I have a newsflash for everyone here.

While we're whining about this "betrayal" (which it is, but...), the US economy sinks farther into recession (despite the "economists" denying its existence) and people are suffering-- TRULY suffering. And a McCain presidency will make that suffering FAR WORSE on multiple levels.

I want the Fourth Amendment back too-- but let's face it, the PATRIOT Act rendered it basically null and void well before this FISA vote, didn't it? Let's get real here: The possibility of our phones being illegally wiretapped doesn't seem as real and threatening as the possibility of the banks foreclosing on our houses because we made the mistake of trying to utilize our ridiculous health care system and found out that the only procedures covered by most HMOs are leech application and trepanation.

You can sit there in your bathrobes, Scrubs reruns looping ironically on your DVD players, and pompously swear you won't give to Obama and will vote for McCain. And that's what the Republicans are hoping will happen. Because liberals will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on pure principle even if the world is in flames around them and the liberals have all the fire extinguishers.

Let's get the Republicans out of power first and then worry about restoring the Republic, OK?!

My god the California-bashers are out in force this morning!

Folks, a place isn't soul-crushing or depressing unless you surround yourself with asshole leeches who use you and discard you. Those of us who moved to California to LIVE knew that we had to avoid those people for our own happiness. And my family is 2,000 miles away, but the phone is always at hand and I can always fly to see them. But THIS is my home, and I have MY family here, and I'm in the final analysis happier than I've ever been. I'm from the South, by the way-- yeah, there's a sense of "place" and "community", but where I'm from there's also so much prejudice and hypocrisy and smug provincialism that I could never live there again. Sorry, but that's how it is.

However...

LW: Your sense of self and identity and comfort are obviously tightly attached to the place you live and have probably lived your whole life. That's fine; change isn't for everybody. What I read in your letter is that you'd never be happy away from there. Do what you have to, but just stay put. Your personal happiness is more important than a simple job. You can find something else if necessary. But if you have a wonderful, rich life, why change things?

As we can see from some of the douchebags desperately posting anywhere on this and other progressive websites with incoherent pro-McCain rants, the Right has completely run out of effective tools. The Wingers are now reduced to the "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" strategy of running a Republican campaign. Unfortunately, that is somewhat effective among the dumber citizenry of the country, so we have to be careful.

It still galls me that that tool Joe Klein still pushes the "But the Surge (tm) has WORKED!" meme. Listen up, Chester: The US Military is paying off warlords to fight al-Qaeda instead of the "Coalition" soldiers. Our tax dollars are being used to bribe enough high-ups in Iraq to keep the peace. The Surge has accomplished almost nothing. But no one wants to hear that the US Military has been reduced to ponying up Protection Money to tamp down violence in an Occupation Zone. Jesus, Americans don't want to face the fact that we are an Occupying Aggressor Nation.

But let's get to the real problems with John McCain, shall we?

-- He began his illustrious military career the old-fashioned way: His immediate family was full of high-ranking, decorated military men. Yet he graduated near the bottom of his class and distinguished himself in the areas of Drinking, Crashing Planes and Fucking Anything in a Skirt That Wasn't His First Wife.

-- Fine, he was a POW. Lots of guys were POWs. I think most of them would tell us that it was not an experience that automatically makes you qualified to be President.

-- Upon his return to the US, he resumed the activities he was most skilled at: Fucking Anything in a Skirt That Wasn't His First Wife (who, thanks to a horrible auto accident, had hagged out in a way that was unacceptable to McCain).

-- His personal wealth was acquired in subsequent years the old-fashioned way: He married it. After cheating on his first wife with it. (Fuck that meal ticket, Johnny! Yeah! USA!! USA!!) And his personal wealth source's father gave him his ONLY private-sector job: Beer distribution.

-- McCain's congressional career is, at best, undistinguished, but when he did fuck up it was a doozy. Look up the "Keating Five" sometime if your blood pressure can handle it. He is a slave to lobbyists, mostly because he's never harbored an original idea in his head in his life and someone has to give him guidance.

-- John McCain is stupid, vain, ill-tempered, small-minded and, let's face it, creepy. He's starting the campaign exhibiting every awful trait George W. Bush managed to hide during his campaigns but has displayed proudly while serving. We can't afford another moron in the White House. I'll take the smart guy, thank you. "Experience" is sometimes just another word for "waiting around until they're forced to give you a turn".

Yes! It's the idiotic typings (I can't call them "writings"-- thanks for the clarification, Truman Capote!) of another right-winger trolling on a left-of-center website.

T. Suárez, please step away from the PC your parents have set up in your basement bedroom. You're wasting good bandwidth.

The desperation on the Right is palpable. And delightful.

Twist in the wind, assholes!