The Audacity of Gloom

Grandpa McCain Is The Nominee

Although McCain might be the very least objectionable GOoPer that could have been nominated this year, I can't imagine voting for anyone whose major claim to fame, seemingly, is that he enlisted as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. Ask anyone under 35 what the hell that actually means and I bet you'd get a blank stare.

Frankly, voting for Grandpa McW is only going to give us another four years of Bush-iness, minus the waterboarding. Well, maybe that's enough for some people, but I would like to see the country attempt to do something a little more, shall we say, ambitious. Perhaps try to fix health care, try to fix our cities (New Orleans, anyone?), fix our schools, fix the WAR! And by fix it, I mean end that ridiculous fiasco. No, Grandpa McCain thinks it would be just fine to stay in Iraq for another hundred years. If I had young'ens in the house, I'd start worrying right here and right now.

I would dearly love to see either of the Democrats debate Pops McW. Imagine a vigorous, healthy, energetic Obama standing tall next to McW, who would look even more pale than he already does (sorry, I couldn't resist). Imagine Grandpa debating Hillary while she runs rings around him with facts and figures at her fingertips. After this week's Super Bowl, I guess we learned that there are no such things as sure bets in anything, but I certainly like our chances.

Unlike the conventional wisdom of the MSM punditry, I think having Hillary and Barack debate (so long as it's relatively polite) for another month is not necessarily a bad thing. Having them both talking the good talk, demonostrating their command of the issues could be a very positive development, while Grandpa goes around chasing the right wingers like that comedian, Rush Limbaugh, and scaring the shit out of everyone with his tough talk. Ahhhh, this is going to be fun!

And one final thing...why the hell do you not see Grandpa without his bodyguards Senators Lieberman and Graham? Is this a campaign or a buddy movie?

*image courtesy of NoMcW.com

Remember the War?

There appears to be further evidence that the so-called "surge" might just be moving the trouble from Baghdad and the larger cities of Iraq to outlying areas, rather than actually ending the war. In January, there was a rise in the number of American service members killed. This is from McClatchy News Service:

"A total of 3,942 American service members have been killed in Iraq as of Thursday, according to icasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks the statistics.

U.S. officials in Iraq said the death toll had risen because the military was targeting armed groups that had been driven out of Baghdad and Al-Anbar by the increase in American troops.

In January, the military launched a major offensive in northeastern Diyala province, where nine service members were killed. In addition, the United States moved troops to the northwestern Ninevah province, which has become an Al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold. Seven service members were killed there in January, compared with four in December.

The fact that more Americans have been killed in those provinces has some fretting that the United States is fighting another round of "whack-a-mole," a term that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once used to describe chasing insurgents and terrorists from one part of Iraq to another."

How long will it take for Republicans to figure out that there needs to be a political solution to the war? Sending more good young people to die in an endless loop of tragedy does nothing, except perhaps make Muslims and others around the world hate America even more. Like mischievous children, the insurgents want us to chase them - for the attention it brings to their cause. Like an inexperienced babysitter, the Chimp fell for this behavior in 2003. Perhaps we should elect some actual ADULTS next time, eh?

Stop the war. Elect Democrats.



PS: The Left Curve poll to determine the Democratic nominee has closed. Final results: Obama 10; Clinton 5; Edwards 2. Thanks to everyone for your participation...