And now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

Dry your eyes and pay attention folks. Michael is apparently NOT staging the greatest comeback but for Jesus. Meantime he knocked a crushed revolution in Iran off the news pages, allowed another in Honduras to simmer unwatched, and Kim Jong Dillweed is still trying to scare us into bombing his pathetic little regime so he can in turn blast Seoul. Al Franken is now officially Senator number 60 in the Democratic roll call. Good luck with that Harry Reid you lousy cat herder you. Only that soon-to-be retired salmon killer Sarah Palin has made a dent in the news cycle since Michael moonwalked off this mortal coil.

Guess what folks, that pissing in the ocean feeling I described a few months ago is about to get a lot warmer. Stimulus One did exactly what it was meant to do - whet the appetite for Stimulus Two: The Real Thing. I suggested when the first one flew in that it wasn't much and was merely intended to allow my friend Barry to get somewhat settled in office. Then he could take a moment to see how reactive the economy might actually be before going whole hog and doing what really needs to be done to bring this country up to date after 30+ years of baby boomer economic masturbation. Yep, it feels real good but boy do we now have a mess of our hands.

Quick review: TARP provided a parachute to a free falling economy. Stimulus One provided a touch of brakes to further downward sliding. But neither provide any improvement in any substantial manner. The toilet has not finished flushing and I'm running out of colorful metaphors. National health care is around the corner, I hope, and that should be followed by Stimulus Two which will really address infrastructure rebuilding. Energy production and distribution. A manufacturing base to supply it. Research and development to constantly upgrade it all. Give us a trillion dollars to pay for the untapped ingenuity in the American psyche and watch what happens.

It was all signaled by that titan of understatement Joe Biden when he admitted they got it wrong about how bad the economy was when they brought out Stimulus One. I don't buy it for a second but politically it was necessary for a rookie president to take two bites on the money apple. Watch the references to additional stimulus start to pile up. Then get back to me to ask what's next.

Sarah Palin Is A Dangerous Moron

It's about two hours since I first saw the headline that Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska and I have yet to read, watch, or listen to any commentary about it so I thought I'd lay out some quick thoughts untainted by the punditocracy.

In her released statement she suggested she is quitting because she had already decided she wasn't running for reelection. Additionally, as a lame duck she would be subject to "politics as usual" which I guess means no one would agree to do what she says automatically.

I don't know much about the goings-on in the Alaska state legislature but I suspect the pioneer mavericky spirit she represents oh so well doesn't stop at her office door. That means the folks in the legislature probably don't have trouble telling her to heave ho when she starts spouting her usual inanities. I have a feeling that her incessant campaigning outside her state has made it likely that she would not be reelected if she ran since she has neglected whatever duties she has had for the past year. Finally, fearing the "politics as usual" conundrum of self-imposed lame duck status tells me she doesn't really have the chops to get things done when the going gets tough.

I admit I thought Obama was pretty brazen to run for president this last cycle. But I saw it sort of as a test run for 2012 or 2016, presuming like everyone else that Hillary had it in the bag. Regardless, he has the intellectual chops to engage in the actual issues and whether you agree with what he's done so far as president or not, he has at least demonstrated that he has actual ideas to put in place and a program for doing it.

Like George W. Bush before, Palin just wants to be president. I don't know why. She has never said a thing of actual policy substance since she first winked her skirted way onto the national scene last year. She simply wants to give voice to some mythological "real America" embodied by such imitation spokesmen like Joe the Plumber which doesn't really represent anyone who has to live a real life in the real world among real people who are really hurting and nervous right now. She panders to the worst in what for lack of another demographic descripter I'll cite as white America. It is exclusionary and divisive at best and potentially dangerous fear mongering at worst.

Sarah Palin looks great on TV and can deliver a line. She can talk within a very narrow band of superficial beliefs that do not stand up to the mildest serious scrutiny. The media indulges her existence because she looks good and makes a great story with most of the absurdities that spill from her lipsticked piehole. The GOP is having all sorts of problems trying to find its way in a new world created by its own generation of national political and economic destruction. I would support Newt Gingrich a thousand times before I would give a shred of value to anything sourced from the Godzilla from Wasilla. I need this particular show to end. Hopefully soon some other voices from the right will be more attractive in real terms but my optimism is waning at the moment.

Republicans please, don't do this. To yourselves and certainly not to the rest of us. Learn the lesson of George W. Bush. We can disagree about policy and how to go about governing, but please already, find someone to represent the opposition who is actually interested in governing under the US Constitution instead of not at all or through some bastardized flag waving pseudo-patriotic swill passing as geunine Americanism. Don't support someone who wants to be president just because it's the next step in her job development.

Sarah Palin is a dangerous moron. She is suited for nothing more than to be a breed mare. A capacity she has fulfilled competently and has clearly passed along to the next generation. I hope her resignation is the last official political act she ever takes. Return to the tundra and don't come back. You betcha!