Where Have I Heard This Before?

Monday: 2 GIs, 43 Iraqis Killed, 28 Wounded
Sunday: 4 U.S. Soldiers, 33 Iraqis Killed; 61 Iraqis Wounded

You know how you come across a sound you remember from a tune you always loved when you're screwing around with another song you recently learned, "jazzing" it up, playing with off-tempos or just transposing keys? It takes you to a completely different place, playing a whole new piece.

Okay, if you don't play you don't understand, or only think you do. But when I realized tonight that the opening from Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill, although completely different in every respect from the Doobie Brothers' Without Love -- are remarkably similar in their basic construction.

Who knew. But there I was, just picking away absent mindedly, and instead of the usual pattern my fingers memorized years ago, my guitar started emitting the Doobie's old standard instead of Gabriel's first solo hit.

What on earth does this have to do with the usual subject matter of this blog? Fair question, and forgive the extended metaphor, but the sleaze is erupting late in the primary season, and it sounds familiar. The melody is different, but the chord pattern is unmistakable.

Yeah, this is about the mudslinging and rumor mongering. What's not to love? We can safely assume that neither victimized campaign is behind the rumors since Bobby admitted he didn't get the story from either campaign. Knowing that Novak runs almost exclusively in GOP circles . . . well, you do the math.

Come on folks, if the Novakula rumor mongering doesn't smell similar to the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove style of pitting one Democratic contender against another, nothing will. I've always thought that the Canuck Letter was overrated in it's desired effect. I believe that the Republicans did indeed want to interfere in the Democratic primary with that bit of dirty dealing that put Ed Muskie on the ropes. But to give the Nixonites credit for "picking their opponent" goes too far. The alleged "Crying Speech" was a bit of gravy.

They wanted to damage Muskie, and implicate his rivals for the Democratic nomination. Who's to say that if Muskie withstood the storm he would have been painted less the dove than McGovern, or been any more effective. (Okay, anyone could have beaten McGovern's one-state electoral college showing.) The smear itself isn't what sticks -- or The Scream, or the Monkey Business -- but the campaign's reaction that becomes the story.

Yes, the conventional wisdom is that Barack displayed foolish bait-taking (or not), and Hillary (and FOX) capitalized on it -- but went down in the polls. This will all be eclipsed by next weekend's scandal and tomorrow's poll.

Before I go back and see just how bad I can mangle another one of my favorite tunes, let me just say that Barack is a jerk for falling for such an stupid trick -- overreact much? Hillary, this all speaks volumes about how much you are distrusted. As for Novak . . . Bob, buddy, quit accepting Drudge's calls. You guys are killing the rest of us. If you keep this up, it might take Blogtopia more than 72 hours to debunk your stupidity -- and the days are far too short between now and Hillary's coronation.

Of course, on behalf of Edwards supporters everywhere, Hillary, Bob, Barack . . . thanks.

***

Sorry, I forgot the obligatory Rudy is a tool, link. But so are the rest of the GOP field -- who look a lot more foolish than the Dems when it comes to the finger pointing stuff.

If anyone could run credibly as an Law and Order, former prosecutor, anti-terror "bitch" it's Fran Townsend, who now has much more free time. Rudy is a wuss beside her -- and from what I've seen, I think she'd run as a Democrat since her husband is one and Janet Reno was her BFF. Good Luck Fran. I hope you managed to get to the xerox machine before Cheney made it to his shredder. Can't wait for the book.

Novak: Shameless Hack, Still

During a confusing week on Capitol Hill, lawmakers engaged in games that were difficult for insiders to understand and incomprehensible to ordinary voters.

-- Novakula

The patronizing mindset it requires to write that sentence exposes so much about the Versailles Press in Washington. I get it Bob. You're smart and wired into the people who matter, while the rest of us hicks are just too dumb to understand.

Please, please Bobby, edu-ma-cate us ignorant slobs. (What a prick.)

So he goes out of his way to perpetuate the Republican's favorite myth about irresponsible tax-and-spend Democrats trying to pull a fast one by loading up an appropriations bill for Vets with a bunch of earmarks. But where was this criticism of pork laden spending bills when the GOP was in charge?

Novak made special mention that "Citizens Against Government Waste found 2,274 earmarks worth $1 billion in the bill," as an example of the greedy Democrats loading up this important legislation with expensive pet projects -- so he could "prove" Democratic Party mismanagement.

[BTW, Citizens Against Government Waste, as you might have guessed, is part of a Right-Wing think tank/lobby outfit whose clients include Microsoft and big tobacco, funded in part by the Tobacco Institute, Phillip Morris, RJR Nabisco, Merrill Lynch, and everybody's favorite corporation, Exxon. None other than nutball Alan Keyes was it's president from '89 to '91, and it's founder J. Peter Grace, a former member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Reaganista involved in the Iran-Contra scandal had some very nefarious doings with former Nazi War Criminals.]

Yet even according to Novak's source for the out-of-control spending by the Democratic Congress, the 2005 "Pig Book" says that the GOP was responsible for a "record 13,997 projects" at a cost of $27.3 Billion. That dropped in 2006 (an election year where waste and corruption were top issues, go figure) to 9,963 -- yet the cost went up to $29 Billion.

And what's the total on earmarked pork this year? Noting that only two of the eleven appropriations bills have passed, and that there is a "moratorium on earmarks" for the other nine -- Congress has passed 2,658 for a cost of only $13.2 Billion.

Novak makes no mention of what a decrease in earmarking this was from the GOP's recent trip to the taxpayer trough -- "by 2005 the earmarks had multiplied to 6,371, or nearly 10% of total spending," in just the Highway Bill to Nowhere alone. He doesn't want us bothered by petty details like the almost 55% decrease in pork barrel spending in actual dollars from last year, or the 80% drop in individual earmarks reflected in this year's legislation compared to the last non election year.

Oh, I get it Uncle Bob. You're right, us ordinary folks out here in the hinter-land would never have made the connection that the Democrats are still horribly wasteful without you pointing it out to us with your misleading numbers and arbitrary standards. I forgot that Democrats=waste, Republicans=fiscal responsibility. I couldn't understand your enlightened wisdom without seeing it through your stupidity prism.

Thanks. I'm glad you cleared that up for us.