Faggot. Nigger. Bitch. Please excuse the blunt language. From here forward, to avoid the ugly words, I’ll refer to it as "FNB politics." With little to show the electorate in 2008—after six years of uninterrupted control—besides sub-standard care from a privatized workforce at Walter Reed Hospital, thrice-married "family values" presidential candidates, and a boom in home foreclosures, the conservative base’s 2008 strategy has begun to emerge: Weaken the major Democratic opponents by making their image unpalatable to the public.

Rick Perlstein, the brilliant author of Nixonland, explains to us just what is happening to our candidate for President.

Sorry folks but I do not want ex-Republicans in  my tent. The small government, fiscal conservative, personal responsibility crowd needs to form their own party.

Listen folks I am about as liberal a mother fucker as you are going to find. I think most politicians are lying scum and I think our system has some serious fucking flaws, but that still isn't going to stop me from voting for Obama. Why? See me after the jump, fuckers.

Here we go progressives, get ready for the ride to the center of the political world. Barack Obama released the lineup of his "National Security Working Group" and it mind as well be called the not progressive foreign policy gang. See the list after the jump...

Cuts in gas taxes would not lower gas prices because the supply of gasoline is close to fixed -- the oil industry is already operating its refineries at near maximum capacity (or so they claim). As we teach our econ students, if the supply is fixed, then the price is determined on the demand side. This means that, if the industry produces about 400 million gallons of gas per day, the price will continually adjust to the point where all consumers put together purchase about 400 million gallons of gas per day. Therefore, if the gas tax is reduced or eliminated, as McCain has proposed, the price consumers pay will stay the same, but more money will go to the oil industry.

There it is folks from a well respected economist. The gas tax holiday will not even provide the relief promised to the American people.

Ladies and gentlemen good evening, how was the debate? It kinda of sucked didn't it? Obama got asked all sorts of dumb questions about pins, preachers, and people being bitter. There wasn't much substance was there?

He is running as a symbol of a new politics, a politics somehow less disgusting and full of shit than the old politics. But if it were to get out that he's not that —that all he is is the same old deal dressed up in black skin and a natty suit —then he quickly morphs into a different kind of symbol, a symbol of how an essentially bankrupt political system can seamlessly repackage itself to a fed-up marketplace by making cosmetic changes, without altering its basic nature. There have been disturbing signs along that front, from the accusations that Obama aides called his anti-NAFTA stance "just politics," to his angry stumpery against a Maytag plant closing even as he pals around with Lester Crown, a Maytag board member who raised huge sums for his campaign. Right now, Obama has millions of voters thinking Santa Claus really does exist; but if he keeps getting caught turning the usual tricks with campaign donors, attention is going to shift away from his heroic image and toward the prosaic reality, which in politics is always grubby and depressing. And with that, his value as a symbol will evaporate, and Christmas turns into just another holiday with those same relatives you hated every other day of the year.

Follow me to the other side...

She has spent a bunch of time mocking Obama, and sounding like she actually has a chance to win the nomination. She doesn't. She won two out of the last 15. It is like watching a boxer still think they have a chance after be pounded round after round. Unless Don King is in charge of the nominating process Hillary is done.

I know my title is crude, rude, and mean, but I couldn't help myself. Calling Hillary a movement candidate is just fucking ridiculous.

Hillary and the people she surrounds herself with are the establishment, and Obama and the people he surrounds himself are the establishments next generation. The movement is the establishment, and we are financing it one small donation at a time.

Update. All you folks who trashed, and spit in my tip jar I will soon forget this, I will not hold a grudge, and I will still read your comments with an open mind. That is all, carry on.

We are in full candidate war mode. People are jumping all over the place, Ned and John have endorsed Obama, Edwards fights on, Hillary is showing her personality, and the issues are being ignored. This is nothing new. I am currently reading a great book, "The History Of Presidential Campaigns", and it has always been ugly, and shallow. BTW, the next President, no matter who it is, is a one term President, we have too many messes to clean up, and the blame will fall on whomever we elect, it ain't fair but that will be the case.

Hillary Clinton gave a beautiful answer tonight at the debate about how it is time for a woman to be President and how she has seen women across the country come out and tell her so. That is all well and good, but that doesn't change the fact that if Hillary was a man I still would think that she is a corporate first politician who doesn't understand what working folks go through.

George Carlin has a list of self help book titles he has made up, and one of them is, "I have given up hope and it works for me."

Well that about sums up how I am feeling tonight. I just can't give a fuck. I have said this before, and I'll probably say it again, "I just want to pack my bags and move to Vegas and play poker all day and night with a break for the occasional romp with a woman. I can't get excited about our candidates. I can't get excited about the Democratic party and its agenda(do they have an agenda?).

I was listening to the Rachel Maddow show recently and she had Andy Stern on talking about unions and politics. Stern made a point that resonated with me because I have made this point over and over. He said something along the lines of, "why do we stop the PR after the campaigns? Why don't we keep the PR going all the time?"

That got me thinking about blogs, PR, class, and propaganda..

Let me start by quoting Ezra Klein, who btw, has done extensive research and reporting on the healthcare systems around the globe. Here is a link to a very easy to read recap of all the research he has done. Ezra has done the heavy lifting when it comes to research so I was very interested to hear what he thought about Wyden's plan. So I start with the question quote, and will talk more about it after the flip.

I want to ask a question: Can anybody truly see Congress passing a piece of legislation and a president signing a bill that, in one stroke of the pen, dissolves Aetna, UnitedHealthGroup, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross, and all the rest? We're talking about the full dissolution of multibillion dollar corporations that employ thousands and thousands of people, contribute heavily to a wide swath of politicians and provide massive tax revenues to a large collection of states, and have been the sole providers of health coverage for nearly a century now. Forget whether you, or I, think their demolition would be a good idea: Do you see it as a possibility?

Rush Limbaugh is the ultimate passive aggressive person. The man sits behind his microphone in a world he controls and he spouts the rhetoric and allows no one to really question him. The man needs a beat down, literally and figuratively.

Since I am not allowed to beat him up, and I'd like to, I'd like to put a trail of oxycontin  from the door of his studio to my car and once his whoreness reaches me beat him while I explain that he is receiving this beating because he is a disgusting whore. A person with no principles... enough of my ranting below the fold is Bill Hick's trashing Rush Limbaugh better than I can...

Bob Woodward has a new book coming out Oct 2nd and is on 60 Minutes this Sunday, CBS has the pre interview story up on there site and it has some pretty shocking details.

Nice job putting pressure on ABC folks but I hate to piss in your cereal. The Republicans are lining things up so they will  keep their majority in congress. I know folks around here discount what ABC News The Note says, but they do have a reputation for being right. The folks at The Note seem to think the Republicans are doing very well right now.

More after the flip...

Today's LA Times has a list of bills that the California legislators have passed and sent to Gov Arnold for his signiture. Amongst these bills a a progressive legislative agenda I'd love to see the national Democratic party adopt.

After the jump are just a few examples and a link to the whole list...