Thank you, Bibi, for shooting yourself in the foot

A great classic, the pounding of Gaza on a US election year*. But this time, Benjamin Netanyahu went too far too early, losing critical support at a critical moment.

Of course he didn't get rid of Hamas, because that's not what he wants, remember? Radicals need radicals at their doorsteps to play ping pong and justify their own stronghold. The idea was to surf on the ISIS panic wave, to weaken key entry/exit points for awhile, and by fueling fear in Israel and hatred in Palestine, to comfort both governments (the Hamas, Bibi) as the only ones legitimate to defend the land against bad guys (Bibi, the Hamas).

The problem is that US elections haven't really started, and that these are mid-term elections, not presidential ones. Big guns were not compelled to publicly pledge allegiance during the conflict. Worse: more candidates might seize the opportunity to emancipate themselves from a declining, hawkish AIPAC, and to support Israel via J Street**, which represents the moderate views of a growing majority of US Jews, and a much more sustainable path to peace.

If Bibi doesn't care about international outrage, he cares about support from the US. And because he went too far, at long last, the US internal political debate about Israel has suddenly become mainstream. Most recently and notably - and significantly location / media-wise:
- The Times refusing to publish a diatribe by Elie Wiesel comparing the Hamas to Nazis
- the ad run in The New York Times where 327 survivors of the Holocaust denounce "the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza" and calling for a complete boycott of Israel
- articles condemning the AIPAC, such as the recent "Friends of Israel" by Connie Bruck in The New Yorker

Now that bad guys are exposed on both sides, it's OK to publicly challenge the AIPAC and to mention J Street. It's soon going to be not only OK, but totally P.C. to support Israel by criticizing its government.

Yes, Barack Obama needs a strategy against ISIS, but showing progress between Israel and Palestine would send very strong messages across the World. The US can truly help Israel. If John F. Kerry can't do much, mainstream American moderates have the power to help moderates become mainstream in Israel.

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* e.g. "Deja vu all over again", "Israel accepted as true the choice between its security and its ideals"
** more than ever, "J Street : It's Time"!

Three-Quarter-Term Elections

Obama's back from Europe, where he managed to score rare photo ops: with Pope Francis in Rome, and with the Shinzo Ehud Abe - Park Yasser Geun-hye duet in The Hague (see "The Tripartite Summitulacra").

Historic handshake between war criminal grandson and dictator daughter - Nobel Prize winner observing (twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/448630575683751937 20140326)

The POTUS went out of his way (literally only) back to the States to say goodbye to Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud (90), who just nominated the successor of his successor Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (79): don't expect stupendous reforms from this young Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (69), the former head of the local intelligence agency...

So Barack Obama lets John Kerry cope with Putin's adventure in Ukraine, Park and Abe sort things out directly together, and the Saud clan stew in their own juice (now that the US of A have their own shale gas to dirty themselves with...).

Back home, the President keeps his eye on the ball: neither climate change, nor gun control, but Obamacare, The Reform That Must Work Before The November Elections, save the Senate majority, and end the House stalemate.

I bet Hillary Clinton is also praying for the success of this landmark healthcare reform. 

OFA's last call

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Forward. Hopefully, including for the GOP

There were elections in the US yesterday, as well as in the Banana Republic of Florida, where democracy impotency remains a preexisting condition (it would take more than a few hurricanes to turn this State upside down, but regime change could be a nice start):

Barack Obama won a race he simply couldn't lose against a soon to be forgotten man who simply had no business running for the top public servant job, or representing a divided party that completely lost its compass*. On Mitt Romney's face, I saw the same relief John McCain displayed four years earlier**. For the first time during the whole campaign, the former Governor of Massachusetts sounded sincere and looking forward the future. And his concession speech was the most graceful I've ever heard.

The race was close, but the outcome undisputable. The only world leader to survive the Big Depression could even afford creating some suspense by forgetting to campaign during the first debate. The faux pas probably cost him a much larger victory, and the most outrageous attempts to negate democracy in Florida might still deprive him from well deserved electoral votes.

Once again, the presumably model democracy failed: six billion dollars were spent on a divisive campaign, mindblogging frauds were revealed in several states (as usual, leaning towards the same party), and a handful of States received too much attention for the wrong reasons.

So we're back to square one: the Obamas in the White House (NB - make no mistake: Michelle Obama, the smartest one in this beautiful family, should be credited for this victory even more than her husband and the amazing campaign network), Democrats in the Senate, Republicans in the House, a fiscal cliff looming on the closest horizon, and the infamous Philly Busters back at bat. Barack even received the first 3 A.M. call: a Patriot (missile) act from Turkey.

But there are reasons to hope: Sandy made the voice of moderates get heared when hatemongering could have peaked, and US voters sent back home a few rotten apples (Richard Mourdoch, Tea Party lunatics...). Four years after conservative Proposition 8 passed in California, gay marriage gained ground in 3 states. Bonus (20121108 UPDATE): J Street candidates fared very well, succeeding in 70 of 71 races and confirming the pro-peace, pro-Israel alternative to AIPAC.

The "us vs them" mantra won't work anymore, and the United States of America are given a second chance with people like Barack Obama, Chris Christie, Michael Bloomberg, and who knows, even the John Boehner who reached a deal with the White House before conceding to his herratic base.

Hopefully, John Kerry shall become the best Secretary of State ever, Tim Geithner be replaced by someone who wants to reform Wall Street.

Most crucially: this time, the GOP has little choice but start reforming itself. Silencing radicals, for a start: neocons should be evicted with Cheney, theocons with Bush, Tea Party with a sound budget deal, hatemongers with the evidence of their efficiency as voter repellents. And every passing election makes racists and sexists even more irrelevant. The GOP will probably look for a younger candidate, more representative of the nation's diversity, and preferably more likely to convince the growing number of Independents who left a party gone crazy.

Bill Clinton, the man who triggered the Democratic reform two decades ago, gave it all during this campaign, paving the way for Hillary Clinton 2016. Let's hope he won't need too much Obamacare until then. Anyway, the time has already come to look for new faces there as well.



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Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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* see "Between balance and Ryan, Romney made his choice"
** see "The Maverick is free again"
***"Grand Old Parting: fix your party before causing more damage to your country"

Mitt's Kill Big Bird Moment

Barack Obama is a nice guy. He debated with Mitt Romney like he would handle any topic: respecting the other party, focusing on solutions for the common good.

Today, the POTUS forgot he was in a Presidential debate, that the aim was not to convince Romney but to convince US voters. And while he focused on issues and sense, Mitt Romney was the only one campaigning, without opposition. Obama won the rational debate, Romney the political one, the one that matters.

And it doesn't matter if Obama talked more (don't expect the Jim Lehrer kind of debate animation from Candy Crowley). Romney was allowed to play his role of the day.

Doctor Mitt the debater destroyed all the arguments of Mister Romney the candidate because that's what voters want to hear, not his embarrassing - and theoretically off the record - briefs at fundraisers. Heck. Obama was almost happy to have for once a Republican on his side.



John and Jane Smith probably didn't notice the fact that Romney kept hammering what he wouldn't do as a President (the opposite of what he'd always said he would do until then), but never specified what he would do. What they heard what a well prepped candidate who tuned his voice to Reagan level, loaded his speech with encounters with actual human beings he met in his spin doctors' dreams, a man who seemed to know his priorities even if he used the same "that's number one" mantra for every issue.

I still don't have any clue about Romney's plan. Scratch that. Tie the dog to the car's rooftop, kill Big Bird, it's coming in slow motion, but I start seeing some pattern. Zoophobia?

Grey, tired, elsewhere, Obama didn't fight. And did Romney offer him occasions to get beaten? You betcha: when he said "high income people are doing fine", when he said he had no idea about overseas tax breaks, he the outsourcer, he of the accounts in 30 tax havens... un-be-lie-va-ble.



Who trained Obama for the debates? John Kerry played Mitt's role. I love this guy*, but precisely, as I was watching this debate, it seemed like Kerry-GWB redux, the sincere guy winning in substance, the fake one winning in image. The difference? Polls showed that Kerry won the debates, and here (according to a CNN flash poll before the usual spin room), Romney won not only very easily overall by two to one, but on every single issue.

Romney aides must be wetting their pants right now, and I hope independent voters won't get fooled again.

I cannot imagine the same scenario for Debate II. Barack Obama will have to show some teeth, and expose the Cayman behind Doctor Mitt.

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* again, what a speech at the 2012 DNC (see "Bubba Clinton rocks DNC 2012: GOP Unity My Ass!")

Video: "Mitt Romney Style", after PSY's Gangnam Style. If you know Seoul a bit, it can't get Gangnamier than this

The Commander In Chief Has Spoken

I won't be cruel enough to compare DNC 2012 and RNC 2012... Scratch that. I mean. Who could decently resist the urge?

The only speech we remember from Tampa is Clint Eastwood's "Clumsy Harry" flop, and I can't count the stellar performances I've seen in Charlotte over the past three nights. Light years ahead of the Tampa duds.

What better answer to Fading Star Shooter Clint Eastwood than Recovering Gabrielle Giffords? Gaby wasn't stellar, simply radiating. Not decomposing side by side with an empty chair, but proudly looking forward, standing in front of a US flag. Gaby went ahead and made our day very very special.

Of course, this being the DEMOCRATIC party, a mirror to the great American rainbow, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer had to stick to his guns just like, the previous night*, Sister Simone Campbell stuck to her 'pro-life stance'. And of course, Schweitzer, who knows Mitt Romney and business far to well to vote Republican, was not aired by FoxNews. What I didn't expect was CNN cutting Charlie Crist in the middle of his speech.

I think Barack Obama gave the greatest speech any human being could give under the circumstances, but if I were to pick the best performance of this great convention, I'd vote Michelle Obama, with John Kerry a not so distant second.

Sorry Bill. I loved the way you tippergored Barack while Hillary was in Noncharlottistan, but John Kerry was much more presidential than you. And he didn't stretch his talk beyond the essential: every single word, every single sentence connected. Timeless yet timely common sense, wisdom, vision... If Kerry was not a great campaigner, he would have been one of the greatest POTUS in History. Actually, I wonder if I haven't already seen his face on a US bank note.

The way President Kerry dismembered President Romney... splendid. Yes, that was an easy task: "I, Romnbot"** isn't assembled yet. Yes, he didn't miss the opportunity to expose the actual flip-flopper. But as the - I hope - next Secretary of State, John Kerry also exposed Mitt Romney as the worst possible world leader, nailing him with a delicious "before you debate Barack Obama on foreign policy, you better finish the debate with yourself". Ouch.

Romney never stood the comparison with Obama, Biden, Kerry, Clinton, or even that empty chair. Even Jill Biden outshone any GOP speaker. A full time teacher, a military mom, and the thing that both Obamas and both Bidens have that the Romneys and Ryans lack: sincerity in the eyes. With friends like Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, or Joe Biden, Barack Obama will move more mountains. Mitt Romney looked everyday smaller, more lonely. Someone smoke him out of the hole he dug himself into before November 6!

With that unique smile of his, Joe Biden showed how Barack Obama decided to take the high way instead of Romney's "Bain way". He highlighted equal access, stakeholders, values, instead of inequities and shareholder value. And confirmed the record: GM alive, Bin Laden dead.

Romney's record? An old, scratched LP playing the same negative tune on and on, never moving to a new plane, never even disclosing a plan. America doesn't need negative vibes right now, "it has never, never, ever, been a good bet to bet against the American people", and "we have no intention of downsizing the American Dream".

The Romney campaign communique following the DNC summed up the GOP's lack of ideas and vision. It could have been written before the convention: "Tonight President Obama laid out the choice in this election, making the case for more of the same policies that haven't worked for the past four years. He offered more promises, but he hasn’t kept the promises he made four years ago. Americans will hold President Obama accountable for his record – they know they’re not better off and that it’s time to change direction. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will restore America’s promise and deliver a better future for our country."

And after watching both conventions, how can one possibly hesitate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to lead the world? How can one possibly put Paul Ryan in Biden's seat behind the POTUS for Romney's State of the Disunion Address? In a position to potentially nominate the next Supreme Justice?

America needs love, good vibes. Look at Joe and Jill, look how Michelle Obama introduced her lover, outhugging Bill Clinton in a warm embrace.

America needs self confidence. Look at Obama talk about the return of "Made in America" when "No-Tax-Return" Mitt Romney plays it "Hidden in Caymans". Look at this Commander in Chief mocking at the Gaffer in Chief's foreign politic antics in London.

Barack Obama couldn't propose the same kind of speech as four years ago. He had to go down from the Olymp of timeless principles to concrete, day to day issues, and he did it efficiently and gracefully. But he didn't lose his mojo nor his vision of History, and he presidentially restored citizenship as a core value.

From Day 1***, this Convention has been all about Unity in diversity and adversity. And united, all Democrats stood for democracy.

And at the end of it all, Barack Obama delivered an inspiring acceptance speech, boosting the whole country forward, where Mitt Romney only read a boring denial script, barely comforting Bain investors.

Take that, Mitt: Barack is The President. And THE. Chief. Executive. Officer. 

blogules 2012
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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* see "Bubba Clinton rocks DNC 2012: GOP Unity My Ass!"
** see "I RomnBot (Meet Mitt)" *** "DNC 2012 Day 1: Come Together, Now"

Bubba Clinton rocks DNC 2012: GOP Unity My Ass!

The day the NRA and the AIPAC stop dictating political platforms, the USA might become an independent democracy.
 
Day 2 of DNC 2012 started in damage control mode: the Democratic platform had to mention God and Jerusalem to pass the theocratic cut. The POTUS didn't need to receive a 3 A.M. call from the AIPAC to sense the danger for November 6. You can count on conservative pundits to spin this non-event as a blahblahgate blown to biblical proportions, but the case got easily closed. For good measure, Madeleine Albright pinned a splendid "Pro-Israel" brooch on Obama's chest. 
 
And the incident proved that at least, the Democratic Party remains open for debate. Heck: Sister Simone Campbell was even allowed to deliver her "pro-life stance"! And she didn't crucify Romney just to redeem herself or simply because he's a Mormon. 
 

 
Day 2 of DNC 2012 soon switched back to full groovy mode. The floor fretted at the news that Barack would meet Bubba on stage later in the night, and everybody waited for something special from Liz Warren.
 
Meanwhile, with only a few VIPs on stage to hammer the messages (in substance: if Barack Obama stands for working people in the US, Mitt Romney rather watches his own money work in the Caymans), CNN served slices of Hillary to fill the blanks. The Secretary of State had seeked refuge in NonCharlottistan during the Convention, and I bet John Kerry will succeed her for Obama Season V, but when she was abruptly asked how she judged her "boss", she answered with one of the sweetest compliments she ever made to her 2008 rival. Amazing "grace" indeed.
 
Meanwhile, still, John King delt his full deck of maps. I'm pretty sure that when he sleeps, John King sees red and blue county maps. Grey ones when he's got a nightmare. And when he can't fall asleep? He probably recounts Florida 2000 ballots.

Eventually, we didn't have to wait long for great moments. Sandra Fluke did more than deliver a pro-choice speech. She brought down the house and for that, she didn't even have to raise her voice. Sandra Fluke simply rose and use her voice, exactly what conservatives don't like in a woman.

At the beginning of Elizabeth Warren's "warm up act for President Clinton", I confess I thought she too needed a warm up act. Then she started addressing the issues that count, and my oh my, if independent voters listen to her speech, they'll instantly tear down the GOP ballot. Warren stood for all humans against the inhuman program of Romney-Ryan. The best answer to Mitt's infamous "corporations are people".

Bill Clinton trumpeted Barack Obama's second term from Yesterday's Gone to Forward Folks. Not as perfect as Michelle Obama yesterday (Bubba can be too talkative and professoral), but he won her heart by offering his best support to the "man who had the good sense to marry" her. What a one man show! Simply unstoppable. Barack ? "A man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside". The RNC 2012? In "an alternative universe". Correct location, Bill. And we're not even mentioning Romney's "moral compass", more than questioned by Randy Johnson, a former Bain employee, a couple of hours earlier. By the way, Mitt: Joe Biden's seat is not empty, but all others are. For the standing ovation in his honor, courtesy POTUS #42.
 
Professor Bill Clinton slammed Mitt Romney: the wannabe should learn arithmetic before giving lessons on budget. And even on jobs. America is better off without Republicans who cost her one million jobs by crippling the Congress, and of course GM is better off without Romney in the driving seat. Paul Ryan? It takes an Irishman to know one, it takes a saxophonist to know brass, and "it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did". Struck out, the rookie.

Not only did Bill deliver an even better speech than he would have for himself, but this final, powerful Clinton-Obama embrace? You couldn't find a more perfect union at work.

Cruel comparison with that cold reunion of losers right after Ryan's acceptance speech... Last time Mitt Romney hugged someone so hard, nine month later Ann had their last kid.

 
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Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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* see "DNC 2012 Day 1: Come Together, Now"

Debate # 1 : McCain didn't lose, and President Obama spared him

McCain didn't lose, which can be considered a win.

Abusing of Rove / Schmidt tactics (ie repeating "Senator Obama doesn't understand" / "doesn't get it", when McCain actually is the one who's to blame), John made the best of the little he had, stuck at the tactical level (surge) when Barack was trying to lift the debate at the strategical level (going to war).

Obama missed several opportunities. He was great on foreign issues, but not incisive enough on economics. He didn't attack McCain on his key contradictions, and to the surprise and relief of his rival, he didn't even mention his ties with lobbyists (if the GOP candidate wants to change Wall Street, the first guys to fire are his own campaign team, whom HE appointed, and not the SEC chairman, whom HE cannot fire).

At times, it felt like Bush-Kerry redux : a populist, sneaky, bent but humorous reptile dancing in front of a tall presidential figure with a clear vision, clear values. I don't know if independent voters will be fooled by McCain's dance, but fundamentalists must have enjoyed the Bushish vocabulary ("greed", "evil", "Holocaust"...).

McCain has no choice but playing the emotional, "compassionate not so conservative" tune, and Obama needs Americans to sober up, but without sounding like a party crasher.


---

Addendum : the SNL version featuring Darrell Hammond / McCain and Fred Armisen / Obama (about suspensions and suspenders...) :

Play it again, Uncle Sam ?

So McCain is leading the polls and some people want to make you think the Democratic National Convention will be a failure for Obama ?

What's happening now is pure 2004 Redux : Steve "The Infratect" Schmidt and Co. are using the same strategy as they did when they served "Turd Blossom" and his protege.

The key ? attacking the opponent on his strongest points :

- Kerry was a war hero and Bush-Cheney coward dodgers / AWOL ? Let's swiftboat him and forge a tale to destroy the myth.
- Kerry was denouncing the fallacious, simplistic and pro-war propaganda ? Let's caricature him as a pompous professor and an un-American weasel sold to the French.

Here's today's sales pitch :

- Obama is a young and charismatic leader drawing crowds and McCain a boring white haired dude drawing yawns ? Let's caricature him as a dull celeb pretending to be Moses.
- Obama is the most favored candidate and the most likely to bring together people from all horizons ? Let's tell stories about doubts within his own camp and let's mock at his aura of inevitability.
- Obama tries to restore the values that made America respected by proposing more balanced views on a World that needs to abandon the us-vs-them, black-vs-white Bush rethorics ? Let's laugh at his complex sentences and let's train McCain as a Dubya look-alike down to the monosyllabic brawl.

I'm sick and tired of repeating the same mantra for over 5 years but damnit, it's high time to wake up, America. It's time to turn your back to those who want to destroy your country, to get rid of the Bushes, Cheneys and Roves (and of the pityful me-too nobody who used to be John McCain), and to vote for the good of your country, and for the good of the world.

Yes, you can and yes, you should vote Obama.

The Talk of the Toon

What game are Advanced Publications playing ?
"Hussein" painted as a Muslim and Michelle as a terrorist, congratulating each other by a fireplace where the US flag is burning under the portrait of Osama bin Laden... I'm sure this brilliant piece of NYC humor will make people laugh in Colorado Springs, CO, but is this caricature really supposed to help the Obamas take over the White House ?*
I'm not sure The New Yorker are supporting Obama as frankly as they did for Kerry 4 years ago. Kerry as a IRA fighter or worse, a "cheese eating surrender monkey" (the Simpsons / FOX cute name for Frenchman back in 2003) ? Oh my, that would have raised some eyebrows at the Club.
This would be satire if there were some distance to it. Like O'Reilly holding this cover and saying "while we're at it why not add a suicide belt for Michelle ?"
The editor's answers don't hold a second :
"Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover." The editor noted that the magazine includes two "very serious" articles about Obama -- a commentary and a 15,000-word reporting piece on the candidate's political education and rise in Chicago. (see AFP)
Seriously, everybody knows the power of image. The impact of one caricature relayed everywhere is ten billion times stronger than 15,000 words only a few will go through.
And regarding the people holding this "mirror" : I'm not a constant New Yorker reader but if I were I don't know how I'd take it.
Letters to the editor are probably going to outscore 15,000 words...


* not to mention help American Muslims be at last treated like other US citizens (as Juan Cole pointed out, "virtually no one is talking about how demeaning it is of American Muslims" - 20080715 in "Obama Caricature Offensive to Muslims").

The Case Against Barack Obama ? More propaganda from mud loving PIGs

Praise Muckety's Carol Eisenberg for her alert* regarding the publication this summer of a smear campaign book against Obama by the very publisher that spat "Unfit for command" four years ago in the face of John Kerry (John E. O'Neill's propaganda terror attack worked so well that a verb was made out of his "swift boat" tale).

It is precisely in order to protect his candidacy from this kind of lies that Barack Obama decided to optimize the size of his campaign war chest and the share devoted to the exposure of ultra-conservative propaganda.

"The Case Against Barack Obama" will be released in August, around the DNC Convention. Eisenberg gives useful insights about the ultra-conservative credentials of the people involved in the operation, starting with author David Freddoso.

Anyway, this terror attack is not exactly an undercover op. First, expect a nasty sales pitch on the cover of the book. And second, the publishers are proud to expose their own biases : Regnery Publishing Inc., self proclaimed "the nation’s leading conservative publisher" is a subsidiary of Eagle Publishing, Inc, self proclaimed "America's leading source of books and periodicals with a conservative, free-enterprise focus".

Equipped with a barf bag, I visited Regnery's page about their Politically Incorrect Guide™ series, where history, science, politics, or social issues are boldly revisited : "Reach for a P.I.G. when you want to cut through the bull and get to the real truth—in all its politically incorrect glory!"

Well. You are not cutting through the bull... but drowning in a nauseating ocean of mud : revisionism, Intelligent Design, religious hatred, environmental nightmares... a "glorious", dream Amerika from a Bushite point of view, but one of the lowest circles of Hell for anybody else... probably the 8th, where according to Dante you would meet falsifiers and evil counselors... or the 9th, where you DO find those who betray their own countries, and also those who betray their own political parties (true Republicans wouldn't subscribe to such an un-American agenda - or would they** ?).

With such lawyers, The Case against Barack Obama doesn't stand a chance. American voters got fooled too many times by this kind of sordid tactics, and exposing those mud loving PIGs is the best way of helping the public understand who is standing where.




* "Regnery to publish ‘Case Against Barack Obama’ in August" (20080624), perfectly relayed by the CMD the same day "The Swift Boating Begins in August".
** see "Universal Declaration of Independence from Fundamentalism"

Obama-Pelosi vs Operation Chaos

Rush Limbaugh delivered Indiana to the Clinton camp just like he did for Texas*.

I told you Hillary would either win ugly or lose uglier, but mercifully this time may be the end of this sick race were Hillary outroved bad cop Karl and Barack outkerried good cop John.

I hope Superdelegates will flock in tomorrow and end this mess. I've been longing for the Obama-Pelosi ticket for too long.

And I hope Billary will have the decency to give up before May the 31st their claim for delegates from Florida and Michigan (their campaign team actually did vote for the 2025 mark before they voted against it and started mentioning a 2029 "magic number").


* see "Les conservateurs poussent Clinton" (20080317)

White blogule to Dick Cheney - Shooting Star vs silver star

Unlike John Forbes Kerry, NRA fave Dick Cheney didn't get any silver star for his courageous behavior during the Vietnam war*.
So I'm pleased to unanimously award Richard B. Cheney a white blogule for his almost perfect shot at his hunting pal in Texas**.
This white blogule rewards Mr. Cheney's creativity and dedication to invent new reasons why he should be the most hatable, abhorrent and repulsive man in the US.
Training all day long with the toughest emulators does help. For an Administration to reach this level of ignominy, it takes more than one Architect.


* Mr. Cheney courageously supported the said war while serving the Nixon and Ford administrations, and later proved his courage by voting against the Martin Luther King, Jr day, against the creation of the Department Of Education, against the overriding of Reagan's veto (protecting South Africa from sanctions for maintaining apartheid) or against the liberation of Nelson Mandela. Even after joining the private sector, he lobbied against the US boycotts of Iran & Lybia because they didn't help the eradication of terror, nor the development of Halliburton.
** Despite 10 pellets in the torso, neck and face, 78 year old Attorney Harry Whittington shall survive and remain at the Texas Funeral Services Commission as a chairman - not a commodity.

Red blogule to Logan International Airport - Better late than sorry

Associated Press reported yesterday an anti-terrorism drill at the Boston Airport "revealed flaws in the ability to respond to an attack", reminding the reader both 9/11 WTC torpedoes were launched from Logan.
Nothing to be amazed about : it took the authorities four and a half years to perform the said simulated hijacking (June the 4th) and six more months to release their report.
Who said the war on terror was a priority ? Who's in charge there ? Governors Ted Kennedy and JF Kerry ? The Prez whose vision of war on terror is to repeat "fasten your Bible belt" ?

Red blogule to Karen Hughes

If you managed not to punch your TV set each time this most iritating Bush passionaria would comment on her Texas pal's crushing victories in last year's prez debates, get ready for it : Karen Hughes's now in charge of sweetening US' world image. Within the US State Department, she will manage "rapid response" teams to counter all foreign liars, the "liars" being people who lie about the Bush Administration's policies (Hughes even dared taking the so called "flushed Quran scandal" as the ultimate example), people who defend Geneva Conventions or the freedom of journalism, people who are "against us", people who voted Kerry, people who said the Iraqi invasion was poorly planned, people who demonstrate their un-Americanness because they lost their kid at the market the other day (the Baghdad market, not your average Iraqi-village-sized Wal-Mart)...
So the best response to your own failing policies is not to change them but to change the background music with which you advertize them. The best answer to fair foreign criticism is to strenghten US unfair propaganda. The best way to cure Amerika's sickness is to send a spin doctor. The best way to make up for your own lies is to put more make up on them and lie even further, be it at the cost of turning unpopular USA into masquerade-ugly unpopular USA.
According to the NYT, Hughes isn't even dealing with the 80% who are already questioning US policies but focusing on the last 20% who are not among the "insurgents" yet. But Karen, how many will sing along with you : "I see your face, I'm a believer" ?

Red Blogule to JFK - Out of the blue(s) ?

I read "The Speech the President Should Give" by John F. Kerry in the NY Times dated 20050628. Including the laconic footer "John F. Kerry is a Democratic senator from Massachusetts".
Not as thrilling as "I was a teenage mutant presidential candidate", but better than "John Edwards is a former North Carolina senator and now a sorry podcaster (does One America Committee have more than one member ?)".
The said speech doesn't bring any news but the fact Senator Kerry is still alive and not kept hostage in a dark Abu Ghraib / Gitmo / Congress cell. Yet the torture must have been intense : being deprived of media exposure for over half a year can drive any warrior insane. But Senator Kerry is not insane. Just unlucky enough to have faced Karl Rove at his best - that is at his worst.
In the meanwhile, my Yee-haaoo! Mail box got saturated by Howard Dean's deep thoughts. The laxative kind you got for attending the second part of Saturday Night Live. Only not as funny.
In the meanwhile, Hillary tries to raise other things than eyebrows in front of her latest hairdo.
In the meanwhile, Barack does his job and listens to the next plans of the Architect for Illinois.

Red blogule to 2008 - Losers Inc

This uneasy smile, this greasy voice... I can't stand it anymore. I must confess I hate the guy even beyond what he represents now. I've had an overdose of Bush-watching lately and my hears and eyes hurt each time he's on air. Look at him parading on a Penn avenue liberated from all insurgents (ethic cleansing for beginners), delivering a speech more loaded with references to "tyranny" and "liberty" than a 1950s soviet propaganda leaflet.
And now this. Bypassed Bubba licking Dubya's a-s to get in Kofi's shoes (how disgusting anatomy lessons can possibly get ?), Joe Biden casting his ballot in favor of unrepentant Condi (now THAT was a "wonderful opportunity"), John F. Kerry redeeming a couple of gazillion miles earned at home last year for a Middle-East tour for what ? some lobbying to draft 40,000 more soldiers... Gimme a break ! Or rather, gimme a F, gimme a.... Stephane MOT