Only in America can a Dog Upstage a President

Jeez. You had Checkers (OK, Nixon was VP but so?). Fala, the Scottie who belonged to FDR, is now cast in metal at the FDR Memorial (Fala's statue is the size of baby triceratops). LBJ had "Little Beagle Johnson." Yes, Johnson had ego issues ("LBJ" for the dog's name, too?)...yes, he held the dog up by his ears...yes, there was a public outcry...no, LBJ didn't give a damn about that! Other presidents had hounds of every species and temperment. Then comes Bo. In a 24 hour news cycle, this fluff gets bigtime ratings. Something Kennedy-esque about this.

RIP, W. Mark Felt aka Deep Throat

He broke open Watergate for Woodward & Bernstein and changed history. Snitches make the world go 'round. Seriously. Depends on the motivation. You're a hero. Linda Tripp is scum. Bravo Mark. Read here.

Barack and the Debate

I' ll say it. Barack's philosopher-prince routine is boring me. Not angering me. John McCain and the President are angering me. Nah, Barack's elliciting something different from me. Here you have an incredibly lame stunt, underwhelming ploy of John McCain's--"suspending his campaign"--apparently coupled with the president's even lamer speech, providing Barack with a perfect opportunity to drive a stake in the GOP's heart. Yes, Barack declares that the debate will go on. But this could have been a defining moment. Hit him hard and no need to take the high road. All this while Bill Clinton's clowning Barack. Folks, Obama groupies, please--explain to me why you can't win first, worry about the audacity of hope later? Putting Hillary on the ticket would have helped. But no...
MSNBC's Tim Curry reports here. Republican reaction ranges from shrugged shoulders to knee-jerk (and bumbling) support from the usual Fox News attack dogs and of course Sarah Palin. Of course, in 1864, Abraham Lincoln was struggling to be re-elected during the darkest days of the Civil War. FDR pressed on to knock Herbert Hoover out of the White House during the Depression. America was falling apart 40 years ago in 1968, and yet neither Nixon nor Humprhey suspended their campaigns in the midst of war, rising prices, social protest, riots and the assassinations of RFK and MLK, Jr.
So there, I am 99.9% less eloquent than Barack and I've given a basis, a thesis for a turfing-the-scared old man speech (turfing in a nice way, sort of; I'd also extend a hand and say, may we issue a joint statement expressing our dismay over Paulsen's blank check, and the complete abdication of the government's regulatory and consumer protection role in the last 8 years?). I'm serious: get Penn and Carville on the payroll. It might be too late but hey, they provide some cushion come Election Day...for the last thing my acid reflux needs to deal with is the lament of hundreds of dejected bourgies, intellectuals and "young professionals" whining about the perfidy of knuckle dragging whitefolks should McCain win. Even the knuckle draggers and Wal Mart Moms could have been moved by a decisive, bold statement last night. Instead, we got more Barack...

Friday Funnies

Sorry for the late tip. I'm still chuckling over these. No Youtube clip this time. Listen here:
The usual wingnut Republicans in Congress and in bloggerrhea came out big time against a bill guaranteeing 4 weeks paid pregnancy leave for women and spouses. They said it was BIG GOVERNMENT and "government knows best." OK.
But then they laud the legislation immunizing the telecom companies from privacy suits when that same government wants to spy on your calls and emails. OK.
Barack wants to put this country back on track with massive fiscal policy moves--Keynesian stuff even Richard Nixon would have agreed with. Screw this monkeying around at the Fed. Repairing our f'd up infrastructures--taxing the very m-fs would have taken so much and tried to dupe the NASCAR dads into saying it's all for welfare mothers...Katrina cheats...TAX AND SPEND. OK.
Yet what they do: BORROW AND SPEND? Take cheap money from the Chinese, cheap goods from them, to run our economy? Mortgage our children's heritage to foreigners?
Oh, and they want to drill offshore when the oil companies have been sitting on thousands of permits already, and of course just cut sweetheart deals with the mob that runs what they call Iraq these says (and of course this war has not even come remotely close to Dubya's promise that it would pay for itself). This "market" is an artifice. Plainly. Yet oh no, don't let BIG GOVERNMENT get involved, don't let it police the domestic speculators! But hey, let us drill, and that will lower prices and solve our problems--always and forever. OK.
And the beat goes on. Kinda old school. Old. Like when Southerners before the civil war talked about how Northern States had to yield to BIG GOVERNMENT and not protect runaway slaves. Yet after the war...oh, it's states rights. Leave us be.
Wanna here more? I'll crack you up. Got a few about the pharmaceutical industry, privatizing Social Security (and maybe having Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch run it, right?) etc...

If you're a regular, normal American, you'll get the punchlines.