Your liberal media

John McCain has been on CNN regularly of late, and he's a frequent guest on the Sunday morning political talk shows like Face the Nation and Meet the Press. Just as a reminder, he lost the 2008 presidential election handily.

But, of course you remember how John Kerry was always on those shows in 2005 and Al Gore was a regular contributor to cable news in 2001, right?

You don't?

Yeah, neither do I.

This can only be good news for Obama

No, really -- I mean it this time.

From 1936 through 2000, the Washington Redskins invariably predicted the outcome of each presidential election. How?

In each of those years, when the Redskins won their last home game before the election, the incumbent party held onto the White House. When they lost that final pre-election home game, the presidency switched parties.

The odd pattern was broken in 2004, when the 'Skins lost at home to Green Bay on October 31 but Drunky McStagger (allegedly) won the subsequent election over John Kerry.

So last night the Redskins, playing at home, were trounced by the Pittsburgh Steelers, 23-6. Hence, good news for Obama ... if the pattern is effective again. It's food for thought, anyway ...

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Peggy Noonan

Former Reagan speechwriter and ongoing Reagan casket humper wanna-be* Peggy Noonan -- I'm pointing and laughing at you today ... I mean, I like pointing and laughing at you all the time, but today you get special recognition as I'm reminded of a typically slobbering, grotesque column you wrote in the Wall Street Journal following the 2004 election. You remember it, don't you, Nooners? It's the one where you said:

The Democrats have lost their leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle. I do not know what the Democratic Party spent, in toto, on the 2004 election, but what they seem to have gotten for it is Barack Obama. Let us savor.

An old, rancid pile of dog vomit is more desirable than you, Peggy, and twice as intelligent.

I'm not going to "savor" anything that you suggested in that column, Peggy -- not your allegation that the "nonelites of Old Europe" celebrated Drunky McStagger's election; not your suggestion that people who worked hard for Kerry (as I did) were paid volunteers like the "Hessians of King George III's army;" and especially not your drool-covered adulation of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. Gag.

No, instead, I'm going to savor the fact that what, according to you, the Democratic Party spent in 2004 will be bringing us our next president. That's right, Peggy -- President Barack Obama. I hate to mix metaphors regarding stupid wingnut pundits, but: Suck. On. That.

Oh, and Peggy? Suck on this, too: today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

(h/t res ipsa loquitur)

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* Seriously. Read just about anything Noonan's written, especially about Reagan. It's disgusting. If it weren't for the fact that Nancy Reagan was so busy humping her late husband's casket at his funeral, Nooners would have been all over it.

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Jerome Corsi

Pardon me while, once again, I point and laugh.

Noted douchebag Jerome Corsi, co-author of the libelous anti-Kerry book Unfit for Command in 2004 and an equally heinous follow-up this year, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, was detained in Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday, then hurriedly flew to London without holding a scheduled news conference in the Kenyan capital. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Corsi was in the native country of Obama's father ...

Sources vary on whether or not Corsi was deported or merely encouraged to leave, um, right away, but either way, his plans to attack Barack Obama on, in a sense, Obama's home turf were scuttled quite unceremoniously. Indeed, initial reports suggested that there was a paperwork problem and that Corsi lacked the proper visa, but today the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation reports that, in fact, Corsi was unwelcome because of his message:

According to Foreign affairs minister Moses Wetangula, Corsi displayed inconsistent conduct with the expected norms of good behaviour in the country.

Corsi was on Tuesday night deported back to America after he attempted to launch the book blasting White House hopeful Barrack [sic] Obama at a Nairobi hotel.

The initial explanation offered by the authorities for his deportation was that his travel documents were not in order.

But it emerged on Wednesday that his deportation squarely lay on his suspect intentions and mission in the country, the launch of an anti-Obama book.

According to Wetangula, Corsi who was in the country on a tourist visa was ordered to leave the country by the immigration department.

Corsi's scheduled launch of the book at the Laico hotel failed to kick off after a section of Kenyans demonstrated against it leading to his detention by security officials.

In the book, Corsi ridicules Prime Minister Raila Odinga accusing him of supporting the agenda of radical Muslims.

He had also announced he would expose alleged connections to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plots to be executed in Kenya Should Obama win the US election.

Say what you will about censorship but, remember, we're talking about Kenyan law here, not American law. Besides, Corsi is a fucking disgrace, and I think he got off easy with a cushy plane ride from Nairobi to London rather than, say, the imprisonment he deserves.

Anyway, regardless of the reasons behind Corsi's hasty departure, the fact remains that his asinine publicity stunt didn't work. The Swift Boat-style smear tactics of '04 aren't going to work anymore, now that most Americans see them for what they are: lies and obfuscation. And thus Corsi once again is exposed as the charlatan that he is.

Don't feel too bad, Jerry -- sure, you may have been booted from Kenya, but look at the bright side: today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

Liberal media, my ass (ver. 2.0)

Hey, you remember four years ago, you couldn't swing a cat in a room full of reporters* without hitting about a dozen who couldn't talk about anything else but "Swift Boat Veterans Against John Kerry?"

There's a group now called Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain (VVAJM). According to them, our pal Huggy Bear was responsible for a number of deaths of U.S. servicemen in Vietnam, and he sang like a canary to his captors, among other such distasteful charges.

Is it true? Does it matter? It didn't matter to the media and the wingnuts that the Swift Boat allegations were debunked over and over again in 2004, did it? Yet what do we hear from the mainstream corporate media about VVAJM?

Crickets. Or nearly so. Look -- I don't know if VVAJM is "smearing" Huggy Bear or not, and frankly, it's not relevant to my point. If it's true, then the media needs to be all over it. If it's not true, then how do the media justify not covering it in light of what they did to Kerry four years ago?

Some "liberal" media ...

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* And believe me, I wanted to ...

UF student restrained and Tasered at Kerry speech

You've probably already heard about the student who was arrested and Tasered during John Kerry's speech in Gainesville yesterday.

Toward the conclusion of Kerry's UF forum, 21-year-old Andrew Meyer approached an open microphone at University Auditorium and demanded Kerry answer his questions. Meyer, a UF student in the College of Journalism and Communications, claimed that University Police Department officers had already threatened to arrest him, and then proceeded to question Kerry about why he didn't contest the 2004 presidential election and why there had been no moves to impeach President Bush.

A minute or so into what became a combative diatribe, Meyer's microphone was turned off and officers began trying to physically remove him from the auditorium. Meyer flailed his arms, yelling as police tried to restrain him.

He was then pushed to the ground by six officers, at which point Meyer yelled, "What have I done? What I have I done? Get away from me. Get off of me! What did I do? ... Help me! Help."

Police threatened to use a Taser on Meyer if he did not "comply," but he continued to resist being handcuffed. He was then Tased, which prompted him to scream and writhe in pain on the floor of the auditorium.

After the incident, Capt. Jeff Holcomb of the UPD said Meyer had been charged with disrupting a public event and placed in the Alachua County jail.

I actually find the video of the event very disturbing.

If you have about six minutes, go see the full video here. If you only have a couple of minutes, scroll ahead about a quarter of the way, to the point where Meyer is apprehended and the university police try to remove him from the auditorium.

I don't care if he's asking a question beyond the allotted time (which I understand Sen. Kerry permitted) or even if he's being overzealous. I think the police officers' actions here are clearly excessive. So much for free speech at the University of Florida.

UPDATE (10:33 am 9/18/07): I can't find the linked video on YouTube, but there are many if you search for them. Here's the most complete one I could find; the video quality is poor but the audio is quite clear ... and indeed Sen. Kerry called on Meyer.

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Sam Fox

What goes around comes around. That's the real beauty of karma, and it lends itself well to schadenfreude.

Sam Fox, of Clayton, Mo. (where I once lived, during law school and while briefly in private practice), was the Bush administration's crime syndicate's nominee for ambassador to Belgium. However, the nomination was withdrawn today because of the furor over Fox's $50,000 contribution to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now there's an oxymoron for ya) in 2004.

The White House issued its statement with no explanation a half-hour before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was scheduled to vote on Fox’s nomination.

Fox, a wealthy businessman and one of the national GOP’s most reliable political donors, contributed $50,000 in the last election to the group that vigorously attacked Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, alleging that Kerry did not deserve the medals he had won after his service in Vietnam.

Kerry allies branded the campaign a smear and some Democrats believe that it cost their party the election.

[...]

"The bottom line is that what was done to Kerry was unconscionable. I served with John Kerry; I know what he was made of," Wade Sanders, a former assistant secretary of the Navy, said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch this week.

[Sen. Claire] McCaskill [D-Mo.]* and Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., said they had not wavered in their backing of Fox.

Fox, 77, who is national chairman of the Jewish Republican Coalition, has contributed over $1 million to Republican campaigns since the 1990s.

When Kerry pressed him on the contributions to the Swift Boat group, Fox declined to apologize or to explain in a fashion that mollified Kerry and others on the committee.

"When I’m asked, I just generally give," Fox said at the time.

Well, good thing he's not going to Belgium, then, eh? Will you do anything you're asked, Sam? Even without checking the veracity of the cause for which you are being solicited? Man, you're an easy mark ...

Is the "Jewish Republican Coalition" the same as the group to which Dick "Dick" Cheney spoke last weekend? It seems likely ... so if I'd known that Sam was going to go down this hard this soon, why, I could have just gone to Manalapan myself and laughed at him directly.

Well, I guess this laughter from afar will have to do. Congratulations, would-be ambassador Sam Fox! Today's Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

* Too bad Sen. McCaskill supported such an obvious wanker for the ambassadorship ... but I guess she was just supporting a constituent.