Beware The Man

I still say the greatest guitarist of all time. Yes, I’m man enough to admit my man-crush on Jimmy. I just love his work, his versatility, and his all-around stage coolness.

You had to see him a coupla times like I did to really appreciate him. Better than Clapton at moving his feet, better than Hendrix when it comes to breadth of style, better than anyone on the guitar, ever.

I loves me some genius. Happy Labor Day, everyone.

It will be a drag, but not a Katrina-like disaster, unless the levees have been repaired worse than one can imagine.

Predictions are for fools, but this whole thing has the distinct odor of Media Madness.

Unless the levees weren’t repaired properly.

Unless the pumps haven’t been vetted.

Unless something unexpected happens, which you know, could be unexpected.

McCain is going to try to take advantage, but he’s not politicizing this storm, no way, no how. FEMA is being proactive, because no one could see Katrina coming.

Led Zeppelin, anyone?

When The Levee Breaks. 1971. That’s foresight. Or at least a cool tune.

Not me. He says this is good news for Republicans, because it always is. Facetiously, for sure, but unlike usual, I think this time he’s wrong.

No Bush, no Cheney at the convention. A “depoliticized” event, in the moron American public’s mind. I say win for McCain, the hair-trigger fool one step away from blowing away France, should they make McCain mad about something like a wine boycott.

Anything that is perceived to be “good news for Republicans” somehow always magically turns out to be true.

It’s going to be interesting, this election. We’re going to find out exactly how smart the American electorate is. Personally, I’m worried.

…of the end of empire theory. To which I subscribe. While I don’t think we’re quite there yet, we’re looking into the abyss.

I guess I would say this is a pretty important election.

God gave us “reason” because He/She/It, if such a Being exists (I’m doubtful, but not dogmatic on the subject) expected us to use it. The death of reason is the death of hope and faith.

I find it amusing that nobody in the Corporate Media is even mentioning that Bush and Cheney just might be skipping the GOP Convention because, well, most people despise them.

From the Dept. of Funny Headlines: “FEMA vows to be ‘proactive this time.'” That’s great news! I mean, who could have seen Katrina coming?

Still can’t get a clue on Palin. All I’m sure of now is that she’ll energize those single-issue abortion voters, maybe get some NRA men on board, and give Senator McCain some masturbation fantasy material.

Off to spend Memorial Day Sunday with some quality family time. We’re sending a boy off to the Navy. God bless him.

Update: Ana Marie sort of does the trick, though it is in a blog post, which not so many people read.

Here’s an interesting little bit from the God Of Electoral Politics, Purveyor Of New Math, Karl Rove.

Kudos to unwilledatom at Daily Kos for this particular catch of Rove in all his wisdom.

And I agree with unwill: The Obama camp would be fools not to jam this quote up the collective ass (and Ass) that is the McCain campaign. Sure, the defense will obviously be that McCain is “thinking outside the box,” but so what. It isn’t going to fly.

It is time to go full out offense, attack, ridicule, and scorn. Scorched Earth stuff. Nooklear, to hear our prospective GOP VP nominee call it.

Fun and games and amused detachment time is over. Time to do some ratfucking as if we were professional ratfuckers, just like Rove.

In case you’re wondering what “ratfucking” means, The Editors has a handy and instructive guide. To ratfucking.

Yes, that’s right. Ratfucking. Read and learn.

Update: So if you don’t believe Rove said something so short and poor-sighted, the ever-reliable Crooks and Liars has the tape. I love C&L. Don’t believe it? How about you watch it, ya wankers.

They have a lot of games on the road in September, so a good August was key. Another nail-biter of a win today, 3-2 against a Philadelphia team that has a race of their own on their hands. The Cubs could have a 7.5 game lead after tonight if Milwaukee doesn’t win tonight. Me thinks the Brewers have to be considering the game tonight about as “must win” as you can get with 27 games left.

The Brewers have been great, 25-13 since the break. So sad that the Cubs are 27-12, a 1.5 game increase against a hot team.

I still think it will be the Cubs and Brewers in the NL final, and that worries me. The Brew Crew has two outstanding starters in Sabathia and Sheets, and the simple fact of the matter is that anything can happen in a series, including the best team not winning.

But I’m a Cubs fan, so I’m conditioned to worry. I cut my teeth as a very young kid, thanks to WGN, but it was 1969 that made it official.

7 straight is very encouraging to me, as is 9 (10?) straight series wins. But there’s a long way to go, and baseball is a funny game of inches and human mistakes and freak-show big hits and errors. I refer you to Bartman.

Update: The Brewers win, of course, adding to my somewhat minimal anxiety. But they’ve hung tough, played well, and they’re a good baseball team. Still, they are a long way out with not so long to the finish line.

With no expectations, she could surprise, but she had better do her homework before debating Biden presuming some foreign policy questions come up.

I don’t know what to make of it, honestly, but I sure do wonder about what happens if she gets the keys to WH. (Obvious caveat: I don’t wish any physical problems on McCain.) McCain will be the oldest guy we ever elected, though, and that’s every bit as factual as his two bouts with melanoma, a notoriously no-nonsense form of cancer.

It’s a good thing Senator McCain has such excellent health care. But I digress.

This was a home run swing, and who knows? Like everyone else, all I know is she’s a rock solid anti-abortionist, Pat Buchanan fan. I suppose this motivates the base.

I just have a hard time wrapping my arms around it, and maybe that’s just what the McCain campaign wanted. Where do the votes come from, though?

One wonders if the Media-created PUMA thing got a bit too far into media-centric McCain’s head.

I don’t know, but we’ll soon find out. There isn’t a lot of time left for any of them.

Update: Andrew Sullivan, who on first glance (isn’t that true for everyone?) likes her, but at the same time points out some interesting stuff to fill in some of the blanks.

He’s got some other informational posts up, too.

Update 2: The truly brilliant Jesse Taylor has more.

Update 3: smintheus at DKos has more fascinating detail. I don’t think it matters much, but we have to round out the profile on this woman, after all. McCain certainly didn’t do it.

Update 4: My man the genius The Editors has more. I’m sure happy Mrs. Palin’s story is coming out so quickly. We wouldn’t want to elect a #2 without knowing something about her.

Update 5: Boy oh boy, it sure is hard to keep up with all this breaking narrative and vetting. Nothing going on here folks, move along.

Noting that this doesn’t have anything to with jack-all-shit, since the corruption bar has been set so low by BushCorp., and we all do our families some favors, but the McCain camp just may have wanted to take a closer look.

Update 6: Even though I consider this post neither good nor bad, neither negative nor positive, it represents the beauty of the blogosphere. You don’t have to get your information from the gasbags you used to get it from. You can find someone who has dealt with people, even famous people, personal and up close.

Update 7: The hits just keep on comin’. More from some actual Alaskans. But for God’s sake, what would these people know compared to, say, Joe Scarborough or Luke Russert, or Andrea Mitchell?

Update 8: How am I to keep up? Sadly, No! points out the wondrous and spectacular intellectual consistency of the right-wing blowhard moron constituency represented by Hugh Hewitt, who it is alleged has a law degree. Meaning he’s a “smart” wingnut.

Update 9: Yes, the politics are good. But shouldn’t we worry about the “governance” part for a few years?

I don’t even care if the Cubs lose tonight. Bigger fish to fry.

Live blogging:

9:14 CDST. Lots of thanks, standard boiler-plate acceptance.

Good kudos to HRC. And the crowd understands. A note to Bill, too, in no uncertain terms. And to T. Kennedy, and J. Biden.

I know he hates the idea, but the girls are a winner across the board.

Dreams. We all have them.

Nuts and bolts. Credit cards, tuition, mortgages. Hulk smash! Bush’s failed policies. We’re better than this. (Ed. Indeed, we are.)

“Compassionate.” Nice. Katrina. Nice.

“Enough!” Right on.

Me thinks he’s going to be tough. Third term and all. “Eight is enough.” (Years of Bush.)

Nice stuff about McCain, and the audience responds appropriately.

John McCain voted with Bush is 90%. What does that say about your judgement?

Hitting McCain hard. Just like I’ve said he would do, being a hoopster from the south side of Chicago.

Hat’s off to our men and women in service.

$5M comment fodder for the GOP. McCain was joking. About all the other stuff, right on again.

“John McCain doesn’t get it.” No shit. Trickle down-it-ism.

You’re on your own. Nice, again. So far, so good.

“It’s time for them to own their failure.” Sweet.

I can’t help it, I think this guy is special.

Uh-oh: A preemptive “celebrity” defense. Good politics. Can’t see how Schmidt and McCain will come back on that one, but I’m sure they’ll figure something out.

Biblical references. Sweet, again.

Tax code bullshit: Music to my ears. Though I wish he would start the whole damn thing over, it is such a clusterfuck. 95% will get a tax cut. Sweet, again.

10 years no foreign oil dependence. Not gonna happen. But a good talking point. Another slam on McCain on oil and its monetary goodness. Drilling is stupid, which isn’t going to play well with morons, meaning close to half of the electorate.

God bless this guy: Commit something to the country, and we’ll help you out with your dreams. Duh!

Nice shot at Congressional benefits. Nice shot at the health care industry.

He’s going to win. He’s a better candidate, and a better man than is St. Anger Management Media-Love McCain.

Call out for individual responsibility. Very good, again. “Individual responsibility, and mutual responsibility.” Again, duh.

Challenges McCain to a showdown. Sweet, again.

Fuck Osama bid Laden, I’m going to kill the motherfucker.

(Most excellent Chicago smack-talk.)

Oh, he’s just ripping St. McCain of Media Mountain like a bad piece of cloth you need for a tourniquet.

The man can give a speech.

Calling out McCain to take the high road, rightly and properly so. Steve Schmidt’s dick just shrunk a few sizes.

“We ALL put our country first,” John McCain, you dicktard wanker of retard nonsense.

Wow! Going down the LGBT road! The man feels confident.

Now, the meat. “Make a big election about small things.”

He FUCKING DOES get it, when it comes to politics. And it ISN’T about him.

What a kick-ass candidate.

What a kick-ass POTUS he could be.

Holy shit! A close with MLK! Nice! Brilliant! We get it!

It shouldn’t be close. We’ll see what the GOP can do to make it so, but for God’s sake, this is little-league vs. Major League shit.

Update: Cubs score 5 in the 8th to win again. Every now and then I think the FSM is on my side. Life is good.

If Obama loses, this country is fucked.

Time to move on from the morons, folks. We have ourselves a good person, a good candidate, and a good politician.

You can see this everywhere, obviously, so I’m just making sure those 10 who read my blog remember it, or learn it. This is one of the great speeches ever given by anyone, at least since we could watch the speeches on tape.

Still gives me chills.

God bless America. (I’m unusually hopeful tonight.)

Update: And, knowing with some creepiness that he was going to die, which happened to be the next night, the equally great “I have been to the mountaintop” speech.

May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless Dr. King.