Spin Dry

As the House prepared to vote for the Wall Street Welfare Bill, Speaker Pelosi did everything in her power to bully Representatives into voting for the Bill, and seemed personally stricken when it failed to pass. And I have to ask myself, "How badly is your portfolio going to tank if your fat cat buddies don't get their Trillion Dollars? How big is the conflict of interest in letting our millionaire leaders contemplate -- and vote for -- the future of their millions? How long can those members who have a conscience and a spine hold out before they talk to their broker, think of their children, and quietly sell out?"

Nancy Pelosi is a traitor and should be kicked out of office in November. Cindy Sheehan wouldn't take this crap. Then again, Cindy Sheehan isn't a millionaire. And there's the point. Most of us middle class working stiffs really have no stake in the companies begging for a bailout. If they all failed, the only thing it might affect is any corporate retirement plan you're in -- but if you're under 45, you really don't have to worry. Those will come back by the time you need them. No, most of us working stiffs might have government bonds, or mutual funds that invest in the same, or maybe a CD or a savings account. All of those are already heavily insured, and we have no real fear of losing our petty fortunes of far less than a million dollars. But... there is real danger to us if this bill passes, because it instantly puts all of the working class into $ 5,000 of debt.

$ 5,000. And what do you get for it? Not a fucking thing. Except maybe the knowledge that you made someone with far too much money able to keep their summer house in the Hamptons, or the Lear Jet, or their five illegal alien nannies, or that apartment they rent for their mistress in Georgetown, or the Jaguar that gets twelve miles to the gallon, or on and on and on and on.

The problem is greed. The desire to have more than you can ever possibly need. Honestly, all anyone really needs is enough money to pay for a home, food, a couple of children or pets, clothes, the occasional splurge, weekly dinner or a movie with friends, a nice vacation once a year. That's really not much. And it's really something the US could achieve for everyone, once our lawmakers recognize one simple fact.

The US has not produced anything tangible for a good 15 years, except for fast food and entertainment. And another term for fast food and entertainment is Panem et circenses -- bread and circuses, the diversions offered to the people of Rome as the Empire was falling.

Well, the Roman Empire fell, but I don't want to have to say that the American Empire was pushed. This Corporate Welfare Bill -- for that's exactly what it is -- would be the push that shoves our empire over the edge and into the abyss. It is the action that will bring about the end of America as we knew it. Remember the USSR and what happened to it in 1991? Remember how Russia arose from the ashes of the former Soviet Union? That's right. The first thing they did was expel or arrest the so-called Oligarchs -- those who made money from nothing.

Money from nothing, and the tricks are free. As noted above, America has produced nothing tangible except for Fast Food and Entertainment. And, even then... fast food has destroyed a generation, created fat, brain-addled, stupid children prone to diabetes and hyperactivity. Our Entertainment has become nothing but an exercise in marketing, as every old idea that worked once is recycled and "repurposed", and every new film must out kick-ass its predecessor. And studios will risk $ 100 million if they think it will bring back $ 300 million. But they will shy away from spending $ 10 million that may bring back $ 50 million. They are short-sighted idiots.

Otherwise, when not slinging burgers or bad movies, America has been peddling electrons (which went very well during the Dot.Bomb bust and is turning grandmothers into felons in the DMCA era) or less. And manufacturing of durable goods and customer service have escaped to other countries, were lack of regulation and favorable exchange rates have made things cheaper.

Unfortunately, in order to reverse course and get America back to what she once was, we're going to have to bankrupt the billionaires, deny them their handout, and start the system over. If this turns our Congresscritters into the middle class, so be it. All the better for them to appreciate our plight and empathize with the poor. All the better for them to finally understand and vote the right way.

First, any company that outsources anything should be penalized by loss of all tax deductions and exemptions. They pay the full rate, period. And any company that creates jobs by manufacturing durable goods in the US receives incredible tax incentives, on the Federal and State level.

Second, the salary of corporate officers is tied to 75% of the salary of the President. No bonuses, no golden parachutes, no stock options. And the salary of the President can only be increased by a super-majority of the voters. However, corporate officers are entitled to the same tax exemptions and deductions that their companies enjoy, provided that their company created X number of jobs for Americans per calendar year. Let's say.... 10,000?

Third, the Federal Reserve is abolished, and the value of the dollar is tied to a tangible and finite asset, with the initial value of the new dollar set at approximately the cost of one gallon of gas, with the new dollar minted exclusively by the US Mint, in gold equal by weight to the pegged commodity. All existing currency is revalued based on the new dollar, with a cut-off date for redemption of cash. Bank accounts are instantly revalued at the new rate. If you had five grand in the bank, congratulations. You now have about $ 18K.

Fourth, Income Tax is abolished on every level, replaced by property tax, except that everyone is entitled to one acre tax free. In other words, If you own less than one acre of land (or one acre per person resident thereon), you don't pay any taxes. If you own more, you pay a rate of 10% per value of land plus improvements. For purposes of calculating the tax, students at a university or employees at a company count against the acreage. In other words, a university with a 5,000 acre campus but more than 5,000 students would pay no taxes, nor would a company with 15 acres and 16 or more employees.

Fifth, all non-profit organizations are barred from making any recommendations on voting, whether for ballot measures or candidates. Any such organization which does so loses property tax exemptions, and owes back income taxes from inception of the ban on income taxes, plus penalties and interest.

Sixth, our entire government needs an enema, and all incumbents must be flushed out of office from the top down. Especially those with a D or R after their names. Consider voting third party in November. If enough of us have the balls to do it, we may legitimatize third party candidates for 2010.

Seventh -- there is no seventh, except to read the other six. And realize therefrom why you have to call you Congresscritter tomorrow and urge them to vote "No" on the "bailout."

Labels: Pelosi bailout censorship

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Tonight, Nancy Quisling Pelosi declared, "We sent a message to Wall Street - the party is over..."

Well, you know what Nancy "Impeachment Is off the Table" Pelosi? No, no you didn't. The message you sent to Wall Street is "Don't worry. If you fuck up and run your company into the ground, we'll give you free money."

This bailout bill is nothing but Corporate Welfare, and it cannot stand, cannot be passed. Do you love America? Do you love Capitalism? Well, know what? In a true free market system, a company that over-extends itself, that puts out more than it has capitalized and can't make good, fails. Period. No bailout, no dipping into the well of the People's Money. Game over, you cease to exist as an entity, don't let the doorknob hit you in the ass.

All of you people who have incredible credit card or mortgage debt and don't know how you'll pay for it -- don't you wish the Federal Government would wave their magic wand and say, "Hey, that's okay. We'll pay for all your debt and give you a couple of ten grand over that amount"? Of course you do. But they won't. And yet, that's exactly what they're doing for all the craven bandits of Wall Street. "Oh. Your company put out more money than you can possibly take in? Poor baby. Here are billions of dollars so your CEO's can retire tomorrow with huge golden parachutes."

Well... bullshit. All of those corporate CEOs deserve to be personally responsible for every penny they've stolen from us, and rather than hanging from golden parachutes, they should be hanging from lamp-posts, all up and down Wall Street. And any member of Congress -- and I mean any, including Presidential Candidates -- who vote for this ill-intentioned bailout bill should be voted from office, then run out of the country. And yes, although I supported him last week, if Obama votes for this raping of the American Taxpayer, then he loses my vote for president. Period. End of story. I'm going third party, consequences be damned.

Get on the phone, get on your fax machine. Send your Congresscritters this simple message. "Vote for this bailout now, be voted out in November. Be voted out the next time you're up for election. Be replaced by someone who isn't sucking the teat of banking or Wall Street special interests. Be replaced by someone who remembers whom they work for -- We the People."

Find your Congresscritters here and here. Call them, fax them. Those are the only methods of contact that are not ignored. Tell them we're mad as hell, we're not going to take it anymore, and voting for any form of bailout is political suicide. Help the bankers today, face our pitchforks tomorrow. It's as simple as that -- we're almost to the point where this country can only be saved by another revolution. One vote away from our elected officials proving that they are absolutely useless. Do not let this happen.

Labels: bailout Wall Street Main Street 700 billion

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capitalism: n - an economic belief system embraced deeply by conservatives, until such point as they are about to lose their shirts in the free market

There comes a time in any economy when it's time for the people who support it to just say "Enough!" We should have learned our lesson back during the S&L Crisis (when John McCain was one of the "Keating Five") -- when a company runs itself into the ground, tough shit. That's capitalism. That's the free market. No bailouts, no handouts, nothing. File bankruptcy, sell your assets, don't let the doorknob hit your corporate officers in the ass on the way out.

If that company ran itself into the ground defrauding its customers, sticking them with inherently worthless financial products or encouraging them to mortage themselves far beyond their means, then the executives and officers of that company should be tried and imprisoned, and all their benefits forfeited. Period.

We can't let the hypocrisy stand, either. The same people who decry any kind of welfare or entitlement program ("Oh dear. That woman is getting a few hundred bucks a month from us because she can't support herself!") are the ones most bullish on this bailout -- which is nothing but welfare. Oh dear. Those companies are getting a few hundred billion because they couldn't run a business.

They're set to get a trillion of our dollars, if Paulson has his way. The only way Paulson should go is out of town on a rail. This attempted bailout is nothing but theft on a grand scale.

But, hey, if the government has a stray trillion to throw around, I have a better idea. Give it to the people. Let them stimulate the economy with it. No, we won't give it to just anyone. Adults only (so the kids might still learn how to earn), and we eliminate the wealthiest, or those who are in prison. Divide that trillion among the rest, each one gets $ 4,260.75. That's better than those pissy little $ 300 checks W offered us, right? Hell, just give it as a tax credit -- "We apply this much to the amount you owe. If you paid more, you get a refund." A lot of people don't even owe that much in taxes, so there would be some savings on their refunds. As for all those companies that would go out of business without it? All of their mortgages are written off, and the property passed into the possession of the homeowners, free and clear. Think of that for a moment. All those people, suddenly homeowners with no house payments, and a big overlap with people paying no income taxes for the year, or getting much bigger checks back then they expected. Think what that would do for the economy.

Or, if we had a stray trillion dollars lying around, hey, let's be foolish. Let's use it to improve education, fix our crumbling infrastructure. Let's use some of it as tax credits for companies that bring manufacturing jobs back to America -- and offset that by heavily penalizing companies that outsource. Then we might even end up with well-educated and inventive people who make things -- and make enough money to afford them. And make things so well that other countries want them. We might even fix the dollar and the economy. Eventually.

But we sure as hell aren't going to do it by paying off a bunch of whiny-baby million- and billionaires who might suddenly learn to have to survive the way the rest of us do -- by actually working, rather than just sitting on our fat asses and living off the interest earned on the money of others.

Nope, sorry. No corporate welfare. They mismanaged things badly, and the deregulation clowns in government let them, and every last one of them deserves to suffer the full consequences of those actions now.

Labels: Trillion dollar bailout Keating Five McCain Paulson theft

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I can't put it better than it's put here at Whatreallyhappened, so I won't.

Except to add that the American Revolution began as a rebellion against taxes. And that the corporate bosses responsible for our current economic problems, as well as the government regulators who allowed it, should be the first ones strung up on lampposts.

They can't prosecute 350 million of us. And we outnumber our elected Federal Officials by about 583,000 to one.

Labels: taxes bail-out Lehman AIG economy whatreallyhappened

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Once upon a time, the US Dollar was worth something. That something was based on Gold and Silver. A dollar, printed by the US Government, was actually a certificate worth a fixed weight of silver or gold. When the supply of dollars equaled the available gold or silver reserves of the US, that was it. No more dollars would be printed. The money supply was fixed. Rather than being an infinite printing press, the government was instead a source of a stable currency. Oddly enough, major economic problems, like the inflation of the 1860s or the recessions of the 1880s and 1890s were caused by, respectively, war and market manipulation by monopolies.

And so the US Dollar was strong and secure until... in 1913, during a recess Congressional session in which a bill was quickly passed after the quorum rule was voided, the US no longer became the banker of the nation. Instead, the Federal Reserve was created, and their job was to print money. Print and print and print, then sell this money to the US -- with the Federal Reserve getting the much better part of the deal. Basically, the US charged the Fed nothing, but promised to pay interest on this created money.

Is it any coincidence that this was the same year that the 16th Amendment was passed under equally dubious conditions, imposing an income tax on the American People?

One year later, the US entered WW I -- at that time called the Great War. Uh -- greater than what? Greater at dropping bleach into ammonia and destroying the lungs of countless soldiers on both sides?

But I do digress...

America is on the brink of financial disaster. Since our business since the 90s has been to produce "service" instead of "things", we've had nothing tangible with which to back up our currency. There is no man behind the curtain. All that lovely paper is worth next to nothing, only propped up by illusory pep rallies by the Federal Reserve Chairman -- the last two of whom have done an abysmal job.

You want to avoid the Second Depression, one which will make 1929 look like a cake walk? Want to save this country and the planet? Then these are the hard steps that must be taken right now...

1. Write Off Existing Debt: First and foremost, consequences be damned, the US has got to say, "Okay, enough. We have X amount in assets, Y amount in debts. Any amount by which Y exceeds X will not be repaid. Debt which we cannot cover we are defaulting on. If you want to call this "bankruptcy", so be it. Bankruptcy is just teh first step on the road to solvency.


2. The Federal Reserve Bank has got to go. Period. No golden parachutes, no severance bonuses. By Congressional Act, this organization ends, it's charter voided, its services no longer needed.


3. The value of the dollar has got to be set to a tangible asset, and I would suggest gasoline. Again by Congressional decree, the new dollar is worth the cost of one gallon of gasoline, based on the average price per gallon in the most expensive place in the US. The amount of new dollars issued cannot exceed the value of gasoline currently available from all US sources. Foreign gasoline is not allowed in the equation.


4. Sad but true -- existing dollars must be revalued, to the tune of the reciprocal of the pre-evaluation cost of a gallon of gas. If the New Dollar is set at a $ 3.50 gallon of gas, the old dollar is instantly worth 1/3.5 (or 2/7ths) of a New Dollar. This applies only to assets held on the date of changeover. Future payments -- i.e. paychecks -- will be paid in New Dollars om the same absolute amount agreed to before the change. In other words, if your paycheck was $ 4,000 a month before the evaluation, your next paycheck will be worth New $ 4,000, or $ 14,400 old dollars. However, if you had $ 4,000 in savings, they would be re-valued at $ 1,143. Sorry. But the increase in pay makes up for it...


5. Finally, another sad but true -- for this revaluation to work, the US has to increase its supply of the fixed commodity (oil convertible to gas), which means that we would have to drill everywhere -- ANWAR, right offshore, in your backyard. Every last ounce of oil under our land would have to be squeezed out. The difference is that, this time, more extraction benefits everyone, because each extraction increases the money supply, and therefore credit availability and lower interest rates.

One side benefit of the above program? Income taxes would become unnecessary. If the value of the dollar were pegged to the price of oil at the beginning, but then not re-indexed as oil were re-valued by increasing supply, each dollar would begin to accumulate excess value -- and the difference would accrue to the guarantor of those Dollars -- the US government.

Ultimately, the steps above are part of step one in a grander plan -- to switch the country to a renewable energy source, then peg the dollar to that. Say, perhaps, the value of a kilowatt hour of solar energy. Research and make solar technology accessible to anyone, and you essentially turn everyone into part of the banking class. Passive activity leads to an increase in supply of hard assets, which leads to the necessity of printing more money in order to keep the paper supply on a par with the availability of tangible assets. Switch the US to the Solar Dollar, and we could make everyone in this country a self-sufficient millionaire in a time when having a million Solar Dollars would actually mean something.

Don't think this system works? Google or wiki Dubai, then get back to me...

Labels: Depression Dubai Federal Reserve Taxes Solution

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Welcome to 9/11/08, America. Now pay no attention to the bullshit being shoveled at you by the media on this Patriot Day. You want to really celebrate the seventh anniversary of 9/11 in the proper manner? Then enjoy your freedoms, and fight for them when they're infringed by this government that hates them.

Flying today and some TSA screener gets pushy? Tell them to go fuck themselves, and show you in writing where they're authorized to grope your traveling companion/confiscate your stuff/act like an asshole.

Write a letter or an email to your elected representatives today -- from local council beast all the way up to President. Remind them that, as a voter, you're their boss. Tell them all the ways you would have fired them -- or compliment on the (probably rare) reasons you wouldn't have.

Get angry, get mad, do something. If you want to honor the people lost on 9/11, then you will forever fight the gigantic mass of bullshit that has been thrown in our faces since then. Demand a real investigation into what happened on that day. Demand to know -- if we were supposedly under attack by terrorists hijacking airplanes, if we had no clue it was going to happen, if there was an airport near a publicized appearance of the president -- demand to know why the Secret Service did nothing to remove George W. Bush from an elementary school in Florida, instead letting him sit and read about a pet goat with children for at least ten minutes after the first attack. Ask them whether they knew what was happening, so knew that the President was in no danger.

Ask why, for the first time in history, not one but three steel framed buildings were felled by fire -- two of them within an hour, one of them within a day. Ask why this happened, even though many, many steel framed skyscrapers have burned far longer without collapsing.

Ask why Congress passed the Patriot Act without reading it, and ask why that behemoth of a bill was written long before 9/11 -- an event "no one could have foreseen" according to Condi Rice.

Ask why this current Administration lied this country into an illegal war (it was never declared by Congress), changed the lies several times, and lies to this day about the "success" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ask why this current Administration seems hell bent on nuking Iran and starting WW III with Russia when the American army is tied up in unwinnable ground wars.

Ask why the hell anyone in their right mind would vote Republican in November, then get your ass down to the polls as an observer to make sure those petty bastards don't try to steal it for the third time.

Ask why W and Cheney should not be indicted for war crimes the second their terms expire in January 2009 -- and ask what the hell you're going to do if this country continues down the Nazi-Fascist rabbit hole by ushering in a disastrous McSame/Palin era in 2009.

Patriot Day? The real patriots are the ones who know the difference between blind stupidity and standing up for principals. Real Patriots are the ones who know why the Second Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights. Real Patriots are the ones who will act like the Founding Fathers when necessary, and rebel when required.

Real Patriots will remember this 5th of November if Barack Obama is not the man chosen to take the White House in January. Real Patriots will rebel, riot, revolt to save America -- and we will remember 9/11 not as some tribute to fascism stealing America but, rather, as Liberty Holding her beacon high to remind us that we still need to fight.

Yes -- the Nazis in our midst call it "Patriot Day" -- but they forget that the Patriots of today were the traitors of their time. Give me Patrick Henry or give me escape to Costa Rica. We don't need McSame anywhere near power. We don't need Mooseolini either.

We need to give W, Cheney et al a visit to the injustice used to shut Saddam up before he spilled the beans on what good buddies he was with Cheney, the US et al in the 70s.

In short -- it's employee review time for these assholes in Washington, and time for spring cleaning. The only viable option for all of them right now is termination. The only severance being their heads from their necks.

Be a patriot. Save America. Purge the scum.
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If you're a woman, Sarah Palin is not on your side, period. But first, a hypothetical scenario...

Your house is burglarized. Window smashed, electronics, cash and jewelry stolen. Police Detectives seal off the scene of the crime, dust for fingerprints, check for other biometric evidence, and interview neighbors to investigate the crime. Then, when they're done, they hand you, the victim, a bill for all of that investigation.

Pretty outrageous, isn't it? And yet, this is exactly what the Wasilla Police Department did under Sarah Palin's rule -- and it was definitely her rule, as this quote from Wikipedia shows: "As mayor of Wasilla, Palin was in charge of the city Police Department consisting of 25 officers, and Public Works.

It was her police chief, Charlie Fannon (the man she picked to replace the one she fired because she was on a power trip she thought he didn't support her) who decided that women rape victims should have to pay for the cost of their own rape kit.

Let me say that again: the police chief chose to make victims pay for the cost of investigating their crimes -- at least in one category of crime. Not burglary, not assault, not murder. But rape. Charlie Fannon decided and Sarah Palin tacitly approved that women in Wasilla should have to pay money for the privilege (ahemn) of being sexually assaulted.

In allowing this action, Sarah Palin was -- and is -- a traitor to her gender and an enemy of women everywhere. She makes much of family values, but her sole family value seems to be that women are chattel, property, breeding stock, inferior, meant to get married and knocked up repeatedly and, in the case of rape, to politely lie back and take it, then thank the man as he's zipping up his pants.

She seems to think this applies to all women, everywhere, except her, because she's the fucking princess who's going to be queen, and don't anyone forget it.

But we can't forget it. This woman is Bush in Lipstick; Cheney in Heels. She is not a pit bull, nor a vulture, nor even a shark. This woman is a tapeworm, dwelling in the bowels of her host, sucking the life out of it, thriving in shit -- and every so often pulling her head out of her host's ass long enough to catch a ride on the next bigger ass to come along, to then dive in and suck the muck dry for all it's worth, all the while destroying those she thinks are out to get her and betraying her own kind. You get no loyalty with Sarah Palin, unless you're willing to kiss her ass. You don't get it if you're a Republican, you don't get it if you're an Alaskan. You certainly don't get it if you're a woman, and you definitely don't get it if you're an American. She has betrayed every group, the latter -- all of us -- by having been a secessionist. And yes, she never officially joined the party, but that was the only aspect of that movement she missed.

It's as if the North America of the 1860s were rotated 180 degrees, and all the assholes wound up in the far northwest instead of the south. And perhaps they did between the 1860s and the 1960s. Oh. Am insulting an entire state? Sorry, Alaska. You gave us Palin, and now I can understand exactly how the rest of the world feels about the US.

Her madness was eventually stopped, when Democratic Governor Tony Knowles signed a law specifically outlawing the practice of charging women for their own rape kits, once again proving that the only party that cares about women is the Democratic Party. Period.

Being a Republican is enough to make a woman betray her entire sex. That alone should tell you everything that is wrong with that institution; why anyone who truly believes their twisted ways ought to be institutionalized.

Labels: Sarah Palin Alaska Rape Kit Scandal

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As proven by their words and actions at their convention, the Republicans are all nothing but a bunch of bullys, cheaters, liars and cry-babies. Sorry to resort to such low ad hominum there, but it's the same thing they brought us via the speech Sarah Palin read, and in the smug "I know I'm an asshole and I don't care" smirk on Giuliani's face the entire time he spoke.

A little more concrete evidence, though. The RNC actively sought to silence not only anti-Republican protesters outside by arranging to have them arrested before the committed any crimes, they sought to silence their own party by harassing Party Delegates who were pledged to Ron Paul.

The Secret Service went so far as to surround group of Paul delegates, then confiscate anything related to Paul that they had -- buttons, books, whatever they could get their hands on. On the convention floor, and openly, any time a Delegation in the Roll Call Vote was about to pledge delegates to Paul, microphones were turned off, as happened to Oklahoma, among other states.

Think about this for a moment. Delegates are party officials and bigwigs. They are the insiders of the Republican Party. It shouldn't matter who they support, as long as the person they support is a member of the party. It especially shouldn't matter in the case of delegates who are bound to their votes by caucuses or primaries.

And yet -- the Republican Party Members, with valid credentials, who were not good little McCain/Palin fanboys were threatened, intimidated, and treated barely differently from all the protesters in the streets.

Sound familiar? Every reactionary party in history has gone through its purges. Mao's Communist Party. Hitler's Nazis. Stalin's Bolsheveks. Royalty from princes to emperors throughout history are known for periodically lopping off the heads of those who disagree with them. Maybe this is a hard-wired genetic trait of those who become far right-wing conservatives (or far left-wing liberals) -- they are so frightened of the invisible bogeymen they have created in their own heads that they cannot tolerate even a hint of criticism, so those who don't agree with them, even those who are allegedly their friends or allies, are the target of paranoia, revenge, and fear. Extremism of any wing goes so far off the map that it comes back to meet its opposite -- I see little difference in the actions or mindsets of the RNC and PETA. Both organizations are insane, will cut off their own nose to spite their faces, and refuse to listen to even one tiny iota of criticism of their beliefs, sacred cows, or actions.

So... St. Paul brought us this one hope: The Republican Party is tearing itself apart, and this convention was their last hurrah. The red meat McCain fanatics will tout their selection, alienating less fascistic elements in the party to the point that they just won't vote, or they'll hold their noses and vote for Obama. (Maybe they won't even have to hold their noses.) After two years of majority Democratic Rule -- and President Obama's first Supreme Court nomination, of a judge from the 9th Circuit Court, sailing through), the true Conservatives will have had enough, and the backlash will kick the far-right, neo-Con, neanderthal, religiously insane douchebags out in the cold. The New Republican Party will move to the center, the New Nazi Party will quickly fade into obscurity, and true bipartisanship may finally be restored to this country.

Oh. Did I do that ad hominem thing again? It's just so easy to slip into that when all of the empirical evidence really does support the slurs and insults as factual.

Final argument: contrast the Democratic National Convention. Not only did the DNC not try to squelch Clinton supporters, they welcomed them and encouraged them. Clinton votes in the roll call were announced, none of her supporters had their buttons or books taken away, and it was finally Hillary Clinton herself who, on behalf of the New York Delegation, moved to suspend the roll call and nominate Obama by acclamation. It was one party united, and it showed everything that is good about the Democratic Party -- overall, the burning sense of fairness that is the heart of Liberalism.

Republicans are the party of Fear. Democrats are the party of Hope. Which one would you rather spend the next four years living in?

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First, I think that Senator Obama has played the Sarah Palin scandal exactly right -- to strongly declare that family is off-limits, and he isn't going to go there. And that's probably a little self-preservation on his part. If he made any indication of jumping into the "Who is Trig's momma?" fray, he knows that his wife and daughters would be under the microscope tomorrow.

But -- that doesn't stop the rest of us from playing the game. Now, normally, I'd fall into the category of "The family is not the candidate." However, because l'Affaire Trig touches on so many of the issues that Sarah Palin apparently has strong opinions on, the matter threatens to bust out hypocrisy and lying left and right. Remember -- lying, that thing that the Republicans found so odious when Bill Clinton was president? When they were not conveniently ignoring the many lies of the Bush, Jr. Administration.

There's a real simple solution to this, of course. Get testimony from the Obstetrician who delivered trig. "Yes, I pulled that baby out of Governor Palin's vagina." Get the medical records. End of story.

That hasn't happened and, unfortunately, there are too many holes in the story. For starters, Governor Palin didn't announce she was pregnant until month seven, and she wasn't showing at all. Do a Google Image Search for "seven months pregnant" like I did. You'll find that even the most athletic of mothers had a very visible baby bump this far along.

Second -- You know you're going to have a Downs Syndrome Baby. Your water breaks in Texas... Do you a) Go to the nearest hospital? or b) Fly to Seattle, then to Anchorage -- each of which has fine hospitals in which to give birth -- but then proceed overland to your home town, and then to the local clinic.

Third -- a possible mitigating factor is that Downs Syndrome is more common in babies born to mothers in their 40s -- but it's also common in teen mothers during their first pregnancy.

Fourth -- Bristol Palin was out of school for five months because of mono. In the 50s, being out with "mono" was usually always girl code for "knocked up."

Fifth -- the announcement that Bristol is pregnant today is almost astounding in its timing. She ain't going to give birth before the election, and she isn't going to show. Short of medical proof that she is with child, I'd call this claim bullshit.

Sixth -- if Bristol is knocked up, Sarah is a lousy mother, who can't even get her own daughter to adhere to the abstinence plan. She's an even worse mother if Trig is Palin's child, and a complete hypocrite any way you slice it.

Seventh -- the McCain campaign, despite claiming fore-knowledge, totally whiffed it on this one. McCain focused on the trivial -- she's a chick -- and seemed to ignore every other detail. Is this really the man we want in the White House? Or the woman we want one stroke away from the White House?

Eighth -- Sarah Palin does not practice what she preaches. Why did she protect her daughter, if Trig is the grandkid, or support her daughter know, if she is indeed knocked up, when every thing she stands for is against premarital sex or birth control?

Ninth -- when Joe Biden was nominated, there was no dirt anyone could fling on him. Sarah Palin inspired a shitstorm within minutes of being announced. Babygate is far from the only scandal to explode into daylight instantly. But, for having been ripped off from an episode of "Desperate Housewives", it is particularly pathetic.

As is this desperate attempt by the Old Man to add youth and a vagina to his ticket, in hopes of luring Hillary voters. Sorry, Senator McSame -- a Hillary voter supporting you because of Palin would be like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

Where have I heard that before?

If you want the next four years to bring us World War III, then by all means vote Republican. Otherwise, vote for your country. Vote for the future. Vote Obama-Biden.

In November, there is no other sane choice.

Oh -- regarding the title? It's a reference to southern Black folklore of the 19th Century. The Tar Baby was a method by which Bro' Rabbit snared Bro' Fox. Bro' Rabbit convinced Bro' Fox that the baby sitting down the way was him. Bro' Fox attacked, but since the baby was made of tar, the harder Bro' Fox punched, the more stuck he became to it. Setting aside the modern symbolism of FOX, the metaphor is clear. The harder that the RNC, McCain and Palin try to punch away the babies, the more they will stick. The more excuses they spin to try to explain it all the way, the more questions they will raise. And, as when Bro' Rabbit told Bro' Fox not to throw him into the briar patch, because he feared that place the most, the Republicans are going to do exactly what the Democrats need -- they will keep tossing out more and more spin, keeping the issue alive while we do nothing, and Bro' Rabbit will be tossed into the briar patch -- a place with which he is vary familiar and can just happily hop away, unaffected, while Bro' Fox tries to peel off the tar, fuming at the brambles he cannot jump into without feeling great pain.

Yeah. Sometimes, folklore is very informative of reality.

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