The rich really are different from you and me: they don't like paying taxes.

How the hell does one "forget" to pay taxes? If you're in public service, do you need to be reminded that April 15 is tax day, in the same manner that November 11 is Veteran's Day and July 4 is Independence Day?

Three Obama picks had to admit they've failed to pay taxes on stuff. You know, I wonder if Obama truly realized the level of the swamp he was descending in when he promised to clean up Washington and all that stuff. It's actually funny, in a way, to see all these uptight politicians lecture Wall Street assholes about carelessness, robbing people blind, but a growing number of them "forgot" to pay taxes.

What's surprising me the most is how restrained our Media Glitterati is being. If this had been Clinton (either Bill or Hillary), it would already have a name: Taxgate! There would be sneering and snickering over how "untrustworthy" the Clintons and their associates truly are.

Not this time. Instead, we'll be told how it's really a good thing Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination because that's the new atmosphere with Obama at the helm. It will be spun into a hallmark of the integrity that Obama brings to the highest office in the land. I'm not saying that I disagree with it, or even dislike it, but the real story for me is watching our hapless media fucks decide what the narrative is.

Unless the Michael Phelps pot story is supposed to distract us enough from all this bullshit.

Well, well, well, it hasn't taken long for our Media Glitterati to start attacking their newly minted president. Over the past two days, two left-wing professional complainers have written "articles" bemoaning that President Obama hasn't morphed into Abraham Lincoln and FDR as they expected. They're shocked (shocked!) that Washington is still full of politcians who lie, cheat, obstruct and don't pay taxes.

Everywhere, the media chorus is the same, painting the picture of a troubled administration and asking (in all seriousness, of course) whether these early mistakes can be corrected or if it's too late. (I shit you not, and this was on NPR.) When I heard this, the Great Obama Presidency Clock was at 16 days; with all the depth of an "Access Hollywood" story, our hapless media fucks have shifted gears into scandal and trouble mode, exacerbating the problems Obama has in understanding the true depth of the swamp he's inherited. Apparently a year and a half in the Senate didn't expose him enough to the rampant assholery that is Capitol Hill. (I wonder if self-righteous leftists are proud that Obama brings sweets to a political fight with Republicans, whereas Hillary would have brought a knife. Oh well.)

Both the wretched Maureen O'Dowd and the vapid David Sirota have ratched up the bitching, as if to prove that they too, as comfortably paid "journalists" can piss and moan like bloggers with nothing but time on their hands and no inclination for substantive writing. Along with the increasingly shrill (but welcome Israel basher) Glenn Greenwald, these fucks are stamping their foot impatiently for Obama to transform their lives the way they said he would. They're horrified by the tax scandals but utterly quiet on the jaw-dropping obstructionism of the Republicans who have all the integrity and merit of a convicted killer suddenly getting Jesus and then lecturing you about the morality of your personal choices.

As if anyone could consider this a unique prophecy, I early on suspected that our Media Glitterati would make Obama's story their own, clumsily grafting their 60s expectations onto the man and then wail ceaselessly that all this change isn't as forthcoming as they demanded. Hmm, where have I heard part of this story before? Oh yes, the presidency of Bill Clinton, who was barely five minutes into the seat in the Oval Office when the media began reporting on scandals, a "troubled administration" and their overall dissatisfaction with the man from Hope, Arkansas because he didn't live up to their standards. Obama is a far more sophisticated person for their tastes, but while the presidents have changed, the vapid stupidity that defines the core of our Media Glitterati has remained intact.

By the way, over 4,200 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Just thought you might like to know.

When will Barack Obama take the kid gloves off?

I want to believe this bipartisan show was just that: outright political theater with a disaster in the background to underscore the need to sing kumbaya together, Democrat and Republican, and solve our economic crisis. I want to believe that Obama knew in his heart of hearts that Republicans would demonstrate just how much of a dead-end platform they have have and say, "See, I tried very hard but they just don't want change," and plow straight ahead.

Instead, it's like amateur night at the Improv. You have a guy who's won the presidency with enough of a margin to claim "mandate," and he's still letting Republicans dictate the terms of the debate and get away with flipping him and his administration off. For me, it became apparent that this wasn't theater: Obama might have truly believed his own press that he's some magical figure that people will rally to, or worse, that people will rise to the occasion and help out their country.

Right.

So, where is this tough politician that the right-wing radio asshats kept calling a "thug?" Not here. Where are his Marxist, socialist, communist, revolution-loving friends were going to unleash themselves and radically alter the system? Nope, not here either. It boggles my mind why the phrase "bully pulpit" seems lost on this man: like I said, he either really believed the fawning press he received for months as a healer and uniter, or his inexperience is coming to the fore. Considering that he's going out of his way to be nice to fucks like Judd Gregg and Aaron Shock only to get slapped openly and embarrassingly makes me think it's the latter trait.

As I've mentioned, our Media Glitterati doesn't know what to think of it either. Fox News woke up from its slight Obama reverie to start using the phrase "spending bill," thus drilling it in mindless peoples' heads that it should be resisted at all costs (ahem). Real media outlets then started talking about "pork" and how watered-down the bill is by compromising with Republican shitheads who are clinging to the tax-cuts-as-the-savior-of-us-all strategy. Even Paul Krugman, that economic saint of the left, is busying himself pissing all over the bill but yet refused to be part of the administration. I guess it's easier to bitch and moan in the fish wrap called the "New York Times" than actually grow a pair and take a pay cut to work for the new Lincoln/FDR/Jesus amalgam. Thus our hapless media fucks keep reporting that people's support for the stimulus bill is dropping.

Way to go assholes; you've gotten your guy elected and now you start to turn on him. Sounds a little like the feckless Democratic party.

Well, there it is: after three weeks of declaring war against the Palestinians in Gaza, the news wire reports that the Jewish State has decided to grab 425 acres of Palestinian land in the West Bank to put more colonists there.

This is not conducive to any peace process, and it certainly just shows that Israel continues to act in bad faith.

What is the purpose of the land grab? Well, to create more facts on the ground while talking out of the other side of their mouth about a two-state solution as Tzipi Livni did before a gathering of American Jews this week. Yeah, sure, whatever. You can assure American Jews that you want peace as you do one of the most backhanded things to create fresh tensions: grab more land.

Is there any justice here? Not only has Palestine been bifurcated, what's left is getting smaller and smaller. Maybe Israel knows that an Obama Administration is not going to wink wink, nudge nudge it the way Bush and his gang did. Maybe the Israelis will go through the farce of needing governmental permission to steal even more land when that's what the plan has been all along. George Mitchell, the new envoy to the Middle East, stated in a report some years ago that the settlements were the biggest blocking point in a peace agreement, and this bothered the Israelis to no end. They certainly can't be thrilled that he's now in a position to do something about those "provocations" and make it stick.

At the same time, maybe I shouldn't count on Obama to do anything substantive. After all, as Israel was bombarding Gaza, he was curiously (and damnably) silent. Perhaps the hope and change he promised doesn't extend past the borders of the United States.

So, the governor of the poor state of Louisiana says he will not take some (ahem) of the stimulus bill.

What the fuck is it with Republicans who always aspire to prove their ideologies at the expense of other people?

I cannot understand why Republicans think they have any credibility when it comes to fiscal anything. I don't know if I should feel pity for them or contempt because when confronted with the obvious, they maintain their stance like a mafioso proving how omerta works. The obvious factor to which I am referring is that we have eight years on the record of their profligate ways: trillions for our Iraqi Expedition, tax cuts during a time of war(s) for the rich, and an economy that isn't contracting as much as it is shuddering violently. But instead of facing up to their responsibility—something they love to lecture everyone about—they want to claim that the economy bust is Clinton's fault or Carter's fault, and oh, if we just went back to Reagan everything would be perfect.

Clinging to what they believe is the heart and soul of their conservative beliefs, in a time of crisis, Republicans like Bobby Jindal want to sacrifice more people so they thump their chests about what superior people they are. The want to bib-dribble and spoon-clang about how the stimulus bill is full of pork, because of course, they can account for every red fucking cent that was spent on Iraq. Yeah, they are totally believable.

So, let's skip the middle part and get right to it: I triple dog dare you, Bobby Jindal, to refuse any federal money to help the unemployed in your pissant, backwards and poor state. You go right ahead and mock money for volcano monitoring as you (typically) forget how much a program worked when Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, saving the lives of 5,000 registered voters. You go right ahead and keep thinking that George W. Bush's shitty response to Hurricane Katrina is a model of conservative reaction to natural disasters. And please, continue to promote your creationist horseshit and compete with Sarah Palin to out-crazy one another racing for the nomination in 2012.

Let's just see how far you get.