The Colin Powell Countdown Calendar

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge I was blown away by Powell's endorsement of Obama and televised spanking of McCain and Palin. Powell has always had the ability to formulate his sentences in a manner that is plain spoken yet leaves no question about what he said. John McCain sucks and General Colin Powell knows it. What will the McCain response will be? I think he can only respond in one way and that is to start tearing down Colin Powell. So here is my question, how long will it take for someone to call General Colin Powell gay, a Muslim or a socialist? Limbaugh has already called Powell a racist, so socialist can't be too far away.

Can All These Joes Be Wrong?

Note: The cartoon is the logo of the real Joe the Plumber in Amarillo. Send him some business, I'm told that he's an Obama guy. If his website takes off because of all this attention maybe he can switch from actual plumbing to an online plumbing advice column. Bob The month began with Sarah Palin celebrating her campaign's close identification and long association with "Joe Six Pack," the mythic every man vision of America that he and they dream that they represent. Then in last night's "debate" came "Joe the Plumber," a guy who claims that he wants to buy a business which "makes" 250k a year and he's worried about Obama's tax policies. Who's next, Joe Bananas, Joe Cool, Joe Mama? Forgetting for the moment that I have strong suspicions that "Joe the Plumber" is a ringer. Yes, nefarious as it sounds I'm afraid that Joe may be, a not too carefully selected, and poorly rehearsed plant from the McCain camp. He was probably chosen by the same group of desperately drunken political geniuses who trotted out Sarah Palin. Joe the plumber should probably rethink this entrepreneurship thing if he believes that a business that "makes" 250k a year means that he will have an income at that level. A good plumber working steadily by himself with occasional labor help is doing extremely well to gross a quarter of that. If he has a fleet, (say ten or so) of trucks and plumbers, journeymen, apprentices and laborers, after subtracting all the labor costs, the cost of running a fleet of trucks, licenses, insurance, workman's compensation, accounting, professional and trade dues, the occasional legal fee, and a grand old pile of headache and ulcer remedies he might achieve an income of two thirds that figure. At that level he will remain well beyond the reach of the sinister tax increases that he has been told to fear. But this isn't about Joe is it? Joe is just a caricature of what the McPalins and the conservative ruling class they represent, views as a typical member of America's hands on working class, the beefcake entrepreneur, their delusional "hard hat" wet dream. I tried to point out in a "loose sally of the mind" last week the error in assuming that any one can predict who Joe Six Pack will vote for, or guess what information and how much information he (or she) will base their decision on. Joe Six Pack or Joe the Plumber is all over the map politically; he has, at times, been the core supporter of the "New Deal," an avid participant in the Great Society as well as a reactive member of the "Silent Majority" and the "Reagan Revolution." I share a few jars several times a week with several different versions of Joe and Jill and just when I think that I have them figured out they surprise me by doing or saying something that is outside of the character I had assigned them. Guess the fluctuations of the stock market if you will, come up with a system for roulette or carry water up the hill bare handed, read tea leaves, but leave Joe and his brothers and sisters out of your prognostications; they will only disappoint and embarrass you. Bob Higgins Worldwide Sawdust Related stories: Different 'Joe the Plumber' strikes 'Net gold Purging Joe the plumber?

A miracle brewing in West By-God Virginia

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge Voting for a Black Man (tm) in West Virginia is a new concept which is strangely being embraced by the people of the Mountain State. Having lived my early years and having most of my family come from West Virginia, I am shocked beyond belief that West Virginians are supporting Obama. When I was in 5th Grade in Athens, WV, there was on African American in our school. The horrific verbal and racist abuse she took was unimaginable. That was 32 years ago and maybe things have changed dramatically over that period. Maybe I am shocked because I still see WV through the lens of my family that still lives there. My wife and I wonder if one of my uncles (hard right-wing nut) will vote for McCain because he hates Blacks so much or will he vote for Obama because the Republicans have wiped out his retirement? I think he will vote for Obama because money tends to win out over hate. Remember the Montgomery Bus Boycott? The Whites of Montgomery, Alabama refused to let Blacks ride in the front of the bus - but once Dr. King organized a boycott of the bus lines, funds for the bus lines dried up and they city capitulated. Money won out. Maybe money will win out in West Virginia in November. The state has never been awash in cash, the state has mostly been looted of natural resources and the cash ended up in the private bank accounts of the coal barons. But West Virginians certainly notice when what few dollars they have disappear. Most live so close to the bone, a slight increase in gas prices can have tremendous impacts on household budgets, so when gas hits 4 bucks, it is a disaster. A total, economic disaster. Now, add on top of that the job losses, shrinking college grants, a panicked stock market and vanishing retirement savings you then see the ugly picture that is the West Virginia economy. Miracles can happen... they can happen in West Virginia.

An Endorsement, a Condemnation and an Election Reflection

During the 1968 election, one of the keystones of Dick Nixon's campaign was his "plan to end the war in Vietnam." Of course he had no real plan, or, if he did it was a poor one, evidenced by the fact that the war dragged on for seven brutal years after that sad election season. It has been said in some quarters that the "plan" Nixon alluded to, but never spelled out, was a nutty scheme (nutty schemes seem to abound in the halls of power) to have Kissinger convince the Russians that Tricky Dick was just batshit crazy enough to use nuclear weapons if the North Vietnamese would not come to the table and end the war on his terms. History has shown that Nixon was nuts enough. So was and is, Henry the K, but the Vietnamese, after fighting a collection of Yankees, French, Japanese and Chinese among others, for uncountable hundreds of years weren't impressed with new and improved threats, from new and unimproved enemies. They had been hardened over the centuries to leave early for work knowing that they might have to bury their dead or rebuild a bridge or two on the way. They would not be cowed by threats of death and destruction; death and destruction was all around them, forever. Some might say that their difficult history made the Vietnamese nuttier than Dick Nixon but I'll leave that to the scholars and shrinks of history. After all, most of the witnesses are dead. The presence of whackos and sociopaths at the highest levels of government is not a new thing, we have seen Caligula, and Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler, the Bushes and Cheneys, Saddam and Kim il Sung, but I believe that “extreme erratic eccentricity” in power is, unfortunately, a growing trend. There are hundreds of rising stars and starlets of the future of political and religious subjugation and terror waiting in the wings or auditioning on corporate and theocratic casting couches as I write this. As people, (the voting public,) continue to divorce themselves from the affairs of their own governance, continue to abrogate their fundamental responsibility to maintain a decent awareness of, and control over, their own public affairs, they open the door ever wider to the cold dark winds of tyranny and oppression. People around here set their deadbolts at night; they make sure the kids put the bikes in the garage. They protect their property, their stuff. They keep their cash in the safe or a bank. (Perhaps not so much this week) The bikes and snowmobiles will be there in the morning but what of their freedoms? What of the rule of law, what of their democracy? While we were busy obsessively obtaining, and guarding our wealth and its trappings, bigger SUVs, more palatial drywall estates, we left our only truly necessary and sacred possessions, things like liberty, privacy and due process, out on the lawn, discarded it seems as unnecessary abstractions. Thieves and opportunists, both public and private, came and stole them in broad daylight. They practically rang the doorbell and announced what they were about. We paid no attention. The way they marketed their programs made it sound as if we would profit. I think that they scammed us, I'm afraid that they will be back for the rest, the tangible as well as the abstract; I fear that they want, and will have, it all. I've listened to John Sidney McCain III for many years. I’ve lived through several of his ever more pathetic and increasingly panicky runs for the one office that he believes will enable him to prove to his father and grandfather that he is worthy of their respect, in spite of his record. (Does that not sound like a “cover” of a record that we’ve heard for years?) John Sidney McCain III says that he knows where Osama bin Laden is. "I can get him," he says with Nixonian certainty, as he continues to insist that we must continue to fight bin Laden where we know that he isn't. He claims that he knows how to put Americans back to work as he fights against workers rights, the minimum wage, social security and colludes with powerful interests which would deny them health care. He tells us that he has a "plan" to solve the financial crisis, after telling us that it doesn't exist. Why is he hiding this important information? Does he really have a plan? He does not, only people who readily believe his opportunistic pandering, the malicious lies being spread by him and his "running Babe," and other cynical surrogates speaking on their behalf, believe that he has a plan for anything broader than the continued aggrandizement of himself, his family and his wealthy friends and cronies. I think John Sidney McCain III is an exceptional fraud. Had he not been the son and grandson of admirals he probably would not have made it through the Naval Academy, nor would he have been permitted to continue flying after his third crash due to pilot error. Had he been cashiered (at least grounded) after wrecking that third aircraft he would have been saved a long imprisonment and we would have been protected from the sad spectacle of an embittered old man desperately grasping for a presidency that he has come to believe is his birthright, his "lifetime achievement award." He claims to be a patron saint of America's veterans. He is not. His record on veteran's issues is shameful. I am a disabled veteran; I pay attention to "patron saints." No I don't believe that he should have been commissioned a Naval Officer and should never have held an office of public trust. His willing and eager involvement in the Keating five affair, his everlasting closeness with dozens of the most powerful and probably the most destructive lobbyists in Washington, and his gambling habit, (Senators, Presidents rolling dice in casinos?) has shown him incapable of honoring that trust. He certainly should never be trusted to replace the current sociopath in chief. America, what's left of it, cannot afford another decade of wanton abuse of power and privilege, of wanton theft from the public treasury, of wanton waste of the lives of our children and grandchildren. Like George Bush John Sidney McCain III was a coddled child of privilege, propped up at every turn by family name and money. In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches. From "Make-Believe Maverick " By Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone John Sidney McCain III is an anti intellectual of the first order. No surprise there, as his party, or the modern version of it, has made anti intellectualism a cornerstone of its appeal to its base, that voter they call "Joe Six Pack." As an aside, that pisses me off because I am Joe Six Pack as are most of my friends and most of us are Democrats or Independents of varying degrees of liberality who despise what John Sidney McCain III represents. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Gimme a beer. They hate the "scholarly elite," deride legitimate research, deny climate change, evolution, gravity, and "publicly" despise gerund endings. They build museums with "Barney riding Dino" exhibits and try to sell it as “creation science education?" Back in 79 or so I took a class at the Chicago Planetarium, titled "New Frontiers in Cosmology." The class was taught by David Schramm, a professor of astrophysics from the University of Chicago. During those few months, Dr. Schramm changed how I viewed the world by successfully inserting into the mind of this untutored layman a delightful stew which he made from a mixture of the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, particle physics, and nuclear physics. I have enjoyed few things in life as much as I enjoyed his teaching and his company. Dave was a class act, a well respected, inspired, passionate, wild haired man of science. I was overwhelmed with his brilliance and his almost childlike enthusiasm. I think the class cost me $75.00. My guess is that it was presented to the public as part of one of those evil "government grants." During the last “debate” John Sidney McCain III castigated Barack Hussein Obama (I'm not afraid of him or his name) for the expenditure of three million dollars for a new overhead projector. McCain was, or acted outraged. I think John Sidney McCain III equates the word "projector" with Lone Ranger and Tonto movies flickering on the wall of a darkened room of his childhood. Any time the Chicago Planetarium or any institute of legitimate research and learning wants to spend a few million bucks on an incredible learning tool, to bring scientific knowledge to the public, I say, "buy it." The anti intellectuals of the McPalin camp be damned. They would rather spend public money on death, destruction or giveaways to already wealthy swindlers. Trillions to Wall Street flimflam men, hundreds of billions to defense cronies, oil cronies and merchants of death, but declare holy war over a few million for research which might save a species, educate the public or provide health care and education for children, rebuild our infrastructure and move us to renewable fuels. The only "steady hands on the tiller' in my lifetime have been attached to the wrists of Democrats. Hell, I have a plan too. Get rid of these damn Republicans. Again, thanks, I needed that. At every whistle stop, (do campaign planes have whistles?) John Sidney McCain III asks, "Who is Barack Obama,” do we really know who he is? I think that I know Barack Obama well, because I know John Sidney McCain III very well and the contrast between these two men is profound in every way. The recent counterpoint of public appearances, of debate, of Vice Presidential choices, the demeanor of their wives and families, and the conduct of their campaigns has exposed an overwhelming and obvious fact. There is only one person in this race qualified to be the President of my America. I'm voting for "that one." Barack Obama for President. Bob Higgins Worldwide Sawdust

McCain to Black America: You Don’t Matter

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge Last night's debate was a huge loss and campaign mess for the McCain camp. McCain clearly lost the debate, even Fox News agrees to this. McCain lost RedState.com readers and Free Republicers - his core wingnuts. But more importantly McCain displayed his internal racial hatred for African Americans. Last night when he was asked a question by a member of the audience, McCain would turn and face them, in fact, he would get right in front of them and engage the questioner one-on-one. He even shook the hand of one man. This is true unless you were Black. When Blacks asked the question, McCain treated each one with disrespect. He called one Black gentleman the wrong name, he was condescending to another in reference to Fannie Mae and then there was Ingrid. Ingrid, a Black woman, asked McCain a question on how he would get Congress moving fast to on environmental issues. McCain didn't look her in the eye, he turned his back to her and started chatting with a white guy. This is more evidence of what I call McCain's Folksy Racism, they are non-verbal cues, body language that belies the true feelings of an individual. He embraces the White folks and ignores the Blacks. Probably the thing that makes him the most angry is that he cannot ignore Obama. Lastly, I found it remarkable that McCain left the debate floor within seconds of the end of the debate, the Obamas, hung-out and shook hands and took pictures with the audience. This went on for awhile... and the news outlets let the cameras roll.