http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas /cuba/story/989566.html

Put aside the fact that we're the democracy, and they're the dictatorship, and thus we're good and they're bad.

Put aside the fact that there have been thousands and thousands of political prisoners incarcerated and killed in Cuba since the revolution (not according to just any crazy right wing bigot, but according to Amnesty International), hundreds of whom still languish in prison for purely political reasons.

Put aside the fact that the U.S. is expected to make pre negotiation concessions, but Cuba doesn't have to. (Cuba, not the U.S., gets to commence negotiations without preconditions, or any advance showing of good faith.)

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I seriously doubt that the Wayans Brothers or the writers of MAD TV could have written a funnier spoof than yesterday's orgy of idiocy featuring Rod "Governor Soprano" Blagojevich, Roland Burris and Bobby Rush.  To borrow a phrase from the always-quotable Christopher Hitchens, this appointment is a "ludicrous embarrassment."

The presser was a comedians dream and the clumsy injection of race by Bobby Rush was sadder than it was despicable.  First, seeing how Bobby has physically suffered from throat cancer was heart breaking, but his reasons for supporting Blagojevich in his bullsh*t was even more tragic.  Poor Bobby is clearly suffering from chemo brain because Blagojevich's bi-polar antics have grown more outrageous with time, and his latest stunt is as disingenuous as it is insane.  Blagojevich is desperately trying to disprove the allegations of extortion and contract fraud against him.  It won't work. His career is over and nothing he says or does will ever change that.

Unfortunately for Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris is not a Magic Negro capable of absolving his manifold sins although he would like him to be. (One needs to be a palatable, focus grouped, establishment Negro creation of David Axelrod capable of raising $750 million dollars to be a proper receptacle for white liberal fantasies of racial absolution.) Burris is an uninspiring and irascible functionary that has let his ego get the better of him.  

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If you haven't seen the complete train wreck that is the press conference during which Rod Blagojevich announced his appointment of Roland Burris to Barack Obama's Senate seat, I highly recommend it. It begins with Blagojevich and Burris acting as though they exist in some alternate universe in which anyone Blago appoints is going to be taken seriously and ends with Rep. Bobby Rush essentially daring the Democrats in the US Senate to deny an African-American the seat being vacated by the first African-American president.

It's unfortunate that Rush would allow Blagojevich to use him in this way (notice how Burris and Blago call Rush up in quasi impromptu fashion to speak at the presser.) The fact is that Democrats' opposition to seating Blago's appointment is color blind and certainly not seating Burris does not preclude there being another African-American representing Illinois in the US Senate. Something tells me that Blago is smiling tonight realizing that he is putting Harry Reid et al in a difficult position.

Watch it to believe it:

Update [2008-12-30 18:6:10 by Todd Beeton]:Via e-mail, here is Barack Obama's statement on the appointment:

Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.

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Brought to you courtesy of Jill Tubman of Jack and Jill Politics and some soy mac and cheese with cherry tomatoes, veggie Canadian bacon and extra hot sauce. Mmmm. Hey, don't knock vegetarian soul food til you've tried it.

Mind Games in Maryland -- Puppy-cuddling, nausea-inducing Michael Steele continues to camouflage his Republican identity to voters. A new ad airing in Baltimore from the National Black Republican Association attempts to remind Maryland African-Americans (who comprise 30% of the state and are among the wealthiest in the U.S.) of their Republican roots. The Washington Post reports:

The ad identifies Martin Luther King Jr. as a Republican and pins the founding of the Ku Klux Klan on Democrats.

One woman says: "Democrats passed those black codes and Jim Crow laws. Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan."

"The Klan?" her friend replies. "White hoods and sheets?"

First woman: "Democrats fought all civil rights legislation from the 1860s to the 1960s. Democrats released those vicious dogs and fire hoses on blacks."

My own grandfather was a loyal Republican for many years only finally, reluctantly turning in the 1970s with disgust and sorrow from the party that freed his own father from slavery. (BTW, it's not uncommon for voting age blacks to be separated only by as few as 2,3 or 4 generations from slavery.) He recognized that things had changed and hopefully Steele's supporters and their bright idea born of desperation to win won't bamboozle anyone. (Thanks for the photo, SparklePony)

Good Fences Don't Always Make Good Neighbors -- Ridiculous Republican efforts to build a giant fence on the Arizona border to keep the Mexicans out have hit an unexpected snag in the form of the Tohono O'odham Indians who bring a different, somehow less racist, somewhat more pragmatic view on the matter.

Jews Don't Eat Pork Chops, but Felix Does?-- George "Macaca" Allen re-discovers his own minority heritage. It's a little awkward for everyone.

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Lynn Sweet of the Sun-Times writes today of a "$1 million grant from the charitable arm of SBC/AT&T" to a community center founded by Congressman Bobby Rush (IL-01)

She points out that:

On Wednesday, the energy and commerce panel on which Rush sits is set to vote on a controversial rewrite of telecommunications law co-sponsored by Rush and backed by major phone companies eager to compete with cable television companies.

Yes, this is the nortorious "Barton-Rush bill" where Rush was one of the Democrats on the Committee who voted against a provision guaranteeing "net neutrality".

Sweet continues:

Rush, asked to explain whether he had a conflict in sponsoring telecommunications legislation in the wake of the grant, replied in a statement that the "real conflict" stems from inequities in the telecommunications marketplace that hurt the poor

Since his bill is geared primarily to relieving the "inequities" that hurt the telecos, apparently "pay-back" for the "poor" is coming through backdoor channels like the community center.

When the Teleco Cartel flexs its muscles, this is one of the ways they do it.

Save the Internet!  Save the Internet!  Save the Internet!

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