DO WE REALLY WANT THIS GUY?

Anyone that knows me, knows I've been a political hack over 30 years. I don't apologise to anybody for that.


In all that time, I've seen lots of good things happen. I've also seen lots of bad things happen. Loyalties traded. Promises broken or ignored. People stabbed in the back. Politics is not pretty or for the weak hearted.



That brings me to Senator Arlen Specter.

By most accounts, Senator Specter seems to be a decent guy. As decent as a Senator could be anyway. But what he is doing with his party switch has nothing to do with making America a better place for all of us. It has nothing to do with helping President Obama steer a moderate agenda or any other grandiose ideals.



It's about Senator Arlen Specter screwing the Republican Party because it's trying to screw him.





Everyone that reads this follows politics. We all know when a politician switches parties it has nothing to do with ideals. It has to do with convenience and ambition or anger. Reagan didn't leave the Democratic Party because "it left him." It was convenient and helped him fulfill his ambition.




What's worse, and foolish in my way of thinking is that Pennsylvania Democrats encouraged Senator Specter to do this. Then promised fundraising and other things to help him get elected as a Democrat. I even heard President Obama said he would campaign for him.




Mr. President and anyone else concerned or involved: Don't do it. Get a real Democrat to run against the right winger that is expected to win the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania Senator. President Obama and Governor Rendell can fundraise and campaign for him/her and we will have a Senator we can trust from Pennsylvania.



Word is Senator Harry Reid is pushing this Specter deal. You run the Democratic Party President Obama. You want your guy or Harry's?


Trust me. Don't trust Arlen or Harry.

A BAD DAY OF FISHING BEATS A GOOD DAY OF WORK

Weather was nice so my buddy John and I went fishing. Of course John had to bring his goofy brother. If you remember "Brother" from last time, he was the nut with all the camo gear, face paint and stinky scent just to go squirrel hunting. No different this time. John shows up with Brother and Brother gets out of the truck wearing his fishing outfit that looked like a Virgil Ward special. A coverall thing with patches advertising shit all over it. I asked Brother how much he was being paid to wear all that stuff. Brother said he got a deal on it at Bass Pro Shop in Branson Missouri. $49.99 and he also got a free refrigerator magnet. Jesus Christ.







I at least figured that if was at bass Pro Shop in Branson Mo. them maybe Brother was a decent fisherman like myself. I loaded my $100 Pflueger baitcasting Outfit and giant tackle box full of Gulps, Yums and Rapalas in the John's boat. Brother said I had some high fallutin fishin sticks. Then he said the EIGHT Zebco 202's strung with 20lb. test mono were his. Jesus Christ.



So we get the boat in the water. Of course John and Brother have to have the seats with backrests, but so what. We're fishing. I like to stand and work my cats and lures anyway. But not this time. John and Brother just want to go to a brush pile and catch crappie and bluegill. So I'm embarrassed that another accomplished angler like myself will see me with a freaking bobber and worm on my $100 Pflueger Baitcasting outfit. Luckily we had the lake to ourselves. John puts the trolling motor on high and we get to his brush pile. Then the fun begins.




John uses a telescoping cane pole that sticks out about twenty feet. He catches lots of fish with it but he also swings the damn thing around whapping heads and whipping whomever else is within twenty feet with hooks, minnows and worms. So John baits up and he starts catching fish. In the meantime, Brother, is dicking around with this two inch bluegill he can see is nibbling his worm for about thirty minutes. I asked him why he was screwing with that thing. Brother said he was not going to be outsmarted by a fish. Whatever dummy. So I opened a fresh bag of Redman Chewing Tobacco to relax me. Brother asked me to put it away because it would make him sick. I said "You fu#king with that go#d#mn two inch goldfish is making me sick shi#head!"
The mood changed from tense to joy on Brother's part because the two incher finally hooked itself and Brother hauled his prize catch onto the boat.





This is when the fun really began. Brother said he was allergic to fish slime and wanted me to take his trophy two incher off the hook and put it on the stringer. I took it off the hook and looked at John. John said I'd never get it shoved up Brother's ass without tipping the boat over.

So I told Brother I was Nihilist and didn't put living creatures on stringers. I threw Brother's prize back in the lake and knew I'd made a positive difference in the ecosystem.

JUSTICE IS ANOTHER VICTIM OF TORTURE

Nobody loves good irony more than I do. And as despicable as some of those entrusted to lead our Country's approval of torture is, I can't help but appreciate the brutal irony of Righties that believe we need to forget about it and "move forward."

The irony is that is was this same crowd that spent millions of our dollars investigating whether or not President Clinton got "orally pleasured" then lied under oath about it.

The righties back then demanded justice no matter what the cost. They said if a crime was committed it must be found and prosecuted. They weren't worried about embarrassing our Nation and the Office of the Presidency because "Justice must prevail."

But now the righties feign worry about embarrassment and emboldening enemies and other nonsense because their own people might end up on the receiving end of justice.

William Bennett said on CNN a few minutes ago that investigating the perpetrators of torture would appear as nothing but a political vendetta. He didn't say that when the Clintons were undergoing investigations.

Years ago, Richard Nixon talked about the penalty for committing a crime and that's why he couldn't pardon draft resisters. Not long after that he accepted a pardon from President Ford.

The Republican Party always tried to hold itself up as the "tough on crime" party. I would like to see it for once live up to it's hype.

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL LITMUS TEST

We all remember the fine play My Fair Lady. The story revolved around professor Henry Higgins making a wager with his friend that he could turn Eliza Doolittle into a proper lady. One has to think that a similar bet was made among Bush, Cheney and a few elitists from Skull and Bones.



Only this bet was how bad could Bush and Cheney fuck up our Country in eight years.







Their foreign policy was a bad joke. It was almost as if they asked Condi Rice to come up with the stupidest foreign policy ever, then ordered her to make it stupider. I guess the Arab World didn't hate us enough so Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq. The biggest regret the Bush Team has is they weren't able to bring Armageddon here during his two terms.




The Bush answer to climate change was deny first. Deregulate. Then wait.




Bush said we were addicted to oil so he said let's do more offshore drilling and drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for more. Finding alternative energy I guess didn't make as much sense to Bush as finding a junkie more junk.





The Republican party is at fault here also. It picked the worst possible potential president it could in 2000. They did it again in 2008. Remember the republican debates. They were asked a hypothetical question about a terror attack. One of these jokers excitedly proclaimed he "would be looking for Jack Bauer."
The rest of them gave him high fives and the republican audience cheered. Does anyone still wonder why these people think torture is good?


The Republicans could have gone with the one candidate that had a true belief system and knowledge enough to state his case convincingly. Alas. They made fun of Ron Paul and ended up with John McCain. McCain proved himself worthy of unworthiness by picking the woefully inadequate Sarah Palin as his running mate. That gave the Republican base something to be happy about. If they weren't sure about McCain being a big enough idiot, for sure Sarah Palin would prove imbecilic enough. They went on to pander to bigots, homophobes and morons and got 47% of the vote. Rush Limbaugh gave his belly thump of approval.




Sarah Palin is still the "front runner" for the republican nomination in 2012. The only way to stop her is if an even bigger idiot stumbles onto the republican scene.


Stay tuned...

RIGHT WING ANGER AT WARREN JEFFS EXPOSED

Right wingers as a general rule have little imagination. They usually just get the days talking points from Rush Limbaugh's morning update or some blowhard on the Fox AM broadcast.

One of their more repetitive and ridiculous arguments comes when talking about gun control and "big government."

These jokers will rant on about freedom all hours of the night, but if a news organization doesn't tow the right wing line like Fox, they want them to shut up. So much for a free press.

They called me a racist because I thought it was important and the right thing to do to stand up for a man that was on the receiving end of racism.

I don't hate the Righties for venting on me. That's why I call them deluded right wing fools. In many ways, their deluded rants are entertaining. My favorite is when they use the nutjob David Koresh and his Branch Davidian cult as an example of why we need to arm ourselves against Uncle Sam.

Of course, any argument that uses a nut like Koresh as validation is just plain stupid. I think the righties are mad at the most recent religious wacko, Warren Jeffs, for not putting up a fight and getting a bunch of women and children killed in the process so they could use him to validate some of their goofy views about government.

But I guess as long as it's not two people of the same sex marrying, anything else is fine with the righties.

WEEKEND OPEN THREAD/ OR HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND LEARNED TO LOVE THE BOMB

GRAY HEADED BROTHER. GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

A blog is as good a place to vent as any. Probably better since you don't have to worry about somebody punching you. But the vitriol endured by my Gray Headed Brother went beyond reasonable. It stretched into the realm of hatred and sometimes just silly.



I never had a problem with his story. The man and millions like him who's only difference from the rest of us was their skin had more melanin, endured slavery. Beatings. Lynchings. Jim Crow laws. Denial of service at restaurants and drinking fountains. Being herded into crowded, unsafe high rises like Cabrini Green in Chicago. The politicians all claimed they were doing a good thing for Negroes by putting as many as they could in one crowded place with no opportunity and no hope.



And because an old Black Man started a blog to tell us he didn't like the way he and so many people that shared his skin color were treated, many bloggers accused him of bigotry and hatred.




I was glad to let the man speak his mind. Most of us never had to live with what GHB had to.
I was never denied a job, or not allowed to eat at the counter because I am white. I was never barred from dating a girl, or living in a certain neighborhood, or denied membership in a club because I am white.




If venting about the mistreatment he endured helped GHB, or anyone else deal with it nonviolently, how is that bad?




Walk in the man's shoes. Most of us remember slights that happened to us years ago. Black men like GHB endured a lifetime of them. The man deserves some peace and understanding.