steambadger's Blog

Win it for Hunter

2008-11-04T05:48:50Z

Here's a passage from Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail that's haunted me for almost forty years:

The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes and all his imprecise talk about "new politics" and "honesty in government" is one of the few men who've run for President of the United States in this century who really understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for. Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?

Maybe it ends here, Hunter. Me, I'm gonna have a glass of Wild Turkey tomorrow night, in honor of a man who knew what it meant to love America. Maybe it ends here.

Lunacy or Fraud?

2008-10-16T16:44:07Z

"We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

When Senator McCain said this, several of the people I was watching the debate with laughed out loud -- but I was really taken aback. There may be a few people out there who sincerely believe that ACORN is a threat to the fabric of democracy -- but most of those people also believe that Senator Obama was raised in a vat by the Bilderbergers, and will immediately institute Muslim Commu-Terrorism when elected. It's the sort of lunatic gibberish one doesn't ordinarily hear in a Presidential debate. So what's going on here?

I can only think of two possibilities: either Senator McCain has gone entirely off the rails, and should be encouraged to check into some sort of quiet, restful facility for his own safety; or the Republicans are laying the groundwork for an election challenge. If the latter is the case, then McCain's job at this point is to keep the vote close enough to make a challenge plausible, while sewing as much doubt as he can about the integrity of the process.

At the risk of venturing into tinfoil-hat territory myself, I have to say I think we need to take this possibility seriously. Watch out for a rash of ostentatiously apprehended "ACORN agents" voting under false names on election day. Then, if the vote in Ohio or Florida comes in with a very tight margin, and the state is enough to tip the electoral balance, watch for a couple weeks of agonized hand wringing over whether to challenge the election or nobly let it go for the sake of the country, as Nixon pretended to do.

Then watch for the lawsuits.

McCain's latest statement! BIG NEWS!

2008-09-25T00:07:05Z

"All of us want to know -- just as I want to know -- who is responsible. And until we do, I must announce the suspendering of the upcoming debate activities, which isn't taking place. But don't worry. Don't worry. You food, housing and insecurity is guaranteed by your Department of Redundancy Department and the Natural Guard. Don't move! Don't take off your shoes! Jobs is on the way!"

Write Your Republican Congress Critters!

2008-09-22T19:11:57Z

Everybody's got 'em. Well, not everybody, but I do: my congressman is the fabulous Mr. John Lewis, but my senators are Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. This morning, I wrote Congressman Lewis a fairly long email explaining why I didn't support the bailout as written, and why I hoped he wouldn't, either.

The Senators? Well, I know from past experience that they don't particularly care about my opinion. I wrote them each a brief, polite note reminding them that the Treasury Secretary on whom they're considering bestowing superpowers may well be a Democrat in four months.

The banality of Sarah

2008-09-05T15:25:11Z

"Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?"
--Sarah Palin

America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men

It's good to remind ourselves of the sort of evil these people are willing to perpetuate to stay in power...

Sorry for the wasted post...

2008-06-26T20:04:19Z

...but I intend to post here a lot, and I'm determined to get it right.

Is this thing on?

I totally give up on this blogging software

2008-06-26T19:02:27Z

I can't use html in a post, right?

And if I try to put two returns in, that doesn't work either.
And I sincerely doubt I'm supposed to use \n.\n
So, how do I get two line breaks in a post?

Senator Obama and the Cheney Doctrine

2008-06-26T18:15:20Z

Now that Senator Obama has come out in favor of the FISA "compromise", there seems to be a major effort underway to convince us that the bill isn't really that bad, after all -- or at least that it's not very important, and not worth pestering the poor candidate about. To compare this effort to the American communist embrace of Hitler after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact would be bombastic excess, and would risk the invocation of Godwin's law; so I won't do that. Nor will I spend a lot of time arguing that the bill really is that bad. It is, and I think we all know it is; but those arguments are already out there, and there's no reason to repeat them. Instead, I'm going to assert that it doesn't really matter how bad this specific bill is: what matters is that the "compromise" is part of an eight-year effort to implement a governing philosophy that assumes we, the American people, are frightened children, and that people like Dick Cheney should to be given all the power they need to protect us, and that what we have to do is shut up, get out of the way, and let them get on with it. This philosophy -- call it the Cheney doctrine --is the central issue in this election, because it's the root of all the other issues we're debating. The Cheney doctrine gave us the Iraq debacle. It gave us unprecedented domestic spying, and the politicization of the Justice department, the corporate control of government, the rejection of science, and the mishandling of hurricane Katrina. This -- this world we're living in, right here -- is an example of what happens when our government decides that we are subjects, rather than citizens. And we -- the Democratic party, the only viable opposition we have -- cannot capitulate to the Cheney doctrine, and then expect to fix all the problems that come with it after we've won.
Since the beginning of this campaign, what's impressed me most about Senator Obama has been his determination to talk to the American people as if they were actual, functioning adults. When the Reverend Wright's intemperate remarks began circulating, it was assumed that the Senator would call a presser, announce that he was shocked to find that his minister was a bad, bad man, and be done with it. Instead, he took the opportunity to give a speech which did something almost unprecedented in modern presidential politics: instead of patting us on the back for being such lovely, wonderful, generous people, he actually talked to us like grownups, and asked us to think about our assumptions. Likewise, when gas prices started to hurt, he refused to join Senators Clinton and McCain in the ritual distribution of lollipops. Throughout the primary season, he's assumed a certain level of intelligence in his listeners. I liked that, and I'm sorry to see that he's now being advised that he can't win without pandering. It's wrong, yes -- but I also think it's politically unwise. It's giving in to the Cheney doctrine; and the voters already have a candidate who support the Cheney doctrine.
All that said, I fully support Senator Obama, and will continue to give him money and time, as well as my vote in November. He's still our only hope of undoing the damage of the last eight years. Like Carthage, the Republican Party delenda est. I'd like to see us, however, do it without adopting the weapons of the enemy.

That's that

2008-05-07T04:14:54Z

Barring the traditional live man or dead woman, Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. It is now incalculably important that we invite Hillary Clinton and her supporters to join us in defeating John McCain, and putting the country on a course to undo the damage of the last eight years.
Incalculably important. Really.

Hillary's Combustible Fairy Urine Proposal

2008-05-05T19:31:40Z

Nothing really new, here: I'd just like to emphasize something we all already know. Senator Clinton and Senator McCain, in the matter of the proposed "Gas Tax Holiday", are deliberately lying to us because they think that we're stupid, and are more likely to vote for them if they tell us this particular lie. They're doing this pretty much right out in the open, without any cover at all; neither of them has been able to round up a single creditable economist to support the plan, and neither has bothered to give us a coherent reason why they're right and all the economists in the world are wrong.
This is the sort of behavior we've come to expect from Republicans; and it's the kind of thing that's soured so many of us on Senator Clinton. Hillary might just as well come right out and say "If you vote for me, magical fairies will sprout from my forehead, and we will use their urine to power our machines." It would show just as much respect for our intelligence as her current proposal.
Paul Krugman, an economist who supports Senator Clinton, admits that her proposal is farcical. He claims it doesn't matter, though, because she doesn't really believe it and has no intention of keeping her promise. That's... really sort of sad, isn't it?

Do We Really Want To Do This

2008-03-22T17:16:05Z

In spite of the pointless, inane intra-party squabbling which has consumed the irreplaceable first months of this year, until this morning I was convinced that even the Democratic party was incapable of kicking away THIS election. Even we, with our legendary pedalian marksmanship, should be able to beat a GOP saddled with the least popular president in US history, a disastrous war, and a looming economic disaster. Shouldn't we? Sure we should.
Then I read the latest whiny rant to make the front page at TPM, and it started to sink in: there are plenty of Democrats -- lots and lots of Democrats, on both sides of the great divide -- who really, really don't understand what's going on in this election.
The 2008 Presidential election is NOT about whether Hillary's widdle feelings are hurt because the country seems to be rejecting her kind offer to serve as president. It's NOT about whether Hillary has been mean to Barack. It's not about the bad, bad things Barack's preacher said in July, or about where Hillary was on Stained Blue Dress day. It's not even about Change, or Experience, or Leadership, or any other focus-group word you can think of. This election is entirely about whether we can elect a President who is capable of undoing the fundamental, critical damage George W. Bush has done to the Republic. That's all it's about.
John McCain can't do it, no matter how fine a fellow he might be. It might have been possible to treat the problem from within the Republican party, in a Nixon-goes-to-China sort of way; but McCain has sold too much of whatever reformist instinct he might have had in order to make himself marginally acceptable to the base. Once in the Oval Office, he'll be in thrall to the people who got us where we are now. Any solution to the civic crisis we find ourselves in requires, God help us, a Democratic president.
I have my own opinion about which Democratic candidate is more likely to reign in our pretensions to empire, disolve the unitary executive and restore the rule of law; but the fact is that either remaining candidate MIGHT do it, and COULD be pressured to do it by the people who elect him or her. If they don't get the chance, eight more years of Republican rule will hard-bake the changes we've suffered into our system of government. And that, folks, will be that.
Undoing the damage will be difficult; but the first step, electing a Democratic president, should have been easy. It seems, though, that we remain the Peter Pan Party of American politics, refusing to grow up even when faced with disaster. A few months ago, we seemed as united as it was possible to be and remain Democrats; and the Republicans seemed to be filling the take-my-ball-and-go-home role. We've regressed horribly; faster than I would have though possible. We can stop, take a deep breath, and set ourselves right, or we can let this opportunity pass. If we do the latter, our grandchildren will be able to look back at our petulant, ridiculous blog posts -- assuming they can still afford computers -- and wonder what the hell we were thinking.