Blagojevich: How I missed thee!!!! Er: How I will miss thee!!!

I was just thinking yesterday, in fact, that we hadn't heard from Rod Blagojevich lately. Considering myself a Daughter of Illinois, I was concerned about the troubled former Governor. Concern myself no more: he's back in the news!!!

Beyond all the other things he'd be facing (conspiracy and fraud charges), he was also indicted today by a Grand Jury on 16 felony charges.

In a completely unrelated story, the state of Illinois will be holding elections to replace the guy Blago appointed to replace Obama. Burris it turns out did try to help Blago's campaign but failed. So, the State of Illinois is scraping the bottom of the barrel. They can't even get successful corrupted officials.

We will never get anyone elected from Illinois in the White House again. We are smeared.

Head's Up: An early and incomplete version of Wolverine origins has been leaked unto the web. Sounds more like a viral campaign. But spokedevils... sorry, spokespeople for 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, are claiming they will prosecute the culprit to the fullest extant of the law. Wow, all that for a song and dance man from down under who put on some claws and growled.

Don't download it. At least wait till its out in theaters to pirate a film. Have some decency will ya (I don't promote piracy. Its against the law hence the word PIRACY. Don't do it if you know whats good for you).

Stocks make it a 3 day rally but small business lending is down 57%. Well, thank you news people for raining on whatever parade we had going!!!

Life on Mars ended. Jury is still out on whether the ending hit the mark. Not sure if anyone noticed this rare gem of a show. Not sure if anyone notices anything anymore.

Tonight, ER ends and as many entertainment critics are saying, its the end of an era. The 2nd golden age of television is over. Now the better shows are on cable. They're right. But having those shows on the big network that only require bunny ears (oops... not even that is enough anymore) was nice. So long ER. I'm gonna miss ya! With BSG gone, I have like nothing left to watch. Which is really ok.

They threw the bum out!

Milorad Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, was removed from office after a brief, and famously boycotted, Impeachment trial. The Illinois State Senate voted 59-0, with one vote at the end caught in a technical glitch, to remove the 52-year-old father of two from office for alleged abuse of power. The Governor has been accused of using the Senate seat recently vacated by now President Barak Obama to leverage political and individiual gain. Though he claims that he was trying to gain projects for the people of Illinois, tapes of recorded conversations, obtained by the FBI, allegedly prove otherwise. It has been released that within the tapes are conversations where Blagojevich attempts to procure lucrative jobs for himself and his wife.

End yourself!

The Senate confirmed Geitner. I actually sat through Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, go on about all the economic woes besieging our great nation. It made me want to commit suicide. How the hell are we going to ever get out of this hole?

Geitner has been praised up and down mostly by Democrats such as the aforementioned Dodd and Harry Reid of Nevada. When the vote happened almost all Democrats voted for him. All (not including Al Franken. He's still here in Minnesota, twiddling his thumbs) but 3 Democrats voted against the confirmation: Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Robert Byrd from West Virginia, the oldest and cootiest coot in the Senate and the Dean (I think Byrd is lonely now that Ted Stevens is a criminal and Ted Kennedy is in the process of kacking Both named Ted...). Eleven Republicans also voted against him. This includes John McCain, Susan Collins, Richard Lugar and Arlen Specter. These are republicans Obama wants to bring into his sphere of influence. There may already be problems. The margin 60-34 which according to Bloomberg news, is the smallest margin for confirmation of Treasury Secretary. Wow. Someone had little to nothing to do.

Seriously, I'm gonna start using "Honest Mistake" on my tax forms pre-emptively. If they come after me for soing them badly I won't even fall back on ill-written tax code. I'll just invoke the Geitner doctrine. During the White House Press Briefing one astute reporter asked that if say Wesley Snipes, a notorious tax evader, were to have been nominated, would he too have seen his tax case handled with kid gloves? Compelling... Nah! Now that Geitner's done we got Daschle to look forward to now. Oh, break out the popcorn!

On to other things. Rod Blagojevich continues his media blitz. He is now officially a broken record. He need only record himself citing the 6th Amendment, presumption of innocence and the non-contextual snippets of recordings of him speaking with censored expletives. Is there anyone that is convinced that this man is actually telling the truth? He's a democrat so if he can't even get to believe in his so-called good intentions, then he's as good as dead.

Lets make something clear: Impeachment trials are not Judicial Trials. There is no burden of proof. FOR ANYONE! Its a political process that has more to do with viability and public trust than aftual verdits of guilt! It basically amounts to the Illinois State Senate believing that they have cause enough to show him the door.

Blagojevich knows he's toast. He's doing this blitz with several possibilities in mind. 1) He's tryin to taint the prospective jury pool. This may or not be the case. He is a former prosecuter who has gone on record saying that he is censoring himself from talking about details of a pending criminal trial. He has also commented that he thinks this a good choice. I concede that he may honorable on this issue. Or is he? The fact remains, when the public has little to no access to the evidence, we can't verify what he is or isn't leaking. He may well be telling enough to taint future jury pools and just enough.

2) He's gunning for a book deal. Everyone can write a book these days. Someone gave Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris all book deals so its not much of a stretch to imagine that scenario. Sarah Palin, aka Moose Hunter Barbie, is hoping to snag a $11M book deal. (Really. She really is a self-important hack.) I can see that possibility. By upping the ante and taking his case to the American People, likening himself to Gandhi, MLK and Nelson Mandela and referring to his trial as a an West shootout, he has created a very important ingredient in National politics and public relations: a brand. You need a brand to sell peanut butter and you also need one to sell yourself to the public whether that be food, a tv, a talk show, President or a failed but colorful former governor from one of the most politically corrupt states in the Union. Yeah...

3) He really is pleading his case to the people of Illinois. Realizing that most state news outlets will be more concerned with the Impeachment trial proceedings, he got the last outlet left to him. National Media needs something else besides the latest Obama event like going to the bathroom and kissing his daughters good night. But if he thinks this may actually win the people over, good luck! I consider myself an Illinoisan. Its where my hometown is (Bloomington-Normal, just northeast of Springfield). I still have family living there. On election night, I had a long conversation with my sister, Mary. I would describe my sister as a casual politico. She's not a junkie, an addict or a fanatic such as I am. But even she hated Blago then and knew of plenty of people who wanted him out of office... in November! You think finding out that he might also be guilty of corruption, abuse of power and... oh yeah.... extortion. Keep digging!

Besides, he's got two daughters and his wife lost her job as a fundraiser. And she's also named in the probe of the Governor. Turns out there are questions about her receiving commissions from state contractors and Rod's political supporters when she was still engaged in her real estate business. I think the Blagojeviches should take a hint from the Gov's aforementioned westerns and get the hell out of Dodge!

Thats it from here. Its freaking cold as hell and I think I have frostbite on my toes. No joke. If they turn black and fall off I'll blog about and include snazzy pictures. Till then!

Let it go, Ann...

It's been awhile.

I have have some of the worst 6 months of my life. I worked a despicable job, had a disastrous love affair, health problems and an abysmal semester. And along the way there was an election. We got now President Barack Obama. I really don't have to talk about this. I think there has been more words written about him in the past year than the entirety of literature proceeding his candidacy.

What I do want to bring up is someone I cannot stand: Ann Coulter. I can't stand her mostly because she is the reason Conservatives are so easy to mock (and rile). There have been great SNAFUs on her part such as claiming that Jews needed to be perfected and that women should not be able to vote because they don't understand money. But recently she posted in her own column a rather interesting tidbit.

When will the first reporter ask President Obama to admit that he has made mistakes? Try: Never.

No, that question will disappear for the next four years. It will be replaced by the new question for conservatives on every liberal's lips these days: Do you want Obama to succeed as president?

Answer: Of course we do. We live here, too.

But merely to ask the question is to imply that the 60 million Americans who did not vote for Obama are being unpatriotic if they do not wholeheartedly endorse his liberal agenda.

I take issue with the question "Do you want Obama to succeed as president?" The reason I take issue with this is because of the question that was asked to liberals about the war in Iraq. "Don't you want the war to succeed?" We argued that this was a loaded question. It was a question that was just as bad as "When did you stop beating your wife?" These are unanswerable questions. And Miss Coulter has a very short memory to not remember this fact. She also shows that her sense of humor is pretty much non-existent.

In addition, Miss Coulter also went on to rail about liberals:

Liberals always have to play the victim, acting as if they merely want to bring the nation together in hope and unity in the face of petulant, stick-in-the-mud conservatives. Meanwhile, they are the ones booing, heckling and publicly fantasizing about the assassination of those who disagree with them on policy matters.

Doth mine ears heareth whining? Whining is something that Ann Coulter has turned into an artform. It has enabled her to sell trite little books calling people names and laying down baseless claims and smug arrogance that the radical right laps up. As educated as she is, she uses more anecdotal evidence than facts. Or she does the most dangerous thing: generalizes. These leads to stereotypes and prejudices. This leads me to make the following statement.

Politicsm. Racism is, God willing, slowly receding though far from being history. It is not acceptable among polite society. But hating people of another party is completely acceptable. Telling lies about that party, those ideas and those who represent that party are perfectly fine. But no less disgusting. I call it politicsm for now due to the lack of another word.

As long as Ann Coulter uses unsubstantiated claims and views on liberals, or anyone for that matter, she will not have any respect from this Libertarian. She is only helping herself I might add. The arguments she uses against liberals can and do apply to everyone.

[Liberals] viciously attack all while wailing that they are the true victims.

but also states in the same text, Guilty, that

Liberals seem to have hit upon a reverse Christ story as their belief system. He suffered and died for our sins; liberals make the rest of us suffer for sins we didn’t commit.

People portray themselves as victims while viciously attacking the other side because, um, that's what humans do. We do in arguments with family, coworkers, the legal system... Ann Coulter seems to have a problem: self-awareness. Does she realize she is guilty herself of the very things she is angry about? Or would that be right up there with money and be too difficult for her to understand? She doesn't seem capable of turning the other cheek instead she is on the offensive with obvious defensive motivations. I do think if she is that hypocritical then her book titles like Slander, Treason, Godless, Guilty... actually fit her...?

I don't know how Andrew Stein was capable of dating her. Once.

After all that, I have nothing more to add. Listen to Democracy Now! for today for some stuff I really dig. David Korten is someone I can so get behind! He has great ideas that are congruent and complimentary to many of my political ideas.

You can check out Ann Coulter's column (if you must) here. You can also subscribe to Democracy Now! if you'd like.

This looks like a job for Superman!!

There plenty of things to discuss. I have taken a great deal of time away from this blog due to things that are beyond my control. Needless to say, I'm glad to back blogging. I will not be posting me World War II blogs in their entirety here. I will also be starting a new blog about Internet Radio.

Recently, I switched from Windows Vista which is a ghastly excuse for an OS to Linux. Specifically, I went running to Ubuntu. I am happy to be rid of Windows at the moment but time will tell if Ubuntu is the right OS for me. There are compliance issues to resolve.

So, to move on and keep this short. It should not be news to anyone that Hillary is out of the race. Now we can get down to ripping Obama and McCain to shreds. May the last man standing be worthy of the office! It seems that things are getting considerably worse everyday. This is why I'm not really blogging. What do I have to blog about? There are more crises going in this country then I have blogs for! And I don't think I can add anything to the vitriol that is already stewing.

Since I'm not going to add to it, I'm going to just make a not of something. Seventy years ago (technically in April), something different popped onto the pop culture landscape. Was it a bird? Was it a plane? no, it was Superman!

Boy could we use you now!

The man in the red, yellow and blue kick started a new genre of storytelling and solidified a medium. There have been many superheroes since Superman that are as diverse as the writers who dream them up. But Superman was the quintessential superhero and many are variations on the theme.

I also want to note that from 1938 until some time into World War II saw the United States at the height of its pop art. Music, Film, Illustration and even photography, had some its finest hours during these years. Some might theorize that hard times make us hope for a better tomorrow but since we still have to live with the pain of today, a little escapism couldn't hurt.

Another Round: Primary & Cartoons

Funny Pictures

And just because its funny..... Howard Dean.... alone......

McCain wins big; Dems split vote

So, Super Tuesday has happened.

Mike Huckabee was definitely the surprising force of the night. He started out winning West Virginia which had a convention. This began Mitt Romney's cry that there was some backroom deal between McCain and Huckabee. Here's why: the WV convention is basically run as two rounds of voting. After the first round, when the McCain supporters realized there was no way they could win, moved their support to Huckabee.

I will address this on two fronts. First, there has been some suspicion that McCain has bee n making deals ala Survivor to gain the nomination of the Republican Party. It has been suggested that he asked Thompson, who stood no legitimate chance of winning, to stay in through South Carolina to run interference for McCain. The same thing is believed to have occurred with Rudy Guiliani in Florida. Guiliani and McCain are known to be friends as Thompson is as well. McCain tends to appeal the center and has political friends who are centrists. I'll even throw Colin Powell in there though I've never read that they were friends but I can definitely see the two of them getting along. Hell, Joe Lieberman is running around with McCain!!! Maybe that bothers the conservatives: a liberal Connecticut Orthodox Jew is supporting a Republican.

Second, that's politics!!!! Anyone knows that those things happen. Its the nature of the game. Even though Romney outspent both his opponents by millions, it was all for not. And he cried foul after that West Virginia convention which was the first contest called of the day. What a whiny, little pussy!

Though I will grant this: McCain is winning for some unexplainable reason. He didn't win the conservative vote. The Southern Cons went for Huckabee and the Northern cons went for Romney. He won amongst moderate Republicans who are anti-war (which he is not) and those in favor of aboritionrights (which I won't try to qualify him on. He is pro-life but has also been on record saying the alternative would be worse). I like him because he is pragmatic. I like someone who is more concerned with being practical and making sense than satisfying idealogues who want someone to do their bidding. McCain has been rebellious since about the age of 8 and is unapologetically so. I want a president who thinks for himself. The alternative is a government run by committee.

Radio blowhards are just attacking him. Conservative Talk Radio is just plain babble. These village idiots with their radio soapboxes are ranting about how they cannot stand the other side. Rush Limbaugh vilifies McCain for reaching across the aisle to work with the other party. All Limbaugh is doing is proofing the rest of the country right: Conservatives are smug, hateful and cold people who would rather hate their fellow American than learn to live with them.

And I hate (not really, but it sure sounds good) to break it to Conservative Republicans but he is the last hope for your broken down, mean little party. This is the party that gave us Abraham Lincoln who felt that after the Civil War, the north should reach out to help the South and not grind the Confederate states under the northern boot. Somehow, I feel that empathy is missing.

Americans are tired of the "My way or the highway" approach to politics. It is fracturing this country and is leading us down the path of destruction. People are fed up with neo-conservatism. True conservatism, which is what McCain is closer to, is preferable compared to the shit that Bush, Limbaugh and all their ilk keep shoveling down our throats. I think they're poor sports and bad losers just like Romney.

On the Democratic side there isn't really much to talk about. Hillary lost her voice in the days leading up to the primaries. She was fighting a cold. She cried at one point on Monday. When all was said and done, she had won the more populous states whilst Obama had taken the less populous ones but more of them.

The races coming up on Saturday: Louisiana, the caucus in Washington, Democrats in Nebraska, Republicans in Kansas and as well as the Democratic primary in the Virgin Islands which like American Samoa, can vote in primary but has no voice in the general election. On Sunday, Maine holds its Democratic primary in Maine. There will be a Potomac primary is next Tuesday. This is a primary that I am more interested in. It is the states of Virginia and Maryland and Washington, D.C. Look for LOTS of press on that day. it won't be near the juggernaut that last night was but it will be important.

Tidbits: Clinton saying "missourah". She's from Illinois. She should be saying Misery.

Super Tuesday Countdown T-24 hours

Back to the Blog!!! In the past month, the Primary season has started. Since that time we've had a few casualties in the race for President. on the Republican side, Thompson and Guiliani are gone. On the Democratic side, Richardson and Edwards are gone.

Feasably, this leaves McCain and Romney to duke it out for the Republican nomination with Huckabee trying to get in and Ron Paul throwing rotten tomatoes from the stands. I will reveal that I was pulling for Ron Paul in September. Since then I wavered. But we'll get to that...

On the Democratic side, its really down to two people: Hillary & Obama. I don't think a lot of people call her Clinton. Either we don't want to confuse some people, taint her or she's a woman and women weren't typically referred by their last name back in the bay. Whatever it is, I don't call her Clinton either.

I miss Edwards. He made me laugh. I am now torn between these two who impress me and then disappoint me in one breath it seems.... everyday. I suppose that is the nature of politics: Never getting exactly what you want. It ain't Burger King. Which reminds me...

Ok, one whopper later...

I want to talk a bit about my political history... yeah.... Back in the early '90's, I swallowed what my parents said and didn't think for myself. But eventually, I did. I decided to be pro-life, anti-gun (which my parents were, too), but particularly, anti-Christian coalition. Back in 1994, the Republicans took over Congress after decades of Democratic rule there. It was an orgy of Republican happiness. But the Christian Coalition bothered me. And I could not quite put my finger on it until I learned more about my country. The whole State and Religion thing. Its not wrong for someone to run according to their faith. But it is inherently wrong to run a country according to a person's faith. Why? Because even Baptists can't agree with each other!!! You think other faiths can, too? No, a secular nation with laws based on moral (not Christian) principles is best, in my ever so humble opinion.

I completely switched parties at the age of 16 which isn't saying much since I couldn't vote for two more years. But I started to pay attention and get to know people. I was interested in politics even then. And it was a lot harder to get immersed into something when the Internet was still crawling. We had access but there wasn't really information. Therefore, I watched a lot of CNN and a ton of C-SPAN. I had the C-SPAN schedule memorized. And when 2 came along, oh happy day!!! I eventually began to notice this guy from Arizona named John McCain. To be honest, I thought he was Catholic since his name was Irish. I didn't know much about things like that then. I just assumed Irish=Catholic. Period.

My Dad didn't like him. He served in the Navy in Vietnam and said the fire on the Forestal was his fault. And that he lost 4 planes. Well, considering my Dad was a SEaL and lost parts of his brain in 'nam, I'd say McCain made it out better. Anyways, I noticed him as early as 1995. The following year, I was disappointed that he didn't run for President. I thought he would have been perfect. I couldn't see voting for Bob Dole who looked like he was made of wood or was going to fall apart at a moment's notice. I guess I thought he was biding his time. I started collecting newspaper articles on the maverick Seantor from Arizona and registered myself as a Democrat. And then I joined the Navy...

The 2000 election will go down as horrific on many fronts. But I can understand why McCain would be so angry at Bush even if they were in the same party. McCain does take things a little personally and in many cases its humorous and a little annoying. But from what I've read of the 2000 campaign, there were some reasons to take things personally. Someone ran a campaign to smear McCain using his then 9-year-old daughter, Bridget. Bridget is Bengali and was brought from Mother Teresa's orphanage by the Senator's wife, Cindy, when she was 10 weeks old. She needed medical treatment and they eventually were able to adopt her. But smear said McCain had had an illicit affair and father a black baby which in South Carolina was a hellworthy trespass, let alone, reason enough for conservative voters to swing toward Bush who had no black daughter to speak of. There were other smears like those directed toward Cindy's addiction to painkillers (Everyone has addictions to something legal or illegal. Get over yourselves). For this, I can see why McCain would carry some anger toward Bush. It benefited from the campaign and its fair to assume that it came from him. McCain stayed on and I began to lose hope.

In 2004, I was not in the Navy but starting College now, I was hoping he'd run. He must have made a promise or something because he didn't. Two years later, sitting in the parking lot outside my school, smoking a cigarette before Comparative Politics, I heard on NPR that McCain was gathering people who'd worked on Bush's campaign to work for his campaign. I groaned... Later, he was giving going to be speaking at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University commencement. I just about gagged. Didn't he once call him an "Agent of Intolerance"? I was rightly pissed. I may call myself a Democrat but I had carried a torch for John McCain for over decade at this point. I'd even enlisted in the same branch of military (just for the record: since BOTH of my parents were in the Navy, they would have shot me for joining anything else... well, maybe disowned me for joining the Marines).

But I took comfort in one small detail in all the rhetoric: he was running for President again.

And Clinton by this point was known to be. I counted on Edwards and Biden who is perpetually running for president. I thought Kucinich was a freak of nature. I figured that Guiliani would be in there. I became annoyed that Thompson took so long to jump in. I thought Romney was a goof and Huckabee was too religious.

Ron Paul was closer to how I felt politically but I knew he'd never go the distance. I heard of Obama early in 2007. He was non-committal at this point. But he was starting to get his message out there. I remember watching his speech in front of the Old Capital Building to announce his candidacy. I had never heard someone allude to or say the name Lincoln in all my life. And probably never will again. [psst... he was a Republican!] But, did that stick in my memory. See, prior to 1994, I lived in Illinois for a few years and that was where my accent was finally cemented and my geographic identity was settled. I identify strongly with Illinois political values. And I love Lincoln. I was intrigued to say the least.

But now as we get down to Super Tuesday, the next couple of days will be interesting. Hell, the rest of the year is going to be interesting!!! This is what politics is all about!

One last picture. One of Edwards with his wife. They are saying good-bye. I'm posting it because we constantly treat politicians like crooks and liars. Every politician is a human. Every politician has problems and stresses in their life. Every politician has someone behind them. So, a nice photo to remember that there is someone who suffers through campaigns right along with them.

Back to the proverbial Grindstone

So... the last time I posted anything was on Veteren's Day. Instead of saying how much I suck, I'm just gonna gussy up and slog through. Even if no one is reading any longer. I want to talk about the Presidential Election. Its coming down to two people on either side (at least in my opinion). Here's my take on those that have weathered the storm of political wackiness that is our electoral process (a collective groan is appropriate).

I'll start with the Democrats. Bear in mind that this is based on my take on these people and may not actually be based on fact. Who cares about the facts anyway? This is politics! Let the wonks fight over the facts!!!

Hillary, or Billary.... I have supported Hill at times. I think she has good ideas like making sure that stay-at-home moms still have a retirement fund (who knows what will happen, eh?) but this has not received much press. I can see why: Everybody would be required to get her health care plan! And the people who'd pay for it? Those who make $250,000 or more a year. I'm not sure I like a compulsory health care plan. What about extending medicaid and medicare to everyone? Social Security was originally a plan set up for Widows and orphans. All FDR did back in the day was extend it to everyone. What is little known is that it is not legally required that a person have a Social Security number to live or work in the United States. Did you know that? Keep that in mind...

But I have a hard time with Obama. What the hell does he really stand for? What does he really plan on doing? Use over inflated hyperbolic speech for 4 years? He's got charisma, I'll grant him that. But what in God's name does he want to do?

Eh... I don't even care.... good night!!