Karl Rove's Loss Yesterday

Here's hoping that hubris once again leads to a short residence of the Republicans in the House majority.

To hear Karl Rove talk about "the End of the Obama Liberal Agenda" before his natural constituency of Natural Gas executives today, you would think that the Republicans had won both houses with filibuster-proof and veto-proof supermajorities, and that he had personally been invincible in all his campaigns.
His group American Crossroads came after my Congressman, Maurice Hinchey, late in the campaign with this commercial that started to seem ubiquitous on cable in the Hudson Valley.

What was Maurice Hinchey's chief crime? I don't think there's any doubt that he became a target of the energy industry insiders bankrolling Karl Rove because of his sponsorship of the FRAC Act. The Fracking Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act would end a Bush era loophole written for the natural gas industry which exempts them from the Safe Drinking Water Act and allows them to pump chemicals into the ground without even disclosing which poison mixtures are being pumped into our land and water. In these pristine Catskills -- which still provide unfiltered water to New York City--this threat of drilling and inserting a toxic stew below our mountains and forests strikes everyone who lives here as criminal (if the Republicans can pretend to speak for every American, I can certainly pretend to speak for everyone in my Congressional district).
And despire generic attack ads financed from out of state that dominated local television, with 99% of votes counted, Maurice Hinchey leads Republican George Phillips by 52.4% to 47.6%. You lost this one Karl.

Today's Only Message: VOTE

... unless, of course, you're tempted to vote for the party whose platform is built on the twin pillars of tax breaks for billionaires and the repeal of a bill that extends healthcare benefits to children with pre-existing illnesses.

I remember too! That's why I'm voting early (and often) tomorrow.

Of course the parenthetical "and often" aside in the title is just there to annoy any paranoid Fox (and poll) watchers who still believe that Barack Hussein Obama is a Kenyan Communist Muslim installed in the White House by Acorn and George Soros rather than the American people, but we remember 2008 much differently.

My favorite two lines from the video are at the two minute mark: "I remember which party wants to take our country back." and "I remember which party wants to take our country forward."

Don't let the pundits and pollsters be proved right in their prediction that fear and amnesia will rule the ballot boxes tomorrow. Vote Early And Often (really, check with your local Acorn representative for how it's done, but don't tell the teabaggers or the fair-and-balanced press).

Happy Halloween from Delaware's Republican Candidate for US Senator

You would think that with the Republicans' reliance on FEAR as their main electoral aid, that October 31 would be their second favorite holiday of the year (after September 11).

Sometimes True Blue Liberal is a Counterrevolutionary

As the owner of a couple of Gibson guitars (which take up more of my limited leisure time than this blog or tweeting or any other recreational computing), I was tempted to skip a couple hours of work and run over to see an event at New York's Hard Rock Cafe yesterday that had been billed in emails from Gibson in dramatic terms "Gibson invites you to witness a revolution. Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp, will address members of the press, artists and fans, with an announcement that will change music forever. This is more than a press conference. More than an event. This is an uprising!" I didn't go, and I'm glad.
Henry Juszkiewicz and the teabaggers are devaluing the word "revolution" in twenty ten, because Gibson's attempt to "change music forever" was the Firebird X seen in this video from yesterday's event.

It looks and sounds gimmicky and (not to offend the demonstrator, who obviously knows his way around a fretboard) the size of the guitarist makes the Firebird look like it's the size of a Guitar Hero controller. How many of these electronics will be outdated in 5 years? Or worn out and unfixable in 10? A Gibson guitar with a MSRP of more than five grand should be around for at least 40 or 50 years, as the next video shows.
This is a Firebird III from 1963, showing why True Blue Liberal will be wearing white rather than red in this particular "revolution". Here's what a guitar should sound like.

Now I'm going to shut off my computer and pick up my Flying V or my SG. I have some practicing to do.

What Not to Wear to a Rand Paul Rally

Don't shop here unless you're very brave.

This Boot to the Head should be seen by everyone considering a vote for a Tea Party candidate

When following a link to this video of Rand Paul supporters assaulting an anti-Paul protestor, I got the following message page from YouTube.
There's no sex or profanity (though the actions of these thugs against Lauren Valle are obscene, and should be out of place in any democratic society), so I assume that the members of the YouTube user community who have flagged the following video have done so purely for political purposes.




If you didn't receive it in your email this morning as a card-carrying member of the Michael Moore Brigade, then you might also be interested in reading "A Boot to the Head ... from Michael Moore" on his website in which he places these brownshirt street tactics in a wider perspective. We're all going to get kicked, figuratively if not literally (though literally is always a possibility), if we let the pre-election pollsters be proved right next Tuesday night.

I'M MAD AS HELL TOO, CARL!, or Go Frack Yourself

There's now less than a week left of these ugly emphatic orange and black signs along the side of New York's backroads, impeding the deer and wild turkeys in their quest to run into my car. Soon we'll be back to nothing but piles of leaves and bare trees on the roadsides. I don't seem to be mad about any of the things that Carl and Fox News want me to be mad about, but I am mad that one of Carl Paladino's first acts, if elected Governor of New York, would be to immediately allow hydrofracking here in upstate New York. Who cares if our previously pristine well water becomes poisonous ... and flammable?

Go frack yourself Carl.

The "Macaca Moments" of Twenty Ten

I spent years without TV (commented on in numerous previous posts), but now that I have cable again, I'm glad to have access to Rachel Maddow's common sense. In a perfect world, every American voter would watch this segment -- "Decision 1964" -- with which she opened her show tonight.

It's too bad they didn't let Banksy direct an entire episode.

I haven't seen a full episode of The Simpsons® in years, but now that I have a TV again, maybe I'll give it a try, especially after seeing the news about this Banksy opener that played on last night's episode.