Despite evidence that increased domestic drilling will only have a minor impact on market prices and that these will accrue in the distant future, McCain and the Republicans continue their "Drill Here, Drill Now" mantra. Today, Johnny Boy donned a hardhat and took the chopper out to a gen-you-eyne oil rig to give his claim the visuals required to drive this one home. Minor probem:

John McCain’s campaign ad "The One" has generated a lot of buzz regarding the "Left Behind Series." Political commentators are comparing McCain’s portrayal of competitor Barack Obama with the blockbuster apocalyptic series’ depiction of the antichrist. But even the series authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins don’t think Obama is the antichrist.

Of course, Barack Obama is not the Auntie Christ. How could anyone possibly mistake him for a 2000 year-old-Jewish woman?

Ready?  Here we go.

1.  He called his wife a cunt.

2.  He divorced his first wife for political expediency to marry a millionaire beer heiress.

3.  He and Charles Keating were good buds.

4.  He owns 9 homes.

5.  Elitism.  His father and grandfather were Navy admirals.  Wonder how he made his way in the Navy.

6.  Advised on economic and foreign policy issues by lobbyists with clients with vested interests in the issues on which McCain receives advice.

Media Matters

On the August 7 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition, national political correspondent Mara Liasson asserted there was "irony" in "a liberal Democrat showcasing his faith," stating during a report about the presidential candidates' efforts to "court white evangelical voters": "The irony of a liberal Democrat showcasing his faith is not lost on [former Republican presidential candidate] Gary Bauer, a leading conservative religious activist." Liasson did not explain what she thought was "ironic" about such an action.

Jeebus help me I can hardly think where to start with this.  Does is bother me more that can't seem to used to being betrayed every time NPR behaves like a right wing water boy?  Or is it the fact that the right wing and traditional media make a bigger mockery of Christianity than they do of Islam?  

Lou Dobbs could have warned the College of Cardinals about cheap Hispanic labor.  However, on this day in 1492, the College elected Roderigo Borja as Pope.  Obviously, the Italian boys were not so eager to have the job.  Their bribes were only half as much as Roderigo's, and Roderigo was willing to assimilate.  His mistresses were Italian, and he even adopted a more Italian pronunciation of his surname:  Borgia.  But his green card would have identified him as Pope Alexander VI.

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/

email: rshuler3156@gmail.com

A transplanted Midwesterner puts down roots in Alabama and helps show how "loyal Bushies" have corrupted our justice system.

Judging from his name, Helmuth von Moltke was not the type of person who you would want to manage a hospice or be a party planner (especially bar mitzvahs).  Surprisingly, you would not want him to manage your World War.  You would expect a Junker to have unjustified arrogance but not unwarranted caution, but Helmuth did.  And as the Chief of the German General Staff in 1914, he inadvertently saved France.

The Franco-Prussian War had been a leisurely affair, six months of continually humiliating the French.  But that was in 1870-71, when the Germans were engaged in an one-front war and were led by a genius.  (Otto von Bismarck may have been the model for Lex Luthor.)  In 1914, Germany had a two-front war and was led by a blustering dolt.  (Wilhelm II may have been the model for George Bush, except Wilhelm spoke excellent English.)

Napoleon needed something to do in 1798.  The 28-year-old general had conquered Italy and forced Austria to capitulate--but that was a year ago.  He sensed that his glory was already fading.  The French government--a collection of kleptocrats known as the Directory--did have a project for him.  He had been named "General of the Army of England."  Invading England certainly would be exciting; the British Navy would guarantee that.  A French platoon was unlikely to make it to shore; and if it had, the English population would not be particularly cordial.  No, the invasion of England  was a certain catastrophe and definitely not Napoleon's idea of glory.

First off, I'm a HUGE fan of the NYTimes.  I think the decline of the newspaper is a terrible thing.  I'm a big time news junkie.  I've been reading the Times everyday for the last eight years.  But I'm also a Native American attorney who has studied Critical Race Theory and am highly sensitive to images of cultural stereotypes.  Imagine my reaction as I came to work early to read the papers and saw the image below before I went to DC District Court this morning for a hearing on Nez Perce v. Kempthorne.

Since the invention of radio and TV, Americans have lived in a more fluid cultural environment than has ever existed before. For many of us, televised fictions made up the majority of our childhood observations of life. We grew up with a major source of cultural induction separate from our parents, our educators and our leaders – we may be the first humans to have received cultural education from media alone. A naïve observer might conclude that given this, contemporary Americans should be the most skeptical, intellectual society of people around. So what gives?

I wrote the other day about the now-infamous New Yorker cover:

Andy Borowitz has the list of official, campaign-approved Barack Obama jokes in the wake of the now-infamous New Yorker cover flap, undoubtedly the silliest Outrage! of the election yet. Reasonable people can disagree about the success of the cover as satire—personally I think it works, and I think the ensuing shitstorm is pretty strong evidence of that—but whether it's a "good" satire or not the meaning is absolutely clear, inoffensive, and pro-Obama: it's the morons who believe this crap and the media figures who cynically peddle it who are being mocked, not the Obamas.

I'm even not sure who these mythical people are supposed to be who are with it enough to have heard of the New Yorker in the first place yet still clueless enough to take the cover at face value.

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Abraham Lincoln

History is supposed to be true even at the risk of being boring. Of course, no one expects Hollywood to abide by that constraint. (Mel Gibson's Martin Luther would have a spectacular sword fight with Pope Leo X.) As the Fourth of July approaches, Talk Radio will be taking similar liberties with the American Revolution.

The firecracking patriots of the airwaves will extol the heroic deaths and noble sacrifices of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. According to the script, "Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War....Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died....Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned." This recitation is dramatic and poignant, as well it should be. After all, who wants to hear banal lies and boring exaggerations?

On this day in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand really would have been entitled to a refund from his travel agent. His assassination was, at the very least, a disaster for Sarajevo’s tourism. If only the heir to Austria-Hungary had the consideration to have been gunned elsewhere, World War I could have been averted.

Alas, on this day in 363, Julian the Apostate was killed.  Ruling the Roman Empire from 361 to 363, Julian was the last pagan emperor and the first management consultant.

Since 312, the Empire had been operating on a new managerial system called Christianity. The prototype of Total Quality Management, Christianity provided the benefits of monotheism without circumcision. It also offered eternal retirement benefits, which proved very popular among the meek. Constantine imagined that Christianity would be a cohesive and subservient force for the government. Instead, the Christian sects were fighting each other when they weren't persecuting everyone else.

The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. I've never been a Pat Robertson fan. Along with D. James Kennedy, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Fred Phelps, Robertson has always represented a version of Christianity that has lost its way. What I saw today showed me that God can even use him as a vessel to do good.

Simon of Sudbury really was an innocuous, ineffectual, well-meaning sort. In our day, he would have found fulfillment as a vice president of human resources. Unfortunately, he did not live in an innocuous, well-meaning time. The 14th century was anything but. However, Simon's ineffectuality was his charm.

John of Gaunt liked the hapless and affable English cleric. The Duke was a critic of the Church, practically a Proto-Protestant, and it suited his heretical proclivities to have the passive Simon as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Simon also seemed the Duke's ideal candidate for Chancellor of England. The compliant Simon would do the bidding of his royal patrons, levy another poll tax (the third) on the peasantry and try to reestablish a strict application of serfdom. But the serfs were not as compliant as Simon was.

There are more fools in the world than there are people.   -- Heinrich Heine

This morning, while browsing the Internet for information on a poet who wrote about society and its government, I discovered several pertinent quotations and writings in byways I hadn't previously considered.

The poet surprises. And just as Shakespeare is relevant today, many, many poets have considered the human race and skewered its follies.

U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic wrote an article in the London Review of Books last year, ...