WHAT THE F***??!!

Gentlemen, start your engines...



The board rooms of America are partyin' hearty this weekend. As well they should be - our elections are now LEGALLY for sale to the highest bidder.

"Yas, yas, yas; step right up Korporate Amerika; we're open for bidness. We'll take yer money and letchas have yer way with us - why who'da thunk you piggies had figgered out howta buy a handful of justices. Huh? What's that ya say - ya need an army? Sure, no prob; bidders can line up on the right. Hell no, ya don't need no number; this ain't no bakery - just flash your cash..."





While perhaps a moot point now (sadly), but one must still wonder by what reasoning they came up with such a thoroughly hosed conclusion. I've read it and still don't get the logic. So much for our constitution's highly touted "checks and balances" - out the window in a flash.



As far as I know, there's no legal means to impeach Supreme Court justices. From a practical standpoint, they answer to no one (well, based on this week's stunt, they clearly do, but it sure the Hell ain't you and it ain't me and, it ain't even the President or Congress).

My initial reaction was simply "What the fuck???!!!". Now however, after trying to wrap my brain around this travesty, that's been upgraded to "how the fuck??" and "Why the fuck???"

No doubt, the answer to both queries are closely integrated even as (the former) "we, the people" remain flummoxed and clueless. I kept thinking I was missing some subtle salient point of this decision; some esoteric and incognito nugget of wisdom buried within it. At this point, I think not. Plain and simple it is just as it appears - we've been roundly and soundly fucked.

In my admittedly naive view, the Constitution was established to define and protect the rights of "the people". Now unless, I'm mistaken, corporations are not people. They don't change diapers, they don't shop for groceries; they don't hafta get up in the middle of the night to pee. And, as I (until today), understood it, they DON'T get the right to vote or any of the other "rights" of the people. This decision gives the people that own the shares of these entities rights that the rest of us do not have.

Can the unholy 5 be tried for treason? Is that an option? Looks doubtful. And, if they could, who would be qualified to bring them up on charges? Who bought 'em? How much did they hafta pay? Did they get a discount for buyin' five at a crack?

I guess the silver lining in this debacle is that we can now do away with the legislature; they've just become superfluous. Come to think of it, we also no longer need the Judicial system. We should no longer have to pay any of their their salaries, expenses and lifetime free pension and insurance bennies; that should help out the deficit, eh?

Instead, now, all we need is an auctioneer to assure the highest price for a new law to be passed, a couple clerks to rubberstamp the paperwork and a cashier to take the money. And there'll no longer be a need to waste vast sums on conducting campaigns, elections and such; as of today, that's all become just window dressing.

Of course, all this also means we no longer can claim (however pathetically as of late) that we have a Democratic society. I suppose someone will eventually need to coin a new term for whatever this now is. Meanwhile, think of all the money we'll save, the pesky bother of having to vote and, all the other annoying challenges of facilitating governance by the mere "people". We could change the national anthem to Curtis Mayfield's "If there's a Hell below, we all gonna go" because, in practice AND in fact, we all just went.

Don't you think? Or don't you?

PANDERING TO THE PUNDITS, MUSING TO THE MONKEYS. SO WHAT??!! (OK, I'll tell you what...)

In the first two 'graphs from his August 29th NYT story about John McCain's choice of running mate, Governor Palin of Alaska, political analyst, Peter Baker writes:

"Senator John McCain spent the summer arguing that a 40-something candidate with four years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience was not ready to be president.

And then on Friday he picked as his running mate a 40-something candidate with two years in major office and no significant foreign policy experience."

Really? Duh, no shit, Sherlock. Okay, it's a clever enough opener for his less-than-astute "analysis" and certainly a true enough observation. And it's surely no surprise to any of us that po-mo lives on blindly and blissfully in the self-important narcissistic realm of journalism.(oops, better not follow THAT particular tangent here.. not to worry though; I'll post one of my famous screedrants on that dodgy topic in a separate post to this blog soon enough...).

Anyway, we should hardly be surprised by such an obviously contrived maneuver from Senator McCain; it just seems to be more of his classically narcoleptic lack of both style and sensibility. As he sleepwalks through the remaining weeks of the campaign he will, time and again, stumble into a semi-awake state and suddenly blurt out his latest 'brainstorm', I'm sure we can expect to see plenty more of this scurrilous neo-logic before election day.

As I pointed out in a previous post on this blog, his own party doesn't even like him. And as most sensible people recognize, if he gets elected we're in for only more of the same "contempt for the electorate" as we've had in the last eight years and, the ever-worsening cumulative effects thereof.

But let's not kid ourselves, folks. We might see the transparency of such maneuvers in the here and now. We might even find such a miscalculated yet desperate attempt at half-assed pandering to an ignorant electorate be mildly amusing. Okay, let's have our chuckle and then move on; and we'd best put some hustle in our step while we're at it.

Because, we've had eight long and ugly years of of travesty, tragedy and heartbreak, and, nearly equally on all fronts too. we can't afford any more and we're already damned to a long and painful struggle to recapture any bits and chunks of what's always made this country both a great place to be and, respected by the rest of the world.

Let's make this brief. We cannot let down our guard and allow another series of errors and missteps to allow such a shortsighted and dangerous man to take over the helm. None of us can afford it and we sure the hell won't survive it.

Many of you who'll read this might say to me "No shit, Sherlock". Let's not forget though, that obvious as this all might seem, there is still somewhere damn near half of the electorate who might actually be a) stupid enough, b) paranoid enough, c) racist or bigoted enough, d) psychotically sadistic enough to actually cast their vote for this guy.

we might also be thinking "Yeah, but unlike last time, we have a viable candidate in Mr. Obama; we needn't be concerned; McCain can't possibly win".

Don't you believe it for a second....

(if we do screw this up and McCain does somehow get elected, at the very least, we'd all damn well better have our passports up to snuff...and I'll seeya's at the airport...)

PRESIDENTIAL CAM"PAIN", 2008

special post-april-fool's day edition
WHY YOU NITWITS!!! I OUGHTTA...

(Barack "Moe"bama, "Curley" McCain & Hil"Larry" Clinton in a
rare public appearance together this week)
(illustration courtesy of David Dees. see http://deesillustration.com/).

Okay, here's the deal, folks. I'm askeered. If we take into account the levels of ludicrosity, rancor and absurdity we've seen so far (and it is only April after all), imagine if you dare where things are headed from here.

Yup. The phrase "To Hell inna tugboat" may barely cover it.

It should be obvious that there's no way we can possibly elect "Curley" McCain. Aside from the fact that even his own party doesn't like or trust him, he's made it clear that continuing to spend gazillions in Iraq is okeydoke. Besides, we just simply cannot and will not abide another Republican in the White House at this time.

As for Ms. Hil-"Larry" Clinton, I dunno. Early on, I had her pegged for the "Great White Hope" (and yes, before anyone gets any ideas, the "racial" pun IS intended). In recent months she's compromised her positions on various whatevers, her campaigners have played some dirty pool, and she's no longer demonstrating her genuine intelligence. I admit I was infatuated primarily with the notion of finally having a woman for president but, for a significant chunk of time, I also believed she had the grace and poise AND intelligence to present us with an irresistible no-brainer type of choice; I believed she could fit the bill. Yes, she's still intelligent. But we need more; we require strong vision coupled with strong leadership AND absolute integrity. In recent weeks her marks are slipping and her slips are showing

That brings us to Barack "Moe"bama. Basically I like the guy or at least want to. He too is obviously highly intelligent. So far, his integrity remains reasonably intact (though, there are a number of months before we'll see how well that holds up). We like his apparently genuine passion and we all resonate with a call for significant change. Before we can embrace that concept though, we're going to need to know quite a bit more about what the specifics of that sweeping wave of change actually promise. And then, we'll still need to determine what it can actually manifest. Still a tough call as I see it.

So.... "where the heck DOES that all lead us then?? " we might ask.

And I might answer "at the present moment, damned if I know, Buckaroos!"

Guess we'll have to wait it out a few weeks or so and then revisit this when (or IF) the time comes when we can better discern what the kids have been up to 'twixt now and then. Stay Tuna-ed - itza gonna be an interesting (and likely plenty smelly) kettle of fish.
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