in the courts, the more this prophecy becomes self-fulfilling.