Sometimes it really does only take one picture….And this is it for me.

Howie, Donna, Miss Nancy, Senator Obama,  ‘Fittin’ Harry Reid, Rahm ‘The Rabbit’ Emmanuel, Senators Schumer, Kerry, Kennedy, there is someone on the phone for you.

Sez it’s very urgent!

Yeah, something about don’t forget to pick up your ‘bag’.

No guesses as to what it’s stuffed with.

Your government for sale to…

Well, whoever wants to buy.

Krugman Channeled by the Best Blogger Now in the ‘Sphere…..

Here’s Krugman’s quote in Anglachel’s Journal:

‘…the nightmare Mr. Obama and his supporters should fear is that in an election year in which everything favors the Democrats, he will nonetheless manage to lose.’

But I’m not linking to The Shrill One today, much as I admire his skills as a thinker and writer…shut UP! Bowers…stuff a cork in in Kos…you guys are wet-behind-the-ears bozos in clown shoes compared to Paul, not it’s Anglachel I want you to read. Clik on this para to go there:

‘I’ve been taking time out from the blogosphere the last few days to attend to ordinary things, like replacing my printer and doing some spring cleaning, and I come back to find out I’m really not one of the Important Bloggers of Left Blogistan. It seems that bloggers who are Important have been contacted by People Who Know and have been seriously informed that It Is Over and just accept that Obama will be the nominee. The Important people are now telling us peons to get on the Unity Bus before it leaves the station (I guess the Unity Pony is a bit spavined by now) and we are Left Behind. BTD has even announced that he will despise us if we don’t all get on board.’

BTD, that’s Big Tent Democrat is an idiot…he was an idiot when Kos threw him out of dKos back when he was called Armando…and he still is an idiot, is of the ‘BoneHead’ Bowers wing of Blogistan. Those are the folks who are just like so totally sure that Barry is gonna lead us to the promised land of a Dem White House.

Sure pals…And I am Queen of the May!

Me too Bill….

I really thought Democrats wanted to count every citizen’s vote. Wow! What an idiot I am. Have I got that right Mr. Great Orange Satan. Democrats have joined Republican Fascistii
in telling the citizenry, ‘Hey…fuck you we don’t count your vote unless we feel it will get us what we want.’

Have I got that right Mr. ‘BoneHead’ Bowers. I’m to STFU! because Barry is the magical unicorn you’ve been searching for ever since yer folks told you you couldn’t live in the basement
anymore and ya had to get a fukin‘ JOB!

I don’t think so pals.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..Now this is….Well, Barry do you and McSame want to explain this given your votes to fully fund…..

‘Lil’ George’s excellent adventure in Iraqi land?

We don’t know what we got.”

by tristero

Good morning! Are you sitting down?

In one case, according to documents displayed by Pentagon auditors at the hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a cash payment of $320.8 million in Iraqi money was authorized on the basis of a single signature and the words “Iraqi Salary Payment” on an invoice. In another, $11.1 million of taxpayer money was paid to IAP, an American contractor, on the basis of a voucher with no indication of what was delivered…

The disclosure that $1.8 billion in Iraqi assets was mishandled comes on top of an earlier finding by an independent federal oversight agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, that United States occupation authorities early in the conflict could not account for the disbursement of $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money and seized assets.

A billion here, a billion there…

And then check this out:

The mysterious payments, whose amounts had not been publicly disclosed, included $68.2 million to the United Kingdom, $45.3 million to Poland and $21.3 million to South Korea. Despite repeated requests, Pentagon auditors said they were unable to determine why the payments were made.

“It sounds like the coalition of the willing is the coalition of the paid — they’re willing to be paid,” said Mr. Waxman

And some more details:

In one instance, a United States Treasury check for $5,674,075.00 was written to pay a company called Al Kasid Specialized Vehicles Trading Company in Baghdad for items that a voucher does not even describe.

In another case, $6,268,320.07 went to the contractor Combat Support Associates with even less explanation. And a scrawl on another piece of paper says only that $8 million had been paid out as “Funds for the Benefit of the Iraqi People.”

But perhaps the masterpiece of elliptic paperwork is the document identified at the top as a “Public Voucher for Purchases and Services Other Than Personal.” It indicates that $320.8 million went for “Iraqi Salary Payment,” with no explanation of what the Iraqis were paid to do.

Whatever it was, the document suggests, each of those Iraqis was handsomely compensated. Under the “quantity” column is the number 1,000, presumably indicating the number of people who were to be paid — to the tune of $320,800 apiece — if the paperwork is to be trusted.

“…if the paperwork is to be trusted.” Now that’s funny. But the joke’s on us.

Tell ya what….
I ain’t laughing.

It Looks ot me as if Senator ‘Barky’ is….Well, he’s not doin’ to well…

Yeah….He won Oregon…Yadda. So what. Get a load of this:

Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama had a 63.2% probability of defeating Sen. John McCain in a general election held now. Today there were three new relevant head-to-head poll released for this race.

So, now, after 10,000 simulated elections, Obama wins 5,508 times (plus the 300 ties), and McCain wins 4,192 times. Obama has a 58.1% (55.1% plus 3% for ties) probability of winning and McCain has a 41.9% probability of winning. Obama has slipped a bit against McCain, but maintains an “uncomfortable” lead.

Here is the distribution of electoral votes [FAQ] from the simulations:

Not so bad you say?

Now look at this:

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 9:47 pm

Poll Analysis: Clinton Inches Forward on McCain

Clinton	McCain
89.7% probability of winning	10.2% probability of winning
Mean of 295 electoral votes	Mean of 243 electoral votes

Yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton had a 89.3% probability of defeating Sen. John McCain in a general election held now. Today there was a single new relevant head-to-head poll released for this race.

Today, after 10,000 simulated elections, Clinton wins 8,969 times (plus she gets the 10 ties), and McCain wins 1,021 times. Clinton has a 89.8% probability of winning a general election held now, and McCain has a 10.2% probability of winning. Clinton edges forward, ever so slightly.

Here is the distribution of electoral votes [FAQ] from the simulations:

Okay so I’m glad I’m not a SuperDelegate….but, and I’m talkin’ to those of your out there who are adamant about not letting McSame get elected, if you are serious about that you’d better put down the damn Kool-Aid ’cause no amount of ‘make nice’ by Barkey is gonna change this dynamic. Barry’s been going downhill since Texas and he ain’t comin’ back. Yeah, McSame has said a lot of stupid shit…news flash so has Barkey. Clinton, not so much she’s been astute enough to keep her mouth shut. And all this Monte Carloing is before most Americans really now the Rezko to Auchi toss much less the latest Barky food for ReThug attack ads.

What?

What’s Ol’ Barky done now?

Uh….it’s Michelle this time…and it’s not gonna be pretty if this post by Larry Johnson is accurate.

And he’s been pretty much Wright so far about Barkey.

What to do?

Email yer SDs and tell ‘me you really, really really don’t want this to happen:

What is it you think you know and why is that?

"It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts."
-Earl Weaver, former MLB manager

There are a lot of angry Democrats out there and we’ve seen, on every side, folks saying …insisting….demanding that what they want to be recognized as fact.

But….

Just because they are angry don’t mean they are not right.

Next a look at the ‘Thing they will not speak it’s name….’

Yep, the good Ol’ Electoral College.

Hopeful?

Clik on Barry for a bigger picture….heh….

Lotta a folks tellin’ me I’m nuts….

….with my ‘Edwards Chosen for President by Convention. meme…..

Lotta folks are pretty damn clueless. The Democratic Party machinery is determined not to lose this opportunity to start reversing the ReThug hegemony. They see their chance to do so slipping away with the divisive Obama and Clinton campaigns hammering each other into damaged good, so damaged that McSame will be able to sneak into office, and they are not happy.

This is how ‘not happy’ they are.

Guys like this don’t get up and make this sort of statement on their own. And you know what? I can live with a Nobel and Emmy award winning President.

Gore/Edwards 08!

Kinda has a nice sound to it don’t it?

One thing you don’t hear too much about in the primary fights so far is…..Iraq….

Oh yeah, before you start, I’m not saying that nothing is said about this issue or that the citizenry does not rank this festering sore created by Mr. Decider, ‘Lil Boots’, George W. Bush, America’s Greatest Conservative President God save him and keep him safe in Paraguay….home of all fascist scum. Nor am I going to continue arguing with those who say that since the One Million Iraqis killed by Herr Leader are not Amerikkkan citizens that we, you and I, homer are not living in a Fascist State. Nope….I just want to bring your attention, as I have many times before, to the most important of all measures for Amerikkka.

That would be the geetus, cabbage, scratch…you know the cash. Here is a quote from: The True Cost of War a book by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes reviewed for the Guardian by Aida Edemariam which sets the scene for the writing of this book here:

‘Some time in 2005, Stiglitz and Linda Blimes, who also served as an economic adviser under Clinton, noted that the official Congressional Budget Office estimate for the cost of the war so far was of the order of $500bn. The figure was so low, they didn’t believe it, and decided to investigate. The paper they wrote together, and published in January 2006, revised the figure sharply upwards, to between $1 and $2 trillion. Even that, Stiglitz says now, was deliberately conservative: “We didn’t want to sound outlandish.”‘

Well me and malcontent, then writing as -c were not so shy. We posted:

The Profiteers back in 2006

I blogged about Stiglitz and the cost of war back in:

Military Keynseianism: A Slideshow for yer Wingnut Friends back in 2007

And of course I went right to the dirty, corrupt heart of Amerikkka with my post:

Military Keynesianism: What is that and why should I care?

And superawesomestuff pointed out the following:

One Of Many Costs Of The War

I pointed out some facts here:

The Stink of Money: DOD Version

Back to Edemariam’s review. Stiglitz describes the Republican pushback on his original 2005 work:

‘So what did the Republicans say? “They had two reactions,” Stiglitz says wearily. “One was Bush saying, ‘We don’t go to war on the calculations of green eye-shaded accountants or economists.”

Stiglitz a vocal critic of the World Bank and not a shy or retiring went back to the records and from lots of hard work a picture emerged which, to those of us familiar with the Liar-in-Chief, was not a surprise:

‘Stiglitz and Bilmes dug deeper, and what they have discovered, after months of chasing often deliberately obscured accounts, is that in fact Bush’s Iraqi adventure will cost America – just America – a conservatively estimated $3 trillion. The rest of the world, including Britain, will probably account for about the same amount again. And in doing so they have achieved something much greater than arriving at an unimaginable figure: by describing the process, by detailing individual costs, by soberly listing the consequences of short-sighted budget decisions, they have produced a picture of comprehensive obfuscation and bad faith whose power comes from its roots in bald fact. Some of their discoveries we have heard before, others we may have had a hunch about, but others are completely new – and together, placed in context, their impact is staggering. There will be few who do not think that whatever the reasons for going to war, its progression has been morally disquieting; following the money turns out to be a brilliant way of getting at exactly why that is.‘

Bold by me. As malcontent will tell you the ‘why’ of the Iraq War and continuing occupation despite the large majority of Americans who want us out takes us to the various and sundry underlying reasons our government is no longer responsive to the needs, desires even the will of the people.

Hopefully, the upcoming clash between the Democratic nominee and the ‘uber-Hawk’ ‘Reverse Ace’ John McCaine will throw some light on some very dark and heinous goings on under the pathetically tattered flag of ‘Promoting Democracy’ I can assure you that malcontent and I will be on the scene to attempt to do justice to story so dark, bloody and dire that many don’t even want to hear it.

This quote should give you taste of the unpalatable truth everyone is gonna have to face in the near future. Except for ‘Lil’ Boots chillin’ in Paraguay because Miss Nancy and ‘SellOut’ Reid were in on the scam. Here ya go:

‘But the rising price of oil has also meant, according to Stiglitz and Bilmes, that the cost to oil-importing industrial countries in Europe and the Far East is now about $1.1 trillion. And to developing countries it has been devastating: they note a study by the International Energy Agency that looked at a sample of 13 African countries and found that rising oil prices have “had the effect of lowering the average income by 3% – more than offsetting all of the increase in foreign aid that they had received in recent years, and setting the stage for another crisis in these countries”. Stiglitz made his name by, among other things, criticizing America’s use of globalization as a bully pulpit; now he says flatly, “Yes, that’s part of being in a global economy. You make a mistake of this order, and it affects people all over the world.”

And the borrowed trillions have to come from somewhere. Because “the saving rate [in America] is zero,” says Stiglitz, “that means that you have to finance [the war] by borrowing abroad. So China is financing America’s war.” The US is now operating at such a deficit, in fact, that it doesn’t have the money to bail out its own banks. “When Merrill Lynch and Citibank had a problem, it was sovereign funds from abroad that bailed them out. And we had to give up a lot of shares of our ownership. So the largest shareowners in Citibank now are in the Middle East. It should be called the MidEast bank, not the Citibank.” This creates a precedent of dependence, “and whether we become dependent on Middle East oil money, or Chinese reserves – it’s that dependency that people ought to worry about. That is a big change. The amount of borrowing in the last eight years, on top of the borrowing that began with Reagan – that has all changed the US’s economic position in the world.”‘

And when Stiglitz says, ‘…..that has all changed the US’s economic position in the world’. He does not mean it’s changed for the better folks.
How long does McCain, Clinton or Obama think this can go on?

$16bn
The amount the US spends on the monthly running costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – on top of regular defence spending

$138
The amount paid by every US household every month towards the current operating costs of the war

$19.3bn
The amount Halliburton has received in single-source contracts for work in Iraq

$25bn
The annual cost to the US of the rising price of oil, itself a consequence of the war

$3 trillion
A conservative estimate of the true cost – to America alone – of Bush’s Iraq adventure. The rest of the world, including Britain, will shoulder about the same amount again

$5bn
Cost of 10 days’ fighting in Iraq

$1 trillion
The interest America will have paid by 2017 on the money borrowed to finance the war

3%
The average drop in income of 13 African countries – a direct result of the rise in oil prices. This drop has more than offset the recent increase in foreign aid to Africa

Even the dope dealers on the corners of every American city know that this sort of cash drain can’t be goin’ on for too much longer. Are Amerikkka’s leaders dumber than an illiterate fool on the corner with bag of rock and a nine?

Nope, despite what PumpkinHead and Tweety would have you believe…..

Hillary Clinton has not been selected as the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States. Yeah, yeah…. you knew that. But deep down in the back of your hippocampus, the lizard-brain part, you’re pretty sure she’s running away with it but I can assure you…..

It ain’t over yet.

In line with our never ending attempts to bring you accurate info about what’s really going on as opposed to ReThug lies and spin served on a tin-plated platter to you by the fatuous, paid liars of the corporatist press I’ve created a new side-bar widget.

It’s over there on the upper right and contains handy links to Pollster.com’s good work on all the early primaries. With one clik of the button you can check the polls. Of course it will take more than that clik to gain understanding. Due to the peculiar nature of caucuses and the MOE of polling don’t’ expect to understand situation using just the graphs. It takes more than that.

I’ve also included some preliminary links, I’ve asked for help on this from the rest of Free Left Blogistan, to progressive bloggers in the early states. Check it all out. And take this to the bank….

The race is a dead heat in the early states.