It was a big week for Governor Jim Douglas. Nah, I’m not talking about his decision to step aside after his current term expires. I’m talking about his excitement over the opportunity to have a little pow-wow with yours truly only days after rocking Vermont’s political world with his retirement announcement. Oops, I forgot, Jim hates it when I say he’s retiring. Moving on, he kept counseling me — he’s “moving on.” Of course.

After our little chat about his future, a photographer approached and wanted to document the moment. Douglas, being the considerate gentleman that he is, asked the photographer to hold off long enough to look me in the eye and ask this all-too-important question: “Are you sure a photograph with me won’t ruin your reputation?”

Yeah, it probably will. But I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

Stay tuned for the specifics on our little chat. Hint: I’ve got big news.

Whew. It’s Friday.

And I guess something big has happened politically in Vermont. But I’m not sure, since I’ve spent most of the week either walking behind or sitting upon a horse. Big Jim’s been a busy boy, Fat Bart’s been getting his nightly workouts, and Lady (our daughter’s horse) has been getting the round-pen run-around thanks to Isabel, the newly minted 6th grader. Yikes.

Wait. Did I say “Big Jim?”

And, no, I’m not talking about Jim Douglas, either – the governor of Vermont. Because my Big Jim doesn’t quit.

But Vermont’s Governor Jim Douglas – the Republican – does quit. Wimp.

I’m speaking, of course, about yesterday’s announcement by Jim Douglas to step aside and skip the 2010 election in favor of….CASH. Oh wait, Douglas didn’t actually say “cash,” but he did say that he wanted to make some money to supplement his state retirement fund. Poor fella, he’s only been making around $100,000 for the last umpteen years as a “state-servant.” Better yet, he’s also had absolutely no family health-care payments in all those years.

See, Jimbo-the-quitter, socialism isn’t always bad.

But it’s clearly gotten too hot in Jimbo’s political kitchen to carry on for him politically. And with possible jobs at Green Mountain Power, Entergy Nuclear, and Middlebury College waiting for him, why continue to get charred by your own political stupidity when you can step aside, chase the cash and have the Vermont political and media elite all but write your fawning resume for you?

But if the truth could be invited into the discussion about Douglas’ quitting, it would point to this: Douglas’ economic neanderthalism sunk not only his political ambitions but also the state’s economy.

While Douglas ran on the slogan of “Jim=Jobs,” his political obituary should read “Jim=Job Cuts.” Worse, Jim also equaled a dated, stale, mean-spirited, and anti-labor economic outlook that left him – and the state – in a mess that looks all-too-similar to the every other state.

Quitter Jim is what they should be calling you. But the Vermont media and the political and media elite in the state are far too worried about their own well being to come out and say it. So, instead, we’re getting a truckload of bullshit from one media outlet and political figure after another that praises Douglas for his service, his commitment, his dedication and his…. [Editor intervenes: No more!].

Even the whiny-assed Democrats are jumping on the “thank you, Jim Douglas” bandwagon after his announcement. Consider these words from Democratic Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, a woman who recently announced that she had raised nearly $200,000 in her effort to unseat Douglas:

“I want to congratulate and applaud Jim Douglas for his years of service to the state. Douglas is a Vermonter who has devoted his life to public service. Vermonters, regardless of political party, should honor him for his commitment to serving the state for all of these years. I wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”

And that, my friends, is what’s wrong with Democrats. Congratulate and applaud him? Sorry, Deb, but you’re either full of shit with this statement or your campaign to unseat him is full of shit. If, in fact, this is how Markowitz feels about Douglas, perhaps she should return the $200,000 she raised to unseat him. Just saying.

But, that’s the way the game is played. And it works as long as you’ve got a ticket to ride.

Unfortunately, however, most of us don’t have that ticket, meaning that politics as they are almost always played aren’t a game to us.

While Markowitz can play footsie with Douglas after his decision to quit, many Vermonters who have lost their jobs, curtailed their dreams and been handed nothing but coal in the land of supposed “plenty” don’t have that luxury. They are – we are – under-employed, overly-stressed, and hyper-sensitive to the realities of our economy. It’s called living paycheck to paycheck.

Try it sometime, Jim & Deb.

So let’s recap: The Republican Governor is a quitter. And the Democratic challenger is an appeaser.

Been there, done that.

Come on, Big Jim, let’s get out of here.

Yep, the Old Mentor – Boots — just isn’t working out. Sadly, he’s changed.

So, what I’m looking for is someone who: Won’t sit on my lap in public; won’t stop talking to me when the Mayor of Montpelier approaches; won’t do something ridiculous like win an election (farmers’ market presidential elections, for example); won’t drive long distances on a beautiful summer day to accept a meaningless plaque in his/her group’s honor; won’t wear socialist t-shirts while playing a smiling capitalist; and who is partnered with someone who won’t hang up the phone when I call. It’s not asking much, you know.

Celery (yes, celery), benefits (nightly calls, etc.) and a stock answer to the question of, “you’re friends with him?” included in the package.

This website and its editor are desperate and opportunistic employers.

Let’s be friends.

Bashing the Democrats nowadays is like shooting fish in barrel: Easy. But it makes me wonder what people like Maher were thinking when they partook in the Obama wet-dream last year. Moreover, it makes me wonder if they’ll have the political gumption to keep this kind of rhetoric and clear-headed thinking up when the next election rolls around. One can only “hope.”

But, first, let’s begin with a simple multiple choice question:

Guess which constituencies have NOT been invited to the Obama White House?

A. Wall Street Criminals.
B. Health Insurance Industry Crooks.
C. Single-Payer Advocates.
D. Anti-War Leaders.
E. Military Industrial Complex Thieves.

Oh wait, maybe I didn’t word that very fairly. Whatever.

Time’s up. The answer is “C” and “D.”

Didn’t fool you, huh?

And if you’re wondering where the change is, try this: Insert hand into pocket and shake. No, no, not there. Yeah, there – where the change is. Feel it, baby. And then weep.

But now, as of today, we have a whole new right-wing constituency that is being fawned over by Obama himself: NASCAR nation.

I’m guessing that Team Obama was going down its list of whom it hasn’t abandoned yet and determined that the eco-global-warming-anti-noise folks hadn’t been properly poked in the eye yet. Solution? Invite NASCAR to the White House. Done – poke provided.

But Obama didn’t just invite the gas-hounds to the people’s house, he also spewed his own verbal petroleum out in a way that should have made Bill McKibben wonder why he lectured his global warming groupies to stick with the good Democrat. I mean, consider this quote from Obama today as he stood with NASCAR drivers in the White House driveway:

One of the core values of the NASCAR community is the belief that service isn’t just something you do once in a while when it’s convenient. It’s a way of life. That’s the face of America that you show to the world.

Huh?

Sorry, but the only “core values” I can think that belong in the same sentence with the term NASCAR are things like: Racism, waste, drunkenness, obesity and ignorance. Well, I do think it’s pretty cool when they shave the number of their favorite driver into their back hair.

Oh wait, did I say, “racism, waste, drunkenness, obesity and ignorance?” Oops, I forgot, in modern political speak that translates to: Votes.

In fact, the more I think about it, maybe they’re all Democrats. They do, after all, seem to have a lot in common. NASCAR fans and Democrats, for example, love to sit on their asses and watch their “leaders” go around and around and, in the end, get nowhere. Worse, they all still cheer as if they won. Fuck yeah.

But Obama stretched it more than a bit too far today when had this to say about NASCAR races:

Families can go to the track and they can see these great racers and enjoy a good family event that lasts for a while, and it’s affordable. But part of it is also the fact that I think racing teams themselves are a family, and it’s a reminder that the guy behind the wheel is not the only person involved in this thing. That it takes a pit crew, and it takes the engineers back at the shop.

Oh no, Mr. President, your ignorance scar is showing. Pandering will do that, you know.

Because if you’d managed to check, NASCAR races are not family events and they’re certainly not “affordable.” Unless, of course, you consider $100 tickets affordable and viewing fat, toothless, drunken bastards with exposed ass-cracks as big as the ozone hole a good family event.

Oh Reverend Wright, where are you when we need you? I’m sure you could have set the Good Brother Barack straight on this one.

But then, as I studied the picture of the NASCAR drivers posing with Obama, I realized what the attraction was: the corporate logos. Of course.

But at least the NASCAR drivers are honest about the game they’re playing. When they get media face time they appear with corporate stickers all over them and gush about the great “Dupont, Shell, Exxon, Coke, Budweiser, etc.”

If Obama was that honest, he’d be similarly decked out in corporate logos when dismissing meaningful health care reform or bending over for the military industrial complex while escalating wars.

Once again, it’s the corporations, stupid.

Maybe NASCAR’s onto to something: Honesty.

Pass me a beer.

Yes, indeed, we’ve seen this movie before. Yeah, you know, the one where hope silences passion and then the passionless wonder why they got nothing. Think: Carter. Clinton. And, now, Obama.

Pass the popcorn, because this horror-flick has got a lot more spiraling twists before it flails for its Phoenix moment just in time for next year’s midterm elections.

Some people never learn. But, on the bright side, I’m pleased to remind you that some of us were never fooled.

Here, for your reading pleasure (and my slacker-blogging ways as I find myself mired in w-w-w-w-ork – have I mentioned I hate that word?), are a couple of excerpts and links to essays I’ve found on the web that help propel the urge to yell “I told you so” in a crowded public space.

First up, Chris Hedges, and his wonderful TruthDig essay, Nader Was Right: Liberals are Going Nowhere with Obama.

An excerpt from Hedges:

The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of citizens. It will not push through significant environmental reform, regulate Wall Street or end our relationship with private contractors that provide mercenary armies to fight our imperial wars and produce useless and costly weapons systems.

The sad reality is that all the well-meaning groups and individuals who challenge our permanent war economy and the doctrine of pre-emptive war, who care about sustainable energy, fight for civil liberties and want corporate malfeasance to end, were once again suckered by the Democratic Party. They were had. It is not a new story. The Democrats have been doing this to us since Bill Clinton. It is the same old merry-go-round, only with Obama branding. And if we have not learned by now that the system is broken, that as citizens we do not matter to our political elite, that we live in a corporate state where our welfare and our interests are irrelevant, we are in serious trouble. Our last hope is to step outside of the two-party system and build movements that defy the Democrats and the Republicans. If we fail to do this, we will continue to undergo a corporate coup d’etat in slow motion that will end in feudalism.

And then there’s David Michael Green’s excellent piece from CounterPunch, Guess What? He’s a Terrible President.http://www.counterpunch.org/green08192009.html

Here’s an excerpt:

Both President Obama’s health care plan and his presidency are going down the toilet.

This is well, and right, and just as it should be.

Obama is turning out to be a disastrous president, wholly unsuited for the times and our national and global challenges, and his job approval ratings reflect this.

In Obama, we get all the corporate toadying of the last Democratic president, along with an even greater unwillingness than Clinton – and who would’ve thought that was possible – to name names, call out enemies, and throw a freakin’ punch every other year or so. (We’re also getting a continuation of the civil rights and civil liberties policies of Dick Cheney, as an extra added bonus, but that’s another story.) What makes it even more astonishing this time around, however, is that we’ve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. There is apparently absolutely no bottom – as the events of recent weeks have reconfirmed – to the pit of vicious lies, brutal tactics, and democracy-demolishing antics of which regressives will avail themselves in their practice of contemporary American politics. In addition to not being prepared for that, Barack Obama is still seemingly unable to raise his voice a decibel or two against the very people who are helping him to destroy his own presidency. Indeed, he is negotiating ‘bipartisan’ (read: total capitulation) deals with them, even as they relentlessly trash him before a national audience.

I’ll be in the woods if anyone needs me…