My Nominee for Post of the Year

From Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog:

JANUARY 20 WAS BARACK OBAMA'S "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" DAY

His troops were valiant and he'd had a brilliant plan for taking the capital, but now we can look back to January 20, 2009, and realize that Barack Obama was naive to think major combat operations had ended. He never saw the insurgency coming. He and his people seemed to think that there simply wouldn't be that kind of factional strife after the old regime fell; they believed that, despite years of tension between the factions, it would end in an instant and the citizens of the country would immediately see themselves as united.

As the insurgency grew and began to make the country ungovernable, the Obama team and its allies downplayed it as a ragtag collection of end-timers who'd soon be irrelevant. His troops knew how to wage a traditional campaign, but hadn't given serious thought to the problem of dealing with a chaotic aftermath. When it came to the "postwar" period, Obama never really had a plan.

His forces simply have no training in this kind of warfare. Now they have to learn on the fly, and their learning curve seems to be slow. They appear to believe that the forces they're now fighting are thinking traditionally -- they can't seem to accept the fact that the enemy genuinely wants anarchy and a failed state.

How Obama deals with this insurgency will be the main test of his presidency.

Bipartisanship is a crock. I didn't vote for Charles Grassley for Congress, but Obama seems content to let that rightwing nutjob write the healthcare legislation. Get off the mat and fight Baracky or yours will be a one-term Presidency.

Libertarian Paradise

Funny and topical as Republicans froth at the mouth and call Obama and Dems socialists. Horrors!

Jon Stewart Watches Fox News So You Don't Have To

Fox News is apparently in full panic mode over the election of Barack Obama. Run for your lives, wingnuts!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Fox News Fear Imbalance

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

The McCain Campaign of Hate

Politico: An AFP shot from this morning in Virginia Beach.

The state chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, Jeff Frederick, told a group of Virginia volunteers that Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden "both have friends who bombed the Pentagon, that is scary."

That is, of course, a bald-faced lie, and a transparent attempt to once again call Obama a terrorist.

From the Washington Post:

Yesterday, Frederick said he stood by the comparison, even though bin Laden planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon that killed 184 people and Obama was a child and hadn't met Ayers when the Weather Underground planted a bomb at the Pentagon in 1972. No one was hurt in that blast, in which a bomb exploded in a restroom and caused flooding and damage to computer tapes containing classified information.

Ayers did not participate at the Pentagon in the bombing but admitted to involvement in other blasts.

And what of John McCain? How did he respond to this baseless smear, Mr. I'm-Going-To-Run-A-Respectful-Campaign John McCain?

He refused to condemn the remarks.

The video of McCain once again taking the low, hateful road:



John McCain looks smaller and smaller as his campaign sputters to its end. He has no economic plan, so this is all he has left.

New Obama Ad: "Lose"

Great takeaway line: "With no plan to fix our economy, smears are all McCain has left."

President Stupid Campaigns for Obama in Israel

Bush addressed the Israeli Knesset yesterday and accused Obama of appeasing terrorists. He compared Obama's intent to conduct diplomacy with enemies as well as friends to Neville Chamberlain's (and France and Italy's) decision to cede part of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in 1938.

President Stupid, C+ Augustus himself, a legacy admission and hard partier, apparently missed the part of his Ivy League education where "appeasement" and "diplomacy" were defined:

Appeasement, literally: calming, reconciling, acquiring peace by way of concessions or gifts...

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states.

Talking does not mean giving away gifts or concessions. Apparently President Stupid missed that distinction. So did John W. McSame, 5th from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, also a legacy admission (son and grandson of admirals) and hard partier. "[McSame] used the opportunity to argue again that Obama's willingness to negotiate shows he is naive and inexperienced in the ways of foreign policy."

Yeah, negotiation would be a terrible course. Foolish warmongering has been working out so well for the past eight years. Not that Private Plane McCain has had to pump gas since he married Multimillionaire Heiress Cindy McCain 25 years ago.

Of course, McCain was for talks with Hamas in 2006. Before he decided to throw all his previous positions into the wind to get the Republicans nomination for President, he had this exchange on Sky News:

Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:

I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

Joe Biden has been all over the airwaves skewering President Stupid and defending Obama. Perhaps auditioning for Secretary of State? He's looked good on this issue, but I cringe remembering his clumsy questioning of Supreme Court nominees Roberts and Alito, or the dozens of times he pronounced we had "one last shot" at getting it right in Iraq.

Hillary also stepped up nicely in defense of the opponent who has vanquished her. (Word is that Clinton advisers are planning her exit strategy. Making with nice with Obama and attacking McCain are an excellent way to start. In the same vein, she also stated yesterday that voting for McCain over Obama would be a "terrible mistake". No kidding.)

It will be nice to have a smart President again. Please God let our long national nightmare, George W. Bush, be history in November.

The Media Are A Serious Fucking Problem

TocqueDeville, dailykos: Why Obama Really Lost Pennsylvania

These are the people, more than any others, that shape American politics. The editorial boards of the major papers, a few columnists, and of course talk radio personalities have an influence. But nothing compares to this crowd. They set the tone and the terms of our national discussion. And they can move poll numbers like a toy.

And for the last two months, they have waged an all out assault on Barack Obama. It is unfortunate that the term "swiftboat", when used as a verb, is attributed to the small group of hacks that made a few videos lying about John Kerry's war record. Because the real swiftboating didn't come from them. It came from the crowd shown above.

There will always be political hacks. People who lie, and try to make mountains out of flag pins. But it is only with the amplification and distortion of the our political discourse, facilitated by the babbling class above, that these hacks are allowed to have an impact.

It is simply incredible to watch now, as pundit after pundit, including some of our allies, act bewildered as to why Obama didn't win Pennsylvania when he spent so much money, as though the last two months never happened. As though the Reverend Wright swiftboating never happened. As though the NAFTA ploy never happened. As though the "bitter" ploy never happened. As though the ABC "debate" never happened.

Of course it wasn't just the swiftboating of the media that worked against Obama. Kos accurately lays out a few other factors. But let's face it. We have a serious fucking problem on our hands. Even with the growing online movement, and expanding penetration of progressive-like media into the mass communications bubble, the power of the establishment media to manipulate public opinion is still beyond compare.

Another Corporation Smears Democrats

RawStory: An image of bondage gear is then shown, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi then depicted in a dominatrix outfit while the associated jingle declares that "Love is free with Pelosi":
This time it's Blue Mountain Greeting Company, a subsidiary of American GreetingsInteractive which is owned by American Greetings.

I won't be buying any American Greetings cards until I see a full, widely-disseminated apology for this crap. Of course, there is no Love Republican Style card. It wouldn't be as easy to photoshop the Rethugs stealing our money to give it to Halliburton and oil companies. And the images of Abu Ghraib aren't exactly holiday fare.

RawStory: National greeting card company carrying 'Love Democratic style' card with Pelosi, others in bondage