Ralph Nader has officially erased any of his prior good deeds with yet another useless run for the White House.

Regardless of the Dem outcome, this year we’ve got one candidate who is pro choice, one who is pro life, one who is for the war, one who is against the war, one who is for the current tax cuts, one who is against them, one for universal healthcare, one against, etc, etc.

And yet, from some twisted viewpoint, we’re supposed to believe we need a third choice.

Nah, this, once again is about nothing but the most base of all political motivations. Pure, unadulterated ego.

And unfortunately for Nader, this time around no one’s gonna give a shit. Our time is wasted and he is left with zilch.

Next story please.

Throughout this campaign season, it has been conventional wisdom that that the only thing that could unify the Republican Party was a run against Hillary Clinton.

The New York Times just proved there is at least one other thing that could do the trick.

Is there any part of politics – the candidates, the egos, the negativity, the stupidity, the pundits, the media coverage – that doesn’t just depress the shit out of you?

I’m sure there are more, but here are three top of mind things that the web has taught me.

1. The nonsensical, petty and cynical blabber that, like fresh manure, is tossed nonstop through our television screens and onto our living room floors, is, by an large, a pretty accurate microcosm of how the rest of us share opinions now that we have an outlet.
2. Coming up with puns not nearly as rare a skill as I had imagined.
3. Blogging is not a particularly efficient way to burn calories.

A religious group has pressured TVLand to change the name of an upcoming special from OhMyGod, That’s So 80s to OhMyGosh, That’s So 80s.

After all, you remember all those folks in the 80s who said, “Oh …. My …. Gosh….”

If you think it’s not out of control, you’re missing the story.

It’s amazing to me how many people are in denial about this topic. How many pundits have you heard describe Mike Huckabee’s continued political strength as a conservative statement against John McCain?

Are you kidding me? Talk about projection. You really think there are millions of Republicans making a protest vote? Please.

Huckabee is getting votes for one reason. Religion.

Pundits who can’t see that need to wake up, and so do the rest of us. We’ve a got an incredibly serious and potentially overwhelming pattern going on here. Denying it hasn’t worked too well so far.

There is no joy in Mudslingingville. Mighty Congress has struck out.

During a day when we had to watch Roger Clemens come off as being wildly less believable than his scumbag trainer and former syringe pumper, who do you think came off the worst?

Oh, you know who. You know exactly who.

There is almost never an event during which we get a good, long look at our Congress in action when the members themselves don’t come off as the biggest assholes in the room.

And so it was during the endless hours of investigation of a long past “palpable mass” on Roger Clemens’ buttocks. Members of Congress were pathetic. The partisan nature of the questioning was an embarrassment (and this is an area where we thought our shame sensors were totally desensitized), as was the wanton hero worship (Clemens was told he would be going to heaven, was described in heroic terms and was asked which uniform he planned to use for his Hall of Fame induction). Even during more evenhanded moments, the members just came off as being terribly unimpressive folks interested in little more than taking the spotlight in a grandstanding time suck. How do we vote people into power who we wouldn’t trust with a mid-level job where we work?

The irony here is that this is all being done in the name of cleaning up baseball so America’s youth can have positive role models. You’d of course hope that your kid could look up to a member of Congress over a member of an athletic team. But as we know, that’s not the way it is. Who, other than an insecure nut bag with a few screws loose, could watch our political machine in action and want to do anything but run the other way.

And the political story will get even more upsetting before it’s over. Clemens dug himself a hole. The feds won’t be able to resist going after such a big fish. And Roger’s good buddy in the White House will likely throw down a pardon on the way out of office.

Here is a tremendous video that aims to provide Yahoo’s Jerry Yang with some tips about negotiating with Microsoft.

The video comes from a cool site called 5min-Life Videopedia