The New Road

The Bush Economy

Recently I've been hearing some conservative pundits sound off on the economy and say that this isn't a depression because there are no food lines, or people driving out of dustbowls. Ok, but how about 40,000 people showing up to pick the dregs out of a man's farm field. Uh, yeah, welcome to the new American economy. Somebody says pick your own veges and 40k people show up.

Iraq has us by the shorties

I remember when Kerry was running that conservatives would run around gleefully talking about how we can't let blue-helmeted French army folks make our decisions about our forces. Of course they were idiots, as they always are. But check out this latest stuff on the status of forces agreements (SOFA) with Iraq.

For those of you not familiar with this, here is that basics. Without a SOFA our troops can't legally operate in Iraq beyond December 31st. They would literally be restricted to base and whether or not they could defend themselves would be in a legal grey area. So pretty much the SOFA just has to be there. Which means that Iraq has us by the nuggets.

Here is what Iraq is getting:

• Iraq will have sign-off on all of our soldiers missions unless it's self-defense.
• Iraq will inspect all of the supplies we send to the troops.
• Iraq will get a full accounting of all of the weapons and ammunition on our bases, including it's location.
• Iraq courts will have jurisdiction over our soldiers when off-base.

Looks like that whole 'our troops will be controlled by the French' bullshit just turned into 'our forces will be controlled by the Iraq parliament' reality.

Fuck you conservatives.

Bush: Worst President ever.

The most amazing part of this story is; the Iraqis still aren't satisfied. They want more. The parliament is still debating the SOFA. They were supposed to ratify it Monday. But they are still debating about possibly fucking us over even more.

Bush: Worst President ever.

Seriously, for the next 100 years whenever anyone talks about electing a conservative or Republican president, the correct response is 'Bush'.

Pillhead logic

I had the misfortune to listen to the pillhead (pictured left) a little today. Let me see if I can convey his logic; global warming is a lie because Obama will travel around in a limousine. Because the limousine is armored (to protect Barack from the crazy ass right wing nutjobs egged on by the pillhead) it gets less gas mileage. Ipso facto, global warming is a lie because the President drives a gas guzzler.

He is so passive aggressive as well. All the while he was complaining about the limo he would say, "Not that there is anything wrong with that." What a pussy.

This is the best the conservative movement has to offer? A pillhead junkie? Pathetic. The right wing is lost.

Getting to 60

I hope we get to 60 for this Congress. I hope we lose it after that. But I hope we get to 60 for these two years. Why? Because we need it to drive through real reforms for health care, tax policy, energy policy, and oversight.

We are close now, with Stevens having gone down (finally) in Alaska. Franken is also positioned well to come back from a recount since most of the rejected ballots are first time voters, a majority of which went to Franken. Georgia, at this point, is the big battleground state.

If we don't get to 60 (even though 60 really includes Lieberman), then I think we need to change the filibuster rules in the Senate. Not to get rid of the filibuster. But to get rid of the filibuster threat that senators can do now. At the moment all a senator needs to do is threaten to filibuster and they can block legislation. Republicans did this three times more often in the last Congress than in any previous Congress ever. That's why the last Congress did nothing. Republicans blocked everything with threats of filibuster because they figured they would retake the Senate in 2008. Ooops.

What I would like to see is the old "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" type of filibuster restored. You can filibuster. But you had better get a good pair of shoes a lot of water and a few friends, because you are going to be doing it on the floor, with the TV cameras rolling, for hours and hours. That way Americans will see who is holding up legislation, on the floor. Make them pay for their obstructionism.

Democrats in 2010, 2012, 2014...

I've been keeping tabs on how conservatives have been reacting to losing to Obama and losing even more seats in the House and Senate. At this point they are blaming everyone but themselves. On the radio they appear obsessed with conspiracy theories that question Barack's citizenship. Alan Keyes has gone so far as to file suit based on it. What a joke. Online they tend to blame a mis-informed electorate. Apparently we don't watch enough Fox News or listen to enough talk radio because there were a few folks out there who didn't know the name Bill Ayers or didn't hear about Barack's supposed plan to redistribute the wealth.

One particularly funny called to Hannity yesterday gave the usual never took nothing from nobody speech saying that she had paid off her student loans and never took anything from the government. (Your student loans were from the government). She then went on to say that she didn't want anyone paying her mortgage for her. (Which is good, since nobody is suggesting that.) Where do people get these ideas?

Anywho, if the conservatives can't actually reflect on their massive failure in a landslide incontrovertible election in any realistic way then they have truly lost for a very long time. Look for minor Democratic gains in 2010, followed by a hold or slight retraction in 2012, 2014 and so on based on local politics. The only way that Democrats will lose majority power quickly at this point is to give into the inevitable abuses of power too soon. Obviously corruption will creep in sooner or later, but hopefully they will be able to hold it together for at least eight years.

As an aside, Hillary for Secretary of State is all about Hillary in 2016. This is the second Presidential cycle that we have seen where the VP has no interest in being the President after the term limit expires. Biden will be too old to run. It will definitely be Hillary in 2016 and the State job is perfect positioning for that.

Cornered Bush

With a 20% approval rating, and a 76% disapproval rating, it's easy to argue that Bush is so low that he neither knows, nor cares, about anything that might effect his legacy. I expect lots and lots (and lots) of pardons for cronies. I also expect to see as much in terms of regulations as he can get away with in an attempt to tie Obama's hands. That being said, apparently any regulation or executive order made after May 15th would be instantly overidable by the incoming administration. It will just be a lot of paperwork. I certainly expect Obama's first day to be the busiest of any incoming President ever, overturning tons of executive orders written by Bush's rat pack.

xbox 360

I took the 360 out of the office and hooked it onto our livingroom tv. So we are using it a little more now. I'm on xbox live. If you want to connect my name is jherr2008.

Literacy Tests

I heard a civil rights leader talk about the achievement of the Obama election this morning and he mentioned the literacy tests in the south. Have a look for yourself at a sampling of literacy tests. I wouldn't have passed. My guess is nor would you. These are not basic level tests. And the answers are far from obvious, or even well defined. This was clearly just a way of giving the registrar a supposedly legitimate way to turn blacks away from the polls.

Olbermann's Special Comments

As much as I like Keith Olbermann, and I really do like him because he has been a beacon of reasonableness over the last eight years, his special comments really annoy me. Here is the 23/6 take of his special comments in one minute. It's a hoot:

I do love the guy. But he has to give this stuff a rest. His special comments are almost as bad as O'Reilly's awful "Talking Points". Though at least Olbermann admits to writing the special comments. O'Reilly refers to "Talking Points" as if they are a separate person. Which is just... spooky.

Anywho. I'm not a fan of the long winded pompous rant even if it does come from someone I like. Though I love it when it comes from one of three people; me, myself and I. ;-)

Hamster On A Piano

This is why Jesus invented the Interweb Tubes:

Don't ever let anyone try and put you down... Hamster... Eating popcorn... On a piano.

Why We Love Palin

Commentators need to get a clue. This is the reason we love Palin:

Why do you think local TV stations cover car chases?

You want to look away, but you just can't.

Seriously, come on guys, she's an idiot. If she is the future of the Republican party. Then we have many many years of Democratic majority rule to look forward to. And even I am not sure that's a great idea. What I can tell you is that a real conservative leader is not on the scene right now.

"In what respect, Charlie?"

Duck and Cover

When I was a kid I used to worry about the bomb all the time. Now I'm kinda getting the sense that it wasn't my wild imagination:

"Remember kids, the bomb can go off anywhere, any time, day or night." Who the hell writes copy like that?

Oh, and if you liked that check this one out:

Apparently running for the hills after an attack is for pussies. Real men stay in the cities and die from the exposure, fallout, contaminated food and water, and all of the rest of the great stuff that happens after a 'new clear' attack.

At Odds With The Happiest Place On Earth

Lori, Megan and I just spent four days in Disneyland; The Happiest Place On Earth. Last night we were walking back to the hotel and Lori asked if I had any more rides to ride, I said that I was Disneyed out and her reply was that I was that way after the first day. Which I suppose is true. I actually don't like Disney all that much. Which puts me at odds with Lori's family who loves it.

That left me wondering, why don't I like Disney that much? And it occurred to me that the defining Disney experience of my life was in Florida in 1982 when when parents were moving from Swarthmore to Miami. My mom decided to turf me off on my grandmother who lived in Orlando. My grandmother, not knowing what to do with a 16 year-old, drove me over to Disney every morning, for a week, in the dead of summer, then drove away to return just around sunset, twelve hours later.

Now you have to remember what Disney World was like in 1982. EPCOT was new. There was only one real ride, the small flume ride in Norway. And the Magic Kingdom just had space coaster. So it was pretty much a big shopping mall with two rides. I was bored, out of my freaking mind, and that was about four hours into the first day.

Years later, when Lori and I went back to celebrate her 21st birthday the entire face of Disney had changed. It had turned from two parks out in the middle of a forest, into a vacation destination with resorts, mini-parks, a shopping land, golf courses and more rides than you could shake a stick at. But I was still kinda disaffected from the whole thing.

I do kinda get it now. The kids love it. And when I see it through their eyes I start to understand the magic of it all again.

That's not to say that I don't like Disney. These are certainly great parks and now they have good rides that work for kids. But it will take a while for me to get that magic feel that people seem to invest in it.

What To Do? What To Do?

I know what to do. I'm going to Disneyland!

Change.gov

The Obama transition is moving so fast. I'm sure they had this in development for a while, but wow, it's great to see that they want to make the most of every single day they have in office. Or even before they are in office.

Fox News eats Palin

Get a load of this segment:

There were three of these segments to choose from, plus an article on the Fox News site.

Here is the smear list so far:

• She appeared in just a towel in front of staffers (why this is bad I don't know).
• She spent tens of thousands more on clothes than what was reported.
• Randy Schunemann bonded with her during the debate prep.
• She didn't know the countries in NAFTA (U.S., Canada, Mexico).
• She didn't know Africa was a continent. She thought it was a country.
• She threw temper tantrums at the bad press.

Is any or all of this true? I neither know nor care. Here are my take-aways:

1. Wow. It's great to see Fox News and the Republicans eating each other alive. It's amazing how vicious they can be with almost nothing to go on.
2. This is a great lesson for Fox News fans who like Palin in just what it feels like to have a news network trashing your candidate 24/7. Feels good, right?
3. Murdoch must have O'Reilly on a really short leash. O'Reilly had this guy on his show to trash Palin. And we know O'Reilly is a wingnut. So apparently being on TV means more to Bill than his loyalty to a candidate.
4. If any of this is true, it's crazy how close we were to electing a batshit crazy know-nothing idiot (again) to the Presidency. We all dodged a bullet.
5. Caribou Barbie must be having a shit right now. It will be awesome to see what bombshells she drops in this little war.

That being said. How fucking stupid is all of this? Seriously, Palin for President? What percentage would she get 20%? And without Fox News, what 2%?

Hah, hah! Conservatives, your problem is your ideology is wrong. It's not about Palin, or McCain, or Hannity, or any single person. The problem is that you have a hate based "screw you, I got mine" philosophy and your faithful allegiance to it has gotten us into a crazy war, bankrupt the country and put good people on the street. If you think doing a little house cleaning is going to fix any of that. Think again. You need a major spiritual overhaul. Come back in eight years when you can actually empathize with real people again. In the meantime, the grownups are back, and we got this.

It's Competence, Stupid

Barack Obama won because he took the race seriously. There is lots of breathless talk in the media about how unprecedented all this is, and how he swept aside formidable political machines. Hardly. But it doesn't look that way to me. Hillary was never prepared for the fight. She thought she was going to be the default candidate. So she didn't build the machine. And by the time that she got something going, the fight was all but over and Barack, and the team he had worked hard to create, had one 11 primaries.

McCain was also running a campaign of what he thought was inevitability. He didn't build a machine. He relied on the old politics of the past; vote caging, voter suppression, robocalls, negative campaigning, partisan news, partisan talk radio. That's not hard to do. It's something that the Republicans do by default.

Both Hillary and McCain stood like the monoliths as Barack's team ran circles around them.

Barack won because he took it seriously and worked hard. It's called competence. Get used to it.

I put up a picture of Tiger Woods after Barack won not because Tiger is black, but because they both share this common trait; they work hard, they take it seriously. Tiger stormed the world of golf because it had gotten complacent and he came at it with fresh seriousness and resolve. When Tiger walked up the 18th at Pebble fifteen strokes ahead for the U.S. Open it wasn't amazing because he was black. It was amazing because he had changed golf forever. No longer could you practice three times a week and grow a beer belly and still compete. To compete against Tiger you have to work hard. Harder than he does. And that's anything but easy.

The Democrats get it now. This grass-roots machine that Barack has built is very formidable. We will be back in 2010 and 2012. The Republicans are going to have to work for their next win. They are going to have to knock on doors, make real person-to-person phone calls, get people registered to vote, and have compelling arguments that make sense. They aren't used to that. So my guess is for them, this will be a very long time out of the political spotlight.

Americans know hard work when we see it. We work hard. We want our leaders to work hard.

It feels so good

Let's keep this thing going!

He won by such a landslide that you can't claim fraud. This is a clear win. A win for the ages. A win by the American people who came together around this man to create a movement for change.

We all want to see a better America. An America that can compete with China. An America that uses it's armed forces wisely and in concert with our allies. An America where it's people have put aside the partisanship of that past to work together for the good of the country.

Yesterday was a great start. But the proof will be over the coming months and years. Can we continue on as a group.

I'm going to do my best. Will you? Join me.

Yes We Did!

Fired Up! Ready To Go!

Are you fired up? Ready to go? I'm fired up!

They scoffed when they said he was a community organizer.

Vote No on 8

Proposition 8 is all about hate and fear. We should not be writing this insanity into our state constitution. It's disgusting.

This ad pretty much sums it all up. No wonder that the mormons want it banned:

Utah is trying to tell us how to amend our constitution. Let's tell them where they can stick that idea.

Snotnose conservatives

MTV has an interesting conversation with Barack about things that matter to college kids, like student loans and such. At one point a snotnose conservative chips in with his question:

If your desire is to spread the wealth around, what incentive is there for me to try to work hard? If I am only going to get more taken away from me, the more money I make, why wouldn't I just slide into a life of relaxation and let rich people take care of me?

Thanks, libertarian-tard, we'll see you at the Hannity rally, eh? Don't forget your jack boots.

Barack gives a great answer, and you can watch that for yourself

But seriously, what the hell is up with conservatives these days trying this "Fuck you, I got mine" style of thinking. The government gives this punk a Pell grant to get into college. Then while he is there he reads a little Ayn Rand (sorry JJ) and suddenly believe that "I've never needed any help from the government. So nobody should get anything from me ever."

To you libertarians and conservatives out there, please, if you don't want to pay taxes, then don't drive on our roads, don't drink the water, don't turn on your lights, don't connect to the Internet, don't go to the library, don't listen to the radio. That's all community stuff and if you don't want to pitch in, then you shouldn't get anything out of it.

Be Prepared To Stay In Line

The Republicans used to rob a single state, now they want to rob all of the swing states.

You have to stand up for your right to vote. You have to stand in line for hours, all day, all week if need be to get your vote counted. We can't lose. Not this time. Not with so much at stake.

Frustration Free Packaging

Someone at Amazon deserves a genius award for frustration free packaging. Seriously, if you have bought anything in the past decade you have likely run into this hard plastic packaging that takes ten minutes and a laser cutter to get through. And then if you have kids you are likely to have run into the dreaded twist tie insanity.

Bottled hot water

Really, what more needs to be said:

Obama's secret - working hard

What's that old line? Are you working hard or hardly working? Obama is working hard. McCain is hardly working. Word out of Virginia is that average voters have been contacted by Obama volunteers up to 20 times on the phone, at least once at the door, and with multiple hand delivered fliers just in the last week. While from McCain... nothing. In Iowa, Obama personally visited the state 48 times, McCain 3. One guy I called on Sunday had sent 60 Obama canvassers from his house that day, and 83 the day before. Who wants it more?

Getting out the vote means getting the average person who doesn't take the election seriously to get fired up. And while getting lots of calls can be annoying. It does bring the issue first and foremost to your mind. Hell yes they want the phone calls to stop. Hell yes they want this thing to be over tomorrow. But by the end, they are fired up and they want their guy to win.

Hey man, I'm strung out. Lots of others are too. But at the same time I'm fired up. We are going to win Virginia because I have been working hard on that state. It's my state and on election night I own it.

Come on Virginia!

Joe The Pundit

Hey, if Joe The Plumber wants to become Joe The Pundit I'm fine with that. He's running at about the same level of intellect as the rest of the right wing conservative class. I mean, check this pearl out of moronitude:

Yes, exactly Joe, for reasons you can't intelligently enumerate Barack is un-American. That's just the kind of insight that we have come to enjoy from Fixed News. Beautiful! Keep up the good work.

Smooth Sonic Jams

You might be all stressed out about the election. No biggie. No stress:

Chill out with these smooth Sonic jams.

SNL Olbermann Slam

Let it not be said that SNL doesn't do an equal opportunity slam job:

From my view this is spot on. As Olbermann's ratings have gone up so has his self-righteous attitude. It's nowhere near as bad as O'Reilly.Bill-O thinks the world literally revolves around him. Olbermann is just starting to leave orbit.

Personally I watch the Maddow show first. Then if there is enough time left I go to Olbermann and watch anything but Oddball and the Special Comment. And if that's not enough I watch Hardball and usually skip the Side Show segment.

Stories from the Obama call center

I spent literally all day on the phone today (through Skype). I primarily called into Virginia to get the vote out. One particularly funny call was some old guy who answered a wrong number. He was a dirty-minded 84 year old with a long life of stories he wanted to impart. Here are a few:

In WW II he was a radioman in the Air Force deployed in the Philippines. Just before the scheduled invasion of Japan there was a group of parachute troops training for jumping into combat. They asked him if he wanted to come along. He said yes and went up and out. He landed on one of the cart strips between two rice paddies. At which point he quickly started folding up the silk so that he could trade it in for Philippine pussy (his words). But he was caught by a commanding officer who told him he would have to make nine more jumps before he could earn his silk/pussy trade-in privileges.

Another story was about his time in North Africa when he offered a new Toyota in exchange for gay sexual favors. He refused, but got the car anyway.

He wasn't sold on Obama. But it wasn't about him being black. He was ok with that from his experience in South Africa.

Another fun call was to a 56-year old lady on a fixed income. She said, and I'm still not sure I believe it, that people in her part of Virginia live on between $10K and $15K a year. Seriously? And bread/milk prices were about the same as California. How does that work?

Anyway, making hundreds of calls has left me with some interesting impressions of my fellow Americans. They are awesome. Funny. Vocal. Interesting. And great. I love this country.

Palin - Spending reformer my ass

For every $1 that Alaska sends to the feds as taxes it gets back $1.83 in federal pork spending. And that's even after they have enough money to give each of their citizens a $1,200 bonus check from oil profits. Alaska is a government scammers utopia. Tbe bridge to nowhere was just the tip of the iceberg.

Sarah ran on a pork platform in Wasilla. And she got her tiny town millions in pork. And when she ran for governor, she ran on cleaning up local overspending. Not in requesting less pork. She knows, just like everyone else in Alaska, that the state is a pork based. Why would she ever campaign against that?

If you think Palin has any interest in reducing government spending you are smoking crack.