August 2008

I’ve been reading about this guy for two years.  This is the best speech most never saw.

but I enjoyed this by Dave Stewart and friends.

Like many Americans I wasn’t immersed in the history of Russia and Georgia to clearly evaluate what was going on other than the dangerous Russian bear was waking up.  The break away Georgian republics have been getting Russian protection since the Stalinist years (Stalin was a Georgian from Gori). 

Both parties are blaming Russia, but it is not that simple.  Georgia treats the breakaways with as much contempt as Russia treats it.  Georgia practices early democracy, asks for NATO protection, and assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that the West would come to its aid. 

Mikheil Saakashvili has overplayed his hand and will be gone as soon as Georgians realize they have been humiliated.  There is nothing the US can do.  I know John McCain wants to go all Rambo, but that is a joke.  The whole world knows we are overextended- way to go George- and Russia is working from a position of strength, economically (oil and gas) and militarily (troops amnd missles in the region).  I know they signed the truce, but they will be slow to leave so they can stick their thumb in the eye of Georgia and the West.

George Bush brought us here, and McCain’s machismo could throw gasoline on the fire.  The United States has few options, but having the cranky old man threatening the Russian bear on his lawn risks a far deeper conflagration.  And it only makes the US look weak.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/war_in_south_ossetia.html

Guess this means Michael Phelps will not be running for Vice President. I’m still waiting for my text message Barack.

Keep pounding.

Second best quote:

“The is your government. This is the government of and by and for the people,” he told the crowd. “This is a government of the single Mom, like my mother, when she was living here in Honolulu, who had to get food stamps sometimes but still was able to get me a good education and still was able to send me to college, that’s what this government is.”  Obama in Oahu, Aug 7, 2008  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLJa3vO7WUA

First best quote:

(or you COULD have a vision of a government that you want to drown in a bathtub.  You choose.)   Some blogger

A Grover Nyquist New Orleans

Most polictical pundits regurgitate the the predictable blah, blah, blah of Washington.  I liked this one not because there is anything new, but because it is an interesting Washington couple of the influential class.  Todd Purdum fommerly of the NY Times and now Vanity Fair wrote a scathing piece on post presidential Bill Clinton recently.  Billy Boy called Purdum a scumbag.  Ouch.  In this video he is in a conversation with his wife Dee Dee Myers, of course,  who worked closely with Bill. 

This will be me and Diane after I retire.  Sit on the couch talking about shit we don’t know anything about. Load the video onto a blog nobody sees.  Just got to get me a video camera. Ah, life will be sweet.

Not because he had a 2006 affair while his wife was in remission (that makes it so much better).  No, it’s because he still ran for the nomination, could have been found out in an October surprise, and given America to the party of Bush for another 4-8 years.  That is the narcissistic part.  Son of a millworker, son of a bitch.

I’m so over men as political leaders.  Can we bring Hillary back?

This just in.

WAUKEGAN, IL—In what is being called a breakthrough discovery in worker-administrator relations, a study released Monday in the Journal Of Occupational Science found that not being a total asshole supervisor may be linked to improved worker spirit. “In nearly every trial, we found staff morale runs considerably higher when bosses don’t read workers’ e-mail over their shoulders, complain about their superior salaries, or act in any way like giant, self- centered assholes,” said Erica Gorochow, one of the study’s researchers. “Similarly, we found that typical dick manager phrases like ‘I don’t disagree’ can weaken worker disposition by as much as 63 percent.” Although the study’s findings have already sent shock waves through the business community, Gorochow warned that some of the results may have been compromised, as the bitch lead researcher was breathing down her neck the whole time.

This from TPM:

Let’s be frank. On the campaign trail this cycle, McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries’ names wrong, forgets things he’s said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused. Any single example is inevitable for someone talking so constantly day in and day out. But the profusion of examples shows a pattern. Some of this is probably a matter of general unseriousness or lack of interest in policy areas like the economy that he doesn’t care much about. But for any other politician who didn’t have the benefit of years of friendship or acquaintance with many of the reporters covering him, this would be a major topic of debate in the campaign. It’s whispered about among reporters. And it’s evidenced in his campaign’s increasing effort to keep him away from the freewheeling conversations with reporters that defined his 2000 candidacy. But it’s verboten as a topic of public discussion.