“What do I hear for these valuable but slightly irregular Florida GOP delegates? Do I hear three million? What’s that Mr. Santorum, twenty thousand? Get away from me boy, you bother me!

Three million, three million…I’d recognize that flabby white arm anywhere, Mr. Gingrich is in for three million dollars! Mr. Gingrich is over the moon or maybe not but the bidding continues! Do I hear four million?

Four million, four million…(THUMP!) …Mr. Romney has dropped an airlifted safe onto Mr. Gingrich containing sixteen million dollars! There are no bidders left…no Mr. Paul, we don’t accept Ayn Rand Gold Standard Buckaroos…someone please escort Mr. Paul to the auction for Bigfoot artifacts…as I said, there are no bidders left so the delegates go to Mr. Romney for $16 million dollars! Congratulations Mr. Romney, you’ve just bought yourself a great set of delegates. Just remember, don’t get them wet or let them eat after midnight! Just kidding ya, enjoy!”

Don’t you love American democracy? Where money is speech and Groupon has special limited time offers for delegates?

In this era of recession, unemployment and foreclosures, when over 46 million out of 307 million Americans live in poverty, our social system may be crumbling due to the damage the top 1% have wrought on it but at least our elections not only remain consistent but provide a money-back guarantee to the highest bidder.

As all the pundits agree, The Emperor With No Clothes is buying himself another transparent suit today. Mitt Romney is expected to win the Florida GOP Primary tonight but what is kind of surreal is that it seems universally acknowledged that it is due primarily to the spending of around $16 million in negative advertising against Newt Gingrich and not because people actually support Romney as their candidate. Add to that, the in-your-face campaign the GOP has made through the Mainstream Media to destroy Gingrich and make clear to their party, “We have decided on who will be our nominee, your job is to vote for that candidate so the image of this being democratically decided can still be argued by us.”

To be clear, Mitt Romney is expected to win the Florida GOP Primary, not because he has made a strong case for why he is qualified, because he is likeable, due to his favorable stands on the issues, as a result of his vision for the future of the nation…no, he is openly touted to win because he spent five times more money on negative advertising in Florida than Gingrich. That’s all.

Is that really a dynamic we should be talking about so openly in public without feeling this whole “democracy” thing is just a sham? Sure, Romney robotically echoes words about American Exceptionalism and American Freedoms but he does so while his campaign manipulates Florida voters like unexceptional rats in a maze as he writes a check for the delegates he’s decided to buy.

And what about Florida voters? They have been subjected to a massive inundation of propaganda that is telling them to do what their told…but when they vote and explain it by saying that they were just following what the commercials told them to do, is that an acceptable excuse? When you have all the voices in the media telling you that you’re being manipulated by all the money spent on manipulating you, shouldn’t you shake your head and say, “I am not a puppet!”

Unfortunately, Corporate America, which backs the big money candidates, has spent many years and many millions (more likely billions) investigating and refining the tools of propaganda and how to both conceive and test ads that will convince people that drinking a “diet” concoction of laboratory chemicals, caffeine, salt and gas is good for them and will make them thin and healthy.

If you can sell the public that eating liquified then molded chicken beaks, guts, feet, ammonia, artificial flavoring and other chemicals are “fun and tasty”, you can convince them that voting for a liquified then molded candidate with artificial positions and sweeteners is a good thing too.

Americans want to be sold on things, they want to be convinced to like things or buy things. It’s actually a good feeling to many people and they welcome it. Actually, now it’s more than just wanting to be sold on something. With the advancement in marketing research, advertisers have learned how to stimulate fear and desire in people in a way that is as highly effective as a sheepdog herding sheep into a corral.

So, many people just can’t help themselves from doing exactly as they’re propagandized to do, partly because the advertisers now know how to wire directly into their brains and partly because they want authority figures to tell them what is good or bad and what they should want or do.

There are many people who see propaganda for what it is and don’t allow something as suspect as a tv commercial to make them buy a body spray because the ad shows it makes gorgeous members of the opposite sex lust for them nor do they vote as ads insist they should. Such people reason for themselves and make decisions based on something they possess as a higher form of life, such as information, reasoning or principle. However, this appears to be a minority of voter/consumers. The reality is that, except for a few exceptions, the candidate that spends the most money on advertising, wins over a majority of people to vote for him/her.

Occupy Wall Street and the financial hardships millions of Americans are suffering through now should help to inoculate many from being so simply swayed to do as the conditioning they’re subjected to would dictate but when it comes to GOP voters, looking for critical thinking even in the current environment is like looking for Mitt Romney to say “I believe” believably.

What about the Independent Voters, who will ultimately decide who is elected President and which party runs the houses of Congress? Which side of the fence are they on? Will they be just as vulnerable to the hundreds of billions in negative advertising against President Obama that will flood the nation’s air waves? Will they drink their Coke and gobble up their McNuggets, nodding their heads at descriptions of Obama as a “European Socialist”, “An absolute failure”, “Made the recession worse”, “Weak on foreign policy” just as the weak minded Republicans have in the GOP primaries? Or will they reject the old proposition of, “Who are you going to believe, my very attractive and powerful negative ads or your lying memory?”

Also, one has to add to this mix that unlike Gingrich, Pres. Obama will be armed with hundreds of millions to advertise positively about himself, his accomplishments and his vision for the future. And of course, there will be negative advertising against Romney both from Pres. Obama, his Super PAC and other outside groups. You can’t go into a gunfight empty-handed because you oppose guns or, good intentions or not, you will lose. So, as long as we have this corrupt Citizens United ruling in place, as long as there are no truth in advertising laws against political ads (though there may be in the future), as long as we don’t have mandatory public funding for campaigns and far shorter campaign seasons, these are the rules and tools of the game and you stand on principle against using them at your own risk of defeat.

In the end, I am optimistic that most American voters will reject this kind of manipulation from the GOP and will not support an obvious corporate and Wall Street facade as President of the United States. I say this not because I have great faith in Americans’ wisdom, reason or vision.

What I do have great faith in is pain.

When your hand is hurting because someone has pounded on it with a hammer, no matter how wonderful the assurance is that pounding it with the hammer again will make it feel better, bullshit can’t override pain.

People are really suffering across the country and they know why. The majority doesn’t blame Obama for causing their pain though some are upset at him for not making it go away. They have been hammered by the top 1% rigging our democracy and economy in an act of class warfare, to drain them of their wealth and futures so the top 1% can become more obscenely rich and more tyrannically powerful.

Can enough advertising convince most Americans that pounding a hammer on their hand once again will take the pain away and actually make their hand feel wonderful and rich?

I’ll bet all my chicken nuggets that this time, it can’t.

With all that said, we will be live blogging the election today and tonight, you’re invited to share your comments here about our democracy, money in politics, Romney, Newt and this primary throughout the day. Tonight we’ll live blog as results come in but be prepared, it could be a very early night, if Romney’s lead ends up as big as predicted, he could be declared the winner right after polls close as has been the pattern since NH but you can still hang around and chat, someone’s got to drink all these pomegranate martinis anyway!

Click on the PTODE image to enlarge.

If anyone has any recommendations for changes or additions I’m always open to suggestions.

What would happen if I listen, really listen to the news 24 hours a day?  What would I hear from the different channels?  What would the outcome be and what would my response be?  Would it make me angry, happy, sad, disgusted?  I asked myself those questions and decided, what the hell, I’m  going to find out, so here goes.

I found out that Andrea Mitchell is a Wall Street ho.  She has a hard time understanding why people are going up against Mitt Romney for his obvious good deeds at Bain Capital.  I thought to myself, I am sure her asshole husband has trained her right and she, like the ladies of the night, will always defer to her pimp.

I found out that Andrea Mitchell and Chris Ciliza are terribly worried at how Mitt is going to make his millions last through an election cycle.  Apparently even though they ARE the “journalists”, they are not yet aware that Rove’s Crossroads GPS and Goldman Sachs are funding Romney.  He will probably still retain the majority of his almost quarter of a billion dollar holdings through his campaign and none of his homes will be foreclosed on despite the fact he is not occupying them right now.  The established elites of the party are supporting him.  I figured it out and I am just another retiree with no journalistic experience.

I found out that Jim Clyburn can make Mitchell shut up for a few minutes and only be able to get out the phrase, “thank you very much, we are out of time” when he was done, proving she has zero intellectual capacity when confronted with a person who knows what they are talking about.  I bet she is good on the coctail circuit though.

Oh darn, I thought that pic was of her and Greenspan but someone tells me it is Kim Jong Il, I guess I got it mixed up since Greenspan has been hiding since his appearance in Congress back in 2009.

I learned the Catholic Church can fire a teacher without any repercussions with regard to discrimination and all churches are included in the Supreme Court ruling.

I heard Hillary Clinton vehemently states that NO U.S. persons were involved in the assassination of a Iranian nuclear scientist, despite the fact we all know the CIA is imbedded in the country.  Then, a chill went down my spine, I just read a book by a zionist right-wing evangelical convert author (that sure is a mouthful but all true), Joel Rosenberg, where the exact same thing happened in the same city but he claimed the Iranians were blaming Israel/Mossad.  Now if I were an Evangelical I would see this as a sign of the end times because surely Joel Rosenberg is one of the prophets of the last days.  Calmer heads pervail here though, I think he just made an educated guess based on the news coming out of Iran for the past few years.  If you are interested in the book, it is called The 12th Imam and it is a good read if you are aware of the author’s religious leanings.  I have read his books for the entertainment value, not his religious leanings.

I found out if you work for MSNBC and write a book, they will shamelessly promote that book 24/7 despite the fact you are an ex-republican Wall Street schill pretending you are on the side of the PEOPLE, especially with a book to sell.  But your name is RATigan so it’s all good.

I learned that Moody’s is forecasting steady job growth for the coming year so they really can do more than develop complicated algorithms that aided and abetted Wall Street in committing the biggest heist in American, possibly World History where no one is ever prosecuted.  Let’s just hope this is not another of their Triple A ratings on a junk job market.

I learned 8.8m jobs were lost in the recession of 2007-2008 and Obama has only overseen 2.6m jobs recovered since 2009.  I guess you could say those 8.8m jobs were his fault since he was running for President in that time frame but I like to think Bush and his cronies had something to do with it.   And certain people wondered why their parting from DC was accompanied by the song, “Na Na Na Na Na Na Na hey hey hey goodbye” with Chris Matthews claiming the Inauguration crowd was being disrespectful.

I heard that Governor Haley Barbour decided to stick it to the citizens of Mississippi by pardoning more than 200  people including convicted murderers, DUI deaths, manslaughter, kidnapping, rapists etc.  I guess the only convictions that should hold are the ones against women who have abortions because we all know he would be PRO-LIFE in those instances with those women receiving no compassion at all.

I heard a Bomb-in-a-bag exploded when a woman and her husband found it beside their car with their names written on the bag.  The picked it up, put it in the car and when the woman opened it after they had gone a few blocks, it exploded.  Her ex-husband is the suspect because she had to take numerous restraining orders, file for divorce and won a $121 thousand dollar settlement from him.  I wonder if he just did not want to pay that settlement?  Well hopefully he fucked it up because they are in the hospital fighting for their lives and I just said a prayer for them.  Hang in there Allyson and Christopher Stone.

I heard that 213,000 Vets have suffered brain damage since 2000 and countless others various psychological problems, but Mitt Romney still hires the PNAC team who worked for Bush and needed a “Pearl Harbor Incident” to put into effect their evil nation building scheme, not to mention the other Bush administration flunkies.  Hmm that may be a post in itself detailing all the Bush/Rove people advising Mitt Romney.  I also have to ask why these people are making the big bucks with all the loss of life they are responsible for and I wonder if there really is a God?

I found out that Michelle Obama is an angry black lady because some twit named Jodi Kantor says it is so. Well I say Jodi Kantor is an angry white lady because she is now losing critical coverage of her book as a result of the NH primary.  Too bad, so sad, for her.  She calls herself a reporter and claims the

“White House has not pushed back on the specific reporting in the book”

despite the fact that:

“Soon after excerpts of the highly anticipated book surfaced online on Friday, the White House issued a statement strongly finding fault with Kantor’s reporting.”

I wonder, does Kantor know Rahm Emmanuel?  Does she know what an hotheaded asshole he is?  He could even make me, a mellow white lady, mad.  Apparently she was not there when he stabbed a table with a fork during the campaign of Bill Clinton because he was “mad”.  Does that make him an Angry Jewish Man?  I think it all just makes Ms Jodi sound as if she is not aware that sometimes people get angry, BUT, they get over it and to put a label to a person in this instance is just, well, juvenile.

I learned that the right cries “Class Warfare” whenever they are attacked, especially Mitt Romney but poo poos the idea that rich people commit “Class Warfare” despite the Occupy Movement all over the world proving him wrong.  I would bet the sheer numbers of the OWS movement scare the hell out of them.  They are probably, as I speak, re-enforcing those gates in their gated communities and writing off the security costs on the tax forms where they always end up paying less tax.

I found out that after coming in 2nd place in New Hampshire Ron Paul is now dangerous, instead of just a pesky moth flying around my light fixture, Rick Perry is stuck on “Vulture Capitalist”, Rick Santorum thinks NH was probably a waste for him and that Newt is about to drop a bomb on Romney in the South Carolina television cycle.

I learned the religious evangelicals in South Carolina may or may not vote based on Romney’s past history or the rhetorical shit he is spewing now depending on how Tony Perkins advises them.  Apparently the WWJD in this situation is not applicable because I am sure Jesus would not fall for a chameleon like Mitt, nor would he make excuses to go with the party line.  Jesus was always something of an individualist in his life, not buying the company line unless it was a direct line from GOD.  And no, that does not mean that GOD really told Bachman, Santorum, Paul or Bachman to run.

Dylan RATigan is on now, should I change over to CNN?  I think I will give it a shot despite the fact RATigan is now talking about the the same old story and Jonathon Alter thinks the president is not really that much apart from Romney in the polls.  Besides I have a DVR and I can record what this schill is saying.  Oh wait a minute here, he just admitted that right now President Obama would more than likely beat all Republican candidates.  Should I stay or should I go?  Sounds like a song I might have heard on the radio but on the way over to CNN, oh goody, my favorite news guy, Wolf Blitzer………..

First off I found out Erin Burnett did not always know she was going to be a journalist.  Who in the hell ever said she is one?

Now I am in the Situation Room, I think Wolfe has White House aspirations.

OMG CNN is reporting the number one suspect in the Iranian assassination is Israel and that the assassination will likely make Iran speed up the enrichment of uranium.  Funny I was not aware that the process could be sped up, but I am sure Barbara what’s her name is far smarter than I.  And the head of Israeli Defense Forces posted on the IDF FB page that he is not aware of whodunit, but he is not about to shed a tear.  Well golly, geez, that is not inflammatory because if it was CNN would not have provoked the situation further by airing it.  But I forgot, I am now in the “shocking video” “breaking news” zone because everyone knows CNN is number one, I mean look at how quickly they jumped on the end of the Tea Party bandwagon.

I am now watching the Angry Black Woman talking to Gayle King, I think people are just jealous that a Black Family has now given the White House substance and class.  The ToyStoryWhite Dude that preceeded them lost it somewhere down in Texas or Kennebunkport.  Perhaps when he shared a joint with Harold and Kumar?

Now they are showing a video of 4 Marines urinating on three dead bodies and you can see from their sniper rifles and helmets that they just could match a group in Afghanistan.  Despite the fact they think the video is horrendous, they never leave it the whole time Barbara Starr is describing it.  Despite the fact this could go viral, the leave it on the screen, never once taking responsibility for encouraging just such an incidence.

Now I usually do not make fun of peoples’ looks but trying to watch Dana Bash talking in SC, all I can see is that big long nose.  Thank God she turned in a conversation with Paul and she is sideways to the camera now.  And who is that old lady standing behind Paul from last night?  If it is his wife, she sure looks like my loving and sweet grandma, rest her soul.  I have never seen her before and she sure does not look like she is batshitcrazy.

Now Jack Cafferty wonders if the Republican race is over, but he wants you to chime in and make up his mind for him.  All these professionals on TV and they cannot make up their minds without asking all of us.  Perhaps we really are the one who KNOW what is what?

I just slipped over to Fox, we will see how long I can stay here.  Roundtable is talking about how Romney built companies that were in trouble, but one guy asking, “what company did Mitt Romney build from the ground up?”.  Then they slide into something about gaffes of Joe Biden and I am lost.  Now I can see why I never watch Fox news.

Channel down back to CNN.  I have 40 minutes until Rev Al comes on and I think I am more likely to be able to get through that one without this ridiculousness.  I think I will do a quick carpet bombing in my livingroom with the vacum cleaner.

Warren Buffet has just issued a counter-challenge to Republicans in Congress.  Actually they challenged him to pay taxes and established some fund for it, but he replied taxes are not philanthropy.  He did challenge McConnell that he would match 4 to 1 for any funds they would like to contribute to the fund as well.  I thought he was smart when I made a bundle on his purchase of Wells Fargo stock, I see he is cunning as well.

Oh dang, I missed that Erin Burnett wanted to make a difference too.  I wonder how she does that as a CNBC schill or as an infotainer at CNN.

Rick Santorum does not believe Romney is the man to lead the party, because he feels his package is just the right thing for SC and I guess the entire nation.  Even when he is speaking about non-sexual things, he can always get that little zing in there, quite the man isn’t he?  He thinks a “right to work law” would be good for the nation and Wolfe did not delve further into that, nor really anything he said.  I would have at the very least asked him how a “right to work law” would help the middle class, or any worker for that matter.  It is such a phony argument anyway when all a company has to do is advise a prospective employee that they are an “at will” employee.  The GAP does it here in California of all places.

CNN now is filling time by telling how the Twinkie is an American icon that has now filed Bankruptcy.  It is just a Chapter 11 reorg CNN, chill out, no need to go all gaga on a Twinkie sentimental journey to fill up space you cannot fill with legitimate news.

Ahhhh Relief………Reverand Al is on, my only relaxing,  just watch and enjoy pundit show in the entire cycle.

Uh oh Jim Clyburn just called Mitt Romney sophomoric with his patter on class envy.  But Mitt Romney clarified his comment on envy of the super rich, “they who envy should talk about that envy in closed rooms, not in the public.”  Sounds like he is talking to a victim of incest and he does not want to expose the crime to people who might just do something about it.

Now we are talking about responsibility especially with regard to the Satans ofWall Street who lined their own pockets at the expense of the American and World population.  David Corn is making sense, now I am in the “sensible zone”.  We have charts and numbers to go with the claims that are being made, how novel.  If you make your money off an inheritance from money left to you by a parent, you pay 18%, but if you go to work everyday, you are paying the going rate.  But that is not unfair.  Jim Clyburn and Rev Al are going to make sure these issues remain in the forefront of the campaign as they go and stump for the President.  David Corn is persuasive in his comment about the right making Obama now a European in an effort to discredit him.  He ultimately labels their strategy as, well let’s just say,  the southern strategy.

You’re So Bain or Feel The Bain is being covered right now.  It is a damning portrayal of Mitt Romney which is why he is doing everything to deflect this attack.  Including claiming the video as coming from Obama.  Jaysus does he ever tell the truth?  The right wing is circling the wagons and tryin to reign their mavericks in but it does not look like it will work for now.  Rev Al is good with parables.  His mama told him if you throw a brick at a group of hogs, the one hit will cry out, as an analogy to what the right is doing right now, especially Mitt.  Gingrich hit him hard.  The rest just have Blueberry Pie all over their faces.

Now I am listening to a comprehensive conversation regarding Nicki Haley’s decision to sue the Federal Government over State Voter ID.  You cannot blame Haley, after all she was probably not even born when Jim Crow laws were in effect.  But as a woman of color she should be more aware of civil rights in this country.

And finally, I did learn that Melissa Harris-Perry’s show will first air on February 4 right after Chris Hayes.

Well I never got through a full 24 hour cycle and I barely made it through all the cable networks but I did get quite a lot of information.  Some of it valuable, some of it trash.  To tell the truth, I could not watch what they call news for 24 hours a day.

“And that’s the way it is, January 11, 2012″

There were so many worthy nominees deserving this PlanetPOV award for The Biggest Political F#%! Up of 2011, let’s just say that there are no winners, only losers and bigger losers.

Narrowing the list down to fifteen leaves out a number of viable nominees so please feel free to vote for any of these and/or nominate your own favorites (unfavorites?) in a comment below and folks are encouraged to vote for any of those by replying to that comment affirming your vote.

In any case, please vote for a maximum of five whether in the poll below or by replying to one nominated in a comment below.

Okay, here we go, in no particular order or sane rationalization, our fifteen candidates:

They may be hard bitten political figures but they too make up lists of wishes to send to Santa, in hopes that he’ll bring them what they want:

John Boehner

 ”All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my missing spine, these shoe prints cleaned off of my suit and face and a very thick and absorbent handkerchief.”

Mitt Romney

“What I would like from you St. Nicholas is a very expensive artificial tree, a more convincing fake laugh and a word that simultaneously means “yes” and “no” (“Nyep”?).

Pres. Barack Obama

“Between the GOP Presidential field and the recent Republican House fight against tax cuts, I’ve received so many wonderful gifts already from the GOP, I’d feel guilty asking Santa for anything more.”

Newt Gingrich

 ”Dear Santa, I would like (and deserve) the Presidency, an amnesia ray mounted in a satellite or the moon which could affect an entire nation and a redefinition of marriage to mean one man, one woman and one affair…at a time.”

Ron Paul

“We shouldn’t be investing wishes in a foreigner who doesn’t even live in the United States! We need to spend our wishes here! And anyway, the only fictional character I believe in is Ayn Rand.”

Michele Bachmann

“I would like an industrial sized eye drop applicator, the Patsy Cline song, “Crazy”, a mega pack of D batteries, a war with Iran that brings about End Times and a corn dog.”

Charles and David Koch

“Give us everything now, Santa, you fat fuck!”

Corporations as people

“What the Kochs said.”

Sarah Palin

“Attention…lots and lots of attention…please Santa, I’m going through withdrawals and it hurts like acid burning through my veins! Please!”

Herman Cain

“A Nine-nine-nine figure salary as a Fox commentator, a subscription to Playboy, the book “Secretary of Defense For Dummies” and smiling in slow motion becoming the coolest new trend with the kids (including that Just A Beeper kid).”

Here’s hoping Santa makes all your wishes come true!