Jill Rants and Raves

scaife loves hillary

The conservative movement is so unhappy with the Republican presidential nominee they've decided to flirt with Hillary in a big way. But making out with Clinton in the back room is merely the latest deliberate attempt by the Right to subvert the election process with money, with lies and with that familiar locker room style they do so damn well.

Richard Mellon Scaife, best known outside of the billionaire's club as the man who funded each and every scandal and dirty trick against Bill Clinton, is at it again in his endorsement of Hillary. Dubbed the 'Funding Father Of The Right', Scaife openly admitted that his intent was to engineer Gore's ascendancy to the Presidency, thereby galvanising the right wing and creating a backlash against progressive policies.

Rush Limbaugh, arguably the most influentual conservative radio voice in America, is giggling his way through his self aggrandizing comedy show 'Operation Chaos' in which he has been curdling the milk in Pennsylvania and Indiana by encouraging registered Rep's to switch parties in order to vote in Dem primaries and pushing Hillary to an artificial win. At the very least, these boys who act like jocks, hope to extend the Democratic internal battle until neither candidate looks electable in November.

That's how bad John McCain is. And that is how good the Democratic chances are (or were) to win the White House come the fall. Except.

The two candidates on the right, but left side, haven't yet formulated a 'Bash McCain' strategy, but appear to be content throwing barbs (that's putting it kindly) at one another.

Rachel Maddow (d'yall listen to talk radio as much as I do? No? Good for you) who has a steaming butter type of voice and is a dyke, said yesterday that she thought that at this point, McCain looked to be the winner in November. Unless, she added, Barack and Hillary finally make this about winning in November instead of counting super-delegates on an abacus over their oatmeal every morning. Hillary supporters are banking on Puerto Rico coming out strongly for her. Are they all nuts?

Who is to blame for Amerika's electoral shambles? I'll get back to you on that. Meanwhile, I think this will be an election spoken of in 100 years (just as the last troops are getting back from Iraq) as the election which finally brought a glimmer of understanding about the need for campaign and election finance reform.

bob barr, polygamists, bitter and angry urbanites

I've been tweaking about loads of stuff this week: Obama's 'small town bitter and angry' comments, blown out of all proportion by none other than his fellow democrats. I guess those of us who are bitter and angry in the cities are clinging to our soy mocha lattes and pilates classes. And if any of the negative ads are to be believed, neither candidate is good enough to win the nomination. So why would we vote for them in a general election?

I'm tweaking about the fact that it isn't just that we (the people) don't trust our government, it's that our government doesn't trust us (the people). Do you think Texas Child Protective Services is going to do a better job with the four hundred kids they just snatched out of their communal home? How about if the men responsible for the alleged abuses were snatched instead? Huh? How about that for a concept. Taking the abusers out of the log cabins instead of the children who are now being scattered around the Texas foster care system. Oh yeah, that's a good move.

Perhaps the best way to stop the spread of polygamist sects is to print a poster like the ones we use for promoting spay and neuter in cats - just look at the numbers. At the top of of the poster the question 'How many children can one polygamist crazy breed in ten years?' and then list how many generations it takes to reach a million. Anyone wanna come and screen print with me?

And I'm tweaking about the fact that they (whoever they is) have started the cleansing of the Albany Landfill from an organic place of wild imagination to the sign-posted, interpreted, non-native plant cleansed, super-park which we can all look at from manicured trails but which will be protected (from us who have been stewards of this magnificent self regulated urban wildness). There will not be another place like it in this area and we are the worse off because of it. Soon, it will be a place we can look at with our binoculars from a viewing ledge (these always remind me of the platforms built for western diplomats to stand on while staring over at East Berlin beyond the Wall). We'll be able to read off of a sign which birds we are meant to be able to see, instead of being able to sit quietly in swaying grasses at dusk enjoying the swallows and hummingbirds, the finches and hawks and the redwinged blackbirds as they share this place which thrived under official neglect.

And I'm tweaking about liberal talk show host Tom Hartmann describing Bob Barr as 'a great man'. Just a gentle reminder to the rest of you that  though Barr recently adopted the religion of libertarianism and got a little antsy about Bush's asssaults on privacy and civil liberties, he was widely considered among the most hard right conservatives as a three time Georgia congressman. Among Barr's proudest moments -

Barr was a strong supporter of the War On Drugs and adamantly opposed legalization of medical marijuana. He successfully inserted an amendment in a funding bill that blocked the implementation of a medical marijuana initiative saying it "has no place in medicine, no place in pain relief".
He's changed his tune since becoming a libertarian. Mmm.

He voted for The Patriot Act. He now publicly regrets his Patriot Act Vote. No shit.

Barr authored and sponsored the Defense Of Marriage Act. He hasn't had the guts yet to flip flop on that one.

But perhaps, as Tom Hartmann says he has written 7 books on ADD, he can be forgiven for this lapse of attention to the details of Barr's impact on our everyday lives. A man renowned for lifestyle legislation becomes a libertarian...and wonders whether we might be depriving the American  people of their civil liberties...yeah, too little too late Mr Barr.

 

blousy bountiful beautiful candye kane

© photo Jill Posener. All Rights Reserved

The news from Candye Kane Central is that the lady is doing as well as can be expected after 8 hour surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor. If you have never seen Candye perform or haven't listened to her music, go treat yourself. Check out 'Toughest Girl Alive' on her myspace page and you'll get a sense of why she decided, when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer to go out there and show the disease just how tough it would be dealing with the indomitable Candye. Great to know that she is on the road to recovery.