Randi Rhodes Forums

I appreciate your taking the time. Obviously, I've repeatedly read it as the "Dead Airforce One" gag. I just didn't see "dead" as synonymous with "old" or "cliched" or even "familiar" or "oft-debunked," etc.

Now, what about this mole above my left elbow? Is this something I should be concerned about, maybe show my doctor?

And is it appropriate to use the possessive apostrophe with the word "else," as in "I'm first, but then it's someone else's turn?"

I'm not one to ask about moles. I've had a dermatologist and a couple other doctors panic at the odd-shaped mole on the bottom of my foot. Even had it biopsied once. They swear it shouldn't be there but it had been all the way back to pictures of me in a blue plastic tub on the kitchen counter so I'm not panicked.

BUSHWA, thank you for explaining the meaning of the heading! And as I know from the recent past, you have to be careful on how humorous you're trying to be on these INTRANETS! Fellixe, every few months, the Republicans attack the President or whoever is Black, a woman, or related to Obama, for flying or using a government plane. This attack or trick or gag, is TIRED, OLD, AND DEAD. How many times can you go to the well? And for some reason, the so called mainstream media, DOESN'T CALL THEM on running the same play from the Republican attack book, OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Fellixe, that was the point, and true meaning of this thread, just like Bushwa, broke it down for you.

It was fellixe that broke it down for bushwa

Thing is, there's ALWAYS a crowd for whom it's all new! Whether among voters, or the media. And there's a real danger to a media that says, "Oh, pooh-pooh, this old whine is trotted out every election. Pay no attention." I'll give you a local example.

In the history of local elections in small towns across America, there are ALWAYS whines and shrieks about "organized efforts" to steal my campaign signs! Truth be told, the vast majority of "stolen" signs are lost to weather, or kids screwing around, or land owners taking down signs they didn't have the courage to say "no" too - but a day or two later, after their pal the candidate has left, they take down the sign and toss it in the trash.

First local election I worked, I got all excited about these howls from candidates who could PROVE "with geometric logic" how their signs - and especially the most prominently placed ones - were being STOLEN by the well-organized, evil-hearted opponents. Then I talked to some property owners who admitted they didn't have the nerve to say no, and they took down the signs once the candidate left. I noticed that signs along popular paths to and from schools rarely lasted long, and there would be loads of elementary school boys having sword fights with the pickets that once held signs.

After not too many elections, some breathless cub reporter would come up to me and ask if I'd heard about the organized campaign to steal all the signs of a certain candidate. Hey, they even filed a police report! (They ALL file police reports.) And I patiently explain to the sweet little thing how this happens EVERY election. and where the signs are REALLY going. We generally spend an hour or two talking with property owners to confirm it's the same pattern as usual.

Then, by a fluke, one year an SUV stops in front of a police car, a bunch of teens leap out and grab all the campaign signs of a certain candidate, and leap back into the SUV. The cops pulls the car over. The SUV is JAMMED with signs - dozens and dozens of them - for one candidate. The mom DRIVING the SUV is the campaign manager for the sign owner's competition, and she also happens to be married to the President of the Chamber of Commerce.

One of the kids tells the cops they've been doing this for his pal's mom for WEEKS - their house is filled with more of these signs. The cops use that to get a warrant, they head to the Mom's house. They find dad - the Chamber of Commerce prez - who has apparently had a frantic call from his wife. He's running between a fireplace in the den and one in the family room trying to burn as many of the stolen signs as he can. But there are so many of them stashed in the garage and in the back yard that he's barely made a dent.

Point being, and as we HAVE seen with use of Air Force One, there ARE assholes who abuse it. And even if the reimbursement rate is pathetic compared to the actual cost, there HAVE been campaigns and parties that will STILL try to squeak through a trip or three on the taxpayers. So, it's worth checking and reporting on every time.

All that said, yes, for the most part, idiot Republicans whining about Obama using Air Force One for campaigning are right down there in the slime with the moron Republicans whining about Obama taking too many vacations. The hypocritical pieces of shit have absolutely no shame, and the facts and the truth mean nothing to them.

Bushwa, you coulda just said, "Bush"!

Campaign signs disappear around here because the candidate is behind and he wants public sympathy from raising a ruckus about the leader ... by stealing his own signs. And then he got caught after dark by a vigilant window looker outer who called the cops. Moron.

My memory is failing me or I missed that story. Do you remember which candidate that was?

It's was Republican candidate Matt Wingard two or three election cycles ago when he lost trying to unseat Jerry Krummel who was branded a RINO by Lars Larson. Matt accused the Democratic candidate from Sherwood of stealing his signs, but he was busted removing his own. He claimed he was taking down the ones damaged by weather. He was not formally charged because they were his signs, but Wingard's brushes with ethical issues are not new.

You may not recognize Jerry Krummel's name. He was the former mayor of Wilsonville, and pretty decent guy. He took over after the previous mayor resigned under storm. That guy's name you may recognize if you are at all familiar with Clackamas county politics - John Ludlow. Ludlow is currently running for county commissioner with a ton of backing from the timber industry, specifically Stimson Lumber. He's running on a platform to "Stop Portland Creep", when in fact John, an independent realtor, has benefited from Portland creep as residential developement gobbled up farmland. Honestly, we should vote the man in so I can run a pool when he will resign. He has never, ever finished a single term he was elected or appointed to. He always leaves under a cloud. I could get rich off this ill tempered guy. He has refined the art of pissing people off.

While I gather you are referring to a specific instance in your area, he's not alone. It's been done all over.

Hell, remember when Karl Rove "discovered" his campaign office for William Clement's race for re-election as Texas governor had been bugged? Same story, just an uglier charge to hurl at the opposition. He "revealed" the discovery days before a pivotal debate, and it became pretty much the ONLY thing anyone in the state talked about for weeks. When it was later announced that that battery in the bug was so small that it would have to be completely replaced every few hours - and it was fully charged when found, coincidentally the very day he brought in a security firm to sweep the office - even many Republicans agreed Rove had planted it himself. Indeed, that's when the FBI dropped the investigation.

Oh, we've got to add a NEW ONE to the list of old dead Republican attack gags. THE WAR ON GAS! Now when Rethuglicans had NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH, ZIP, NOT A DAMN THING, to bitch and complain about, they hit President Obama for two and a half weeks on the SPECULATED WALL STREET HIGH GAS PRICES. But now that they become the GRINCH THAT STOLE EVERYTHING AND HATES EVERYBODY, they have dropped that pointed spear. But in a vague national poll I heard on the radio, people said they didn't like the way President Obama handled the high gas prices. Ah boys and girls of the media, the national average has dropped to $3.75 a gallon. I paid $3.35 the other day, while everybody else around that one station is $3.65 in the Dearborn/Detroit area.

I say, just hold your finger up the air, wait for the wind to blow, and that worn out attack talking point, will comeback to a Foxed Up News anchor desk or scum of the Earth right wing radio show host. Hey, they finally got a new one, THE WAR ON FAMILIES!