epic battle: star wars versus crosby, stills, nash & young

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire, New Jersey's Bruce Springsteen." -Incumbent Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan during a campaign stop in 1984.

When I watch this political ad from a bygone day I am reminded at just how slow America is to change. It also illustrates just how long we have been working on many of the same economic and social justice issues that still confront this nation.

The campaign commercial is from the 1984 Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro run against the Ronald Reagan/Pappy Bush re-election bid. Weird that it was almost 30 years ago and perhaps weirder still, the themes echoed in this spot aren't that much different than those brought forth by the Democrats in 2008. We're still fighting the same battles, the same view of how our country should look that we fought 25 years ago. At the time, many thought that surely the country would opt for teaching their children rather than building Star Wars weapons of mass-destruction. Actually when talking about the Star Wars missile defense system we should really be talking about weapons of non-destruction since they never seemed to work. Then the votes were counted and Reagan was reelected by the one of the largest landslides in history.

Sometimes I think we are fooled by how easy it seems to be to listen in on the candidates, the pundits who cover them, and the myriad of conversations from laypersons about America's problems. Just because people are constantly shouting at each other doesn't mean anyone is taking the time to listen to each anyone's rhethoric. And this includes their own, for if they were, many ought be embarassed by their own message.

opening at a theater near you

The summer blockbuster season has descended. What will it be? Reluctant superhero?Romantic comedy? Cops and robbers?

Iron Man, which some have described as a young John McCain with a couple of good arms and a jet pack (sense of humor still intact), didn't quite do the early numbers that had been expected. Who knows, late-summer DVD sales may yet rescue this aging superhero who in reality is lot more like Indiana Jones in a rocking chair. He just can't do the stunts any more so any kind of superhero analogy with McGruff the Crime Dog is always going to be a stretch. McGruff's more like Walter Matthua near the end - all grousing and boyhood hi-jinks but little panache and policy.

Wacky romantic comedies, the ones where the two main characters don't really like each and spend most of the first 3 reels sniping and undermining each other, sometimes play big at the summer drive-ins, but it's unlikely that Clinton-Obama will turn Hepburn-Tracy in the near future.

This just might be the summer of the reluctant anti-hero, the underestimated homeless person who turns out to be Chauncey Gardener, or even the Dark Knight with a quiet posse of determined followers. The big picture where the main character, despite his flaws and hem-haws, ultimately decides to pick up the mantle and run headlong toward 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with everyone chasing him down the street and throwing junk in his way.

Salt the popcorn and pass the Dots. I'm ready for the show.

one angry white man

wow! this dude is angry with Hillary Rodham Clinton

hillary plays her last hand

OK. Up front. For once. The river. There it is. The 7 clubs. What a card to get now. You’re done. Toast. Out. Gone away. But we're going to play this hand backwards, the way you would have liked to have played it from the git-go. But that wasn't an option then. Actually, it was an option then, you just did not see it as one, you were too busy focused on the pot. Always on the pot, never on the process. So you pushed in with twenty, your last twenty, I might add, but it's too late now. The river. 7 clubs. Stand up and be counted. Out. That's how it works. You think you've got it, got the insight, got the vibe, got the trick, got the mojo, got the cards. They're coming your way. Or not. Stand up and be counted.

But we're going forwards when we should be going back. Back in time. Reverse order, remember? The cards. Yes, the cards. Your cards. The ones that were dealt. They were...coming. Coming your way, the cards. In fact they would have gone your way but you made a mistake. Some might call it a calculated one, but who calculates mistakes? No one, that would be silly. Perhaps an over calculation? A tell? Was it a tell. No. Not really, life is always more complex than a tell. A tell you could correct. But luck. How do you correct luck? You can’t really. An over estimation. That you can correct for, could have corrected for, had you seen it coming which of course you did not or we wouldn't, check that, you wouldn't be standing now.

The turn. This is where the luck began to change if such a thing can be said to change. If it can changes is it really luck? No. Strategy changes, luck carries forth. But granted, at the outside you did neglect to imagine that on the turn, after check, check, and check, your dunce-in-the-hole, the patsy who you'd set up 2 hands before, the one who was going to raise, raise, and re-raise. Patsy Boy, that's what you call him, the one with the hair, stepped out. "Out." That's what he said. Just like that. And just for a minute. Away from the table. Cool. Calm and deflected. Patsy Boy who's never, ever neglected to raise on pair of treys, is now out. Why? Turns out it's not deep, because Patsy Boy isn't deep but you knew that. Patsy Boy was recalling a memory of a girl he'd meet the night before at a bar, and had lost focus, not that he ever had much focus, for the moment Patsy Boy lost focus, and wanted to think instead about Mya? Was that her name? She didn't spell it like that, how did she spell it? M Y _ _. So he dropped that hand, it was as simple as that to try and recall the correct spelling, because recalling the spelling was the key to remembering her edress and remembering that was the key to contacting her, since phone numbers were not exchanged, and although he was slightly drunk he'd said, "sure, go ahead, give it to, I'll remember it." So his future, his future with Mayah? it all hinged on his memory, which he was now actively searching. Searching for his future and that was how you lost yours.

But back to the turn. Patsy Boy drops into a reverie and you begin your descent into being a loser, because once Patsy Boy goes the way of promises-yet-to-come you are forced to stare at the table green, because to not stare into the green is to stare into the face of your nemesis who sits across from you. That's what you call him. To his face. "Nemesis?" you'll ask, thinking this helps you understand him, calm your fears, but what you don't realize is that none of that is true. No. The opposite is true. Nemesis understands you. Thus nemesis, instead of combatant. He who imposes the rules of engagement...you are but a victim here. Of your own over-calculations. Once the hands are dealt, everything’s in motion. Things are no longer equal. Not at all. Nemesis. You’re toast. And you know it. Knew it then. Know it now. And therein lies the problem with the flop and this is really where your downfall began to be described. Think about it. A twenty. That's the price of your downfall. That and three cards on the table stretched out in a row.

It's all about possibilities. Really. Think about it. There's so much promise there, right now, at the moment they all come. There they are...ONE...TWO...THREE. Three cards fanned across the table. The possibilities are almost limitless. That's what you say to yourself. Let's play this out. What's the end game from here on out? Best to worse case. OK. Best case. Full house. Knaves and daggers. You'd love that. "Knave this! motherfuckers." That's what you'd say. Or "OK. I've seen your mercy and now to cut your heart out." Yeah that be good one. Really. OK. Second best. Spade flush, not out of the question but such a shame to lose the pair like that. It's not how you win, though, just that you do. So OK, then straight. Top or bottom, it's easy as a two-way. That could work. Now worse case. And this one's bad. Trip, trip, trip down memory lane. Count'em. "one. two. three." All so easy, all so many possibilities. Isn't life grand?"

Grand. Yes it is. You were set to be grand from the git-go. That's what you always called it. First card the git, second the go. The git-go. And what a git-go it was. This is going to do it. Easy now, don't get too over confident, but whoa, what a git. What a go. But remember, we're playing this game backwards. Why? you say, well why not? Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned here. How? How did we get here? Last hand or the first of many to come, sometimes we just never know? So the git. There is it. Now the go. Full steam ahead. Seems like the right cards. Really, odds-ons the best two hole cards to start with. Hard to beat. The best two to start with, but what you didn't know, couldn't know, was that when Patsy Boy stepped away from the table, when he took one last look at those two cards he was holding - and now we'll never know what they were because they just don't matter anymore - when he took that one last look down and then he looked up at you, just for a moment and a little smile edged along his face and then he folded and stepped away, that moment, which really had nothing to do with you, except you were both in the same room, THAT MOMENT, that moment was the tell. You never saw it coming. So you went in with your last twenty. And now you are standing. Standing and out.

no end in sight

Despite the collective groan that surfaced among the pundit class this morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton declared there was no end in sight, "hey, at this point, I'm in it for the snark."

Jeez. Where does that leave the pundit class? Paying for drinks at the victory party to raise money for West Virginia...

hillary clinton waves goodbye

Hillary Clinton, exhausted after months of dogged determination on the campaign trail and with the knowledge that nothing has worked to move ahead of Barack Obama and nothing can work short of scandal, her hopes of re-inhabiting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue dashed, waved goodbye to her one, good chance of being President Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Clinton was bested by organization. Therein lies the reason she was unable to secure the nomination even with her gold-plated credentials - and being Senator from NY State and a two-term former First Lady, is more than golden, it's platinum.

Obama organizers descended on Indiana months ago and began to build a base of operations. With repeated calls to Obama loyalists in neighboring states after losses in Pennsylvania and the Rev. Wright controversy, the Obama campaign was able to mobilize campaign volunteers to help register voters, canvas neighborhoods, and answer questions. Not everyone was convinced, but much of the Obama strategy has been to whittle away at the poll numbers, diminish the status quo, and keep working until the difference between any Clinton win and Obama loss is so close as to be insignificant in the delegate apportionment. And Obama was able to keep the money flowing into his campaign, something Clinton learned all too late. Organization matters. Especially if you're running for CEO of the United States.

The Clintons, who walked on airs and controlled the Democratic Party for over a decade, ultimately succumbed to a case of political gout, which begets hypocrisy, until descending into its own form of tyranny. No one likes a tyrant.

Regardless of the glad-handling and kind words now, don't expect to see the same level of enthusiasm from the Clinton elite during the General Election. Why? This election will be about trying to throw the bums out. And some of the bums have been around a while.

Photo credit: Damon Winter, NYTimes.

fake patriotism fosters sunday-morning racism

On last Sunday's Fox News program, Barack Obama, who'd graciously declined the offer to be skewered by assholes masquerading as pundits for nearly 2 years, stated that race wasn't an issue in America today. Obama was making the stump speech point that Americans have moved beyond the divisive politics of yesteryear and would support a woman or man of African heritage for Presidency. I believe this to be true, but Obama has begun to speak in a voice of someone who's been forced to be ever more cautious with language as his opportunity to be the Democratic candidate for President moves closer and closer to reality.

Race may no longer be an issue in America. But racism still is. And anyone who wears a flag-lapel pin to prove their patriotism is a bigot.

Witness all the faux outrage generated by Rev. Jerimiah White's comments. This fake outrage, as fake as lapel-pin patriotism, isn't any different than the years-gone-by attitude that condemns the oppressed for speaking out against the oppressors. The years-go-by and whitey still clings to its fear of a black planet. Imagine the tv ads yet to come. If Obama gets the nod, this will be the first election cycle where Republican ads feature ganster rappers. Bling bling. Bang bang. How stupid will it get? You can bet, pretty damn stupid.

mark funkhousers 2008 state of the city address

The Full Text of the State of the City Address delivered by Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser – April 24, 2008

Thank you all for coming today.

Over the last year, I’ve had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with a great many people that I would have never gotten to know if I hadn’t become mayor. People like Stretch and Bill Drummond from the Crossroads. Bill Haw and John O'Brien from the West Bottoms. Lali Garcia from the Westside. Marie Young of the Black Chamber. Anita Dixon. Pat Clark. Jay Stock. Jane Rinehart. KB Winterowd… The list goes on and on.

Recently I had a conversation with Ollie Gates. He told me how when he was younger, the neighborhoods on the East side were as vibrant and alive as any in the city. There were grocery stores, dime stores, restaurants—you name it. The sidewalks were full of people. Today, we see a hint of that time that Mr. Gates spoke of—in the fake storefronts at 18th and Vine built for Robert Altman’s movie, Kansas City. In that film, the bustling K.C. of the early 20th century seemed so real and exciting that city leaders kept the movie sets and built around them. A year after the movie came out, the Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation was formed, and the city opened the Jazz and Negro leagues museums.

Today, the Jazz District is an indispensable part of Kansas City. We visit the museums often, catch shows at the Gem Theater, dance at the Rhythm and Ribs festival, and wile away the wee hours at the Mutual Musicians Fund. And we’re eager for more. We peer through the windows of the empty storefronts along 18th Street and dream about the day when they’re filled with shops and restaurants once again. Unfortunately – we can’t help but see the vacant lots behind the old movie sets. We can’t help but notice that there’s still work to be done. All across the city, we find similar signs of success, promise – and unfinished work. In Kansas City we have attractions fine enough to draw envy from any city on earth. In addition to the Jazz and Negro League museums, we have the Country Club Plaza. The Sprint Center. The Nelson. KCI. Our parks and boulevards. Our Fountains. Gate’s, Bryant’s, and Manny’s. And on and on… And there’s more to come…

Downtown is experiencing a tremendous rebirth, with more restaurants, theaters and even a grocery store. Out south, we’ll have a soccer stadium. In the Northland, the possibility of a worldclass airplane manufacturer. And on the Eastside, Ollie Gates’ plan for the Black Heritage District.

Yet the people who live here – those of us who travel to and from work on this city’s streets – proud as we are of everything that makes Kansas City great – and all that will make it greater still…We see. We see the vacant lots between the museums. We see the reality amid the renaissance. We see the reality that many of the streets and sidewalks leading to our new attractions are – quite simply – broken. They’re broken because we have not paid to get them fixed. They’ve been so broken for so long that it’ll cost billions to fix them.

We see the reality of our neglected sewer system. Bringing this system into the 21st century will cost more than $3 billion. We see the reality of our debt. We pay $120 million per year—roughly the cost of 3,000 miles of resurfaced streets or the salary of 2,000 city employees—just to service the debt. And the unpleasant reality is that, despite our hard work this year, our budget remains structurally imbalanced. Our expenditures will grow at 4 percent while our revenues grow at just 2 percent.

And if our citizens are happy with the new Sprint Center, the reality is that they’re unhappy with lots of other stuff. In the annual citizen satisfaction survey, they ranked us below the metropolitan average in almost every single category. And there were—care to guess?—44 such measures. In several areas, we were dead last. I keep hearing that perception is reality. But I’m here to tell you: reality is reality.

And it’s time for us to align our reality with our imagination – not just at 18th and Vine – but throughout the city. This year, your new Mayor and Council have taken giant steps toward making this happen.

First, we agreed as a Council to reign in our debt. Debt was out of control because the city didn’t have a debt policy. Now we have a good one. A second step was to bring discipline to our use of economic development tools. For years, we did not have a policy to guide our use of incentives. Now we have a good one. A third and critical step was to bring our spending under control. The highlight of my first year was when the City Council and I came together to adopt a budget that was---- refreshingly . . . sane! This was politics at its best.

These are major accomplishments! If we were to do nothing else for the next three years, our first term together will have been a success. We made three major steps that our predecessors were unwilling or unable to make. And while all of my colleagues on the council deserve credit and thanks, there is one council member whose leadership was instrumental in all three of these achievements. Deb Hermann. – From the bottom of my heart – I want to thank Deb not only for the budget, but for helping to make this rookie’s first year in office a productive one.

Of course, challenges remain. Today I’m going to outline ten of them. This council is the most informed, engaged and energetic the city has seen in decades. In the coming weeks, I’m going to be talking with my fellow council members to find a champion for each of these challenges: The first of these challenges is the need to fund basic infrastructure maintenance. We need to resurface the streets. We need to fix curbs and sidewalks. We need to keep our bridges safe and in good repair. According to our citizens these are the most important services the city provides.

And yet – year after year – citizens tell us they’re not satisfied with the way these services are being provided. They tell us in surveys, and they tell us to our faces at town hall meetings. From a business perspective – this is not a good thing. Our citizens are our customers – and we’re competing for them with other cities and towns across the region. If we fail to provide the services they want most, they’ll live somewhere else.

Second, we need to bring our sewer system up to modern standards. Our system has over 6 billion gallons of overflow each year. This is bad for the environment—not only for our neighbors down stream, but also for our own neighborhoods. And we’re under the gun from the federal government to fix it.

It’s a simple fact that we have to face these challenges and overcome them. But it won’t be easy. We have to find the money. So then the third challenge—to build regional partnerships to fund regional amenities. We need to do this not just because of fairness, but to be smart with the money. And that means being efficient and effective. Kansas City, Missouri has always been the region’s flagship and will remain so. We give the region its identity. The suburbs depend on us.

During the budget debate, the zoo’s supporters flooded us with e-mails urging full financial support for the zoo. Most of those supporters live outside the city limits. But if the region wants a world-class zoo, a world-class arena and a worldclass war museum, then the region has to help provide them. One city simply can’t afford to do it alone. That’s an effectiveness issue.

And if Kansas City alone tries to fully fund these amenities, we have to cut elsewhere—namely basic services. When we do that, people move away – encouraging even more sprawl. That’s an efficiency issue. It impacts the overall efficiency of the metro area, which shows, for example, in the rising costs of transportation. So this isn’t a complaint about Kansas City taking one for the team. This is a challenge to us all to take pragmatic steps to maintain the quality of life the entire metro area has come to depend on.

A fourth challenge is to bring our retirement systems and health care benefits in line with standard business practices. Most workers across the country handle their retirements through 401K programs. Our pension fund is about as modern as our sewer system.

We can also save money by consolidating our health insurance packages. Right now we have different insurance plans for different sectors of government. We can get a better deal if we buy for the entire work force. To the citizen, these changes seem like no-brainers. But at City Hall, no change goes un-resisted. Still, I know that this council has the political will to get these changes made.

A fifth challenge is to make it easier to do business in Kansas City. Last summer, several council members and I met with a group of frustrated restaurant owners. They showed us a thin file of documents needed to open a restaurant in Kansas. Then they hoisted a fat folder stuffed with forms – including a $10,000 lawyer bill – and said that’s what they needed to open an identical business in Kansas City.

We can’t keep doing business this way. If it’s easier and cheaper to open shop across the state line—shop owners will go across the state line. A sixth challenge is to make it easier to move around Kansas City. If conventional wisdom is to be believed, we’re not yet ready for a regional light rail system. But that same conventional wisdom had it that Clay Chastain’s plan would get voted down.

It’s clear to me that if we present voters with a light rail system that gets them where they want to go—from downtown to the suburbs and the stadiums and the airport—they’ll vote for it in a heartbeat. Especially in a November election. A presidential election. When tens of thousands of people flood the polls to vote for progress and change.

A seventh challenge, and a critical one, is improving our educational system. On a recent trip, I met a man who told me he used to live in Kansas City, Missouri. But, he said, like so many young families, they chose to move to Kansas when his kids reached school age. Then he told me that he and his wife earn a combined income of four hundred thousand dollars a year.

We can’t afford to keep losing families this way. But – as long as we remain divided and at odds about education in the urban core – families will continue to look elsewhere for better options. I believe we should start with a bottoms-up educational summit. We need to build a political consensus about what we want from our schools. And that consensus must cross racial lines.

An eighth challenge is to build a new agenda for dealing with the leadership in Jefferson City and Washington D.C. Part of the reason why we had such a hard time with the budget this year is because we - as a city – have to shoulder much of the burden of services that should be provided by the state and federal governments. We need to change the focus of our efforts in Jefferson City and Washington.

In recent years, the city has focused its legislative agenda on development incentives like TIF. We need to focus instead on larger issues that better reflect our values. We need to fight for more money for health care, for alternatives in crime prevention, and for education and social services. And we need allies. An urban alliance.

The moment is right. It’s an election year. Politicians will listen to us— especially if we speak in unison with our counterparts in Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit, St. Joe, Columbia, Springfield, and – yes – even in St. Louis.

As a ninth challenge, we need to continue using incentives to encourage our economy to grow. Not just downtown or on the Plaza or north of the river. But in the forgotten parts of our city. In my inaugural address, I said that the first TIF that crossed my desk had darned well better be for the Eastside. What I didn’t understand then is that the tools we have—like TIF—don’t work well there. They’re geared toward big projects in wealthier areas.

So we need to create "New Tools" for economic development. New tools that will help revitalize the economically distressed areas. Tools that will work for us as we turn our attention to neglected neighborhoods. Tools that will help us make 27th and Prospect – once again – as nice as 63rd and Brookside. In this effort, I intend for us to take a national lead, – to make Kansas City a model for other cities to look to for solutions to the problem of disinvestment in the urban core.

To create these new tools, I’m convening a symposium on May 5 where we’ll generate ideas for economic development in the urban core. I’ve invited several dozen community, business and political leaders to participate. From there, I’ll work with the council and city staff to transform these ideas into policies and plans. Then – we’re going to make them work. In a sense, what we’ll be doing is turning the old façades at 18th and Vine into reality. We’ll be making the vibrant neighborhoods that Ollie Gates remembers come alive again!

All of these challenges culminate in a tenth challenge—the most critical one we face. We need to repopulate the urban core. Since the 1980s, we’ve gained 50,000 new residents north of the river and lost almost as many south. As a result, our tax base has all but flat-lined. Worse, our economy has weakened. In 1970, Kansas City, Missouri’s market share of the metro economy was 40 percent. Now it’s less than 20 percent.

If you go to 44th and Cyprus—in the heart of our city—you’ll feel as if you’re in a rural area. All around you’ll see open fields of grass, with nothing but crumbling concrete steps coming up from the street to remind you of the houses that once filled the neighborhood. To reverse this trend, Kansas City will need great strength. Fortunately - that’s something we have in abundance. We have strength of location. That’s why a great city rose in this spot. It’s where the Missouri meets the Kaw and turns northward—a perfect station for western expansion. It’s where the railroads later converged, and then the highways, and the international Airport. It’s where our ability to adapt and grow has forged a new crossroads for the global economy. We also have strength of character and personality. For whatever else the great cities of the world might have—not one of them has the Spirit of Kansas City. This Spirit is the one-of-a-kind quality that opened the eyes of Dan and Debra Engravalle.

Not too long ago, the couple – who come from the New York area – scored some free plane tickets. Dan said to Debra, “I’m hungry for barbeque. Let’s go to Kansas City.” After being here just a few days, Debra said—“I’d like to live here.”

And they moved! Now they’re settled in the Northland. And they’ve brought their business with them. Best of all, they’re urging friends and family to move to Kansas City too.

I’ve asked Engravalles to come here today. Dan, Debra, could you please stand so your fellow Kansas Citians can meet you? The Engravalles love how there’s so much to do here. They love how they can enjoy the amenities of big city life and still see deer and wild turkey from their patio. They love that they can see and do it all without the East-Coast hassle. And what they love the most is the friendliness of the people. Folks – Let me tell you – Boomtowns have been built on less.

Looking across this room, I see the political strength we’ll need to take this city over the top, to help 50,000 more people see what the Engravalles’ see: a community of choice. We’re going to pull this off!

We’ll do it with the big things like light rail. And, more importantly - we’ll do it by paying attention to the small things: Basic services – Infrastructure – Better business practices. And development incentives for neighborhoods that need them most.

My friends, we are a strong city. And we are about to emerge as a city that dreams. A city that plans. And, above all, a city that works------for everyone.

Thank you.

Trilby Lundberg sucks big oil's derrick

Trilby Lundberg doesn't know the answer and NPR doesn't ask why. Ask yourself, why not? Remember please, it's National Public Radio and the National stands for the public interest. Why else give them our tax dollars?

Every week there's a segment on NPR asking the why's and why nots about the price of oil and gasoline and every week Trilby Lundberg trots out some lame party line about oil refinery capacity, hurricanes in the Gulf, Saudi Oil princes, or some other bullshit that doesn't have any relation to the price of beans in Malaysia. But NPR reports it as fact. What? There is only one oil market analyst in the entire world. No one ever stops, least of all a JOURNALIST, to ask, hey wait a minute, if it takes approximately 3 months for oil to reach the US market, then why the daily volatility in prices?

Well here's the simple answer. Trilby Lundberg doesn't know her ass from apple butter. The price of gas is always changing, but when was the last time you saw someone actually changing the price, and WHY? A few days ago, heading to work at sunrise, I caught someone in the act of changing prices. They were lowering the price by a penny. I asked them why.

"The boss sent me out here to do this." Exactly. They don't have a clue as to why and they don't really care. A penny today, a nickel tomorrow.

Or should I say, a billion dollars this year, two billion the next. A war today and a war tomorrow.

bush still doesn't get it

"We're not in a recession, we're in a slowdown." El Presidento Bush told the crowd gathered on Tuesday in New Orleans.

Bush said this as housing prices continued to tumble to near record lows. As employment continues to rise, as gas prices rise, as food prices rise, and as unemployment slowly inks upward. Bush should tell his economic slowdown joke to the Parks Department superivisor that I meet last week who was having to cut 17 positions from one city department to meet tightening budget demands. That's 17 people who will be looking for work to support their family, to feed and clothe them.

But this just in from a source you can trust - the PENTAGON! - the wars in Iraqi and Afghanistan are expected to now cost slightly less than 170 billion dollars. Yes, b, as in billion. This year alone.

And John McGruff the Crime Dog, no longer the presumptive Republican candidate, but the real one, he learned everything he knows about the economy from George W. Bush. Yee haw.

dems oil the machine

One more day in the body-slam politic and nothing is likely to be decided so don't get your hopes up too high. The only way the Democratic fight ends tomorrow is if Barack Obama channels Apollo Creed and delivers a late-round knockout blow to the never-say-die puncher Hillary Rodham Clinton. No, more likely HRC wins by single digits and garners a small number of the delegates up for grabs tomorrow.

There are 158 delegates at stake in Pennsylvania, and if the final tally is 52 percent Clinton and 48 percent Obama, then she would win 82 delegates to Obama's 76 delegates. Hardly hoopla numbers but any victory by the Clinton camp will be ballyhooed with banners and bazookas.

Then it's on to North Carolina, where guess what, the reverse will likely happen. Obama holds a commanding lead in North Carolina and let's for the sake of this arguement, keep the final percent the same, except reverse the numbers, Obama 52 percent to Clinton's 48 percent. It that were to happen, then he would get 60 delegates and Clinton would be awarded 55 of the 115 total available. Between the two is Indiana, which is even more of a toss-up, and the vote could be close enough to spilt the 72 Indiana delegates right down the middle.

So after 6 weeks between the last primary, and many millions of dollars spent, and a lot of rancor stirred up in the party, the shift would actually be 1 more vote to Obama. One more vote! Do the math. This is why the party regulars keep slowly shifting toward Obama. There's no way, without landslide victories that the rest of the primary season can be spun as a Clinton victory. Why don't you hear about this in the media? Well the millions of dollars being spent on the campaign, wouldn't be being spent if it were already a done deal.

There was this today though from the DNCC.

"Not only will our Convention be technically flawless, but the rules and Party business conducted in the lead-up to and during Convention week will be open, orderly and credible," said Leah D. Daughtry, CEO of the DNCC. "DemConvention.com will be a tremendous resource for those interested in the significant amount of Party business that sits at the core of every Convention. I think this new content makes clear our goal is to run this Convention as a well-oiled machine, while producing an engaging celebration of the strength of the Democratic Party, the diversity we embrace, the values we share and the change we will accomplish on behalf of the American people."

Open, orderly, and credible. Like a debate?

wake up! wake up! please, please wake up!

All you right-wing naysayers out there who've been suggesting that progressive calls against the government propaganda which for years has spun out of the Bush Administration and into the homes of America via the nightly news was misinformed or naive. All of you right-wing jackasses with a military contract up your ass, who've been shitting poisonous propaganda against reason and which results in death, destruction, and world instability, jackasses who have repeatedly suggested that those against the Iraq military intervention were incorrect or wrong, just might want to read the following:

Elsewhere:
pentagon propaganda, american diggs it

clinton to offer flag lapel bill

Senators Clinton, Lieberman, and McCain are expected to jointly offer a bill that make it a crime for any America to appear in public without a USA flag lapel pin. Violators may be subject to extreme interrogation techniques and repeat offenders may also be forced into Chinese internment camps to produce even more fake cloisonne pins for patriots who would rather talk about who got bounced from last night's episode of American Idol than racism or the cost of the war in Iraq.

mccain drawn into food fight

While John McGruff the Crime Dog goes about growling about Barack Obama suggesting that voters might be somewhat bitter over the current state of affairs in politics, his wife Cindy, heir to a fortune, posts recipes for passion fruit mousse, ahi tuna with Napa cabbage slaw and farfalle pasta with turkey sausage, peas and mushrooms stolen from the Food Network web site.

Doesn't much sound like lunch pail food for blue-collar workers. But the Republican tradition of lying and stealing seems awfully familiar.

mcgruff offers grits and growls to the working class

John McGruff the Crime Dog offered more of the same in a speech on his economic platform delivered at Carnegie Mellon University on Tuesday. More of the same Republican rhetoric offered for the last 7 years. Cut taxes, increase military spending, and ignore the fact that Republicans generally spend more money than the Democrats while in office, yet somehow manage to always claim they are fiscally responsible.

The only thing you can count on with a Republican administration is that when they cry fiscal responsibility, what they are really saying is 'line the pockets of the wealthy with gold'.

McCain's speech reminds me of what he said before he became the presumptive Republican nominee. "I don't know much about the economy."

Amen to that brother. Nothing could ring more true in Philadelphia nor be as cracked as the Liberty Bell. Here's just an example.

For years, Congress has been buying time, and leaving the great challenge of entitlement reform for others to deal with. And now the two contenders in the other party have even proposed enormous new federal commitments before the old commitments have been kept -- trusting that others, somewhere down the road, will handle the financing and make all the numbers come out right.

But there will come a day when the road dead-ends, and the old excuses seem even more hollow. And it won't be the politicians who bear the consequences. It will be American workers and their children who are left with worthless promises and trillion-dollar debts. We cannot let that happen. And you have my pledge: as president I will work with every member of Congress -- Republican, Democrat, and Independent -- who shares my commitment to reforming and protecting Medicare and Social Security.

John McCain apparently forgets that the Republicans controlled the White House and both arms of Congress for 6 years and did nothing about reforming Medicare and Social Security. John McCain also conveniently neglects to mention our trillion dollar war in Iraq and who, besides the taxpayers, will pay the bill for this fiasco?

tax day offers valuable prizes

candidates agree on one thing

"It was a poor choice of words."

william kristol chokes on his logic

Reading William Kristol's supercilious op-ed piece in today's NYTimes, one is left to wonder exactly what gives with the weak-kneed attacks, the slight jabs launched from behind the safe skirts of the powerful that insinuate that Barack Obama has Marxist tendencies. We're heard these kind of attacks before, masquerading for what passes as logic among the right-wing illiterate. Illiterate in the ways, thoughts, and struggles of the working class; the Republican moneyed-class suggesting they understand the workers of American yet don't know about supermarket scanners or the effects of 3 tours of duty on the family. The right wing trot out these rumors with regularity and use code words to stir the masses into a frenzy: Muslin, madrases, and now Marx. It's mush. But never having to subsist on porridge, they wouldn't know the taste.

Enough.

If William Kristol were a war hero, or had a career of remarkable civic achievement or public service — then perhaps he could be excused for substituting here say for logic. But what has William Kristol accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans and insult their intelligence?

By Mr. Krisol's logic, he's as much a Marxist as anyone else in the country, because he's read the work and by reading the work, that makes him one. God forbid we call a recession a recession, a war a war, or the current administration the worse in history.

more:
kritol vomits on reason and barfs up a Marxist tendency

guns, god, and being goofy

The art of politics. How to make a huge story out the most insignificant thing. My God, no your God. No, OH! my God. Thelma, bring me the big knife, err, big gun, there's something to shoot. See. I can shoot the breeze and tote the bullshit and hit a clay target with the gun on full choke. Yo!, peon, choke on this sound bite, America is for Americans.


Let's clarify something for Senators Clinton and McCain and Rush, O'Reilly, Beck, and Hannity. Middle America is bitter.

And with good reason. Stagnating wages for the last 10 years. A focus on a civil war in another country when our own seems to be falling apart at the seems. America has 1.3 trillion dollars in needed infracture improvements AT HOME that needs immediate attention. We're spent over a trillion dollars in Iraq with little political progress to show for it.

Gas prices continue in an ever-upward spiral. But worse yet, no comprehensive long-term strategy from the government on how to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, or reduce our footprint on the planet.

So yes, there's some resentment on the street. And the silver-spooned pretty-boy fly-by-night son of a son of a 4-star general and former attorney to the Walmarkians from Outer Space are going to find out the hard way. Voters, start pulling the levers, NOW!

Find out what the cost of guns, god, and being goofy has on you by visiting the National Priorities Project. They have an interactive feature that allows you to enter a component of the war budget and it will calculate the costs for a given community, state, congressional district. And show the cost of this madness that you, as an American taxpayer share.

For example, below are other items that could have been purchased with the amount proposed to be spent on the 2009 Federal budget for the so-called missile defense system.

5,406 People with Health Care OR
12,569 Homes with Renewable Electricity OR
368 Public Safety Officers OR
268 Music and Arts Teachers OR
1,970 Scholarships for University Students OR
2 New Elementary Schools OR
145 Affordable Housing Units OR
5,194 Children with Health Care OR
2,135 Head Start Places for Children OR
286 Elementary School Teachers OR
230 Port Container Inspectors
elsewhere:
changing our national priorities

doping witness to name big names

In an upcoming trial about the widespread nature of doping in America, a chief witness is expected to name the following as major dopes:
George Bush
Dick "the Dick" Cheney
General "we'll know when it's time" Petraus
John "McGruff the Crime Dog" McCain.
And many more to follow.

Who knew? Well everybody.