Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

A front page contributor on My Left Wing named Konopelli used this picture in a post the race baiting going on in right wing talk radio right now -- specifically, on Rush "Douchebag of the Decade" Limbaugh's right wing hatefest:

The people in that picture...

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Halle-fuckin'-LUJAH!

 Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba and easing other restrictions Monday to usher in a new era of openness toward the island nation ruled by communists for 50 years.

The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs' daily briefing with reporters, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement.

With the changes, Obama aims to lessen Cubans' dependence on the Castro regime, hoping that will lead them to demand progress on political freedoms, the official said. About 1.5 million Americans have relatives on the island nation that turned to communist rule in 1959 when Fidel Castro seized control.

Jesus fucking christ, it is about goddamned time.

Whenever I hear the old joke, "He was born on third base but thinks he hit a triple," I cringe a little, because I immediately think of the inverse -- of the millions of people who are born with two strikes against them.  

Lately I cringe when I hear the ludicrous charge being leveled against Barack Obama: that he intends to apply socialist policies in the United States. The charge is ludicrous because he does not intend such a thing -- not because socialism is ludicrous. To the contrary.  

Here is another thing that makes me cringe:

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

I don't know what disturbs me more: the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Sarah Palin appearance I've now watched over half a dozen times, or the collective cognitive dissonance that overtook the national media -- and, apparently, almost everyone in America -- with respect to that appearance.

No, I did not find it -- or, needless to say, Sarah Palin -- charming. Certainly not "hilarious." Yes, she does, demonstrably, have "rhythm." No, the fact that she was able to be a "good sport" and appear on a television program that has been skewering her for weeks does not raise her in my esteem one single iota. And no, that sketch did not make me smile. It in fact made me want to vomit.

Where is my sense of humour, you ask? Am I, in fact, a dour liberal determined to glower through November 4th? What exactly is my fucking problem? Glad you asked -- if, in fact, you asked. Yeah, I've got a couple of problems...

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

First, for all you people who think he was "taken by surprise" by McCain's announcement -- the withered fool showed his hand in their second phone conversation. You don't think from that MOMENT Camp Obama was preparing a response? Pshaw.

Obama may not share all my political views, but with each passing day he has my growing admiration as a superb politician.

John McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER, Rick Davis took a leave of absence -- that is, he "stopped taking a salary" -- from his lobbying firm in 2006... but that firm has been accepting FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS a MONTH until...

LAST MONTH. For, apparently, no reason. No work has been done by Davis's firm on behalf of Freddie Mac since Davis "stopped drawing a salary." John McCain and his campaign claimed as recently as TWO DAYS AGO that Rick Davis has NOTHING TO DO with Freddie Mac. Nothing. And that he has NEVER lobbied for Freddie Mac.

Why was Freddie Mac paying Rick Davis's lobbying firm $15 THOUSAND a MONTH until 24 days ago?

THIS IS FUCKING HUGE.

No, seriously. If this is not THE NUMBER ONE STORY in the media this week, there is something VERY VERY VERY wrong with the media and with us for not MAKING them cover it as the NUMBER ONE STORY.

Because THIS IS FUCKING HUGE.

Connect the dots: McCain... Rick Davis... Freddie Mac... FINANCIAL APOCALYPSE... Government Bail Out.

John McCain = CORRUPTION

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

The Bush/Paulson Economic Bail Out Proposal is an American Kristallnacht in the making.

So posits a DKos diarist named Mr. Tek.

And before anyone starts screaming about Godwin's Law and the Jewish persecution of Kristallnacht... THIS IS ABOUT ECONOMICS. As was Kristallnacht, as Tek's essay explains.

I have taken the liberty of editing Tek's piece for spelling, grammar, syntax and punctuation, and emphasising elements of the essay I feel are important to the historical parallel. I've also reproduced only that part of the essay I believe relevant to the argument.

The Bush Administration has presented Congress with a "hurriedly" created "LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS" and now expects it to be voted on and passed with all the expedience and passivity it received when it presented its last two disastrously precipitous cartes blanche: the Iraq War Resolution and the Patriot Act. Congress must refuse. This is another Patriot Act, another Iraq War Resolution moment. Hold FIRM, Democrats.