Lies, Damned Lies, and Sarah Palin

Had a nice drive, listened to the new Randy Newman and then Ice Cube’s greatest hits, and the weather is perfect. Sunny, blue skies, and cool. Great day for a trip on the highway. Some random thoughts:

1.) I listened to Limbaugh for about ten minutes, where I learned that Obama is a segregationist and, this is the term I loved, a “racist baiter.” We went to cd’s shortly after that crap.

2.) Move over invisible hand, now it is time for the invisible handout. The Paulson bailout could cost a trillion. Everett Dirksen is looking down from above and is giving us all the finger. At any rate, because the taxpayers are now on the hook for a couple trillion (if they say it is going to cost a trillion, double to triple that), the greedy bastards who got rich screwing us with the “free market” are reacting favorably. This seems as appropriate as ever:

As Atrios notes, the music stops, and you and I got left without a chair.

3.) Every day the travesty of GOP rule becomes more and more obvious. I still believe many of the same things I have always believed, whether it be about abortion, the death penalty, the use of the military, etc., but it just becomes increasingly clear with every day how bankrupt the conservative movement has become. I don’t think the Democrats are that much better, and have repeatedly stated that I came to the party pre-disillusioned, but they are, at least right now, better. That can not be argued. What galls me is the depths that some folks seem willing to sink to in order to keep power for the broken and corrupt “conservative” ideology. It seems to me that simply comparing where we are now as opposed to where we were at the end of the Clinton years really says it all. The GOP has failed, and they richly deserve a few years off.

4.) WVU football is in for a period of steep decline. The last two games give me no reason to think we can win even five games this year. Our offense is flat and predictable, our defense is flat-footed and unreliable (unless you count on them reliably being unable to get the opposing team’s offense off the field), and the play-calling was the worst I remember ever seeing. Our coaching staff is clearly in far over their heads, and I do not see any reason why quality recruits would commit to this mess. If what the past few weeks is any sign, WVU football is headed for a dark period that we have not seen since before pre-Nehlen days.

5.) Please stop calling what that jackass kid did to Sarah Palin’s email acount “hacking.” He didn’t “hack” anything. What he did was good old social engineering, much like how Kevin Mitnick exploited so many systems back in the day (although in this case, it was not even anywhere near as clever as Mitnick’s exploits). All he did was google where Palin met her husband, entered that, and he was in. Hacking, this was not.

6.) It seems that the first dude is refusing to testify in Alaska. That is right, folks. We now stand poised to elect a Republican administration that we know is corrupt, cynical, and has no respect for the law BEFORE they take office. Bravo, voters. If the McCain/Palin ticket is elected, I hope we, as a nation, get what we deserve and get it hard.

7.) Speaking of Todd and Sarah Palin, the lyrics in Randy Newman’s new song, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country made me laugh:

I’d like to say a few words
In defense of our country
Whose people aren’t bad nor are they mean
Now the leaders we have
While they’re the worst that we’ve had
Are hardly the worst this poor world has seen

Let’s turn history’s pages, shall we?

Take the Caesars for example
Why within the first few of them
They were sleeping with their sister
Stashing little boys in swimming pools
And burning down the City
And one of ‘em, one of ’em
Appointed his own horse Consul of the Empire
That’s like vice president or something

That’s not a very good example, is it?

I think that deserves a “heh, indeedy.”

8.) Finally, it appears that nominating an inexperienced religious wingnut and unrepentant liar as your vice-president and then engaging in the “Lies Across America/Putting Lies First” tour has hurt McCain in the polls. Gallup has Obama up by five, RCP has him up by a few, and 538 has Obama in control of the electoral college again. All this can change, but still nice to see things trending in the right direction.

I have a bunch going on and may or may not be back later tonight. If you have some time, take this study, and if you are so inclined, throw Obama a buck or two:

Be cool.

Random Friday ThoughtsPost + Comments (51)