I've come to be downright proud of having been called that by him, in retrospect :-)

Bush found out about my being there along with another reporter, and he didn't like it that we were with non-corporate media. You could say that both of our news outlets were "alternative" even though there's a bit of a negative connotation to that term. I can vouch that the outfit I was with certainly had a rep for hard-nosed investigative journalism, but that wasn't why I was there. I got an invitation courtesy of a Republican official who was glad to have me there.

Then Bush found out we were there and apparently didn't want unquantifiable reporters who might possibly ask him really hard questions. I heard later that his words were "haul those assholes out of here". One of his goons confronted me, asked for my invite and tore it to pieces. He threatened me with violent reprisal unless I left, and the other reporter and I were soon escorted off the premises at gunpoint (courtesy of the local gendarmerie, on orders from the Bush Campaign goon squad).

That night opened my eyes. I told people beginning then that this country would not resemble anything we had come to know, if Bush became President. Eight years later, it saddens me that that estimation was spot-on.

For what it's worth, I'm non-partisan to the extreme. And I don't have a dog in this year's hunt either. Not one of the major parties has demonstrated that they are after anything but power. And having not only voted since I was first eligible but also having run for office and been the treasurer of a state-wide campaign, I think I'm more than qualified to make that observation. But what Bush has done in the past eight years, has been far and away the most irresponsible administration in living American memory.

Mi ght have been the first time in history that anyone ran for school board by using the Death Star :-P

I'm not joking or trying to be snide. I am just seriously curious to see if there is any media capturing such a time in your life. And if so, PLEASE SHOW US!

I'm sure I will see it eventually but it kind of bugs me how much this just seems like a cash grab.

read for yourself:

http://tinyurl.com/54cs8c

As Patton Oswalt says, Bush fans are like Creed fans. At this point there's just no defense, it's just embarassing.

Oh and BTW, where was Bush when Katrina hit? Oh that's right, eating cake with John McCain.

Like I said, it's not supposed to happen in America. Had the politician in question been a Democrat, it would have bothered me just as much. It's well past time that we stop trusting these people solely on the basis of their having an "R" or a "D" stamped next to their names on a ballot.

Just kidding, Harry. We all love you really.

I don't give a shit about his personal struggles with Jeb, the bottle, Papa Bush and his mommy, just as they don't give a shit about the people they governed or had killed.

Laura's a fucking robot. I miss the Oliver Stone who made Wall Street and JFK. RIP that guy.

"As someone who works for the government, regardless of the political leanings of the administration, I'm going to politely say that you'd have been a fat, miserable fucking failure."

As someone who works for the government? So let me get this straight....you attack Harry for stating his personal opinion of Bush and then proceed to state why Harry isn't qualified to do so being a fat, unsuccessful movie writer bla bla bla. So Harry (a citizen of the U.S.) is not qualified to speak on the job Bush has done for the past 8 years, yet you are qualified to speak on the success or failures of Harry's life? Because you are "Someone who works for government" ? Hahaha. Thanks for the laugh man, you hypocritical piece of shit. For one thing it is pathetic you feel the need to drop your credentials to add weight to your post. And the very notion of someone taking the time to post a rant in defense of Bush is just disgusting and painfully hilarious.

If you don't like Harry's political leanings to the left-- then here is some advice. Fuck off. Develop a scorching case of Melanoma and swallow a mouthful of my sweet urine while on your death bed, you stupid fucking TWAT.

(As the Republican Government is busy nationalising almost every failing business in sight) ...

Either way-- you're a dumb fuck. Your words are like period blood and I can give a fuck what you think about me. Hope you enjoy the next four years under President Obama.

A crowd spread across the parking lot of Richmond International Raceway, and scores of people on the outer periphery more than 100 yards from the stage could not hear.

"Louder! Louder!" they began chanting, and the cry spread across the crowd to Palin's left. Some pointed skyward, urging that the volume be increased.

Palin stopped her remarks briefly and looked toward the commotion.

"I hope those protesters have the courage and honor to give veterans thanks for their right to protest," she said.

Some in the crowd tried to shout toward her what was really being said, but she couldn't hear them.

On a sunny day in which many had stood in place for more than three hours without shade, at least 25 people collapsed from heat-related illnesses and three were hospitalized, according to the Henrico County fire department.

PARIS (AFP) - Dennis Hopper, the US actor-director perhaps best known for the 1969 road-movie "Easy Rider", is praying for victory by Barack Obama in next month's elections, he said on Monday.

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"I voted for Bush, father and son, but this time I'll vote for Obama," he told journalists at the opening of a show on his life and work at the Paris cinematheque.

Hopper is to be handed France's order of Commander of Arts and Letters by the culture minister later Monday.

"I was the first person in my family to have been Republican," he added. "For most of my life I wasn't on the left."

"I pray God, Barack Obama is elected," he said, criticising the current administration's many "lies."

The exhibition on his life includes his films as well as paintings and photographs, and works from his own art collection, including pieces by Andre Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein.

Fuck off.

A nice big FUCK OFF.

By Patrick Oppmann

CNN

TAMARAC, Florida (CNN) -- "Schlep."

A Yiddish word meaning to pull, yank or tug, schlep is a good way of describing what it took for Mike Bender to persuade his grandparents to vote for Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Bender's grandparents, Kenny and Selma Furst, 90 and 87 years old, should have been an easy sell to support the Democratic nominee for president.

Like many of the estimated 650,000 Jews living in Florida, the Fursts are lifelong, passionate Democrats and a crucial vote for any Democratic candidate hoping to win the battleground state.

But when Bender -- who is not affiliated with Obama's campaign but supports him -- brought up the idea of voting for Obama over Thanksgiving dinner last year, he was met with an uncharacteristic silence.

"Their reaction was, as they said, 'I'm a little meschugah,' " Bender said, adding that the expression meant "crazy."

For Selma Furst, voting for an African-American for president seemed unthinkable. Watch a "few little known Jewish facts" on Obama »

"I grew up with Jewish people and Italian people, but I never lived in a neighborhood that was black," she said. "Somebody said to me, 'What do you object to about him?' I said, well, truthfully, our colors are different."

Overcoming the prejudices of his grandparents' generation would be difficult, Bender realized. But he was not going to be alone.

Ari Wallach, co-executive director of Jews Vote, a Jewish advocacy group, also said he saw reluctance among some older, traditionally Democratic Jews to support Obama.

But Wallach said it wasn't just a question of race. He cited a months-long misleading Internet campaign that aimed to convince voters that Obama is a Muslim or that he would reverse the United States' policy of supporting Israel. Obama is Christian and says he backs a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

"The older demographic particularly were being hit with tons and tons of Obama smear e-mails," Wallach said. "If you really want to talk to them in a way that will bring them over to the Obama side, you want to do it one to one, ideally with people they love. And grandparents love no one more than their grandkids."

And so the Great Schlep was born. The idea was that young, Jewish Democrats would flood Florida and convince their elders that voting for Obama was OK.

To get the word out about the Great Schlep, Wallach and his colleagues turned to comedian Sarah Silverman. Silverman makes the case for Obama in a Web video in which she attempts to show similarities -- some tenuous -- between an African-American man and an older Jewish woman. She raves about the Democratic candidate's brisket and points out that Barack comes from the Hebrew word for "lightning." Watch the Great Schlep »

The video ends with Silverman advising Obama supporters to let their grandparents know that should they fail to vote Democratic in the presidential election in November, maybe they shouldn't expect many more family visits.

The Silverman video quickly became a Web sensation, garnering about 2 million hits in the two weeks since it was posted on thegreatschlep.com, organizers said. Thousands of people pledged to call their relatives in Florida and more than 100 people volunteered to pay their own way to travel to the Sunshine State to campaign for Obama among Jewish voters, Wallach said.

Bender saw the Silverman video on YouTube in Los Angeles, California, where he works as a writer. Despite the humor of Silverman's call to schlep, the video's message resonated with Bender because of the difficulty he faced convincing his own grandparents.

"I thought it was brilliant," Bender said. He decided to go to Florida and try one more time.

When Bender recently returned to his grandparents' retirement community in Tamarac, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale, he was greeted with several surprises. Months of telephone conversations and his trip had paid off: His grandparents told him shortly after he arrived that they were going to support Obama.

The next surprise was that his schlep had generated interest around their retirement community. A lot of interest. So many other seniors wanted to hear about Obama that the venue for a meeting on the subject had to be changed from the Furst's living room to a ballroom in the community's clubhouse.

An hour before Bender started to make his case about Obama on Sunday, groups of senior citizens were staking out space in the ballroom. Soon there were more than 100 people and no more chairs.

Sporting an Obama T-shirt with Hebrew writing on it, retiree Morty Brill said, "The economy, the war, you think you can trust Republicans to fix them?"

If there were any people in the room with reservations about Barack Obama, they kept those doubts to themselves.

As Bender told the crowd that Obama was not a Muslim and that Obama was a staunch supporter of Israel, he was met with heads nodding in agreement throughout the room.

However, Bender felt the need to drive the point further. If Obama was elected, he said, then Bender would not worry so much about politics and "would have more time to find a nice Jewish girl to marry."

Whether Mike Bender's schlep really changed any minds is anyone's guess, but the applause from the crowd was deafening.

http://tinyurl.com/4p2l6r

http://www.variety.com/VR11179 93933.html

October 14, 2008 02:49 PM

William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.

The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government.

During the same period beginning in 1992, Timmons worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if the business deal went through.

Timmons' activities occurred in the years following the first Gulf War, when Washington considered Iraq to be a rogue enemy state and a sponsor of terrorism. His dealings on behalf of the deceased Iraqi leader stand in stark contrast to the views his current employer held at the time.

John McCain strongly supported the 1991 military action against Iraq, and as recently as Sunday described Saddam Hussein as a one-time menace to the region who had "stated categorically that he would acquire weapons of mass destruction, and he would use them wherever he could."

Timmons declined to comment for this story. An office manager who works for him said that he has made it his practice during his public career to never speak to the press. Timmons previously told investigators that he did not know that either Vincent or Park were acting as unregistered agents of Iraq. He also insisted that he did not fully understand just how closely the two men were tied to Saddam's regime while they collaborated.

But testimony and records made public during Park's criminal trial, as well as other information uncovered during a United Nations investigation, suggest just the opposite. Virtually everything Timmons did while working on the lobbying campaign was within days conveyed by Vincent to either one or both of Saddam Hussein's top aides, Tariq Aziz and Nizar Hamdoon. Vincent also testified that he almost always relayed input from the Iraqi aides back to Timmons.

Talking points that Timmons produced for the lobbyists to help ease the sanctions, for example, were reviewed ahead of time by Aziz, Vincent testified in court. Proposals that Timmons himself circulated to U.S. officials as part of the effort were written with the assistance of the Iraqi officials, and were also sent ahead of time with Timmons' approval to Aziz, other records show.

Moreover, there was a major financial incentive at play for Timmons. The multi-million dollar oil deal that he was pursuing with the two other lobbyists would only be possible if their efforts to ease sanctions against Iraq were successful.

I could say 6 words and with those words, you would be an expert on me, my opinion, and would also be able to "know" everything I say and think. You'd know my life history with just a simple sentence. You'd know whether or not I love America or hate America. You'd know whether or not I want to blow up America with my terrorist buddies or if I wanted to incarcerate all Muslims for being terrorists. You'd know right away if I want to take all of your money and give you a nickel allowance per week or maybe that I want to take my money and go kick some homeless people in the teeth. You'd know if I hate baseball, apple pie, and fireworks on the Fourth of July. You'd know if I love NASCAR, the military, and country music. You'd know at a glance whether or not I'm a racist or a sexist or a religious zealot. You'd know in a moment that I was a fellow parishioner or a devoted comrade. You'd know without asking that I'm a Godless fool worthy of pity or a lost soul in need of spiritual guidance. You'd know right away if I thought the surge worked or if I think Saddam Hussein was training Al Qaida operatives in norther Iraq prior to September 11, 2001.

And you'd know whether or not we were friends or adversaries. With just a sentence. 6 words. I bet you already know all the things I mentioned...and I didn't even have to say those 6 words.

It would mean the Dems could now easily carpet bomb states with attack ads showing this association to Saddam Hussein as a response to all the Ayres stuff.

Hey BSB maybe that's ALSO why Conservative Bill Krystal called for the firing of the McCain Campaign ?

---FIRE THE CAMPAIGN---

By WILLIAM KRISTOL Published: October 12, 2008

It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign. He has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources, and the candidate and the campaign are in sync. The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008 /10/13/opinion/13kristol.html? ref=opinion

But seriously....even if you only think Obama will fulfill 1/4 of what he promises.......that is still a hell of a lot better than anything McCain is talking about. McCain is so out of touch with American needs its terrifying. Not to mention his campaign is one big mess cluster fuck....if that is any indication of the sort of cabinet he would put together....ouch. Thats scary.

God forbid anyone step on the toes of your little Prince George. You walking rectal prolapse.

Barack Obama told a tax-burdened plumber over the weekend that his economic philosophy is to "spread the wealth around" -- a comment that may only draw fire from riled-up John McCain supporters who have taken to calling Obama a "socialist" at the Republican's rallies.

Obama made the remark, caught on camera, after fielding some tough questions from the plumber Sunday in Ohio, where the Democratic candidate canvassed neighborhoods and encouraged residents to vote early.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

This plumber should have then asked "just what is it that the people behind me lacked that I must make up for?"

Was it education…why didn’t they get one? Was it vision…how do you give them that? Was it because there was no Father figure in the home?

If you don’t talk about that how do you tackle that problem? Just what was it that throwing my money at them is going to do to raise us all up?

You bitches want to suckle at the teet of 'mommy' government....well it looks like that's gonna happen. :D Just don't call yourselves 'men'.

Keep trying mother fucker.

And I think Jobs and Healthcare will be on most peoples minds as the recession moves into overdrive and bites HARD.

But at least have the balls to call yourself as is: a socialist.

Why do you hide from it if you're so proud of your 'noble' stance?

So plumbers would of course BENEFIT from Obamas Tax cuts.

the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans paid nearly half of all the taxes. And now consider this: The wealthiest 2 percent of Americans pay an average of $322,000 in taxes while the remainder of taxpayers (98 percent of them) pay an average of $3,037. That is a pretty big difference.

That's not partisan, it's just fact.

But hey, screw those people right? Like a howling mob we'll rip the rightfully earned fruits of their labor from their hands and spread it to those who WE (the government) deem fit. Great plan.

I usually don't respond to the 3rd grade level tripe you post...but that too ignorant a post not to shred.

"But hey, screw those people right? Like a howling mob we'll rip the rightfully earned fruits of their labor from their hands and spread it to those who WE (the government) deem fit. Great plan."

The guy who owns a plumbing business and employs 6-10 guys is gonna get creamed.

They have to declare what they gross. They have to then make payroll insurance, supplies etc. They file quartely tax reports. Obama is going to tax what they GROSS. Why? Because the plumber is successful and I'm not...so I somehow "deserve" the money HE worked for????

It gets bad enough and said business owner says 'fuck it' and closes up shop. Then he AND his employees must look up to that great teet in the sky and suckle.

"Take care of me mommy...the big bad rich people are being mean to me"

Again, don't call yourselves 'men'.

The average (you DO know what that means don't you?) salary for a U.S. plumber, NOT the owner of a plumbing business, is bout $47,000. Look it up.

And jobs are going in huge numbers already. So Obamas idea of a tax credit for firms that create jobs for folks in the U.S. seems like a good one to me.

http://tinyurl. com/4yeokm

http://tinyurl.co m/4tq8vj

And before you ask (or presume), no I am not a socialist.

Paranoia, thy name is wingnut.

Gimme a Wealth!!!

Gimme a Re!!!!

Gimme a Distribution!!!!!

Stupid fucking trained dogs. It astonishes me. These brain dead mother fuckers that basically say fuck everything else-- if they entire country is slowly rotting away, jobs are gone, real estate is shit, gas prices, two wars, bla bla bla....what...you're going to keep Bush's tax cuts? Oh. Well fuck everything else, you get my vote!!

BRAIN DEAD FUCKING CUNTS!!

Personally, I think the gummint should have voting rights in the banks.

And it's not Socialism to advocate a progressive tax system that puts more money into the hands of those who spend it for goods and services. That's good for the economy, and everyone benefits.

Wingnuts can continue their nervous breakdown though, it's very amusing.

Warren Buffett supporting a Socialist?

As if!!!

"The SEP issues the following warning: Neither the Democrats nor Republicans are presenting to the working class their real programs—that is, what they intend to do after Election Day. Neither the Democratic nor Republican candidate cares to acknowledge that this election campaign is being conducted in the midst of the most serious economic crisis of world capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But the corporate and financial elite knows full well that the next president—regardless whether his name is McCain or Obama—will almost immediately escalate attacks on the American and international working class. The next administration will drive up unemployment, slash expenditures for desperately needed social programs, support the attacks of the corporations on wage levels and working conditions, and intensify government suppression of democratic rights. A President McCain or Obama will pursue the reckless militarist agenda of the Pentagon and seek the reintroduction of the draft to provide human cannon fodder for the wars now being planned in secret."

richievanderlow....you're not the smartest guy in town. I'm sorry. If you insist on hanging around-- please please massage my balls while you tongue fuck my ass.

Aint it *LIBERAL* propaganda right? But what a minute! When Danny just said "Me and AICN are going steady." I swear I had a momentary brain dyslexia-fart as glancing it at it read "Me and McCain are going steady." and then I realized that AICN is an anagram for CAIN which means MCCAIN. Which means fucking AICN is in the God damned tank for McCain!! Holy shit! "W" must truly be fucking awesome then, eh?

.

*Warrior needs food, badly!*

If those two FoxNews-suckers lose their jobs in this economic wipe-out or the upcoming credit card crisis, we won't be hearing them bitch too loudly about "Socialism" while they're collecting unemployment and food stamps, I'd wager.......not because they're intelligent or self-aware enough to recognize their own hypocrisy, but because they won't be able to afford Internet access....Which would just be such a fucking SHAME, now wouldn't it?

Oh, but WAIT - maybe they'll be able to get GRANTS and TUITION ASSISTANCE to go back to school and then they can use the computers THERE to explain to us all the evils of "Socialism". Yeah, that sounds about right....While CEO's keep getting richer by dodging taxes with loopholes and offshore accounts and firing people like anchorite and Just_John, they'll be explaining to us how it wouldn't be FAIR to expect the heads of Exxon or any other huge multinational to not live up to the standards of the American Dream anyway possible....

YessireeBob...Just keep sucking away at the corporate propaganda cock there boys, for as long as you want......just don't call yourselves "men".

Okay fine...you got me. I don't walk around in my everyday life screaming REPUBLICANS ARE IGNORANT CUNTS at the grocery store, so I suppose I am an "Internet Tough Guy."

There is no need for me to argue with you. I already know your answers to every issue raised. You people are all the same. I'm not gonna change you, you're not gonna change me. This is an anonymous forum of Internet tough-guys that communicate through written text. We are a bunch of stubborn fucks whether it be movies or politics we are discussing. So the best thing we can do now is for you to lay on your back, open wide, and allow me to pour a cup of fresh urine down your throat. Agreed?

From a Comicon panel with Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller:

Q:How much of an influence or impact do negative internet comments make to you guys?:

Smith: I live and die by it. I’ve got no sense of self-worth.

Apatow: I track test audience reactions, including how much penis can be shown on the screen before a room is cleared. There is a certain definite amount of penis that can be shown that will completely clear a theater. I read negative comments online before, and would start to feel bad, but then I’d notice the author’s name was something like Danny Glover’s Dickblood. Then you don’t feel so bad.

If you want to get into a debate about all things Bruce Campbell....lets do it!

http://tinyurl.com/6ymyp9

Things continue to get better for Obama and worse for McCain...

It's another day of very bad poll numbers for John McCain.

-- In Florida, FOX News/Rasmussen has Obama up 5%, 51% to 46%.

-- In Ohio, Marist has Obama up 4%, 49% to 45%, while FOX News/Rasmussen has Obama up 2%, 49% to 47%. This is the first time ever that Rasmussen has shown Obama ahead in Ohio.

-- In Pennsylvania, Marist has Obama expanding his lead to 12%, 53% to 41%, while Morning Call has Obama up 13%, 51% to 38%.

-- In Missouri, SurveyUSA has Obama opening up an 8% lead, 51% to 43%, while FOX News/Rasmussen has Obama up 3%, 50% to 47%.

-- In Virginia, FOX News/Rasmussen has Obama ahead of McCain, 50% to 47%.

-- In North Carolina, FOX News/Rasmussen has the race tied at 48%.

-- In Georgia, SurveyUSA has McCain's lead down to 8%, 51% to 43%. The interesting number from this poll is that Obama is actually winning among people who have already voted (early voting has started in Georgia) and early voters make up nearly 20% of the total vote. This puts a lot of pressure on McCain's ground operation in the state to turn its supporters out on election day, as they now have a deficit in the state that they'll have to make up.

-- And in North Dakota, MSUM has Obama up 2%, 45% to 43%. This is obviously a pretty stunning result considering Bush won this state by 26% in 2004, but until another pollster confirms this, I'd hold off on viewing North Dakota as being in play.

-- In new national numbers, ABC/Washington Post has Obama's lead up to 10%, 53% to 43%. I commented on this poll in detail here. Also, Democracy Corps has Obama up 10%, 50% to 40%.

-- And in the daily trackers, things remain more or less the same, with Obama expanding his lead in Gallup's poll, staying mostly the same in Diageo and Research 2000, and tightening slightly in Rasmussen.

* Gallup - Obama 51%, McCain 41%

* Rasmussen - Obama 50%, McCain 40%

* Diageo - Obama 48%, McCain 42%

* Research 2000 - Obama 52%, McCain 40%

What is there to say? There is nothing good here for McCain. The FOX News/Rasmussen polls were the only guys left showing McCain ahead in Ohio, and now they have flipped to an Obama lead as well. And Missouri seems to have gone from pretty safe for McCain to now leaning to Obama. McCain needs to seriously consider bailing on Pennsylvania, where he continues to spend massive amounts of money yet trails by double digits, and make one final stand with a strategy of playing no offense and hoping he can defend all of these red states where Obama is now leading. It's risky, because it's hard to see Obama not winning at least one of the red swing states, but at this point, it seems as if McCain has a better shot at somehow winning all the red swing states than he does winning Pennsylvania. I mean, neither scenario is at all likely, but if you have to pick one, I'd take the red state defense over trying to make up a double digit lead in Pennsylvania.----

http://www.411mania.com/pol itics/columns/87706

Oh adn richievanderlow I'm afraid the smearing and scaremongering is ripping the McCain Campaign and Republicans apart as half of them have McCain trying desperately to get back on to the real issues the voters care about like the Economy and the other half thinks that smears ae a magic Rovian strategy that will turn everything around even though the polls are saying otherwise.

You sound like a liberterian. That's cool, we actually have a lot of common ground. I myself am a civil liberterian. Anyway here's the deal -- there's no way to train to be an effective Commander in Chief unless you've already been a four-star general. I'm sorry but that's just the fact of the matter. Bush wasn't ready to be Commander-In-Chief, Clinton wasn't ready, Reagan wasn't ready and neither McCain, Mr. "Bomb Bomb Iran, Iraq will be a cakewalk" or Obama, Mr. "I've never served 5 seconds in the military" is ready. It's totally unlike any job and The Founders deliberately gave civilian control to the military for a reason, they didn't want people trained for war making decisions about what to do with the armed forces. So that's something to consider.

The Surge defintely was part of some of the success in Iraq, there's no doubt, but it was not 100 percent the solution to Iraq. The Sunni Awakening (which is basically bribing one sect of Iraqis to stay peaceful with another sect) is a big part of that, another was the ethnic cleansing which literally purified neighborhoods along religious lines by killing the other guys. Anyway Iraq is pretty loose still, we have "won" in the sense that overt violence is down but less than 8 percent of people who were displaced by the violence during the Surge have returned to their homes. So yes we won a military victory but we are still occupying an unstable country and violence may break out at any time. Now you say that you believe we have to finish this no matter what, ok that's a personal belief and I can't really argue with sticking with it other than to say that it has cost us American soldiers, 10 billion a month, veterans with PTSS that we will have to treat, all to occupy a country that it turns out was not a threat to us. But if you have weighed those costs and still think we need to stick it out then what can I say?

Lastly I want to talk about what we don't know about Obama. We actually know a lot, because if any of those associations were of substance then Obama would have been kicked to the curb by Hillary Clinton. I am sorry but it's true, he has been campaigning for 2 years now and a lot of leads have been followed and they don't go anywhere. Jermiah Wright was just a racist asshole and Obama publicly took a shit on him. McCain did the same thing with a fellow called John Hagee, btw, this happens in every damn election: somebody endorses a candidate who later turns out to be a piece of shit or has said something really stupid a decade ago and the candidate says "Oh you know I don't support these idiots." McCain did it, Obama did it, Bush did it, Kerry did it, Gore did it, etc. etc.

Tony Rezko was some guy who did a fundraiser for Obama, it's a little complicated but there's an article in the Chicago Sun Times about the whole thing here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/w atchdogs/757340,CST-NWS-watchd og24.article Is there something fishy there? Maybe, maybe not. It could go either way and so I leave it to you to decide.

Now on to William Ayers, the flavor of the minute. Yes the dude is a former 60s radical asshole. He served on a foundation with Obama, that's it, nothing else. The foundation was called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and it is funded by a super-rich Republican. And William Ayers got Chicago's Citizen of the Year award in 1997. So if you think that Obama being in the same room as this guy is bad and that he is still some kind of terrorist threat to the USA, then you basically are accusing a very rich Republican guy of financing a known terrorist. I want to make something clear here. Is Ayers an asshole? Yes absolutely, he bombed property and is a chucklefuck. Is he a reformed asshole? Chicago seems to think so. I don't know, I don't live there. The city seems to like him.

There is a lot of information about Obama out there and you can basically just hit Wikipedia to get 90 percent of it. If you still think that he's a radical leftist after reading all of this then I don't know what to say. He's a mildly left moderate as far as I'm concerned.

Also it was fairly clear from the get go that this would be a psychological study of Bush and more of a "family drama/personal drama" than a straight up retelling of his White House follies.

Like Nixon did with Hopkins, much of the film will hang mostly on how Brolin carries the protrayal off. And like Nixon I'm sure most of the surrounding cast will be superb.

And on that note...I leave you with this:

http://tinyurl.com/5uj d6d

No, seriously. PLEASE keep trying to peddle those horseshit smears as you seem oblivious to the effect they are having in the polls and McCains fracturing Campaign.

If only there was a short pithy slogan to sum all this up...

IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!

Yeah, that'll do.

(For those who don't know who this guy is, he is a writer for the ultra-Conservative publication The National Review, which was founded by his father beloved Conservative columnist William Buckley)

" I have known John McCain personally since 1982. I wrote a well-received speech for him. Earlier this year, I wrote in The New York Times—I’m beginning to sound like Paul Krugman, who cannot begin a column without saying, “As I warned the world in my last column...”—a highly favorable Op-Ed about McCain, taking Rush Limbaugh and the others in the Right Wing Sanhedrin to task for going after McCain for being insufficiently conservative. I don’t—still—doubt that McCain’s instincts remain fundamentally conservative. But the problem is otherwise.

McCain rose to power on his personality and biography. He was authentic. He spoke truth to power. He told the media they were “jerks” (a sure sign of authenticity, to say nothing of good taste; we are jerks). He was real. He was unconventional. He embraced former anti-war leaders. He brought resolution to the awful missing-POW business. He brought about normalization with Vietnam—his former torturers! Yes, he erred in accepting plane rides and vacations from Charles Keating, but then, having been cleared on technicalities, groveled in apology before the nation. He told me across a lunch table, “The Keating business was much worse than my five and a half years in Hanoi, because I at least walked away from that with my honor.” Your heart went out to the guy. I thought at the time, God, this guy should be president someday.

A year ago, when everyone, including the man I’m about to endorse, was caterwauling to get out of Iraq on the next available flight, John McCain, practically alone, said no, no—bad move. Surge. It seemed a suicidal position to take, an act of political bravery of the kind you don’t see a whole lot of anymore.

But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

All this is genuinely saddening, and for the country is perhaps even tragic, for America ought, really, to be governed by men like John McCain—who have spent their entire lives in its service, even willing to give the last full measure of their devotion to it. If he goes out losing ugly, it will be beyond tragic, graffiti on a marble bust.

As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament,” pace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous comment about FDR. As for his intellect, well, he’s a Harvard man, though that’s sure as heck no guarantee of anything, these days. Vietnam was brought to you by Harvard and (one or two) Yale men. As for our current adventure in Mesopotamia, consider this lustrous alumni roster. Bush 43: Yale. Rumsfeld: Princeton. Paul Bremer: Yale and Harvard. What do they all have in common? Andover! The best and the brightest.

I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. He is also a lefty. I am not. I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets. On abortion, gay marriage, et al, I’m libertarian. I believe with my sage and epigrammatic friend P.J. O’Rourke that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.

But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr."

http://tinyurl. com/4yeokm

http://tinyurl.co m/4tq8vj

Even if he does read this post (Philvis, the movie in question is called "Primary Colors", Stupid.), you know he'll never go out and rent it, as it hasn't been pre-approved by the local Fox News channel and Legion of Decency as "Morally Safe for viewing". I'm sure it would never occuur to him to see if his local library can get a copy....

Philvis, you ignorant shit - Stone has made it QUITE clear that "W" is more about Bush's CHARACTER (such as it is) than it is about his PRESIDENCY. As you would know, if you watched anything besides FoxNews and Bloomberg....

Oops. Now what? Ya gonna change the subject to, "But it's not about ROSS PEROT!"?

Well, analogues to and satirical of Clinton.

Stop being stupid, you 2, please.

moron.

You live in a socialist state already; it's just that the socialism only benefits corporations and money-lenders.

Damn, I can not stand people who talk with the benefit of a brainstem. I have no idea how you do it.

That is what I take extreme objection too. In no way, shape or how, have we 'finally, clearly, won the war'. That is simply absurd.

As for the larger context, this was an unnecessary war, that was hatched by the fevered world building imaginations of twisted neo-cons with delusions of granduer. It was a huge mistake, then and now. The result will not be a 'spreading of democracy'. It will be a continuing belief that the United States has only it's own best interest in mind, and not those of the people whose country they invade. And BTW I would be all for that region becoming a free and Democratic, but it never comes about at the end of a gun.

First off, all the things you knocked Carter for have happened under Bush. Maybe not to the same extent, but we've got the highest unemployment in years, economists say we're in a recession whether the numbers support it or not and even though the circumstances were different, I saw gas lines for two weeks in my state.

But what Carter DIDN'T do was wipe the Constitution with his ass, increase by leaps and bounds the size of government and the national debt, completely flush our national reputation down the foreign stage toilet, attack a sovereign nation with falsified evidence, take more vacation days than any President in history which is especially disgusting when thousands of troops he sent into Iraq were dying, give the finger to the environment, sit on his ass for a few days while one of his major cities toiled under the second worst hurricane to hit the country and surround himself with the most corrupt and incompetent people to hold public office in modern history.

All the conservative jerkoffs who are only able to bring up what Carter did to our economy as a sign that he was worse than Bush considering the laundry list I just named are fruitcakes that should be declared mental defects. And really now, Carter inherited an economy circling the toilet. The U.S. economy, which had evidenced recovery in the first quarter of 1976, subsequently saw the rate of growth again turn sluggish, unemployment and prices rise, and the 1976 trade balance plunge from major first-half surplus to a drastic deficit. Bush on the other hand inherited a freaking massive surplus and the declining economy when he took office is no excuse for pissing it all away.

And we've achieved victory in Iraq? That's just a moron statement. First off, we don't have a clear enemy there. The insurgents have no national affiliation, can come from any country in Asia or the Middle East and are only kept in check so long as we have an obscene military presence on the ground. That's like saying the dam is repaired because you stuck your finger in the hole.

And lastly good buddy, I gotta completely obliterate any credibility you had by bringing up your oft repeated phrase of "the left being far more vitriolic and hate-filled than the right." If it's anything the recent McCain rallies have proven, it's that the right is clearly the greater source of hatred and racism. What you failed to take into account is that maybe the reason you don't see that side of them online is that those ignorant neanderthals like those slacked jawed yokels at the rallies are about as tech savvy as McCain is, which is to say not at all. They're more likely to use a computer for target practice than to post on a forum.

Democracy is a great institution, but it is not the only one, and even our version is just that - a version! We are a capitalistic/market based Democracy. And recent events should scare the crap out of fledgling democraies that use us as a model. By all means, we should promote freedom of choice, but remember the second word- choice. It is their choice what and if and how much of our brand of Democracy people want. You can not force or impose it.

Obama = self made man

McCain = Slime bag opportunist

Dumb fucking logic. As a citizen of this country you are absolutely entitled to HATE your President. Their decisions affect your life. So grow a brain you fucking dumb apes.

And like I said in my post above, the past few weeks have put to rest the whole "the right is more tolerant" myth.

Between the hatred going on at McCain's rallies, people intentionally referring to Obama as Osama (and I've seen Obama signs on front lawns that have been desecrated with an "S" over the "B"), Christopher Buckley being forced out because of his Obama endorsement (so that's the right-wing tolerance Coughlin refers to?) and the Sacramento GOP putting up banner ads that say "Waterboard Obama" and "Hugo Chavez and Hamas support Obama", um yeah, the right is far more tolerant than the left.

Is the country that he asked to be responsible for, in as good or better shape than when Bush first came into office?

In the Boy Scouts we have a rule: whenever you camp out, you leave the site in better shape than how you first found it. That's also a damn good rule for anybody to live by. Realizing that you aren't the "owner" of this world. That each of us is a steward of this place, for however long God lets us be here. And that should be the ideal mindset of anyone who seeks public office: realizing that he or she *isn't* owed that office or anything else. That he or she asked for the responsibility, and that there's the obligation to use that power and authority wisely. It requires a forsaking of self, for the sake of those that official asked to serve to begin with.

A wise man once noted that a politician thinks about the next election, but a statesman thinks about the next generation.

So in light of that consideration: is Bush the worst ever?

Personally, I think so. He's done FAR more damage to America than LBJ or Carter or Wilson ever did. No President is going to be perfect, but every President (and every other elected person) should have a sincere desire to serve others. Bush never had that. And it got the better of him. His malfeasance will stand as an object lesson in hubris for the next hundred years, if not more.

Sometimes these TB's are really FUN!

Japan was simply occupied and rebuilt as a Western-friendly regime, and Afghanistan - are you SERIOUSLY trying to claim that AFGHANISTAN is a functioning democracy? 90% of native Afghans can't even define the WORD "democracy"....

That was one of my favorite recurring chunks of neo-con revisionism, endlessly repeated after the "WMD's" claim got rammed right back up their asses: "We never said we were invading over WMD's _ the people of Iraq were BEGGING us to come over there and give them a big bushel basket of Democracy! Yeah, THAT'S what happened..."

East Germany had a shared identity with West Germany, and was only communist because it happened to be the territory that the Soviets occupied at the end of World War II. When communism finally collapsed (more because of its own unsustainable bureaucratic weight and that it had gone broke) the German people reunited on their own accord.

The people of Poland likewise labored and endured for their own freedom from the Soviet Empire, led by folks such as Lech Walesa.

The Afghans had already fought the Soviets for ten years. Apart from rendering them military aid (which alone isn't merit for your argument) they crafted their own government (which has had a tumultuous history of its own ever since).

Japan was already becoming a democratic state prior to World War II. Their transition into one can pretty much be traced back to Commodore Perry's boys coming into Tokyo Bay in 1854.

Italy was also already a marginal democracy before Mussolini took over. And speaking of which, it should be pointed out that Hitler's principle rise to power came about because of democracy.

Let's be clear here: if we are going to talk of democracy, then we should understand that this means a people's right to self-government. It does NOT mean that they should have a government in America's own image.

Hell, ours is screwed-up enough as it is. Why should we want to inflict it on any other countries?

I can't fucking believe you are trying to make an argument how the polls are innaccurate. Dude....Virginia? The mere fact that it is even discussed is fucking shocking. The state has not gone blue in over 30 years. This shows how utterly fucked and out of touch your cunt-rag party is.

You are far too ignorant to give me a history lesson motherfucker.

Last I heard they were polling 50/50. Prove me wrong.

“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.”

“From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatist civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.”

“During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacence to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage

Professor Joseph Olsen of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota points out hebelieves the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40% of the nations population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.

Just a tidbit.

Where in the holy hell did you even get the IDEA that I'm anti-Muslim from my post? I went back and re-read it before I started typing here, and for the life of me, I can't see how anybody but an deluded prick with a huge rash where his brain should be could so thoroughly misinterpret that post so as to think that I'm "Opposed" to Arab/Persian/Middle Eastern people in any way....

Let's get something straight, asshole - I'm as big a defender of democracy as anybody you'll ever meet - if for no other reason than it allows dipshits like you to foam at the mouth in a public way that many of us find vastly entertaining.

I think that Democracy would be a pretty goddamn good idea for all mankind - but I also know what Thomas Jefferson said about it: That it's "The Worst Form Of Government On Earth - Except For All The Others." And there are some societies that flat-out just aren't ready for it right now - and I'm NOT saying that they never will be. I'm saying that modern day Wahabiism-style theocracies are perfect examples. As are West Texas Dispensationalist Armageddonists, Asian Steppes freaks that long for the return of Genghis Khan and other similar spiritual termites.

Shit, I give thanks that Arab universities and religious institutions kept the written word and art alive while Europe was going through it's own dark ages 600 years ago. The Persians kept mathematics not only viable, but actually moved it forward while the dogmatic morons of medieval Europe (like you) were trying everything in their power to stamp out learning once and for all. Too bad that kind of backwards thinking eventually poisoned Islam, too. Racist, am I? You Pig Fucker. The last woman I dated before I met my wife was Punjabi, and she was fucking GREAT, and we had to break up because HER tightassed bigot family wouldn't let her see a caucasian unless he was rich enough - but they'd let ANY violent scumbag of her own ethnicity take a swing at her. Last I saw of her she was moving to Atlanta in a hope to get the fuck away from her relatives and live a free, democratic American life - an act I encouraged her to do, at the cost of our own relationship. So Shove It Up Your Ass, you self-righteous Republican son of a bitch....

i can't wait to see it.

blah blah blah

We are without a doubt now firmly in the dependency and bondage stage.

Look at how many here are hostage to the singular mentality of the "Conservative/Liberal" false dichotomy.

If that is not indeed slavery, then I don't know what is.

Pity about that complete fucking idiot Coughlins's spouting more of his misinformed shite.

Doc- that stages thing is brilliant- if America is currently moving between complacency and apathy, then the UK which is a much older democracy (and passed the 200 year threshohold ages ago)is well and truly lodged in Dependance moving back to Bondage (look it up- 42 day detention, forced ID cards, suspension of Habeus Corpus, etc- I could go on and on with this), the NHS is the third largest employer in the world, over 1/3 of all jobs in the UK are government to some degree.

We are what you have to look forward to if you don't do something about you're shitty 2 party system.

Great, great work, gents. Have 1,000,000 internets each.

Socialized medicine, destroyed economy, pulling out of the middle east letting the terrorists take over rebuilding countries.... We're in for a world of pain...

God help us.

Welcome to the Dark Ages.

Please immediately burn all your books.