Late Night: Seeing past the end of your nose

Every day to the streets of New York, the folks of New Jersey commute…

In the past month, the stores in Central New Jersey have seemed more and more empty.  The cost of living is high here and when these commuters start to get laid off, the social safety net will have many holes in it for them.  Their salaries are too high for their children to qualify for SCHIP.  Unemployment payments are likely to be inadequate to pay the bills.  These are hard working Americans who pay their raxes everyday and aren’t looking for a handout.  Pretty soon, this is going to hit Americans all over the country.

They were there for the rest of the country when times were good.  Let’s not forget them when times get bad.

The Chicago Thugs are measuring the drapes

Lynn Sweet from the Chicago Sun-Times reports that Obama’s Thug crew is moving on up already -Chicago  Quid Pro Quo style:

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. endorsed by Chicago Defender to replace Obama in Senate

ByLynn Sweeton October 26, 2008 2:11 PM

WASHINGTON–As Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) noted Sunday, he
believes it is pre-mature to speculate who Gov. Blagojevich will tap to  replace Barack Obama if he is elected president. Nonetheless, the Chicago Defender called for Jackson to succeed Obama, and the lawmaker blasted out the news in an e-mail.

Others in the top tier for Blagojevich to consider:
Illinois Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)

Rahm Emanuel on being President Obama chief of staff; interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos

By Lynn Sweet on October 26, 2008 12:01 PM

WASHINGTON–With
Barack Obama’s lead growing and John McCain’s path shrinking,
speculation is growing about who will serve in an Obama White House. On
Sunday, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.)
whether he would be interested in serving as Obama’s chief of staff.
Emanuel did not rule it out.

Former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta—a native of
Chicago’s North Side–is quietly overseeing Obama’s transition
operation, dealing with personnel, policy and process. The transition
operation commissioned white papers on how to turn campaign promises
into action; arranging security clearance for those involved in the
handover; figuring decision time lines out how the executive office
should be organized.

Obama has been pondering transition matters since at least last
April, I have learned, with activity stepped up as it looked more
likely he will win. The Obama team has been trying to keep all
transition matters secret for fear of raising the hubris factor.

UPDATE:

Other names being mentioned for Obama White House Chief of Staff are former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), whose own team made up the core of the Obama operation; real estate executive Valerie Jarrett, the confidant of Michelle and Obama who has known them for years and banker William Daley, the former Commerce Secretary and Mayor Daley’s brother.

This is not the party I once supported and knew.  This is a complicit and systematical Chicago Machine takeover on the national scale – at all costs.   This Neo-Democratic thug crew is measuring the drapes and cutting their pieces of their pie while our votes are thrown in the trash.   This is their reward for a “job well done” – for pissing on Democracy, Free Speech and Women Rights, among so many other rights the current 2008 DNC has violated.   And God help me, as long as I have breath in me, I’ll resist it to the end.

UPDATE: (H/T to Woman voter reminded us that :  Matt is on My Two Cents on Blog Talk Radio:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/My-Two-Cents/2008/10/27/My-Two-Cents-Radio

¡Que viva los PUMAs!

No We Won’t Tonight at 8PM EST

But before I get to that, I’d like to share a little success story with you.  Remember that Terry Tate ad?  Well, The New Agenda took it upon themselves to ask Reebok for a condemnation and they got one.  Here it is:

From: Diane Zappas
Date: Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Subject: Reebok Response
To: _________

Dear _________,

Thank you for your note. We appreciate your interest and, yes, we’re well aware of this new video. However, let me reassure you that Reebok International has no connection today to Lester Speight or his fictional alter-ego, ‘Terry Tate’, and we disavow this personal new video and its content in full.

The confusion, regrettably, arises from our former association with the ‘Terry Tate’ character. In 2001, Reebok licensed the ‘Terry Tate’ character for a series of commercials, on a short-term basis – and our connection then ended. Reebok, therefore, does not control use of the character or the commercials. Any use of the ‘Terry Tate’ character today or in the future, therefore, does not reflect the views of Reebok, and we regret any confusion this might cause.

In fact, Reebok has a long and proud history of supporting women’s health and fitness. In 2006, Reebok announced its partnership with the Avon Walk Around the World for Breast Cancer. A series of walks to raise funds for breast cancer research, the walk has seen more than 50 cities worldwide raise awareness and money for this important cause. We’re proud of this sponsorship, and believe this more accurately reflects Reebok’s brand values – and views – in regards to women.

Thank you again for your inquiry.

Diane

That was lovely, wasn’t it?  Now, go back and everywhere you find the words “Terry Tate” or “Lester Speight”, substitute “Barack Obama”. And everywhere you find “Reebok”, substitute “DNC”.  How does that sound?

On to the show.  Our own Madamab will be on No We Won’t this evening with Sheri and Darragh.  That’s tonight at 8PM EST on PUMA United Radio (PURrrr)

Senator Obama, would you like to take a whack at Hillary?

Barbara West: Afflicting the comfortable

The Obama campaign is acting like a Diva with a Florida media outlet because one of it’s reporters, Barbara West, asked Biden some questions that made him lose his temper on the air.  {insert smiley emoticon rolling eyes.)

I know why Obama/Biden are getting testy and snotty about this outrageous assault on the civility of their campaign.  It’s because the media has practically fellated them up to this point.  THEY can accuse YOU of being a racist if you question their political philosophy, utter Obama’s middle name or state that Obama has been a personal acquaintance of an unrepentant domestic terrorist.  But don’t YOU dare ask any provocative questions that merit a smiling face and a measured response.  Only the little people should be subjected to that kind of treatment.

Or female junior senators from NY.

Let’s turn the way back machine to Oct. 30, 2007 at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  Watch Hillary, Senator Biden, to see how it’s done

Part 1

Part 2

Change! Change! Change! Change!

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

{{catching breath, wiping eyes, clearing throat}}

You were there, guys.  Russert handed each one of you the cudgel and you all took a whack at her.  And there she stood for more than an hour of the most brutal treatment by the media that I have ever witnessed in my life.  So, please do not look for any sympathy from us that now you are shocked and appalled that some blond Fox Newsesque newsreader in Florida didn’t get the memo to treat you with kid gloves.

Suck it up and deal with it.

The Racism Game, Expanded: A Play in One Ridiculous Act.

Guess Who Is WHAT?

H/T to Darragh Murphy, who suggested that the play be expanded. Thanks, Darragh!

THE SCENE: A game show set, modeled on “Jeopardy.” The host, DREW CAREY, stands at a podium, behind which is a giant flat screen. It currently shows President Barack Obama’s smiling face, with the Possum seal behind it.

Across the set from CAREY are three podiums, with a contestant standing at each podium. The contestants are BOB HERBERT of The New York Times, LOUIS DIUGUID of The Kansas City Star, and JOE THE PLUMBER. The lead-in music – “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist,” from Avenue Q – concludes as the lights come up. The audience applauds wildly.

CAREY: Thank you, thank you everyone! Gosh, it’s great to be here with you. You may not know this, but we’re celebrating a very special occasion tonight – the 100th episode of America’s favorite game show, everybody say it with me now:

AUDIENCE and CAREY (shouting): “Guess Who’s The Racist!”

CAREY: That’s right! Every Tuesday night on “Guess Who’s The Racist,” we all come together and find the hidden racism within people like you and me! The panelist who has the most correct answers gets an all-expenses-paid trip to ObamaWorld, located right next to Universal Studios in lovely Hollywood, California.

AUDIENCE (on cue): Oooooh!

CAREY: Ooooh indeed! Well, let’s start the show. Because it’s a special night, we’ve got some celebrities with us! First, we’ve got Bob Herbert, columnist for The New York Times, who was savvy enough to spot racism in all of its nasty forms during the 2008 election.

HERBERT (waving): Hello, America!

CAREY: And next, we have the incomparable Louis Diuguid of The Kansas City Star, who proved to Americans that the word “socialist” was a racial slur in October of 2008!

DIUGUID (waving): Helllloooooo!

CAREY: And finally, we have Joe The Plumber, who was used by both President Obama and John McCain in the primaries as a campaign prop. Joe has been spending the last few months in a Racism Rehabilitation Camp in Walla Walla, Washington. Let’s give him a big hand, and hope he’s learned enough to match the competitiveness of these two amazing players!

JOE (waving): Hi!

AUDIENCE: BOOOOOOOO!!! RACIST! WHITE SUPREMACIST! BOOOOOOO!

(Joe looks puzzled and hurt, and drops his hand.)

CAREY: All right, take it easy, folks. It’s not Joe’s fault he’s a racist; it’s just because he’s from a rural area and bitter about it. He’s trying really hard, honestly he is. Let’s see how he does on our first question. Are you ready, panelists?

PANELISTS: Yes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HILLARY!

You deserve a big present.
(psssst, we’re throwing a party and we’re not inviting Barack)

“You’ll be lucky to get Obama to work for YOU”

That’s what I am imagining Bill Clinton is thinking in this picture.  It’s like one of those references you don’t want to give but somehow can’t wiggle out of writing.

Lenard Hutchinson at Dissenting Justice has some other thoughts on the weird juxtaposition of the Clinton’s campaigning for (and sometimes harder than) the man who called them racist failures and used the most dirty primary election tactics ever to achieve the nomination:

Anyway (some delayed venting), it seems that Bill Clinton has jumped on board (joining wife Hillary) and is now campaigning for Obama. Also, Obama apparently has recently mentioned that the economy was doing fine when Clinton was president. During the Democratic primaries, however, Obama withheld any praise of Clinton. Instead, he lumped President Clinton with the “past,” which he derided as “more of the same” and “politics as usual.” He even associated Clinton with the most hated Republican on earth — George Bush, Jr. — when he said that people were “bitter” because of both Bush and Clinton.

Do you think it is odd that a black presidential candidate would allow people whom the media, his supporters and his surrogates portrayed as racists to campaign for him? Does this mean that racism does not bother Obama or that he will tolerate racists if they can help get him elected? Or does this mean that the charges of racism against the Clintons were bogus at most, or overstated at the least? I’m scratching my head on this one (not really). Why aren’t Huffington, Daily Kos, and Politico inflamed about two racists campaigning for Obama?

Good questions, Lenard.  I think we know the answer to some of them. I suspect that the Clintons are motivated by some strange mix of loyalty to the tattered remnants of the party and anticipatory schadenfreude (see?  I just made up a new emotional condition.  You can do it too!).  It’s quite possible that Obama will not be able to pull this off, in spite of the Clinton’s slavish devotion to his cause.  But no one can blame them for not taking off their white sheets and trying.

Of course, it would be really nice if they condemned the misogyny.  You gotta draw the line somewhere.

Sunday: Lying in the gutter, looking at the stars

Oh man, the American public falls for it every single time.  At some point in the election season we start turning on each other.  Suddenly, it becomes a matter of “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” and taxation becomes the equivalent of communism.  Talented singer songwriters go off on tangents about how unemployed people are going to piss away his hardearned money.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Americans *should* want to spread the wealth.  The problem is that the wealth has already been redistributed- upwards.

Yep, everyday, the wage slaves get into their gas powered vehicles and head off to some big business, employing thousands of workers and they put in the most productive hours of their lives.  The owners of those big businesses take the fruit of that production and mostly share it among themselves or fritter it away in hedge funds that most of us are too poor to gain admittance to, or they give it to some political think tank that figures out even more ingenious ways of making sure the sides of the money pyramid are as steep as possible.  Trade agreements are made, without labor standards.  Labor unions are locked out of production sites.  Pensions are swapped for cash balance plans.  Corporations whine about not making money for stockholders so workers must make the ultimate sacrifice of losing their jobs.  Alan Greenspan like to keep wages low to keep inflation low, which leads to people eventually not being able to afford their houses, which leads to bubbles bursting, chaos on Wall Street and horror as 401K wealth disappears.

We see this happen every day and we know that the reason why our health insurance sucks and our lousy 3% raises don’t cut it and our property taxes are skyrocketing is because the wealthy don’t want to spread the wealth.  But what do we do?  We take it out on each other.  It’s the unemployed’s fault for taking our tax money.  It’s the parents of the sick kid’s fault for not being smart enough to afford health insurance.  Our attention is always focussed downwards in the pecking order.  While the rich set us squabbling amongst ourselves, they sit back in their comfy chairs and play a global game of Monopoly, pretending that it’s not real money.

Both Obama and McCain have the whole tax issue wrong.  The rich have taken more of the wealth, leaving the rest of us to fight over the shrinking bit that is left for the wretched refuse.  Joe the Plumber and other small business owners shouldn’t be “sharing their wealth” with anyone but new employees.  But the investors and big money tycoons who are shipping our jobs overseas, so they can expand their own piece of the pie, need to be stopped and forced to fork over some of their ill gotten booty.  It is beyond absurd that we are sniping over helping out the unemployed while bankers are rewarding themselves with the money they got from taxpayers.  It’s time we gave the superrich a choice: increase wages or we tax the bonuses back to Eisenhower days levels.

And it’s time we stopped focusing our righteous indignation on our fellow worms in the gutter and started looking at the “stars”.

Would You Buy A Used Car From This Man?

Democrats For Principle Before Party is running this ad.

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