Geraldine Ferraro, once a beacon of hope for the possibility of a new era in American politics, has now disgraced herself for a second time. Today's 'clarifying' comments regarding last week's racist remarks were, if anything, even more offensive. They, and now Ms. Ferraro herself, symbolize a dark and ugly political era that belongs firmly in the past. And by allowing her to remain with her campaign in an official capacity, Hillary Clinton has brought the shadow of Ms. Ferraro's disgrace upon herself.

Another week, another diversionary flap over some slithering surrogate's depraved words, and another few delegates added to Barack Obama's unbeatable lead. This spectacle is down to a battle of the surrealists vs. the sure realists, but perhaps the latter should start reflecting the confidence of insurmountability.

Another six weeks -- and heaven forfend even the thought of four or five more months -- of this mindless, he-said, she-said drivel and John McCain and his neocon shock troops can start measuring the drapes.

Every horror movie has that "Oh Shit!" moment, when the hero or heroes are huddled in some creepy hideout, and suddenly something happens that tells you that the monster is just around the corner, or just about to attack. In "Jurassic Park" it was the pulsing ripples in a cup of water, heralding the arrival of a T-Rex. In "Jaws" it was the deep base music, letting you know that a monstrous shark was about to attack.

Well, we just got our "Oh Shit!" moment with the just-announced resignation of Admiral William J. Fallon, the military commander of US Middle East operations.

If Admiral William Fallon really was the only man standing between us and a new war with Iran, as Esquire magazine claimed recently -- well, he's gone now.

The view of Fallon as some kind of secret peacenik was laughable: after all, Fallon, as head of US Central Command, has been directing Bush's murderous and illegal Terror War actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia for the past year. Multitudes of innocent people have died in the imperial satrapy under his command.

But it seems that a minion's willingness to commit war crimes to further America's "full spectrum dominance" of the earth is not enough in eyes of the Dear Leader. There is now an elaborate system of ritual crawling and kowtowing that must be followed to the letter by imperial courtiers. A prime example of this has been the sight of "tough, independent-minded" Attorney General Michael Mukasey constantly twisting himself into circus-freak contortions in order to countenance the Leader's policies of torture and executive tyranny.

Spitzer said he was astonished that he recently had to pay close to $5000 for what he called "basic services."

"Now we see that the effects of the subprime mortgage collapse are truly widespread," Spitzer said, his anguished wife mysteriously standing beside him. Spitzer noted that under Democratic rule, escort services have always been far more affordable.

And they're saying we should elect women because that wouldn't happen!