The worst Obama attack ad this season.

I know the GOP is short on money, but jeez, could you at least try and hire a professional voice actor?

TPM points us at the goods:

After the the shock of the childish voice over, we find out that Obama has viciously attacked John McCain. Oh noes!!! Later find out John McCain was a POW. Wow!!! I did not know! I thought the Hanoi Hilton was a resort! Finally to top it off we are shocked to learn that Obama has a (half)-brother in Kenya, and shame on Obama that he doesn’t take care of him!! I mean ZOMG!! It’s horrible, until you realized via a quick Google search that Obama has a half-brother in China too, in fact…apparently:

He’s [Obama’s half brother in Kenya] the son of Obama’s father and an American woman named Ruth, whom Obama Sr. met while at Harvard in the 1960s and brought back to Kenya.

That was after his marriage with Obama’s mother in Hawaii ended. Another son from the union with Ruth, called David, was killed in a motorcycle accident. In all, Obama Sr. fathered eight children by four women.

The GOP are really digging. I mean I know they are devoid of ideas, but wow, really? This amateurish ad is the best the Texas GOP can do? Keep trying.

Dear Mr. Kristol, thank you for your concern…

I noted over at Balloon Juice your concern about Obama’s VP pick. I’m sure you have the very best of the Democratic Party in mind when you puke all over your Cheetos stained keyboard and this comes out.

Thank you Mr. Kristol for your concern and for your transparent attempt to stir up shit with the PUMAs. Of course they are all of about ten people strong, and while I’m sure they will be a reliable McCain voting bloc, I don’t know that they will be tipping any elections anytime soon.

Might I also share with you my concern about McCain and the GOP?

I’m concerned that McCain’s VP might not be strong enough to pull McCain’s head out of his ass. It’s jammed in there past the shoulders. While I’m sure checking for colon cancer at his age, is a good thing, it’s hard to answer the red phone at 3am, when you can’t move your arms.

I’m also concerned that the eventual VP pick might be a fag, an adulterer or someone with a wet suit and dildo fetish. Any of these will be very unsavory with the base of your party. You have to admit, the modern GOP is known for it’s lewd conduct. Please tell John to be careful in his pick.

I’m very, very concerned that Mr. McCain will look at his Naval experience as enough. What he really needs to pick is another Naval vet or trucker to help him. See both are very adept at tying and untying knots. It’s going to take at least two skilled knotsmiths and a lot of time and patience to unfuck this country. I fear that Mr. McCain may not have the patience or the time left on this earth to unfuck this country in a proper manner.

Thank you for your concern, and I hope you note mine.

…and the neocons fan the embers…

…in the Caucuses. Uber NeoCon and PNAC member Fred Kagan on the News Hour tonight.

And I also think that we recognize the necessity of providing Georgia with defensive weapons systems that will protect — I’m sorry, Poland — that will protect Poland itself from possible Russian attacks of the sort that we’ve seen in Georgia. So that’s why I think we threw in the Patriot missile batteries, as well.

Hell give some to Georgia too, and if you order now, we’ll throw in a battery of Patriot Missiles free as our gift to you for shopping at US Weapons-R-US.

John Issacs responds:

but it certainly also gives the lie to the Bush administration’s case that it’s making for many months, many years, that this missile defense system that we’re going to deploy in Poland was directed at Iran and certainly not at Russia.

Well, I think what Condoleezza Rice said today, the Polish leaders, some American politicians have made it clear, this missile defense system fuels the Russian fears of what they’ve been saying all along, that the missile defense system is really directed at them.

Pretty much a big o’ duh in my book. The only country that has the capabilities to shoot missiles as us is Russia. Oh but what about Iran? Issacs goes on to say:

They’ve been trying to develop long-range missiles, but they have — there is no yet — there’s not yet any Iranian missile that can hit very long distances.

Then we have this exchange:

FREDERICK KAGAN: No, because the agreement is to develop and deploy the system. And there is an Iranian threat. The Iranians have just recently been testing Shahab 3 missiles that have a range of 2,000 kilometers, which is far in excess of what they need…

JOHN ISAACS: Testing, but not successfully.

FREDERICK KAGAN: Well, good heavens, shall we wait until they’re actually landing in Europe? I mean, the problem with the defensive system, as we’ve repeatedly made clear, is that it takes time to build and develop a system. And the time to be doing that is before your enemy actually has the capability.

First we have wingnut argument #1 here. ZOMG!!! They MIGHT be able to do something BAD in the future, so we must over respond NOW. Second, even Kagan says the system doesn’t work, so why are we poking a stick in the eye of the Russians by signing this agreement now?

Kagan gets then gets all Sandbox Commando on us:

But the key thing here is that the notion that this system is somehow directed at Russia is absolutely laughable. The geometry is wrong. The U.S. missile defense program, which has been showing the Russians virtually the blueprints and diagrams of this system all along, has shown very clearly that interceptors launched from this spot will not be able to hit Russian ICBMs that are launched from Central Asia and that fly very close to the North Pole.

Note: dickweed, we have missiles that can launch from the US and hit Russia, I’m sure then that we can launch a missile from Poland and hit whatever we want in Russia. Of course even John McCain is skeptical of the system as Isaac’s points out:

In fact, the two Armed Services Committee, the Senate and the House Armed Services Committee, including the committee on which Senator John McCain, the Republican almost nominee, presumptive nominee serves, voted to cut money and prevent any actual construction of the missile, until it’s built first and it’s tested first.

Although I’m fairly confident McCain will flip flop on that vote at his earliest connivence. Isaac then cuts to the quick of of the issue

So we’re talking about tests two years away. There’s no reason to sign an agreement today, except we wanted to respond to what happened in Georgia and we wanted to ratchet up the rhetoric and the moves.

And I think it’s very dangerous from what Russia is saying, and it’s very dangerous what the U.S. has been doing.

Russia is obviously a key to dealing with among others, Iran. Kagan dismisses the importance of a relationship with Russia in favor of wracheting up tensions and in the same breath gets the facts of the Georgia conflict wrong:

So I’m not — I’m far from convinced that Russia has been a particularly useful partner to begin with, but I would point out that we were not the ones who began this.

The Russians started all of this with an absolutely illegal invasion of Georgia….

No…Georgia started this, Russia undoubtedly over reacted, but Georgia threw the first punch. Kagan ends with this peach:

Now, I think it’s entirely appropriate in that context for us to make it clear that we intend to defend our NATO allies.

With WHAT FUCKING ARMY??? You dolt, you personally, you directly have absolutely decimated our armed forces with your needless invasion of Iraq. You. Fucked. Us. And as this country continues to poke Russia in the eye with a stick, what are we going to do when they punch back? What are we going to do when they pull the stick out of our hand? Nothing. We will do nothing, because we can do nothing, and you are a directly are responsible for this situation.

And bringing it back to the election, you know what? John McCain shows ever indication of continuing this reckless shoot first and talk later type of foreign policy. The world is very unstable at this moment. We don’t need someone with a hair trigger and a mouth to match.

We got slapped…how did we not see this coming?

Here:

But Russia retorted that America, which has a staunch ally of Tbilisi’s pro-western government, would have “to choose” between building a relationship with Georgia or Russia.

How the fuck did we not see this coming? Russia is basically telling us, we’re gonna do what we want and there’s not a goddamn thing you’re going to do about it.

And we can’t.

Our Army is at the breaking point. Diplomacy is a joke at this moment, because well, we are a joke in the international community. While we were out “fighting the good fight” and needlessly invading Iraq, Russia took notice and now here we are. Impotent.

I want to thank Bush, McCain and his wingnut echo chorus for putting us into this unconscionable position. For getting us blindsided again. Thanks. Idiots.

Bush once said that “History will be the judge” of his time in office. Well that history is starting now.

If there was any doubt…

…about Bush’s bullshit about promoting “Democracy”: It’s in the crisis in Georgia. Now I’ll admit I’ve been trying to get my head around this whole ordeal, especially since I’m working with some friends in Kiev on a current project. However, we apparently have been promising Georgia that we’d back them up; Egging them on to join NATO, egging them on to flaunt their independence. “Hey!! We gotcher back” says the Bush crew.

Well I’ve seen a lot of “independent” analysis that says that Georgia should have known we couldn’t back up our “friendship”. Anyone that follows the International Press knows this. We’re bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We’ve over extended our military forces. Really, how do we get into a war with Russia? Well the right-wing frap chorus is feverantly beating themselves off at the chance to replay the cold war. In the meantime, the citizens of Georgia are getting slaughtered and the American people, who normally might care, are asking why we are involved?

According to Bush I & II we should start the liberation now.

Communist China vs. the Bush Administration.

China:

MARGARET WARNER: The Chinese government is also making it harder for potential trouble-makers from overseas, like those who protested the torch relay after the Tibet crackdown in March to get visas to come to China for the games. And the government is blocking rural residents from coming to Beijing to protest over local issues.

Security checkpoints now surround the capital city of nearly 17 million. Chinese authorities have set up three places for protests and demonstrations during the games: at three public parks, far from the main Olympic venues.

Bush:

When Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up “free speech zones” or “protest zones” where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.

makes you wanna puke ‘eh

Wonder what Jesus thinks about blitzkrieg.

Considering he taught love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek, etc. Probably not much:

The primary focus of the call was Proposition 8 in California, described by Colson as “the Armageddon of the culture war.” Many speakers invoked the language of warfare, raising up an army of believers, putting soldiers in the streets, being on the front lines of a battle. Lou Engle actually described a massive rally planned in Qualcomm stadium on November 1 as a “blitzkrieg moment.”

….

Another speaker, Rev. Dudley Rutherford, predicted that if Prop. 8 fails, the God-ordained institution of marriage would be destroyed; the engine of hate crimes legislation would be fueled, ultimately leading to it being illegal to read some sections of the Bible; the floodgates would be open to gay couples suing to force churches to marry them; and the polygamists would be next.

Seriously fucking stop. Really. Although when prop 8 does pass (and it will). I do look forward to marrying my cat. The wife and I are planning a nice ceremony at the local church. Is it polygamy when you and your wife marry an animal?

Oh and the next time some screaming right-wing-armageddon-screeching preacher shows you a video of the San Francisco pride parade, keep in mind California is a big state and their are a lot of right wing nut jobs here too.

I am fully looking forward to listening to the hyperventilating that will ensue when prop 8 does pass.

McCain and the new GI Bill.

I found it odd, that as a vet, McCain would oppose Webb’s update of the GI Bill:

A Vietnam veteran himself, McCain has opposed Webb’s bill as overly generous to veterans at the expense of career military officers and NCOs.

So be it. I suppose as McCain sees it, the more soldiers, the better to fight 100 years with.

I also found this amusing (from the same article)

There was a late scramble of Republicans switching their votes as the outcome became clear on the 75-22 roll call, which would add the spending to a larger wartime appropriations bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yeah!! Them GOPs loves them some troops as long as it’s politically convenient. Like say when a pro-troops bill is guaranteed to pass. Other than that, it’s pretty much a big fuck you unless it’s election time. I mean it’s not like it’s new. Did you know the defense of marriage act is back? In an election year? I’m shocked!!…actually what I found shocking was that Craig and Vitter were sponsors. Actually that doesn’t shock me at all….they obviously are craven politicians who will do or say anything to get re-elected. What really bugs me is that “value voters” don’t wise up. Why don’t they ask themselves why their issues only get aired out in election season? Why don’t they have legs after that?

Answer: because they are fucking stupid. If you are voting because some politician says they’ll get the “gay out” of the country, you seriously are an idiot. But…I digress.

So here we have McCain…a distinguished vet. Coming out against other vets making their life better…then when Webb’s bill passes all of a sudden:

McCain, campaigning in Ohio, told voters, “I’m happy to tell you that we probably agreed to an increase in educational benefits for our veterans that not only gives them increase in their educational benefits, but if they stay in for a certain period of time than they can transfer those educational benefits to their spouses and or children. That’s a very important aspect I think of incentivizing people of staying in the military.”

Benen has the video

Seriously?

McCain has been absent from the Senate since he started running, was actively against the bill, but now “We got it done”

Wow.

Now I know McCain got his ass beat in 2000 not running right enough. I actually used to respect McCain even though we didn’t agree on much, however his capitulation in the last couple of months, ending in this, shows what a craven coward he’s become.

h/t again to Benen here and here

Shorter Instapunk:

I have no idea what a punk is, I’m old and I hate niggers.

Never underestimate…

…the stupidity of the right wing.