...And it's tax day

Do you know who Geoff Davis is? No, not Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, but Geoff Davis a Republican Congressman from Kentucky. Saturday night, he called Obama "boy". Saying "..that boy's finger shouldn't be on the button." So as not to take the quote out of context, here's the full sentence: "I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button," Davis said. "He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country." He also called Obama a "snake oil salesman". Here's the full link (with some choice words from Mitch McConnell, including, amazingly, a reference to Hillary Clinton and Hooters in the same sentence, and a link to the audio.... http://polwatchers.typepad.com/pol_watchers/2008/04/republicans-tal.html ). TALK ABOUT DESPERATION....

I was happily surprised yesterday at the response I heard about the "bitterness" comment. NOT from the pundits, or the news media, but from regular people. I got gas at the WaWa (for those of you who don't live around here, "WaWa" is to "convenience store" what "Ruths Chris" is to "hamburger") and the woman at the counter (who actually uses me as her fact checker) said "Hell, we're ALL bitter and angry -- what sort of idiot would think we weren't?" And her sentiments were echoed by other people on line.

On line at the post office (where, for the first time in my life, I mailed my check to the IRS a full day before I had to) the people I was waiting with, looking at my Obama ball cap asked if I thought the bitterness comment would hurt Obama. My response was to ask what they thought. And people were saying "I hope not -- he told the truth".

And on to McCain. My McCain book stack is here, and I started looking through them. To say that this guy is NOT what he seems is to look at an optical illusion -- YES!!!! it's BOTH!!!! Thanks to the magic of post-it flags, I'm happily marking pages for the write-ups that will start after the primaries. But it was fun to be reading about McShame and his relationship to Keating JUST as Keith Olbermann was pointing out that the DNC is suing McCain for violations of the McCain-Feingold Act. The suit buys nothing, as the FEC lacks a quorum and the court will probably defer until the FEC can answer to previously filed complaints against McCain -- but this is going to be a big deal in the fall.

For those of you who don't follow this stuff with the love of detail I have...McCain-Feingold was envisioned as a way to make campaign money free of corporate/union/special interest funding. The legislation is imperfect, but it was bipartisan and a good start. You can take Federal funds which will match your contributions provided you observe the limits. If you take Federal funds, you can save money on certain things, like automatically getting on ballots without having to pay for the drive to get your name on the ballot. You CANNOT, however, use the funds as collateral to get a loan. You also can't jump in and out of the system. John opted in, got on the Ohio ballot with it, used the funds as collateral for a bank loan, then opted out, blew the max, and opted back in.

At this point, I'm thinking "animated Power Point Show" so we can all watch John morph on his abortion, gay rights, campaign financing, tax cut and torture positions. And on that last one -- remember that McCain WAS tortured and therefore SHOULD be against it. Turns out, based on his February vote, that he is only against torturing Americans, since he voted against a proposal which would have banned the CIA from using torture. Remember that the CIA, by law, cannot operate domestically. From the Senate records: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00022

So happy tax day folks -- remember to get those checks in!