Category: Politics

Republican Family Values

No Comments

Michael Duvall, Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee Vice Chairman was caught on tape bragging about having affairs with two lobbyists.

The money quote:

I’m getting into spanking her and yeah I like it..

Ummmm….Ewwwwwwww!!!

In any case, he has been removed from two of the committees he serves on, one would assume the ones that the lobbyists “served”.

He also talks about her underwear…..Ummmm…..Ewwwwwww!!!!!

But he’s a family values kind of guy:

Such thinking impressed certain constituencies. Earlier this year, the man who never graduated from high school received ‘100 percent’ approval scores 
by the California Republican Assembly, the state’s leading conservative outfit, and the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), a fierce guardian of traditional family values.


Great googly moogly…I though that I had rather uninhibited tastes during my single days,* but I had the good sense not to brag to everyone in the room, on a live mike.

*Full disclosure: Said “uninhibited tastes” were mostly in my imagination…I was a geek.

On Obama’s School Speech

No Comments

I really don’t give a damn what crazy people say, which is what the controversy is all about, though when Newt Gingrich said that, “It’s a good speech,” and that, “I recommend it to everybody if you have any doubts. I would love to have every child in America read it, think about it, and learn that they should stay in school and they should study,” I did look out my window for pigs flying or a rain of frogs.

The contraversy is like dealing with s 3 year old in full tantrum. Put him in a place with no sharp edges, and do something else.

Anything else just encourages more tantrums.

Obama’s Liberal Veal Pen

No Comments

I think that Jane Hamsher puts her finger on what’s wrong with Barack Obama, most notably through the person of Rahm Emanuel, is doing to liberals, when she describes many liberal institutions that have been captured by the Obama presidency as being in a “veal pen”.

Much like industrial veal, we are being kept in a crate and, “in darkness except to be fed two to three times a day for 20 minutes,” so that the muscles atrophy, in order that our meat is tender.

Go read it.

On the Greatness of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

No Comments

And guess what, it was not about bipartisanship or bringing in stake-holders:

….With the exception of the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 (which gave the president authority to close the nation’s banks and which passed the House of Representatives unanimously), the principal legislative innovations of the 1930s were enacted over the vigorous opposition of a deeply entrenched minority. Majority rule, as Roosevelt saw it, did not require his opponents’ permission.

When Roosevelt asked Congress to establish the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide cheap electric power for the impoverished South, he did not consult with utility giants like Commonwealth and Southern. When he asked for the creation of a Securities and Exchange Commission to curb the excesses of Wall Street, he did not request the cooperation of those about to be regulated. When Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act divesting investment houses of their commercial banking functions, the Democrats did not need the approval of J. P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers.

Word.

No go read the rest.

Bad Hair News

No Comments
Upon his indictment about 7 years ago

Leaving Prison with hair in a pony tail.

Corrupt Congressman James Traficant has been released from prison after serving 7 years.

Normally, I would not note this, but when I first found the web, I decided that it was impossible for me to create a particularly useful web page, so instead I attempted create the most useless page.

It was dedicated bad hair days, and it’s been kind of moribund for years, but Mr. Traficant is there front and center.

When Pump and Dump Fails

No Comments

In this case, it’s Cerberus, the secretive (aren’t they all) hedge fund that bought Chrysler, and then took it into bankruptcy.

As I noted at the time, they bought Chrysler because they were hoping to buy it on the cheap, and when the likely purchaser, General Motors, turned out to be in almost as bad a shape as
Chrysler, they took a bath, as well as taking a hit on their investment in GMAC.

So now, investors are clamoring for the exits, (also here) because even though Cerberus is chock full of former government insiders, they do not believe that they will make money with the firm.

It’s clear that they bet on government bailouts that would be extremely favorable to them, and they were not, and now they are experiencing a run on the bank.

Republicans Can Go Cheney Themselves

No Comments

It appears that the bubble headed bleach blond of DC political coverage, Politico, is reporting that “key conservatives” are warning that liberals may inappropriately politicize Senator Kennedy’s death.

They call it the, “Wellstone Effect,” which I guess means that a legitimate outpouring of grief over the death of a hero will be used by the America hating right wing, and a complicit press, to create the illusion that real human grief is somehow a sinister conspiracy.

As to those right wingers who are somehow all upset that it appears that Kennedy’s name will now go on the healthcare reform bill, let me say this: Teddy Kennedy was at his worst better than your best at their best: Ronald Reagan was not fit to shine the sole of Ted Kennedy’s shoes with his tongue.

The Best Speech that Ted Kennedy Ever Gave

No Comments

How many good men must we give before we finally face the fact that the weakness in our society is a weakness in ourselves?

It wasn’t his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1980.

It was in Sitka in 1968, though not too many people heard, or saw it, because it was given to the Alaska state Democratic Party Convention in Sitka in 1968, talking about the assassination of Martin Luther King and its aftermath.

Not a whole bunch of people have heard it, because he gave at the but my mom was in the audience, and she recalled looking around and watching political hacks on either side of her, with tears streaming down their faces.

You can find the speech, along with introductions by both Senator Ernest Gruening and Walter Eugene “Gene” Guess Speaker of the Alaska State House of Representatives, who my father worked with when we were in Alaska.

I downloaded the video to split and Youtube it from the Alaska state archives.


Part 1 of 2


Part 2 of 2

Birthers Want Obama to Drop Trou* On National TV

No Comments
Shrek: Do you think he’s maybe compensating for something?

Yep, Jesus’ General, who reads Free Republic so I don’t have to, has noted that the latest meme: If Barack Obama is not circumcised, it would mean that he was not born in the US in 1961, because everyone got circumcised then.

There are some problems here.

It is indeed true that circumcision rates were high, well over 90%, in the US in the early 1960s, it was neither absolutely universal nor mandatory. Additionally, circumcision amongst Muslims is considered Sunnah, or a highly recommended tradition, and as a Muslim Obama would have been circumcised.

So if he were a closet Muslim, he would be circumcised anyway.

In any case let me be the first to say, great googly moogly, someone has issues.

The fascination that the denizens of FR with Democratic presidential penises, which says something about them, probably more about penis size insecurity than anything else.

*Meaning pull down his pants, and show us his penis.

Well, Dr. Krugman, this Liberal Never Trusted Obama

No Comments

I figured that he would throw progressives and liberals under the bus since the entire Donnie McClurkin affair, when Obama deliberately threw gays under a bus to win the South Carolina primary.

He’s done it with:

  • Rapid withdrawal from Iraq.
  • Releasing torture photos.
  • His support of “fair trade”.
  • Stupid tax cuts in the stimulus package.
  • Pursuing war crimes by Bush and His Evil Minions™
  • Bailing out the banks.
  • Gays, particularly with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
  • The use of civilian courts to try terrorists.
  • Closing Guantanamo (with an assist from craven Congressmen).
  • Ra

So now, Paul Krugman notices that progressives have finally drawn a line in the sand on the public option:

It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Obama has wasted months trying to appease people who can’t be appeased, and who take every concession as a sign that he can be rolled.

Indeed, no sooner were there reports that the administration might accept co-ops as an alternative to the public option than G.O.P. leaders announced that co-ops, too, were unacceptable.

So progressives are now in revolt. Mr. Obama took their trust for granted, and in the process lost it. And now he needs to win it back.

Gee, you think?

I’ve been saying this for over a year.