Eighteen months ago, I relieved myself in Karl Rove's Cheerios on the morning of a resounding Democratic victory in Congress.  It was a great relief because a lot of pent up distress was finally done.  The conversation of "what is America doing?" finally got away from topics chosen by George W. Bush and his no-talent assclown friends.  But it was a short-lived relief.  Soon I was being disapointed in ways I had only previously dreamed of as Nancy "Offtabler" Pelosi quickly cleared her workspace of any instruments that might be seen as a threat to the minority party whose asses her constituencies had just kicked out of power.

Today I come before you after a steady evening's drinking of vinegar and asparagus, bladder once again swollen and tender, to relieve myself in a different way as we contemplate the REAL closing of a sordid chapter in American Politics.  And how things have changed in that time.  The price of oil, for example.  The value of the dollar.  Sure, there's hope.  And it's a good thing, or I would be beside myself right now at what's become of our nation.

In networking, the problem of getting your data out to your end users is often referred to as the "last mile" problem.  It's difficult enough to build a trunk line through a major populated area, but since the network is of no use to anyone without users, you have to branch out all the wires to that "last mile" to the consumer's house.

I was raving about how much I hated the MSM the other day, and how useless I thought they were becoming, when a Hillaryite hopped on my thread to snootily inform me that most of our source material on the Blogz came from that very same MSM.  So it got me thinking.  We (the Blogosphere) have a huge network for presenting analysis and reverse-filtering to our readers.  But what about that last mile?  What's it take to cut the MSM out of the loop entirely?

In the last 7 years, it's been a foregone conclusion to almost any political consultant: you've got to show the voters that you're "tough."  And showing them that you're "tough" means not backing down from the War on Terra.

Because if you're not "tougher" than George W. Bush, you won't get elected.  Not to the Presidency, not to the Senate, not to the House, not even as Dogcatcher.  That's right.  Dogcatchers.  They have to be tough.

Or do they?

Via Crooks and Liars I read that apparently, without any involvement at all from Rush Limbaugh, the Nevada State Convention has been shut down because of a major disagreement . . . by Ron Paul supporters.

Who, you ask?

That's right, rON pAUL'S 1NTERN3T CANDIDACY lIV3z!!!  The "sandroots" base of Ron Paul's support has finally been located in the only state in the Union that permits legalized prostitution!  Proving once again that what happens in Vegas . . . stays in Vegas!

Update: A helpful Kestrel has flown in and assisted me with image hosting.  Things I never knew -- and I'm an IT guy!

Elizabeth Edwards gently chides the MSM, or TradMed as Kos would have it, in a delightfully titled editorial: "Bowling 1, Health Care 0."

Like Mr. Grieves, I have another opinion.  The Traditional Media is dead.  They expired in a fit of apoplexy over Reverend Wright, Bowling, and Bitterness.

I'm with cherbear, I am done with the primary process.  Obama will keep getting my money and support.  I'm in Kentucky, so my state will be almost dead last.  But this primary is OVER.  Obama is the Nominee.  McCain will be the opponent.

It's time to start looking at what that contest will look like.

INT. NETWORK NEWSROOM - DAY OR NIGHT  DATELINE JANUARY 21st, 2009.

GEORGE is backlit at his news desk, large Mickey Mouse ears prominently affixed to the sides of his head.  As the lights come up, the news theme music informs us that this is a serious production and that important facts are to follow

    GEORGE STEPHANOPHOLOUS:

(In a thin, piercing falsetto voice)  Good Evening America and welcome to MMN, America's source for Mickey Mouse News!  Joining us via satellite linkup this evening is our chief political correspondent Charlie Gibson.

The screen behind George comes alight with the satellite link-up.  Charlie Gibson appears wearing a large green hat and enormous droopy ears.  When he opens his mouth his gigantic buck teeth become visible.

   CHARLIE GIBSON:

(In a deep, back-of-the-throat drawl)  Aw, shucks, George!  Here I am!  On the street! (Braying idiotic laughter)

I don't watch TV news very often.  For a reason.  I become unreasonably angry.  Today was no exception.  I was walking through the airport, trying to help my wife finish our taxes over the phone, and I had to listen to the insufferable horse's ass that is Lou Dobbs run his ignorant mouth about Barack Obama for almost 20 minutes.

Here is what I would like to tell Dobbs, and in fact the entire mainstream press:  Shut Up Now.  You do not understand what this election is about.  You do not comprehend the importance it has assumed in the eyes of many Americans.  You do not have anything of importance to add to the dialogue.  This discussion is not about you or your whiny little needs.  It is about us.  Shut your insufferable pieholes.  Go back to reporting about the nefarious and infamous doings of Britney Spears, or Paris Hilton, or whoever the fuck.  That is what you have shown your core competency at.  You are unqualified, untalented at, and unwanted in this very serious political discussion about the future of America.

Despite plenty of evidence that "bittergate" is not playing the way it's supposed to amongst working-class America, it's clear that the Clinton and McCain campaigns are going to keep harping on Obama's comments for awhile.

The problem they have with those comments, of course, is that they expose a real underbelly of discontent in American culture, one that they have been frantically trying to downplay into irrelevance.  And instead of backing down, Obama is doing what he's rapidly becoming famous for: confronting the problem head-on.  Americans are bitter.  It's a fact.

Of course doing so flies in the face of the GOP narrative of the last 25 years, which is that you don't talk about how government should be working in your favor.  This is nix gewerken in Reagan and Post-Reagan politics.  The fact that Obama isn't backing down on this topic has the political system in a tizzy.

One of the biggest problems the Reagan/Bush . . . /Bush Presidencies have caused over the last 30 years has been to blow our national debt out of control -- for various selfish reasons which I will detail below the flap.

The fix to much of our economic and social woe has always been known: we must return to the progressive tax policies of the Post New Deal.  This means raising taxes on the rich.  And switching our tax focus from taxing labor and productivity, and instead tax hoarding, wasting, and sloth.  And one of the "threats" that arises from the digital conversation whenever this is mentioned is that, well, if you tax those wealthy people they can just pick up and leave the United States.  Take their fucking balls, and go play somewhere else.

My question is, really?

Measured by the yardstick of "is a financially successful conservative gas-bag radio host," Rush Limbaugh is technically good at something.

But his latest hilarity, captured in all its glory by the no-punches-pulled Rude Pundit, shows how utterly incompetent and ridiculous his activities are if they attempt to extend outside the confines of his radio booth.

Let's step around the flap for some more mockery:

Wasn't it just yesterday that Senator Lindsey Graham was telling us how great Teh Surge was going?

Check again, Lindsey.  Once again Republicans' "clap harder" strategy has lead instead to "bleed harder" and "die more," and it looks like the press has stopped playing along.

Oh, and the US economy, George?

The Good news is we're not headed for a Depression.  Isn't that awesome?

Brit Hume has claimed that McCain's confusion in regards to who is training Al-Queda in Iraq is a delightful gaffe on the part of the Right-Wing noise machine.  It establishes several things.

#1, McCain was wrong.  Brit's attempt to paper this over is hugely significant.  It means the Noise Machine cannot now push this as a theme.  Repeat after me: Iran is NOT training Al-Queda insurgents for Iraq operations.  Fox News agrees.

#2, McCain has a mental problem.  We are talking about someone whose entire qualification for the job is our trust in their mental faculties.  We've had Presidents in wheelchairs and Presidents with personal character issues.  And we're pretty sure we've already had an Alzheimer's President.  Reagan Mythology 101 tells us that Americans have this glowing, positive image of the 1980's, but reality is I don't know that a lot of Americans would have St. Ronnie back for another term.

Out of deference to this site I have not put my FUCK YOU in the title.

Believe me, I'm not trying to sugar-coat this.

So you're planning on capitulating to the least popular President of the last 100 years?  On such a cut-and-dried issue as SPYING on the American people?  What are we, Russians???

So you are planning on wiping your asses with the Constitution?

So you are so weak-willed that you think that the GOP can hold this bullshit issue over your head come November?  You didn't hear the sound of your base standing up, cheering, and applauding when you stopped telco immunity in its tracks?

The World Bank is populated by Milton Friedmanite free-market cheerleaders.  And for the last 20 years they've been telling the starving nation of Malawi that they should not subsidize fertilizer for their farmers, because the "market" would take care of solving their problems.

It turns out once again that free-marketdroids are wrong.  Malawi reinstated their subsidy program last year, and they're now turning away food aid.

Who'da thunk it?  There's a reason, of course.  And I've talked about this kind of thing before.

So, David Brooks once again shits nonsense and calls it a column.  

Brooks is attacking Lou Dobbs.  Of course, I think Dobbs is a bit hysterical myself.  But for all the wrong reasons, apparently.  It's not that Dobbs' view of our immigration problem is xenophobic and destructive; it's that it's anti-free trade.

Yep.  That's what Brooks thinks.  Fortunately his readers seem to live in America with the rest of us and understand that his ideas are, as usual, fucking stupid.

Somehow, I guess from a long, long time ago, I got on Redstate's action alert email list.  Don't know how.

So I get an alert today that "heads should roll" at CNN.

This is, remember, the party of the tough guys.  Here is their story regarding the debate:

CNN's performance was unacceptable.  There Should Be A Do Over of This Debate.

Amazing.  Nobody can cry in his bag of money like a conservative who's just had a dose of his own fucking medicine.  Liberal politicians have been getting ambush questions on Faux, CNN, and any other forum they go to on a DAILY basis for the better part of the last 20 years.

I didn't see this Reason article anywhere on the Kososphere, so I'm bringing it.  I don't have a lot to add.

I originally tracked this article on Balloon Juice.  It was posted just after an article which I think is getting echoed around Left Blogistan about an abusive police officer tasing a man for not signing a ticket.  Anyway, this one is far sicker.

Richard Paey suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and has had car accident and a botched back surgery.  He needs some fairly high doses of painkillers to be a functional human being.  So naturally, there's something wrong with him.