BUSH GIVES FINAL FAREWELL

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush gave his farewell address to the nation Thursday night, defending his record and showing few regrets. Bush gave a rosy view of his "successes" in Iraq and Afghanistan, and explained how he made tough choices that were good for the economy.

Bush leaves office with the worst presidential approval rate since unindicted co-conspirator Richard M. Nixon. His supporters have dwindled to the ranks of the extremely dumb. Most have jumped ship. Can you blame them?


David Letterman has been collecting "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches." Watch this recent clip regarding Jews and Italians. I say this with all due respect: what an asshole.



Here is a compilation of past "Great Moments." Watch and laugh!

Say goodnight, George.

BUH-BYE

We're still celebrating Obama's win, and, in the spirit of Barack's magnanimous victory speech, we're trying to avoid taking cheap potshots at Sarah Palin. We're trying hard. Really. After all the attention and ballyhoo of the presidential race, Palin will be returning empty-handed to the frozen tundra, and no, we won't miss her shrill, ill informed musings, but on a human level it's kind of sad. On the other hand, we're not getting carried away with grief since we know this won't be the last we'll see of this neo-con Barbie. This ambitious politician will probably get retooled and freshly-painted for another big run (64% of Republicans polled want Palin to run again in 2012) but until then...we'll say buh-bye, Sarah. This song is for you. I think you'd better go now...



Sorry, we can't stop! There are a number of reports surfacing about tension between Palin and the McCain camp. Aides are coming forward with all the gory details. They describe her as a difficult diva behind the scenes, and many say they were concerned she simply didn't know enough to be Vice President. We agree, of course, but this is coming from inside the McCain camp!

We knew she wasn't exactly brilliant, and certainly no cartographer, but it turns out she thought Africa was a single country and not a continent. Even worse, and closer to home, she couldn't name the countries in North America. (Palin-supporters, take note: the countries are Canada, Mexico, and the USA.) Oh, and the $150,000 worth of expensive clothes? It's turned out to be much more--with $40,000 for husband Todd alone--it's expensive to have the common touch and look like a real hockey mom. According to this story, a GOP lawyer was dispatched to Alaska to retrieve some of the clothing (story here).

This news report details the backstage rift at McCain headquarters. Watch Bill O'Reilly trying to put a good spin on it, but this is hopeless.

ONE MORE DAY (OF ELECTION ANXIETY)

In case you're just tuning in, this is the final day of the 2008 presidential campaign. Here's a wonderful one minute recap:

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Tomorrow is election day. Everyone I know is filled with election anxiety. What can you do? Drink too much, eat unwisely, scream at the television, lose sleep. These coping skills have always worked for me, but I'm sure there are better ways to deal with stress. Yoga, for example, or taking a walk, or talking to your plants. (My plants seem to be responding well to sarcasm and hurled invectives) Tomorrow night I'll be watching the election returns with some close friends, and I don't just mean Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels. Real friends. That will be a good way to weather the storm. A roller-coaster is always more fun with a group of people.

Larry David, neurotic creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, is also having trouble coping:

"I can't take much more of this...I'm at the end of my rope. I can't work. I can eat, but mostly standing up...Five times a day I'll still say to someone, 'I don't know what I'm going to do if McCain wins.'" --For more of David's election anxiety, click here.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, poll workers could say you're not on the rolls. Your eligibility could be challenged. The voting equipment itself could malfunction. The lines could be long.

According to the Huffington Post, already over 80,000 people have complained about voting problems. "Barbara Anwine of the Election Protection Coalition (1-866-OUR-VOTE), a nonpartisan group, told MSNBC about voter suppression tactics they have witnessed around the country."



If you experience any election day mishaps, click here. Or call the US Department of Justice (800-253-3931).

Make sure your vote counts--read this article in the Daily Journal here.

TWO DAYS MORE!

If you're like me, you love musicals. The footlights and the greasepaint, the synchronized high-kicking, people breaking into song for no apparent reason! My girlfriend Wendy and I often entertain dinner guests while dressed as characters from "Cats!" and we bring down the house singing "Memory" while tossing Almond Roca from a fake litter box. We also do a killer "Les Miserables," and when I leap over the couch waving the red banner for "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" there's not a dry eye in the house.

Okay, that's not true. Not a word. But we do like musicals. Some, however, are better than others.

The musical above is from John McCain. It's definitely not "Les Mis," which I'm sure Sarah Palin would call communistic with its peasants and revolution and subversive talk of spreading the wealth. You betcha. And french, besides! Thanks but no thanks.

Palling around with terrorists

Only two more days, and I'm a nervous wreck. The poll numbers look good for Obama, and the McCain/Palin propaganda doesn't seem to be working...and yet I'm anxious about last minute dirty tricks and possible election fraud or "mistakes" with ballots.

It's been quite a battle--not just the past twenty-one months, but years, decades. With a good voter turnout and no outright election chicanery (see posting on election theft here), Tuesday could bring us closer to economic justice, affordable housing, universal health care, genuine environmental protection, and ending the war. I'm not naive, just hopeful. I realize the enemy is entrenched, the institutions are self-perpetuating, and the powerful have a vested interest in resisting meaningful change.

But I'm hopeful. Keep your fingers crossed. And vote.


A scene from "Les Miserables," a musical Sarah Palin would call socialistic for its message of class war and spreading the wealth. Viva la revolution!

CLASH OF THE TITANS

"Judith Beheading Holofernes," by Caravaggio, 1599

We usually look at art in nearly church-like settings--hushed, respectful museums and galleries--but some of the greatest artists were far from polite. In fact, some were outright thugs--Caravaggio springs to mind, painting brilliantly between drunken brawls and swordfights, finally fleeing Rome to escape murder charges with a price on his head. It would be hard to imagine the brooding master thriving in our current art scene, chatting up suburbanites over cheese platters on First Thursday. You just know someone would get skewered.


"Caravaggio," from Simon Schama's BBC series, Power of Art

Other artists had their battles on canvas. They didn't paint to pacify us with beauty, but to strong-arm us into seeing the world in a new way. In the last century, Pablo Picasso punched us in the nose and rearranged our faces. Henri Matisse did the same thing, albeit more gently, lyrically, with a few brushstrokes or paper cut-outs.

"Bull Skull, Fruit, and Pitcher," by Pablo Picasso, 1939

To some, "The Fight of the Century" will always be Ali vs. Frazier at the Garden in 1971, and to others the Kennedy/Nixon presidential debate, or maybe Hemingway walloping F. Scott Fitzgerald outside Les Deux Magots. Some say it was a battle of the bands, when the Stones followed James Brown on the TAMI Show, or when the Clash opened for the Who in 1980. My vote would be the clash between the two best artists of the twentieth century, Picasso and Matisse, who shook hands and came out painting.


Picasso and Matisse were the heavyweights, the undisputed masters of modern art. In 2003, their lifelong dialog was celebrated at the Museum of Modern Art. In this clip, Charlie Rose discusses the "Matisse Picasso" show with the MoMa curators, Kirk Varnedoe and John Elderfield.

"Icarus," by Henri Matisse, 1947

DUELING PALINS

In case you worked the graveyard shift last night, or were up late studying Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, or had simply miscalculated the proper combination of drugs and alcohol and flamed out early, here is the much-ballyhooed Tina Fey and her dingy doppelganger Sarah Palin on SNL last night.

Once again the latte-drinking New York liberals practiced their godless comedy on good sport Sarah. Good sport, like aerial wolf-hunting. If there is a God, an all-powerful God who isn't just rolling dice and toying with us, may He (or She) bless our great nation and send Palin back tout de suite to her tiny world of pork barrel bridges and beauty pageants and small-town tundra corruption.

Somebody say Amen!

Tina Fey, as I know and love her

STEALING THE ELECTION

The final presidential debate is over, and just when you thought you could put on your slippers, pour yourself three fingers of Maker's Mark and play some Nina Simone, the alarm rings. It ain't over yet, to use the vernacular, so keep your boots on. There are more tricks in store--or at the very least roadblocks to a fair election. Some key, swing states are taking action to block voters from the polls.

"The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable." - Paul Krugman, Nobel Prizewinner,"Block the Vote"

The New York Times article (State's Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal, Oct. 8, 2008) suggests this could even throw the election in swing states. Read the article here.

"The six swing states seem to be in violation of federal law in two ways. Michigan and Colorado are removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state, or have been declared unfit to vote. Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio seem to be improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters." - NYT, Oct 8, 2008

Today, the Times has another disturbing article, Ruling May Impede Thousands of Ohio Voters, which can be read here.

Like father, like son: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fights against voter registration fraud and election balloting discrepancies with Steal Back Your Vote (Stealbackyourvote.com), an organization he runs with BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast.

Robert Kennedy Jr, has written extensively about voter fraud in the 2004 election (Was the 2004 Election Stolen--link here) and now suggests the 2008 election may already be stolen. Read his article about hacking the election here.

Kennedy and Palast have a new article in the current Rolling Stone about stealing the 2008 election, Block the Vote, and can be read here.

Watch the Kennedy/Palast video, Steal Back Your Vote! here:



(Recent update from the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 18: "Court Ruling Stokes Voter-Fraud Fight," click here)

THE REAL McCAIN? HE'S NO MAVERICK

First off, don't believe Sarah Palin. Five Myths about John McCain is a video by Tim Dickinson, contributing editor of Rolling Stone Magazine, extracted from his cover article, Make-Believe Maverick. This is a must-read essay in which Dickinson categorically debunks the "maverick" image McCain and his minions are trying to convey.

Dickinson's article, Make-Believe Maverick, is available here.

After McCain and Palin exaggerated Obama's connections with 60's radical Bill Ayers and claimed he was "palling around with terrorists," Obama hit back with information about McCain and the Keating Five scandal. If McCain wants to wrestle with the past, two can play this game. Actually, it's a different game entirely, because the Keating Five scandal has direct relevance to our current financial crisis.

This morning, the Obama camp directed people to a brand new web site, keatingeconomics.com, about McCain's involvement in the financial scandal. The website presents information and this 13-minute documentary called "Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis.''

You can watch it here:

IN CASE YOU MISSED THE VEEP DEBATE

SARAH PALIN and REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY

Karl Rove and the Republicans really care about women, to hear them tell it. Ask Sarah Palin. In fact, they're downright feminists--when it's convenient, that is. For a group that stresses "values" every chance they get, these "ethics" seem pretty situational. Bullshit, in other words.

Have you ever walked in a cow pasture? Then you already know the smell, so you'll be ready when the Republicans tell you it's chocolate ice cream.

In this clip, funny man Jon Stewart holds their feet to the fire.

Political fantasy: propaganda guru Karl Rove gets what he deserves in a just world

For a real, old school, dyed-in-the-wool feminist perspective, Gloria Steinem wrote a great piece on Sarah Palin in the Los Angeles Times, "Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message." You can read it HERE.

NO END IN SIGHT

"No End in Sight" is an excellent documentary about the Iraq War. If you haven't seen it, by all means watch it. Here is the film in its entirety.

This is no cheerleading propaganda film for the war effort, so if you support the Bush war in Iraq without question, or want to continue on the same course with McCain and Palin at the helm, this film may challenge your opinions.

"Although Bush and the war continue to sink in the polls, I know from some readers that they still support both. That is their right. And if they are so sure they are right, let more young men and women die or be maimed. I doubt if they will be willing to see this film, which further documents an administration playing its private war games."
--Roger Ebert, from his review of "No End in Sight"

Send this link to any undecided voters you may know. Send it to your congressperson, your senator, and any other politician not beholden to the military-industrial complex. The makers of this film are keeping the film available for free streaming until the presidential election.

No End in Sight. The website is HERE.

PRISONERS OF WAR

John McCain was a POW, but you probably knew that since it seems to be the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Some would even say he exploits that experience. While he may be a war hero, the question remains whether his wartime experiences qualify him to run the country. This interview with a former POW caught my attention.

Dr. Phillip Butler is a 1961 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a former light-attack carrier pilot. In 1965 he was shot down over North Vietnam where he spent eight years as a prisoner of war.

Butler says John McCain is "not cut out to be President."

FACT-CHECKING THE REPUBLICANS

According the Associated Press, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters "stretched the truth" when they attacked Obama, and praised Palin's credentials to be vice president. There are plenty of great examples in the story (link below) but here are a couple of my favorites:

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

I swear!

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

For the entire story, with plenty more Republican "untruths" from the convention, click HERE.

IT'S ALL OBAMA'S FAULT!

The latest agit-prop from the McCain campaign explains the oil crisis in simple terms: Barack Obama is responsible. That sure clears things up. It's not gouging oil companies after all, not a spiraling out of control economy, and it's certainly not those smirking Texas oilmen in the White House whom McCain emulates. It's all Obama's fault! Thanks, John, for clearing up such a complicated issue in this critical election year.

McCAIN. MORE OF THE SAME, ONLY OLDER AND CRANKIER!

MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD

Matt Taibbi is a whipsmart political writer with a wonderfully nasty streak who is being hailed as the new Hunter S. Thompson -- meaning irreverent and beholden to no one, not addicted to booze and pills and handguns. He gleefully takes on the powerful and greedy Republicans with surgical precision, as well as the bloated old Democrats who don't keep their promises. His targets vary, and he focuses on the familiar flag-waving ogres of the military-industrial complex, but he doesn't stop there, and lately he has infiltrated conservative Christian fundamentalists, and angered the cottage industry of the so-called "9-11 Truth Movement." He writes regularly for Rolling Stone, where his stories have been accompanied by great illustrations by Victor Juhasz.
Taibbi's latest book is The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story Of War, Politics, & Religion At The Twilight Of The American Empire.


On the presidential election:

I think we're in a situation now where the Bush people have done so much damage to so many different aspects of our society that this is an important election just in that respect...Bush in particular has done a lot of damage to our ability to have a national discussion about things, because they have so frequently insisted upon having their own reality when it suited them. Remember that famous quote, 'We're in the reality-making business,' from one of his aides? When it suited them, they just changed the facts and told their supporters 'Stick with us,' and 'We want you to subscribe to this faith-based politics where what we say is true because we say it is.' That's an enormously damaging way of operating the White House. You really need to have appeal and try to talk to the entire country, and not just your constituents. I think Barack Obama—as little faith as I have in his ability to actually change the system—he does at least have the opportunity to repair that aspect of things, and to talk to the whole country, and bring us back to reality. That would be a huge step. I think John McCain is a guy who's got his own psychological problems that would prompt him, for instance, to continue this war under very cloudy, illogical circumstances, and that would be very destructive."


On the 9-11 Truth Movement:

"I love when you ask them, 'Okay, so let's just say for instance that it wasn't collapsed by the fire. Why would you demolish Building 7? What would be the propaganda purpose of doing that?' They're like, 'Oh, you know, they're hiding the evidence.' I'm like, 'They need to blow up a whole building to hide the evidence?' It's just crazy. But whatever. I mean, once you jump on board that train, you're on it for life."

The A.V. Club just spoke with Taibbi about Christian fundamentalism, blowing up buildings, patriotism, change, Joseph Heller, and the death of Tim Russert. To read the interview, follow this LINK.

An archive of Taibbi's stories on AlterNet are located HERE.

JESSE HELMS FINALLY DEAD

Jesse Helms (1921-2008) lifelong bigot and segregationist, homophobe, anti-arts funding philistine, all -around racist, and five-term Senator from North Carolina, finally died on the 4th of July. And not a moment too soon. It's nice to leave this primitive, ignorant, fear-mongering, backwards good ol' boy behind as we attempt to move into a more enlightened age.

Here are some classic quotes from Jesse Helms:

"Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that cannibalism, wife-swapping and murder of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior."

When a caller to CNN's Larry King Live show praised Helms for "everything you've done to help keep down the niggers," Helms responded with a salute to the camera, and said "Well, thank you. I think." -Wilmington Star-News, 9/16/95

"The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian."

"The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other's men's rights."

"Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches."

"They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro."
-- in response to Duke University students holding a vigil after Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968

A closing statement:

Just to make Jesse spin a little, let's give the last word to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, his arch-enemy. Dr. King is shown here in his first extensive TV interview in 1957.

Yes, maybe only the good die young.

For more, read this Washington Post article, Jesse Helms, White Racist, HERE.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Like Obama, I'm trying to reach out to the "red states."

MICHELLE OBAMA ON THE VIEW

While Cindy McCain was busy getting her batteries changed, Michelle Obama showed up on "The View" to chat with the ladies. After weathering Republican attacks that were both personal and just plain weird -- I loved the one where conservatives were sure her "fist-bump" to husband Barrack was some secret terrorist handshake -- Michelle came to hang out. It must have reassured nervous voters, though I doubt it helped with mouth-breathers who seem to dislike both women and blacks. Still, it was a positive move. It turns out she's smart (another strike against her in Stepford World) and not a bomb-throwing Nee-grow that might appear in nightmares in America's Heartland. And for those who need to know, yes, she is quite capable of handling a vapid daytime television show with good grace and charm.

I'M VOTING REPUBLICAN!

Check out this video...this is real truth in advertising. These Republicans are being honest about their reasons for voting Republican.

Thanks for sending this in, Tom.

HILLARY, HERE'S YOUR HAT

Hillary Clinton conceded, finally. She took her own sweet time, but she's out now, right? Why does she look like she's still running for something? Maybe I shouldn't worry. Hillary is throwing her total support behind Barack Obama, and the party is finally united...right?

Wrong. Hillary deserves something, her fans say. She got eighteen million votes and she deserves to be Vice President, or get a cabinet position -- some kind of consolation prize, at least -- or they won't play ball. She lost, you say! She shouldn't be calling the shots!

Obama is in a bind. Some of these sore losers say they'll skip the election entirely if Hillary isn't included. That's dumb and dumber. Does he really need their support? Remember what this is all about. The real fight is against McCain and the status quo of the greedy, lying Bushies. Defeat the war machine in November. Give us a change we can believe in. Go, Obama!

What went wrong with Hillary's campaign? Read an article from Huff-Po HERE.