One Good Line

It turns out that sending all that Foreign Aid to Pakistan over the years was just feeding the hand that bites you.

Good Old American Capitalism

Paraphrasing Mr Mencken: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence or good taste of the American public.

It took a little over 24 hours for the plucky entrepreneurs to descend on the corpse.

Like I said before, there's something just kinda creepy about it, but at the same time, there's an element of The Circle Of Life as well; the dead become sustenance for the living, and so maybe there's some small reason to celebrate because we need to make an effort to find something good in all this bad.  Dunno.  I still I don't like the idea that we're providing incentive for scalp-hunting.  And watching what appeared to be some genuinely spontaneous demonstrations of heartfelt emotional release quickly descend into expressions of nationalistic fervor was chilling for me.

Something else I find a little unsettling is all the cheerleading at MSNBC last night.  All the "big liberals" have been practically giddy about the chance to snatch the National Security issue away from the Repubs.


And, of course, over at DumFux News, everybody has suddenly rediscovered their affections for Jr Bush - after spending the last 2 years rarely even acknowledging his time in office.

"Finally getting bin Laden" is a big deal, but  I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that what it means to politicians will turn out to be very different from what it means to Citizen Joe.

The task for the politicos now is to figure out the wording of a message that will keep us cheering and holding hands, while using our sense of unity as a wedge to isolate their opponents and to incite us to beat them to death with our feelings of good will.

"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you're constantly either proven right or pleasantly surprised." --George Will

ism

Ding Dong The Bastard's Dead

Osama bin Laden is dead.  There's a certain feeling of satisfaction for me, but I'm finding it hard to get into any kind of party mood.  First because I think it's more than just a little ghoulish and primitive to celebrate anybody's death, even when it's somebody who is so obviously and irredeemably a nihilistic asshole like OBL was.  But mainly it's because of the price the whole world has had to pay just to kill this one guy.  And it's because this isn't the end of anything; it's not the beginning of the end; it's not the end of the beginning; it's not any other clever little bumper sticker sentiment the pundits and PR spinners will come up with over the next several news cycles.  (Tho' I admit it'll be fun to see what we decide will be the winning slogan)

Here's one:
"My government spent a trillion dollars, 20 billion rounds of ammo and 6,000 American lives to kill Osama bin Laden, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

White House Correspondents' Dinner

The Platitude

If you're not a socialist at 18 then you have no heart.
If you're still a socialist at 35, then you have no brain.
And if you're not a progressive at 60, then you have no soul.

Today's Bumper Sticker

The Donald

Yet for the Republican Party, the accumulation of money is proof in itself of virtue, however it was acquired. The richest 1 per cent pay for the party's campaigns, and the party in turn serves their interests entirely. The most glaring example is that they have simply exempted many of the rich from taxes. Johnston studied four of Trump's recent tax returns, and found he legally paid no taxes in two of them. In America today, a janitor can pay more income tax than Donald Trump – and the Republicans regard that not as a source of shame, but of pride.

Go read the piece right now.

The Donald Unbleeped

I'll withhold judgement for now as to whether or not Trump will make an official run.  Aside from the obvious attempt to generate buzz for his TV show (ie: himself), I think the determining factor is all about how much money he thinks he can bring in without having to spend it on any actual campaigning.

And here's what I'm waiting to hear from the Repubs concerning the blatant hucksterism that I think is at the heart of that so-called party:  "Yes, we know Gingrich and Palin and Trump are just hucksters who are only in politics for the money and the ego stroke, and they don't really have any interest in governing; but at least they're honest about being hucksters - and honesty is something we think is essential for the kind of strong leadership this great country needs."

Today's T-Shirt

Politics won't get better until voters get better at politics.