Bad American

But not at me.  A retired judge and his wife just came into the store on this Wintry day and the judge’s wife wanted me to buy her large print copy of John Grisham’s newest book The Appeal.

She hadn’t been able to finish the book, she so disliked the premise and the approach.

I let them browse a little while I read the inside cover of the book. Sounded interesting to me. I won’t type in the wording on the cover but I think this Amazon review sets it up well:

By	Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews

It is obvious that John Grisham is up to more than spinning a fine yarn in this, his most recent legal novel. A former practicing trial lawyer in Mississippi, the setting for most of the story, as well as a member of the state legislature, Grisham is apparently, and quite rightly, concerned about a recent phenomenon relative to state supreme courts. As the novel illustrates, this is the increasing tactic of large business and ideological groups sweeping into various states and unloading large resources in elections for state supreme court justices–still not an uncommon way in which they are selected. Some states have adopted the so-called “Missouri system” where an expert panel recommends a slate of names to the governor, who must nominate one of the names, the individual serves a short term, and then stands for retention on a non-partisan basis. A simple majority of yes votes suffices to keep the judge in office for a full term.

But in Mississippi, and a number of other states, anyone can run in a competitive election for a seat on the state court. I expect this is particularly a hot issue in Mississippi, since it is the headquarters for gigantic tort recoveries in individual and class action suits returned by sympathetic juries. Grisham’s previous novel, “King of Torts,” was full of insights on this phenomenon. In the novel, business and ideological groups dissatisfied with the state court’s decisions combine to run a candidate they pick and believe will be sympathetic to their viewpoints in rendering decisions. The target is a female Justice, by no means super liberal or extreme by any measure–but that is before the millions of dollars invested in campaign propaganda distort her record. The novel is designed to exhibit several of the major problems with this system: the potential for extraneous “hot button” issues to be injected into the campaign; the disparity in funds between judges and interest/business groups seeking to dislodge them; will judges render decisions based upon what they feel voters will like?; could judges who receive financial support from groups ignore that fact when rendering decisions that impact upon them?; will this tactic emasculate the tort law system that has “cleaned up a lot of bad products and protected a lot of people”?(p. 337) When I asked specifically what she didn’t like about the premise, she said:

“He used to write entertaining books but now he has to have some kind of cause.”

As upset as she was her husband the judge, was livid.

As he described how much he liked the earlier Grisham books his voice rose to almost shouting levels. Apparently, nothing after The Pelican Brief was worth reading because:

“He used to write to entertain and I enjoyed that but now, like a lot of other writers he seems to have this overweening need to change the world,” the judge bellowed.

I had to stop myself from saying “oh, we can’t have any of that now.” Believe me, it was right on the tip of my tongue and it took a serious amount of self-discipline not to say anything.

“And I don’t need to read any of that,” the judge said now, practically yelling. “I lived enough of that.”

I could guess the politics of both husband and wife by this exchange.

And I felt genuinely sorry for them that they were so set in their preconceived notions of the world and the justice system that they refused to believe that the judiciary system is indeed for sale or perhaps, they simply didn’t want to be reminded of the fact in detail.

In any case, they were my examples of Contemporary Americana for the day.

And I think I’m going to have to read this Grisham book. I’d rather not have the large print, but with my eyes, maybe its for the best!

This is the current headline on the Drudge Report:

STORM WARNING AS DEBATE SET

FOR CLEVELAND

I don’t know if that’s the hand of the Moses Cleaveland statue on Public Square or not but I think we may need to arrange overnight accommodations for the Obama and Clinton crews.

If you click on the BIG BOLD UNDERLINED headlines you’ll get the Weather Underground forecast for Cleveland.

Yeah, it looks like we’re going to get a little snow. . .

Wonder if the candidates will work the weather into their opening statements?

Olbermann is interviewing Rachel Maddow on his show about this Associated Press story that I was too busy during the day to write about.

In any case, it is curious that the so-called venerable AP would run a ‘right wing greatest hits’ smear against Obama. As Olbermann opined:

“This patriotism thing, is this the fig leaf to go racist?”

Oh yeah. The American right has not found the depths it would not sink to smear anyone. These people are truly the scum of the earth.

From the AP story:

“The reason it hasn’t been an issue so far is that we’re still in the microcosm of the Democratic primary,” said Republican consultant Roger Stone. “Many Americans will find the three things offensive. Barack Obama is out of the McGovern wing of the party, and he is part of the blame America first crowd.”

This is the SAME Roget Stone who runs this group! And here and here and here.

American journalism. It’s becoming an oxymoron.

Obama’s comments led conservatives and media commentators to question his patriotism.

“First he kicked his American flag pin to the curb. Now Barack Obama has a new round of patriotism problems. Wait until you hear what the White House hopeful didn’t do during the singing of the national anthem,” said Steve Doocy, co-host of “Fox and Friends” on the Fox News Channel.

“He felt it OK to come out of the closet as the domestic insurgent he is,” former radio host Mark Williams said on Fox.

And that’s from the AP story.

I mean if I want to read this shit I can go to these sites anytime:

Kristol in The New York Times:

Now in almost every empirical respect, American lives have in fact gotten better over the last quarter-century. And most Americans — and most Democrats — don’t think those years were one vast wasteland. So Barack Obama hastened to clarify his wife’s remarks. “What she meant was, this is the first time that she’s been proud of the politics of America,” he said, “because she’s pretty cynical about the political process, and with good reason, and she’s not alone.” Later in the week, Michelle Obama further explained, “What I was clearly talking about was that I’m proud of how Americans are engaging in the political process.”

CNN

(CNN) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama defended himself and his wife Sunday against suggestions that they are insufficiently patriotic.

After a town hall meeting in Lorain, Ohio, a reporter asked Obama about “an attempt by conservatives and Republicans to paint you as unpatriotic.”

The reporter cited the fact that Obama once failed to put his hand over his heart while singing the national anthem.

Obama replied that his choice not to put his hand on his heart is a behavior that “would disqualify about three-quarters of the people who have ever gone to a football game or baseball game.”

The reporter also noted that the Illinois senator does not wear an American flag lapel pin, has met with former members of the radical anti-Vietnam War group, Weather Underground, and his wife was quoted recently as saying she never felt really proud of the United States until recently.

Asked how he would fight the image of being unpatriotic, Obama said, “There’s always some nonsense going on in general elections. Right? If it wasn’t this, it would be something else. If you recall, first it was my name. Right? That was a problem. And then there was the Muslim e-mail thing and that hasn’t worked out so well, and now it’s the patriotism thing.

ABC News

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., defended himself from charges by conservatives that he isn’t sufficiently patriotic, a theme developing in the Republican world that could tarnish the Democrat in the general election.

“There’s always some nonsense going on in general elections,” Obama told ABC News at a press availability in Lorain, Ohio. “If it wasn’t this, it would be something else. I mean, as you will recall, first it was my name. Right? That was a problem. And then there was the Muslim e-mail thing and that stuff hasn’t worked out so well. And now it’s the patriotism thing.”

Asked by ABC News how he could combat the accusations, Obama said, “The way I will respond to it is with the truth — that I owe everything I am to this country. You will recall the reason I came to national attention was a speech in which I spoke of my love for this country.”

Republicans have been stringing together events in the past year to paint Obama as unpatriotic:

A Time magazine photograph from an event in Iowa last summer showed Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson with their hands on their hearts during the singing of the national anthem. Obama’s hands were by his side.

Months later, Obama told an Iowa television station that he no longer wore an American flag lapel pin because it had become, in some ways, “a substitute for, I think, true patriotism.”

Then last week Obama’s wife Michelle told voters in Milwaukee, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change.”

After that comment, Cindy McCain, the wife of presumed GOP nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told a crowd, “I have, and always will be, proud of my country.”

Um, OK.

Damn that liberal media!!!

Tonight Keith Olbermann is raking Hillary Clinton who looks, quite frankly, like she’s off her meds (and yeah, it takes one to know one).

I think Hillary is starting to lash out and is looking quite frankly, like she’s desperate and flailing.

And it’s not playing well.

Hillary ridiculing Obama:

“The sky will open the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone knows we should be doing the right thing and everything will be perfect.” 

Earth to Hillary: this is demeaning to you. You don’t ridicule hope and optimism - that doesn’t play well in America. You look like an curmudgeonly ass.

You know all the Hillary people have chafed at having her described as being megalomaniacal - someone who would do and say anything to win.

But now that is exactly how she is looking. Like the wicked witch of the west, she’s doing the political equivalent of screaming “I’m melting! I’m melting!”

And now we have the latest smear - the Obama photograph. Even Matt Drudge seemed sympathetic to Obama:

CLINTON STAFFERS CIRCULATE ‘DRESSED’ OBAMA
Mon Feb 25 2008 06:51:00 ET

Note President George W. Bush and Bill and Hillary in native garb.

It’s something called respect, but what could we expect from Maggie Williams, Hillary’s traditional ‘hatchet man.’  She knows damn well what she was doing and now she has the audacity to suggest that objections by the Obama campaign should result in THEM being ashamed.

Hillary, it’s time to show some class. For the sake of the party and the country.

As Olbermann said she’s not only harming herself and the party, she’s writing John McCain’s campaign speeches for him.

I just launched some beer through my nose. Jill is on CNN right now commenting on Nader!!!!

Oh yeah, she announced it. Duh, I can read.

She’s as nice on the air as she in her blog. I would have said “Nader can kiss my ass.”

And she’s right on McCain.

The other blogger that is on with Jill has his blog here: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.

He did a good job too.

Chuck D and Flavor Flav would be his dream ticket.

And no way is Clinton ever going to be VP on Obama’s ticket. The other guy (Michael Goldfarb) was right on that.

Fun fun - the anchor wants to get the three of them back again - hopefully with more time next time!

The Pain Dealer ran Harrop’s column today

I can’t find a bio on Froma but this is from her own webpage:

Starting at Reuters Ltd., Harrop quickly moved from clerk to financial writer. She later became a business editor at the New York Times News Service. Harrop has written for such diverse publications as The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Institutional Investor. Her columns appear in several book anthologies.

Having a little experience in journalism, I feel reasonably confident when I say that its fairly rare for someone to move quickly from clerk to financial writer without some behind the scenes connections.

Be that as it may, she’s listed as a ‘liberal’ in the Creators’ Syndicate stable. But the system has many paid shills on both sides of our Punch and Judy political system and when someone writes articles such as these, pardon me for being cynical.

Harrop certainly knows what her masters want to read:

May I suggest a “time out” on bashing free trade with our Canadian and Mexican neighbors? Life would be awfully easy if NAFTA were the problem. All you’d have to do is pull out.

Sounds easy, eh? But Froma dear, you know the same people who put is in this NAFTA mess would be the same people who would have to pull us out. And you know why they won’t do that, don’t you? But you won’t write about that, will you?

The evidence points to NAFTA being mostly good for the countries involved. And if American factory workers want to see where their jobs have gone, they’d do better to look east than south. Labor may be cheaper in Mexico, but it’s cheaper still in Asia. Chinese workers make about a quarter of what their Mexican counterparts earn.

Good for whom? Not the American workers or are you willing to write that with a straight face, Froma? And does it really matter where those jobs went? It matters not to the people in my extended families and friends who used to make America’s steel. They’re just as screwed because their jobs went to Asia instead of Mexico.

And they went there because it was all part of the plutocrats plan to destroy the American Middle Class - the last impediment to creating a worldwide slave labor camp where all manufacturing jobs would be reduced to pittance wages solely for the benefit of international investors NOT for the millions of Americans who can’t live a Middle Class existence on those wages.

But who gives a shit about those people, eh Freda? You have a pretty nice job at the Providence Journal, don’t you? You got yours, right?

NAFTA knockers who fear sounding anti-Mexican often argue that free trade has been bad for Mexico, as well. They offer vivid examples, such as the peasant farmers protesting the end of tariffs on U.S. corn. Corn production is easily mechanized and relies on abundant water. That gives U.S. farmers a competitive advantage.

But NAFTA has opened the enormous U.S. market to Mexican avocado growers — who now call their fruit “green gold.” For avocados and other produce that requires picking by hand and therefore much farm labor, Mexicans have an advantage. In fact, Mexican farm exports to the United States and Canada have tripled since 1994.

Earth to Freda: we don’t care about Mexican workers. Let their own government create jobs for them. Perhaps you’d like to spend a week in Youngstown near where I live and sit down and have a face to face coffee with the flesh and blood victims of the economic theories you seem to be defending.

That might make you uncomfortable, though. Better to hang out in the Projo newsroom with the rest of your white collar buddies.

Revisiting NAFTA won’t fix what hurts the Ohio River Valley. A better approach would be universal health coverage that protects laid-off workers from total economic meltdown. A more vigorous program for job retraining would also help. And yes, Democrats are right to denounce tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

Thanks for throwing us a bone from Providence. I need to ask you though: how are we going to pay for this universal health coverage if the tax base of people who used to work a union wage keeps shrinking?

I’d love to ask Hillary Clinton the same thing. All she wants to do (and Obama too) is pour more money into the gaping maw of the health insurance industry. Canadian style single payer would be the best system for everyone. But that would be SOCIALISM!!! And only large American companies get socialism, not ordinary people. So Froma won’t advocate for it because she might not have a job the day after writing a column like that.

And you know, I’ve been hearing this job retraining song and dance bullshit for 20+ years now. Guess what - it doesn’t work. You know why? Employers have a choice between hiring college educated trust fund babies like Froma and ‘retrained’ (retreaded) former line workers. Guess which ones they go for every time?

Of course there’s plenty of jobs at McDonalds. Just keep telling people who used to make America’s steel and raise entire families on those jobs that there’s no loss of dignity in working burger jobs.

Just keep telling them that. And keep pumping out the Prozac.

None of this needed to happen. This government could have set directed economic policy that would have protected American manufacturing jobs and therefore kept our manufacturing base intact. You know what happens when you lose that base? I’ll give you a clue: without imports from Asia, the US military can’t shoot, communicate or move.

But the money boyz on Wall Street didn’t give a damn about that or those millions now desperately hoping to hit the lottery so they might live out the rest of their lives with a little dignity.

The sight of closed American factories — those broken windows and weed-covered parking lots — sickens the soul. The inescapable reality, though, is that the jobs that were going were going, if not to the Caribbean and Latin America, then to Asia. Wouldn’t it be in America’s interests to help our neighbors get the work?

Can I say this as delicately as possible? Fuck you Froma. Again, come to Youngstown and the Mon Valley or Pittsburgh. Your ’soul’ really cant be adequately sickened from your well lit newsroom in Providence. You really need to come down and look in the eyes of these people who have callouses on their hands you and your kind will never know and you need to explain to them why a lifetime of work in building this country didn’t amount to a pile of shit when all was said and done.

Fuck the neighbors. These are MY people.

Well my daddy worked the furnaces
Kept ‘em hotter than hell
I come home from ‘Nam worked my way to scarfer
A job that’d suit the devil as well
Taconite coke and limestone
Fed my children and make my pay
Them smokestacks reachin’ like the arms of God
Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay

From the Monongahela valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The story’s always the same
Seven hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world’s changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

– Bruce Springsteen

First, let me state this.

One of the biggest problems with the Pain Dealer is that there are NO COLUMNISTS THAT WRITE FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE.

Notice, I didn’t say write “about,” I said “write FOR.”

Unless you think the audience that Dick Feagler writes his touching tributes to an America long dead is ‘typical.’

The PD long ago ceased to be a newspaper that sympathized with ordinary people struggling. True, occasionally they will write about such people and, to be fair, Phillip Morris will write an occasional “woe is he” article about one of our economic system’s victims but its clear from the overall tenor of the PD that the audience they write for are white, well to do and living in Bay Village.

The people of Cleveland, the poor and the struggling middle class, are props, not anyone they really give a damn about.

Now on to Schultz’s column

Cindy McCain. We’re supposed to feel sorry for her. According to her ‘political wife in arms’ Connie Schultz.

She has been a steadfast presence in her husband’s campaign, and there’s been plenty of speculation as to why. Notions of love or devotion ring hollow to those who dismiss her as a much younger wife meant to telegraph his vigor. He needs her, the pundits say, as if that isn’t true about most marriages.

Her sleek sophistication is a constant target, even if how she looks has nothing to do with what she says. Last week, she took an apparent swipe at Michelle Obama by declaring that she has “always been proud of America,” prompting this anonymous post on the popular liberal blog, Daily Kos:

“I really don’t care if McCain’s trophy wife is proud of her country. She is just another GOP Stepford Wife …. Whoopie for anorexic-looking Cindy McCain in her red $5,000 Yves St. Laurent power suit, with her triple string of cultured pearls, her bleached blond hair and her shiny new face-lift…”

The writer called himself “Mr. Populist,” which means he’s not only clueless, but hellbent on giving the rest of us liberals a bad name.

Bzzzzz. Thanks for playing Connie, but I think “Mr. Populist” has it exactly right.

But you can’t relate. You CAN relate to Cindy McCain’s “sleek sophistication.” That you can relate to because, apparently, you emulate Cindy McCain. You want to be as polished and hip and sleek and sophisticated as your higher echelon income will allow you to be. That matters. What people on the street think don’t matter, since they don’t have the breeding and education of Cindy and Connie.

See to her, guys like “Mr. Populist” aren’t “real liberals” since they can’t relate to their economic masters who decide what is proper liberal behavior.

And you don’t diss your social superiors. Cindy McCain may be a troglodyte Republican conservative Stepford Wife but Connie will always take her side because they are sisters within their social class. That trumps ‘ideology.’

No Connie, don’t expect people like me and the people in my little town who are struggling to make ends meet to sympathize with you and Cindy McCain. You live in a world so far above ours we sprain our necks looking up at you.

Maybe once or twice you and Cindy and the rest of you political Barbie dolls could look down at us for a change.

You might get a clue then.

Just came over NBC’s Meet the Press: Nader will run for President again.

This can only hurt the Democrat who gets the nomination.  I can understand Nader’s possible animosity towards Hillary Clinton but what about Barack Obama? What major problems does Nader have with Obama?

Its a shame we can’t tie this guy to a tree for the next eight months. This is past the point of ambition to the point of delusion. Where is Pat Paulsen when you need him?

Oh yeah, he’s dead.  I guess Nader gets to be the punch line in this era.

But its a punch line that could put John McCain in the White House in a tight race. And the last thing any Democratic nominee needs is to have to answer to Nader and McCain. Should Clinton or Obama simply pretend he doesn’t exist?

Perhaps he’ll be regarded as a joke in the media now. We’ve heard his tired song and dance too many times before.

Breitbart

It would be funny if he weren’t running for POTUS.

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain Friday said he hoped Fidel Castro’s resignation would be followed by his speedy demise, and rapped Democrat Barack Obama for offering talks with Cuba’s next leader. “Fidel Castro announced that he would not remain as president — whatever that means,” McCain said in Indianapolis.

“And I hope that he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon.

As one of the Brietbart commenters (the sane ones) wrote, we all hope McCain gets to meet Reagan very soon.

Maybe we could take one last stab at making that happen. McCain could be dropped ‘behind the lines’ outside of Havana:

Argh! I’ll cut ya throat ya commie bastard!

Armed only with a K-bar and good old American guts, McCain would infiltrate Castro’s hacienda and terminate with extreme prejudice as the spooks like to say.

Actually it would probably look like two old guys wrestling over the last piece of carrot cake in the rest home commissary.

But yeah, you have to understand the terminal rage the old right has for Castro. Despite all the king’s horses and all the king’s men (Bay of Pigs, various CIA assassination schemes), Castro and his government have given America the middle finger 90 miles off the coast of Florida since 1959.

And, like the Mafia, the bastards never forget or forgive. Damn Castro and that socialized medicine! Damn that commie Michael Moore! How dare ordinary Cubans have better health care than the average Americans!

So 48 hours into McCain’s presidency, will we see the B-52 dropping bomb loads over Havana and the Marines breaking out of their Guantanamo Bay base and marching across Cuba? I can hear old John now “let’s get it right this time - I want you guys to bring me back Castro’s scalp for my wall.”

As for the Brietbart readers (the right wingnuts) it just goes to show you how much they love having ‘enemies.’ Without all these ‘enemies’ how would all of Bush’s friends in the arms industry? What would be the need for all the flag waving and chest thumping patriotic displays?

For a nation of warlike people, peace sucks. What do you do with all those nifty toys?

McCain goes on:

In a formal written statement, McCain also took a shot at Obama, the Democratic front-runner who renewed his offer to speak to leaders of US foes without preconditions in a campaign debate with rival Hillary Clinton in Texas.

“So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such a meeting confers, without having to release political prisoners, allow free media, political parties, and labor unions, or schedule internationally monitored free elections,” McCain said.

Free media? Like our corporately controlled stenographers to power?

Political parties? Like our two corporately controlled Punch and Judy parties?

Labor unions? McCain? Is he serious? Republicans are to labor unions like Raid is to roaches.

Free elections? One word: Diebold.

Hmmmm. The irony of that was probably lost on Old John. As was this:

“Meet, talk, and hope may be a sound approach in a state legislature, but it is dangerously naive in international diplomacy where the oppressed look to America for hope and adversaries wish us ill.”

First of all, McCain should talk with some of Iraq’s 2 million refugees, who, as a result of our invasion, might regard themselves as being oppressed, not to mention the 1 million dead. But it was all Saddam’s fault! Saddam made us do it!

And second, when will people in this country grow up and stop accepting such juvenile rhetoric from so-called serious statesmen? The world is not a game of cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians.

Try Barack Obama’s retort:

Obama hit back in his own strongly-worded statement.

“John McCain would give us four more years of the same Bush-McCain policies that have failed US interests and the Cuban people for the last 50 years,” he said.

“My policy will be based on the principle of liberty for the Cuban people, and I will seek that goal through strong and direct presidential diplomacy, and an immediate change in policy to allow for unlimited family visitation and remittances to the island.

“I am confident that the American people will choose the promise of the future over the failed policies and predictable political attacks of the past.”

That’s more like it.

Paul Craig Roberts in ICH

I may be a little slow on the uptake or late to the party or however you want to put it, but this makes a lot of sense to me as well as scares the hell out of me:

Bush began violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in October 2001   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10488458/  when he spied on Americans without obtaining warrants from the FISA court.  

Bush pressured telecom companies to break the law in order to enable his illegal spying.  In court documents, Joseph P. Nacchio, former CEO of Qwest Communications International, states that his firm was approached more than six months before the September 11, 2001, attacks and asked to participate in a spying operation that Qwest believed to be illegal.  When Qwest refused, the Bush administration withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  Nacchio himself was subsequently indicted for insider trading, sending the message to all telecom companies to cooperate with the Bush regime or else. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/16/former-telcom-ceo-bushs-illegal-spying-began-months-before-911-attacks/ 

Bush has not been held accountable for the felonies he committed and for leading telecom companies into a life of crime.  

As the lawmakers who gave us FISA understood, spying on people without warrants lets a political party collect dirt on its adversaries with which to blackmail them. As Bush illegally spied a long time before word of it got out, blackmail might be the reason the Democrats have ignored their congressional election mandate and have not put a stop to Bushs illegal wars and unconstitutional police state measures.  

Perhaps the Democrats have finally caught on that they cannot function as a political party as long as they continue to permit Bush to spy on them. For one reason or another, they have let the Orwellian-named Protect America Act expire.

More than six months before 9-11.

Blackmailing Democrats.

Hmmm.

All of this to protect ‘us’ from those dark skinned hoards who are poised for a massive invasion of the USA.

There are people who absolutely buy the bullshit they’ve been fed by this administration. One such person was in my store yesterday, absolutely convinced that this is why Barack HUSSEIN Obama could never be President of the United States.

He’s a Muslim sleeper cel agent, she confided in me.

“Really,” I asked. “How do you know.”

“Because I heard it on Focus on the Family.”

Oh, of course.  Unimpeachable source.

And she’s not the only one. There are others I’ve run into in this small town that fervently believe it to be true as well. One, a very nice lady who operates a local business believes the rumors about Obama because she saw it on Fox News “and they always give both sides of the story.”

I swear I am not making that up.

It’s enough to make you want to head for a small cabin somewhere in the Yukon Territory.

And they’re also hunky-dory with having all their communications listened to by government agents if it will ensure some swarthy Arab won’t make them wear a Burka one day and pray to Allah. Of course, they pray to Allah already, they just don’t realize it. God is white like they are.

OK, I’m digressing from PCR but so be it.

It makes perfect sense when you consider how quickly the Dems’ Iron Crosses folded up after the 2006 elections. Of particular odor was Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin who verbally assaulted the mother of a Iraq soldier who dared to question his enabling of the Bush war machine.

Remember?

TINA RICHARDS: Are you going to be voting against the supplemental?

REP. DAVID OBEY: Absolutely not. I’m the sponsor of the bill.

TINA RICHARDS: To continue the war?

REP. DAVID OBEY: It doesn’t. The President wants to continue the war. We’re trying to use the supplemental to end the war. But you can’t end the war by going against the supplemental. It’s time these idiot liberals understand that. There’s a hell of a difference between defunding the troops and ending the war. I’m not going to deny body armor. I’m not going to deny funding for veterans’ hospitals and vets hospitals so you can help people who have medical problems. That’s what you do if you’re going against that bill.

TINA RICHARDS: But there should be enough money already in the regular defense bill—

REP. DAVID OBEY: Well, there isn’t.

TINA RICHARDS:—without continuing the funding for the war.

REP. DAVID OBEY: There isn’t. There isn’t. That’s not the way it works. The money in the defense bill, it pays for a standing army, but it doesn’t pay for these recurring costs. We’re going to add over a billion dollars more to what the President is asking for in that bill, so it should deal with exactly some of the problems you’re talking about. How the hell do you get the money to the hospitals if we don’t provide the money?

TINA RICHARDS: Well, are you going to be in support then of—

REP. DAVID OBEY: I hate the war. I voted against it, to start with. I was the first guy in Congress to call for Rumsfeld’s resignation, but we don’t have the votes to defund the war, and we shouldn’t, because that also means defunding everything we’ve got in that bill to help guys who are the victims of the war.

Sounds like a guy running from something. Perhaps his conscience. Perhaps he’s one of the ‘blackmailed Dems’ who would like to have a backbone but don’t want to jeopardize their cushy seat on principle.