A New Hope?

Is Keith Olbermann's hanging around with Chris Matthews starting to rub off?

Chris tore some right-winging bobblehead a complete new one -- on air -- for not having any idea of what he was talking about.

Left Blogistan naturally jumped for joy, conveniently forgetting that he did much the same thing to an Obama spokesperson who could not actually name a single piece of Obama-authored legislation a while back. Mind you, later research revealed that Obama has authored plenty of really quite good legislation -- stuff even Republicans shouldn't have a problem with, like a law requiring police interrogations be videotaped -- but the point was that too many know-nothing, talking-point-repeating idealogue zombies get on our airwaves and pollute the national discourse with their lies and half-truths and general assorted blather.

If Chris Matthews has genuinely soured on the endless parade of repeated bullshit on shows such as his own, this could be a welcome change in two significant ways:

1. Perhaps he'll stop inviting so many transparent surrogates on this show in the first place, and spend more time talking to people who actually know what the hell they're talking about.

2. Perhaps he'll even stop being one of those mindless bobbleheads as he occasionally is.

Probably too much to hope, but I'm ever the optimist.

McSame

My suggestion for his new campaign slogan:
"US out of the League of Nations!"

Typical Republican Tactics

Honestly, who in their right mind would be associated with people who could come up with this?


This is from the same group mind (you know, like zombies ... or brownshirts!) that thought Hillary was going to be the nominee a while back.

Classy.

Our country is being run by a bunch of retarded six-year-old bullies. It will be most satisfying to see their faces on Nov. 5th.

Best Newspaper Ad EVER

From the Mexican newspaper Milenio:


Translation: "A complex world requires a good explanation."

So before anyone tries to tell me ever again about the "liberal media," first they have to show me a mainstream US newspaper that would run that ad.

Tip o' the sombrero to JD for the heads-up.

Not a Transcript From Hardball ...

... but it sure could have been. And it's hilarious.

Some Thoughts on Politics

This is an abridged version of a post I made to a forum I contribute to:

There do seem to me to be two distinct types of politicians:

1. Policy wonks that really do like the legislative process, like serving "the public" (their definition of the public served may be different than yours or mine), like doing infrastructure stuff, love going to conferences and being in the UN and all that sort of thing. Call them "middle managers with an unlimited budget" if you will. They might lie from time to time, but dishonesty isn't their big problem, because they basically change whichever way the wind blows. They only lie to rationalise their lack of spine.

2. Power-hungry people who care about little else but acquiring power and pretending that they don't care about acquiring power -- the boldest and most bald-faced of liars. They're highly bribable, but only because money = more power. They're not interested in their legacy, they don't care about democracy or infrastructure or debt or what's good for the country or much of anything except acquiring -- and holding onto -- power. They don't even seem to much care about the consequences of them using or abusing their power so much as they do about having it.

Too many of Type 1 leads to a lot of waste, taxation, over-regulation, nitpicking, backstabbing and childishness.

Too many of Type 2 leads to authoritarianism, irresponsibility, corruption, hubris, arrogance, secrecy and bullying.

You can have both types in any given political party. It always seems to come down to the paper pushers vs the little Hitlers.

I think the secret to a decent government is having an involved public to keep both types in check. Neither group ever gets too much their own way.

Ultimately, the increasing apathy of the public is the the greatest danger in a democracy. These political types have been around forever, and with rare exceptions most of the leaders we've had fit into one of these two categories. So the politicians are not likely to change, it's their ability to function without check and balance that's gotten the world into trouble of late. Look at Bush, look at Putin -- much more alike than I think most Americans (or Russians) would admit. Neither would be able to do what they've gotten away with if the public didn't stand for it.

Well Done, Hillary.

Self Image

I have seen dozens of these shorts from Aardman and they never fail to tickle me senseless.

Say "NO" to Electronic Voting

That Explains It

(first in a continuing series)