The Democrats are morons.

After eight years of Bush, one of the worst presidents to step foot into the White House, you would think the Democrats would have no problem winning back the oval office, right? No...they'd rather screw it all up, bicker among themselves like high school cheerleaders, and come across as being so incompetent that in the end people are going to vote for the Republicans again!

The worst part is that the two people causing all this mess, Clinton (Bill or Hillary - take your pick at which one is actually running) and Obama are probably the two least likely to get elected president. Say what you will about how far this country has progressed, but in a country where in some states a black man is 57 times more likely to be sent to jail on the same drug charges as a white man - there is sadly still little chance of a black man being elected president. And that's not even taking into account that the guy really isn't all that qualified for the job.

Only slightly less likely is a woman being elected. Now Hillary may be well known, and she has Bill on her side, but do the Democrats not realize how universally hated she is among a large portion of America? She is probably the one person who can be more divisive than Bush has been as president.

If the Democats were smart, they'd encourage, plead, beg, blackmail, or force Gore to run. He'd win in an absolute landslide over any of the guys the Republicans are thinking about nominating. But I do have to admit, a part of me really wants Romney to win the nomination and go against either Clinton or Obama. I'd love to see "mainstream" America have to choose between either a woman, a black man, or a Mormon. If that were to happen, Nader may finally have a chance.

Presidential Debates Suck

So I got to catch 20 minutes of the Republican debate last night on CNN. Besides the cheesiness of the whole youtube thing, one thing that really just bugged me was the amount of time talking about completely irrelevant and non-political topics. They had a bunch of questions about religion. "Do you believe every word in the bible" or something else about Jesus. Who gives a rat's ass? I don't care if the president is a Christian or worships the Flying Spaghetti Monster as long as he does his job well. In fact, given the quality of the presidential candidates this year, I think I'm going to write in a vote for the FSM and his noodly appendages.

Every wonder what happened to Stringfellow Hawk?

It ain't pretty:

Jan Michael Vincent Video

Blackwater incident revisited.

So it appears the "government report" on the incident we talked about earlier was written by "a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail". Not only that, but the report itself "doesn't mention civilian casualties" which is rather convenient given that a number of civilians were killed in the incident. Full story here.

And to make Blackwater's already bad day worse, the NY Times is reporting that

"A Blackwater USA employee under investigation in the killing last December of an Iraqi bodyguard in an off-duty confrontation was so drunk after fleeing the shooting that another group of guards took away the loaded pistol he was fumbling with, a report to a House committee said Monday."

The State Department's response was to give the bodyguard's family $250,000 compensation. However according to The Kansas City Star

the "payment proposed by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was too much, because it might lead Iraqis to "try to get killed so as to set up their family financially".

I bet the people or Iraq sit around and thank their lucky stars for the "protection" we're giving them...

The sad state of politics summed up nicely.

This TIME article is one of those articles that says all the things I'd love to say but with the writing ability to make it sound a whole lot better than I ever could: How Dare You!

Here are a couple of the good parts:

Welcome to the wonderful world of umbrage, the new language of American politics. You would not have thought that the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly would be so sensitive. Sticks and stones and so on.

All this drawing of uncrossable lines and issuing of fatuous fatwas is supposed to be a bad habit of the left. When right-wingers are attacking this habit rather than practicing it, they call it political correctness. The problem with political correctness is that it turns discussions of substance into arguments over etiquette.

Ahoy bilge rats!

It be talk like a pirate day! However, these landlubbers need to realize that pirates didn't fight with machetes!

Salt Lake City police say two men dueled with machetes in a fight that ended with one person hogtied.

My question is - where were these two guys that there happened to be a couple of machetes laying around?

Blackwater ordered out of Iraq.

This is going to be an interesting turn of events in Iraq. After a recent shooting involving Blackwater personnel left nine people dead, the government of Iraq is banning the security contractor. In addition, a top Iraqi judge is saying that charges can be brought against Blackwater for the deaths, which contradicts "Order 17" which gives private security companies and their employees immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts. Additionally, according to the Washington Post, "some security experts said it is unlikely that the Iraqi government could expel Blackwater because its contract is through the State Department."

So what happens now? Does the Iraqi government have the ability to decide what happens inside their borders yet or is the U.S. going to tell them what is best for them? If Blackwater is allowed to stay by the U.S. and nothing is done, will it breed more mistrust and resentment among the Iraqi people towards the U.S.? And if Blackwater is indeed forced to leave, will the military have to come up with an extra 2000 troops to cover the loss of Blackwater personnel?

Should be interesting indeed.

BTW - here is a not so unbiased video about Blackwater: