The Proud Liberal Bitch

Don Siegelman, U.S. Political Prisoner

2009-09-22T08:08:00.002-06:00

Siegelman Blasts DoJ and Judge In 'Final' Reply Seeking Hearing

Read at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kreig/siegelman-blasts-doj-and_b_294164.html
Don Siegelman finally took off the gloves today against his prosecutors and ... the federal appeals court ordered the former governor

Yes the corrupt republican thugs that Bush appointed are still in office, still doing their dirty work. They are pissed that Siegelman has fought back every step of the way & are now trying to have him re-tried before the same crooked Bush judge. Additionally they are asking this judge to tack on an additional 20 yrs for a non-crime. Based on what I have read Judge Fuller is a corrupt, vindictive SOB at best. How obscene does this case have to get before our so-called justice dept decides to do something about the thugs that Bush put in office. Why hasn't Obama removed these attorneys? Why hasn't Holder paid the slightest attention to these cases? Entire families are being destroyed by these criminal U.S. attorneys and YES, Karl Rove! It could just as easily be you if our legal system continues to be used to prosecute & imprison political opposition.

Attorney General Eric Holder 202.514.2001; fax: (202) 307-6777; E-mail: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

White House 202-456-1111; toll free number: 800-833-6354; E-mail: www.whitehouse.gov

Email, phone, fax the whole damn Congress!
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ - Clicking on the state it will bring up a page with all elected members of congress, their phone, fax and email links.

A Modest Medicare Proposal by Thom Hartmann

2009-08-24T21:16:00.001-06:00

Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal

by Thom Hartmann, Monday, August 16, 2009, CommonDreams.org

Dear President Obama,

I understand you’re thinking of dumping your “public option” because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.

Instead, let’s make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.

It would be so easy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called “public option” that’s a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won’t – just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you’re so comfortable with.

Just pass a simple bill – it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people – that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.

So it’s revenue neutral!

To make it available to people of low income, raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me – under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.

Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!

This lets you blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with Blue Cross. Those who like it can buy into it. Simplicity itself.

Of course, we’d like a few fixes, like letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and filling some of the holes Republicans and AARP and the big insurance lobbyists have drilled into Medicare so people have to buy “supplemental” insurance, but that can wait for the second round. Let’s get this done first.

Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don’t. Easy message. Even Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley can understand it. Sarah Palin can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences.

Replace the “you must be disabled or 65″ with “here’s what it’ll cost if you want to buy in, and here’s the sliding scale of subsidies we’ll give you if you’re poor, paid for by everybody else who’s buying in.” (You could roll back the Reagan tax cuts and make it all free, but that’s another rant.)

We elected you because we expected you to have the courage of your convictions. Here’s how. Not the “single payer Medicare for all” that many of us would prefer, but a simple, “Medicare for anybody who wants to buy in.”

Respectfully,

Thom Hartmann

2009-08-24T21:09:00.001-06:00

Heckuva job, Brownies.

2009-07-26T08:14:00.004-06:00

"As our former president might put it, Heckuva job, Brownies."

This writer nails it! By the way, aren't "blue dog Democrats" what we used to call "fence sitters"? I prefer fence sitters in any case. Why insult dogs by tying them to these useless appendages?

The Can't-Do Blue Dogs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072102712.html

Every other nation with an advanced economy long ago secured universal health care for its citizens -- an achievement that the United States alone finds beyond the capacities of mortal man. It wasn't ever thus. Time was when Democratic Congresses enacted Social Security and Medicare over the opposition of powerful interests and Republican ideologues. In fact, our government used to actually pave roads, build bridges and allow for secure retirements by levying taxes on those who could afford to pay them......

But the big picture here, of which the resistance to reforming health care is just one element, is our growing inability to meet our national challenges. Almost all of the major nations with which we trade, for instance, have quasi-mercantilist policies that lead them to champion their own higher-wage growth industries, often in manufacturing. In America alone are such policies considered anathema. In consequence, as the Alliance for American Manufacturing reports in a new book, we shuttered 40,000 factories from 2001 through 2007 -- the years, ostensibly of prosperity, between the past two downturns. The diminution of manufacturing, which employs just 11 percent of the U.S. workforce, may please Wall Street, which looks with disfavor on decent-wage domestic production, and Wal-Mart, which tripled its purchases from China (from $9 billion to $27 billion annually) during roughly the same years those American factories closed, but it poses a clear threat to the nation's economic, and even military, power.

But act on behalf of the nation as a whole, even if it means goring Wall Street's or Wal-Mart's oxen? Perish the thought. Pass a health-reform bill that will cover 45 million uninsured Americans and slow the ruinous growth of health-care spending? Not if somebody, somewhere, actually has to pay higher taxes. Hey, we're America -- the can't-do nation.

As our former president might put it, Heckuva job, Brownies.
meyersonh@washpost.com

Bristol Palin Really Is the Perfect Ambassador for Abstinence Education

2009-05-08T07:35:00.000-06:00

OK, I have to ask: How on earth does Bristol Palin find time to fly around singing the praises of sexual abstinence, between pursuing that elusive high school diploma, and caring for the son she and Levi Johnston had as...well...teenagers not practicing sexual abstinence? And second of all, why is the daughter of Alaska's increasingly unpopular governor still in the news at all?

Do as I say, not as I do. Yoo betcha.

http://www.alternet.org/story/139912/

Please sign by sending Email to jtmpinfo@comcast.net

2009-04-11T17:54:00.000-06:00

From: David Swanson [mailto:david@davidswanson.org]

Please sign by sending Email to jtmpinfo@comcast.net

Attorney General Eric Holder April 13, 2009
Department of Justice
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

Thank you for taking the necessary steps to vacate the conviction of Senator Ted Stevens because of misconduct by federal prosecutors. We now ask that you quickly do the same for all Bush-era politically motivated cases, starting with Don Siegelman and Paul Minor. Such action is necessary to restore public confidence in the rule of law and the Department of Justice ("DOJ"), and to rectify a vast and manifest injustice. You must act soon because the victims of such prosecutions are now sufferingsome of them cruelly. It is unacceptable that any one of them should have to endure imprisonment, financial ruin and even loss of family while courts ponder whether trial error occurred.

It is well established that the previous DOJ was controlled by partisans who misused their authority by targeting Democrats and others with viewpoints different from their own. As a result, people have been variously wronged, either by (1) rejection for employment at DOJ, (2) dismissal from positions there, or (3) trumped-up and/or partisan-targeted criminal prosecution. Under your leadership, the DOJ has moved toward ending such abuse. With your investigations of the hiring practices at DOJ and the US Attorney firings, you have begun to take concrete steps to deal with Points (1) and (2). As to Point 3, however, not enough has been done. Other than early, still-cursory DOJ investigations of problems with the prosecution of Don Siegelman and Paul Minor, your office has announced no action or intention to redress well-documented allegations of selective criminal prosecutions carried out by the Bush administration.

A preponderance of evidence demonstrates that zealous partisans in the Bush White House and DOJ played favorites with some, while targeting other enemies based on their party's ideology. Certain politicians, such as Governor Siegelman, were seen as a threat to hoped-for Republican electoral gains, and certain jurists and attorneys, such as Oliver Diaz and Paul Minor, were also deemed dangerous to the interests of Republican allies in big business.

As Bobby Kennedy Jr. and Brendan DeMille recently reported, while urging the release of Paul Minor, a study by University of Missouri professors Donald Shields and John Cragan, showed that "eighty percent of the Bush DOJ's political investigations targeted Democrats -- 5.6 Democrats for every Republican investigated by U.S. attorneys for political misconduct. Shields noted in Congressional testimony that 'such selective investigation and prosecution rates' represent a clear bias in the severely disproportionate 'political profiling' of Democrats under Bush."

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld most charges against Gov. Siegelman, with everyone involved deliberately ignoring the huge elephant in that courtroomi.e., that post-trial revelations, deemed inadmissible by the appellate judges, pointed to serious political concoction as well as prosecutorial abuse. The governor should not have to wait months, or years, for a court to address these issues when you have the authority to do so at once.

And then there is Paul Minor, an attorney now in federal prison for a "crime" related to the funding of Democratic candidates and causes. Minor's wife is dying of breast cancer in a hospital in Baton Rouge. Last month, he was given a three-hour pass to spend a moment with her (under supervision), but she had no chance to talk to him, because she had been given her pain medication, and lay fast asleep throughout his visit. Why should this man have to spend another hour away from his wife's bedside, awaiting the decision of some court, when the clear partisan motivations behind his prosecution should lead your department to withdrawing charges, just as you did in the Stevens case.

Selective prosecution based on impermissible political considerations constitutes prosecutorial misconduct at least as egregious as that found in Senator Stevens' case. We therefore ask that you immediately order the dismissal of charges against Don Siegelman and Paul Minor, and move quickly to investigate and identify other cases mounted by the Bush Administration for political advantage and, where appropriate, vacate them immediately. Only through such righteous action, which is wholly in your power, can we be sure that justice will, at last, be done, and the public's confidence in our great legal system can begin to be thoroughly restored.

Sincerely,

Brad Friedman
David Swanson

What is Jeb Bush's role in the Lehman Brothers meltdown?

2009-03-16T10:19:00.000-06:00

This whole family is supposed to be a dumb as a rock with the exception of Jeb. I'm not sure which ones are dumb (exccept george) and which ones are dumb but for a fact all of them are self-serving, self-centered, thieves & crooks. It's enough to make one turn on the conspiracy theory channel and wonder if they haven't taken over the country already.

_________________________________________________
Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850. The firm managed to get through the Civil War, WWI, and WWII, the Great Depression, and the attacks of September 11, 2001. Yet after hiring Jeb Bush in late August of 2007, the firm suddenly goes belly up in a year. It also should be noted that in 2006, George H. Walker IV was also hired by Lehman Brothers.
Now, let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

What is Jeb Bush's role in the Lehman Brothers meltdown?

http://www.atlargely.com:80/2008/09/what-is-jeb-bus.html

Don Siegelman Appeal..Last year Don Siegelman spent the holidays in a cold and lonely cell far from home.

2008-11-25T14:46:00.000-06:00

It could happen again.

Don was not a wealthy man to begin with and now through no fault of his own, he owes millions of dollars in legal fees. Having no income during the nine months he was in prison, plus not being able to work full-time since his release, has caused financial stress for his family.

A donation of $5, $10, $50 or more from any of your readers can help him get get past the hard times he and his family are going through - and it will let him know that we still care.

You can donate to Don Siegelman's legal defense fund here, via paypal
http://www.donsiegelman.net/donations_page_paypal.html or by sending a check by mail.

Siegelman Legal Defense Fund
P. O. Box 430116
Birmingham, Alabama 35243

Also, writes Don Siegelman, "the U S Congress must be encouraged to vote Rove in Contempt to uncover the truth! Please log on now to www.ContemptForRove.com to send your message to Congress."

If anyone on this list has a user account at the Daily Kos, you can supportthis fund raiser by voting it up so it has a shot at hitting the rec list.Thanks, Bruce Wilsonhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/25/65640/261/1015/666139

Statement From Don Siegelman]
I am now engaged in two important fights: One for my own freedom and the other to see that Karl Rove in brought to justice. I need your financial help to keep these fights going.

The government has reportedly spent over 40 million dollars to prosecute me. I have pulled virtually everything out of my life's saving to fight these false charges. I need you to give generously. My Legal Defense Trust Fund can take donations of corporate, PAC, foundation or personal money of any size.

While I am fighting for my own freedom, the U S Congress must be encouraged to vote Rove in Contempt to uncover the truth! Please log on now to www.ContemptForRove.com to send your message to Congress.

This fight must be won to unravel the injustices that have been perpetrated against our democracy.

With your help, Karl Rove and his accomplices will be held accountable for their abuse of power.

Thank you,

Don Siegelman
Governor of Alabama 1999-2003

From 1999 to 2003 Don Siegelman was the popular Democratic Governor of Alabama... until what a bipartisan array of politicians including Wesley Clarke and Republican Former US Attorney General Richard Thornburgh have criticized as a politically motivated effort, tied to Karl Rove and also connected to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, that convicted Siegelman of dubious felony charges and sent him to federal prison. [ you can read and watch CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Time, Rolling Stone and New York Times coverage of Don Siegelman's story, at Don's website ]

A bipartisan group of 52 former states attorneys general have filed a legal brief on Siegelman's behalf, in the appeals case to come before the 11th Circuit Court this December 9th.

But even if Don Siegelman is exonerated rather than thrown back in federal prison the legal fees for Don's years-long legal battle has consumed his entire retirement saving account plus an additional borrowed $900,000.

As Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane eloquently write,

For most Americans, the very concept of political prisoners is remote and exotic, a practice that is associated with third-world dictatorships but is foreign to the American tradition. The idea that a prominent politician -- a former state governor -- could be tried on charges that many observers consider to be trumped-up, convicted in a trial that involved numerous questionable procedures, and then hauled off to prison in shackles immediately upon sentencing would be almost unbelievable.

But there is such a politician: Don Siegelman, Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. Starting just a few weeks after he took office, Siegelman was targeted by an investigation launched by his political opponents and escalated from the state to the federal level by Bush Administration appointees in 2001. [full Raw Story investigation with timeline, on the Siegelman prosecution]

http://www.donsiegelman.net/Pages/MAIN/aboutdon.html

Impeach the Little Bastard - Because people deserve to know the truth

2008-11-23T15:10:00.000-06:00

We! Magazine

by Bryan Zepp Jamieson

Republicans have abused the power of the Presidential pardon since Gerald Ford used it to preemptively pardon the criminal Richard Nixon. It was argued that Americans, with their delicate sensitivities, weren’t mature enough to cope with the idea that an elected official might face a fair and public trial for crimes he may have committed or had committed while in office.
If the JFK assassination undermined American innocence (and Gerald Ford tried to spin fairy tales about that, too), then the Nixon pardon undermined American confidence in themselves as a place where justice could be served.

Lightning struck again some 18 years later, when George Bush used the power of the pardon to kick apart the case being pursued against the criminal Ronald Reagan, and in which some scummy little felons and traitors such as Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy got to run free and sneer loudly at the country that gave them their undeserved liberty.

Losing in Vietnam didn’t do nearly as much damage to American self-respect as the sight of G. Gordon Liddy braying into his radio microphone that people should shoot federal agents in the head as a way of demonstrating their Liddy-style patriotism.

A lot of people watched this, and watched right wingers openly gloating over it, and wondered what the fuck had gone wrong with America.

And then, for the next eight years, the same vicious and amoral clowns who guffawed over the sight of Nixon lazing in the California sun and tried to make a tin hero out of the moronic Reagan, tried to destroy the Clinton presidency by impeaching him over trivia.

Now, we have a crowd that makes the Nixon scummies and the Reagan sleazers look like pikers. For the past eight years, we’ve seen the most criminal and anti-American administration in history. They haven’t settled for third rate burglaries and selling arms to terrorists, no. They stole an election to get in, and then proceeded to spend years looting the national treasury, lied the country into a war whose real aim was to abet in that looting, let terrorists attack the country, refused a serious investigation into it, and used it to pass measures that slashed the rights of Americans while politicizing the judicial branch of the government, and attempted to establish one-party rule, supported by a corrupted judiciary and a crooked voting system.
And while they were at it, they committed war crimes, and gave America the same reputation the old Soviet Union used to have, of torture and unjust imprisonments without trial and secret prison camps.

They robbed the country blind, and humiliated and debased it in the process. They didn’t govern America; they didn’t even rule it. They simply raped it.

And now, mercifully, the reign of these vicious, anti-American little Republican scumbags is coming to an end.

But will any of them ever pay for their crimes? Trillions of dollars have gone missing from the common weal, either sunk into wars for profit, siphoned off to the undeserving rich, or evaporated in the implosion of a capitalist bubble that was given all the internal air pressure it wanted. Three thousand people died in 9/11, and another 5,000 Americans have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. We’ll probably never know how many died in Iraq just for living there, or how many were herded off to American gulags to die of torture, or spend years wondering if they would ever get a trial, let alone ever be set free. Elections were suborned, and Clinton was hardly the only public servant to be attacked by the Republican slime-and-destroy machine, now in the paws of the nation’s district attorneys. At least one governor was framed and sent to jail. In today’s paper, there was a story of a indictment of Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales in which the judge, another corrupt, bent Republican stooge, actually tried to dismiss the charges before they were legally filed.

What the fuck is wrong with America, you ask? It got taken over by corrupt, amoral Republican crooks, and nobody has the balls to make them pay for their crimes. And now, they are just clinging on, hoping that the entire country won’t collapse before the mess is foisted off on President-elect Obama, and trying like hell to blame him for the situation they created.
And while they are doing that, they are waiting for Putsch’s preemptive pardons, the ones that ensure that they will never have to face their responsibility for the millions of lives lost and the trillions of dollars squandered or stolen. They’ll never have to stand in open court and explain why they insisted Saddam had nukes when he didn’t, or why NORAD was ordered to stand down on the morning of 9/11, or why Governor Siegleman was sent to jail, or why Putsch suddenly fired all those Federal attorneys and replaced them with ones willing to investigate Democratic candidates for office.

The Republicans, who laughingly describe themselves as the party of personal responsibility, desperately need those presidential pardons issued preemptively so they can skate, never pay a dime, and crow that if they were criminals, why weren’t they ever put on trial?
If that doesn’t sicken you, then you are morally bankrupt or worse, a Republican.
That’s why it is so important that impeachment proceedings be started now in the Democratic House of Representatives against George W. Bush. He won’t actually be impeached in the 58 days remaining before he leaves office, making an impeachment moot. There isn’t time.

But the Constitution, the one which grants Presidents the power to pardon, has one exception: A president may pardon, “except in cases of impeachment.” As I read it, it means that not only may a president not pardon any high public officials who are facing impeachment, but it means that a president who is facing the impeachment process may not use it in any way that could undermine the process against himself.

Putsch will abuse it and use it to take himself and his cronies off the hook. Don’t doubt that for an instant.

And don’t doubt that it will be another emotional and moral body blow to Americans, who had just regained a little self-respect and a lot of hope from electing Obama and throwing off the Republican reign of sleaze.

It isn’t just a matter of vindictiveness against Putsch, although personally I would be delighted if he spent the rest of his natural life rotting away in a jail cell. It’s because America, which has always prided itself on justice, and avenging wrongs, has faced terrible injustice and wrongs for the past eight years, and needs the opportunity to address it through rule of law, in open court, and by the standards of the civilized world.

Don’t let Putsch get away with his crimes. Impeach the little bastard now, and make him eventually face a jury to explain himself.

I'm The One They're Talking About

2008-11-14T09:36:00.001-06:00

With all the vitriol I've been hearing from the right-wingers of late, I can't help but recognize myself as the target of their vicious attacks. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to out myself, just so they know who it is they're spending so much time talking about.

Yes, I'm that American-hating broad who believes in life, liberty and equality for all Americans, not just those of a "socially acceptable" color, religion, address, pay scale or political affiliation.

I'm that leftie pro-choicer who thinks that every child should be a wanted child, and that the ultimate decision to give birth should be the difficult yet intensely personal decision of the woman whose body and life is involved. I also believe that people who really care about saving babies might want to think about the ones who are already born – especially the ones born in places our government is currently blowing off the map, or might plan to in future.

I'm that infamous anti-Christian who actually believes that I am my Brother's Keeper – and that includes supporting legal immigration and social safety-nets that provide food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, care for the sick – you know, all that yadda-yadda stuff that Christ used to preach about back when people who called themselves Christians had a passing familiarity with his teachings. I also believe that just because Christ was tortured to death doesn't mean he was promoting the idea as something we are free to do to others with his approval.

I'm that unscrupulous libertine who has deluded myself into thinking that if the gay couple down the street get married, they're not going to destroy every heterosexual marriage in the neighborhood – and by the way, I've yet to hear a coherent argument as to how that would happen if they did.

I'm that unpatriotic wench who thinks that sporting a flag pin in your lapel doesn't mean squat if you're wearing it while supporting pay-cuts for the troops, or budget cuts to veterans' care, and more tax cuts for millionaires – or, for that matter, calling anyone and everyone who disagrees with you "unpatriotic" because you really have nothing of substance to say, but just love the sound of your own meaningless rhetoric blasted over the airwaves.

I'm that blatant sexist who thinks that if someone like Sarah Palin has nothing more to offer than being "hot" while seeking the office of the vice presidency, she'd better have something more in her training bra than a wad of Kleenex – like actual knowledge of the responsibilities of the job, for starters.

I'm that socialist leftie who thinks people should reap the financial rewards of their own hard work while the CEOs of the corporations they toil for share the resulting profits, rather than pocket them all while throwing crumbs to those whose labor created those profits in the first place. Yup, that's me - another anti-capitalist, spouting my big mouth off when oil companies earning record profits get tax subsidies, as though they don't deserve them.

I'm that big city chick, who couldn't possibly share the same values of Joe the Plumber, or the midwestern farmer, or the small-town librarian - or anyone who, unlike me, was raised in the right pocket of Americana - wherever that may be.

I'm that no-good Bush-basher who had the gall to notice that an idiot who couldn't string two words together without getting both of them wrong would inevitably lead this country into an unwinnable war (or two), financial ruin, complete moral failure, and global disgrace.

And while I'm at it, I may as well come completely clean – because, let's face it, you've got me dead-to-rights: I'm also a tree-huggin' environmentalist who believes in such outrageous ideas as protecting the environment, upholding the Constitution, equal treatment under the law, and civil rights – and the hypocrisy of people who call ME un-American makes me speechless (almost!) with fury.

So now that you know who I am, please feel free to vent about me all you want. I'm proud of who I am, what I believe in, and what I stand for.

But don't be embarrassed by not recognizing me in a crowd – you see, there are tens of millions like me, and you know what they say: All those liberal anti-Americans look alike. And we're all about to vote alike – which means voting your asses out of office.

And the next time you think about calling people like me anti-American, you might want to look back at what this election has been all about - and who the REAL Americans truly are...........Nance Greggs at Democratic Underground

"I'll second that" - - Magginkat - www.ProudLiberalBitch.com

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders & says... "Oh shit....she's awake!!"....http://grandmamaggies.blogspot.com/

The Times They Are A-Changing

2008-11-11T09:45:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D9S48A81os&feature=related

Come gather 'round people where ever you roam

And admit that the waters around you have grown

And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone,

For the times they are a' changin'!

Come writers and critics who prophesy with your pen

And keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'

For the loser now will be later to win

For the times they are a' changin'!

Come senators, congressmen please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside and it's ragin'

It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a' changin'!

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land

And don't criticize what you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin'

Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a' changin'!

The line it is drawn the curse it is cast

The slow one now will later be fast

As the present now will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'

And the first one now will later be last

For the times they are a' changin'

Go Home Granny Palin! Go Home Joe The Un-Plumber! So Long McSame!

2008-11-06T07:00:00.002-06:00

A quick farewell note to Tuesday night's losers & to the sorryass republican administration which has done so much damage to this country & it's reputation.

Go home Granny Palin. Now you can tell the truth about your grandson, not that anyone gives a hoot. It was just one of many lies from you and McSame.

Go home Joe the "Plumber".....We don't want any more frauds & phonies hanging around our White House. Your fifteen minutes of fame are over and done with! So long sucker. By the way Skinhead, you are one ugly dawg!

Take old man McSame & his pill popping Stepford wife with you. Run along now, losers. For Pete's sake, take George Bush. Ship him off to that pig farm in Texas until we can prosecute him for his crimes against the Constitution of the United States.

We have had eight long years of your lies, cheating, stealing, & other crimes, and we are not interested in any more of your obscene, self-serving government. You forgot all about We The People and went about YOUR business as though we did not exist. Of course we notice that you are using our tax dollars to conduct your business.

Already the vile emails from your goons is pouring into my mailbox. Get over it losers! Remember those words. You damn sure threw them at us as your stupid, moronic, pig farm dweller moved into the White House. You were stupid enough to think that quack would have a beer with you! LMAO. Ole Chicken George is still wiping his hands on his pants legs after he shakes hands with you!

One of my early memories of that vile little man's administration was his appearance at graduation at one of the military academies. A young black man who was graduating, ran up to get his diploma, grabbed Bush & hugged him as he danced up and down with excitement at getting his diploma. Bush was in shock and as the young man let go, he stepped back and started wiping the sleeves of his jacket off as if to brush something away that had been left by the young man. That action spoke loudly about the elitist George Bush & what was in store for us.

Have a beer with you indeed!?! Surely you know by now that this was one of the biggest jokes pulled on you silly fools. George thinks he is waaaaaay better than you!
Take it to heart. We are not interested in your hate mongering, fear inducing campaigns against the people of the United States. We have ten million more votes than you losers. That's TEN MILLION big ones jerk and it probably would have been 20 million had it not been for your purges of the voter rolls.

A North Carolina newspaper says "An unhappy and unsettled America picked an unlikely president Tuesday -- Barack Obama, a young black lawmaker from Illinois who sparked a sweeping political movement with an eloquent promise of change and, most importantly, hope."

You got that losers? We are damned unhappy that you and your quack president crapped all over our Constitution and made our country look worse than some of the foul dictatorships around the world. We are most unhappy with all the jobs that have left this country thanks to your rabid, greedy old war lords. We are unhappy about an illegal war that has murdered, injured or maimed over 20,000 of our soldiers & over a million Iraqi people. May all your rotten souls fry in hell for an eternity for that obscene attack on a small defenseless country that has never done us any harm & didn't have the means to threaten us in any manner. Your lies about this murderous action will be remembered & condemned for many years to come.

That's the legacy of that loser cowboy you shoved down our throats in the name of Christianity. Grin and bear it George. You are, beyond any doubt, the worst person to ever occupy the Oval Office. You have never been my president. You are a fraud, a liar, a cheat, a thief, who was installed by the Supreme Court, and that's how you will be remembered. Live with it loser!

Speaking of Christianity..... If George Bush is a Christian, then I am the Virgin Mother!

This headline from one of the newspapers in the Blue State of Florida says what needs to be said:
Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation's first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself.

Don't even think about harassing President Obama the way you did President Clinton. What goes on in his family is none of your damn business so don't turn your "Liberal media" dogs loose on them. Something tells me that you would regret it, big time, if you try to demonize President Obama and his family the way you did our last legally elected President, Bill Clinton.

As I finish this note, Granny Palin is on TV babbling about finding a common ground, a fantastic campaign, get back to work at MY governors office, blah, blah, blah... The woman is nuts! There is no such thing as common ground with a fool like Sarah Palin or with the republican party. We also know what bi-partisanship means to you greedy, self-serving bastards. It means kissing up to you slimeball republicans. Get over it creeps. A new day has dawned and with it comes exposure of your nasty habits.

Today we rejoice -- On January 20th we start the hard work of cleaning up after another foul republican administration. I sympathize with President Obama, that he has pick up the pieces of our Constitution and put it together again but I have a feeling that this young man is up to the job. I say that as someone who supported Senator Hillary Clinton at the beginning of this long campaign.

I have a feeling that this "Community Organizer" is just what the country needs after 8 miserable years under king George, Tricky Dick #2 and the most foul administration to ever occupy the White House.

Counting the days until you are finally out of our faces, George! So long loser! Just chalk it up to business, as usual for you, another miserable failure. This country will rise again. The only way you have to go is down! The sooner you get started the better. You have nothing but your ill gotten dollars.

We have the hope of President Obama!

Magginkat

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders & says... "Oh shit....she's awake!!" http://grandmamaggies.blogspot.com/

I Didn't Vote For Obama

2008-10-24T12:47:00.001-06:00

kentuckyscott

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/20/15494/397/72/636580

Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 01:24:08 PM PDT

I'm a middle-class white guy living in Jacksonville, Florida. I've got a wife and two kids. Because the kids had no school today, I took a vacation day from work, and took the kids downtown to vote early. Fifty-nine minutes later, two smiling children and I proudly sported "I Voted" stickers.

But I didn't vote for Obama.

I voted for my ancestors, who believed in the promise of this country and came with with nothing as immigrants.

I voted for my parents, who taught in the public schools for decades.
I voted for Steve, an acquaintance of mine from Kentucky. (Killed by an IED two years ago in Iraq).

I voted for Shawn, another who's been to Iraq twice, and Afghanistan once, and who'll be going back to Afghanistan again soon -- and whose family earned eleven bucks a month too much to qualify for food stamps when the war started.

I voted for April, the only African-American girl in my high school -- it was years before it occurred to me how different her experience of our school must have been.
I voted for my college friends who are Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and yes -- Muslim.
I voted for my grandfathers, who worked hard in factories and died too young.
I voted for the plumber who worked on my house, because I want him to get a REAL tax break.
I voted for four little angels from Birmingham.

I voted for a bunch of dead white men who, although personally flawed, were willing to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, and used a time of great crisis to expand freedom rather than suspend it.

I voted for all those people and more, and I voted for all of you, too. But mostly, I voted selfishly. I vote for two little kids, one who has ballet in an hour, and one who has baseball practice at the same time. I voted for a world where they can be confident that their government will represent the best that is in this country, and that will in turn demand the best of them. I voted for a government that will be respected in the world. I voted for an economy that will reward work above guile. I voted for everything I believe in.

Sure, I filled in the circle next to the name Obama, but it wasn't him I was voting for -- it was every single one of us, and those I love most of all.

Who else is there to vote for?

Old washed Up Terrorists & Other Comments From Cyberspace

2008-10-16T11:41:00.000-06:00

Yes, real quick. Mr. Ayers," McCain said, without telling viewers the man's full name. "I don't care about an old washed-up terrorist".

Well, Mr. McCain, I care. I care because you seem to be an "old washed up terrorist" (Bombed innocent people in Vietnam & supporting Bush's illegal murdering war) and you are seeking to be president of this country...... PLB
...............................................................................
Among the students who said there was a clear debate winner on substance, only one of 18 picked McCain. But four students thought McCain won on style...sacbee.com

I'd sure enough like to meet those four students. What a shame to be so damn dumb & uninformed so early in life...... PLB

..................................................................................
McCain also lost this debate stylistically. The split screen showed him impatient, angry, rolling his eyes and making some very odd faces. This type of body language caused Al Gore to lose the second presidential debate in 2000. I suspect it will go over poorly with viewers as well..... reader comment McClatchy's
...................................................

jacobson5 ...I cannot believe that some people feel there will be a problem with Obama being president. We have had an idiot for the last eight years and look at the road we went down on that one. Anything is better than another idiot for four more years.
.............................................
Whiny Mac makes all-out attack (NY Daily News)

John McCain threw the kitchen sink - and "Joe the Plumber," too - at Barack Obama during Wednesday night's final, in-your-face presidential debate.

RELATED: TWISTS, TURNS OVER JOE THE PLUMBER
It was also the whiniest, particularly from McCain, who cast himself early on as the victim of unfair attacks despite weeks of slashing Obama for assorted past associations.
When asked about his tough ads, McCain groused that Obama had not slapped down a supporter, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), for accusing the GOP ticket of stirring up racist passions at rallies in ways reminiscent of former Alabama governor and segregationist George Wallace. "That, to me, was so hurtful," McCain said.

Obama said Lewis' comparison was wrong. But he stood by complaints about McCain supporters who have called Obama a "terrorist" and yelled "kill him!" at rallies.

Is 'Joe the Plumber' related to Charles Keating? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/16/02217/845
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/16/111449/53/191/632401

Juan Cole ....He (McCain) especially lost points, as Rachel Maddow pointed out, by dismissing concerns about the health of the mother in the decision to end a pregnancy. In that stance he sounded like Sarah Palin, who wants to make women bear their rapist's child. As I pointed out in Salon, the current McCain-Palin stance on abortion is identical to that in fundamentalist regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Vasix....... I watched the debate. On one side was a grumpy old man trying to make up for four months of a squandered campaign. One the other side, a calm study in preparation.

My favorite part was when Senator Obama graciously allowed Senator McCain to pander to his rightwing base and forget that he needed the MIDDLE of America to fall in love with him him last night. The topic was the Supreme Court and of course Senator McCain couldn't help himself. On his white charger he galloped into the fray wielding his flashing sword of bromides and code phases. He sounded like a crazy ideologue and then he galloped into his self sown snare. Senator McCain, a man who went to college on the taxpayers nickel and graduated third from the bottom of his class, looked at a Harvard trained lawyer, the top shelf of a the best legal students in the country, Editor of the Harvard Law Review, a practicing lawyer that as a young gun argued cases in the Federal courts with the United States Justice Department as co-counsels and TAUGHT CONSTITUTIOINAL LAW for years and MOCKED Senator Obama's judgements on Supreme Court justices. It was perfect. America is pretty smart. Senator McCain is fighting the culture war. He's saying he doesn't have a litmus test and then says he thinks Roe v. Wade is wrong. Then he goes and tells EVERY WOMAN in America that he believes in the Roman Catholic Church's policy that the mother's life is not important. He MOCKS women by using "air quotes" about the health of a mother. It was such a jarring performance. Right wingers LOVED it. It was as if Senator McCain had shaken a rubber fetus at the camera and yelled: MURDERER!!!! The rest of the audience watched and thought, "Divisive, ideologue, mired in the culture wars."

...........................................................
Senator McCain's job was to win the middle of American's hearts. Instead he tried to gut punch the "abortion loving", baby eating monsters imagineered by ideologues on the "pro life" (as long as it isn't the mother's life) blogosphere. In doing so, Senator McCain. shadow boxed himself further and further out on a limb until all Senator Obama had to do is look over at him and say, "You want me to hand you a saw or throw you a rope?"

....................................................................................
McCain contended that Obama had not repudiated Lewis. "That to me was so hurtful," McCain said. "I have repudiated everyone who's been out of line, whether part of my campaign or not."

Bald Faced Lie....So hurtful? More hurtful than people calling for killing Obama? Tough Schitt McCryBaby!..... PLB
.................................................

The United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters has endorsed Barack Obama.
That's what matters.

ATTN: Palin/McSame Campaign

2008-10-11T06:01:00.000-06:00

Dear Granny Palin and Grandpa McSame,

You two really make me gag lately. McSame, it's bad enough to be constantly hit with pictures of your creepy looking face & your robotic movements but you add insult to injury by trying to incite race riots against Obama.

You're just fucking jealous McSame. Jealous of a handsome PRESIDENTIAL looking young man. I'm sure that it makes you wonder what you could have been when you were, once upon a time, good looking and young if you had not made the youthful choice to be an asshole.

But that youth and those looks are long gone McSame. In their place we see a creepy old man trying to regain his youth by selecting a ditzy younger woman to be your running mate. I love being the bearer of bad news Johnny Boy. It makes you look like the ancient, wrinkled old grandfather that you are.

You are an old has been who never was! Nothing about you looks presidential. That whiny voice is damn sure not presidential. Your brazen racist sentiments, your hatred, fearmongering & attempts to incite violence with your suggestive comments are enough to gag a maggot & are not presidential. To make matters worse you turned loose your narrow-minded, TV evangelist, dumber than a rock, hateful running mate, Granny Palin to do your dirty work. That doesn't look very presidential either.

Yours & Granny Palin's activities simply highlight the fact that you are an old coot & a life long loser. Where you had been swinging on the coat tails of your father and grandfather, now you are swinging on the tail of Sarah Palin, a major league liar and bitch.

This country has struggled many years to try to overcome some of the racial issues that have pitted one skin colour against another. You should be ashamed of yourself for being so damn desperate to 'outdo' your father and grandfather that you would stoop to such levels. You should be but then everyone can see clearly that you don't have any sense of remorse for your despicable actions.

You MacSame, are a despicable excuse for a human being. The past few days you have dragged out your Stepford Wife and gave her those stupid little prepared speeches about her son...........like who gives a schitt? My son spent 15 months in that hell hole you helped to create so don't look for any sympathy from me. Your walking around with a super duper bullet proof vest surrounded by an army during your visit to Iraq was a bad joke. Who the hell do you think you are kidding?

The "surge" is working?? HA! Killing the entire population is your idea of a successful "surge"? MURDERER!

We know that your son & Granny Palin's son will be given cushy jobs in the mighty fortresses the generals have built for themselves so please spare us the bullschitt. I know your sorry record when it comes to the soldiers & the veterans and it damn sure is not anything you want to see the light of day. You are a phony and a fraud from the 'git go'.

I have a suggestion for you and Granny Palin. Why don't the two of you take a long, long vacation to that ranchette that your buddy, Chicken George, purchased in Paraguay. Maybe you will get lucky with her! The two of you certainly deserve each other.

But then another thought comes to mind. Granny Palin wants to be president. She wants to be president SOON..........Very Soon!

That should give you something to think about, Grandpa! Sleep Tight!

Can She Limbo?

2008-10-06T19:14:00.000-06:00

The VP Debate...............

2008-10-02T20:57:00.002-06:00

One half hour into this stupid debate Granny Palin is getting her shrill little girl voice back. The first half hour it was memorized blurbs. Is she going to start lecturing Sen. Biden?

She is presenting memorized John McDepends stupid statements on the war in "EyeRaq" and she is determined to tell us about her fantastic record as governor of Alaska..... who gives a schitt? We already know that she has fucked up the state of Alaska.

The bitch is reading prepared crap.........how the hell is that? Is someone feeding her the info and she is writing it down as Biden speaks? Gawd, that voice is enough to drive one to drink.

She had a good conversation with Henry Kissinger! Wow! This bitch ain't saying nothing as usual........... lies and bullschitt. The microphone is in that giant flag pin that she has on her jacket.

Glory be, John McDepends knows how to win a war. He's been there done that. Does this dingbat have any idea what the fuck she is saying.

Now she's saying she was joking....of course she knows what a vice president does. Strange, she hasn't yet said what the vp does!! We're supposed to take her word for that the vp does something!

Ditzy is breaking out all over. Dingbat comes to mind. This stupid woman is reading something. Sure looks like she is cheating. And she has SOOOOOOOOOO much executive experience. She supports Cheney's job as vp...HA! are you surprised? That bitch plans to be the real president just like cheney. Does that scare the hell out of you? The Bitch of the Klondike with more power than Dick Cheney? Is she nuts or what?

I hope someone counted how many times that dingbat said John McCain is a Maverick, blah, blah, Maverick, blah blah.............

She's never had to change her mind about much of anything! She's going to let us know about her track record. Sorry Granny Palin, we're already familiar with your track record. We're familiar with your lies & your stupidity. Go back to Alaska and make your mooseburgers.

Well, she didn't collapse in a crying heap but her answers were just about as ditzy as ever. I felt that she wandered all over the place and didn't answer questions. It was pure bullschitt. The Repugs are estatic that she didn't totally embarrass them.

pResident Tricky Dick Cheney

2008-09-28T12:34:00.000-06:00

Several articles that you should take the time to read. Cheney seems, more than ever, to be the Dick in this dictatorship. Scarey, how this criminal keeps on being the pResident in this administration with no questions asked. He must have a whole bunch of dirt on a whole bunch of people.

Cheney Picked Palin, His Cover Girl in OilGate
http://www.dailykos.com:80/story/2008/9/4/34846/82364

DOJ Covers up Cheney/Stevens Link
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/26/122214/652/96/575520

The Veep’s Pipeline Push

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154916?from=rss

Why Didn't DOJ Name Cheney in Stevens Filing?
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/why_didnt_doj_name_cheney_in_s.php

Comments From Cyberspace

2008-09-27T09:30:00.000-06:00

I predict that Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin, after she gets her ass handed to her on election day, will use her new notoriety to get a show of her own. If she succeeds in seducing a network and sponsors into backing her, her show will be a short-lived disaster and she'll get fat, cranky, drunk and abandon her family to run away with the kid who knocked up her daughter.

You read it here first....................FC

Look for McCain to announce he's for a single-payer national health plan, transferring the Pentagon budget to infrastructure renewal and clean renewable energy and hiking taxes on incomes above $250,000. Oh, and he'll claim to be an African-American man, but that the VietCong beat the black out of him. Sarah Palin will promise free 24/7 fellatio service to white male voters. You read it here first........ FC (A source with the Palin/McCain campaign who did not want to be identified)

His (McCain's) poll numbers are dropping faster than Ann Coulter's panties at a Welcome Home party for the 5th Fleet!

......overheard on the Straight Talk Express, "Hey, look we're on the Road to Nowhere!"

Why does everything hang on a senator from Arizona? Shouldn't it be Bush who is handling this? (The financial mess)

McCain is in full meltdown. This is not going to be pretty.

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

John McCain recently blamed Barack Obama for the Wall Street mess. Stunning. The truth is the politics of the economy can be likened to a bus. The bus driver is the Bush Administration, and the rest of us, including the Democrats in Congress, are the passengers. Question: If the bus driver drives the bus off the cliff, how is that the fault of the passengers?..............Jim Gilbert

McCain needs to read his prepared rehearsed remarks. Is he senile or just incompetent to campaign? Impulsive and over the hill is a terrible choice for President. .......DAVID LAMBERT

I want to be clear and speak directly to those of you who LOVED that Palin interview. You're an idiot !

Don't you get it? I'm not insulting Sarah Palin, SHE IS INSULTING ME.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-seitzman/sarah-palin-naked_b_125861.html

I thought he looked gracious and presidential; others may think he looked insufficiently tough. I think Obama more than held his own in this first debate, but if you're looking for a grumpy, sarcastic put-down artist as president, your choice is quite clear.
-- Joan Walsh at Salon.com

And just for fun:

Paul Begala calls Bush a 'high-functioning moron'

CEO Bailouts....Election Fraud....Lazy Americans

2008-09-21T10:49:00.001-06:00

Hank Paulson--one of the CEOs who got us into this financial cesspool--is asking each and every man, woman & child, yes, even the newborn baby Palin, to give him $2,333 each, to do with as he sees fit, with nary a string attached.

"Trust me", sez Paulson and the entire Congress rolled over and said "Yeah Baby...do your thing". And you, the ordinary, working American, who is already struggling to pay your ordinary, everyday American bills just had this mess dumped on your back and the backs of your grandchildren & their children & grandchildren as far as one can see.

Thanks George...... the perfectly fraudulent ending to a perfectly fraudulent & incompetent administration. May your rotten souls fry in that hell you threaten us with. If there was a god he would have fried your asses a long time ago.

What a mess! What's worse it seems that almost half the voting country is perfectly willing to install a senile old man and his whiny voiced, beauty queen, sidekick to continue the rape of this country. Behind all of it is that slime ball, Karl Rove but one can blame only so much on that con artist. The largest blame goes to those who continue to vote, cheer and glorify the thieves and murderers & who allow them to walk all over us.

Yes, you ordinary Americans who continue to believe that these thieving murderers are Christians.... Who believe that they are doing what's right for the country..... Who believes that these SOB's give a royal damn about you.... who believes that these 'good Christians' care if a fetus is aborted. Open your eyes, Stupid. John McCain, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, etc., could care less whether you live or die. Likewise for that fetus.

They are no more Christian than my ass. They are using you and every genuine Christian who buys this line of bullschitt. They are scaring the bejesus out of you with their never-ending wars & mayhem AND their bald faced lies.

Their entire careers have been devoted to seizing more & more power for themselves and leaving you to fend for yourself. But by damn, you had better pay those taxes so they can continue their joy ride. You had better follow their rules or there will be hell to pay.

Whether you realize it or not their entire theme is and has been, "The hell with the country, bring me more money". How else can you explain a lying, cheating, thieving CEO who gives himself multi-million dollar bonuses on top of that already obscene salary? How can you explain a president and a vice president who stooped this low to keep you scared and depending on them? Do you really want Bush, Cheney, McCain or Palin to be your only source of comfort? If your answer is yes then all I have to say is................ Are you fucking nuts?

Look around you. Millions of jobs have left this country to never return unless you get off your dead ass and start raising hell. You can pray to your god until hell freezes over but these jerks are not going to do a thing to bring those jobs back, to help rebuild this country, to try to clean up the damage they have caused unless this lazyass country stands up to them.

Forget those loud mouth, phony Christian extremists who have taken over the government since the installation of the quack president. They are America's Taliban. Their destruction is in front of your very noses. There are more of us than there are of them. Forget their promises. They are nothing but hot air and bald faced lies. Concentrate on getting rid of those in Congress who are supporting these vile crooks. They are deathly afraid of you becoming wise to their tricks.

So do something. Don't just sit there on your ample behinds. There are toll free 800 numbers that allow you to call every member of Congress every day of the year. Jam those lines with phone calls. Send a few post cards to friends and family asking them to do something, ANYTHING rather than continuing to sit & wait for someone else to do what needs to be done. Start by telling this vacation loving Congress to stop this bailout of these multi-billionaires. Tell Congress to tell those losers that their corporate welfare check is not coming this month or any month due to their fraudulent behavior

800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 , 800-614-2803, 800-833-6354, 866-220-0044

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ - This one show a map. By clicking on the state it will bring up a page with all elected members of congress, their phone, fax and email links.

Give'em hell people! Time's awasting!

By the way Karl Rove & Co. are already hard at work to pull another election fraud on you unless the turnout is so huge that they dare not mess with it. Let's put Obama in charge and hold his feet to the fire too! Let him know what you expect from him.
http://www.rovecybergate.com/

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

bburton@barackobama.com

Live yourlife in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders & says... "Oh shit....she's awake!!"....http://grandmamaggies.blogspot.com/

Bush With Lipstick

2008-09-14T09:11:00.000-06:00

http://www.anonymousliberal.com/

How to Brand McCain and Palin as Liars

2008-09-14T09:06:00.000-06:00

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/13/how-to-brand-mccain-and-palin-as-liars/
Over the past two weeks, the lies emanating from the McCain/Palin campaign have become so brazen that even the most cynical campaign reporters are clearly taken aback. While lies are commonplace in politics, you rarely see candidates continue to repeat factual claims that have been widely debunked in the media, especially claims about biographical facts (lying about your opponent’s policy positions is another matter).

The fact that McCain and Palin continue to tell these tall tales about Palin’s record in Alaska is aggravating–there’s no question–but it also presents the Obama campaign with a golden opportunity. The key to exploiting that opportunity, however, is not to get angry or to join in the lying game. Neither of those tactics ever work well for Democrats. The key to fighting back is to brand McCain and Palin as liars through the use of mockery. I realize that everyone and their brother is playing the role of armchair political consultant at the moment, but please indulge me for thirty seconds.

Here’s how I imagine Obama responding:

“You know, I was listening to Governor Palin today and she repeated–for what must be the 20th time–a claim that every news organization has already disproved. She said she “told Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the Bridge to Nowhere.” Then I heard John McCain speak and he repeated that same false claim, along with several others that have been disproved: she didn’t ask for any earmarks, she sold the plane on Ebay, she fired the personal chef, and so on . . . . and while I was listening to all that, something occurred to me. I’ve been doing this all wrong! You see, I’ve been limiting what I say to things that are actually true. But campaigning is so much easier when can just make stuff up.

So today I wanted to share with you some things I never have before. For starters, did I ever mention that back in my Chicago days I played professional basketball for the Chicago Bulls? It’s true: when Jordan retired, they wanted me to take over at guard, but I said “thanks but no thanks; I’ve got a job to do in the state Senate.” Oh, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before either, but my running mate, Joe Biden, he once wrestled a live grizzly bear…and he won! He also once sold the entire state of Delaware on Ebay. I kid you not.

I don’t know about you, but I feel liberated. This whole “telling the truth” thing was really holding me back. Now I know how John McCain feels when he says that I’m going to raise your taxes, even though every independent organization who’s looked at it says that my plan gives you a bigger tax cut than his. Well, I say to you John McCain: two can play at that game.
Did you know that John McCain will raise every American’s taxes by 800,000%? I made that up just now, but it’s as true as anything he’s telling you, so there you go. Oh, and under his plan, if you fall behind on a house payment, Phil Gramm and a team of monkeys show up and take your house away. It’s true. I swear. How do you think he got all those other houses that he doesn’t even know he has?”

Okay, that’s enough. Hopefully you get the gist. The goal is to create a narrative, to brand McCain and Palin as borderline pathological liars. If done effectively, the press would absolutely eat this up and would play the soundbite over and over again. They are suckers for good humor and they already believe the basis of the narrative. This tactic would turn McCain and Palin’s lying into an ongoing joke, one that would pay dividends throughout the remainder of the campaign. If, for instance, either McCain or Palin were to repeat a lie during the debates, all Obama and Biden would have to do is say–in classic Reagan fashion–”there you go again” and everyone would instantly know what they meant. This tactic would work. I’m sure of it.
If you agree, and you have any contacts in the Obama campaign, please pass this along. And if you liked this post, please pay a visit to my own blog when you get a chance.

Anonymous Liberal

Republican principles

2008-09-10T15:47:00.000-06:00

From the email at http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

Many thanks to Mainetalker for this original piece...

Republican principles:

* If you're a minority and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "token hire."
* If you're a conservative and you're selected for a job over more qualified candidates you're a "game changer."

* Black teen pregnancies? A "crisis" in black America .
* White teen pregnancies? A "blessed event."

* If you grow up in Hawaii you're "exotic."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're the quintessential "American story."*

Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you're "unpatriotic."
* Name your kid Track, you're "colorful."

* If you're a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you're "reckless."
* A Republican who doesn't fully vet is a "maverick."

* If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organizationfrom a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African Amerian voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Worksand Veteran's Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.

* If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you've got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.

* If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an "arrogant celebrity."
* If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are "energizing the base."

* If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are "presumptuous."
* If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a "shoot from the hip" maverick.

* If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are "an elitist-out of touch" with the real America .
* if you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Annapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.

* If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an"empty suit."* If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an"experienced executive."

* If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are "extremist."
* If you believe in creationism and don't believe global warming is man made, you are "strongly principled."

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
* If you have been married to the same woman with whom you've been wed to for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters with, you're "risky."

* If you're a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you're an irresponsible parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.
* But if you're a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you're spunky.

* If you're a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you"First dog."
* If you're a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you "beautiful" and "courageous."

* If you kill an endangered species, you're an excellent hunter.
* If you have an abortion, you're a murderer (forget about if it happened while being raped.)

* If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
* If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If you're a Republican senator who solicits gay sex in an airport bathroom, you get to return to your job in the Senate and are encouraged to run for re-election.
* If you're a Democratic Senator who is out of public office and have an affair, your political career is over and your wife who has terminal cancer is to blame.

Still want to vote Republican?.. Wake Up America!--

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so"-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to. http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

Dear Barack

2008-09-08T17:53:00.001-06:00

It's been week or so since I wrote you a letter so I figure it's time that I updated you on a few facts of life. For starters, I have been bored to tears since the completion of these stupid conventions, especially the Republican farce for a convention and it's your fault.

Here's why I think it's your fault. You're still trying to preach in response to those nasty attacks and it ain't workin' son. Personally I detest being preached to and that's pretty much what you have done all along. So get over the sermons already. Hell, you're even putting the damn Republicans to sleep.

Where's all that P & V that I hear you have been blessed with? Get it going son. I am too damn old to sit around waiting on miracles. The way I see it right now you are going to lose unless you get some serious kickass going.

Now I happen to come from a family with mixed heritage so it's really pissing me off to see Grandma Palin and her snide, nasty attacks on you and you just stand there chuckling, coming back with some nicey, nice preacher remarks. Now I think you might just have an idea what Sen. Clinton felt like campaigning against you, eh??

Nicey, nice is not going to work with these nasty bastards and you have to know that. Surely you can look back and see what those miserable cretins did to John McCain in 2000, to John Kerry in 2004. Do I have to say Max Cleland?

Come on Barack. You have to learn to fight back and you have to do it, like yesterday. It doesn't matter that McCain was a POW. After he was a POW, he became an adulterer. He dumped the crippled wife who had waited, hoped and cared for the kids for 5 long years. Since that time he has been an elite, multi-millionaire, (thanks to the Stepford Wife Cindy), who is so out of touch with the real world that the thought of him becoming president scares the hell out of Thad Cochran. A multi-millionaire, by the way who is collecting almost $60,000.00 a year as total disability for military service. If he is totally disabled why is he in the Senate and why is he running for the presidency?
I happen to think that McCain's POW experience is a negative. We don't know what they did to that old coot while he was lollygagging around the Hanoi Hilton.

Now enters Granny Palin.... Hell yes, I think that baby is her daughter's kid but that is of no importance other than the usual Republican lying and covering up their own mistakes, corruption, etc.

Granny Palin calls herself a pit bull with lipstick and she's proved that to be true. She appears to also be a female George Bush, only with the ability to speak in complete sentences. Based on what I have read of her history, she is as corrupt as Dick Cheney and meaner than a junk yard dog. She has every intention of sending this country backwards into the 18th Century. I have no doubt that this mean, vindictive woman intends to be president by hook or by crook. She will run the country while Granddaddy McCain drools away in the Library, only being awakened to sign whatever she puts in front of him. Sound familiar?

It's perfectly alright that Granny Palin has the options to make choices about her life, her child's life, etc., but she appears to think that the rest of the world needs her to make that decision for them. To that I say, Fuck you Granny Palin. I've seen the results of your decisions and it ain't a pretty sight.

Granddaddy McCain & Granny Palin need to mind their own damn business when it comes to our personal lives. We don't need the advice of a couple of adulterers. Family Values, my ass!

Now back to you. I must admit that I am not quite sure what to do but I do know that you have to do something. You cannot be nice to these assholes. You know their routine. Anything you say or do is unfair to poor 'widdle' ole Granny Palin according to the those GOP's (Goofamous Old Pricks).

Now I am going to be blunt (Sunday school up to now...LOL) I am sick to death of those damn fundamentalist, phony Christians. We sat around & allowed George Bush to place those quacks in every branch of government. Yee gods! Those incompetent, bumbling idiots have stunk up the entire government of these United States.

Have you heard how they prosecuted & convicted Governor Don Siegelman in Alabama on trumped up charges? Surely you know about the corruption in the Justice Dept., first Speedy Gonzales, who was not very speedy at all....Now Mukasey who is endorsing & covering up the crimes of the Bush/Cheney hoodlum administration. Another half dozen or more people sit in prison as political prisoners of these miserable SOBs.

Speaking of which, just what the hell will it take for you to think that Bush & Cheney should be impeached & removed from office? These brazen crooks have crapped on the Constitution of the United States in just about every way possible. Bush is reported to have called it just a goddamn piece of paper and he has treated it like just that ..... a piece of toilet paper.
What about that illegal war? What about the economy of the country? What about jobs? What about "We The People"?

Those bastards are attacking you, wanting you to scream racism. To your credit you have not fallen for that trick but I see no harm in you pointing out how the Republicans have left Black people out of their inner circle & will continue to do so. If I read correctly the Repugs had a grand total of 37 black delegates at that illustrious convention. Thirty-Seven people to represent millions of black people in this country. My, my.... how positively typical of the Republicans!

The Republican party is as racist as they come. I'm only surprised that 'king George' hasn't marched out of the White House with a cone shaped hat and white sheet draped around him. I'm not too sure that Tricky Dicky #2 hasn't done just that.

You have 'experts' (kittens) working with you Barack. Put them in the background and hire yourself some Pit Bulls. I'm sure that you can find a few out there. If I wasn't so damn old I would volunteer. Maxine Waters comes to mind. Think Shirley Chisholm! Think Samson versus Goliath.

Get a move on Barack. Those pretty guy looks will only get you so far. Biden and that flashing traffic light smile was a serious mistake. You can't afford too many more blunders like that one.

Now let's see some asskicking. I don't want to have to come down there(?) up there(?) over there(?) to kick your butt.

Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun

2008-09-07T09:29:00.002-06:00

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the women who toil for meth;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would freeze your living breath;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was under the lights in the parking lot of Sleazy Blights’s

When April Quill forgot her pills.

(Zepp Jamison's parody of The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service)

Right wingers are hypocritical, sanctimonious toads, and while this often makes them intensely annoying, it also makes them a mother lode of amusement, especially since they tend to be self-important and utterly humorless.In their intense efforts to bury questions about Bristol Palin and the baby Trig, they accuse everyone who asks anything of attacking “that poor innocent girl” and a disabled infant. Tch, tch.....................

If they ever did the results of DNA testing on a typical American small town, and released the results showing who was related to whom at noon one day, you would probably hear the first gun shots by 12:15, the opening rounds in a 300 year civil war with twenty sides.

It isn’t just American small towns, of course. They just tend to be deeper in Puritanical denial in the red states, is all.

But you have a relatively small number of people who don’t get to consort much with anyone other than the people they attended elementary school with, and marriages sometimes compete with friendships, or other love affairs, and of course, there’s always boozy nights at the local flat-roofed bar with the pickups in the parking lot, and the result is a lot of babies whose birth certificates have more fiction – and are sometimes more lurid – than a Stephen King novel.

I’m not judging these folks – they’re only human, after all. But I would be a whole lot more sympathetic if they didn’t spend the time when they aren’t fucking their cousin’s brains out lecturing us on how intellectuals, the media elite and big city folks don’t have any family values..................

There is one more element, and there’s nothing funny about this one at all. I’ve heard various people describe Wasilla, Palin’s home town, as a “meth town.” ....

Wasilla, semi-remote and with a played-out economic engine, sounds like a prime candidate.

Crystal meth has had an absolutely horrible effect on small-town America. The shit is easy to make, dirt cheap, addictive as hell, and incredibly nasty. It can take a high school prom queen and turn her into a toothless crone in five years.

The Republican economic miracle hasn’t helped. With no safety net or training, all a played-out small town has left is grudging charity, a circling of the wagons and subsequent siege mentality, and that gawd-awful stifling pseudo-Christian morality that sneers at anyone who isn’t well off or well adjusted.

So the next time red staters want to lecture on morality, and prattle on about Clinton or Edwards or whoever, they stand on notice: we know better. We know what they are. And we aren’t impressed with the moral chest thumping.

http://www.mytown.ca/zepp/

An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore

2008-08-31T05:45:00.000-06:00

In a nod to I don't know what, Bush's head of FEMA has named a man to help manage the federal government's response. His name is W. Michael Moore. I kid you not, heavenly Father. They have sent a man with both my name AND W's to help save the Gulf Coast.

An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore .....Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Dear God,

The other night, the Rev. James Dobson's ministry asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be cancelled.

I see that You have answered Rev. Dobson's prayers -- except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.

Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don't blame You, I know You're angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an "Act of God" -- when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.

Some of us tried to help after Katrina hit, while Bush ate cake with McCain and twiddled his thumbs. I closed my office in New York and sent my entire staff down to New Orleans to help. I asked people on my website to contribute to the relief effort I organized -- and I ended up sending over two million dollars in donations, food, water, and supplies (collected from thousands of fans) to New Orleans while Bush's FEMA ice trucks were still driving around Maine three weeks later.

But this past Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that the Republicans had begun making plans to possibly postpone the convention. The AP had reported that there were no shelters set up in New Orleans for this storm, and that the levee repairs have not been adequate. In other words, as the great Ronald Reagan would say, "There you go again!"

So the last thing John McCain and the Republicans needed was to have a split-screen on TVs across America: one side with Bush and McCain partying in St. Paul, and on the other side of the screen, live footage of their Republican administration screwing up once again while New Orleans drowns.

So, yes, You have scared the Jesus, Mary and Joseph out of them, and more than a few million of your followers tip their hats to You.

But now it appears that You haven't been having just a little fun with Bush & Co. It appears that Hurricane Gustav is truly heading to New Orleans and the Gulf coast. We hear You, O Lord, loud and clear, just as we did when Rev. Falwell said You made 9/11 happen because of all those gays and abortions. We beseech You, O Merciful One, not to punish us again as Pat Robertson said You did by giving us Katrina because of America's "wholesale slaughter of unborn children." His sentiments were echoed by other Republicans in 2005.

So this is my plea to you: Don't do this to Louisiana again. The Republicans got your message. They are scrambling and doing the best they can to get planes, trains and buses to New Orleans so that everyone can get out. They haven't sent the entire Louisiana National Guard to Iraq this time -- they are already patrolling the city streets. And, in a nod to I don't know what, Bush's head of FEMA has named a man to help manage the federal government's response. His name is W. Michael Moore. I kid you not, heavenly Father. They have sent a man with both my name AND W's to help save the Gulf Coast.

So please God, let the storm die out at sea. It's done enough damage already. If you do this one favor for me, I promise not to invoke your name again. I'll leave that to the followers of Rev. Dobson and to those gathering this week in St. Paul.

Your faithful servant and former seminarian,
Michael MooreMMFlint@aol.com MichaelMoore.com

P.S. To all of God's fellow children who are reading this, the city New Orleans has not yet recovered from Katrina. Please click here for a list of things you can do to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast. And, if you do live along the Gulf Coast, please take all necessary safety precautions immediately.

Re: Our message of change

2008-08-25T12:42:00.000-06:00

Barack,

You're just not listening to a word I say. I don't give a damn about your recorded message or your new bunk mate & I am not going to give you $5.00 until I see some sign of real change.

Matter of fact there's not too much that pisses me off more than a record message. You send emails that make it sound as though we are best buds (to borrow words from my friend Norla) then you add insult to injury by telling me to listen to your recorded message. Stuff it Obama! I'm not interested in any more of your pretty words. I want to see something that doesn't sound like it comes from the McSame campaign.

I was never impressed by your supposedly pretty words. I thought they were just a lot of hot air the first time I heard you speak. I've neither seen or heard anything to change my mind on that issue.

I like Hillary Clinton and I think she would be a much better president than you but when she dropped her campaign and asked us to support you, I did so. Now I am beginning to wonder if I should just throw in the towel.

You sound like just another politician. You didn't help matters by picking Biden as your playmate. It's hard to forget that he was a staunch supporter of the Patriot Act. You also did not help any by your support for the FISA act. What the hell do you expect us to believe when you are right in there flip-flopping with that old coot McSame?

Grow some balls Obama and stand up for this country. The hell with those good old boys. They have had a heavy hand in the attacks on the Constitution of the United States. I am sick of the illegally installed quack from Texas and his thoroughly corrupt side kick, ole Dead Eye Dick. They are the worst thing to ever happen to this country and believe me I know that you voted for a lot of stuff on their wish list.

Now are you going to choose country or the good old boys? It's your call but by damn, it's my vote & I am not going to waste it on just another good old boy.

Now quit being a pansyass and show us some real change.

Maggie

Obama's VP Announcement

2008-08-24T21:37:00.000-06:00

Hi Barack,

This is your 'friend" Maggie. Remember me? You sent me that cute little email announcing your choice for VP? NO? Damn, and it sounded so much like we have known each other for years! I could have sworn, after reading the opening line that you remembered me from someplace but then a friend suggested that it sounded like a Nigerian scam letters.

But you did it faster than the Nigerian scam letters. In 7 lines you got me to the link to tell Ole Joe how glad I was for him to be on the team and that link led me straight to the never-ending requests for MONEY.

Sorry Barack. I'm not glad to see Biden as VP candidate. He's just one of the original good old boys in that useless Congress. I'm sick and tired of the good old boys and their back slapping, self-serving bull malarkey!

My friend Norla wrote to you and congratulated you, saying that you & Biden look good together. I don't disagree with Norla too many times but I think she had that comment all wrong. I think you & Mr. Biden look ALIKE... period. Yep, the thing that stands out like a neon light are your smiles, on and off.... reminds me of a flashing warning light at a railroad crossing.

Come on son. Ditch that phony on & off smile and get that nose down out of the clear blue. I am trying my best to find a reason to vote for you but the thought of looking up your nostrils for the next 4 or 8 years is just not doing the job.

Norla also wrote, " Obama keeps sending me these little notes addressed to Norla and signed Barack, as if we were buds. The man will not even hear my voice if I shout so the phoniness is mildly annoying."

That irks the hell out of me too Barack. You spew a lot of grand, kissy-kissy words but I have seen little of anything about you actually listening to or talking to someone like me. You talk over us, around us and at us but seldom do I see any indication that you are listening to any of us in the real world.

I realize I am not the Obama Girl but for heaven sakes quit talking AT me as though I am a brick wall not worthy of your attention. I can just about guarantee you that my friend Norla & I have some ideas that would provide the good solid asskicking that McCain deserves. I am also realistic enough to know that you will never hear or entertain those ideas because you are too busy pandering to the fundamentalists & the greedy corporations, who have been responsible (through their agents George Bush & Dick Cheney), to wreak the havoc that we have witnessed for the past 8 long years. Are you trying to subject us to another 4 years or 8 years of the insane Bush BS?

So there you stand with that blazing smile & starting to look like a fool because that old coot, McCain is using the republican owned media to make it look as though every word that comes from your mouth is a lie. Kickass already!

By the way Barack, one thing that you seem to have totally ignored is the massive election fraud that has been underway in this country, especially since the Supreme Court Five installed their boy in 2000. Have you even bothered to notice that there are a number of members of Congress who are there, not because of nasty campaigns, even though nasty has been a part of the game, but because of election fraud. Norm Coleman is one....Saxby of Georgia is another. Election Fraud, Barack, and they are preparing to do the same this time. Do you know how many voters, mostly African Americans, have been removed from the voter rolls this past year? You'd better check.

Charlie Crist, gay governor of Florida is not only covering up his gayness by getting married (will he be McSame's choice for vp?) but he is turning a blind eye to people being removed from the voter rolls.

Oh by the way, let's talk about McSame's patriotism. I know you are afraid to touch that but that old coot is no more a patriot or a hero than my pet bird. He survived as a POW. What the hell about that is heroic OR qualifies him to be president?? Even if you don't want to touch that, you can damn sure talk about his votes against the Veterans & seniors over the years. Matter of fact, it seems that the rich old coot is against us common people having any of the goodies he has and he got it all by being an adulterer, a liar and a crook (Keating Scandal).

Ok Barack. It's your turn and please don't pull that "best bud" routine again. It makes me feel as though one of the uncouth heathens from this Redneck Riviera (Florida panhandle) just called me honey. Damn I hate that word.

I think the Democratic party has gone to hell in a hand basket. This may be the only opportunity to turn it around. You need to use your brain and not be railroaded by some of the out of touch, know-nothings around you. John McCain is a disaster waiting to happen. Get off your comfortable ass and get busy.

You have given the impression that you are one of the smartest men alive today. Prove it!

"Maggie"

PS: A warm & fuzzy thank you note from your new bunk mate, Mr. Biden, just dropped into my mailbox. He, too wrote as though we were best friends. Obviously he didn't read my "thank you" note because it read in part....."one of the original good old boys. So much for that magnificent change".

Loretta Nall: If I'd a knowed that I'd a sent Troy King a Blow-Up Boar Hawg

2008-07-10T16:34:00.000-06:00

Loretta Nall: If I'd a knowed that I'd a sent Troy King a Blow-Up Boar Hawg

Your Whiteness Is Showing: An Open Letter To Certain White Women

2008-06-13T06:17:00.000-06:00

Who are Threatening to Withhold Support From Barack Obama in November

By Tim Wise June 5, 2008

This is an open letter to those white women who, despite their proclamations of progressivism, and supposedly because of their commitment to feminism, are threatening to withhold support from Barack Obama in November. You know who you are.

I know that it's probably a bad time for this. Your disappointment at the electoral defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton is fresh, the sting is new, and the anger that animates many of you--who rightly point out that the media was often sexist in its treatment of the Senator--is raw, pure and justified.

That said, and despite the awkward timing, I need to ask you a few questions, and I hope you will take them in the spirit of solidarity with which they are genuinely intended. But before the questions, a statement if you don't mind, or indeed, even if (as I suspect), you will mind it quite a bit.

First, for those of you threatening to actually vote for John McCain and to oppose Senator Obama, or to stay home in November and thereby increase the likelihood of McCain winning and Obama losing (despite the fact that the latter's policy platform is virtually identical to Clinton's while the former's clearly is not), all the while claiming to be standing up for women...For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and increase the odds of his winning (despite the fact that he once called his wife the c-word in public and is a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom and gender equity initiatives, such as comparable worth legislation), all the while claiming to be standing up for women...

For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and help ensure Barack Obama's defeat, as a way to protest what you call Obama's sexism (examples of which you seem to have difficulty coming up with), all the while claiming to be standing up for women...

Your whiteness is showing.

When I say your whiteness is showing this is what I mean: You claim that your opposition to Obama is an act of gender solidarity, in that women (and their male allies) need to stand up for women in the face of the sexist mistreatment of Clinton by the press. On this latter point--the one about the importance of standing up to the media for its often venal misogyny--you couldn't be more correct. As the father of two young girls who will have to contend with the poison of patriarchy all their lives, or at least until such time as that system of oppression is eradicated, I will be the first to join the boycott of, or demonstration on, whatever media outlet you choose to make that point. But on the first part of the above equation--the part where you insist voting against Obama is about gender solidarity--you are, for lack of a better way to put it, completely full of crap. And what's worse is that at some level I suspect you know it. Voting against Senator Obama is not about gender solidarity. It is an act of white racial bonding, and it is grotesque.

If it were gender solidarity you sought, you would by definition join with your black and brown sisters come November, and do what you know good and well they are going to do, in overwhelming numbers, which is vote for Barack Obama. But no. You are threatening to vote not like other women--you know, the ones who aren't white like you and most of your friends--but rather, like white men! Needless to say it is high irony, bordering on the outright farcical, to believe that electorally bonding with white men, so as to elect McCain, is a rational strategy for promoting feminism and challenging patriarchy. You are not thinking and acting as women, but as white people. So here's the first question: What the hell is that about?

And you wonder why women of color have, for so long, thought (by and large) that white so-called feminists were phony as hell? Sister please...

Your threats are not about standing up for women. They are only about standing up for the feelings of white women, and more to the point, the aspirations of one white woman. So don't kid yourself. If you wanted to make a statement about the importance of supporting a woman, you wouldn't need to vote for John McCain, or stay home, thereby producing the same likely result--a defeat for Obama. You could always have said you were going to go out and vote for Cynthia McKinney. After all, she is a woman, running with the Green Party, and she's progressive, and she's a feminist. But that isn't your threat is it? No. You're not threatening to vote for the woman, or even the feminist woman. Rather, you are threatening to vote for the white man, and to reject not only the black man who you feel stole Clinton's birthright, but even the black woman in the race. And I wonder why? Could it be...?

See, I told you your whiteness was showing.

And now for a third question, and this is the biggie, so please take your time with it: How is it that you have managed to hold your nose all these years, just like a lot of us on the left, and vote for Democrats who we knew were horribly inadequate--Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis, right on down the uninspiring line--and yet, apparently can't bring yourself to vote for Barack Obama? A man who, for all of his shortcomings (and there are several, as with all candidates put up by either of the two major corporate parties) is surely more progressive than any of those just mentioned. And how are we to understand that refusal--this sudden line in the proverbial sand--other than as a racist slap at a black man? You will vote for white men year after year after year--and are threatening to vote for another one just to make a point--but can't bring yourself to vote for a black man, whose political views come much closer to your own, in all likelihood, than do the views of any of the white men you've supported before.

How, other than as an act of racism, or perhaps as evidence of political insanity, is one to interpret such a thing? See, black folks would have sucked it up, like they've had to do forever, and voted for Clinton had it come down to that. Indeed, they were on board the Hillary train early on, convinced that Obama had no chance to win and hoping for change, any change, from the reactionary agenda that has been so prevalent for so long in this culture. They would have supported the white woman--hell, for many black folks, before Obama showed his mettle they were downright excited to do so--but you won't support the black man. And yet you have the audacity to insist that it is you who are the most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party, and the one before whom Party leaders should bow down, and whose feet must be kissed?

Your whiteness is showing.

Look, I couldn't care less about the Party personally. I left the Democrats twenty years ago when they told me that my activism in the Central America solidarity and South African anti-apartheid movements made me a security risk, and that I wouldn't be able to get clearance to be in some parade with Governor Dukakis. Yeah, seriously. But for you to act as though you are the indispensible voters, the most important, the ones whose views should be pandered to, whose every whim should be the basis for Party policy, is not only absurd, it is also racist in that it, a) ignores and treats as irrelevant the much more loyal constituency of black folks, without whom no Democrat would have won anything in the past twenty years (and indeed the racial gap favoring the Democrats among blacks is about six times larger than the gender gap favoring them among white women, relative to white men); and b) demonstrates the mentality of entitlement and superiority that has been long ingrained in us as white folks--so that we believe we have the right to dictate the terms of political engagement, and to determine the outcome, and to get our way, simply because for so long we have done just that.

But that day is done, whether you like it or not, and you are now left with two, and only two choices, so consider them carefully: the first is to stand now in solidarity with your black brothers and sisters and welcome the new day, and help to push it in a truly progressive and feminist and antiracist direction, while the second is to team up with white men to try and block the new day from dawning. Feel free to choose the latter. But if you do, please don't insult your own intelligence, or ours, by insisting that you've done so as a radical political act.

http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/

Goodbye to the double standard . . .

2008-05-05T06:57:00.002-06:00

aby Robin Morgan (and thanks to the Women’s Media Center)

“Goodbye To All That” was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting women (online version is here.) During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and contemporary women’s movements, I’ve avoided writing another specific “Goodbye . . .”. But not since the suffrage struggle have two communities — the joint conscience-keepers of this country– been so set in competition, as the contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls. So.
Goodbye to the double standard . . .

Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden who’s emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for politics.

She’s “ambitious” but he shows “fire in the belly.” (Ever had labor pains? )
When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at BO, it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.

Young political Kennedys –Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby Jr. — all endorsed Hillary. Sen. Ted, age 76, endorsed Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort “See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the forward-looking generation backs him.” (Personally, I’m unimpressed with Caroline’s longing for the Return of the Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe’s suicide, and a dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)
Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .
Carl Bernstein’s disgust at Hillary’s “thick ankles.”
Nixon-trickster Roger Stone’s new Hillary-hating 527 group, “Citizens United Not Timid” (check the capital letters).

John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?” with “Excellent question!” Would he have dared reply similarly to “How do we beat the black bastard?” For shame.
Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs.
If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged — and they would not be selling it in airports. Shame.

Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan “If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!” Shame.
Goodbye to Comedy Central’s “Southpark” featuring a storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC’s vagina.
I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far enough to find a race-based comparison.

For shame.
Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny.

This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?

Goodbye to the news-coverage target-practice . . .
The women’s movement and Media Matters wrung an apology from MSNBC’s Chris Matthews for relentless misogynistic comments. But what about NBC’s Tim Russert’s continual sexist asides and his all-white-male panels pontificating on race and gender? Or CNN’s Tony Harris chuckling at “the chromosome thing” while interviewing a woman from The White House Project? And that’s not even mentioning Fox News.

Goodbye to pretending the black community is entirely male and all women are white . . .
Surprise! Women exist in all opinions, pigmentations, ethnicities, abilities, sexual preferences, and ages — not only African American and European American but Latina and Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Arab American and — hey, every group, because a group wouldn’t be alive if we hadn’t given birth to it. A few non-racist countries may exist – but sexism is everywhere. No matter how many ways a woman breaks free from other oppressions, she remains a female human being in a world still so patriarchal that it’s the “norm.”

So why should all women not be as justly proud of our womanhood and the centuries, even millennia, of struggle that got us this far, as black Americans, women and men, are justly proud of their struggles?

Goodbye to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which whites—especially wealthy ones–adore), while she has to pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and then found unforgivable). If she were black or he were female we wouldn’t be having such problems, and I for one would be in heaven. But at present such a candidate wouldn’t stand a chance—even if she shared Condi Rice’s Bush-defending politics.

I was celebrating the pivotal power at last focused on African American women deciding on which of two candidates to bestow their vote–until a number of Hillary-supporting black feminists told me they’re being called “race traitors.”

So goodbye to conversations about this nation’s deepest scar—slavery—which fail to acknowledge that labor- and sexual-slavery exist today in the US and elsewhere on this planet, and the majority of those enslaved are women.

Women have endured sex/race/ethnic/religious hatred, rape and battery, invasion of spirit and flesh, forced pregnancy; being the majority of the poor, the illiterate, the disabled, of refugees, caregivers, the HIV/AIDS afflicted, the powerless. We have survived invisibility, ridicule, religious fundamentalisms, polygamy, teargas, forced feedings, jails, asylums, sati, purdah, female genital mutilation, witch burnings, stonings, and attempted gynocides. We have tried reason, persuasion, reassurances, and being extra-qualified, only to learn it never was about qualifications after all. We know that at this historical moment women experience the world differently from men–though not all the same as one another–and can govern differently, from Elizabeth Tudor to Michele Bachelet and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

We remember when Shirley Chisholm and Patricia Schroeder ran for this high office and barely got past the gate—they showed too much passion, raised too little cash, were joke fodder. Goodbye to all that. (And goodbye to some feminists so famished for a female president they were even willing to abandon women’s rights in backing Elizabeth Dole.)

Goodbye, goodbye to . . .
blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys–though unlike them, he got reported on). Let’s get real. If he hadn’t campaigned strongly for her everyone would cluck over what that meant.

Enough of Bill and Teddy Kennedy locking their alpha male horns while Hillary pays for it.
an era when parts of the populace feel so disaffected by politics that a comparative lack of knowledge, experience, and skill is actually seen as attractive, when celebrity-culture mania now infects our elections so that it’s “cooler” to glow with marquee charisma than to understand the vast global complexities of power on a nuclear, wounded planet.

the notion that it’s fun to elect a handsome, cocky president who feels he can learn on the job,
goodbye to George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance.

Goodbye to the accusation that HRC acts “entitled” when she’s worked intensely at everything she’s done—including being a nose-to-the-grindstone, first-rate senator from my state.
Goodbye to her being exploited as a Rorschach test by women who reduce her to a blank screen on which they project their own fears, failures, fantasies.

Goodbye to the phrase “polarizing figure” to describe someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the last century and are poised to make in this one. It was the women’s movement that quipped, “We are becoming the men we wanted to marry.” She heard us, and she has.

Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing their hands, because Hillary isn’t as “likeable” as they’ve been warned they must be, or because she didn’t leave him, couldn’t “control” him, kept her family together and raised a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had ever acted in the alcoholic, neurotic manner of the Bush twins!) Goodbye to some women pouting because she didn’t bake cookies or she did, sniping because she learned the rules and then bent or broke them. Grow the hell up. She is not running for Ms.-perfect-pure-queen-icon of the feminist movement. She is running to be President of the United States.

Goodbye to the shocking American ignorance of our own and other countries’ history. Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir rose through party ranks and war, positioning themselves as proto-male leaders. Almost all other female heads of government so far have been related to men of power—granddaughters, daughters, sisters, wives, widows: Gandhi, Bandaranike, Bhutto, Aquino, Chamorro, Wazed, Macapagal-Arroyo, Johnson Sirleaf, Bachelet, Kirchner, and more. Even in our “land of opportunity,” it’s mostly the first pathway “in” permitted to women: Reps. Doris Matsui and Mary Bono and Sala Burton; Sen. Jean Carnahan . . . far too many to list here.

Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .
Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous “Obama Girl” flaunting her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it wasn’t her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and dictated the clothes, which she said “made me feel like a dork.”

Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they’re not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can’t identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her.

Goodbye to women of any age again feeling unworthy, sulking “what if she’s not electable?” or “maybe it’s post-feminism and whoooosh we’re already free.” Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, “I could have saved thousands — if only I’d been able to convince them they were slaves.”

I’d rather say a joyful Hello to all the glorious young women who do identify with Hillary, and all the brave, smart men—of all ethnicities and any age–who get that it’s in their self-interest, too. She’s better qualified. (D’uh.) She’s a high-profile candidate with an enormous grasp of foreign- and domestic-policy nuance, dedication to detail, ability to absorb staggering insult and personal pain while retaining dignity, resolve, even humor, and keep on keeping on. (Also, yes, dammit, let’s hear it for her connections and funding and party-building background, too. Obama was awfully glad about those when she raised dough and campaigned for him to get to the Senate in the first place.)

I’d rather look forward to what a good president he might make in eight years, when his vision and spirit are seasoned by practical know-how — and he’ll be all of 54. Meanwhile, goodbye to turning him into a shining knight when actually he’s an astute, smooth pol with speechwriters who’ve worked with the Kennedys’ own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson. If it’s only about ringing rhetoric, let speechwriters run. But isn’t it about getting the policies we want enacted?
And goodbye to the ageism . . .

How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on history, papering over real inequities and suffering constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to rouse US youth from torpor it’s useful to triage the single largest demographic in this country’s history: the boomer generation–the majority of which is female?

Older woman are the one group that doesn’t grow more conservative with age—and we are the generation of radicals who said “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Goodbye to going gently into any goodnight any man prescribes for us. We are the women who changed the reality of the United States. And though we never went away, brace yourselves: we’re back!
We are the women who brought this country equal credit, better pay, affirmative action, the concept of a family-focused workplace; the women who established rape-crisis centers and battery shelters, marital-rape and date-rape laws; the women who defended lesbian custody rights, who fought for prison reform, founded the peace and environmental movements; who insisted that medical research include female anatomy, who inspired men to become more nurturing parents, who created women’s studies and Title IX so we all could cheer the WNBA stars and Mia Hamm. We are the women who reclaimed sexuality from violent pornography, who put child care on the national agenda, who transformed demographics, artistic expression, language itself. We are the women who forged a worldwide movement. We are the proud successors of women who, though it took more than 50 years, won us the vote.
We are the women who now comprise the majority of US voters.

Hillary said she found her own voice in New Hampshire. There’s not a woman alive who, if she’s honest, doesn’t recognize what she means. Then HRC got drowned out by campaign experts, Bill, and media’s obsession with All Things Bill.

So listen to her voice:
“For too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words.

“It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when woman and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small. It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide along women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes. It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.

“Women’s rights are human rights. Among those rights are the right to speak freely–and the right to be heard.”

That was Hillary Rodham Clinton defying the US State Department and the Chinese Government at the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing (the full, stunning speech is here).
And this voice, age 22, in “Commencement Remarks of Hillary D. Rodham, President of Wellesley College Government Association, Class of 1969” (full speech: )

“We are, all of us, exploring a world none of us understands. . . . searching for a more immediate, ecstatic, and penetrating mode of living. . . . [for the] integrity, the courage to be whole, living in relation to one another in the full poetry of existence. The struggle for an integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust and respect is one with desperately important political and social consequences. . . . Fear is always with us, but we just don’t have time for it.”
She ended with the commitment “to practice, with all the skill of our being: the art of making possible.”

And for decades, she’s been learning how.

So goodbye to Hillary’s second-guessing herself. The real question is deeper than her re-finding her voice. Can we women find ours? Can we do this for ourselves? “Our President, Ourselves!”
Time is short and the contest tightening. We need to rise in furious energy–as we did when courageous Anita Hill was so vilely treated in the US Senate, as we did when desperate Rosie Jiminez was butchered by an illegal abortion, as we did and do for women globally who are condemned for trying to break through. We need to win, this time. Goodbye to supporting HRC tepidly, with ambivalent caveats and apologetic smiles. Time to volunteer, make phone calls, send emails, donate money, argue, rally, march, shout, vote.

Me? I support Hillary Rodham because she’s the best qualified of all candidates running in both parties. I support her because her progressive politics are as strong as her proven ability to withstand what will be a massive right-wing assault in the general election. I support her because she’s refreshingly thoughtful, and I’m bloodied from eight years of a jolly “uniter” with ejaculatory politics. I needn’t agree with her on every point. I agree with the 97 percent of her positions that are identical with Obama’s—and the few where hers are both more practical and to the left of his (like health care). I support her because she’s already smashed the first-lady stereotype and made history as a fine senator, and because I believe she will continue to make history not only as the first US woman president, but as a great US president.
As for the “woman thing”?

Me, I’m voting for Hillary not because she’s a woman–but because I am.

http://www.proudliberalbitch.com/

How soft was the media on Obama?

2008-04-17T06:20:00.001-06:00

Just How Soft has Obama's Coverage Been?Marshmallow soft.Down pillow soft.Baby's bottom soft.So no one should be surprised that Obama had a nightmare night. He finally got real questions for which he should have had ready answers. Over the last year Barack Obama has gotten a complete pass on his record, his life and everything associated to his political rise. In fact, if Senator Obama had been subjected to the scrutiny that Hillary Clinton has been subjected to he would have turned to ash by now. So forgive me if all the blogospheric bellyaching permeating Democratic circles is not impressing me much. In fact, it's a laugh out loud moment. Now don't get me wrong. I'm more than willing to blame the traditional media for piling on a Democrat, which they do often. But do these progressives now crying fowl really believe they could protect Mr. Obama, as his Democratic challengers did all last year, throughout the rest of this campaign? Asking a question about Rev. Wright? A question about William Ayers? The horror! Seriously, is Senator Obama so frail that he shouldn't be subjected to questioning that should have come a long time ago and will inevitably come in the general election? If nothing else and at the very least, everyone in the Democratic party should want to know how he's going to handle this stuff if he's our nominee. Because there can be no doubt that the wingnuts will lock and load Barack's greatest hits, then share them with the electorate in a cascade of negative gifts. Mind you, this is questioning I've been doing for a year and getting excoriated for it. So I feel Charlie and George's pain. Going for substance isn't easy amidst the Political Idol crowd.The facts are that the progressive community and Obama supporters have done their candidate no favors by the kid glove treatment they've applied to all things having to do with him and his record, including his associations. What happened last night is a result of one year of people ignoring reality. That's right, reality. Because the closer Obama got to the nomination and the general election, the curtain would eventually be pulled back on every event in his life, good, bad and horror show, which includes Rev. Wright. This is the reason we lose elections. What, did Obama's adoring fans think they could hermetically seal him and protect him from the meanies out there, then simply deliver him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because "he's the one?" Good grief.If Obama would have been put through his paces last fall, he might have been past this by now. If his own campaign had faced up to his associations long ago, head on, he wouldn't be dealing with this now.Again, I'd blame Gibson and Stephanopoulos, but it's not their fault that someone, anyone finally asked questions that have been out there for months and months. It's not tabloid to ask about Ayers any more than it was tabloid to question Bill Clinton about his past. Hillary's been asked about everything more than once, as they reload to ask it all over again.Oh, and as for Keith He's No Edward R. Murrow Olbermann, don't send a sportscaster to do a political analyst's job. Talking to Howard Wolfson, with Olbermann whining about the questions about Ayers, isn't doing us any favors either. He's just giving Obama fans a false sense of security. It's as if the only people dealing with reality and preparing for the Republican attack machine is the Clinton campaign. Olbermann is on planet Zen if he thinks that Ayers won't be part of the dialogue come September. (You know, because you never roll out a new campaign in August.)We need a nominee that can walk through fire. Whoever we offer up should be able to withstand anything, and I do mean anything. Because that's what always comes at Democrats, with the traditional press inevitably having a thing for the guy on the other side. Considering that guy will be John McCain, the hero worship will be out in force. No Democratic politician in the last 20 years has gotten a softer introduction onto the national stage than Barack Obama. Nobody has gotten an easier ride to the top step of presidential politics either. He paid for it last night.

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Karl in a Corner

2008-04-07T12:56:00.001-06:00

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002812

Karl Rove likes to compare himself with Mark Hanna, the powerful industrialist and senator in the waning nineteenth century who is often credited with the transformation of American political campaigns. Hanna showed that money could be a powerful tool to sculpt the nation’s political course. He raised $3.5 million for the 1896 campaign of his friend, William McKinley–up to that point an unimagined sum–and he brought in a campaign staff of 1,400, crafted leaflets, did the first direct mailings, devised the notion of surrogate speakers, and refined the notion of political messaging. When I have spoken with Rove’s friends and his competito

rs in Texas, Alabama, and other states where he refined his skills, I usually hear a litany of praise. “Karl is a master tactician,” they say. They turn almost immediately to his uncanny ability to spot and target “his voters,” and his use of direct mailing and other techniques. One Texas philanthropist described bringing Karl Rove in to work with her board in raising money for a museum as the “smartest thing I ever did.”

But then we come, very quickly, to the dark side of the genius of Karl Rove. In 1970, Rove, using a fake ID card, entered the campaign office of Alan J. Dixon, a candidate for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole a box of Dixon’s campaign letterhead and used it to solicit homeless people to attend Dixon’s campaign events, promising free food and alcohol, and disrupting the events.
George H.W. Bush fired Rove after discovering that he had planted a story with his friend columnist Robert Novack attacking chief Bush presidential campaign fundraiser Robert Mosbacher.

But all of this is minor. The graver matters go to the tactics he embraces. In a strategy memorandum he wrote in 1986 for Texas Governor William Clement, Rove quoted Napoleon: “The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack.”

But what were the elements of the “audacious attack?” As James Moore documents in his political biography of Rove, Bush’s Brain, politicians who faced Rove in election contests had recurrent problems.

One was rumor campaigns questioning their sexual orientation, adulterous liaisons and similar tawdry matters. Prime examples of this were the rumor campaign launched against Texas Governor Anne Richards suggesting she was a lesbian, and even more pointedly, the curious telephone push-polling during the decisive 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina, suggesting that John McCain had fathered a child in an adulterous relationship with a black woman (McCain and his wife have an adopted daughter from South Asia, whose photograph with her father was circulated in connection with these insinuations).

Second, Rove’s opponents would regularly find that they had suddenly become the target of a criminal investigation, and details concerning the investigation would be aggressively fanned to the press. Rove mastered this technique in a contest for the Texas Agriculture Commissioner’s post that he managed for now-Governor Rick Perry.

Third, and probably the most characteristic of the Rovian tools—“swiftboating.” Rove would cultivate groups which were arguably distant from the campaign proper which would run extremely well funded vitriolic ad hominem attacks on the adversary. The most vivid display of the technique, and indeed the case that produced a new verb for the English language, was the use of military veterans to attack John Kerry over his military record in Vietnam. For a candidate who abandoned his station as a Air National Guard Reservist, refusing to take a physical, and refusing combat service to launch a massive attack on a war hero with a silver star and host of other medals was, well, “audacious.” And ultimately very effective.

These days, Karl is taking a bit of heat over his involvement in the Siegelman case. As I noted in a recent on-air discussion with Dan Abrams, nearly every stone you overturn looking through this case reveals traces of Karl Rove. Rove was serving as campaign advisor to William Pryor, who, as a rabidly partisan Alabama attorney general, launched the investigation into Siegelman almost as soon as he was sworn in as governor. Rove’s close friend and associate William Canary was advising a Republican running against Siegelman, and busily raising money for him as his own wife, Leura Canary, pursued a criminal investigation against Siegelman as U.S. Attorney. A Republican campaign worker disclosed internal discussions about using a criminal prosecution to take out Siegelman, and Rove’s name appeared at every turn, uttered by a person close to Rove. And then the same source, Jill Simpson, described some of her own interactions with Rove in a 60 Minutes segment, followed by another interview on MSNBC’s Dan Abrams show. And we haven’t even begun to discuss the Washington angle…

Rove seems suspiciously concerned about the Simpson allegations, and he’s striking back. The curious thing is that he’s using many of his darker tactics to do so, a move which could well serve in the end to strengthen Simpson’s accusations.

As usual, the Rove approach involves surrogates in the media and the blogosphere. In what may be a sign of desperation, however, Rove is making many of the attacks himself, or is leaving a clear set of fingerprints behind.

Take Rove’s interview in the current issue of the men’s fashion magazine GQ. Here’s how Bush’s brain responds to a query about the Simpson allegations:

[rolls his eyes] Will you do me a favor and go on Power Line and Google “Dana Jill Simpson” [the Republican lawyer who told 60 Minutes that Rove asked her to take a picture of Governor Siegelman cheating on his wife]? She’s a complete lunatic. I’ve never met this woman. This woman was not involved in any campaign in which I was involved. I have yet to find anybody who knows her. And what the media has done on this… No one has read the 143-page deposition that she gave congressional investigators—143 pages. When she shows up to give her explanation of all this, do you know how many times my name appears? Zero times. Nobody checked!

Q: Then how did this happen?

Rove: Because CBS is a shoddy operation. They said, “Hey, if we can say ‘Karl Rove,’ ‘Siegelman,’ that’ll be good for ratings. Let’s hype it. We’ll put out a news release on Thursday and then promo the hell out of it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” And Scott Pelley—the question is, Did [60 Minutes correspondent] Scott Pelley say to this woman, “You say you met with him. Where? And you say that he gave you other assignments earlier. When did he begin giving you assignments, and what campaigns did you work with him in? What evidence? I mean, this woman, she said she met with him: Okay, you met with him—where? Did you fly to Washington?” Now she says that she talked to me on the phone and she’s got phone records. Of calls to Washington and Virginia. But what’s Virginia? I don’t live in Virginia. And it’s 2001. What is in Virginia? It’s not the Bush headquarters; that was in Austin, Texas. What is in Virginia? So—but look, she’s a loon.

Note Rove’s thematic line: Simpson is “a complete lunatic… a loon.” It apparently gets worse than this. In the original interview, as reported in at-Largely, Rove apparently made scurrilous insinuations about Simpson’s family life and her relationship with her children. GQ made the wise decision to strike them from the published text.

But we should keep one fact in sharp focus: the allegations that Jill Simpson makes are all things that Rove has done, and been caught at, in innumerable other campaigns. They belong to his established modus operandi. And vehement denials are another part of the Rove rapid response pattern.

Rove talks about telephone calls to Virginia and denies that they could relate to his dealings with the Bush campaign and transition team. But public records show that the Bush-Cheney transition effort was headquartered in McLean, Virginia.

Rove tells us that CBS, the nation’s leading news broadcaster, is a “shoddy operation.” But Powerline, a rightwing blog site with close ties to Rove, famous for its vicious political attacks, is the ultimate source for information. Powerline can, of course, be counted upon to come through for Rove in a pinch, and that’s exactly how they’re being used here.

It’s true that the deposition taken of Simpson did not include discussion of Simpson’s accounts of dealings involving Rove other than the now-famous discussion with Rove’s pal William Canary right after the 2002 Alabama gubernatorial contest. But as Rove knows, that issue was covered exhaustively in the investigator’s examination and by several national journalists, not just CBS.
Today, the editors of the Tuscaloosa News call this just right:

Rove can hardly afford to hurl around accusations of shoddy operation. Ethics and morals mean little to him. He has proven time and again that he will do anything to get his way in politics.
And John Mashek at U.S. News & World Report, looking at the evidence of Rove’s involvement in the Siegelman matter, put it this way:

Rove’s methods are a direct contrast to the conduct of two now deceased GOP consultants of the past, John Deardourff and Bob Teeter. Deardourff was the TV ad specialist, while Teeter did the polling and strategizing. As a team, they played to win, but they operated with class and integrity. Rove has neither.

What’s gotten Karl worked into a lather? It’s simple. Jill Simpson and the United States Congress are saying exactly the same thing: Karl, if you’re so clear about this, then certainly you will have no problem appearing in response to a Congressional subpoena, swearing an oath and answering questions–just as Simpson did. Moreover, Congress wants to ask him just the same questions that GQ asked, and that he happily answered. How does Rove explain agreeing to be interviewed by a fashion magazine, but refusing to answer the same questions when formally posed by Congress? And certainly Rove should also turn over documents and answer questions about them, just as Jill Simpson did. Rove’s conduct in chatting up the media but refusing to testify before Congress on the same subjects has certainly been audacious. It’s also been stupid.
Karl’s taunts hurled at CBS are designed to get CBS to put all its cards on the table before Karl goes out wading any further into what he obviously recognizes is a minefield. It’s not that he doubts that CBS did their investigation and confirmed Simpson’s credibility. He knows that they did. And he’s frantic to discover exactly what the evidence is.

Rove has a fundamental problem. His denials will not stand up under scrutiny. And worm and evade as he may, he can’t avoid that simple fact. Which is another reason for us all to say we’re dying to hear Karl Rove’s views about the Siegelman case—as soon as he’s placed under oath and agrees to submit to questioning about them.

In the meantime, tune in tonight for CBS 60 Minutes. (Full disclosure: I have been repeatedly interviewed for the program’s Siegelman coverage.) We’ll see a snippet or two from Scott Pelley’s recent interview with Governor Siegelman. And something tells me that Karl Rove will continue to figure prominently in this story.

Court of Appeals Sets Governor Siegelman Free

2008-03-28T07:59:00.003-06:00

Court of Appeals Sets Governor Siegelman Free As Congress Calls Siegelman to Testify in Continued Probe of Political Prosecutions

Scott Horton March 27, 2008

Today was a news double-header for former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. In an order issued by the Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Siegelman’s request to be set free pending his appeal was granted. The court noting that it had reviewed the decision of District Court Judge Mark Fuller for “clear error” and had considered legal issues de novo stated that:

Siegelman has satisfied the criteria set out in the statute and has specifically met his burden of showing that his appeal raises substantial questions of law or fact.

Meanwhile in Washington, the House Judiciary Committee made clear that it was far from finished with its probe into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Siegelman case.
Committee investigators express concern about the Justice Department’s continuous obstruction of efforts to investigate political influence in the Siegelman case and a group of others in which prosecutors have adopted unprecedented theories in an effort to take down prominent Democrats. In the Siegelman case, Justice Department officials have refused to provide evidence under oath, claiming privilege, they have answered written queries with misleading and openly false statements, and they have refused to turn over documents requested by the Committee. Attorney General Mukasey has been repeatedly asked by members of both the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine the extraordinary evidence of misconduct by the U.S. Attorney’s offices in Montgomery and Birmingham, and he has declined to do so. The Justice Department’s stonewalling has thus been complete, top to bottom, and in view of the Justice Department’s refusal to engage in basic self-policing, Congressional oversight is urgently needed. The Judiciary Committee has now concluded that it has no alternative but to require that Siegelman appear before it. The Judiciary Committee has received tens of thousands of appeals from citizens around the country demanding that it take action to hold the Justice Department to account for its misconduct–much of this occurring after CBS News’s 60 Minutes and MSNBC’s Dan Abrams ran a series of exposes revealing extremely troubling misconduct in the course of the prosecution.

Here is the Associated Press’s account:

The House Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department to temporarily release former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman from prison to testify before Congress in early May about possible political influence over his prosecution.

A spokeswoman for the committee said Thursday that Siegelman, who is serving more than seven years in a Louisiana prison, would travel to Washington under guard of the U.S. Marshals Service. She said Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, wants to hear directly from Siegelman because lawmakers are having trouble getting information elsewhere, including from the Justice Department.

The AP also reported that Attorney General Michael Mukasey had indicated he would seek to block the Judiciary Committee’s efforts to have Siegelman testify. That was consistent with prior Justice Department decisions aimed at gagging Siegelman and preventing disclosure of Justice Department misconduct in his case. Mukasey’s opposition was mooted when the Court of Appeals directed his release.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002739

A closer look at McCain’s unearned credibility

2008-03-26T07:57:00.001-06:00

Following up on John’s item from the weekend, NBC’s Chuck Todd conceded that the media gives John McCain a pass on his errors of fact and judgment, because he has credibility “in the bank.”

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Going to Jail for Being a Democrat: How Alabama Gov. Don Sie

2008-03-03T07:01:00.001-06:00

Once a popular governor of Alabama, Siegelman was framed in a crooked trial and sent to prison by the corrupt Bush administration.

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An Open Letter to Powerline (and others): For the love Rove

2008-03-01T22:16:00.001-06:00

In your open letter to CBS News about their 60 Minutes broadcast on the Don Siegelman case, you begin by readily admitting that you are a late-comer to the story. Yet despite not having the facts or apparently seen the investigative reports done well before the CBS broadcast aired, you feel capable enough to issue an opinion...

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Bush League Justice - The Don Siegelman Story

2008-02-28T12:56:00.001-06:00

Siegelman's Daughter States That Her Father Knows Karl Rove Is Behind His Prosecution | Says Judge 'Trying To Keep Her Dad Hushed As Long As He Possibly Can'

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The permanent Republican majority: Part one

2008-02-28T08:27:00.001-06:00

The idea that a prominent politician -- a former state governor -- could be tried on charges that many observers consider to be trumped-up, convicted in a trial that involved numerous questionable procedures, and then hauled off to prison in shackles immediately upon sentencing would be almost unbelievable. Don Siegelman, governor of Alabama...

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State of the Union...The Speech Dubya Would Like to Give.

2008-01-28T14:55:00.000-06:00

Good Evening!

Ms. Speaker ---Hi Sweetie. Hasn't it been a fabulous year? Vice Dick... Yo Dead Eye, thanks for keeping that squirmy little Dennis Kucinich and his impeachment resolution out of my face.
Waves and points to where members of the Supreme Court are sitting.... A special thanks to the fabulous Supreme 5 for putting me in this office. It's been fun guys! Good evening to you.
Anyway, I'm so thankful, and so gracious—I'm gracious that my brother Jeb was governor of Florida in 2000. AND Kat Harris....Damn I miss seeing that bitch in this grand audience.

Every time I come to this rostrum, I chuckle with glee that all you suckers have to bend over and kiss my ass for another year and what a year it's been! I recall one speech in this chamber when I told you that our differences in these two chambers will discussed in a civil manner.
Snicker...giggle.... I can't believe you Democrats and your damn fool bi-partisanship! Thanks DemoRats for a FABULOUS 7 yrs. Just watch what I have in store for you in my final year IF I decide that it is my final year.

I told you that I (ME... the Decider) will make choices that determine the future and the character of my country. Hehehehehe! You didn't have a clue when I talked about charting a different course. Sorry about that missing surplus but we had to fight against those terrorists over there so they don't come over here.

Pay down an unprecedented amount of the national debt? Did I say that? Oooops, sorry about that...hehehehe.... Well, you know those damn terrorists just messed up my grand plans. Thanks again Uncle Dick. Enjoying that off shore account in Dubai?? Money left over from paying down that debt... ho ho ho ROTFLMAO! What a speech!
Every year this speech just gets better & better!
Whew! What a trip! "I don't particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, by the way, unless I say it".

Oh boy ('scuse me Osama errrrr uh ah Obama...sorry about that. hehehehe) did I ever pursue those terrorists! Poor Osama (hehehehe) ........ sorry about that old bud. Enjoying my ranch in Paraguay? How about those weekenders at my favorite pig farm in Crawford, Texas? We've had some great times, eh? (snickering ) You still owe me for getting your family & friends out of the U.S. immediately after Uncle Dick's 9-11 adventure. You and Kenny Boy having a good time? YEAH! (Thumbs up)

Yep, I warned you about that radical Islam and called my best bud, Osama a terrorist. You didn't have a clue that it was my secret code to the 9-11 gang to get prepared did you? Too late now suckers. I own you body and soul thanks to those handy telephone tapping games!

As for those Iraqis, their population has been reduced to where they will have very little competition in their businesses. They can now sit back and enjoy their new found freedom under the protection of MY army for the next hundred years.

Hey, how do you like that great big embassy in Iraq? Oh, you don't know about that? Surprise! Surprise! It is the world's largest embassy. You didn't think that I, The Commander Guy, was going to do anything half-assed did you? Big! Big! Big! That's my motto as your commander in chief.

"My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the—in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen." (Bushism) Yep... We're gonna be there a long, long time. Get used to it.

You get any ideas about messing with me, the Decider & you'll get a bad case of whoopass. Just ask Joe Wilson & Valerie Plame! They don't call me king george for nothing!

My secret government still bothering you? Tough! I'm the Decider, the commander guy & I make my own rules. If you don't believe it go to the White House web site and read all MY LAWS. I have a signing statement for every occasion.

Me, torture prisoners? Prove it suckers! You ain't got nothing on george bush that I don't have something on you that will overcome your silly accusations.

Now for the current situation. Damn, do I have to solve everything? While I was busy with my highly successful wars (Yes they are successful because I say so) somebody was screwing around with the economicals of this country. Now I have to solve this mess or at least cover it up till I get my comfortable, rich ass propped up in Paraguay. Hey, wanna buy a fabulous pig farm in Texas to help my economical situation?

Anyhow, I'm going to stimulate this mess caused by Wal Mart....er Wall Street by giving you a big fat check but first I have to get something on those damn Democrats so they don't stick that food stamp crap back in my fabulous bill. Of course they will try to take out my fabulous tax breaks for my rich buddies too. There really ought to be a law against being a DemoRAT.

So, you little old peons are going to get a big fat check....might be as much as $600... and I want to you to get off your welfare asses and spend that thing as fast as you can. Thanks to me you are going to be rich, rich rich so...Go shopping. Spend, spend, spend just like I do. Gotta get that money moving around to make it look like the economicals is rebounding in the remaining months of my term as your un-elected pRes.

Ha! ha! ha! Just popped into my head that some of you might still be pissed because those fabulous Supremes appointed me, when that damn Al Gore was counting and showing that he might win. Too bad losers!

The agenda I have set before you tonight is worthy of a great man like me. Just think when you walk through that Statuary's Hall in the Capitol building you can be visualizing what my statue will look like. Make it big and fabulous.

I came here for a reason. I have kept my promise to those fabulous corporations. I don't give a damn about you middle class & welfare queens. You will be working for my buddies for the rest of your miserable lives for minimum wage. If you want to crawl out of those crumbling huts & repossessed houses you will have to get your fat asses to Harvard or Yale like I did and get that "C' average.

Then you can be presudent, just like me! In the meantime here's to you dumb klutzes who will never be as importantical as me....

Praise the Lord and goodnight.

Exit podium with both middle fingers held high!
..................................................
Back at ya Dubya! And in old fashioned Southernese, Kiss my Grits!
May your last year in office be a living hell ....FOR YOU!

It's only fair after we were forced to tolerate your ugly, smirking ass for 7 long years, going on 8.

Wake Up America: Dubya’s New and Unimproved Screw You America Scheme

2008-01-23T07:25:00.000-06:00

GOOD MORNING AMERICA! Wake up and get your lazy ass out of bed. You are about to be the recipient of another george bush screwing in the form of a tax rebate.

Remember that magnificent tax refund/rebate check that you got early in 2001? I wonder how many of you had to repay that whopping "refund". I know a number of people who had to do just that.

Do you recall the screeches of righteous indignation coming from the little peons on the republican side of the isle when they learned they had been royally screwed. Those poor fools are still working minimum wage jobs & believing king george when he tells that they can be president just like him some day. Gosh, all it takes is a 'c' average. Dubya just leaves out that minor detail....that they must have someone with the money to buy the 'c' and then steal the election for them.

No big deal. Right? Yep.... they are going to be rich, rich, rich..... some day. They know that because king george told them so and we know george never tells a lie does he? (I actually typed that without ROTFLMAO).

But back to the george bush refund, rebate or whatever he is calling it.

The first figure I heard was an $800 rebate. Someone else mentioned $1000 and then later on I heard a figure of $250! Your guess is as good as mine as to which figure, if any of them are correct. What common sense tells "We the People" is that it's drop in the bucket..... some more of that trickle down economics which has kept us waiting for over 25 years for that windfall and........ still waiting. This magnificent rebate is just another dirty trick, an attempt to save themselves.... the mighty 1%!

That working person who lives paycheck to paycheck has a better grasp of economics than all those "professionals" who are being paid by us to handle the economic business of this country. All it takes is a little common sense to figure out that we cannot spend more than we have, that if we have a credit card we must keep it under control at all times.

Alan Greenspan, in an interview on Democracy Now, said that we Americans need to be paid less, that we make too much money. Now you don't think he was talking about those Wall Street CEO's who paid themselves over $32 BILLION in bonuses as the financial situation in this country continues to worsen do you?

I have an idea. Why don't we take back that 32 Billion+ and give it to those in minimum wage jobs? The people who have 'busted' their asses to make money for those greedy corporations....that elite 1%? By the way, why don't they pay Social Security on all their income, same as us little old peons? Seems to me that might help solve the national debt AND save Social Security!

Rebate? Economic stimulus? If you believe this once again, you deserve what's coming. If you believe Bush when he expresses concern then you should take a closer look at that ever present smirk. He's no more concerned about you than he is about one of the frogs that he tortured by shoving a firecracker up it's butt & watching it explode.

Did you ever notice how pained Dubya looks when he has to pretend to be concerned about something? Yep, people when you see that painful look on Bush's face don't believe for a minute that it's because he is concerned about you. He doesn't give a damn about you. He is in panic mode because his Wall Street buddies are in trouble.

He's panicking because "We the People" have reached the point where, because our jobs have been outsourced & tax breaks have gone to those who need it the least, that we can no longer support him, the wealthiest of the wealthy. He is panicking because the top 1% may have to start supplementing each other. (Now that might be fun to watch!)

So much for that great supply side economics! The bottom line for 'Bushonomics' is that it would be more appropriately named piss on people economics.

By the way, where is Dubya going to get the billions needed for this rebate? Why borrow it, of course & most likely from the Chinese!

And here we were worried about those big bad terrorists while Dubya & Dead Eye Dick have been selling out the country to the very people who most likely have the capacity to attack us. But then why should they attack when they own most of our national debt, they are selling us billions in crappy or poisonous manufactured goods & buying up businesses in the U.S.? They are taking over our country from the inside out. No need to sacrifice their goose stepping soldiers & all those pretty tanks.

Yeah..... Wake up America indeed. Impeachment is off the table according to Goddess Nancy Pelosi? Why would her Royal Do-Nothingness take impeachment off the table when these fools have done more than all the other administrations combined to destroy our country from the inside out?

Because she's one of them??

This picture & the positioning of Dubya in front of the sign in the back ground inadvertently says it all!

End of conversation? Not if you don't want it to be. Not if you care about your country. Rebate my arse! It's impeachment time!

Please Cut the Crap! George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney must be impeached, and the process must start now. There are no excuses left. It doesn't matter if the process gets dragged out until we're into the next election cycle. It doesn't matter if Bush and Cheney are thrown out on their asses on January 19, 2009, and Nancy Pelosi only has one day as a caretaker president. This is no longer about process, and it's no longer about political expediency. This is about our Founders’ most precious gift to us. It's about the rule of law, and justice for all.

Impeach The Crawford SOB and his corrupt administration!

Congress -- 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803 Tell them to impeach those crooked SOB's

Ronald Reagan: Fiscal Disaster

2008-01-21T09:13:00.000-06:00

I have to chuckle at the fact that Huffington Post moderating posts before they are allowed to show. I was reading through the comments already posted and several were full of the "F" word not to mention the fact that the writer of this article called Reagan an asshole. So what do they moderate???

Ronald Reagan: Fiscal Disaster

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hale-stewart/ronald-reagan-fiscal-dis_b_82370.html

Several interesting charts at above link

Does anyone notice a pattern? In case you have a hard time figuring it out, let me provide some clarity.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never balanced a budget.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never came close to balancing a budget.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never even came remotely close to even thinking about balancing a budget.

So, how did Reagan pay for this? He mired the country is a mammoth explosion of Federal debt.
The fiscally conservative party -- at least in theory -- have indebted this country since 1980 with a mammoth amount of debt.

Saint Ronnie -- the great Saint who many are praising in one form or another -- nearly tripled the national debt. St. Ronnie -- the fiscal conservative who we all should bow down and worship -- paid for his massive expanse of the federal government (because he never balanced a budget) by pawning off the expense on the next generation. St. Ronnie used his great communication skills to tell us this was all somehow OK.

St. Ronnie was an asshole.

magginkat I'm a fan of magginkat)

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

I'm not sure which is crazier, those trying to bestow sainthood on Reagan or the rabid right religious rapture nuts. (Perhaps they are the same)

However for any Democrat or Independent to quote Reagan is total insanity. I was trying very hard to like Obama but when he started quoting Reagan I threw in the towel.

What the hell will it take for this country to wake up & get rid of all the nut cases & the common thugs who have taken over the government? Most days, I just want to crawl back in bed and forget the whole damn thing.

NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich

2008-01-12T10:36:00.000-06:00

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/73530/

NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich
As a political writer, I have to follow these endless primary-season debates. But when it comes to NBC's Democratic show-down in Vegas next Tuesday, I'll read the transcript and check out the highlights on YouTube, but I won't tune into NBC's live broadcast.

Would you consider joining me in letting NBC know that we're just sick of this nonsense?
If so, indignant-but-polite is, I've found, the best tone to take when griping to the media about their all-too-frequently-crappy political coverage.

NBC Political Director Chuck Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that, although Kucinich had met the qualification criteria publicly announced on December 28, the network was "re-doing" the criteria, excluding Kucinich, and planning to invite only Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards.

Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that the network had decided to change the criteria and limit participation in the debate to only three candidates.

NBC News contact form letters@msnbc.com
MCNBC Feedback GeneralComments@feedback.msnbc.com
Meet the Press mailbox http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/
Dateline - - Dateline@NBCUNI.com
ctodd@nationaljournal.com
Another one for MSNBC viewerservices@msnbc.com
***
Update: Here's what I sent to Todd [Update: it bounced back] and the other NBC addresses:

Dear Mr. Todd,
I’m writing to express my dismay about NBC’s decision to re-write its own previously announced criteria in order — specifically, it seems — to exclude Dennis Kucinich, the fourth-place finisher in at least one major national poll, from the Las Vegas debate.

I am not of the belief that Rep. Kucinich has a chance to win the nomination, but that's beside the point. It appears to me that our political press corps, yourself included, are simply blind to the intense feelings of frustration among many of us “out here” in America every time the media tries to narrow the ideological spectrum and limit our political debates. I am among almost 300 million people who have not had an opportunity to cast my vote in the primary, and it is the height of arrogance for you and NBC to tell me, in effect, that only 3 of the 4 candidates who met your announced criteria are acceptable choices, or that only the views of 3 of the 4 are acceptably “mainstream.”

His "viability" is not an issue; Kucinich is not in this race to win. He’s in it to influence the political discourse within the Democratic party, and as a Democratic-leaning independent, I would like to see the full spectrum of Democratic opinions aired and debated. It is maddening to have NBC deny us that process, especially so many months before the convention and with only a few small states having gone to the polls.

But even that isn't nearly as infuriating as the egregious disrespect shown to a member of the House of Representatives who’s been sent back to Washington by his constituents five times. I’ll be frank: to extend the invitation, and then rewrite your own rules in order to withdraw it makes it difficult for me to even maintain a civil tone.

I won’t be watching your debate — it will be the first one I skip — because I don’t want to support the idea that the media decides these elections and the voters are merely an afterthought. I will also write about your network’s hubris on my blog and urge my friends and acquaintances to boycott the debate as well. Hopefully, General Electric will receive a lot of correspondence like this one, see a smaller-than-expected audience and finally figure out that while it has its hands in many businesses, electing a president isn’t one that We the People will accept.

Dear Congressman Wexler

2008-01-03T09:51:00.000-06:00

I cannot believe that this Congress has sat on it's ample backside and allowed these thugs to destroy this country from the inside out for this length of time. What will it take to impeach both Cheney and Bush and remove them from office & bring them to trial for the crimes they have committed?

Why are you wasting your time just impeaching Cheney? Bush may act like a dumb country clod but he is mean, vindictive, vile & corrupt to the depths of his rotten soul. Why are you ignoring the facts that are shoved down our throat every day of the week? Are you afraid of this smirking little punk?

I sincerely believe that if one Democratic Congressman ever decides to quit being polite to these thugs & their enablers, the country will give you a standing ovation and will support you to the end. We are crying & pleading for you to stand up to these thugs. Impeachment of Cheney is a start but we need someone in Congress to grow some cajones and quit being nice to these criminal SOBs and impeach both of them.

Surely you can see by now that bipartisanship in this corrupt Congress means bending over for that smirking robber baron who squats in the Oval Office. What the hell makes an entire Congress give in to this common thug? Are some members of Congress being blackmailed with the material that Bush & Cheney have gathered via their illegal email intercepting/telephone tapping endeavors?

There is no other reason on earth, that I can think of, that would explain why anyone would want to support this corrupt administration and what they have done to the Constitution of the United States. Bush & Cheney should have been impeached, removed from office & prosecuted over 5 yrs ago for the multitude of violations of their oath of office & brazen incompetence? Add to that the war crimes and other crimes they have committed and these thugs should now be serving life prison sentences without parole.

A master in Business from Harvard? Pardon me while I ROTFLMAO (roll on the floor laughing my ass off)! It has been obvious to the country & to most of the world for a number of years that George Bush couldn't get a job at McDonalds without help from his family and his rich enablers. He is dumber than a rock & his time in office will require a whole new dictionary to provide definitions for the words corrupt, thuggery, lying and a whole bunch of other adjectives.

I believe that this country is thoroughly pissed off & fed up with these criminals. Get with Dennis Kucinich & re-introduce the call for impeachment & removal from office AND include Bush. The crimes that they have bragged about publicly & rubbed our noses in are enough to call for an impeachment at 8:00 am one morning, send it to the Senate by 10:00 am and have these thugs removed, arrested and in jail by noon. The Constitution allows for that.

Let Nancy Pelosi know that if she keeps pandering to the thugs who have aided and abetted this criminal administration that the same thing will happen to her. It's time to take our country back.

There is no need for a long drawn out investigation. I repeat, they have rubbed your noses (and mine) in their crimes for must of their time in office. They have been public and brazen.

It is way beyond time for this all elected officials to put their country first. I don't give a damn if we hurt the feelings of "poor little Georgie". I say the same thing to him and Cheney that they have been saying to us for seven long years. Go F*ck Yourselves!

Now do you want to hear about an idea that a friend and I concocted to aid in your impeachment efforts?

Write your own letter to Congressman Wexler:

http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/contact.asp

Looking at America NY Times Style

2008-01-01T07:42:00.000-06:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31mon1.html?ref=opinion

Every citizen of this country should read this hypocritical editorial and ask why? Why would a newspaper that has been famous for it's 'investigative' reporting for years suddenly roll over for the most corrupt administration to ever get near the Oval Office. I am quoting a few paragraphs with my own added comments in brackets [ ].

1. It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001. [ 9-11 had nothing to do with this sorryass administration. Everyone uses that as an excuse. This administration started lots of this stuff the as soon as they took office, perhaps before they were even sworn in. You know it. I know it. So stop using 9-11 as an excuse for a fraudulent administration that had every intention of doing exactly what they have been doing for the past 7 long years. Their only surprise has been at how gullible the mainstream media has been & how easy it has been to control them]

2. The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked — how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed. [This was no panic. It was planned and carried out with the help of news media like the NY Times........... So why the hell are you hiring Kristol, one of the most prolific enablers of this corrupt, dictatorial administration? This administration has never given a royal hoot for American lives, ideals or the U.S. Constitution]

3. We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review. [It's called a dictatorship. Honest to heavens, who in their right mind, would want george bush in charge of anything? We know who has been the real president (Dictator) in this administration. So why hasn't President Cheney been impeached, removed from office & prosecuted for crimes against the Constitution of the United States? Could it be because news sources like the NY Times have pandered to these thugs from day one?]

4. Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them. [Do you know for a fact that no one was killed in this process? Of course not. The evidence was destroyed. AND the NY Times has been instrumental in covering the crimes of this shyster administration]

5. The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat — and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could. [Now you are getting closer to the truth. The fear of terrorism is a figment of your (Bush's) imagination. 9-11 was a criminal act that should have been treated as such. The threat & fear came from this corrupt gang of thugs who were illegally installed in the White House. Dictator Cheney & his PNAC gang has been pulling the strings of the useless, know nothing, 'don't give a damn' puppet every step of the way. Why are you so afraid to speak the truth?]

6. Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. [That should read, "Hundreds of men & boys, swept up on the streets of Afghanistan & Iraq..........]

7. In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know. [I'm betting that Bush & Cheney held their own private viewings of these films. Picture Boss Hawg, slapping his fat thighs as he laughs uproariously at the 'antics' on the screen]

8. We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America. [And we Americans can only hope that newspapers like the NY Times will do what they are supposed to do....... to investigate these criminal reports and help the American people find the truth when they demand investigation into the crimes of the top officials in this country, whether they are duly elected or not. American voters have the wisdom to call for the Constitutionally mandated checks & balances, but what chance do we have of actually accomplishing anything when the mainstream media (the fourth estate) caves to dictators and keeps the truth from the public? Will you have the integrity to do your job & not be neutered by a bully in the Oval Office?

By the way, one thing is glaringly missing from this editorial. Why is the NY Times so afraid of calling for impeaching & removing these criminals from office?

Once Upon a Time the Religious Right Demonized Christmas

2007-12-08T06:39:00.001-06:00

Why it pays to know your history. How the religious right can be seen to sway in the wind rather than hold to the steadfast course they claim to be following. As strange as it may seem, when Religious Right legal groups go to court to battle the "War on Christmas," they may really be defending practices historically associated with the worship not of the son of God but the sun in the sky.

read more | digg story

The Eyes Of A Madman

2007-12-07T22:06:00.000-06:00

Look into Bush's eyes and then be afraid, be very afraid

By DOUG THOMPSON - Capitol Hill Blue

Hunters know all too well the look that spilled out of our television sets like political diarrhea Tuesday: The look of a cornered animal, the most dangerous time to face a desperate predator.
You saw it in the eyes of George W. Bush, America's too-often discredited President, caught in yet another lie.

Faced with a damning National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that destroyed his outlandish claims of a threat of World War III from Iran, Bush did what he always does - dug in and faced down his pursuers with bluster, anger and defiance.

But I watched his eyes as they darted back and forth during his press conference at the White House. As a hunter, I've seen that look before - at the moment I've faced a hunted animal and must make the decision to kill or be killed.

The George W. Bush that faced reporters and the television cameras Tuesday was a cornered, dangerous predator, determined to fight back until the bitter end even as time, and escape routes, run out.

Time may be running out for Bush's Presidency but America's most discredited and distrusted leader still has more than a year left in office and that is too much time given his long, sordid record of high crimes against the Constitution, the American people, and the world.

George W. Bush is no less than a traitor to his country. He is a man without honor, a leader without conscience and a human being without a shred of decency or humanity. He is a despot who considers himself above the law and a President who considers the Constitution he swore to uphold to be just "a goddamned piece of paper."

Yes, I know, no one has come forward publicly to confirm that meeting in 2005 where we reported Bush uttered those words but I trust the people who gave me the information and no one in the White House, Congress or the Republican Party has denied or publicly disputed the story. I believe he said it and I believe his actions have proven, many times over, that he holds that level of disrespect for the document upon which this nation was founded.

Bush is, I believe, a war criminal, a leader who invaded a nation that posed no immediate threat to the United States and lied to Congress, the American people and the world community to justify his illegal and immoral actions.

War criminals are, first and foremost, mass murderers and Bush's reprehensible actions have resulted in the deaths of not only close to 3,900 American men and women in uniform but also in thousands upon thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians.

His actions have killed more Americans than Osama bin Laden, damaged our relations with allies and destroyed our credibility at home and abroad.He wants, more than anything, to invade Iran before his term is up. Even now, with his ludicrous claims of a nuclear threat from that nation destroyed by his own intelligence community, he sticks to his saber-rattling rhetoric.
Watch replays of his press conference from Tuesday.

Watch his face, his actions and his body language.

Most of all look at his eyes.

They are the eyes of a cornered dangerous animal.

They are the eyes of a madman.

No Iran Attack? Don't Be So Sure…

2007-12-07T07:56:00.001-06:00

The release of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program has everyone breathing a sigh of relief. According to our best intelligence, the Iranians stopped their weapons program in 2003. The liberal pundits and the more reasonable Sullivanesque conservatives are shouting "Hallelujah!" War has been averted! My respo

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Bush Fulfills His Grandfather's Dream

2007-11-23T07:04:00.000-06:00

Sunday, 29 July 2007
by David Swanson

It's remarkably common for a grandson to take up his grandfather's major project. This occurred to me when I read recently of Thor Heyerdahl's grandson taking up his mission to cross the Pacific on a raft. But what really struck me was the BBC story aired on July 23rd documenting President George W. Bush's grandfather's involvement in a 1933 plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist dictatorship. I knew the story, but had not considered the possibility that the grandson was trying to accomplish what his grandfather had failed to achieve.

Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895 to 1972) attended Yale University and joined the secret society known as Skull and Bones. Prescott is widely reported to have stolen the skull of Native American leader Geronimo. As far as I know, this has not actually been confirmed. In fact, Prescott seems to have had a habit of making things up. He sent letters home from World War I claiming he'd received medals for heroism. After the letters were printed in newspapers, he had to retract his claims.

If this does not yet sound like the life of a George W. Bush ancestor, try this on for size: Prescott Bush's early business efforts tended to fail. He married the daughter of a very rich man named George Herbert Walker (the guy with the compound at Kennebunkport , Maine , that now belongs to the Bush family, and the origin of Dubya's middle initial). Walker installed Prescott Bush as an executive in Thyssen and Flick. From then on, Prescott 's business dealings went better, and he entered politics.

Now, the name Thyssen comes from a German named Fritz Thyssen, major financial backer of the rise of Adolph Hitler. Thyssen was referred to in the New York Herald-Tribune as "Hitler's Angel." During the 1930s and early 1940s, and even as late as 1951, Prescott Bush was involved in business dealings with Thyssen, and was inevitably aware of both Thyssen's political activities and the fact that the companies involved were financially benefiting the nation of Germany. In addition, the companies Prescott Bush profited from included one engaged in mining operations in Poland using slave labor from Auschwitz . Two former slave laborers have sued the U.S. government and the heirs of Prescott Bush for $40 billion.

Until the United States entered World War II it was legal for Americans to do business with Germany , but in late 1942 Prescott Bush's businesses interests were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Among those businesses involved was the Hamburg America Lines, for which Prescott Bush served as a manager. A Congressional committee, in a report called the McCormack-Dickstein Report, found that Hamburg America Lines had offered free passage to Germany for journalists willing to write favorably about the Nazis, and had brought Nazi sympathizers to America . (Is this starting to remind anyone of our current president's relationship to the freedom of the press?)

The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was established to investigate a homegrown American fascist plot hatched in 1933. Here's how the BBC promoted its recent story:

"Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America , (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy."
Actually, if you listen to the 30-minute BBC story, there is not one word of so much as speculation as to why this story is so little known. I think a clue to the answer can be found by looking into why this BBC report has not led to any U.S. media outlets picking up the story this week.

The BBC report provides a good account of the basic story. Some of the wealthiest men in America approached Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, beloved of many World War I veterans, many of them embittered by the government's treatment of them. Prescott Bush's group asked Butler to lead 500,000 veterans in a take-over of Washington and the White House. Butler refused and recounted the affair to the congressional committee. His account was corroborated in part by a number of witnesses, and the committee concluded that the plot was real. But the names of wealthy backers of the plot were blacked out in the committee's records, and nobody was prosecuted. According to the BBC, President Roosevelt cut a deal. He refrained from prosecuting some of the wealthiest men in America for treason. They agreed to end Wall Street's opposition to the New Deal.

Clearly the lack of accountability in Washington, D.C., did not begin with Nancy Pelosi taking Dubya's impeachment off the table, or with Congress' decision to avoid impeachment for President Ronald Reagan (a decision that arguably played a large role in installing Prescott Bush's son George H.W. Bush as president), or with the failure to investigate the apparent deal that George H.W. Bush and others made with Iran to not release American hostages until Reagan was made president, or with the failure to prosecute Richard Nixon after he resigned. Lack of accountability is a proud tradition in our nation's capital. Or maybe I should say our former nation's capital. I don't recognize the place anymore, and I credit that to George W. Bush's efforts to fulfill his grandfather's dream using far subtler and more effective means than a military coup.

Bush the grandson took office through a highly fraudulent election that he nonetheless lost. The Supreme Court blocked a recount of the vote and installed Dubya.

Prescott 's grandson proceeded to weaken or eliminate most of the Bill of Rights in the name of protection from a dark foreign enemy. He even tossed out habeas corpus. The grandson of Prescott, that dreamer of the 1930s, established with very little resistance that the U.S. government can kidnap, detain indefinitely on no charge, torture, and murder. The United States under Prescott Bush's grandson adopted policies that heretofore had been considered only Nazi policies, most strikingly the willingness to openly plan and engage in aggressive wars on other nations.

At the same time, Dubya has accomplished a huge transfer of wealth within the United States from the rest of us to the extremely wealthy. He's also effected a major privatization of public operations, including the military. And he's kept tight control over the media.

Dubya has given himself the power to rewrite all laws with signing statements. He's established that intentionally misleading the Congress about the need for a war is not a crime that carries any penalty. He's given himself the right (just as Hitler did) to open anyone's mail. He's created illegal spying programs and then proposed to legalize them. Prescott would be so proud!

The current President Bush has accomplished much more smoothly than his grandfather could have imagined a feat that was one of the goals of Prescott 's gang, namely the elimination of Congress.

Enough FOX smut for a porn site

2007-11-15T17:50:00.000-06:00

"Can you quote us so not giving a shit?"

1. Watch the video2. Sign the pledge3. Call FOX's advertisers
That was FOX's classy response to the half a million viewers who saw our FOX Attacks: Decency video.

Looks like we got to FOX this time, and it wasn't a debate about policy in Iran that did it, or a video displaying their racism, or even our coverage of their abject hypocrisy on environmental issues.

No, what got the attack dogs at FOX hungry and looking for flesh was none other than an exposÃ© of their smut peddling! It makes sense in a way, because advertisers tend not to like their products being promoted between segments of soft porn. And a large part of their conservative base hates this as well, which might be why one Christian organization compared the way women were dressed on FOX to the manner in which "hookers" are attired.

So what did we do?

With the News Hounds help, we found enough FOX lasciviousness for a whole porn site!!

Really, we did. And it wasn't that hard to do. In fact, if you thought FOX Attacks: Decency was a glimpse into the lustful thoughts of your favorite FOX anchor, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Watch the video: http://foxnewsporn.com/?utm_source=rgemail

Satire and parody aside, we think this is extremely objectionable, misogynistic content. We still don't understand how FOX is allowed to call this "news." So let's make this campaign count, and hit FOX where it hurts -- their Fair and Balance Sheet.

Many of you have been helping to create a massive database of local FOX advertisers. Now it's time to start calling them. Pick one or two to call and ask them to please not advertise on a channel that shows Girls Gone Wild during prime time, and exploits women 24/7. Let them know in very personal terms why this matters to you.

Click for a list of FOX advertisers near you: http://foxattacks.com/attacker/?utm_source=rgemail

And please let us know how it goes! When you click on the 'call' or 'email' advertiser link, you'll get an example script, and a form where you can describe what happened. Fill it out so we can all share information on how advertisers are reacting to the campaign. Plus, others will be inspired to act and we can keep the pressure on these merchants of immorality. Be creative make it personal and express how you feel.

Robert Greenwald, Cliff Schecter, and the Brave New Films team.

P.S. It's getting close to gift-giving time, so we've put together a special edition DVD of Outfoxed with all the FOX Attacks videos and other bonus features. The perfect stocking stuffer for that special conservative in your life. Get one for $12.95 or a 5 pack for $50.
http://store.bravenewfilms.org/?utm_source=rgemail

---Brave New Films creates videos and campaigns for social change. We are located at 10510 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232 and info@bravenewfilms.org. You can get us on iTunes and Facebook.

‘You people are really nuts’

2007-11-14T18:07:00.000-06:00

Waitress tells campaign reporters: ‘You people are really nuts’

Posted November 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am

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It’s hard to say for sure when the “silly season” started in the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign. If there was a “serious season,” it was exceedingly short. I’m afraid I missed it.

But yesterday was unusually inane. A waitress at an Iowa diner noted that Hillary Clinton and her campaign aides had recently stopped by, but didn’t leave a tip. NPR picked up on the “story,” the New York Times called it a “potentially embarrassing mini-scandal,” and Drudge blared it above the fold. Soon after, NBC News and ABC News were trumpeting the story.

Clinton didn’t leave a tip? Does she hate working people? Is she out of touch? What does this say about her economic plan? What do her rivals think about this? Why won’t Barack Obama attack her over the issue? Is it too soon to put a poll in the field gauging the public’s reaction?

All of this breathless fascination was for naught. It turned out Clinton’s campaign did leave a tip with the manager for the entire serving staff. Clinton’s individual waitress didn’t know that, so there was a simple misunderstanding.

Reporters ended up contacting the waitress, Anita Esterday, at her home in Iowa yesterday.
Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.

“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”
Thank you, Anita Esterday. “You people are really nuts” may actually be the most helpful and poignant media criticism I’ve seen this year. It has the added benefit of being true.It’s also a reminder of just what it takes to get some political reporters excited. Last week, Rudy Giuliani unveiled a campaign ad in Iowa with an obvious, demonstrable lie. Many of us begged reporters to take it seriously, and give it the full-court press.

Some columnists noted the problem, but most outlets followed the AP’s lead: “No one argues that Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer, underwent treatment and survived. Yet there is a dispute about the statistics he quotes about his chances of survival.”

A “dispute,” as if there was some question about whether Giuliani had intentionally lied to voters in an ad.

Was there a media freak-out? Not even a little. A leading candidate deceiving the public about cancer just isn’t sexy enough.

And what is? In recent months, the most prominent media frenzies have dealt with John Edwards’ hair, Hillary Clinton’s laugh, Rudy Giuliani’s cell phone, and now Clinton’s approach to gratuities.

“You people are really nuts” sums the situation up nicely, doesn’t it?

Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson

2007-11-09T17:58:00.001-06:00

October 27, 2007
Salt Lake City, Utah

Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our
voices in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to
other members of the Bush Administration (past and present), to a
majority of Congress, including Utah's entire congressional delegation,
and to much of the mainstream media: "You have failed us miserably and
we won't take it any more."
"While we had every reason to expect far more of you, you have been
pompous, greedy, cruel, and incompetent as you have led this great
nation to a moral, military, and national security abyss."
"You have breached trust with the American people in the most egregious
ways. You have utterly failed in the performance of your jobs. You have
undermined our Constitution, permitted the violation of the most
fundamental treaty obligations, and betrayed the rule of law."
"You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the
sort never before countenanced in our nation's history as a matter of
official policy. You have sent American men and women to kill and be
killed on the basis of lies, on the basis of shifting justifications,
without competent leadership, and without even a coherent plan for this
monumental blunder."
"We are here to tell you: We won't take it any more!"
"You have acted in direct contravention of values that we, as Americans
who love our country, hold dear. You have deceived us in the most
cynical, outrageous ways. You have undermined, or allowed the
undermining of, our constitutional system of checks and balances among
the three presumed co-equal branches of government. You have helped lead
our nation to the brink of fascism, of a dictatorship contemptuous of
our nation's treaty obligations, federal statutory law, our
Constitution, and the rule of law."
"Because of you, and because of your jingoistic false `patriotism,
' our world is far more dangerous, our nation is far more despised, and
the threat of terrorism is far greater than ever before.
It has been absolutely astounding how you have committed the most
horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy in the lives of millions
of people, yet you wear your so-called religion on your sleeves,
asserting your God-is-on-my-side nonsense - when what you have done
flies in the face of any religious or humanitarian tradition. Your
hypocrisy is mind-boggling - and disgraceful.
What part of "Thou shalt not kill" do you not understand? What part of
the "Golden rule" do you not understand? What part of "be honest," "be
responsible," and "be accountable" don't you understand? What part of
"Blessed are the peacekeepers" do you not understand?
Because of you, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, many
thousands of people have suffered horrendous lifetime injuries, and
millions have been run off from their homes. For the sake of our nation,
for the sake of our children, and for the sake of our brothers and
sisters around the world, we are morally compelled to say, as loudly as
we can, `We won't take it any more!' "
"As United States agents kidnap, disappear, and torture human beings
around the world, you justify, you deceive, and you cover up. We find
what you have done to men, women and children, and to the good name and
reputation of the United States, so appalling, so unconscionable, and so
outrageous as to compel us to call upon you to step aside and allow
other men and women who are competent, true to our nation's values, and
with high moral principles to stand in your places - for the good of our
nation, for the good of our children, and for the good of our world."
In the case of the President and Vice President, this means impeachment
and removal from office, without any further delay from a complacent,
complicit Congress, the Democratic majority of which cares more about
political gain in 2008 than it does about the vindication of our
Constitution, the rule of law, and democratic accountability.
It means the election of people as President and Vice President who,
unlike most of the presidential candidates from both major parties, have
not aided and abetted in the perpetration of the illegal, tragic,
devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq. And it means the election
of people as President and Vice President who will commit to return our
nation to the moral and strategic imperative of refraining from
torturing human beings.
In the case of the majority of Congress, it means electing people who
are diligent enough to learn the facts, including reading available
National Intelligence Estimates, before voting to go to war. It means
electing to Congress men and women who will jealously guard Congress's
sole prerogative to declare war. It means electing to Congress men and
women who will not submit like vapid lap dogs to presidential requests
for blank checks to engage in so-called preemptive wars, for legislation
permitting warrantless wiretapping of communications involving US
citizens, and for dangerous, irresponsible, saber-rattling legislation
like the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment.
We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame solely upon President Bush
and Vice-President Cheney. This is not just about a few people who have
wronged our country - and the world. They were enabled by members of
both parties in Congress, they were enabled by the pathetic mainstream
news media, and, ultimately, they have been enabled by the American
people - 40% of whom are so ill-informed they still think Iraq was
behind the 9/11 attacks - a people who know and care more about baseball
statistics and which drunken starlets are wearing underwear than they
know and care about the atrocities being committed every single day in
our name by a government for which we need to take responsibility.
As loyal Americans, without regard to political partisanship -- as
veterans, as teachers, as religious leaders, as working men and women,
as students, as professionals, as businesspeople, as public servants, as
retirees, as people of all ages, races, ethnic origins, sexual
orientations, and faiths -- we are here to say to the Bush
administration, to the majority of Congress, and to the mainstream
media: "You have violated your solemn responsibilities. You have
undermined our democracy, spat upon our Constitution, and engaged in
outrageous, despicable acts. You have brought our nation to a point of
immorality, inhumanity, and illegality of immense, tragic, unprecedented
proportions."
"But we will live up to our responsibilities as citizens, as brothers
and sisters of those who have suffered as a result of the imperial
bullying of the United States government, and as moral actors who must
take a stand: And we will, and must, mean it when we say `We won't take
it any more.'"
If we want principled, courageous elected officials, we need to be
principled, courageous, and tenacious ourselves. History has
demonstrated that our elected officials are not the leaders - the
leadership has to come from us. If we don't insist, if we don't persist,
then we are not living up to our responsibilities as citizens in a
democracy - and our responsibilities as moral human beings. If we remain
silent, we signal to Congress and the Bush administration - and to
candidates running for office - and to the world - that we support the
status quo.
Silence is complicity. Only by standing up for what's right and never
letting down can we say we are doing our part.
Our government, on the basis of a campaign we now know was entirely
fraudulent, attacked and militarily occupied a nation that posed no
danger to the United States. Our government, acting in our name, has
caused immense, unjustified death and destruction.
It all started five years ago, yet where have we, the American people,
been? At this point, we are responsible. We get together once in a while
at demonstrations and complain about Bush and Cheney, about Congress,
and about the pathetic news media. We point fingers and yell a lot. Then
most people politely go away until another demonstration a few months later.
How many people can honestly say they have spent as much time learning
about and opposing the outrages of the Bush administration as they have
spent watching sports or mindless television programs during the past
five years? Escapist, time-sapping sports and insipid entertainment have
indeed become the opiate of the masses.
Why is this country so sound asleep? Why do we abide what is happening
to our nation, to our Constitution, to the cause of peace and
international law and order? Why are we not doing all in our power to
put an end to this madness?
We should be in the streets regularly and students should be raising
hell on our campuses. We should be making it clear in every way possible
that apologies or convoluted, disingenuous explanations just don't cut
it when presidential candidates and so many others voted to authorize
George Bush and his neo-con buddies to send American men and women to
attack and occupy Iraq.
Let's awaken, and wake up the country by committing here and now to do
all each of us can to take our nation back. Let them hear us across the
country, as we ask others to join us: "We won't take it any more!"
I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly where your own moral
breaking point is. How much will you put up with before you say "No
more" and mean it?
I have drawn my line as a matter of simple personal morality: I cannot,
and will not, support any candidate who has voted to fund the atrocities
in Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who will not
commit to remove all US troops, as soon as possible, from Iraq. I
cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has supported
legislation that takes us one step closer to attacking Iran. I cannot,
and will not, support any candidate who has not fought to stop the
kidnapping, disappearances, and torture being carried on in our name.
If we expect our nation's elected officials to take us seriously, let us
send a powerful message they cannot misunderstand. Let them know we
really do have our moral breaking point. Let them know we have drawn a
bright line. Let them know they cannot take our support for granted -
that, regardless of their party and regardless of other political
considerations, they will not have our support if they cannot provide,
and have not provided, principled leadership.
The people of this nation may have been far too quiet for five years,
but let us pledge that we won't let it go on one more day - that we will
do all we can to put an end to the illegalities, the moral degradation,
and the disintegration of our nation's reputation in the world.
Let us be unified in drawing the line - in declaring that we do have a
moral breaking point. Let us insist, together, in supporting our troops
and in gratitude for the freedoms for which our veterans gave so much,
that we bring our troops home from Iraq, that we return our government
to a constitutional democracy, and that we commit to honoring the
fundamental principles of human rights.
In defense of our country, in defense of our Constitution, in defense of
our shared values as Americans - and as moral human beings - we declare
today that we will fight in every way possible to stop the insanity,
stop the continued military occupation of Iraq, and stop the moral
depravity reflected by the kidnapping, disappearing, and torture of
people around the world.

2007-10-15T19:50:00.000-06:00

Dear Senator

2007-10-15T11:20:00.000-06:00

Sen. Martinez, (Florida)
I realize that I may be wasting my breath writing to you since you seem to support every criminal thing that George Bush & his assistant president, Dick Cheney have done & continue to this country and it's people.

Never the less I am going to tell you that I am damned disgusted with this criminal administration, their attacks on anyone who disagrees with them and all the vile things they have done in our name....... Remember "We The People", Senator?

My disgust reached the overflow point this morning when I tried to send a simple response to an email that I had received and it was repeatedly bounced by my ISP. Phone calls to customer service & then to their headquarters garnered the information that this bounce was caused by key words furnished by the Dept of Homeland Security.... that Nazi organization that you helped establish, if I remember correctly.

Also, if I remember correctly, their first major job was Katrina and we all know how they screwed that one up as people drowned, went hungry or died waiting for help from FEMA. Most of the people caught in this fiasco are still homeless. My, you must be so proud of George.....Gosh, "he didn't know nothing", did he?
Yeah, right!

He freed up New Orleans for the rich developers! Hot damn! Money, money, money....all you jokers seem to think about.

It's about 6 years past time that something was done about this criminal administration. George Bush, Dick Cheney and their gang of thugs have walked all over our Constitution, have lied us into an illegal war, bankrupted the country with their out of control spending spree and destroyed our good name world wide. Additionally they have murdered thousands of innocent people in Afghanistan & Iraq, including almost 4000 of our soldiers, if we can believe that number. Considering that George Bush & Dick Cheney can't seem to open their mouth without telling a lie, there may be more dead soldiers than the numbers we are given.

I am sick of this corrupt, rotten, vindictive & fraudulent administration and their dictatorial actions. I am sick of an equally corrupt Congress sitting on it's ample and overpaid ass doing nothing about these obscenities.

For 6 long years we have been prevented from speaking our mind to this fraud of a president, even insulted to the limit by the recent revelation about the "White House Manual for Silencing Critics". That was not any news to me since the Secret Service had already turned up at my door in April 2001, less than three months after that quack president had seized the office of the presidency with the help of the Supreme 5.

Guess what Sen. Martinez.... I was being questioned as a terrorist suspect even though I am and have been disabled for over ten years. Most days I cannot walk more than a short distance without support. I COULD NOT be a terrorist if I worked at it 24/7. Additionally I would never, ever do anything to harm my country which is more than I can say for that squatter in the Oval office and his old war lords.

I want to know what you politicians, especially the rabid right republicans, have against using our tax dollars to benefit all the people of the USA? How is it that you can justify, (in your minds), spending billions of dollars on an illegal war but you schitt a brick when someone mentions health care for children?

Don't you see something just a little bit cold hearted & compassionless about that? Please don't spew that crap to me that "these people" are trying to free load off the system. It's our damn money Senator. The whole purpose of having a Congress, a Constitution and taxes is for the general good of the people of the USA or did someone forget to tell you that?

It is not for the crazy spending spree that your own little dictator has been on for 6 long years. It is not for you to build bridges to nowhere. It is not for the enrichment of people like Dick Cheney who is still collecting pay check from Halliburton, the company that has stolen enough taxpayer dollars to fund health care for everyone for several years.

I am damned pissed off and I thought I would finally tell you that. I am pissed at the monumental mountain of general purpose form letters that you have for every occasion. I am pissed off at the criminal, dictator wannabe George Bush/Dick Cheney.

I won't even go into that corrupt politicized Justice Dept which has sunk lower than the lowest pits in hell under King George, except to say that I hope the justice system finally catches up with Speedy Gonzales & all his sidekicks who falsely accused and imprisoned Don Siegelman in Alabama.

Now that I have told you what I think of you and this corrupt administration I have one question for you. I know that if you answer it, the answer will come in the form of righteous indignation but I am going to ask anyway: Is the Bush administration blackmailing key members of Congress with the info gathered by their illegal telephone tapping/ email intercepting adventure?

The reason I ask that is because I honestly cannot figure out anything else that would make an entire Congress roll over and play dead for this bumbling, hate-mongering, phony Christian and his gang of thugs and all their lies.

I'm sure that you won't mind my blunt questions & comments. After all it is still a free country......right?

Romney & Sons-League of their Own

2007-09-23T09:01:00.001-06:00

Romney said in a recent speech that those who serve their country in the military are in a league of their own. He's correct. Romney & sons are also in a league of their own.

It's called the League of Greed & Cowardice.

To all traitorous, wimpy Democrats

2007-09-20T20:25:00.000-06:00

"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust."......Aquinas

There are no decent words that I can use to express my anger at the Democratic senators who waste valuable time & money pandering to the obnoxious, vile, vindictive Republicans and the holier than thou, crooked as the day is long, George Bush by voting to condemn the honest opinion expressed in the Move-on ad.

Every one of you is a traitor to the Constitution of the United States. How dare you join that little dictator in telling us to shut up? We, AND Move-on.org, have every right to express our disgust with this quack administration, it's supporters and enablers and any military member who steps across the line to play politics in an effort to expand his own political ambitions.

In the immortal words of Dick Cheney..... Go F**k Yourself!

Write on my gravestone: "Infidel, Traitor." --infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people. Wendell Phillips

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS. . .

2007-09-01T07:56:00.000-06:00

It is recommended that every person reading this petition send it to their elected officials, the media, friends......print copies to hand out...... These vermin need to be removed from office & prosecuted for their crimes. These self-serving crooks are destroying this country from the inside out. The answer is impeachment, removal from office, charged & convicted for crimes against the Constitution & other high crimes, life imprisonment with no parole & seizure of all their ill gotten assets to help offset some of the damage they have done.

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS. . .
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/490392320
Target:
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, US Congress
Created by:
Robert Kezelis
Two hundred thirty one years ago, our forefathers signed onto a petition that led directly to the birth of our once great nation. All of that has gone to waste under the current administration. We must renew our efforts and regain our country. So, in the spirit of those brave traitors to british rule, we amend their petition and apply it to these times.

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS. . . . it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men and Women were created equal, that they are naturally endowed with certain unalienable rights, rights which have been deliberately and repeatedly ignored, eroded, even destroyed. To re-secure these rights that our forefathers toiled so hard to create and support, we again state that governments are created for the people and solely by the consent of the people so governed.

Whenever, such as now, a form of government has become destructive to these ends, it is OUR RIGHT as citizens, to alter and/or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on the original ideals and ideas from whence this country was first imagined, then created through sweat, education, imagination, experience, tears, and toil. Likewise, it becomes our duty as citizens to strive to improve upon that foundation, eradicating the biases based on differences of sex, culture, religion, skin color, nationality, and other individual and groups traits that make individuals who and what they are. As our forefathers warned 231 years ago, Prudence continues to dictate that a government long established should not be changed for light or transient reasons.

However, the transgressions of the current administration against his own people and that against people of other countries are so serious and numerous in nature, that it becomes imprudent not to act immediately. We approach a form of absolute despotism of the kind suffered by our forefathers when they began their own revolution for reasons not dissimilar to ours. To prove our case, the facts below are without question:

* HE has refused his assent to law, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. * HE has obstructed the administration of justice, by politicizing the method and manner in which justice is sought across the states and in the federal courts. * HE has made US Attorneys dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. * HE has spied on citizens domestically and abroad without warrants or justification. * HE has repeatedly lied and misled his people into unnecessary, unjustified, and deadly wars, invasions and eventual occupations, causing untold death and destruction for all concerned.

* HE has attacked the very protections of the Constitution, the one document that he took an oath to uphold; and by passage of his Patriot Act, and his countless signing statements, he has destroyed the very protections to which each of us were and are entitled. * HE has erected a new office, misnamed the Department of Homeland Security, which does nothing to increase security, but instead impedes commerce, trade, communication, travel, and privacy to a degree never imagined by our forefathers. * HE has deprived us the benefits of a trial by jury.

* HE has held, without charges, many individuals who have no benefit of counsel, courts, or juries. * HE has cut off communication and trade with countries who have offered to aid us in a time of need, after the attacks of September 11, 2001. * HE has arrested, harassed and threatened groups of civilians who gather to protest the excesses of government. * HE has precluded and interfered with free speech of individuals and their right to meet safely. * HE has created a mercenary army, uncontrolled by the democratic process, to fight in actions both domestic and foreign. * HE has ignored long-standing treaties and pacts among other nations, particularly with respect to torture and basic human rights.

* HE has ignored the wisdom, experience and knowledge of scientists, replacing them with self-serving political and religious persons, intent on destroying the very knowledge base that serves mankind. * HE has caused the kidnapping and extra-ordinary rendition, followed by their transportation of individuals beyond seas to be held without counsel, trial or juries. * HE has permitted the plundering of our cities, the ravaging of our coasts, and the damage of homes and businesses without properly addressing the damage to individual lives, dignity and health.

* HE has imposed secrecy on most actions of goverment, in the name of national security, while precluding citizens from learning of repeated acts of wrongdoing, fraud, and crime. * HE has permitted political donors and supporters to make vast sums of profit from government funds, without requiring accountability, performance or successful endeavors in return. * HE has used religion and faith based initiatives as an attack on the very structure of government, rewarding only certain beliefs, and punishing all others. * HE has destroyed foreign ties with allies and friends, creating distrust and fear, instead of cooperation and friendship. * HE has permitted the destruction of our ecology, causing suffering and worse among us and guaranteeing that our children and our children's children will be forced to pay a dear price.

Our pleas and requests are ignored, our attempts to gain redress are attacked as unpatriotic, our cries are treated as an act of support of terror. A president whose character is marked by these and many other acts which define a tyrant, is unfit to be a ruler of a free people.

WE, therefore, citizens of these United States, and citizens of the world, finding our appeals to our elected representatives to be ignored, do in our name, and in the name of all other true patriots and citizens of this country, solemnly declare that George Walker Bush is unfit to be president; that his vice president is likewise unfit for office, and that both of them are most likely guilty of a multitude of war crimes, crimes against the Constitution, and crimes against humanity.

We hereby declare that their offices are now declared vacant and that they shall be delivered to the proper international court for imprisonment while the full nature and extent of their crimes are investigated and determined, thereafter which they will be tried for said crimes. We hereby commit to one another our best efforts to fulfill our forefathers' original intent, while removing the horrors of slavery, sex, race, religious and other forms of discrimination while we work together to repair the horrendous damage inflicted on our Country, its People and its Constitution.

Chuck Shumer's Outrage

2007-07-05T11:51:00.000-06:00

I’m outraged. President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence wiping away two and half years of jail time with the stroke of a pen. President Bush ignored Libby’s felony conviction for lying to investigators, ignored the jury’s guilty verdict, and ignored the rule of law that governs our nation. We expect more from our President. We expect honor and integrity, we expect moral leadership. We expect our President and his staff to be held to a higher standard. Tell George Bush: I’m appalled by your actions. No man is above the law. ...... Sen. Chuck Schumer

http://www.dscc.org/makeadifference/petitions/20070702_libby.htm

Dear Chuck,
So what the hell are you outraged about? Hell, you have been patting that little pissant on the head and giving him everything he wants for the past 6 years. More money to continue his murderous war? You Betcha! Junior bankrupts the country and what's your answer..... Give him more money than he asked for. Hot Damn! We're on a roll today!

You expect honor, integrity and moral leadership from George Bush????? ROTFLMAO! Surely yee jest? Do you really think that we are so dumb that we haven't noticed that little drunken frat boy flipping you a bird for the past 6 years? Surely you must know that he and Tricky Dickie howled with laughter after he told Patrick Leahy to "Go F**k Yourself" on the floor of the Senate? Did you really think that we haven't heard about these shenanigans?
I'm also sure that you know that Bush called the Constitution "just a goddamned piece of paper"? Why on earth would you expect high standards from this gang of thugs after that comment is beyond me.

Appalled at his actions? I've been appalled at what this low-life scumbag has gotten away with since he was appointed president in 2000. It does not seem to have registered anyone in the hallowed halls of Congress. You have totally ignored the truth and the American people.

Our signature on this silly petition will give King George his laugh for the day? Congrats, Chuck. I'm sure the little puppet dictator & his evil sidekick are quaking in their shoes.

Magginkat....... Pissed Off Voter

RE: NY Times Editorial - Their Master’s Voice

2007-05-20T08:10:00.000-06:00

To: letters@nytimes.com

RE: Editorial - Their Master’s Voice http://tinyurl.com/345u4e

I feel obligated to point out the obvious....that the NY Times has done as much as anyone to promote that "master", to make him appear to be something he is not.

In that effort you have failed miserably. Try as you might you could not make George Bush intelligent or competent. Not only that but you promoted him as a great leader while he has been destroying this country from the inside out with the help of the real decision makers, Dick Cheney & Karl Rove. You shoved that useless piece of humanity down the throats of American citizens and the world.

He has shamed and embarrassed the United States with your help. He has bankrupted this country while enriching himself, his greedy family and friends. Billions have disappeared down the sewer line of the Bush gang of thugs and hundreds of thousands of innocent people have perished at his hands, including our own soldiers.

Still the NY Times & other media have given & continue to give him free reign to do as he pleases. You have done your utmost to grant his oft stated wish of being a dictator.

This bumbling, incompetent, know-nothing man operates beyond the laws of this land. Worse still makes his own laws to fit the occasion. He has violated ever single word of his oath of office. He has literally walked all over the Constitution of the United States and referred to it as "just a goddamned piece of paper".

If the NY Times & other media in this country had informed the American people what this nasty man was up to he would now be settled back at that phony ranch playing tiddlywinks with his friends, the Bin Laden family or if there was real justice, he would be sitting in prison looking at a life sentence with no parole. If there was justice he would serve that sentence at Guantanamo along with Cheney, Gonzales and a bunch more of the thugs in this shyster administration.

Why are you not calling for the impeachment, removal from office and prosecution of Bush, Cheney & Gonzales for starters? They have done their utmost to destroy what's left of our democracy. Are you going to continue to bow down to this fraudulent president and his goons or are you going to tell the truth for a change? In other words are you planning to get back to the business of reporting the news?

You did your part in trying to make it look as though former President Clinton has committed a major crime worthy of impeachment & removal from office when he was caught in a lie about a personal affair that was none of your damn business. Why have you given a free pass to the criminal who now squats in the White House, a criminal who started his damning administration by stealing not one but two presidential elections? Why are you molly-coddling a low-life thief?

I believe that the telephone tapping, email snooping, etc., conducted by the Bush-Cheney gang of thugs had one purpose and it was not to find a terrorist. It was done to blackmail those who might speak out against the crimes of this administration, including key members of Congress. We have seen the brazen efforts to operate this government of George Bush in total secrecy.

Unfortunately this has been the one success of George Bush.

I am left to ask, what did he have on the NY Times and other media outlets to not only shut them up but to make them become propaganda machines for the worst, most corrupt administration that this country has ever faced?

As I see it the only hope this country has is another Daniel Ellsberg. Are you looking for that person or are you just continuing to be a mouth piece for this criminal organization that has taken over the government of this country? Are you going to quietly stand by for another 19 months while they finish the job of destroying this country from the inside out?

Will you be continuing to post the lies about Iran and other countries who have the guts to speak out against this criminal?

What if the little dictator decides that he should be master of the universe for the rest of his life? What will you do if that happens?

Spare me the denials and exclamations of horror that I should say such a thing. Remember when Giuliani wanted to cancel elections and keep himself mayor of NY? True, it didn't happen but then Giuliani didn't have control of Congress, the media & the military.

Abstinence Education via Religious Fanaticism

2007-04-16T14:51:00.000-06:00

Ideological arrogance is one way to describe abstinence education and another way is "down your throat" forcing of useless mythology into the minds of children too weak to resist. And yet another way is to define this ultimate child abuse which is brought into our lives by dogmatic religious fanaticism and reflect on the permanent damage it causes.

Don't think for once second that abstinence education is about education. It is 100% religious indoctrination and next to hatred, one of the Religious Reich's greatest accomplishments is pouring millions of dollars of taxpayer money into abstinence education and owes it all to having God's help putting George Bush in the White House.

It is positively inhumane to ask any human being to just simply ignore their arrival at puberty when they are hormonally at their peak of ripeness as the first indication for them to sacrifice their next ten or so years of their life retarding their sexual expression for the sole purpose to satisfy religious fanaticism. In the abstinence education classes you learn to hate gay and lesbians and how to snitch on your parents but not much else unless you want to get boiled in a lake of fire for messing around or wondering about your sexuality.

What is most important is to teach our young people how to avoid pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases using medical science in lieu of religion and we need to promote the use of prophylactics for disease prevention. Women's special health needs should be of primary importance and inoculation with the vaccine Gardasil to prevent cervical cancer should be mandatory.

Other than Voodoo and Reverend Jim Jone's Kool-Aid cures, the church has no medical background and its interference with women in regard to their health care needs is ill-advised. Imposing spiritual values through Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggert or Jerry Falwell we have all learned is hypocritical at its worst and even more hypocritical at its best.
Sexual expression is a physiological need just like breathing, eating and sleeping. In the long run, it doesn't make any difference what you do; there will always be a religion to criticize whatever you choose to do. Happy hormone hunting and this last LITTLE note;

I met a divorced woman once who confessed to me her biggest regret is she didn't follow her sexual urges when she wanted to. Being abstinent until marriage and then disposed of after thirty seconds made her feel like a used dishrag. "There had to be something "better" in all the no answers I gave after so many years of waiting and I will spend the rest of my life painfully wondering."

Larry Little

UPDATE: Jane 'Invades' Iraq!

2007-04-01T12:51:00.000-06:00

Update! No April Fool's Joke Here. Jane 'Invades' Baghdad!
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Note: Wanna know what the camp outside of Baghdad where I am now billeted looks like? Go to Burning Man, out in the Nevada desert, and you'll pretty much get the look of this place -- only Burning Man is a lot more fun!Letters from Iraq: The Charge of the Light Brigade, Part 1March 30 -- we finally received our orders to fly out of Kuwait and into Baghdad. Hurray! Now all I have to do is get my passport back from the Kuwait visa inspectors and I'm good to go.

"Stillwater? Here's your passport." Whew. "Now line up here and wait." I did. This is exciting. And perhaps a little too real. Two hours later, we boarded a plane. It was a big one, a real work of art. It was as big as a football field inside, no windows, no frills -- just one big warehouse. The pallets with our gear on them were stored in back of us and troops lined the walls and took up seats in the center.This plane is spooky. Forget everything you ever experienced on Continental, United or Delta. This plane is weird. Exposed pipes run along the 20-foot-high ceiling. Wires hang loose. There's a plywood floor. There's NOTHING decorative about this plane at all -- except that they gave us nicely-colored earplugs to baffle the sound.

While waiting in some tent or other for the plane to take off, the soldiers I sat next to took turns telling stories. I love these guys. Anyone who can tell a good story is all right by me. And these guys tell stories with flash and charm. Each one has an attention-grabbing introduction, an exciting and suspenseful plot, a gripping climax and a really great hook at the end.

Guys, I salute you. Now don't go out there and blow yourselves up. You have too many stories to tell.This plane holds a hecka lot of men. I'm not allowed to say how many but it's a lot -- more than the amount of people who live in my neighborhood, less than the amount of people at a Pussycat Dolls concert. There were a lot of women soldiers back on the base in Kuwait but I'm probably the only woman on this plane now besides some sort of stewardess wannabe in khaki fatigues whose main job appears to be handing out earplugs.1:15 am: This whole freaking embed experience is so weird, so bizarre. It's like nothing I can equate it with inside my realm of experience back home. It's bizarre. It's going to take me YEARS to digest all of this.

Just going to the freaking toilet on a troop transport plane is bizarre.Once the plane takes off, all the lights go out except for a handful of red ones lining the walls, giving the interior the look and feel of Hell -- Hell and the Battlestar Galactica, with a little bit of Road Warrior thrown in. The soldiers are all wearing helmets and flack jackets. To a man, all of them are asleep -- in awkward, unnatural positions. Only I am awake. And on the way to the toilet, I glide down the aisle like that Greek goddess of old who was kidnapped by Hades -- Persephone?Once inside the restroom, there's no light, only a red glow. I do my business by touch and get out as soon as I can, back to the jaws of death, back to the mouth of Hell.

And the troops sleep on, in exhausted, exaggerated positions, looking for all the world like they were dead.These men are my boys. Hurt them and you have to go through me. Hear that, George Bush? These men aren't just action figure toys for you to play with. These are real, living human beings. Sincere. Serious about doing their jobs -- and doing them well. They deserve better than the blunders of GWB. They deserve respect. They've got mine."Prepare for landing. Thank you." Obviously there's gonna be no in-flight movie and no in-flight meal. And I don't think we are going to have a spiffy arrival area and baggage carousel either.

"This is BIAP". Baghdad International Airport. "BIAP" must be short for "biopsy". That's what I think. The descent into BIAP is so swift and sudden, it feels like they cut out a piece of us. Yep, it's a good thing this plane doesn't have windows! But did all that decompression wake up the troops? Nope. I'm still the only one awake.Then "BOOM!" The plane touches down with a sonic thud. We've landed in Baghdad.

# posted by Jane Stillwater : 8:35 AM

More news from Iraq: Me, the Light Brigade & John McCainGood grief!

Iraq is just BRIMMING with news. I don't even know where to begin. At 4 am this morning, a huge armored vehicle moved us from the Baghdad airport to the Green Zone in a convoy composed of vehicles that looked like they had just came out of a Toys R Us catalog.Nobody in Iraq seems to need sleep. Not even me. But they don't go without food. Did you know that the average American soldier in Iraq gains 26 pounds -- while the average insurgent lives on rice and beans? If that doesn't give our troops an edge here, then what will? If we are now entering the fourth year of this war and it still is bogged down even despite our tremendous Cheesecake advantage, the Bush guys are in big trouble.

But I digress.I've been here in Iraq for three days and this is the first day I have even seen -- let alone talked to -- an Iraqi. So I started at the top and interviewed an Iraqi general. His basic message seems to be that the Iraqi army now has about 25 new ways to kill people and/or make them go to their rooms. "We have more troops, more joint security stations, more ammunition, more tips from informants, more security...." Then his translator went on and on about how the Iraqi army is eliminating tourists. Tourists? Oh, he meant TERRORISTS. My bad.

Then I spoke with an American admiral who stated, "The people of Iraq need to be able to walk to the local coffee shop safely." By this does he mean that after four whole years of occupation, people still can't walk safely to the coffee shop -- or does he mean that what Iraq needs today is more Starbucks? I'm confused.After that, you will never guess what happened next! I got to interview John McCain! Seriously. He was here. Right here in the press room. Which is fifty feet down the corridor and around the corner from the cot where I had dumped off all my stuff this morning and is now my new home.

Senator McCain, Senator Graham, Rep. Pence and Rep. Renzi had put together what appeared to be the 2007 GOP Hype-the-War Tour. "Do you think that they will give us souvenir T-shirts of the tour," I asked some guy from CNN. Probably not.

Anyway, Sen. McCain and his backup singers were here and even though I don't agree with them, I was glad that they came. It takes courage to come to Iraq.

"Our new strategy is making progress," said McCain.

"We are doing things differently," said Sen. Graham. "We cannot let suicide bombers set the pace. If we talk about leaving and losing, the car bombers win."

Then Graham talked about how the four of them went down to the Baghdad market today and it was perfectly safe. "We bargained and bought rugs."Pence agreed about the safety of the market. Later, however, he added that they did have to travel there in Humvees and be escorted by soldiers and wear body armor -- but other than that...

Later I talked with an Iraqi reporter who said that the market they went to was the safest in the city and several American reporters added that walking around in Baghdad without troops backing you up was suicidal and anyone who did something like that had a death wish.Renzi then stated that, "We will not turn our backs on the Iraqi people," and the other Dream Boys agreed.

And apparently if the bill to end the war makes it through Congress, Bush will veto it. "The President [sic] will veto any bill that will cut the legs out from under the military," added Graham.So far, the group had talked a lot about how to make the "war" policy regarding Iraq succeed, but none of them talked about the elephant in the living room -- that the policy itself is fatally flawed.

But I did! Shut up, Jane.

Yes, even with all those Senators and reporters and everything there I still had to have my say. So. Exactly what DID I say to John McCain?

Sorry but you're gonna have to die of suspense a little bit longer. Someone just brought me some food!Fried chicken, meatloaf, honeyed carrots, mashed potatoes, green beans and cookies! Giant chocolate chip cookies, macadamia nut cookies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate fudge cookies. Hey! You forgot the cheesecake.

So. What did I say to Sen. McCain?

I gave him my famous "Light Brigade" speech. "I have been so completely impressed," I began, "by the quality, training, competence and skill of our troops here. They represent yet another generation in a long line of competent and capable Americans."

McCain smiled and nodded his head, thinking I had finished my speech. Not.

"But," I continued, just getting warmed up, "our troops are also like the heroes of Lord Tennyson's poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade.' They are fighting bravely and well in a situation caused by a blunder. So why should we senselessly continue to put our troops in harm's way for a mistake?" Or in order to appease some greedy, immature Lord Nelson wannabe. It doesn't make sense to destroy a whole generation of American soldiers just to support Bush and Cheney.

Then I got down to the heart of my question. Giving McCain that special look that us moms usually reserve for recalcitrant children, I said, "And after this terrible blunder in Iraq, are you then going to go ahead and make that same horrible mistake in Iran?"

McCain's answer was brief. "No comment."

BERKELEY WOMAN'S IRAQ QUEST
Sleeping bag in tow, she hopes to embed with Army and blog
http://tinyurl.com/3by3e4
Our friend Jane did it! She actually went to Kuwait and is hoping to make it to Iraq to see for herself what is going on. The above link is to the news article in the San Francisco Chronicle about her quest to be imbedded with a military unit in Iraq.
Best of luck Jane. We look forward to hearing from you often!
March 29, 2007
Greetings from Kuwait! This post is gonna be quick and dirty and not very coherent because I'm writing to you from a Kinko's at the Kuwait City airport. After two days on the plane, I arrived here around midnight and, since I can't even begin to try to arrange to get picked up until 6 am tomorrow morning, I'll be spending the rest of the night in a Barca-lounger in the airport offices of Kellogg, Brown & Root. How surrealistic is that!

Here's my first dispatch:

The Great American Dream still exists -- in Iraq!
By Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com

You know how we all thought that the American economy was going down-hill? It's not true! We're just not looking in the right places. Look closer -- the 1950s American economic miracle isn't dead. It's still going on. People are still getting well-paying jobs. Mortgages are still being paid off. Jobs are available everywhere. You can find one just for the asking. Three cars in your garage? No problem. No money worries, no debts. Decent jobs are out there begging. Yes, the 1950s American economic miracle is still happening.

Only it's happening in Iraq.

How spooky, how weird, how de-ja-voo. While American cities are rotting and American children go to sleep hungry at night, there still is a land -- far far away -- where everything is as it was before our present economic American Easter egg cracked.

Where is this simple, illusionary, holiday place? Iraq.

Yesterday, escorted by two large handsome bodyguard cameramen supplied by the San Francisco Chronicle, I took a BART train to the San Francisco airport and boarded a plane to Amsterdam.

"Jane, your flight from Amsterdam to Kuwait has been canceled," said the guy at the KLM check-in counter. "Would you mind spending a night in Holland?"

Would I mind? Hecka no! But when I got to Amsterdam, they told me something else. "Tomorrow's flight has been canceled but you can still get on yesterday's flight." Huh? "And it leaves in two hours." So I trundled off to Gate D-7 -- and while I was waiting for yesterday's flight, I chit-chatted with four really nice Department of Defense and Blackwater "contractors". They talked about perks.

"I'm making a fabulous salary."

"I've saved up enough to put my daughters through college. And also my wife!"

"We have a mini-van, a sedan and an SUV."

"I just got back from a week at Disney World and next year we're taking the family to Europe."

Sounds just like the good old days, doesn't it. Guys working hard, guys getting ahead.

On the flight from Holland to Kuwait, the entire PLANE was filled with contractors, pursuing the American Dream -- in Iraq.

Who am I to try to put an end to this perfect world -- just because it is based on the quicksand of a million dead bodies?

"Not I," said this little white duck.

On the way to Kuwait, I watched an in-flight movie entitled "Bobby" -- about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. And what RFK said in that film hit the nail exactly on the head. "Too often, we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of other human beings."

PS: While I was flying across the Atlantic, getting leg cramps, eating rubber chicken and watching "Casino Royal," I also read an article in The Guardian about the ghastly slaughter that is happening right now in Darfur. Don't even get me started on that one -- wondering who else is making a profit off of all those grisly deaths.

Jane Stillwater - - I'm off to Iraq & need Kevlar by Wednesday!

2007-03-25T07:50:00.000-06:00

Dear Jane,

I don't imagine that having a recommendation from the Proud Liberal Bitch or Grannies Against George would earn you any brownie points! :) :)

Jane, my dear, I still think you have flipped your wig but I wish you the best of luck. Sorry I don't have a Kevlar vest.

On this occasion I am just as big a coward as King George so I will not be volunteering to go with you. However, I did complete the military service that I signed on for years ago!

I wish you luck and great success on your trip.

Magginkat

From: Jane stillwater Woman of Steel: I'm off to Iraq & need Kevlar by Wednesday!

By Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com When you are a reporter, you gotta go where the good stories are. And everyone knows that the hot stories today are in Washington DC and Iraq. Well, maybe in the Bahamas too -- but mostly in DC and Iraq.

I've been trying to embed in Iraq with the Department of Defense since last July. At first my senator, when she inquired on my behalf, was told that I couldn't be embedded because I was "opinion-based and not fact-based" but as America's goddess of accurate-yet-fun reporting Molly Ivins used to say, "That dog don't hunt" -- not after the DoD itself got caught telling bold-faced lies about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction! But when the Dems took over Congress last November, I was informed by several sources that, under pressure from above, the DoD has now developed a whole new policy wherein progressive reporters are no longer being actively discriminated against and that I had a good chance of being embedded if my credentials were good.

After getting four online news services, a nationally-known crusading regional editor, my hometown newspaper and a major metropolitan media giant to sponsor me -- The Lone Star Iconoclast just sent me the most beautiful press pass in the world -- I finally got the green light from DoD! Sorta.

To get to Iraq, you fly into Kuwait and the Department of Defense's MNFI comes to pick you up. So I went online to www.bargaintravel.com, the best source of cheap international airfare there is, and scored a fabulously inexpensive round trip flight to Kuwait for a price that even I could afford! I was all ready to go, leaving on Wednesday, March 28, 2007. Sorta.

"Sorry, Jane," the DoD media guy just wrote me. "We haven't finished processing your paperwork yet." Oops. So here I am with a non-refundable ticket to Kuwait and no green light.

What to do? Whether or not I have DoD clearance, I HAVE to leave for Kuwait on March 28. I can't afford to waste that kind of money. I lived off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a YEAR to save all that up. And when I get to Kuwait, either the MNFI will have completed the paperwork and I will be whisked off to their training and staging area near Kuwait City and then off to Baghdad to write fabulous stories for YOU all about how our brave troops are doing a bang-up job over there despite the fact that their bosses in the White House are sadistic bastards, terribly inefficient crooks and totally nuts -- or I will spend three weeks wandering the streets of Kuwait City waiting for my flight home, searching for internet cafes and trying to sell boot-leg Girl Scout cookies.

If, however, I do get embedded in Iraq, I will need a Kevlar bullet-proof vest. Can anyone loan me one by Wednesday? I'm serious! Would you send me into a combat zone without Kevlar? Who do you think I am? The Woman of Steel?

PS: Of course the main reason I'm going to Iraq is to bring you back stories about what it is actually like over there -- but there's also another special bonus inducement: I hear that the commissaries over there serve a dynamite (to-die-for) chocolate cake.

PPS: Just because George W. Bush happily sends our troops into combat without adequate body armor, this doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.

Got Kevlar? I can be reached at jpstillwater@yahoo.com or 510-843-0581. And if you know anyone in Kuwait who can sponsor me just in case I need an emergency visa when I get to Kuwait City, please let me know! Thanks.

Scooter Libby, convicted felon

2007-03-08T09:58:00.000-06:00

Matthew Rothschild: "Finally, some comeuppance for at least one of the folks who brought us the Iraq War. Finally, some justice for at least one of those who engaged in illegal, slime-ball tactics to smear opponents of that war. And how rich to see Libby’s allies squirm now."

Needless to say a right winger turned up to try to drag our last legally elected President into the mess:

Troll: "Okay, Matt, while we have you in an anti-perjury mood, could you please tell us once again how Bill Clinton did not perjure himself and did not coach Betty Curry on how to perjure herself?"

Magginkat:

You just knew it was bound to happen ....there come the rabid righties whining about a Clinton lie. Yep, he lied about a consensual affair. But the fact is that he could have sued Monica for sexual harassment! LOL ..

Now watch them whine & scream in righteous indignation!

This entire administration has consisted of a massive pile of lies cheered on by Faux Spews and their brain dead morons who don't have a clue. Do these people not realize that this country is being run as a dictatorship for the Bush/Cheney gang of thugs and that the mess they have created will take years & more years to try to undo IF we can undo it?

What about Democracy? What makes this secretive government by the incompetent Bush and the insane Cheney so good for these fools? I am truly puzzled at these people who screeched and screamed for 8 yrs plus about Clinton's little lie but when the monumental mountain of Bush/Cheney lies is mentioned they go into hysterics calling those who question those two vile people traitors and other names.

To me there is nothing more traitorous than those who have walked all over the Constitution of the United States and those who cheer & encourage them to continue. May you reap what you have sowed.

To quote Abby Hoffman, "Just wait till Jesus gets his hands on you, you little bastard". :) :)

Take YOUR Job & Shove It !

2007-02-13T21:44:00.000-06:00

Are you sick of the form letters from your rabid right elected (we think) officials. This morning I received one too many of those condescending monstrosities from Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, spewing the usual bu$h lies about Iran. Some days the stomach can handle only so much.

Dear Mr. Martinez,

I thought george bu$h was a horse's ass (with apologies to horse's asses everywhere) but I do believe that you are trying to lay claim to that title. Do you really think that U.S. Citizens are so damn stupid that they are going to continue to buy into yours and bu$h's lies?

Well, if you do Mr. Martinez, you are in for the education of a lifetime. We don't believe your lying asses anymore. Unlike the squatter in the White House we can and do read. We know that most of the world disputes your brazen lies.

Yes, Iran has a cocky little brat as president but so do we. George bu$h, with your help & unlike the cocky brat from Iran, has murdered over 3000 U.S. soldiers & injured over 20,000 more, some of them are maimed for life. You have murdered over half a million Iraqi citizens for no reason other than to appease that spoiled brat in the oval office who wants to prove that he is a bigger man than his daddy.

Bullschitt! Junior was, is and always will be a lying, cheating, conniving, thief & loser and the minute you latched on to his apron strings you became the same. That goes for everyone else who is singing the praises & repeating the lies of cheney & bu$h. In my humble opinion you are all a bunch of cowards and traitors. I look forward to the day that most of this administration is tried as war criminals & convicted.

The world's worst terrorist, according to articles I have read from multiple countries, is george bu$h and cohorts, doing business in the name of the American people. I'm tired of being considered a terrorist because of the inane and insane actions of the leadership of this country.

As for the President of Iran making harsh comments about Israel, the truth hurts doesn't it? We the People know that the leadership of this country has been supplying the corrupt Israeli government with weapons to murder the Palestinian people and we know that includes nuclear weapons, so can the crap about a Middle East Peace process. It's as phony as a george bu$h speech. The people of Israel may want peace, as do the people of the United States, but unfortunately both countries are headed by two of the most corrupt governments in the history of mankind.

You, Mr. Martinez, did not respond to my concerns. You tried to sell me a pile of bu$h/cheney bullschitt and I'm not buying. Spare me the cock & bull story about this shyster administration working with it's European allies & the U.N. I hate to tell you but telling the world to Go F**k yourself is not considered "working" with anyone and that is all this good for nothing administration has done.

Please do not insult my intelligence by sending me another of your damned form letters with it's george bu$h approved lies and bullschitt. Yes, I am aware that I wrote bu$h with small letters and a dollar sign.... same for cheney.
I write their names with small letters because it is appropriate for the kind of people they are, very small indeed. AND you, Mr. Martinez are the same as you support the murder and mayhem created by bu$h and his thugs.

What will it take to convince you war loving fools to get your heads out of your ass and stop the insanity?

Carl Rants.................

2007-02-12T12:06:00.000-06:00

Much of Florida should be abandoned unless honest and trust worthy building codes are enforced. Year after year the state becomes nothing but flying sticks from match box construction that should be outlawed. Close to sixty year ago it was Jim Bailey calling, "Come on down the pompanos are jumping out of the bays and lagoons right on the plates to welcome you suckers. Contrary to what we see from the helicopters after the storms pass can only be the results of a Republican population reduction scheme could allow what just happened. The plans are by builders and lobbyist who live in Switzerland, the Andes and Manhattan.

American's are spending billions to see their children blown to bits in the sands of Arabia. Those who come home have no lives. "Look at me I got my new legs. Look at them 40/50 year later if the live that long not even able to get out of bed when the God damn building is burning down. There stands Bush like the colossus of Rhodes saying it cannot hurt me I have on my water proof underwear.

A radio is just another gadget from China with 150% markup. Buy some of the new hooks. A baby can push them through the sheet, but look what happens when Mommy goes to push one in and she hits steel lollicolumn. Blood all over the basement but that bastard with his high pitched voice is long gone.

Carl Johnson .... NY

Musings of PBC

2006-12-19T07:44:00.000-06:00

..to attempt to "clarify", estimation of Bush is that is a self centered , callous , calculating sort who does NOTHING for others unless needed to get something for self but has NOT the capability to actually FORMULATE the whateverings....He has "street smarts" of sorts, the type that have allowed hi, especially due to family connectivity, to wonk whatever he whims for own selfish whateverings...He cares NOT a whit for OTHERS....he really does NOT TRULY CONNECT, he is a user and abuser and self centered...ego centric/figures just HIS just due just he IS...sociopath fits him...

He has shown that disdain for "others" , he gets cover and protection from those inside the circle for there is the devil to pay if deemed disloyal and he does extract revenge at many levels with NO REGRET. He washes others hands in so much only to have his own back scratched/hands washed as well...if nothing in it for him, he walks away...

He gets aligned via ego stoke and even likely realizes that IS done to some extent but figures he actually is smarter than those others ...More than willing to have others do the "grunt" work at ALL levels....He has learned and honed his skills of glad hander to an artful dodgerability of responsibility....No way did Bushie come up with the neoconic agenda, it was easy for him to go along with it as he figured it served him and they did that in large part by knowing how to stoke/stroke him....

He MAY think much was his, but doubt he that delusional but when it was percieved and sold as a sure fire WINNER, he was more than eager/willing to have it set in motion for it would settle some other scores of his...Still figure Cheney is a truely nefarious character....Rummy as well as such as Wolfowitz , Perl and others who have never really gone far away even if not in "original " positions...Newt G. is another one to watch out for, another who NEVER EVER REALLY WENT FAR AWAY let alone away at all.....

There are a whole range of issues just how Bushie did go along and why...some of it quite the outcome of his dysfuntional family environment...He was the screw up, and they let him know that estimation often in exasperation and etc but they did continue to clean up after him time after time after time but did realize him as an embarassement, a major disappointment and actually esteemed as not all that bright/etc....

He was out to show "them" and Dad too and part in the mix was, he too himself , out of family loyalty/values --which they do have but are semi perverse but abided by none the less...the fact that Poppy yet got derided in regards to the first Iraq venture for NOT getting into the heart of Bagdad, well Junior took that as an offense against the family honor/etc and too, he wanted to show Dad that HE could "fix" things in hopes of making Dad proud /etc....that indeed was in the mix plus the grandiose sell he got sold of going to be THE one attributed with remaking the ME ..a nyah to the Carter/Clintons and even Regan who gets credit for bringing down that wall and ending the ColdWar...this was to surpass them all....but they/the plans/the agenda of HIS MAKING or HIS CALCULATIONINGS, he merely got to be the one who "signed off", it was expected to be an overwhelming SUCCESS and he was to receive full credit...

Interesting that so many were MORE than willing to have it be such--they, those that formulated and etc...were content to just get so much implemented and remain anonymous , they in essence did not need PUBLIC adulation but they held the greater power...George, a facade, the front man...an important enough role of sorts, for he was to front it all for the PUBLIC so that the public would buy on to it all and lets face, according to polls, some 30% still do even after so much HAS become known, revealed and how wrong so much has gone.

"Taking S Step Forward"?

2006-12-11T20:08:00.000-06:00

The new catch phrase from the White house is "taking a step forward"

This is coming from someone who for the past five years has asked us to look back to 911 to give credibility to his " God lead" War of Miss-instruction, Wars of Terrorism, and War for Drugs (Northern Alliance Afghanistan)

Is he asking the families of the 3,000 dead soldiers, the thousands of wounded, or the tens of thousands civilian casualties to step forward with their lives? For the American people to step forward to pay for the trillions of dollars of dept that he has gotten us into, while his friends and family enjoys record oil, military contracts, and heroin production? George Bush and Dick Cheney please take a step forward, down....... Down from office and face the consequences of your irresponsible leadership. So that we Americans can take a step forward and not be left to pay for your blunders alone.

By Bim at www.BimWillow.com

A Christmas Story - Bah Humbug!

2006-11-29T10:59:00.000-06:00

A Christmas Story

'Twas the night before Christmas--Old Santa was pissed.
He cussed out the elves and threw down his list.
Miserable little brats, ungrateful little jerks.
I have a good mind to scrap the whole works!

I've busted my ass for damn near a year,
Instead of "Thanks Santa"--what do I hear?
The old lady bitches cause I work late at night.
The elves want more money--The reindeer all fight.

Rudolph got drunk and goosed all the maids.
Donner is pregnant and Vixen has AIDS.
And just when I thought that things would get better
Those assholes from the IRS sent me a letter,
They say I owe taxes--if that ain't damn funny
Who the hell ever sent Santa Claus any money?

And the kids these days--they all are the pits
They want the impossible--Those mean little shits
I spent a whole year making wagons and sleds
Assembling dolls...Their arms, legs and heads
I made a ton of yo yo's--No request for them,
They want computers and robots...they think - I'm IBM!

Flying through the air...dodging the trees
Falling down chimneys and skinning my knees
I'm quitting this job there's just no enjoyment
I'll sit on my fat ass and draw unemployment.

There's no Christmas this year now you know the reason,
I found me a blonde. I'm going SOUTH for the season

Is everyone happy this morning?

2006-11-09T13:03:00.000-06:00

Are you now convinced that the system works?

Even those hackable touch-screen machines from Diebold?

Well, they must work because the Dems won big and the Reps had control of them . . . so obviously we don't need to change anything there . . .which would be too expensive anyway. Right?

And now that the Dems have the house Conyers can start some REAL investigations, with subpoenas and everything . . .Right?

And we can now get our selves out of Iraq, and impeach the despicable asses that made this problem in the first place, and send them off to the Hague for their war crimes trials wrapped in chains, and repeal all the unconstitutional stuff Dubja pushed through. Right?

I don't believe it for a minute, and you shouldn't either.

This "bigwin" was because we were on the edge of actually doing something real and that had become publicly obvious. These election results will calm everyone down while we all congratulate ourselves and then go home toforget about it.

And our Fascist masters will continue along their merry way as always, but perhaps with less exposure than before.

Keep in mind that NOBODY can get elected to anything without corporate money behind them, and that money comes with the expectation of a return. This fact applies to Democrats and Republicans alike.

NOTHING has changed except that the general perception of our very real problems has now been blunted to the point where everyone will (with great relief) go home and forget about the mess yet again without actually doing anything.We certainly won this battle and it did indeed feel good . . . but I fear it is going to cost us the war in the long term. And now it is time for all to loudly proclaim that Cushman is just a crank and can be safely dismissed. It is all so sadly predictable.

William B. Cushman, Ph.D

Not likely Bill, read on............No one but no one is paying attention to this: The Bush Administration has quietly stolen the National Guard away from the states.

Our Long National Nightmare Has Just Begun: Like Cornered Rats, GOP Losers More Dangerous Than Ever

As ugly secrets surface, Bushists will turn desperate. Democracy has failed their grand schemes; token resignations like Rumsfeld's come too little, too late. Only tyranny can save their skins. Will the beleaguered neocons led by Cheney and Bush, cornered like rats, unleash their brand-new police state on their political opponents? Or will they tough it out and suck up the fines and prison sentences to come? The next year or two could go either way.

The nightmare is not over.

full article at:

by Ted Rall permalink http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/2816

Bush owes troops an apology

2006-11-01T21:47:00.000-06:00

Bush ‘appearing to be stupid’ about Kerry’s joke
By Keith Olbermann

On the 22nd of May, 1856, as the deteriorating American political system veered toward the edge of the cliff, U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina shuffled into the Senate of this nation, his leg stiff from an old dueling injury, supported by a cane. And he looked for the familiar figure of the prominent senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner.

Brooks found Sumner at his desk, mailing out copies of a speech he had delivered three days earlier — a speech against slavery.

The congressman matter-of-factly raised his walking stick in midair and smashed its metal point across the senator’s head. Congressman Brooks hit his victim repeatedly. Sen. Sumner somehow got to his feet and tried to flee. Brooks chased him and delivered untold blows to Sumner’s head. Even though Sumner lay unconscious and bleeding on the Senate floor, Brooks finally stopped beating him only because his cane finally broke.

Others will cite John Brown’s attack on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry as the exact point after which the Civil War became inevitable.

In point of fact, it might have been the moment, not when Brooks broke his cane over the prostrate body of Sen. Sumner — but when voters in Brooks’ district started sending him new canes.

Tonight, we almost wonder to whom President Bush will send the next new cane.
There is tonight no political division in this country that he and his party will not exploit, nor have not exploited; no anxiety that he and his party will not inflame.

There is no line this president has not crossed — nor will not cross — to keep one political party in power.

He has spread any and every fear among us in a desperate effort to avoid that which he most fears — some check, some balance against what has become not an imperial, but a unilateral presidency.

And now it is evident that it no longer matters to him whether that effort to avoid the judgment of the people is subtle and nuanced or laughably transparent.

Sen. John Kerry called him out Monday.

He did it two years too late.

He had been too cordial — just as Vice President Gore had been too cordial in 2000, just as millions of us have been too cordial ever since.

Sen. Kerry, as you well know, spoke at a college in Southern California. With bitter humor he told the students that he had been in Texas the day before, that President Bush used to live in that state, but that now he lives in the state of denial.

He said the trip had reminded him about the value of education — that “if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you can get stuck in Iraq.”

The senator, in essence, called Mr. Bush stupid.

The context was unmistakable: Texas; the state of denial; stuck in Iraq. No interpretation required. And Mr. Bush and his minions responded by appearing to be too stupid to realize that they had been called stupid. They demanded Kerry apologize to the troops in Iraq.
And so he now has.

That phrase — “appearing to be too stupid” — is used deliberately, Mr. Bush.
Because there are only three possibilities here.

One, sir, is that you are far more stupid than the worst of your critics have suggested; that you could not follow the construction of a simple sentence; that you could not recognize your own life story when it was deftly summarized; that you could not perceive it was the sad ledger of your presidency that was being recounted.

This, of course, compliments you, Mr. Bush, because even those who do not “make the most of it,” who do not “study hard,” who do not “do their homework,” and who do not “make an effort to be smart” might still just be stupid, but honest.

No, the first option, sir, is, at best, improbable. You are not honest.

The second option is that you and those who work for you deliberately twisted what Sen. Kerry said to fit your political template; that you decided to take advantage of it, to once again pretend that the attacks, solely about your own incompetence, were in fact attacks on the troops or even on the nation itself.

The third possibility is, obviously, the nightmare scenario: that the first two options are in some way conflated.

That it is both politically convenient for you and personally satisfying to you, to confuse yourself with the country for which, sir, you work.

A brief reminder, Mr. Bush: You are not the United States of America.

You are merely a politician whose entire legacy will have been a willingness to make anything political; to have, in this case, refused to acknowledge that the insult wasn’t about the troops, and that the insult was not even truly about you either, that the insult, in fact, is you.

So now John Kerry has apologized to the troops; apologized for the Republicans’ deliberate distortions.

Thus, the president will now begin the apologies he owes our troops, right?

This president must apologize to the troops for having suggested, six weeks ago, that the chaos in Iraq, the death and the carnage, the slaughtered Iraqi civilians and the dead American service personnel, will, to history, “look like just a comma.”

This president must apologize to the troops because the intelligence he claims led us into Iraq proved to be undeniably and irredeemably wrong.

This president must apologize to the troops for having laughed about the failure of that intelligence at a banquet while our troops were in harm’s way.

This president must apologize to the troops because the streets of Iraq were not strewn with flowers and its residents did not greet them as liberators.

This president must apologize to the troops because his administration ran out of “plan” after barely two months.

This president must apologize to the troops for getting 2,815 of them killed.

This president must apologize to the troops for getting this country into a war without a clue.

And Mr. Bush owes us an apology for this destructive and omnivorous presidency.
We will not receive them, of course.

This president never apologizes.

Not to the troops.
Not to the people.
Nor will those henchmen who have echoed him.

In calling him a “stuffed suit,” Sen. Kerry was wrong about the press secretary.
Mr. Snow’s words and conduct, falsely earnest and earnestly false, suggest he is not “stuffed,” he is inflated.

And in leaving him out of the equation, Sen. Kerry gave an unwarranted pass to his old friend

Sen. John McCain, who should be ashamed of himself tonight.

He rolled over and pretended Kerry had said what he obviously had not.
Only, the symbolic stick he broke over Kerry’s head came in a context even more disturbing.
Mr. McCain demanded the apology while electioneering for a Republican congressional candidate in Illinois.

He was speaking of how often he had been to Walter Reed Hospital to see the wounded Iraq veterans, of how “many of them have lost limbs.”

He said all this while demanding that the voters of Illinois reject a candidate who is not only a wounded Iraq veteran, but who lost two limbs there, Tammy Duckworth.

Support some of the wounded veterans. But bad-mouth the Democratic one.

And exploit all the veterans and all the still-serving personnel in a cheap and tawdry political trick to try to bury the truth: that John Kerry said the president had been stupid.

And to continue this slander as late as this morning — as biased or gullible or lazy newscasters nodded in sleep-walking assent.

Sen. McCain became a front man in a collective lie to break sticks over the heads of Democrats — one of them his friend, another his fellow veteran, legless, for whom he should weep and applaud or at minimum about whom he should stay quiet.
That was beneath the senator from Arizona.

And it was all because of an imaginary insult to the troops that his party cynically manufactured out of a desperation and a futility as deep as that of Congressman Brooks, when he went hunting for Sen. Sumner.

This is our beloved country now as you have redefined it, Mr. Bush.

Get a tortured Vietnam veteran to attack a decorated Vietnam veteran in defense of military personnel whom that decorated veteran did not insult.

Or, get your henchmen to take advantage of the evil lingering dregs of the fear of miscegenation in Tennessee, in your party’s advertisements against Harold Ford.

Or, get the satellites who orbit around you, like Rush Limbaugh, to exploit the illness — and the bipartisanship — of Michael J. Fox. Yes, get someone to make fun of the cripple.

Oh, and sir, don’t forget to drag your own wife into it.
“It’s always easy,” she said of Mr. Fox’s commercials — and she used this phrase twice — “to manipulate people’s feelings.”

Where on earth might the first lady have gotten that idea, Mr. President?

From your endless manipulation of people’s feelings about terrorism?

“However they put it,” you said Monday of the Democrats, on the subject of Iraq, “their approach comes down to this: The terrorists win, and America loses.”

No manipulation of feelings there.
No manipulation of the charlatans of your administration into the only truth-tellers.
No shocked outrage at the Kerry insult that wasn’t; no subtle smile as the first lady silently sticks the knife in Michael J. Fox’s back; no attempt on the campaign trail to bury the reality that you have already assured that the terrorists are winning.

Winning in Iraq, sir.

Winning in America, sir.

There we have chaos — joint U.S.-Iraqi checkpoints at Sadr City, the base of the radical Shiite militias, and the Americans have been ordered out by the prime minister of Iraq … and our secretary of defense doesn’t even know about it!

And here we have deliberate, systematic, institutionalized lying and smearing and terrorizing — a code of deceit that somehow permits a president to say, “If you listen carefully for a Democrat plan for success, they don’t have one.”

Permits him to say this while his plan in Iraq has amounted to a twisted version of the advice once offered to Lyndon Johnson about his Iraq, called Vietnam. Instead of “declare victory and get out” we now have “declare victory and stay indefinitely.”

And also here — we have institutionalized the terrorizing of the opposition.

True domestic terror:
Critics of your administration in the media receive letters filled with fake anthrax.

Braying newspapers applaud or laugh or reveal details the FBI wished kept quiet, and thus impede or ruin the investigation.

A series of reactionary columnists encourages treason charges against a newspaper that published “national security information” that was openly available on the Internet.

One radio critic receives a letter threatening the revelation of as much personal information about her as can be obtained and expressing the hope that someone will then shoot her with an AK-47 machine gun.

And finally, a critic of an incumbent Republican senator, a critic armed with nothing but words, is attacked by the senator’s supporters and thrown to the floor in full view of television cameras as if someone really did want to re-enact the intent — and the rage — of the day Preston Brooks found Sen. Charles Sumner.

Of course, Mr. President, you did none of these things.

You instructed no one to mail the fake anthrax, nor undermine the FBI’s case, nor call for the execution of the editors of the New York Times, nor threaten to assassinate Stephanie Miller, nor beat up a man yelling at Sen. George Allen, nor have the first lady knife Michael J. Fox, nor tell John McCain to lie about John Kerry.

No, you did not.

And the genius of the thing is the same as in King Henry’s rhetorical question about Archbishop Thomas Becket: “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”

All you have to do, sir, is hand out enough new canes.

© 2006 MSNBC Interactive

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15519404

2006-11-01T10:18:00.000-06:00

Bim Willow Speaks......................

2006-11-01T09:54:00.000-06:00

Be sure to void this erection. Yes it seems that both democrats and republicans have a hard on for each other but it is usually some segment of the population that gets screwed no matter who wins.

With campaign advertising looking more like the Coke or Pepsi Challenge when all you wanted was a good beer, it's like shopping for shoes where they only sell shoes for the left foot and you being a right footed one legged man you can make one fit but they always rub you the wrong way.

Should we vote? Yes if for no reason other than to void the lesser of the two. If you voted your conscience you would have to vote for yourself.

2006-10-21T09:45:00.000-06:00

Children of Men -- they stole my plot!

2006-10-19T06:03:00.000-06:00

Movie review: Children of Men -- they stole my plot!
By Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com
http://www.opednews.com/author/author41.html

I was bored on Saturday night and went off to see the movie "Man of the Year". The plot revolved around Robin Williams running for President. It was a good movie, the popcorn was good and Williams told some really funny jokes -- far more funny than the Joke who is currently pretending to be our President.

That night, the UA Berkeley also showed a preview of the movie "Children of Men" -- a sci-fi thriller that takes place about a generation from now, when there are no more children and babies are no longer being born.

"OMG, they stole my plot! Stole it right off my blinking blog!" was the first thought that ran through my head. But then I calmed down. Probably they didn't. But even if they did, I could hardly blame them. It's a great plot. The freaking way that humans abuse children around here and pollute the air and cut aid to education and murder orphans in oil-rich regions and exploit child labor in third-world countries and chase pages around Congress, we're lucky that we have any children left at all!

Anyone with half a brain in their head could of thought of that plot. But just in case the producers of "Children of Men" want to share their royalties with me, here is the article off my blog:

What if there were no more babies?

By Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com
April 28, 2004

It was your typical peaceful day in Heaven. Babies were all lining up to get born.

"Say WHAT?" an unborn baby said to God. "You want ME to go down there and get beaten, bombed, starved, abused and amputated? Or get locked in overcrowded classrooms and babysitted by sit-coms while my mother works three jobs to keep the family afloat? I DON'T THINK SO!"

"But," replied God, "you gotta get born. It's in My Plan." "Not this little pink duck. Until human beings stop doing everything they can to abuse, torture and murder children, I'm staying right here."

Hell no! We won't go!

And no other child was ever born again.

Trillions of dollars continued to be spent on weapons of mass destruction instead of healthcare and education. Testosterone-filled men happily bombed and polluted and irradiated the world to their hearts content. But not one baby was ever born again. Are all the weapons in the world worth the price of NEVER knowing what it is like to hold a baby in our arms? It is time for the Hard-Right and the Hard-Left and the Soft-Middle to come together and work for the preservation of democracy before we all just become so much meat in the eyes of the heartless corporations who now rule our future.

Grand Old Perverts

2006-10-10T12:33:00.000-06:00

GenderGappers 2006 – 041

GRAND OLD PERVERTS

What an uproar! The media, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Blogs, the whole country is focused like a laser beam on some House Pages and a dirty old man. Yes, it’s a terrible thing to sexually assault anyone. It is especially heinous to sexually assault children. Pedophilia is the pits of human actions.

But stand back and look at this situation and ask yourself if we are truly against perversion. Why is there outrage now that it is teen age boys? Where was the outrage when many women were raped in our military schools and by our own male forces in Iraq and Afghanistan? Not to mention our own forces rapes of women and men in countries we occupied. Where is the outrage as we imagine [since we are not allowed to view] the rows of flag draped coffins of young men and women that Bush sacrificed in a preemptive war and where is the outrage at the unseen tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi dead, wounded and displaced?

Where is the outrage at the continued violence against these people because of the Bush preemptive invasion? Where is the outrage that we are not safer now but have spawned generations of terrorist worldwide? Where is the outrage that Bush and his cadre not only permitted torture of prisoners but also sent them to other countries to be tortured even more? Where is the outrage that Bush lied and lied and lied and the media still say “MISLED”?

Where is the outrage at a media that mostly just sat back and went along with a “good old boy they’d like to have a beer with”? Where is the outrage that now belatedly these same media are huffing and puffing as if they really were beginning to report the truth and do their job? Where is the outrage from the many falling fig leaves exposing the scandalous conduct of the Bush administration where trusted officials of government sold out their constituents for free trips and girlies?

Where is the outrage that A.G. Gonzales has ordered Judges NOT to find Bush guilty of anything – otherwise they are unpatriotic in a time of war? Where is the outrage at the loss of Habeas Corpus? And where is the utter horror and outrage that our Congress passed a bill that prevents us from holding Bush responsible for his crimes here at home and all over the world? Where ever it is we fervently hope it appears in our voting booths, strong and decisive, in November.

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Traitors.............everyone

2006-10-03T07:08:00.000-06:00

Save For NovemberPin this on your frig so you don't forget to take it to the polls with you in November. Here's who voted for Bush's Enabling Act in the Senate this week. These votes provided terrorists their biggest win in the war so far. They have succeeded in getting us to abandon the founding principle -- "Justice for All," upon which America was founded. Shame, shame, shame! www.NewsForReal.com

The NOT Justice for All - Senate 65

Alexander (R-TN) Allard (R-CO) Allen (R-VA) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burns (R-MT) Burr (R-NC) Carper (D-DE) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Coleman (R-MN) Collins (R-ME) Cornyn (R-TX) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) DeWine (R-OH) Dole (R-NC) Domenici (R-NM) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Frist (R-TN) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (D-SD) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Lieberman (D-CT) Lott (R-MS) Lugar (R-IN)Martinez (R-FL) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Menendez (D-NJ)
Murkowski (R-AK) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Roberts (R-KS) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Santorum (R-PA) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Smith (R-OR) Specter (R-PA) Stabenow (D-MI) Stevens (R-AK)Sununu, (R-NH) Talent (R-MO) Thomas (R-WY) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA)

I've Got Your Clarity Right Here, Mr. Bush!

2006-09-20T12:46:00.000-06:00

You Need Clarity, Mr. President? I've Got Your Clarity Right Here!

by Steve YoungSept. 20, 2006 -- Hollywood (americanpolitics.com) --

If Bush needs clarity to interpret the Geneva Conventions anti-torture provisions - and he really means it - the next visitor to the Oval Office should be Maher Arar (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800883.html?referrer=email), a Canadian computer consultant who was labeled - wrongly - as a dangerous radical and "an Islamic extremist individual."

If Congress needs to hear what being held without due justice under CIA cover as it is now, the next person they need to interview is Maher Arar, who was taken by U.S. authorities and secretly rendered to Syria, where he was "...beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months," said a report focusing on Canadian intelligence.

If John McCain, Lindsay Graham, John Warner and Colin Powell need to confirm what they've believed all along about how wrong-headed and criminal the Bush Administration's desire to continue their definition of legal interrogation, the next persons they need to break bread with is Maher Arar and his wife - a university economist - who were placed on al-Qaeda "watchlist," without any justification.

If Hannity and O'Reilly truly want to inform their listeners and Fox News fans of what the president's "clarification" really asks for, then the next person they need to interview is Maher Arar, who will tell them that "an innocent Canadian was tortured, his life was put upside down, and it set him back years and years." That is if he can get that out before he is interrupted by a litany of talking points by the host.If the American public needs to find out what could happen to an innocent person, to them or to their loved ones under the justification of "KEEPING AMERICA SAFE ™, meet Maher Arar.

Sometimes there's a failure to communicate. Sometimes there's a failure of strategy. Sometimes there's a failure of men and government. Unless we shine the light on these failures and the brutality they generate, the lessons we can learn from them to make us a better people and better country will whither in the dark.

Before we let the Senate compromise their morality and principle, let's all shine the light on Maher Arar. We owe it to him. We owe it to us.

Steve Young is a Senior Fellow at the Extreme Far Centrist Foundation' Political Husbandry Conservation Centre and Stereo Repair. In his spare time, he is also an author, comedy writer, columnist, LA talk show host and author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful."(What? You STILL haven't bought it? Then visit http://www.greatfailure.com/) and the forthcoming "15 Minutes". You can also check out the satirical side of Steve every Sunday in the LA Daily News.