Santorum checks into the Crazy House....

Rick Santorum beady eyes and fangs bared, piled into the 2016 GOP Presidential Stakes fully intent on trebling down on the Wingnut Craziness Margin. I have a perverse admiration for Rick, of the entire sorry assed collection of presidential jobbers the GOP has eructated, Santorum is the only one with enough vicious psychic energy to constitute an American Dictator in the Making. But on some ineffable level "High Pitched Rick" falls short, maybe it's his hate filled eyes, they register poorly on TV or his high pitched whining voice....but in the end he is Gerald L.K. Smith not Huey P. Long....a sort of zoo specimen of authoritarian ineffectuality. Rick might pull off another guerilla coup next year he has the sort of demonic focus that would be prized in the paranoia ward at McLean's Hospital, but he has some heavy competition in the wingnut craziness division and all those guys can fundraise....and fundraise some more. He is literally running out of sheer desperate lust for power, he will never make anyone's short list for VP or even Secretary of Transportation for that fact. But Santorum goes on ranting and raving, just desperate for the chance to throw someone behind barbed wire...anyone at this point. He will never get there, but you have to admire perversely his pathological single mindedness....

Thoughts while on vacation...

When an embedded dupe like Jeb Bush finally backs down on the Iraq War (along with Marco Rubio and Chris Christie) you know the GOP has finally turned its back on GWB's "Splendid Little War". All except John McCain he still fumes and snarls like Yosemite Sam on the floor of the US Senate he'd send the 82nd Airborne Division to every bar room brawl in the Third World if he could. It appears to me, that he is the last man out on the "Operation Enduring Freedom" ledge not sure who can talk him off it at this point. Mostly it is times like this that I breathe a silent prayer of thanks he didn't win in 2008....oh the wars he'd a started it's a long list indeed.

Jeb Bush blundered pretty badly the other daya

and airily announced that he'd a invaded Iraq if he was his brother George Junior. The resultant conniptions have compelled the Ex Governor of Florida to execute a very clumsy walkback (something no member of the family does well) and send out a press aide to insist Jeb somehow misheard the question. Well perhaps an audiologist ought to be consulted before Jeb gets completely hard of hearing or something. This is pretty embarrassing for Bush who seems to be booking off a gaffe a week since he announced, it mostly serves though as a mute objective reminder of how unpopular our intervention in Iraq has become with the general public. As to whether any of this will damage Jeb's candidacy only time will tell, however past practice indicates that both his father and brother said all manner of idiotic things on a daily basis and still sneak into office. But for the moment Advantage Walker....(who has been dummying up lately if case you didn't notice).

The Washington Post

(which I am told is a reputable source of news) is reporting that Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is "interested" in running for President in 2016 in the GOP primaries. As a lifelong democrat all I can say is, we should be so lucky. Sarah peaked in August-September 2008 before her combined weirdness, inexperience and corruption helped lay low John McCain's hope of beating Barack Obama in a fair fight. And it's been down down down ever since for Palin who is mostly known these days for a theatrical ill temper and a ear so very finely tuned that she can hear a nickel drop a mile away. If she piled into the GOP Primaries, she'd reduce what is already a travesty to a spectacular travesty...advantage democrats whether she some got the nomination or not. More likely not...but lets be real here, who is gonna give her the big bucks she needs to win? She has to be a toxic fundraising prospect even for the GOP. No this little media blip is a bit of brand polishing, Trump does it every four years and reaps a reasonable harvest, so likely this is Palin's bid to punch up the sugar high that is her "q-rating".

Florida is Sinking...

Rising sea levels are creating flooding issues in Saint Augustine, wells are getting contaminated with sea water expensive municipal pumping systems levees etc are being discussed. Meanwhile Florida's hagridden third wave conservative governor offers municipalities "guidance" on how to handle these issues. "Guidance". A nice Orwellian term that indicates that Governor Scott doesn't accept the reality of climate change and therefore somehow it isn't happening. Its unbelievable I know, but then again this is a state where the First Amendment is closely policed such that Paid Members of the Executive Department may not utter or write the words "climate change" without incurring sanction. I begin to conjure triage scenarios....to the effect that, given all the issues that will manifest over the next century is Florida really worth saving? I mean aside from Epcot and the Launch Complex at Cape Canaveral (which could be easily moved to say, Cuttyhunk Island no fuss or bother), just for what do we battle the remorseless tide?

Happy 100th Birthday Orson Welles...

Back in 2002 when first I unleashed this cataract of "sarcastic rant driven chatter" on the then cutting edge blogosphere, I choose as the title one of Orson Welles' best if obscure films "The Chimes at Midnight". Even then I was under no illusions as the size of the audience I'd attract to this "The Little Blog That Cried" and besides I'd always admired Orson Welles and his directorial verve, he didn't get a chance to make many movies but all of them taken together are a veritable film studies class unto themselves. Besides "The Chimes at Midnight" is just a dead sexy title, and lets face it calling a caustic blog of liberal politics "The Touch of Evil" is just Asking Fer Trouble! So happy birthday Orson,you inspire and delight me, your work instructs multitudes of filmmakers today, and if in life you suffered, in death you won the argument hands down.

Cameron Re-Elected in the UK...

Like Benjamin Netanyahu David Cameron has a real talent for getting to fifty percent plus one by any means necessary....and lacking opposition with compelling ideas expounded with charisma....well advantage the Conservatives and their graceless charmless PM. And yet it's a vote for self pity, The UK is a sad place it seems, Scotland is like an aging dying Uncle who wants go go off insulin, climb over the nursing home's wall and go on one last self destructive bender downtown. Cameron's answer to this is "more devolution" for Scotland and Wales which amounts to putting two packets of Splenda in their tea instead of one. I think Cameron literally got in because the U.K. didn't auto destruct last year...thats his soul claim to power as the first conservative PM to stagger to a second term since Maggie Thatcher. Its not much to be proud of, but then the bar is set low in England these days.

Cacophony is Destiny...

The GOP Presidential Stakes are just going up and up Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson and whatzername are all piling in, so the Sheer Din of Wingnut Madness is about to treble and then likely quadruple with everyone screaming like mindless infants desperate to seize the attention of the furtherest most extreme reaches of movement conservatism. And I'm fine with it, these jobbers will scream themselves into the footnotes of history if this keeps up and I suspect it will. Cruz and Rand already sound exhausted and not one ballot has been cast yet....but still I say, More More More! The lack of an "indoor voice" anywhere in the GOP ranks will doom them all on Election Day 2016. Watch for it, forget Hilary the foreign contributors to Hilary's charity this...cacophony on the right is gonna be the big issue ere long.

Commonwealth Magazine

has already debunked the Governor's MBTA Commission report in respect of the alleged abuse of time off by the Carman's Union. Well...that didn't last long did it? So much for consensus. There is something every needs to recall about Governor Baker, spiritually he is an MBA that is his fastness and his final default setting. And the thing about MBA's is...they have this consistent attitude that you "cannot argue with the numbers, therefore there is NO GROUNDS for debate with respect to certain aspects of public finance. But anyone who has ever grubbed for an Insurance Company can tell you, the lowest auditor on the flow chart can make 2+2=8 easy peasy. When it comes to the taxpayers money 2+2 can equal 22 at the drop of a hat, a lot of these things are subject to interpretation. What Baker wants from the numbers is an interpretation that points to Union Malfeasance and the critical need for ridership to pay more for less under some phantom "reformed admin". Thats the commission report he got and that'll be the basis for his "can't argue with numbers" drive from here on out...which in turn means nothing will be done. But then I'm repeating myself on that point I fear....

As a confirmed bachelor...

I'm not sure how I would react As A Parent if I caught up to one of my kids as he was about to start seriously beefing with the rollers....but I'm not sure I'd stop short at harsh language. So I can see where the "Baltimore Mom" is coming from, sometimes stern measures have to be taken when you are a single mom. The people who get off on this as political spectacle wherein a Mother physically disciplines a potential looter are themselves deliberately overlooking the larger context...but then again obscuring the issues of systemic issues of race, poverty and law enforcement is as American As Apple Pie we do it so well after all.