At long last, some candor and honesty from a top Repug:

At the conclusion of a town hall held this morning outside in Denver, John McCain decided to toss in a plug for his upcoming energy policy rollout. But in the midst of decrying the dangers of Americans reliance on foreign oil, McCain seemed to suggest that this reliance caused the current struggle in Iraq.
 
“My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” McCain said.

You don’t say!  So THAT’S what that war was about!  Killing a few thousand Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis to hoard some oil, huh?!  And still letting Big Oil completely wreck our economy by overcharging for gas in the process?!  Well played, you fascist fucks.

Dear Erick Erickson, Editor, Redstate.com,

Finally, somebody has the guts to say what all of us Southerners have known for a long time: we are a nation under a hostile occupation. Southerners have long lived under a Northern “standing arm(y)” that we do not desire. As you well know, Southerners are a peaceful folk and strong believers in states’ rights. But the fire that General Sherman lit to burn down Atlanta still burns in our hearts today to become free again. Please, sir, allow me to document some of the atrocities committed under the pretenses of “liberty” and “freedom.”

Recently, one of our very own Southern brothers, former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, was released from prison after an obvious kangaroo court sentenced him to bribery, conspiracy, and mail fraud.  And you know what?  The railroading was led by somebody from Nevada, a Mr. Karl Rove!  How could a Nevadan lead the prosecution of a Southern gentleman?  It’s a conspiracy of the most despicable proportions!  Our brother is free only because the fix was so poorly executed!

Occasionally, our “benevolent occupiers” in the Blues will allow us, here in the South, to send a President to occupy the White House.  Of course, it’s all a big charade to placate the masses.  Sure, we got to send Dwight Eisenhower, but that’s only because he was a war hero - just some lucky Southern cannon fodder who managed to survive.  And, let’s be honest: the only reason Lyndon B. Johnson got to be President was because that Yankee Jack Kennedy was assassinated.  Shocked that ole John was shot by a New Orleans boy?  Don’t be.  We thought it was the only way a Southerner would be President again.  You see here, if our occupiers really wanted us to have a say in national issues, why did our native son Bill Clinton have to put up with so much guff from the northern press?  Here in the South, we believe that people’s sex life is their own business and not somewhere the government should be sticking their nose.

Finally, and most importantly, the last eight years have seen a total degradation of our way.  Southerners are a law-abiding, peaceful peoples, not wont to start trouble.  Most importantly, we believe in justice.  But there’s this boy that’s been up in that White House of yourn, this George Bush from Connecticut, that doesn’t even pretend that justice exists!  Worst of all, this snake oil salesman tries to pretend he’s from Texas, and he’s not real convincing, especially since he don’t like horses.

Now, we used to take things like the Constitution for granted.  Sure, it took us a while to get used to women and blacks having the vote, but we eventually adapted…evolved, even.  But this boy starts wars on a whim, sending our strong, young Southern men to an early grave.  He won’t even tell us why!  All of us here in the South know what it’s like to be occupied, and we knew those Iraqis wouldn’t like it any better than we do.  The Fourth Amendment?  Meaningless to a man like this here Bush boy.

Well, I gots to go now.  There’s loud knocking at the door.  Ya see, in this new United States under Bush, we aren’t allowed to have independent thought.  We’re sooner to be locked up in that gulag in Cuba as we are to question our country’s leadership.  And, obviously, I’ve said far too much to stay out of trouble - they track our phone calls, you know.

Please, Mr. Erickson, kind sir, work to release my brothers and sisters of the South from this occupation.  We want to be free from the tyranny from the North.

Your faithful servant,

bigfatdrunk

We find out today that Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, a Democratic superdelegate, is endorsing Mr. Barry O.  If you’re scoring at home, or even if you’re home alone, that now brings our superdelegate count to 222 for Obama and 255 for The Witch.  Overall, with pledged delegates added, it’s now Obama with 1,638 to Clinton’s 1,507, which by my fuzzy math equals a lead of 131 for the our soon-to-be nominee.  And just since March 4, Obama has picked up 11 superdelegates to Clinton’s 1.  You see, although Camp Billary apparently dunna-how do math, I think most of the remaining uncommitted Democrats can and are jumping on board.

Future felon George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at the opening game between the Braves and Nationals tonight.

If he would’ve taken a bag full of kittens with him, systematically strangled them, then opened their skulls to sup on the tasty grey matter inside, he would not have been booed any more heartily.

Yet, he’s looking to start a war against Iran. But I’ll take what I can get.

To quote someone who regularly just makes shit up and constantly takes credit for things she had no part in:

“I went to 80 countries, you know. I gave contemporaneous accounts, I wrote about a lot of this in my book. You know, I think that, a minor blip, you know, if I said something that, you know, I say a lot of things - millions of words a day - so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement.”

“You know???” 

As you have seen by now, we are talking about the media finally calling bullshit on one of the many Clinton claims to something that simply did not happen during her tenure as First “Lady” that we have seen during this long campaign. Again and again we have seen her take credit for things she played absolutely no part in during her hubby’s presidency, dismiss the notion that she played any role in things that he did then that are now not so popular (health care debacle, NAFTA), or simply exagerrating stories of things she actually did do to make herself look presidential. Look, nobody’s memory is absolutely perfect, and I guess there are many among us who like to try to see their role in past deeds as a little bigger than they might have actually been, but this has been a pattern throughout her campaign–her campaign of “experience”–that the media has failed to call her out on up until this point. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see this story hanging over her for very long, it’s not that significant, but perhaps the media is ready to start calling bullshit when she just throws things out there that never happened. Perhaps it will open the door to a little retroactive reporting on some of the other crap she’s been serving Democratic voters this primary season. I can hope, you know?  Here’s the rest of the story from CBS News:

Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she made a mistake in claiming that she came under hostile fire in Bosnia 12 years ago, as rival Barack Obama’s campaign continued to challenge her credibility.

In a recent speech and interviews, the New York senator described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in 1996. But video footage of the day showed a peaceful reception in which a young girl greeted the first lady on the tarmac.

Clinton told reporters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that she erred in describing the scene, which she now realizes after talking with aides and others.

“So I made a mistake,” she said. “That happens. It proves I’m human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation.”

She claimed she misspoke and was sleep deprived, but CBS News has found several times in the past few months Senator Clinton used the Bosnia trip to try to show her international experience, reports Sharyl Attkisson. Clinton did so in Iowa in December, Texas in February and also last week.

After CBS News video showed what really happened when she landed and greeted officials, Senator Clinton maintained there were risks but explained to the Philadelphia Daily News why she was seen on the Bosnia tarmac greeting a young child if it was really so dangerous.

“I was also told that the greeting ceremony had been moved away from the tarmac but that there was this eight-year-old girl and I said, ‘Well, I, I can’t, I can’t rush by her, I’ve got to at least greet her,” Clinton said. “So I greeted her, I took her stuff and I left. Now that’s my memory of it.”

Once again her memory doesn’t match CBS News videotape, Attkisson reports. She and her daughter Chelsea lingered on the tarmac to greet U.S. military officials, took photos, and then walked to the armored vehicle where she did, eventually, duck and enter.

The more important issue, Clinton said, is whether she would be a better commander-in-chief than Obama or Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Clinton and Obama are competing for votes in Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary.

Clinton’s aides had tried to control the Bosnia flap Monday, saying the New York senator “misspoke.”

But Clinton had to address the issue herself Tuesday, after repeated airings of the 1996 video clips caused critics to ridicule her. Reminded that she had said it was the first time she had misspoken in 12 years, Clinton told reporters: “I was joking. Lighten up, guys.”

In a March 17 speech in Washington, Clinton said of the Bosnia trip: “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

That account was still posted on her campaign Website on Tuesday.

Clinton told CNN last week, “There was no greeting ceremony, and we basically were told to run to our cars. Now, that is what happened.”

Several news outlets disputed the claims.

Clinton began retracting the remarks in a series of private interviews Monday and Tuesday before addressing about two dozen reporters here after a speech.
She told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “I was sleep-deprived, and I misspoke.” She told KDKA radio in Pittsburgh: “You know, I have written about this and described it in many different settings, and I did misspeak the other day. You know, this has been a very long campaign.”

The Obama campaign fueled the Bosnia brouhaha Tuesday, sponsoring a conference call with Pennsylvania reporters that featured retired Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Stewart said he was assigned to the Army’s European headquarters when Clinton visited Bosnia as first lady in 1996. He said her claim that she landed under enemy fire insulted U.S. soldiers charged with her security.

Clinton’s explanation that she misspoke was “really astonishing,” said Stewart, who supports Obama. “She has no sense of what a statement like that does to soldiers,” Stewart said. “She is insulting the command in its entirety. Believe me, heads would have rolled all over if the military put the first lady and her daughter in a position of unacceptable risk.”

At her news conference, Clinton said, “you know, the military and the Secret Service did a terrific job” of handling the situation in Bosnia.

Again, sorry for the end-of-February through all of March hiatus, my peeps.  That whole “getting married, honeymooning, shopping with gift cards, settling in a new place, having to train a newbie in my office while the boss was gone, and having to regularly appease Matt with tales of barbecue dreams” thing got in the way of my all-important political blogging.  Granted, it probably saved me a lot of heartburn anyway, what with all the Clinton “scorched earth” strategy taking effect, the media allowing it to slide AND helping perpetuate the slime-balling, and this whole Reverend Wright business.  The fact of the matter is, even with over a month of trying to knock the front-runner down off his pedestal, it’s true, Barack Obama has taken a beating, but has STILL kept this campaign together and is still talking about hope, fundamental change, and national unity–the same way he started at his convention speech in ‘04, the same way he won his seat in the U.S. Senate that same year, the same way he began his campaign for the presidency over 13 months ago, and the same way he has carried himself in cities all across this great nation of ours ever since.  **yes, you should be inferring that the guy doesn’t have to reinvent himself every three weeks like some ol’ broom-rider we know so well** 

I bring to you today some simple, non-fuzzy math (though Camp Billary, even with the hubby’s ability to finally make some numbers add up and balance a budget, apparently can’t figure out):

If the remaining contests split up “as expected” meaning Clinton wins her base states (PA, KY, WV, etc.) and Obama wins his base states (NC, OR, MT, etc.) and the two split Indiana down the middle, the two campaigns will likely split those 566 delegates right down the middle 283-283 (margin of error +/- 5 delegates). This means Obama would need 34% of the uncommitted superdelegates to hit the magic 2024 number, while Clinton would need 72% of the uncommitted Supers to hit 2024. 

Barack Obama is going to be the nominee, COUNT ON IT.  No chance superdelegates override the will of the people (at least not by these margins) and risk losing the next generation of Democratic voters.  Yes, Hillary’s ready to burn this bitch down to fill her rather disgusting blind ambitions, but all she’s going to end up doing is hurting her own legacy as an otherwise decent public servant and end up hurting Barack’s otherwise all but inevitable chance to beat John “My Friends” McCain come November.

More rants on The Witch, John McCain getting a pass on being a total phony all these years, and the 5-year/4,000 U.S. deaths mess that is the Iraq War coming after April 1.  Please curb your excitement, you don’t want to frighten the small children and elderly people that may be around you.

Saying Hillary has Executive Branch experience is like saying Yoko Ono was a Beatle.

Indeed.

I don’t have time for a full post, but it’s being reported that Admiral Fallon is retiring, effective the end of March.

In case you don’t know, according to an article in Esquire, Admiral Fallon is the only high-ranking officer sane enough to not want to go to war with Iran over its nuclear program.

As successful as the Glorious War for Freedom and Democracy in Iraq (TM) has been, who can blame him?

This, I believe, will not end well.

Via Daily Kos, we get this article wherein Geraldine Ferraro joins the long and “distinguished” list of old white people who should probably just shut up.

“I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign - to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against,” she said.

Yes, because Lord knows that the only reason Obama has done well is because America likes black men better than white women.  Black men have NO idea how hard white women have had it through America’s history.

“For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

The same media that decided just before the Texas/Ohio primaries that they were going to ease up on her and, instead, smear Obama to such an extent that it swayed the outcome in Texas?  That media?

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued.

Nope.  He would already be the nominee and this whole conversation would not be happening.

“And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position.

So…wait…he’s lucky because if he was an Asian woman he would not be here?  Well if Hillary hadn’t been roommates with the President for eight years, she would not be in this position either.  And if the queen had balls, she’d be the king.

He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

It is very fortuitous that he is a relatively young Senator with an inspiring story and an ability to motivate throngs of voters.  Stupid country, getting caught up in the concept of voting for someone because they think he will make a great President.

Ferraro does not buy the notion of Obama as the great reconciler.

“I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he’s going to be able to put an end to partisanship,” Ferraro said, clearly annoyed.

It is so annoying when REPUBLICANS are campaigning for a DEMOCRAT because they believe he will better the political environment in America.  Stupid, brainless jerks.  Don’t they know that they have to be partisan or else…well…something bad will happen?

“Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that’s the way our country is.”

And if that’s the way it has been, then it should never change.  Change is bad, mmmkay?  Things should just stay how they are–we don’t need these kids with their mp3s and iPods and Englebert Humperdink records mucking things up!  (Clearly, that idea taken to its logical extremes would have prevented this whole Obamania in the first place.  Because, you know, that “slavery” thing.)

Hey, Gerry…maybe you ought to just keep your opinions to yourself.  Wouldn’t want people thinking that the only woman to ever run for Vice President is a damned fool.

I just saw somebody in an SUV refuse to clip the side of a curb to make a legal parking space.