Real America

See Ya Over There

2009-01-12T16:41:00.002-07:00

It's a new year, a new President and a world changing faster than ever. Thanks to everyone who read and especially to my friends who posted here over the past several years. I've moved on to something new and different. I hope you will join me from now on over here.
Thanks again and I will look forward to talking to you soon.

Fear, Division, Hate...It's All A Game

2009-01-04T16:40:00.004-07:00

The Mideast is the focus of the world again. So where should we, the United States, stand? I say we(as in we the people, screw the governments) should condemn both sides as murders and obstacles to peace. The rest of the world, from Europe to Iran to Russia should do the same. Taking sides just promotes the game and empowers those who use it to control us.

I think most people know or innately comprehend that behind the sheer veil the world is being run by a oligarchic corporate plutocracy that manipulates the world and its people to their advantage to increase their power. That's why many people see little difference in the political parties. Because in truth they don't run the show.

David Icke(who may be a bit out there on some stuff but is spot on on this) lays bare their plan with the method of problem, reaction, solution. They can't come right out and do whatever they want so they “convince” you to accept it. In other words, create a problem, wait for the people to demand action then institute what you want to do anyway as the solution. Like limiting your freedoms with the patriot act, giving ocean liners full of money to themselves to save you from the economic disaster that they engineered and so on. These people are funding and supplying both sides of almost all wars. We play right into their hands taking sides and dancing as the puppet masters pull the strings.

While governments continue to bow we the people of the world are tired of war and killing. We all know it is the most immoral, destructive thing we can do to each other. We don't want to kill each other but are pushed into it by immoral leaders and manipulators. Countries(IE: Israel and Pakistanis) will do what they must but the entire rest of the world should fail to support and rather condemn both sides as long as they slaughter each other. This goes for any conflict. This goes for people in all other countries. Taking sides perpetuates the violence. None who kill to solve their problems should be supported, they should be universally disdained. It's the only way it will stop. We must listen to the complaints of both sides in a fully open and honest way without taking sides. Then both sides need to realize that each must give up something to receive. It beats the hell out of destroying each other and possibly the world at large. The puppet masters create division to mislead and control us. Once we all realize that, and more the world over are everyday, their power falls. Quit playing the game. They've rigged it so you lose and they win every time. Change it, stop the division, force them from behind the curtain, kill their power and empower yourself.

Welcome to 2009

2008-12-30T19:56:00.003-07:00

Said the fight to make ends meet
Keeps a man upon his feet
Holding down his job
Trying to show he cant be bought

Ooh it takes every kinda people
To make what lifes about, yeah
Every kinda people
To make the world go round

Someones looking for a lead
In his duty to a king or to a creed
Protecting what he feels is right
Fights against wrong with his life

Theres no profit in deceit
Honest men know that
Revenge does not taste sweet
Whether yellow, black or white
Each and every mans the same inside

It takes every kinda people
To make what lifes about, yeah
It takes every kinda people
To make the world go round

You know that loves the only goal
That could bring a peace to any soul
Hey and every mans the same
He wants the sunshine in his name

It takes every kinda people
To make what lifes about, yeah
It takes every kinda people
To make the world go round
Mmmm, every kinda people
To make what lifes about

Damned Liberals

2008-12-17T15:30:00.002-07:00

To bad we don't let the people make some of the decisions in this country. It would seem to me that they would make the survival of their job a top priority.

From the Washington Post

In 1949, a pamphlet was published that argued that the American auto industry should pursue a different direction. Titled "A Small Car Named Desire," the pamphlet suggested that Detroit not put all its bets on bigness, that a substantial share of American consumers would welcome smaller cars that cost less and burned fuel more efficiently. The pamphlet's author was the research department of the United Auto Workers.
By the standards of the postwar UAW, there was nothing exceptional about "A Small Car Named Desire." In its glory days, under the leadership of Walter Reuther, the UAW was the most farsighted institution -- not just the most farsighted union -- in America. ....

Reuther, then head of the union's General Motors division, came up with a detailed plan for converting auto plants to defense factories more quickly than the industry's leaders did. At the end of the war, he led a strike at GM with a set of demands that included putting union and public representatives on GM's board......

That proved to be a bridge too far. Instead, by the early 1950s, the UAW had secured a number of contractual innovations -- annual cost-of-living adjustments, for instance -- that set a pattern for the rest of American industry and created the broadly shared prosperity enjoyed by the nation in the 30 years after World War II......

it was the UAW that funded the great 1963 March on Washington and provided the first serious financial backing for César Chávez's fledgling farm workers union. The union took a lively interest in the birth of a student movement in the early '60s, providing its conference center in Port Huron, Mich., to a group called Students for a Democratic Society when the group wanted to draft and debate its manifesto. Later that decade, the union provided resources to help the National Organization for Women get off the ground and helped fund the first Earth Day. And for decades after Reuther's death in a 1970 plane crash, the UAW was among the foremost advocates of national health care -- a policy that, had it been enacted, would have saved the Big Three tens of billions of dollars in health insurance expenses, but which the Big Three themselves were until recently too ideologically hidebound to support.

Narrow? Parochial? The UAW not only built the American middle class but helped engender every movement at the center of American liberalism today -- which is one reason that conservatives have always held the union in particular disdain.......

Over the past several weeks, it has become clear that the Republican right hates the UAW so much that it would prefer to plunge the nation into a depression rather than craft a bridge loan that doesn't single out the auto industry's unionized workers for punishment. (As manufacturing consultant Michael Wessel pointed out, no Republican demanded that Big Three executives have their pay permanently reduced to the relatively spartan levels of Japanese auto executives' pay.)........Republicans complain that labor costs at the Big Three are out of line with those at the non-union transplant factories in the South, factories that Southern governors have subsidized with billions of taxpayer dollars. But the UAW has already agreed to concessions bringing its members' wages to near-Southern levels, and labor costs already comprise less than 10 percent of the cost of a new car. (On Wall Street, employee compensation at the seven largest financial firms in 2007 constituted 60 percent of the firms' expenses, yet reducing overall employee compensation wasn't an issue in the financial bailout.)

Funny how under liberals we the people got more. Now under conservatives the rich get more and we get less. Guess that's why I like the liberals better.

Coffee Table

2008-12-10T10:40:00.003-07:00

Sorry to anybody who might read this blog. I have been busy trying to find work and manage life recently. My inspiration is pretty low right now. I went around and read some of the big rightist blogs today. I have gotten to the point that I don't even understand what they are talking about. It's almost like greek to me. I look around the world and they relate not a whit to what I see. I don't even know how to approach dealing with them because they apparently live on a different planet with different rules than I do. I don't want to be a part of their world. It's even uglyier than mine and that is saying something right now.

If you have something you would like to talk about please leave a comment and we can talk. Thanks for reading and your input.

Reading Room

2008-11-21T16:53:00.002-07:00

Hillary is looking more and more like the Secretary of State. They don’t seem to want to say anything until after thanksgiving though. I guess they don’t want us thinking anything about turkeys except as tasty sandwiches. Meanwhile it appears Sarah Palin wanted you to think about turkeys. This shot was set so perfectly it couldn’t have been a mistake. The guy working kept looking around like, “Would you guys hurry up, I have work to do!“ It did it’s job of keeping her in the news anyway. On a mildly similar note, semantics apparently went right over his head. This guy took gettin' it on with a hot chick to the extreme.

More death in front of cameras. This guy killed himself on a webcam at a body building web site. Not the best way to build muscle if you ask me.

Jim Jones for national security chief ? Just keep him away from my kool aid.

Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary? Why? Look Richardson is highly qualified for a lot of posts but this doesn't seem logical to me. Looks like he will get something though. Warming up in the bullpen, Gov. Denish!

The new setting a date for withdrawal in Iraq agreement says some of the piggish contractors got thrown under the bus. They might be prosecuted under Iraqi law. Sad that other countries need to provide accountability for our countries actions. What happened to that vaulted personal responsibility? Just a talking point for the right. In the meantime Iraqis are burning Bush in effigy on the same pedestal that use to hold the Saddam statue.

Obama is asking vetees about their gun habits with this question: Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal injuries or property damage.” This has the gun buddies confirming their fears. It's good they didn't ask Dick Cheney.

Speaking of guns, radical islamists say they will fight the Somali pirates. Guess they may be good for something afterall.

We want our money back!
The United States has asked four oil-rich Gulf states for close to 300 billion dollars to help it curb the global financial meltdown, Kuwait's daily Al-Seyassah reported Thursday.
Quoting "highly informed" sources, the daily said Washington has asked Saudi Arabia for 120 billion dollars, the United Arab Emirates for 70 billion dollars, Qatar for 60 billion dollars and was seeking 40 billion dollars from Kuwait.

Looks like another "too big to fail" Citibank will get some government money. The biggest investors in the company is our oil money. Wouldn't want the mid east oil titans to lose their money now would we?

They've served their purpose and now you should forget about the whole Osama Bin Laden scam. Al queda in decline.

Here's another great wingnut idea. Put your social security into the stock market! Hell, lets just privatize everything. We could be the new Somalia! No government, you're on your own!

Support small business but remember that "smokin' ain't allowed in school".

Sillyebrety News

Fred Thompson seems to get the clue...wingnuttia is on the wane. Going back to acting.

Ashely Simpson and that Fall Out Boy guy have their baby, name him Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Good luck BM.

Madonna gets a quickie....divorce. He doesn't want her money and she probably can't make a pie so what good is she.

Jodie Sweetin of Full House is spliting from her 2nd husband. Line forms here for #3.

Paris Hilton still loves the homely Good Charlotte guy even though they broke up. She has denied there is anything going on with Prince William or her ex, Stavros Niarchos.

Speaking of Prince William. Who woulda guessed it, his wanger is in the news. Man can't a guy relieve himself without it 'leaking' out anymore.

The King of pop, Michael Jackson, has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel. Apparently he just loooooves the womens veils.

Get a free Dr. Pepper with your Guns N Roses.

As we round the curb and pull up to exit the cab, I look up, and there is your name. And I said, oh, my, Ted’s got an airport. That’s neat.” – The toe-tapping Sen. Larry Craig, missing the joke.

Car Bailout and Gay Marriage

2008-11-16T03:50:00.002-07:00

It seems the two big issues right now are the auto bail out and gay marriage per Californias prop 8. First the auto industry because there is the most to say about that.

Here is an argument for and against on the issue to get you started.

Now a few of my thoughts. First it never fails to irk me when 'certain people' rush to blame the least among us, the poor or the working citizen, for nearly everything that goes wrong in this country. Meanwhile they defend or quickly mention the people that have the most to do with it and then move back to we the people as the reason. The unions are responsible for the fall of the auto companies. Not likely. They are the people who actually BUILT the cars and made it possible for wealthy at the top to take home their millions. They are the people who don't have the tax breaks or advantages, they are the backbone of this country.
Ford was making a 40% profit on the Taurus, built in Atlanta. Parts, labor, health, R & D, transportation and dealer costs them around $9,500 per vehicle. Their sales cost? Almost $17,000. Same holds true for the SUVS and trucks. Unfortunately, the guys making the big money were not looking ahead. The Accord and Camry killed them. If it all goes down millions of working people lose their jobs and the people making the big money and big mistakes are set for life.
Under a new, two-tier UAW contract signed in 2007, the average base wage rate for existing workers at each of the Detroit Three is about $28 per hour, and new workers will be hired at base wage rates of $14 to $16.23 per hour. So the guys that aren't making millions, the worker, makes 53 thousand a year. Apparently an outrageous salary to some. Believe me, I would love to make that. I'm much closer to that 14 dollars. I have never come anywhere near that 53 thou universe but it's not like it is an outrageous amount of money. 3 to 10 million a year plus a multitude of perks is outrageous. Especially if your decisions are costing the company money. Henry Fords success came at the beginning because he understood that he needed to pay his workers enough to buy his cars.
If you think 53 thousand is too much to pay them put on a hard hat and step into an automotive, steel, or textile mill where one mistake can cost you an arm, leg or life, then come on back and preach about turning your back on unionized industries and companies, but be sure to work in both types of plants, union and non-union to see the difference in them. John Stuart Mill said "There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home."
One thing these corporate bigwigs could have done is join others in pushing for universal health care instead of moving to countries like Canada and Mexico that already have it. It would save them billions a year. The responsibility for pensions should be transferred to the unions. Not only would it help the companies but it would prevent them from raiding it. Yes, unions have overreached at times. For example to say X is the only job you should do and you need to call in X to do something else is silly and stupid. Unions aren't pure good but with no leverage for the worker the country and the mass of population is in danger of being devalued to the point of disgusting.

On the other side. I have many reasons to find these multinational corporations as disgusting and harmful to our economy overall. The defenders of disgusting wealth will claim that better fuel efficiency and green cars are years off. How about this. And it's not just diesel cars. Here's the European websites for Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Lines of small fuel efficient cars. Even a Sebring that gets over 50 MPG! They can do it but for some reason they have chosen not to sell them in the US. Why is that? And how about a new car that is being readied for right here in the US by a new maker. No gas at all! A sharp lookin baby too! The technology is here today. We are being handed a bill of goods. I think the big, and I mean really big, money people at the top are trying to turn this country into a banana republic where we again are surfs to the moneyed aristocrats. All this bailout crap is a part of the plan they have been working on for years. It all got done while most people were not paying attention and poo pooing politics and political action. Again, it is exactly what they wanted us to do. Every time a company is bought up by another one what happens first? You got it, they fire people and eliminate jobs. Somehow the big companies of all kinds have to be eventually destroyed or broken up and competition has too return with more and smaller companies. You know, like the kind that aren't too big to fail. We also need to rethink this free trade crap. Go back to tariffs which will bring money back to the treasury making it possible to lower taxes and will encourage manufacturing in our country again.

On the gay marriage front. I don't know why people want to push their lifestyle or religion on others. A truly free country wouldn't do that. While I believe a child needs a mom and a dad in the home, if we make it a law then we have problems cuz the world doesn't work that way. If you want to preserve the sanctity of marriage then why not work on eliminating divorces? That is far more a problem in the area of the sanctity of marriage than gay marriage is. No church should be forced to perform gay marriages. If your problem is calling it marriage then offer all the same rights and responsibilities and call it civil unions. Gays should be amenable to that. I have not much more to say than that. I'm not gay and it doesn't effect my life much. I am a US citizen though and I think the equality of all should be respected.

Note To Republicans

2008-11-12T07:21:00.003-07:00

With the election result about a week old now one of the big agenda items for the Republicans is how they approach the next 4 years. As a Democrat, be it a rather disgruntled one up to now, I suppose my thoughts aren't worth much to them. The fact remains they need people they don't have now so let me offer some thoughts. First places where I can find agreement with conservatives/Republicans:

1. The Constitution and its preservation is paramount.
Yes I believe in the 2nd amendment. I also believe in the 1st and the 4th and
all the rest of them . Some support for them also would be helpful.

2. Hard work and personal responsibility is a USA value.
And hard work will be valued again when it is... valued...like in $$$

3.(Many liberals will disagree with me on this) The traditional family with a mom and a dad is the best kind and best for children. Unfortunately my kids didn't get this but I wish they could have.

4.We should be fiscally responsible.
This doesn't mean we should not spend. It means we should set priorities, get the best value for our money, punish companies that go over budget and avoid large debts.

5.Crack down on illegal immigration.
While our reasons for doing this are dramatically different and the possible solutions may be different I share the goal.

6.Focus on small business.
You will have no problem getting the vast majority of liberals to go along here. As a matter of fact I think the tax breaks for large corporations should be going instead to small and medium businesses. I also think that any company that has over 30% of its operations outside the country or maybe North America should not be considered a United States company and should receive fewer advantages than a home company.

Ok, now the biggest problems for Republicans.

1.Everything I say here will be ignored as the rantings of a liberal.
They act like teenagers who think they know it all. They won't listen to anybody, refuse to find a common ground on anything and roar in outrage at every little thing. When they go up against an adult the majority of the country is going to choose the adult. Kid Hannity is the perfect example here. Whenever I watch him I see a little boy in a big boy suit.

2.They hate everything and everyone and find it all a life altering threat.
For hating the victim mentality so much they sure do a dead on imitation of it. Drama queens to the max.

3.Name calling, demonization and division.
Calling me a terrorist appeaser, America hater, baby killer, and on and on....Well pretty soon they cover vilifying over half of the country simply because they disagree with them and they lose.

4.Social conservatives.
The United States was founded partially because they got tired of somebody else's religion being rammed down their throat. Keep it up and this will not only be the base, it will be all that is left.

5.Fear mongering
Pretty soon it looks like they are the cowards. Scared of everything. You don't have to blow up or destroy everything that scares you. When your only tool is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

6.Supporting things they said they were against in the last administration.
Like foreign entanglements and Constitutional violations like warrantless wiretapping etc.

Yes there is more on both ends but this covers some of the biggest of the big picture.

So what will they do? My prediction is they will hammer away with all the negatives I have listed above. They will continue to run the angry white male/talk show shouter/I'm a better American than you gamit that they have slipped into like an old pair of boots. They will lose even worse in 2010 and finally decide that blaming the 'liberal media' for their defeat will not lead to victory.

Reflections On The Election

2008-11-06T03:16:00.003-07:00

First thank you to every one who voted and especially to those of you(you know who you are) who got out and did the leg work and donated your time and resources to make this possible. It's been a long hard road. It's been tried and now the Reagan Revolution is over. The world changes in 30 years and people eventually realize we must go forward. The Republicans have some work to do but I will write a separate post on that.

I don't usually vote for people that end up winning. As a matter of fact I think I have never voted for someone in a Presidential primary that even got the nomination. But tuesday I voted for all winners! I refused to vote at all for the state house. Here in wingnut world we had only one choice there and they were all Republicans. I am still in awe that we now have a Democratic representative in the US congress. How many decades has it been since this district has had that!? I have to say I voted for him reluctantly but I hope he exceeds my expectations. He is absolutely better than his conservative counterpart.

John McCain's concession speech was admirable. He was the only Republican that stood a chance in the election because he was...I stress “was”..different. If the McCain of 2000 would have maintained his principals this election would have been much closer. Unfortunately he pandered to the radical right and found out that this country is far more tired of conservative/neocon thinking than they anticipated. I had to laugh and feel disgust at the same time today. I heard commentators on Fox saying that Obama won by moving to the center and this is still a center right country. WHAT!!? The day before the same people were calling him socialist/Marxist and the most liberal person in the country. People have figured them out. They aren't fooling anybody but the people with the little rightist chip in their brain that gets programmed on a daily basis. They also said this was not a mandate to move left and he would be punished if he went that way. This was a mandate and they can maintain their illusion of a center right country if they want but it is now center left. Their inability to accept changing circumstances is biting them there too. The idea that he will be punished for doing what he promised to do is inane.

I think there are a number of factors that lead to this victory. Of course Geo Bush, his crimes against the people and country and a desire for something very different played a role. Secondly, the community organizer ran a great campaign. A welcome departure from what we have come to expect as Democrats. Howard Dean and his pushing of the 50 state strategy deserves credit too. Who would have ever thought that we could win Indiana. A state whos government was once controlled by the KKK for Gods sake! The McCain campaign was really bad. That leads me to the thing that I think was the primary motivator. People finally got an open, up front look at who and what the radical right really is.

I get really, really tired of the 'you hate America', 'you aid the terrorist' by disagreeing with us bullhockey. This year the name calling and monstrous beast of negativity and fear was clear for all to see. There's much about Sarah Palins wingnuttery that people didn't see but thank God she is dumb as a board and couldn't hide that although the campaign tried. People saw with their own eyes that they would say anything no matter how outrageous to destroy their opponent. In the politics of personal destruction the culprit was clear for all to see. Celebrity/messiah/Muslim and terrorist/socialist/Marxist/baby killer- just a few things he was called. All of that drowned out any policy or plan they may have had(although they didn't seem to have much of that). Their semantic game to the extreme and it worked against them this time. The funny part is many of them have no idea. Nobody is going to tell them either. They will blame it on the liberal media or some malarkey. That's ok with me. Be lost in the forest for as long as you want radical righties.

I am not sure if Obama will be a great President or not. That tale is yet to be told but his election has already had positive results if we can hang on to them. First the obvious. Someone besides a white male is President. So many more people now feel they count and can make a difference. Secondly, if you have seen the overseas reaction, they are as ecstatic as we are. To be the leader somebody has to be following. That's something the Bush crowd never comprehended. This election goes a long way toward the world giving us another chance. Thirdly, this was a people powered win. Grassroots won this, they donated much of the money and did the leg work. A refreshing change in a world of corporate government. This is only the beginning but lets hope our new President can convince people that they need to be involved if they want their country back. If you don't want government to do everything then we the people are going to have to get it done ourselves. I must admit to not feeling very patriotic or proud of my country for some time now. It didn't live up to the values that we profess. As a matter of fact in the last 8 years they didn't even try. They blatantly said it would put us in danger to preserve our liberties or work for peace instead of war or refrain from torture and on and on. I'm starting to get that proud of my country feeling again. I hope dearly that it continues. They very best part about the whole deal for me is this:

WE ARE ALL AMERICANS NOW!

2008-11-04T22:23:00.002-07:00

Yea!!!!!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

If The World Could Vote

2008-11-03T05:47:00.003-07:00

They would vote like this.

Those Albanians seem to like McWar. Other than that..? Guess it's just the liberal media in Costa Rica or maybe all those Marxists in Portugal or the socialists in Saudi or maybe the terrorist sympathizers in Jamaica. And of course everybody knows that the Australians just hate America.

Things Are Getting Pretty Scary

2008-11-01T05:01:00.004-06:00

I just finished watching a movie on tv. I usually don’t do too many movies and even more rarely watch the fright ones. I guess since it was Halloween(and it was late) not much else was on. As per usual during the commercials I channel hopped. Towards the end of the movie I was floating between The Fly 2 and Bill O Riley. I say this with no hyperbole and in utter, complete honesty. I felt far, far more uneasy, uncomfortable, and unhappy when viewing the big O.

I think I am about to take a vacation from the rightwing blogs again. I have had about all I can take. The sense of entitlement and superiority and total lack of the ability to project reality is just astounding. One would assume that practicing the principals of loving one another(even in the most generic sense) would be a basic to being called a good American, or even human. Regardless of religion or complete lack of it. I have proof beyond the shadow of a doubt that it no longer applies to the people on the radical right. Scores of conservatives have abandon them because of their wingnuttery and it’s like they don’t even notice or don’t care. Its hate everybody and everything and when it comes to reaching out to others it is totally missing. It’s me, me, ,me, mine, mine, mine. The right wing talkers have done a damnable horror to our fellow citizens. They’ve turned these people into monsters. The radical right has become something that I can barely stand to look at. They truly frighten me and cause me to fear for basic humanity. Just one example... From a radical righter that I questioned went he found a new word to associate with all the evil of the world. I questioned one of his statements:

If someone is a socialist they are not decent and honorable?????"...His response..

Yup. No ideology has caused more suffering in the history of man than socialism. Most American socialists today refuse to admit in public that they are socialists because deep down they know socialism is inhuman and evil.

If someone was for socialism, after all, then they would be for something definite, materialist, true, absolute, and clear. In a sense, the new evasive socialists are more honest-- they want everyone to fade away into nothingness like the Buddha. The older socialists desired universal immolation too, but pretended that they were for scientifically improving the lot of mankind. The new socialists do not have these illusions-- they truly worship the mystical common good, not the earthly individual good. (bold is mine)

I’m wondering what makes a hero. Isn’t it someone who sacrifices for others or for the common good? I’m sorry but their whole fucking world is upside down. You can read the above and smell the selfishness. The description of his idea of socialism and socialist doesn’t even make sense and has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with socialism unless you are him. I have no idea what or who he is talking about. In my response I never got to the Crusades or Aristocrats or Dictators who, quite likely in my reading of history, have caused much more suffering. I guess I’m not a really smart informed guy like he is. Never fear though, I can promise you, because I have followed these guys and this one in particular, that something new will be the biggest cause of suffering or evil next year. Last year it was Muslims. These guys change root of all evil faster than a high school girl changes boy friends.

I have no idea how we fix our country with them involved. You’ve got to know that if Obama wins the last month is just a warm up. We saw an entire 2 terms of Clinton taken up with this stuff. My only hope is that they are this time humiliated and disgraced into shutting their GD mouth and try to make a contribution to success and building things up instead of destruction, fear, loathing, hate and selfishness that is primary in the wingnut world. I’ve said it before and the longer things go on it becomes less of a metaphor everyday…I’m not sure they and I are even living on the same planet. I have no idea how such horrid thinking could infect people who likely have many good qualities if one met them in person. I’m sure they think they are right and doing the good thing but do they have a freakin mirror for Gods sake!? Can they stop with the hate, division and selfishness long enough to see who they are becoming and how they are acting? I hold the right wing radio talkers responsible. They’ve turned these human creatures of God or the higher power into a radical bunch of self centered, haughty little demons. Karma belongs to them. They will someday find they reap what they sow.

So Ya Say Real America?

2008-10-21T21:25:00.004-06:00

There's lots of comments about just what is Real America and just who are Real Americans these days. The political world comes down to semantics again. Sueprize, Sueprize, Sueprize. I actually think it is definable. I know the knee jerks on the left when one says that but I'm about to give it a try. Noting the title of this blog it seems I may be pretty much required to say something about this. I guess first it is necessary to describe what I am talking about and some examples of the problems we face when I say Real America. That way if you wish to be critical you can be critical on valid grounds.

First the things I think necessary for Real America. Second some thoughts behind those points. Third how I see it being portrayed today.

1. At the top I would have to say that it is someone that respects the Constitution and the ability to disagree and advance our country through the Constitutional system within checks and balances.
That it can be changed through and only through those checks and balances.

2. Someone that is in favor of government of by and for the people. Supports a republican form of government - the state derives its power from the people.

3.Believes in rules by the majority with rights of the minority protected.

That's about it for me. Beyond that go for it. You are a Real American in my book. Giving a wide but deliberate course is what it is all about when you are a Real American in my book.

1. When the Constitution is violated, especially by someone specifically charged with protecting and defending it, they should be charged, the evidence seen and adjudication given. From Nixon on(I know this much cuz I was there) nobody, I mean nobody in our government(at least at the executive level) pays for crimes or Constitutional violations. Republican or Democrat. Gee, I wonder why they keep doing it? The world of no accountability is not sustainable. I know the right is already crying about wasting all our time and creating divisions with criminal prosecution of this administration. Three words. Bill Clinton investigation. Wasting time on what? Showing the world that we are not that kind of country. As far as division goes. Only 20 some percent of the people like his work at this point. Large amounts of that 70 some per cent, when shown the evidence, would likely understand the problems we have to deal with right now. Do you support the 4th or 1st amendment as proudly as you support the 2nd ? If not do you find the 4th and 1st amendments less important to our societies survival?

2. Well ,as both sides know well, this is more an ideal than a truth or a fact about how it happens right now. Those that support it should be having discussions on how we fix it. I guess that would include me. Let's just start with one thing. At the start of this nation the free press was vital to our country and it's formation. The equivalent to that today is individual citizens and groups on the internet. All the big media is a for profit enterprise. They will do what makes money. They have few if any egalitarian issues. They, for survival as a entity, may try for an acceptable amount of accuracy but they have no agenda right or left. They will cover and print under whatever plan they have to draw readers or viewers. This is the same principal at work for Bill O Reilly and Keith Olberman. As a 30+ year media veteran let me promise you I am not leading you astray on this. Big Media is basically entertainment. That's where Rush is right. That includes him, and me too should some company pick me up. Talk to each other. Their sits the truth, good or bad.

3. This too me is taken in a more immediate political sense but I think it applies to all areas, from religion, to social to cultural. Certainly polygamy for one, is not allowed but that is something that is overwhelmingly accepted both socially and religiously. While exceptions to this rule are inevitable they should be as few as necessary.

Here's the understanding I get from many on the right as to their view of Real America

“Thats to work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God.”

Well let's see. I work and do my best to accomplish and achieve. I believe in a higher power I call God.-How much you want to bet I'm not what they are talking about when the make that statement. So in my book that makes it false. That's not what they are wanting you to picture when they say real America. Huge numbers of the people they are condemning meet those qualities.

Real America doesn't have socialists or Muslims.

Well, if this is what they are talking about I'm off the bus right now. Stop. I see diversity as a strength and not a weakness. Especially as the world becomes more global. The better we understand the rest of the world the more likely we are to be good leaders(a position we have been charged with at least for a while). Socialists and Muslims and Fascists and mega church Evangelicals are welcome in my Real America. They must follow the Constitution and be no more or less subject to the laws of the land. That's the rule.

Is of the conservative/republican persuasion on political issues like abortion, religion and a nearly universal disdain for government...anytime.

Well, there's a lot to disdain and I might even agree on many issues. Some we won't, and that does not make you anti American any more than it makes you anti American for not agreeing with my more liberal philosophy. The fact that one sees government as something we the people shouldn't or can't control kinda throws a big smelly fish into the entire discussion to me. It really makes the rest of it moot doesn't it. We need to quit thinking of the government as them and start acting like it is us. That's the first small step in a mighty voyage. We will never even get started if one sees their only opportunity as the enemy. It is something to be shared through consensus.

You always agree with what the country does and support it, pledge allegiance...all that patriotic stuff.

If one is working directly for the government a pledge or oath may be advisable. I'd like to know what I am pledging allegiance to first. I would be a poor patriot and human being in my book to support my country when it devalues or ignores my morals and values. To support torture for example.
It concerns me to see overly patriotic people. Some, in my eyes, come close to some kind of deification of the flag or the country. I think that is morally wrong even in the Christian faith. I certainly see it a violation of my principals. Observe the laws yes. Agree with and support everything done in my name as a citizen...no.
Little secret, even beyond our individual morals and values the enormously vast percentage of us as a whole want America to “win”. We want to do smart, valid and noble things. We most all prefer as a country to be looked up to than looked down on. How we get their needs some discussion.
Most of us have all or nearly all our family and friends here. We have all enjoyed a way of life many others don't have and we all well know that. We are virtually all on the side of the US. It is idiotic to address someones patriotism. Especially someone that is native to this country..in the sense of being born and living an entire life or nearly entire life here, which most have.
Oh geez, does one need to go on? We all know what they are talking about and that is why it won't work.

I must say though I do think that some of those Constitutional values at the top are in violation so yes, there are people that are not adhering to my concept of Real America be they intending to or not.

Lifting The Lid On The Right Wing ID

2008-10-20T14:17:00.009-06:00

Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.
—Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion

I'm really hoping that the right wing keeps showing its colors like they have been lately. These are the radical rightists that those of us following along or living among them see everyday all over America. They fit right into the profile created for them. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity represents the true picture of the rightists. They are good at attaching names to people or groups and then insisting that that word means something bad and taboo. I'd love to have a debate on Socialism. Anything that strips priviledge is socialism to them. Anything that is not their complaint is an anti american complaint. They love this country like no one else....but oh how they hate the government..my how they hate so many different people and things in it. At least they aren't anti american like that one that trys to ruin all that is good and pure. You know, they are just angry at some things. Other people are angry because they are un american. These are the mainstream among the right today. From Sarah Palin to Michelle Bachmann to the angry always suspicious people in McWars town halls. After hearing them for a while I just want to say..Hey, You talkin to me!? Heres some stuff from a great article by Micheal Tomasky:

It's true that we're hearing racial-code talk here and there. But the main fear tactic being employed now is something else. It's that Obama and his associates - and for that matter his supporters and even the regions of the country that he's destined to carry - are anti-American.'Last Friday, in North Carolina, Sarah Palin told a rally that she was proud to be "with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation". She means here of course that there are anti-American areas of America, and they are where the liberals live, and the people there are voting for Mr Anti-America.
This was especially interesting coming from a woman whose husband, Todd Palin, was until just six years ago an enrolled member of a rightwing fringe political party that wanted the state of Alaska to secede from the US. But if you understand rightwing logic, then you'd know that Mr Palin had no choice but to join the Alaska Independence party in 1995, because by that time the America he thought he knew and loved had been brought to ruin by the liberals and socialists and America-haters. See?

(my emphasis)

Do you folks do this sort of thing in Britain? I know there's something about the chap on the Clapham omnibus who's supposed to represent some kind of middling everyman. And I know you've got your xenophobes just like we do. But trust me. You don't have a right wing that's anything like our right wing.
This point was proved most dramatically by a woman named Michele Bachmann, a member of Congress from Minnesota......... "What I would say - what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an exposé like that."

The call for an investigation into the beliefs of every federal lawmaker, and an exposé of those found wanting in their patriotism, certainly takes us into deeply creepy territory. I would not call Bachmann herself a fascist. ......Bachmann is just an idiot. She wouldn't know Edmund Burke from Billie Burke (she played the good witch in the Wizard of Oz), and she obviously has no idea that, in her rejection of the two bedrock American principles of separation of church and state and freedom of thought, she is the one who is as anti-American as they come.

I'd be happy to hear a conversation on patriotism too. He's some from the other side that I consider great Americans putting the slap down on the radicals.

Their goal is to scare Americans about Obama, but moderate, independent voters might well decide that Obama looks a lot less scary than they do.

Some great Americans in the McWar camp, in the sense that I perceive that phrase, are to the rescue with the slapdown here.

Peaceful, Loving Christians Are Mad At Us

2008-10-19T14:38:00.001-06:00

Well, when you put it that way.

Things Mama Forgot To Teach You: Two Sides To Every Story

2008-10-18T06:38:00.007-06:00

I'm the kind of person that is curious. I read conservative blogs on a somewhat regular basis. As long as I can stand it and then I take a short break. I need to know what they are saying and I want to know the mentality of their thought, how they think, what they think and why. That's why it gets tired for me pretty quick sometimes. They are so unabashedly, immovably entrenched in their thinking that they work against the common good. Seems voter fraud and apparent stealing of the election is the big rage now. Gee, some of us have been hollering that or something similar for quite sometime now. They laughed it off and came up with all their special facts on why we had no facts. Maybe they can relate to how you felt now? Don't count on it, empathy is some french word or something apparently because its back in a dark dusty corner from what I can see when visiting our radical right brethern. It appears we are only suppose to take it seriously when they have a complaint. I even saw someone bold enough to infer there were few if any questionable tactics on the right. Brain scrubbed clean as a whistle. It seems they dismiss the most undeniable fact in all of history. The fact that there are at least two sides to every story. Being a beliver with that good ol authoritarian mind set that they are I guess it is understandable, but how in the hell do you deal with that? As a matter of fact some of them are so 'Individualist' to do things in common or for the common good is anathema to their thinking. They don't want to solve problems together as far as I get it. Just leave me alone is a battle cry for them.
Believe you me I am a great believer in diversity. I think it is the lifeblood of our country. Be it politically, socially, culturally, you name it. Their individualism seems to come from fear more than any ultimate desire for a better world or patroitism or some other virtue. I see lots of fear of everything you can possibly imagine on my journeys to the right.

What inspired me to this post?

Marshall Art is one I can usually stand a little longer than the others sometimes cuz Marshall has his days when he actually makes sense. I get the sense of and understand it as something well intentioned, whether I agree with his way of going about it or not. Then there are times like this when I wonder if hes losing that grasp on rational problem solving:

This thread at Sister Toldjah's reminds me of a discussion I once had somewhere regarding the fact that some people just shouldn't vote. That's not to say that I think the average American should in any way be prevented. Of course not. That would be wrong. But if there was some way to convince idiots to stay home and stop pretending like they know what they're talking about, that would be great. It would mean absolutely no Democratic votes of course, but if that's what has to happen, then so be it. In other words, if Dems really want to display their patriotism, they should stay home on election day. That one selfless act on each of their parts would be regarded by me (at least) as a true indication of patriotism unlike anything they could ever show by voting for Obama.........But as the link to Sister Toldjah's blog clearly shows, as well as the links from that post of hers, the depth and breath of stupidity amongst Obama supporters is the stuff of legend.........I could go on. Believe me, I could. But the question might be, what of you rightwingers? Surely there are rightwing counterparts to those you mock? And I'd say, get your own blog, ya loser! But seriously, if you put two chimps in a booth and they voted, the one who punched Johnny Mac's ticket is, by virtue of his choice, the smarter chimp. And it's not because the chimp is well versed on economics or foreign policy, but rather, considering their penchant for throwing pooh, they see Obama for what he is. But truly, more stupid than those highlighted in Sis' post are the educated and political of the Democrat community. They see Obama for what he is but their hatred for the right leads them to deny it or ignore it or to pretend it isn't true. And what is Obama? For all his sorry policy positions, his alliances, his world view, he's simply wrong for this country. Don't be stupid.

He was begging for a response with all that.

Well Marshall it's certainly easy to find semi bright or dumb people in this country but I'm called unamerican when I say it. It means I hate my country.

Here's some more dumb people

For being someone I consider bright you do miss the obvious sometimes. Like the fact that there are two sides to every story. Being a conservative is fine but deciding I'm dumber than a monkey because I'm voting for Obama is a bit over the common sense line isn't it? Hyperbole much?

Random Thoughts Before The Election

2008-10-16T16:01:00.007-06:00

I got a call this morning from, of all people, the National McWar campaign. Quickly the words William Ayers came up and quickly I hung up. I don't want to hear about Ayers. I have researched the topic and made up my mind. If they would have spoken on something that I found enlightening I would have listened. They get beat about the head with a hammer on this issue. It clearly turns people away from them but they keep saying “Ouch” it feels so good. Go ahead and provide an amusement park for the cult. We are busy trying to survive. We don't have time for games.

As far as the Acorn thing goes, just visit this site. It pretty much covers anything you want to know. Yes I am opposed to anyone fooling with the cornerstone of democracy. Regardless of party. The fact is there is far more to complain about than just Acorn or more accurately, some of their less than honest workers. When the rightists start complaining about ALL of it then I will join them. Until then it only appears to any clear thinking person as party over country.

The liberal label has turned into a proud stance instead of a smear in view of what so called conservatives have brought our country. So now it is time for a change of semantics. Now the buzz on the right is “socialist”. Redistribution of wealth, it seems, is a horrible thing unless it is redistributed upwards. That appears to be legit. No to me. Trickle down has been proven not to work. Don't believe it? Turn on the frickin tv. Check your retirement fund. Try to by or sell a house. Check this.
Here's some economics 101. Our society and economy is consumer driven. That means our economy is successful if people buy things (good, logical and totally valid arguments can be made for savings but neither is happening now). Before that can happen people need money to spend. When the top 20% have 85% of the money....well, that's not going to work. Call it socialism to be opposed to that economic theory if you wish but it isn't working. Am I saying we should have giveaways? NO!! I am saying it is time to start raising wages. The top needs to be compensated less and the bottom need to be compensated more. They earned it! If they don't, find somebody else. Good paying jobs are valued. When people work hard and the result is not reward but survival it is no wonder that people become “lazy” or hopeless or fail to grasp the value of hard work. Compensation is skewed to a dangerous degree. ANYBODY that thinks their contribution to success is 50 or 100 times as valuable as someone else in the business is a narcissist(let alone greedy). If the bottom 50% were awarded 25 to 50% more of the money one would see not only a huge boom in the economy but a growth in the savings rate too. It would also revalue work and the values we wish to support in this country. The cry of socialism is just people being fooled by the rich so they can rob them blind. You are a wage slave.

Finally something that makes me angrier than anything. Why is it ok for the rightists to hate our government with a passion, show disdain anyone to the left of Dick Cheney(most USers) and then call me and others America haters, unpatriotic, unproud of our country, whatever when I have a complaint? Why do they have the clamp on patriotism(they don't) and my complaints are called unpatriotic? It's nonsense and someday I pray they will understand why people find them irrational and their smears insincere.

Addendum:

Barbara at Mahablog had a post on spreading the wealth around. Making note of TRs 'A New Nationalism" which I have been trying to spread around for a while now, its worth a read.

Just Say No

2008-10-15T12:59:00.000-06:00

An American Apocolypse

2008-10-09T22:46:00.005-06:00

Gene Lyons wrote this about the radical right excuse making. You know it's always somebody elses fault. The party of personal responsibility never bears any at all. They are perfect and pure.

If the economic situation weren’t so grim, it’d be darkly amusing watching conservatives hunting for a scapegoat other than Bush administration True Believers. Hey, they’re all Brownies now. Heckuva job. For a generation, devotees of the very bad novelist Ayn Rand have assured us that greed is a virtue and government oversight of financial institutions an impediment to genius. In the “ownership society,” financial regulations were for pantywaists. In GOP-think, governments exist purely to drop bombs and monitor other people’s sex lives. Financial deregulation has been the Republican miracle elixir since Ronald Reagan. Back in March, Sen. John McCain reassured The Wall Street Journal that despite being “aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight” in debacles like the sub-prime lending crisis, “I am fundamentally a deregulator.” In between winks and shout-outs to “Joe Sixpack” during the vice-presidential debate, Sarah Palin also wanted it both ways. She praised McCain for “pushing for even harder and tougher regulations.” Then she said patriotism means saying, “Government, you know, you’re not always the solution. In fact, too often you’re the problem, so government... get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper.”

These people hate the government but jingoistically deny any one else the right to criticize their morally superior country. And make no mistake it is THEIR country, everyone else is out to intentionally destroy it. They should just leave so the rightists can create the utopia that you..yes you you liberal...oops new word this year...you SOCIALIST, are ruining for all the GOOD people!

Meanwhile, naïve, otherworldly progressives argued that mortgage lenders needed regulators in the back room for the same reason they needed locks on the front door. You’d think that any adult who’d ever bought real estate, avoided losing his life savings to Nigerian e-mail scams or even spent rainy afternoons playing Monopoly as a child would understand this fundamental fact of human nature: If you make it easy for people to steal, they’ll steal everything, including the silverware and Grandma’s dentures.

Remember too that Haliburton and all the other contractors that are getting loads of the 10 billion a month spent in Iraq are doing Gods work. They would never dare rob you blind.

Alas, too many heeded pie-in-the-sky GOP theology. The miracle-working market absolved us all from sin; hence, from the Reagan-created savings-and-loan crisis onward, corporate financial scandals have grown steadily larger and more dangerous. But abandon dogma ? Never.

Now come GOP apologists to identify the real perps of the Wall Street meltdown: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, feckless black folks, Mexican Americans and U. S. Rep. Barney Frank, who’s evidently been covertly running Wall Street all this time.

It couldn't possibly be Lazzie Faire, trickle..into the richs' pockets economics. That, although we have been doing it for years, is not the problem. It is somebody elses fault. Not the policies in place for years now.(yes some dems voted for and signed some of this and are partially responsible, most particularly Clinton, but to say that the party out of power was setting the agenda denotes that the party in power for most of the last 25 years in every branch of government was totally unable to exercise their power over the minority or to serve their constituents. That would make them less than worthless.)

See, while you fretted over Bush screwups in Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans, a sinister, dusky cabal built a speculative bubble in ghetto real estate. Overpriced luxury condos were constructed with borrowed money in fashionable Harlem, Watts and the south side of Chicago; also, downtown Atlanta, Newark, St. Louis, Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia. In Monopoly terms, the entire U. S. economy drained into a black hole of defaulted loans on Baltic and Mediterranean.

So how come you haven’t heard this before ? Maybe because you don’t spend enough time watching FOX News or listening to GOP talk radio. In those precincts, the real cause of the national (and world ) financial debacle turns out to be an obscure 1977 law known as the Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA.

Intended to end the practice of “redlining,” i. e., refusing to make creditworthy loans in “bad” neighborhoods, the CRA was enacted under President Carter. To conservative pundits such as Charles Krauthammer, Jeff Jacoby and Laura Ingraham, that’s where all the trouble started.

Supposedly, left-wing activists intimidated bankers into making risky loans to improvident minorities, which caused the whole debacle. Supposedly, too, President Clinton made things worse by revising the rules back in 1995.

Wow, for all the howling on how ineffective and do nothing and spineless and bumper sticker, bumper sticker, bumper sticker the libera...er socialists are the sure know how to wield the power when a wingnut wants to blame someone don't they!?

Leave it to Ann Coulter to spell things out most clearly. Thanks to Democratic interference with free markets, see, sound methods of appraising mortgage applicants’ ability to repay loans were replaced by “nontraditional measures of creditworthiness, such as having a good jump shot or having a missing child named ‘Caylee.’” As a result, she recently wrote, “Middleclass taxpayers are going to be forced to bail out the Democrats’ two most important constituent groups: rich Wall Street bankers and welfare recipients.”

Yep, rich wall street bankers just naturally gravitate to those who aid the poor huh? Two peas in a pod those groups are. Does lil Orphan Anne think the rest of the country is as in observant and stupid as she is or is this a comedy routine? I often wonder.

The brutality of this argument is matched only by its stupidity. An alert child would wonder why a 31-year-old law suddenly started causing trouble in 2008. Wouldn’t a lot of those loans already be paid off ? Wouldn’t the same apply to actions that Clinton supposedly took 13 years ago ? Besides, with Republicans controlling the government for the past eight years, how come they didn’t fix it ?

Mainly because it’s utter nonsense. CRA regulations apply only to FDICinsured banks, not the mortgage companies and investment banks, which made 83. 4 percent of sub-prime loans responsible for the crisis. The 1977 law also has nothing whatsoever to do with fraudulent packages of “securitized” mortgage debt taking down investors worldwide. Those are a Bush-era innovation.

Rick Pearlstein, author of the brilliant history “Nixonland,” calls this ugly fable “a modern-day equivalent of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ a Big Lie narrative that blames a despised, outcast social group for problems they had nothing to do with.” A naïve person might imagine that these people would have some shame.

If you saw the howling crowd in Wisconsin today asking for blood you know the wheels are coming of the garbage wagon. Many of the republicans can't remember a time before Reagan and have had it drilled into their heads their entire lives from Rush Limbaugh et al that what is about to happen, Dems running the show in the numbers the right ran it with for decades, is equivalent to the American Apocalypse. They have no idea they are living through it right now and that is the reason for their demise.

Gaffe? Or Straight Talk?

2008-10-09T03:38:00.001-06:00

McWar references you as his fellow Prisoners.

Great Americans

2008-10-05T21:27:00.001-06:00

Bill O' Reilly training our next generation of Great Americans.

http://view.break.com/581294 - Watch more free videos

That's just tooooo freakin good!

VP Debate

2008-10-02T22:40:00.003-06:00

The VP debate is history. I first noticed that Ms. Palin got rid of most of the accent and the girlish tone. A big plus in being taken seriously for her. I think she did alright. Frankly, that didn't suprise me. I thought Biden did a great job of rebutting the half truths. The right is clearly upset about that. I noticed the after debate spin by them was trying to bring them back again by claiming that Biden was wrong on many facts. We will see.
I thought Palin was at her worst on the war and peace issues. It was radical right bumper sticker slogans all the way. If she insists on not looking back I would like to know how they plan to prevent war rather than fight more. No plan at all from that side. They want to keep fighting and fighting and fighting. They think that is patriotic or something I guess. I must admit to the fact that their frame is in another world from mine on that issue. I don't get it at all.
Bidens knowledge of the Constitution was far superior on the powers of the VP issue. I think that would be the one place he undeniably whipped her. She had none of those moments. I liked Bidens answers so I think he won. She did an acceptable job for the crap she had to shovel though. In stylistic ways, better than McWar did. Which brings me to this.
When polls are taken on who won these debates I think most people don't score as a debate coach. I think style can play a role. The main thing for most is if they hear answers they are looking for. With polls for both debates showing a win for Obama/Biden it bodes well for the next election. I'm thinking the people agree with us. They've seen the failure of people who hate government to lead it.

Liberals Destroy America

2008-10-01T20:16:00.003-06:00

Glenn Greenwald has a spot on post about the great American Patriots on the right.

National Review's Mark Levin, will be hard to top for many years to come, even by the most imaginative right-wing satirists:

The liberal uses crises, real or manufactured, to expand the power of government at the expense of the individual and private property. He has spent, in earnest, 70 years evading the Constitution's limits on governmental power. If conservatives don't stand up to this, who will? If they don't offer serious alternatives that address the current circumstances AND defend the founding principles, who will?

Indeed. I wish those liberals would stop exploiting crises in order to expand the power of Government at the expense of the individual, but I sure am grateful that our nation is teeming with stalwart conservatives who defiantly stand up to those erosions.....If it weren't for the heroic resistance led by the small-government, Constitution-loving conservatives at National Review, Weekly Standard and right-wing talk radio -- cheered on by the freedom-loving, truth-seeking investigators of the right-wing blogosphere -- we'd probably be living in some sort of Lawless Surveillance State by now, complete with secret prisons, state-sanctioned torture, warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens, process-less and indefinite imprisonments, a virtual abolition of Fourth Amendment guarantees, and other anti-constitutional nightmares too heinous even to contemplate. As the heroic freedom-fighter Mark Levin so memorably put it: "If conservatives don't stand up to this, who will?"

This Mark Levin "point" is obviously now a virus making its way quickly through the right-wing noise machine. From Rush Limbaugh yesterday:

Left Creates a Crisis Mentality, Uses It to Abrogate Constitution

Let me read to you the preamble of the United States Constitution. . . . Some Hugo Chavez or some Brazilian president attacked the US over the weekend, saying that the US Constitution is out of whack. Somebody needs to tell him the US Constitution is not in play anymore. The US Constitution has been abrogated and is being tossed overboard section by section by the Democrat Party and the American left.

The GOP has controlled the House for all but 20 months of the last 14 years. They've controlled the White House for the last 8 years, and also had control of both houses of Congress for 4 of those years. It's amazing what "the Left" can accomplish by never being in power, and how "the Right" is powerless to stop it even as they control the levers of Government.

And they wonder why we find it impossible to take them seriously anymore. You've proved you can't lead, now get out of the way.

Debate 1

2008-09-26T21:31:00.000-06:00

Obviously everybody will have their own spin and take on the debate. I thought that the economic part was roughly even. When they got to foreign policy I thought that Obama trounced him. All of which is contrary to conventional wisdom. McCains “just doesn't understand” was highly condescending and I found it personally insulting. The McCain foreign policy points sounded just like wingnut radio. Most of it has already been thoroughly debunked. The idea that the Sunni Al Queda would establish a beach head in Iraq shows little knowledge of the facts. To think that the Shia country with the Mahdi army and Badr Brigade would let them come in and take over is wild fantasy. We are the most powerful army in the world and we are still fighting 6 years later. If you made the argument that Shia Iran would take over you might have an argument worth debating but Mr. Foreign policy making that gaffe is sad. Its just wingnut radio talking points for the low information, uninformed voter.

I was glad that Obama brought up the Bomb, bomb Iran thing about McWar. There was a couple places, from what I believe in, where I disagreed with them both of them. Overall I am more sure than ever that I will be far more comfortable with Obama as my President and face of my nation than McWar.

Why I Laugh At Republicans

2008-09-01T16:55:00.007-06:00

First day of the Republican National Convention and an act of God stops their spewing of lies and hate. You know God purposefully did this to stop the Republicans don't you? Plus all those states are run by Republicans! That makes it for sure! God wants Republicans to lose and be punished!

If that sounds ridiculous to you, keep in mind that thought when you hear the radical righters spit similar epithets. You will then understand why people are left with laughter to their self righteous pontifications against the “evil ones”.

It appears that the Palins' daughter is pregnant at 16. I had been reading in the Alaska press that there was a rumor that the most recent downs syndrome baby was actually the daughters baby. I had not heard both sides so I had not commented. I do think it would be hard to conceal something like that for too long. Lots of the evidence makes it look suspicious though.
Now we hear this, which is apparently being acknowledged.

I am sure that the rightists will use this as an occasion to talk about family and pro life and bla de bla. Of course if it would have been Chelsea as a 16 year old, or pick your favorite “evil ones” daughter, it would have been about people that can't keep their zipper up and sin and ruination of our blessed country. The have become patently predicable in their hypocrisy. In my book they have become laughable and they have not taught me or progressed me or my life or understanding or country a whit in the last 15 years. They are there to find something wrong with what I think. That's it.

I understand rightwing world better than most because I have lived among them(over 70% republican all around) and made a conscious effort to engage them for nearly a decade now. And yes IT IS making me nuts.

Why Republicans make me laugh:

They have morals and values, I have self loathing and self guilt.

They speak up in defense of their beliefs and they are patriots, I speak up in defense of my beliefs and I hate America, am treasonous, aid the enemy.

They are true patriots, who just happen to HATE paying the taxes to pay the bills that make this great country work. I guess they think they ought to be getting something for nothing.

Actually their solution to this problem truly is, you are on your own. Obama was right on the money, so to speak, on this.

I'm sorry but it is against my religion to think like they do about that.

They have read the word of God and are best friends with Jesus , they are the holders of the truth hence if your beliefs vary from them you are consulting with the devil himself. There is no doubt in their mind about the..literally...biggest unknown in all of creation.

Bill Clinton is horrible because he lied about sex under oath. It's not so bad that Bush/Cheney not only lie on item after item and have now admitted much of it but REFUSE TO SPEAK under oath. At least Bill Clinton was impeached. Could we just hear the evidence against Bush/Cheney please. Please with cream and sugar? On national TV 24/7.

John McCain is a war hero so I should vote for him. John Kerry's/Max Clelands , et al service was shallow and demeaning regardless of the medals that they really didn't earn anyway and should not inspire you to support them.

They support the troops, as they blazing point out that X number of dead troops is fewer than die on the highways or some such nonsense. Besides, they knew when they signed up they might have to sacrifice their life.

I'm thinking they don't see that as support but that's just me.

John Kerry marrying an heiress makes him a gigolo. John McCain marries an heiress and one shouldn't demean the wealthy and the fact that somebody else worked hard and they are successful.

You should pull your bootstraps, work hard, help others and succeed.. That is the American dream. Except for Barack Obama. It couldn't possibility be true for him because....because.... he's too liberal and has evil intent.

Bill Clintons secret FISA court is a threat to our constitution but George Bush dispensing with even that is just protecting our country. We must never give away our liberties under Clinton. We must give away our liberties to keep them under Bush.

It's easy, and we are quite encouraged to see the American liberal as a socialist or a Marxist but it is blasphemy to draw comparisons between the American rightist and a fascist/corporatist or anarchist.

They have no idea why drilling for more oil doesn't get us off oil. They have no idea why this is totally wasted effort. Or maybe they don't want to get off it. Maybe they have a comfort level. They hate the idea of changing things. I'm personally not at all comfortable with the whole oil thing.

Make no mistake, you can tell by the volume of time they spend talking about it, time after time, day after day, other Americans they deem to be Liberals are their primary enemy. More than terrorists, more than criminals, they hate the American liberal, make no mistake.
No issue, no silly stunt, no daily event goes by without the drawing of a connection to why the American liberal is the root of our problems. I have a special surprise for them. Never have so many done so much that endeared me to them less. I am quite proud of the fact that I will not be remembered in history as a part of their group or movement.
Notice the clear authoritarian nature to all of their pontifications and you will begin to sense the stench I smell along that path.

I've tried to play along with them and include them in my mind as relevant. I have tried even to play their game thinking that is all they will understand. It's useless. It's Fox news and Rush day after day.

When they decide to quit trying to be BMOC and get off the schoolyard commentary I am ready to listen.

When they decide enlightenment and improvement is what we both seek, I am ready to listen.

Why I Laugh At Democrats

2008-09-01T15:17:00.001-06:00

Why I am pained to feel like a Democrat. Excuses, Excuses, Excuses. We can't stop them those Republicons have us over a barrel. They filibuster us to defeat. They will call us this or call us that. Blah, Blah Blah.
Stand for what you believe in and do it proudly. At least the Republicans have that much figured out. This is basics kids. How can anyone think of you as bold and strong if all you do is cower. Could you speak out boldly and often about Constitutional violations? Could you stand up and act like you are proud to support me? Could you stop being intimidated? Are you on our team? Many wonder.
I'm at my fingertips. I'm hanging on but if the party doesn't start to resemble me I will have no other rational thing to do but decide I am not one.

Stupid Jobs That Are Easy

2008-08-30T19:00:00.000-06:00

That broadcastin' that's easy. Why, any idiot could do that. Just talkin and stuff.

Ok, well maybe it's not for everybody.

The Palins

2008-08-29T23:14:00.010-06:00

I really haven't read enough to make a lot of comments on Sarah Palin as McWars' VP. There are a few first impressions I get though. First, the whole experience thing gets pretty much muted by this pick. It was actually the only thing that was relevant in their discussion. I became convinced that the things that Obama wanted to do and his known commitment to doing them outweighed the experience factor. I am sure others came to another conclusion.
I think in many ways it is good that we have people that are not entrenched in the muck.

Now we have Ms. Palin. There is little doubt that she is the radical right wet dream. And I am not referring to checking out her butt either. She is in the right place on all their special issues. No doubt she is the bow to the radical righters. I am much less concerned about her experience than I am her positions on the issues. If she had the experience of Biden or McWar I couldn't like this from a purely policy viewpoint. End of argument. At least for me. All the rest is just noise.

I am convinced that the best thing we can do is help them point out where they stand and what they actually believe in. Let the rightists be rightists. I'm convinced that most of the country is not there. They are far out of the mainstream and letting they themselves point it out is the best thing we can do. I encourge the righies to shout their positions from the rooftops and prove me wrong.

Addendum:

I just watched Palins' introduction by McWar. It just encourages me more to encourage you to let them be rightists.

I must admit that Sarah Palin does have some appeal to me. She is a populist for sure. Unfortunately she is a conservative populist. Certainly a different agenda from a liberal populist like Jim Hightower or Russ Feingold. The fact remains that she has some appeal to me. This makes me smell a...something. Not sure what it is but there is more to be known here. Speculation: They know John will lose so they are using the opportunity to set up the next round. Picking some new party leaders. Lord knows they need some fresh blood and at least by its appearance is preferable to the wingnut authoritarians that are running the show now. At the same time they keep that conservative moms apple pie/Christianist, hate the baby killers, worship the gun mentality that is key to their base. I guess what I am saying is I see her as the loyal opposition but I see common interests too. I get no clue to common interests from the radical right authoritarians. I actually felt similarly about McWar at one time. In the last year or two he has reneged on about everything I could respect him for.

The idea of Hillary supporters supporting McCain or Palin is laughable. I honestly think this was a right wing political ploy from the word go. It's insane to think anybody that supported the interests of Hillary would support the interests of either one of them. It's masochistic. Maybe vote for Nader or the Green party or something. At least that would be cognitively consistent. One would have to have no idea what they wanted to stand for to make a decision to choose McWar after supporting Hillary. Most of what I have heard is women aren't buying it either.

It's kind of like the meme of “Reagan Democrats” -What the hell is that!? Reagan Democrats? If there are Reagan Democrats then I am not a Democrat. It's a straight out oxymoron. Like the ever popular Jumbo Shrimp or the living dead, or the deafening silence. It's a media creation. It's the “liberal media” at work.

Part of Palins(I am sure somebody will quickly catch on to what happens if you “ forget” the L McCain and Pain.) case for McWar was his support for the troops regardless of the political costs. So brave, so Maverick! And the risk in supporting the troops was? What political costs are you talking about? Bumper sticker talk, three word soundbites.

She said she took on the "good ol boys network" in Alaska. I commend her and it appears she may have had some success. Beyond dealing with the oil companies in a cooperative way she hasn't played with the big boys anything like she will be required too. Not even close.

She said she took on Washington concerning the bridge to nowhere. Wow, so brave, so Maverick! I am glad you opposed that. Good for you. No big act of bravery or visionary thought though.

The risk you took?
Let the be rightists. Encourage them to talk.

Segments of this story in the Anchorage Daily News.

Democrats helped give Palin her victories on oil taxes and the natural gas pipeline deal, over the opposition of many of Palin's fellow Republicans in the Legislature.
But Anchorage Democratic state Sen. Hollis French said it's a huge mistake by McCain and "reflects very, very badly on his judgment." French said Palin's experience running the state for less than two years hasn't prepared her for this.
Alaska Democratic Party chairwoman Patti Higgins, attending her party's national convention in Denver, said she was shocked to hear the news this morning.

North Pole Republican Sen. Gene Therriault, who leads the minority caucus in the state Senate, said Palin has executive experience as governor and is ready for the job.
"It's a great opportunity for the state of Alaska," Therriault said. "For us to get our message out in what the state has to offer to the nation."
Therriault said Palin has proven to be a quick study who people respect for what she's done as governor, such as helping fix the ethics problems in Alaska politics.

Andrew Halcro, perhaps Palin's biggest political rival in Alaska, had a mixed reaction.
"When I first heard it, I thought, wow, that's great for Alaska. Then I thought, wait, what just happened? Because of course the lack of experience does jump out at you," Halcro said.
Palin is a skilled campaigner able to make people believe in her, said Halcro, who spent nine months on the campaign trail in 2006 running as an independent opposite Palin and former Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general election
"You really have to have a high level of respect for Gov. Palin in the sense that she has this real ability to connect with people. And suddenly people don't think about health care, they don't think about the economy, they don't think about whatever else, education," said Halcro, a self-described wonk. "It's not about the policy. It's about the person."
Palin always saw that, he said.
"It'll be interesting to see if that recipe works on the national stage," Halcro said.

The early morning news of McCain's pick sent jaws dropping throughout Alaska, with friends waking up friends with "Oh my God, have you heard?" phone calls.
State House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was astonished at the news. He didn't want to get into the issue of her qualifications.
"She's old enough," Harris said. "She's a U.S. citizen."
Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican political leader who has clashed with Palin in the past, was shocked when she heard the news Friday morning with her husband, Walt.
"I said to Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.
Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate.
"We're not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something."

Few wanted to talk about anything else on talk radio Friday. Conservative host Rick Rydell said there are some benefits to the state, but it's a gamble for McCain to pick an unknown with what he considered "questionable vetting."
"It seems almost like a Hail Mary pass at the end of a football game," Rydell said in an interview after his show Friday.
Rydell said McCain has destroyed his argument about Barack Obama's lack of experience.
But another local talk radio host, Eddie Burke, enthused on the air that he was "overwhelmingly excited" by the selection. "Alaskans will now have a chance to have somebody talking about resources, our undeveloped resources," Burke said.

Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg, a Palin appointee, said McCain's announcement left him with "a mixed set of emotions, kind of an odd sense of Alaska nationalism or pride.".....

Palin likely will be spending much time campaigning outside of Alaska. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell also is preoccupied with campaigning for Alaska's lone U.S. House seat. The outcome of his GOP primary race with Rep. Don Young is up in the air until absentee and questioned ballots are counted in September. As of Friday, Young was up by 151 votes. Colberg would become governor if Palin and Parnell both are elected and leave their current positions.

A Day Of Scribbles

2008-08-25T16:33:00.004-06:00

I had the day off and it just happens to be the first day of the Democratic convention. You only get to see the convention if you are watching CSpan though. Thought it was time for some red meat. Some thoughts on the day:

I just saw a poll on how people think the economy is doing. 4% think the economy is “very good”. I guess that must be about how many people are CEOs or in the oil business.
Well, it looks like Al-Maliki is going to insist on a time line. A firm one. Oops, make that a time horizon. I thought if they wanted us to leave we would leave. I think that is what they are saying here, on this part of the agreement there should be no debate. But the radical rightists have anyway. That's what they do, disagree. That is why the make a great opposition party. It's also why they make poor leaders. It's pretty hard to govern something that you oppose as a core of your philosophy.

Here's a story about Joe Bidens son the lobbyist.
And here's a story about McWars' team lobbying for brutal foreign dictators.

Both sides are guilty. This stuff is pervasive in Washington. While I agree that it is something we should stand against and attempt to change both sides are guilty. To me McWars' team seems worse but the bottom line is they are both out to enrich themselves through their position in government or who they know. To me, that means if one was deciding who to vote for the decision could not be made on this issue. It's not one sided and it should all be condemned.

People are talking a lot about the polls. CNN says it's tied at 47%. To show you what kind of a year it is, the Republicons are crowing about that. This is about a high water mark for McWar. Obama has been up to 51 or 2 percent. That percentage has never said they would vote for 4 more years. It appears the Hillary people may be making a stink. These people are either moles or not really someone who would vote for Obama if Hillary wasn't running. If people that call themselves Democrats would vote for the policies promised by McWar then they were never on our team in the first place. I'm not at all worried about them.

It Stiffie Blitzer one of the more irritating people to watch or what? Glenn Beck and Kid Hannity are maddening. Blitzer is maybe worse. I know what he is going for....to be the straight guy. Journalist, fair broker blah, blah, blah. It sounds great in theory. Maybe some could pull it off but he seems stiff and unfriendly to me. Not somebody I am comfortable with. At least with Beck and the Kid you get a feeling of who they are. I'm actually more comfortable with that. I'm fine with an idea of Fox News. I'm also fine with the clearly liberal fare like Countdown. I'm all for letting them live or die on whether they attract viewers. That's the business and we all need to remember that is precisely what it is. It is a for profit enterprise. I just got a good laugh out loud listening to Beck talk about Romney and his fear of Romneys flirting with socialism. We just can't be Marxists! Damn! How many decades ago did he go to sleep!? This is an honest look at conservatism. From a real one. I want these people to be the ones to lead us forward? Not likely. Thank You for being honest Glenn Beck. You crystalize my decision to not go your way without a fight. Stiffie Blitzer, you do nothing for me...absolutely nothing.

Wow, a consecutive laugh out loud moment! McWar is sending Miss Buffalo Chip to the country of Georgia to “monitor” something or other. Maybe we could send Michelle to Iraqi to get a Burka count.

Republicans just pulled out the John McWar didn't have a house “at one time”. Maybe we should count up how many times John didn't have one "at one time". Ya, that was back around the time of the Marxists wasn't it?

Matt Damon...That boy talented!

Some links:
Lots of talk on who is “most liberal” I think the best way to evaluate who the good guys are is to see how actual liberals rate them. Here is a link. Break it down, find your favorites and get ready for a couple of surprises. Actually I would like to see a poll by populists. A real liberal isn't too far off. I can at least stand the Republicans down to number 66 after that it drops off pretty far, pretty fast.
This would be closer to my priorities.
I think the real populists only go down to about 21 though. That's lots of work to do. Look how much higher my honest conservative Tom Coburn is. I think he is my favorite conservative. Not for his goals but because his is more like a real conservative. He also is honestly telling you what he thinks. He's not playin. I like that. I disagree quite seriously, quite often, but I like he doesn't play games. There's no con job there.
By the way, this board changes when they vote so you can keep up with trends.

Here's a good state by state electoral vote thingie.

Apparently the Righties are pointing out that Obama has a half brother -dads side- that lives in a hut in kenya. Here's a story on it from a more neutral media.
The Republicons seem to think that story and the story of McWars houses are some how equivient. I don't think it's a comparison, I think is called a non-sequtor that has nothing in common except that they both inculde something about houses.

It's Hip To Be Square

2008-08-24T18:24:00.002-06:00

I saw McWar on the news today and in a question about his houses said there was a time when he didn't have a kitchen table or chair. An obvious reference to his POW days. This is the same McWar who criticized John Kerry , saying he was “sick and tired of re-fighting the Vietnam War.”, saying his emphasis on his military record is “clearly a tactical or strategic move.” First, I think that John Kerry emphasized his military record at the convention. After that it was the Republicons who spent all the time talking about it.

Here is a post noting that John McWars POW experience seems to be a catch all. One of the points made in the post is that this may end up doing him more harm than good. It has been my thought for a while now. If his POW experience is the touch stone for everything in his life then I certainly don't want him being the man that makes decisions about our country. If Barak Obama made the same type of references to his “black experience” I am sure there would be a howling heard on Jupiter.

From his POW touchstone to his willingness to find armed confrontation as a solution to so many of our foreign policy challenges you will find it apparent why in my book his name is McWar.

Miss Barbara, whom I just don't read enough of, has come up with another point I find quite cogent.

The dumbing down of our nation through politics and media is nearly complete. Mindblowing stupidity and 3-6 word sentences to describe an issue is the way to go these days. But hey, stupid is easy, smart is hard.

Here's a few tidbits:
Smart is elitist, and elitism is, you know, bad. So we can’t elect smart people, and instead elect stupid people, because they connect with us, and they’re more fun to have a beer with,...It’s just plain not cool to be smart.
To me, weighing, analyzing and explaining issues are inseparable from “confronting” them. You have to understand an issue thoroughly before you can deal with it wisely, and sometimes the wisest course is to leave the dadblamed issue alone. In Rightieworld, however, “confronting” an issue takes these steps:
Identify what you want to do (e.g., attack Iraq; help your oil industry buddies increase their profits).
Find or manufacture a reason why you should do what you want to do.
Overwhelm news media and the American people with blustering rhetoric about why America must do what you want to do, accompanied by juvenile taunting of anyone who disagrees with your doing what you want to do.
Do the thing you want to do.
Spend the next several months or years denying or making excuses for the mess you made by doing what you wanted to do.
Eventually, when the mess turns out to be an undeniable failure — blame liberals.
Notice there is neither weighing nor analyzing in the list above. Weighing and analyzing is for academics and women. Red-blooded Americans take the hairy-chested, Neanderthal approach and just smash the hell out of whatever is bothering them.
But, by gawd, “moral clarity” works great on television. The “morally clear” can look the camera in the eye and give decisive, sound-bite answers. People attempting to deal with reality have to explain things. They must fall back on nuance. Boooooooring. (Ron: And hard!!!)

See how we’ve solved the energy crisis? All we have to do is drill, drill, drill and we’ll get all the cheap oil and gas we want as soon as we want it. And we’ll never have to worry about an energy crisis again. We don’t have to listen to the boring liberals and their boring explanations about science and renewable energy and technology and stuff.

Stupidity like this makes me wonder how our species survived as long as it has, frankly.

Here, Here Barbara! I think the dumbest thing I have heard McWar say in this campaign, and likely the dumbest of the entire campaign is from his appearance at the Brokeback church forum.
When asked what we needed to do with “evil” he said....Defeat it!!!! Obama gave a much more nuanced view of evil and how it was in the area of dieties to “win” that battle. A far preferable answer, and the correct one for me. If we actually succeed in defeating evil we will be the first of any species at anytime in our planets history to do that. Ya, it is a great rah rah 3 word sound bite but it is light years away from any common sense answer on how to deal with evil.

One final note, Speaking of their religious forum, now that Barak Obama has gone in front of the radical right wing fundies how about another forum at a black church. John could maybe give some of his morally clear, steely eyed answers to them and see if they found them as solutions to their problems.

Random Notes On The Invasion Of The Goulash

2008-08-17T20:36:00.004-06:00

The political system and the dialog in our country is in such a state of disaster that I can barely stand to watch. That people would even consider what passes for thought in todays discussion is beyond my ability to comprehend. The media goes for the sensational and the useless. Much of it isn't even worth discussion, which is why I haven't had much to say for a while. I guess this is what we have been forced into though. And the fact that so many seem to be buying it is a disgrace on the United States.

I noted in a post below that every cycle the rightists run essentially a generic campaign making the same points, doing the same things, no matter who the opposing candidate is. Insert name here should be their mantra.
Now, another example with a new Jerome Corsi smear book that bears no relation to non fiction. The SAME GUY who wrote the Kerry smear writes another smear piece on the new candidate. You would think people would get wise to the fact that the right have no plan but to turn the opposition party into the friend of the enemy in your mind and enrich the richest. It is not the conservative party that most grew up with. Speaking of the smear book here is a link to the lies and verification of such should you be honest enough to have a desire to know. I am sure the rightist won't read it. From all I see they prefer to believe lies if it makes them feel correct or more powerful than thou. Truth is in their hearts not in their minds. It's faith based be it religious or political.

John McCain says it's wrong for other countries to invade sovereign nations. Say What!? Could you repeat your foreign policies again McWar? The right just dismisses this cognitive dissonance with some goulash about moral superiority and a dash of fear mongering. Who are the people that are buying this?!

At the forum the other night held by Rick Warren(I haven't seen the whole thing yet, just bits and pieces) John McCain insists emphatically, with the support of the morally superior right wing, that what we must do with evil is flatly.....defeat it!!!!!
OK this is great rhetorical flair but it has nothing to do with reality. If someone kills your mother or daughter or other family member, steals your resources or bombs your home, you undoubtedly see them as evil. Be it the U.S. or Russia or Israel or Palestinian. Yes, although the black and white, devout rightists would never admit it, often times the evil ones are in the eye of the beholder.
Beyond that when was the last time in the history of the world that evil was defeated? Is that even possible? Just who the hell does he think he is anyway, God almighty? Jesus? I thought conventional wisdom was that they were the only ones capable of that. Such hubris. And blasphemy.
Yes we should fight the good fight and do what we can to promote things that benefit humanity. We should never dismiss those that throw up boulders in the stream of life. If we are ever to have an adult discussion on how to do that we need to start with a reality based foundation. John McWar apparently thinks of himself and our country as a deity and of course we have learned over the past several weeks that George Bush is Batman but I prefer to stay out of the cartoon world on matters of such importance. The right has, for the past several years, resorted to stock answers to everything. Answers that are worthy of only a simpleton who apparently finds thinking painful. It makes me fear for our country.

Those of you that listened to the talk show know that from near the beginning of the occupation I felt the main purpose was to enrich corporations...even more than for the oil. Here is just a hint of how much they have been enriched. Note the money that is just “missing” and it is obvious that this was a robbery of the US treasury, transferring wealth from our nation as a whole into the hands of a few. Beyond that the corporations gave us little for what they did do. This included electrocuting our troops . Yes, the money hungry corporations hired people with little to no electrical experience because they were cheap. They killed our soldiers.
Other electrical inefficiencies have resulted in over 200 fires from small to serious. Want to support the troops? Rebel against this horror.
Mind you these are people that had no bid/cost plus contracts. Mind you this is from the same people who say the government screws up everything and if we just privatized it would all be better. I bet if the generals and the troops were in charge this wouldn't have happened. At least the people doing the work would be properly trained. We wouldn't permit it.

Instead of having a well defined policy to drive us forward quickly in the national energy emergency the rightist proposes the everything but the kitchen sink method which will disburse our money and efforts into fading policies of the past instead of a policy of encouraging a focus on ingenuity and the US spirit of leadership and technology. Who's buying this crap!? John Boehner the so called leader of the right in the house encouraged congresspeople to get back to Washington and get back to work on energy. The next day he was out golfing. John McWar was in favor of the tough talk too. Of course he has missed pretty much all the votes on energy in the past year. How can anyone that is paying attention think these guys are anything but oil lobbyists paid by the taxpayer? I'll tell you who. The ones that aren't paying attention(many) OR the ones that are only paying attention to the republican propaganda machine known as right wing talk radio(far to many).

Sexual dalliances are scandals and disqualifiers and even impeachable for Democrats and just a bad thing for still sitting Republicans like Larry Craig or David “diapers” Vitter.

They rightist will tell you if you don't like it you should move somewhere else. Another non thinking comment full of bravado and little else. Just how would one do that if they were so inclined? Can you show me how one would make that possible? Remember most don't have tens of thousands of dollars to put into the enterprise. More rhetorical flourishes that are not grounded in reality and don't even attempt to solve the problem. Sorry folks but we are stuck with each other and that saddens me greatly.
Frankly I'm not thrilled with the Democrats and much of what they are doing right now. It's just republicon lite. You have to give the leaders of the right credit though. Their propaganda machine has made millions of US citizens believers in jumbled hyperbole and simpleminded goulash. They have made ignorance, anger and war, false bravado and fear fashionable. They have made them bow to the rich and sneer at the poor...good Christians all they will tell you. It's all beyond my belief. I fear greatly for our country. I see no way out.

.

John Edwards

2008-08-10T12:25:00.001-06:00

As many of you know I am a John Edwards supporter and voted for him in the primary even though he had already removed himself from the race. I wish they could have kept it as a family matter as they preferred to to. Unfortunately it makes for titillating TV and is guaranteed to get non stop coverage. Ask Mark Foley or Larry Craig(who is still in congress by the way) or David “diapers” Vitter. There's countless others that may have not gotten as much coverage.
He had an affair and lied to the public about it. He didn't want to go through it in public and neither did his wife. Unfortunately if one starts lying it eventually becomes hard to tell when one is getting the truth. I'm not denying he made a serious mistake, or three.
If his lying and mistake or three deserves wall to wall coverage then where is the coverage of much more serious mistakes and lies? I don't want to be a whiner but after a while you start to wonder. It doesn't dismiss Edwards or what he did. It's a question I asked before long before the Edwards stuff came out and it would be a perfect time to revisit it again. When do we get to the stuff that is important for the functioning of the nation and the world? I think it is a reasonable question.
I'm going to blatantly cut and paste from another web site because they said exactly what I would like to say.

David Gregory just said young people were inspired by him and are let down…and questioned whether it will have “broader implications for the party.” during the election. This week, Ron Suskind’s book revealed the Bush team knew Iraq didn’t have WMD, forged letters, paid hush money, and lied us into war. (Chirp, chirp…) Any broader implications for the Republican party there? How about instead of us buying into all the clamoring to analyze Edwards betrayal (wait, no, BETRAYAL!) we analyze the absurdity of a media culture where THIS is what passes for holding politicians accountable.
Broader implication for the party. OK, let’s talk party.
McClellan said that FOX News got talking points from the White House
Bush authorized rendition.
Bush authorized torture. Yes, that means waterboarding.
Bush authorized a war based on lies resulting in millions of innocent Iraqi and Afghani civilian deaths as well as an ethnic cleansing.
Thousands of our troops have been killed or seriously injured.
The US dollar is in the tank.
The housing/mortgage crisis has almost caused a depression.
How about the trampling of our Constitution with warrantless wiretapping?
Laptops are being confiscated at airports and the border.
Under Bush, oil companies are raking in record profits while Americans suffer.
The US attorney scandal.
A health care epidemic.
Monica Goodling
A standing ovation in Congress for David Vitter’s return.
Military TV Analysts/Generals scandal.
Larry Craig’s bathroom adventure.
And many, many more.
Would any of this have “broader implications” to the Republican party during the election if the media did its job?
Newt Gingrich STILL gets on TV every other day and everyone KNOWS he had affairs, even dumping his wife right after cancer surgery. And yet all these MSM types are wringing their hands about what this means to the Democratic Party. Ridiculous. Throw a stone in DC and try not to hit some one with a little something on the side, and that includes those in the press corps.
And they have the nerve to talk about betrayal of Edwards to the media and his wife — in that order. Why aren’t they more outraged about the betrayal of the White House to get us into a war?
What screwed up priorities.

There are reams of books and testimony from inside and outside the administration that references all of this. Yet little talk. Instead anyone who speaks up is villianized. People laugh and fluff it off when some talk of impeachment. I find it no laughing matter. The above is why you get the belly laugh when you talk of the liberal media. Huge joke. They aren't covering this stuff and it is literally more important for the US than anything else in the world. If you want to talk about the horror of lies fine but let's have a real discussion and not a bunch of flim flam, celebrity, brain dead talk. Let's get serious about lies. Let's have hearings that get 24/7 coverage by the media, that is discussed on all the talk shows 24 /7. Let's decide if the law was broken or not by methods that are legally binding instead of leaving the decision to Rush or John Boehners gum flappings. I'm happy to talk lies if that is what you want to talk about. John was wrong. Now let's get to the Administration. If you'll admit they were wrong they are criminals..in the worse of senses. If messing around on you wife makes you ineligible for something you might want to look up John McCain and his first wife and the move to his fashion model, heiress wife and how that came about. Yes, Edwards fooled around and lied about it. It was wrong. He may not be the leader I had hoped for. I still support heartily the cause and purpose of his movement. To stand up for the little guy, people without a voice, and knock the big guys down a few notches. The movement continues.

A Promising Development

2008-08-07T15:29:00.002-06:00

I've been very disappointed in the Democrats spineless lack of ability to slog through the goulash that is The Republican world view game of lies, demonization, humiliation, repetition, chest thumping- mix of privileged Christianity and patriotism, and obfuscation. It should be obvious by now that they run the same campaign every time. Who's the most liberal person in the in congress or the country? Who ever is the Presidential candidate in the Democratic.....oops forgot....Democrat party. Purple band-aids mocking John Kerry(which I still think was far beyond the pale for such “patriots”) and tire gages to mock Barack Obama. John Kerry was the enemies friend so is Barack Obama. Their general themes haven't changed since Dukakis. At least McCain hasn't said we'll all die if we don't vote for him like Cheney did. That's the bottom of a very deep Republicon barrel. The Democrats just haven't seemed to have much fight in them. It makes it difficult when your only other choice..in realistic terms is the Republican. Hate what they do. Unfortunately the Democrats have done a horribly poor job or representing me.

Finally somebody in the Democratic party acted like they have a brain. Hallelujah!

John McCains ad.

The reponse from the Democrats.

It's time to give it back. There's no doubt they have the media edge in spreading their message with special thanks to uncountable hours of right wing radio. As long as they control the game, which they obviously have figured out how to do, then it's time to beat them at their own game. They have nothing to crow about except in their fantasies and self delusion.

New Email

2008-08-03T13:39:00.002-06:00

My yahoo account is no longer functional. Seemed to happen right after I went to an Obama smear site and pointed out their lies.
New one is rspridgen@hotmail.com
Email anytime and if you want to be added to the mail list I will update you on new posts and make it infrequently so you aren't spammed to death. Thanks for coming and hope to hear from you.

FORGET ABOUT OIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-03T12:57:00.005-06:00

The oil lobby is insisting that we MUST do more drilling in sensitive areas that are key to tourism dollars . But tourism dollars and the idea of preserving some of Gods most beautiful creation be damned. We MUST have the oil. Don't worry about the naysayers. It will be ok, TRUST US! Ya right. This is the dumbest method of problem solving since the war in Iraq. Remember that war was initially pushed by the same damned idiots. Oh by the way, at the time they told us that all that oil would pay for the war and a victory would bring the prices waaay down. Ya, trust you.

I've been over it before but let's do it again since they have decided that they are going to blather on.

First, their so called solution, is not going to bring prices down by any large amount. If the price gets too low OPEC just backs off. Price goes back up. Continuing to think of oil as a solution is just playing into their hand. In this game their hand is a lot stronger than ours. We need to deal again.

Conservative and liberal pundits will tell you that this is a smoke and mirrors bone head idea. So who is pushing it? One guess....Right! The oil companies. Oh yes, they will tell you they have polls that say the people of the United States want it but I can find polls that say something far different. So there!

Oil is the problem so common sense tells you it is not the answer. You don't recover from an addiction by using more of what you are addicted to. Cold turkey is the only way to do it. That is the way we must think. Oil is the past, we will be living in the future. FORGET ABOUT OIL! Even talking about it gives many a reason to feel we don't need to go forward or do it as fast as it is necessary to do it.

As Larry noted in comments elsewhere, the industry is EXPORTING about 10% of our oil right now.

If we would have gone forward with sustainable energy in 1979 when Jimmy Carter proposed to do so or in the early part of the decade when I started pushing relentlessly to go forward as a national emergency situation, this conversation would not be necessary now.
Any money or effort that goes into more oil is using money that provides only a band aid and takes away from a permanent, sustainable solution. It makes it less than the 100% effort that we must have to get this done as quickly as possible.

With the way the prices are going the oil is worth more in the ground than it is being brought up. If we leave it there it is there for any unforeseen emergency.

More drilling provides few new jobs. Sustainable energy provides new jobs, new technology and new patents for the US. More oil gives us the discomfort of hanging on.

You have seen the wind generators, you have seen the solar panels. You have maybe used biobased fuel. We are well on the way. We just need focus and determination.

Sustainable energy gives us excitement for an exciting, proud future for our country, it's people and inventive minds. I hope we will not be snookered by the people that have been wrong about nearly everything over the past 5 or 6 years. It's time to go forward and quit living in the past. If we stay stuck, the world will pass us by and our position of leadership in the world will suffer yet another blow.

Join the cause and conversation that leads us to a brighter future.

He Hates America(Americans)

2008-07-28T23:35:00.004-06:00

The right has been going on for a long time about how the evil music, video games, movies et al is influencing our society in a harmful way. How much do you want to bet they have all kinds of obfuscations for their right wing talkers and book writers?

Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."....

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

He even mouths the words verbatim just like a loyal right wing sheeple. This is what happens when our political discussion turns from issues to personality and character assassination.

Reading Room

2008-07-28T08:17:00.001-06:00

Just a compendeium of links of interesting reading.

Remember the Clinton death list? It's back. This time Obama is a mass murderer. These people are so lame they don't even try to come up with something new. One of the guys is on both the Clinton and Obama lists. So who killed him? Lazy thinkers. Enjoy Here.

Here's a handy dandy list of evil Obama.

The Capitalist free market wet dream backfires..socialism for business takes center stage thanks to the wingnuts.

The healh care system.

Stuff you will see little of, if at all in the liberal media.

Evidence of liberal-bias bias

The liberal/socialist meme.

A New Nationalism

2008-07-26T19:29:00.003-06:00

I've had computer, actually modem, problems lately but finally have them fixed. Thank God. I have decided I would rather give up the TV than the computer. Televison only barely reflects real life or much reality of any kind. Strange in a time of “reality TV.” Even the news, and sometimes especially the news, has little to offer. Entertainment . Cultural lifestyle. It's what they in the TV world have well in hand. Our impressions. Our identity of our cultural lifestyle. When it comes to our ideas or ideals or any real discussion it is hard to find on TV, including the news. Most so call political shows (and campaigns) are curious attempts at character assassination or personality politics. Where are the discussions of our shared goals and priorities. Of things that would truly make this a great and generous nation. That was the way we were described when I was young. Not many outside of the country would describe us that way now. You can argue they are wrong but you can't argue that most of the world would not describe us that way anymore. Probably the first two words that would come up would be bully and imperialist. Instead of talking about what a great nation we have , saying anything else is unpatriotic or something. All discussion of how we might make it better or what might be wrong is unpatriotic..... I don't care.... Call me whatever you want. Bothers me not a whit. Now can we move on to issues. TV has no idea that this is even a part of what they do. Cspan and strangely enough, some comedy is about all on TV that is anything more than pure entertainment and personality driven cultural pablum. Since liberal and conservative happen to be the big political grinding point now, lets talk about that.

I have many wonderments about the people that were formerly know as the loyal opposition. The personality focus instead of the , our universal good , type discussions have become vacuous for me. He's this and he's that instead of WE want to do this and WE want to do that is the stretching their independent spirit a little to far for me. Their hate of any effort done in the name of the people of the country except war and perpetually lower taxes is socialism to them. That to me is a RADICAL theory. They want us to do almost nothing together. They seem to think a lack of anything but rudimentary organization is harmful. Using the government as a tool to enforce compromises that will benefit the country as a whole is seen as government interference and a tool of evil power. As long as we still have a republic answerable to the people it is a tool in our hands. Today individuals, i. e. corporate heads and money often write the bills and nearly always have the largest say in how our country is run and what it represents. If I'm a socialist because I think the the government should do the things that will benefit a better, more organized society then so be it. Should the government own and run everything. No way. I believe diversity and the freedom of though and ideas is the greatest thing we can have going for us. But to take the individualism to the point the rightists have is taking it way to far to be productive for anyone BUT the individual. I guess if that is all you are living for then at least you are cognitively consistent. Somehow I have a hard time believing that is the only purpose for man..or woman..in life.

Another mystery to me is the impression I had of conservatives being fiscally prudent. Sometimes to the anal degree. I am in awe of this “new breed” that seems to have absolutely no problem and not even a mention of the HUNDREDS of BILLION of dollars that we are borrowing from China and other countries to finance a war that was at least not the priority at the time. Any of the conservatives I use to know would have cringed over that. They now just make excuses and call people names. Has their fear really overcome them that much? Is this the “new breed” of conservative? No time line means the money gets spent indefinitely. Their time line is literally “whenever”. Not what most business types really want to hear for too long. It would seem more prudent to push for a solution that will end this hemorrhage of dollars. Unless you are scared...or getting lots of the billions.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

That is the 4th amendment. What part of that is being misunderstood? No excuses. Are you for the Constitution or against it? Is that the supreme law or does the supreme law lie in the powerful men?
There is little of the conservative viewpoint that I recognize anymore. There is little doubt that the word conservative in action means something far different than it use to. While there are certainly still differences, I find the Libertarians much closer to what I would consider the conservative philosophy as it was explained to me and appeared to be for so many years than most of those that now call themselves conservatives.
We will always have differences but they have gone over the edge. They have lost their core. It is time for people to get up and fix all this. Are we going forward together as a country united in good for all of our citizens? Or is this a country of me and not we?

The New Nationalism is nearly 100 years old but is precisely what I am talking about today. It all still applies. It's the classic battle between liberal and conservative. It's the classic battle of we and me. I'm all for going back to the New Nationalism. It's the America I believe in and the one I can love. Give me another Republican that will support these principals and I'm switching sides.

Weekend

2008-07-12T18:39:00.002-06:00

It was an interesting week for news. The fisa vote was a the big story to me. A shame on this country and a true danger going forward. Barack Obama did not move to the center with this vote, he took a giant swing to the authoritarian right. That is part of what pisses me off about the “liberal media”. Move to the center!? What the hell!? Warrantless wiretaps, basket wiretaps, corporate immunity. When did any of that become the “center”? Bullshit. I am so tired of being told up is down and down is up that I could scream. And often do. I'm figuring he will be more willing to listen to our complaints than McCain ever would so I will still vote for him. This has nothing to do with party, this is right and wrong and I hope Obama is ready to feel the heat on this.

More on torture and Gitmo coming out. Not a lot many didn't already know but I am sure it will be shocking to some. Like, over half of them had no connection to terrorism. Those that wonder what happened to our position of respect and leadership need look no further than this war and our decisions on how to prosecute the challenges of terrorism. Nobody is ready to follow us or our example. I can't say I blame them. I wouldn't want to either.

Glenn Greenwald has been one of my recommended daily reads for sometime now and he still is able to put it succinctly:

There are two choices and only two choices for every country -- live under the rule of law or live under the rule of men. We've collectively decided that our most powerful political leaders are not bound by our laws -- that when they break the law, there will be no consequences. We've thus become a country which lives under the proverbial "rule of men" -- that is literally true, with no hyperbole needed ......

.....Our political and media elite have acquiesced to all of this when they weren't cheering it all on. Those who object to it, who argue that these abuses of political power are dangerous in the extreme and that we cannot tolerate deliberate government lawbreaking, are dismissed as shrill Leftist hysterics. ...

.....Yes, I'm well aware that the U.S, like all countries, was deeply imperfect prior to 9/11, and that many of the systematic excesses of the Bush era have their genesis prior to 2001. The difference (a critical one) is that what had been acts of lawbreaking and violations of our national values have become the norm -- consistent with, rather than violative of, our express values and policies.

...Those who have spent the last seven years scoffing at Unserious, Hysterical objections to Bush lawlessness are the very people who have created this climate that they will now pretend to find so upsetting. The "rule of law" isn't some left-wing dogma that is the province of Leftist radicals and hysterics. It's the cornerstone of every civilized and free society.

That there would even be debate on most of this saddens me greatly. We are way past the canary in the coal mine.

The banks and even Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at danger of default. Past the canary in the coal mine. Many people said they weren't sure if we could last another 4 years with Bush. If those darned liberals won't have come up with the fdic a whole bunch of people mighta just got robbed. I haven't figured out who it was yet but I'm sure somebody did. Glad it wasn't people with under 100 thousand.
I think(hope) more people are seeing what we are talking about. To vote McSame would be a suicide mission in my book.

At the G8 Summit Bush, as he prepared to fly out from Japan, told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."
I agree with the Dixie Chicks who didn't want to be known as THAT kind of Texan, I am ashamed this guy comes from the United States.

The Oil Barons told us how much they have us over a barrel so let them do whatever they want.
Here are some people willing to say no and actually lead toward a better future instead of a tormented one. Apollo Alliance.

OK, Good news....Iraq is asking for a time table for our withdrawal.
Iraqi politicians are being vocal about the readiness of the Iraqi forces, telling the Americans that they can resolve their internal disputes on their own, without a U.S. presence in their midst.
You know what that means? We win! Time to come home. We Win!

Why they are even handing out money! Really! Those damned Socialists! What have we created!?

This regime actually did something for the people instead of the Corporations.
All hail! More of that please.

Who's Patriotic?

2008-07-04T17:37:00.007-06:00

My Patriots

Patriotism has been a big part of the U.S. consciousness over the last number of years. Flags flying everywhere, necessary flag pins, questioners called treasonous and aiding the enemy. No doubt it will be a big part of the next election too. Since it is afforded such high value maybe we ought to talk about what Patriotism is and how we relate to the concept. I think the right and the left see it as two distinctly different things. As I have told many of the conservative detractors, we aren't even talking about the same thing. How are we going to ever come to agreement on this?

One of my problems with the rightist is they aren't looking to come to agreement. They are looking to win the argument. Period. Certainly I would like to win the argument too but a reasonable adaption of your views as an integration of the answer is fine with me. Give and take is what makes the world workable for all of us. You can't have it all but you are naturally entitled inclusion. No matter what side you are on. This is what a smooth running Democracy (ok, republic, I know) looks like.

Most of those I meet on the right are unflinching, dogmatic, dismissive and take, take, take, all those lazy bums are below me, theocratic if even in the political sense. ....The mix of the attitude of faith with the practicalities of politics. They have gone as far as many are will to let them go.

I am, and always have been willing to cooperate to make this country all the things we all dream it will be. Again I understand, we aren't talking about the same things. One's ideal is admittedly closer to socialism with the people having control of the things we all share as common and necessary for a strong society. The other side is more favorable to something closer to anarchy. No controls, no regulations, no interference to shape anything. The cream will rise to the top. Which is what is necessary for a strong society.

I understand both sides and know that a mix of both will provide for the strongest society. I must admit to having a moral repulsion to the pure survival of the fittest social darwinism. Practically, I also find it harmful to do things that tamp down the cream of the crop or unduly restrict talent and/or intelligence. If one assumes that the U.S. is only a land mass without the people then it follows that a patriotic feeling would come from a feeling for the people and system they create. The more people included the more they are going to feel like it works for them. The fewer included the more to wonder if it works.

For me a feeling of patriotism comes from our ideals of inclusion and opportunity. In the world I see that inclusion, working together and sense of opportunity are diminishing. It gives me no reason to feel pride in an enterprise that appears to me to be failing. To feel proud of your country as a matter of faith rather than reason is, to me, like giving every kid at the soccer tournament a trophy. Makes them kind of meaningless if you ask me. It makes patriotism useless if it matters not what the real condition of the country and it's people is.

Many will say, yes we have problems but it's far better here than in other places. Wellllllll, sometimes yes, sometimes no. The right seems to love facts and documentation(of course then when you show it it, is just a piece of liberal bias) well, here are the facts in documentation. Knock yourself out.

What it all comes down to is if you see patriotism like I do then you are not even talking about the same thing as the people that see it as a matter of faith and unbending loyalty.
With all matters of our country we need to understand each other. We don't have to agree but we must agree that our country must be inclusive and we must make the attempt to make it a country that includes the views and concerns of all of us. That is the kind of country that would stir my patriotism. It's not happening. Too all you patriots out there, sorry to offend you but I'm frankly not feeling to patriotic right now.

I have a hard time feeling pride for preemptive war, torture, warrantless wiretaps, international lawbreaker, corporate crony, cost plus, no bid contract, blatantly political “justice” department, biggest debtor nation, America. I apologize if that offends your sense of patriotism. I recognize that is "blame America first". Know why I do that? .......CUZ I LIVE HERE! My family, virtually everyone I have ever know lives here. I pay taxes here. I am first concerned about my country and what they are doing in my name. Yes, I blame America first because I have the biggest stake in America. On a practical basis, my only stake is in America. In 1971 when this song was made country music legend Johnny Cash was expressing what was considered patriotic.

If we had a little less loyalty to a party or a flag and a little more loyalty to each other maybe, just maybe, we could recognize we really are all in this together. We will get a lot farther using the assets and ideas of all of us conservative and liberal.

A person that would believe that would be far more a true patriot to me than a guy that put his hand over his heart or wore moms apple pie on their lapel everyday. We can fight mightly but we will never go forward until we decide to work for the common good so we all have a piece of the pie.

Addendum:

I have a hypothesis about why the right is like they are. I find many are 40ish plus or minus. This means most of what they have experienced with politics is from 1988 or so on. The end of Reagan to the end of Bush. They have been told non stop all their life about how evil liberalism is. They have never met the boogy man. They haven't experienced liberal control. Of course, they will tell you they are experiencing the effects of the liberal policies. Which is true. Only they ignore the good things they have thanks to liberals. Whether they believe it should be there for them or not it is. Someday when it's not they may change their opinion.

Make Me Proud

2008-07-03T21:34:00.005-06:00

Energy is a vital and pressing problem in our country. A problem we all have to live with.
One of the campaign plays this year is to push for oil drilling and blame the oil problem on the Democrats/environmentalist wackos /liberals/. That is how the right plans to win the argument on energy. This is Newt Gingrichs' genius plan.
So astonishing stuck in the past that it is almost embarrassing. Let's leave the environmental argument out completely and evaluate this.

Saudis raise output. The price goes up. Middle Easterners say there is no lack of supply. But the price goes up. We reduce consumption, the price goes up. Supply has become disconnected from price. Even if we produced more oil there is no promise of reduced prices. If OPEC reduces supply equivalent to what we produce we are in no better situation then we were before. Anybody think they are going to sell domestic oil at less than market price? Actually the thought of “more oil” is a bit of an oxymoron. There is less oil everyday. We may have enough left for X years but there is no doubt that when it threatens our economy to this extent and it is cause for wars that it's time to come up with a better idea. It's a declining and unsustainable industry.

Many will say, but while we are coming up with alternatives why not drill and get more oil too. Because it is a bad business decision that delays a sustainable future. Why shouldn't we put All our dollars and efforts into getting this done as fast as possible? Actually do things like a LEADER would do things? Not many would argue it is a national emergency. Giving the addict more of what he is addicted to just prolongs his sickness. There is much ready to go into production. From a viable compressed air cars. To viable vehicles that utilize wind and solar.

Putting our efforts in things like that seem far more exciting and promising than, lets suck oil til somebody else thinks of something else.

I'm excited about the potential future, with more choices, more jobs and the idea that we can THINK our way out of this problem.

Drilling and supporting it gives us the wrong mindset and one that will delay a future of potential . We will continue down the road of inertia instead of innovation? It's time to act, the bells and whistles are blowing all around you. Are you afraid of the future or are you willing to stand up and handle it. It's time to act. Do it now. Demand it. These are the things we did in my youth that made me proud of my country. Please.....make me proud.

Why I'm Voting Republican

2008-06-17T19:04:00.002-06:00

Living On The Edge Of Reality

2008-05-11T16:33:00.003-06:00

This story takes a look at the inevitable racial overtones to the race and the upcoming West Virgina and Kentucky primaries.

Neil Gillies, an Obama supporter who runs a local environmental nonprofit group, glumly recounted the gibes that his wife, a schoolteacher, hears regularly from her students. “They’re convinced [Obama] is a Muslim, a terrorist, a guy who’s coming to take away their guns,” Gillies said. “It’s just sad.”
The LAT talked to a farmer, who voted for Bush but regrets it, but who appears more than a little reluctant to vote for the presumptive Democratic nominee. “Obama,” the farmer said, “just doesn’t sound right for an American president.” The president of the West Virginia Coon Hunters Assn. told the Times he rejects Obama “because of, you know, who he is.”

We need to let these people go about their merry way. If one is convinced that Obama is a Muslim yet still had a Christian pastor for the last 20 years. Celebrated all the rites and customs of a Christian....well, these people are not rational. They have every right to free speech as the rest of us but I don't need to care. They don't pass the threshold for reasoned debate in my book. The cognitive dissonance allowed by these types is truly a rainbow of convenience and lazy thought.

I wrote some time ago that they were going to connect him to terrorists, or more properly, those they consider terrorists. They have already linked him to University Professor William Ayres(just shows you how the liberals are poisoning the minds of our youth!) and now Hamas.

Hamas is Sunni, Hezbollah is Shite. Al Queda is Sunni, Iran is Shite. Saudi Arabia is primarily Sunni and Iraq is primarily Shite. This is the religious war that is going on. We have no stake here. I have no interest in being a Muslim nor a desire to advance or destroy their religion nor any of its sects. This is not our fight.

Hamas has gained status and respect in the Muslim world. They have done this by providing services and help for their people. They are likely rightly hated by many but they are a lifeline to others. These are things we need to understand to win the war on terra. They hate us because they see us as vastly overbearing, enforcing our will on them. They see giant outside corporations(could be French or German or Russian or US) coming in and profiting from resources that are suppose to be the wealth of the people of the country. These are their real complaints of the people in the middle east.
On the positive side there is this story out of the Yemen Times. It talks about the illegal immigrants going from Yemen to Saudi Arabia for jobs etc. They compare it to the US-Mexico situation. See apparently the Saudis just shoot you. They speak glowingly of the burdens we face and the grace with which we face them. Can we be at peace with these people or do we just have to kill them all? By getting back to the roots of what made the US admired and acting like a leader for good I think we can make progress. If we decide that certain people that represent large populations can not be talked to and will remain enemies until they buckle to our aut-thor-it-tie then we reinforce everything they hate.

Let your knee jerk when you hear Hamas or Al Queda. As a great unknown person said-"When your only tool is a hammer everything looks like a nail."

You may think they want to "take us over" . Even if they truly thought this it would be comical. They could NEVER get US citizens to accept their lifestyle anymore than they are accepting ours. They can't kill us all.
Do we need to be aware of threats and danger to our citizens? Absolutely, I just think that our current policy is not only not producing dividends, it is taking us backward.

So live in fear of the terraist if you want but I am ready to fix the problem. You are about to be left behind.

Howard Dean Being Frank

2008-05-04T12:58:00.002-06:00

Here is Howard Dean on Fox News.

I am sure Sean Hannity will have to lead with ...You'll Be Shocked! He thinks people are shocked by a lot of stuff if you watch him. I'm not sure if that tells you more about the man or the intimidation angle of his game.

Fox will be the pool reporter at the Democratic Convention this year. I am betting this has much to do with this entire appearance and discussion. It was nice to see Howard Dean not shrink in the face of these guys. I had an exchange with someone down the page. Thus:

This guy calls himself "Unbiased View":
Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York � And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! BYYYYAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!

LOL, this guy always cracks me up. BTW, how did he become the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee?

Gee I'm so hurt. That is such an impeccable argument.

He became chairman of the Democratic party by speaking truth to power. Just like he did here. It is a trait that many of us wacky liberals admire hence the pressure to put him there. We aren't going to be forced or guilted into the right wing agenda. We are no longer going to be told to be ashamed to be liberal. We are ready to bring the debate on the real issues that are important for country. You can play in the Rush Limbaugh circus til you turn blue for all I care. There's work to do and it is getting done whether you come along or not. ...These , in my opinion, are the people that pushed to get Howard Dean as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The fact that the first and apparently terrible thing he said or did was what you mentioned says much about what is important to you. In the face of history it is a totally innocent blip compared to what the Bush/ Cheney/neocon cabal has said or done. I could come up with dozens of things that would be criminal let alone silly or wrong from the crooks running the show. Actually Dean did say the truth even then and it is true more than ever this year........

Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York � And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! BYYYYAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!

Chickens Coming Home To Roost

2008-04-30T17:34:00.001-06:00

What People mean by "Chickens Coming Home To Roost".

Link Here

Why So Quiet?

2008-04-19T15:26:00.004-06:00

I've been absent dealing with family and work. Also getting ready to go audio blogging! Being a creature of the spoken word I think it will work far better. I may start an entirely new blog for that. I will provide a link here should I decide to move it. I may start leaving something at the top of the blog just to catch the spam.

King Of America

2008-04-06T11:33:00.004-06:00

As long as we have been talking about unconventional religious people, this is worth making note of. Seems like a far bigger threat to me than most of the others. Far wackier too.

Disagreements, They're Everywhere!

2008-03-30T15:34:00.003-06:00

Marshal has made some interesting comments and I wanted to reply to a few of them. Either side, give us your stuff.

Marshal, we certainly see things in a fundamentally different way. I really do believe though that if we met face to face and discussed we could find enough common ground to be friends.

So now Obama calls himself a Christian. Well. We can look on his stance regarding abortion and homosexual marriage to understand just waht kind of a Christian he is.

Dude!@ Look at those you would call good Christians, like yourself for example and see what they think about war and how far we go before we call it torture. ..Regardless the issues you bring up would make him a crappy Moslem so can we leave that crap behind for good.
First I guess we have a different perspectives on moral imperatives. The things you mention are 2 things I am not a part of. It has done no harm to me or you. It is personal. It effects them and their personal relationship with God. I am more worried about morality that impacts others(yes, abortion impacts the aborted).

And that's the distinction between what he says about the country and what Robertson and Falwell have said about the country. The right wing dudes have spoken about what is wrong without racial overtones.

Maybe, but the fundies also see women in a subservient position and show the same disdain or more for those who are gay or even liberal. It's not in the rhelm of racial but it is in the rhelm of seeing others as threatening instead of brothers in Christ. Why, all the liberals were responsible for 9/11, it was Gods wrath on our country.
I see not much difference in the two sides. I actually relate, through life experience more to Rev. Right(sp) than I do Falwell or Hagge or Parsley.

(re: Smedley Butler)Now you back him up with your exerpt from some joker of 100 years ago. What have his detractors said?
It was not 100 years ago and he was not a joker he was a multi medaled multi starred General in the US Marine Corps. But remember to respect the troops! :-)
I haven't really been able to find detractors beyond people at the time who were implicated in some of it. Like this in a fascist plot to overthrow FDR:

The Congressional committee report confirmed Butler's testimony:
In the last few weeks of the committee's official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist government in this country. No evidence was presented and this committee had none to show a connection between this effort and any fascist activity of any European country. There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient. This committee received evidence from Maj. Gen Smedley D. Butler (retired), twice decorated by the Congress of the United States. He testified before the committee as to conversations with one Gerald C. MacGuire in which the latter is alleged to have suggested the formation of a fascist army under the leadership of General Butler. MacGuire denied these allegations under oath, but your committee was able to verify all the pertinent statements made by General Butler, with the exception of the direct statement suggesting the creation of the organization. This, however, was corroborated in the correspondence of MacGuire with his principal, Robert Sterling Clark, of New York City, while MacGuire was abroad studying the various forms of veterans organizations of Fascist character.

Link

Now I don't know to whom it is you refer when you speak of why "they" hate us. If you mean the Muslims you are way off base to think it has anything to do with American foreign policy. They hate us because we do not accept their religion.

By they I would included most of those who feel that way. It is not a religous war but it is interesting that the right thinks it is. This is one place, the one that stuck out to me the most, that we aren't even arguing about the same thing. We need a national conversation on why they hate us. I take my stance on what they are say in foreign press etc. What do you base yours on?

Warrantless wiretapping of foreign jerkwads is essential given the state of technology these days.

I am fine with this if no US citizens are involved within the US. I am betting the vast majority of liberals would agree. That has never been a problem and was legal before Bush was even President. Unfortunately they are not using that metric now. I am for the Constitution, regardless of who is President. No exceptions. I guess that makes me an evil liberal. Either that or you don't have any idea how far this has gone.

Personality politics isn't necessarily a bad thing if the personality in question is a bad choice for office. It is a dodge to bring up personality politics when the personality of the politician is questionable. We need to be sure we aren't electing a jerk, and we need to make sure the jerk the other side is supporting is exposed for the jerk he/she is.

Yes personality is important to our reputation around the world. It is one factor in the campaign. It should not be the entire campaign. Where have you been? We did elect a jerk and the entire world knows it. He has been exposed for the jerk he is. I guess the personality politics doesn't work for avoiding that embarassing circumstance.

Who are these rich guys of whom you speak and how do YOU know they don't deserve what they've gotten? Where do you get off accusing them and calling them thieves? What the rich guy makes has nothing to do with what you make or the people beneath him in whatever company he's with.

I guess the main question here is do you think greed is a bad thing and when does it kick in? People that make 4 or 5 million a year and the company loses money is not worth it. Those below that come to work every day and do it properly should get a larger share of company profits whether the CEO is great or not. You say people should pull their bootstraps and that you want to reward hard work but it is obvious you aren't going to insist on it except for the lucky few. Reward work over wealth and you will have a far more productive society. That's my bet.

Obama Speech In Philadephia

2008-03-18T22:12:00.002-06:00

I am sure that there will be all kinds of people talking about the Obama speech who saw only 2 or 3 minute snippets of it. I think everyone should see it in full context so I have tried to make it easy.

The New Radical Right

2008-03-17T23:40:00.004-06:00

I saw the expected right wing stuff on the expected right wing websites on Barack Obama and his pastor. My reply was to the effect of...I thought he was a Muslim!?
The responses were basically, well we must be right because he won't debate us and "I never said he was a Muslim". There is one person there who is a grown up though. I usually understand at least where he's coming from even if we continue to disagree. I suddenly recognized how rare that has become. There are very few on the right that even use it as an exercise in thought as far as I can tell.
I didn't want to give up in finding common ground with this guy so I have invited him to, if interested, see my response here.

First please view at least a portion of "Why Should God Bless America"

at the right wing values voters conference. The essence is we are a sinful place(except for them of course) and God will only bless America if we follow the path that these people are ascribing.

Marshal, you are right. It wasn't a very good response. It wasn't intended to be.
My response was a response not for debate but of frustration. Present company getting a partial redemption, the cognitive dissonance is just mind numbing. First the most important scary thing about Obama is that he is a Muslim. Now suddenly he is a Christian and oh no, how horrible, a black Christian! Onea them racist types. Wait, what happened to the Muslim story. Can we destroy that one first!?
Too many people are on to the game.

Yes, suddenly no one really called Obama a Muslim, oh no, but a lot of people spent a lot of time spreading the rumor and speculation and still insisting that he is some kind of enemy of the state. The fact is he was directly exposed to the Muslim world. He was also directly exposed to the Christian world. That sounds like a plus to me. Turn it into a negative if you want but it doesn't wash as a negative to me.

The right wing preachers have professed that 9/11 was Gods curse on the country for having homosexuals, that Gods wrath is responsible for New Orleans and whatever. All kinds of things that their followers understand as perfectly reasonable from the perspective of their religion. Yes, liberals usually point it out when they say wild stuff. Then they laugh and let it go. When Obamas preacher says that we encouraged the attacks because of our foreign policy and what has been done to other countries in our name or that blacks have been oppressed he is a horrible radical that is an enemy of the state for Gods sake! We must ring all the chapel bells in warning! What!? Oh but it's different cuz that is Obamas personal pastor and friend. And just remember, conservatives aren't nuancers either. Cognitive dissonance. You can't debate that.
I know, God Damn America. Certainly those are volatile words. He's talking about the things we are doing to destroy ourselves. Listen past the offensive words. I think no conservatives have. The roadblocks people at the bottom feel as they try to make it. The invasion of other countries for their resources and the domination of and propping up of dominators. See General Smedley Butler if you don't get it.

In his 1935 book, War Is a Racket, Butler presented an exposé and trenchant condemnation of the profit motive behind warfare. His views on the subject are well summarized in the following passage from a 1935 issue of "the non-Marxist, socialist" magazine, Common Sense — one of Butler's most widely quoted statements:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Once you understand that this is the REAL reason they hate us we can make some progress. How do I know this is the REAL reason. Because they said so! Listen! This is exactly what they will tell you! You wish the Muslim world would speak up against Al Qaeda yet when one is speaking out about the same air of moral superiority you reject it offhand as hate America first. The cogitative dissonance is beyond debate.

Regular people without any or few advantages should just get creative and pull their bootstrings. Bear Stearns(actually JP Morgan) gets 30 billion of taxpayer money. The guys at the top(the huge failures) walk off with their money and lots of people lose their jobs and lives are destroyed. What happened to get creative pull your bootstrings? What happened to the strong survive if they are smarter and better and that's what makes capitalism work? Socialism is OK for corporations but not for the people who are citizens. The only commons we have is large corporations. Please don't tell me. The cognitive dissonance is already twisted this far beyond recognition for me.

And now the piece de resistance, the thing that baffles me more than anything about the new radical right. ...The right, for my entire life, over half a century, has always been the ones most suspicious of government. Now they are all the way to corporate/government coverups and warrantless wire taps! Really, that is the most amazing and swiftest turnabout on longstanding fundamental issues I have ever seen. I have no idea who I am talking to anymore. Who are these people? That's why I have stated many times that these people are not Conservatives. I don't know how to approach them because they aren't anything I understand as Conservatives. I generally refer to them not as conservatives but as the radical right. I disagree with Tom Coburn on nearly every issue. Usually by a lot. He is however someone I recognize as a true conservative. There are few left(no pun intended). As a matter of fact I can only think of a couple others, Bob Barr for one. They certainly aren't among the talk show gurus.

I have lived in areas that lean left and sometimes quite a way left at various times. The area I have lived in for the last 7 or 8 years is farther to the right than most. 70 some percent range, so I understand conservatives and their issues well.
First, nobody to speak of wants to take your gun. Not unless you want to get quite specific. Let's put it this way, this right will be less abridged than most of the others.

I understand the fear of someone coming from the outside to attack us(that one might be worth some more thought my friend). I understand the feeling that we must stand strong and make sure nobody gets the idea they can get away with it. If we both understand those concerns why can't we spend some time talking about that and what the best solution might be instead of personality politics?
I understand that you don't want to give your money to the government to see them steal it or waste it. I think people that are lazy and won't go out and make an effort to be a productive part of society is dead weight. I think the rich who always get theirs(see golden parachute for one of many examples) whether they excel or "earn" it or not are worse than dead weight. They are thieves. Thieves who stole money for people that are out there making an effort to earn it. The fact that the former is beaten relentlessly on the right while the latter get...excuses... is beyond my ability to reason.

There is little honest debate anymore. It is all personality politics. Politics on the most shallow of bases. There is no debating that. It's a waste of time. I'm a person who is very willing to hear other points of view. I'm a person who understands that a part of life is that I don't get everything I want, that freedom means that as many people as possible get to live their lives as close to their ideal as possible. This should be the goal. But don't try to pass off up as down and down as up. It's treated like a football game with one taking the field against the other. It's not about "winning" to me. It is about solving problems in a way that benefits the maximum number of people. If you don't think like that, debate is fruitless. We aren't even talking about the same thing.

Proving To Be The Idiots They Are Thought To Be

2008-03-09T08:43:00.004-06:00

This site: Obama who

Is posting Obama smears left and right. Totally stupid ones. The more ridiculous the more likely it is to be here. They have a story from "The Globe" tabloid about Obamas gay lover, the Enquirer story about Obamas ties to terrorists and other stuff that only buck toothed, urine stained, skidmark underwear wearin, people would believe without further verification.
If you sign up and comment...well lets just say they moderate the comments so you can say whatever you want to the blog owner and it will never make the site. I wrote something on nearly every post. It actually turned out to be fun because you don't have to worry about anybody reading it but the scum that is posting this stuff. Go do it...enjoy

PS: The enquirer story matches what I told you about linking Obama to terrorists in a post some time ago(see below). I and many people are on to them this time and know exactly what they are going to do. I know where to find their play book. They aren't getting away with it.

King, Pearce, Two peas in..... Nuts In A Shell

2008-03-08T15:57:00.005-07:00

Representative Steven King represents a district in my home state of Iowa. He reminds me much of my elected representative(not for long) Steven Pearce. These are the cult people of the Republican party.
I'm all for discussion and ideas but these have been done to death. If they can't see the error of their ways by now they have no place in intelligent discussion that will guide the course of our nation. I am so tired of these people I could puke. The disgusting, total baseless rhetoric they put out have made me so angry at them that I fear and despise them more than the actual enemy. Actually I don't fear them, I fear their success. That which they have done with their success to my country over the past 25 or 30 years. They have done far more damage to this country than any enemy has. Let's take a look at the mind numbing stupidity.

King(might as well be Pearce):"I don't want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father might have been," he said. What does it look like to the world of Islam?"

Don't want to disparage anyone but I will anyway. Tell me Steve, what does it look like to elect Obama in the world of Islam? Have you asked them? Do you know? Are you making assumptions based on your world view or theirs?

"I'll just say this: When you think about the option of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world?

I suggest you ask them and not other US citizens if you want an accurate answer. I am sure you haven't or you would be able to relate the experience to your answer. It looks to me from what I have observed in news stories and blog comments that the rest of the world would see us as open minded and able to elect the person best suited to do what needs to be done instead of voting on the fear mongering bullshit that we have voted on before. In other words it says to the rest of the world we have seen the light.

He continued: "I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror."

Well at least they aren't shooting people or chopping heads off anymore huh? They are happy dancing terrorists? What could be better? Seriously...Iraq is not the exclusive war on terror(whatever wot is). Victory for them is when we elect the confessed, declared Christian Obama? What have they won that got them so excited? They have won nothing. There is no end to terror. We still have it every week in our streets, be it a shooting at a bus stop, a school or university or just on the streets,a letter bomb from Ted Kazinski or Tim McVeighs' hate for our government. Iraq is not really part of the war on terror. When will these people get it through their head!!!!

King thinks radical Islamists will say the United States has capitulated because the Obama administration would be pulling troops out of any conflict associated with al-Qaida.

Has Obama said this. No, to the contrary he has said the opposite. He has said we will focus on Al Qaida instead of the Shite-Sunni conflict(we enhanced) in Iraq. So why would King say this? Why would Islamists think this when Obama has said nothing of the sort? This is projection to the ridiculous degree.-Let me note that I voted for Edwards even though he had already suspended his campaign. I am not defending Obama, just pointing out the radical right stupidity.

Additionally, his middle name (Hussein) does matter," King said. "It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world. That has a special meaning to them. They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle name.

Can you show me where they read a meaning in that in the rest of the world cuz I haven't seen it. If they elected a Muslim with a Christian name in Iran would that tell you anything here in the US? It wouldn't to me. Why do you have such a problem with people in other parts of the world dancing? What does that do? Let them dance for Gods sake.

They will be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says: Pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict."

Well Steve, at least you are getting closer here. Terrorism is caused because we use our military to take over their countries and resources and often manipulate their governments is exactly why they hate us. See here for one example. We are taking their freedom to choose and survive in the way they best see fit. Pulling out and leaving them alone would make them very happy. And why not. We would feel the same if we were being occupied and manipulated by them.

There is more from the Kingster. You can read it here.

The fact that these people have no idea what causes terrorism confirms they have no idea how to fix it. Their mind numbing stupidity that runs on fear and guilt is no way to run a country that is so key to the planet as a whole. They must be defeated. Please, any conservative that reads this, tell me where I am wrong. I would like to hear it. Otherwise, bite me and get back to cowering under your bed in fear of a bunch of nutty radicals that have no organized Army, Navy, Air force, funding etc . Blowing up the world because of your fear of a few is no way to go. I am ashamed of your fear, your mongering, and am tired of you being the face of my country.

Oops, The Mirror Is Being Held Up! Don't Looooook!

2008-02-26T00:17:00.002-07:00

Bush talks about McCain and his lobbying interests. He must be as evil as the New York Times!

Who's Being Politically Correct

2008-02-21T01:35:00.002-07:00

When I was young we were told over and over how horrible the Soviets were. They were reaching their tentacles around the world and eventually wanted to take it over. For the last 25 years I have seen a serious increase in the number of times that the United States has been doing precisely the same thing. From Central and South America to the Middle East most of these, as the ones that came before that time, were using our military to increase the influence and power of large, now multinational, corporations. It's the business of business that drives our foreign policy.

We claim altruism, is it unamerican to insist that we actually live and act as we profess. Certainly there is a some altruistic nature to our society. Especially if you put it in the hands of the people and not the everything should be done with monetary reward involved crowd. When we use the common wealth to promote the general welfare of our nation we see the mutual benefit. Bridges and roads, Police and fire, libraries and to an extent schools. These are things that improve the life of all the people. Instead we see not more of what can we do to make all of our lives better but how do I make a profit. I understand econ 101 and I know to continue any enterprise one must operate in the black. To insist that we have little to no government and the entire country is “privatized” seems far scarier to me than socialism. Certainly the production of goods and most services are a private enterprise. What we all have as common is where we as citizens are to have control. This is how we as citizens make our society better.

If we are to be the country we claim to be then we must live up to those standards. Blind patriotism is not what we need. True patriotism is what we need. A country that lives up to our ideals. There should be no doubt that on nearly every front we are losing ground with the rest of the modern nations. Rankings of nations on a full range of standards show “old europe”, you know those damned socialist nations, near the top and the United States slipping further and further.
It's politically incorrect to say one isn't proud of their country but is sure doesn't seem out of the bounds of rational behavior if one wasn't proud of something that opposed their values. Radical righties like to talk about how terrible it is that liberals are so dependent on “emotionalism”. If you are a political neophyte that means logic and common sense in real language. They want facts and figures and nothing else. Now we have an issue where Michelle Obama said that it was the first time in her adult life that she was really proud of her country. An issue that drowns it's self in emotionalism and they are so.....emotional.

By the way it's interesting that most of the reports I have seen have sort of forgotten the word “adult” that comes ahead of “life” especially when writing the headline. The fair and balanced Fox News networks internet feed had the word “really”that came just ahead of “proud” edited out of the audio. Why did they take out that word? Why, don't we all know, its the liberal media! I'm getting really tired of people trying to tell me up is down and down is up.

Finally a Representative that Represents Me.

2008-02-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Congressman Reyes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote President Bush today regarding the Foreign Intellingence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Congressman Silvestre Reyes, D-TX, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, sent the following letter to President George W. Bush today regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The text of the letter is below:

President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The Preamble to our Constitution states that one of our highest duties as public officials is to “provide for the common defence.” As an elected Member of Congress, a senior Member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I work everyday to ensure that our defense and intelligence capabilities remain strong in the face of serious threats to our national security.

Because I care so deeply about protecting our country, I take strong offense to your suggestion in recent days that the country will be vulnerable to terrorist attack unless Congress immediately enacts legislation giving you broader powers to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans’ communications and provides legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in the Administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) has authority to conduct surveillance in at least three different ways, all of which provide strong capability to monitor the communications of possible terrorists.

First, NSA can use its authority under Executive Order 12333 to conduct surveillance abroad of any known or suspected terrorist. There is no requirement for a warrant. There is no requirement for probable cause. Most of NSA’s collection occurs under this authority.

Second, NSA can use its authority under the Protect America Act, enacted last August, to conduct surveillance here in the U.S of any foreign target. This authority does not “expire” on Saturday, as you have stated. Under the PAA, orders authorizing surveillance may last for one year – until at least August 2008. These orders may cover every terrorist group without limitation. If a new member of the group is identified, or if a new phone number or email address is identified, the NSA may add it to the existing orders, and surveillance can begin immediately. We will not “go dark.”

Third, in the remote possibility that a new terrorist organization emerges that we have never previously identified, the NSA could use existing authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor those communications. Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, the FISA Court has approved nearly every application for a warrant from the Department of Justice. In an emergency, NSA or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may begin surveillance immediately, and a FISA Court order does not have to be obtained for three days. The former head of FISA operations for the Department of Justice has testified publicly that emergency authorization may be granted in a matter of minutes.

As you know, the 1978 FISA law, which has been modernized and updated numerous times since 9/11, was instrumental in disrupting the terrorist plot in Germany last summer. Those who say that FISA is outdated do not understand the strength of this important tool.

If our nation is left vulnerable in the coming months, it will not be because we don’t have enough domestic spying powers. It will be because your Administration has not done enough to defeat terrorist organizations – including al Qaeda -- that have gained strength since 9/11. We do not have nearly enough linguists to translate the reams of information we currently collect. We do not have enough intelligence officers who can penetrate the hardest targets, such as al Qaeda. We have surged so many intelligence resources into Iraq that we have taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As a result, you have allowed al Qaeda to reconstitute itself on your watch.

You have also suggested that Congress must grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies. As someone who has been briefed on our most sensitive intelligence programs, I can see no argument why the future security of our country depends on whether past actions of telecommunications companies are immunized.

The issue of telecom liability should be carefully considered based on a full review of the documents that your Administration withheld from Congress for eight months. However, it is an insult to the intelligence of the American people to say that we will be vulnerable unless we grant immunity for actions that happened years ago.

Congress has not been sitting on its hands. Last November, the House passed responsible legislation to authorize the NSA to conduct surveillance of foreign terrorists and to provide clarity and legal protection to our private sector partners who assist in that surveillance.

The proper course is now to conference the House bill with the Senate bill that was passed on Tuesday. There are significant differences between these two bills and a conference, in regular order, is the appropriate mechanism to resolve the differences between these two bills. I urge you, Mr. President, to put partisanship aside and allow Republicans in Congress to arrive at a compromise that will protect America and protect our Constitution.

I, for one, do not intend to back down – not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.

We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.

Sincerely,

Silvestre Reyes
Member of Congress
Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Swiftboat 2008

2008-02-16T19:36:00.003-07:00

Barrack Hussein Obama is secretly a Muslim. While it's not been the biggest story in the news I have noticed this at the grass roots level is quite pervasive among the republicowards. An anonymous email is all they need to decide that evil lurks right around the corner. While normal people laugh and pass it off as political theatre the cult of the right takes this seriously. This will be the 2008 edition of swiftboat and one better attack it quickly. It really isn't as tough as it might seem. Well, I take that back. One only needs to make them think. Could be a tough order for a radical righter.

Certainly there are radical elements in the Muslim religion. Just like there are radical elements of many religions and groups. Why they hate us is a topic for another time. It has little to do with religion.

Let's take their hypothesis and say it may be true. Just for a matter of examination. We need to be asking: “OK, why is that a problem”. I can promise you they will have no answer that makes any sense. They haven't thought it through. I guarantee it. They never do. It is their normal fear based knee jerk reaction. Muslim, BOO! Oooooow. They will stutter and snort in disbelief...Cuz they are the enemy and they are scary! They want to kill us all! Blah, blah, blah. And Oprah will help!

What would happen that would be so bad if it turned out he was a Muslim? Again I don't believe it. This is an academic exercise that will force them to think.
Welllll, he would aid the enemy!.... You mean like selling multi million dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world. Like arming and training both the Sunni and Shiites in Iraq. Well hell we've been doing that for years. If you think those weapons aren't finding their way into the wrong hands you are wildly naive. Wouldn't a leader of the U.S. even imagined by them to be Muslim make them a little less likely to hate and attack us?

He will change all our laws and help them take over our country. He can't. If he should make it obvious we have a remedy. It's called impeachment.

Frankly, there are no good reasons to fear him being a Muslim any more than we fear a Catholic or Mormon or any other religion. As a matter of fact this is precisely why we have laws promoting the separation of church and state. It's just more evidence of a knee jerk reaction.

Think about it, the republicowards fear the Muslim and everyone in the Middle East, the Mexican/Hispanic and the liberal American. They hate the French, and all of “Old Europe”. They see fear and threats under every rock. They speak of how all of these people are deranged. Again, a mirror would be the most horrible scary thing they could truly see. They can not accept anything that does not ascribe to their cult of fear and guilt.

There is a church here in rightwingland that has been running an ad about a speaker(with a Christian name) that is going to give a talk on “Islam practices and beliefs”. Supposedly to give you the real picture of Islam and how they think of the west etc. My hope is that the puritans will see how much they are like them. Unfortunately I am highly suspicious. It would be quite sad and , in my book unchristian, if they were preaching hate from a church.

No You Can't!

2008-02-16T17:58:00.002-07:00

Support The Troops?

2008-01-31T00:18:00.000-07:00

I have heard one of those radical right bumper stickers pop up again. Just when I thought it was dead and buried. I am sure you have heard it. When defending the occupation they grasp at straws and say “Well we haven't been attacked since 9-11”. WHAT!? WHAT THE HELL!
What kind of mind numbingly narrowminded warmonger bullshit artist do you have to be to say something like that? It appears to me that America is being attacked everyday and Americans are dying everyday. We are being attacked far more than ever and have far more people that are willing and want to attack us. Of course the people that spew the we aren't being attacked line are the ones that try to demonstrate their jingoist piety and try to smear the other side with one of their other bumper sticker lines “support the troops”. It's things like this that make me wretch in disgust at the deadly clowns on the radical right. It is why I can have no respect whatsoever for them or their pronouncements. Just what do they believe in and will it change when we have a different president? History say yes. They have no core and no care about anything but building up their own chest puffing false pride and phony superiority. The same thing has happened to me when it comes to the evangelical so called Christians. I would never want to be a part of their religion. I find their hypocrisy and false piety stomach turning. If you want to honor Jesus be a blessed peacemaker for they will be called the sons of God. If you want to support our troops then don't forget them and the lives they have sacrificed and the attacks that they face everyday of their life....however long that life lasts.

What Do We Do For Our Economy?

2008-01-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

How do we fix our economy? Let me tell you, 300 dollars of candy or election year bribe money is not going to fix it. That kind of stuff comes from the mind of people that want to look like they are doing something while they avoid the big things that need to be done. The overriding problem is people don't make enough to raise a family even when they work hard. Here's some ideas on some things that could make a major difference in that area.

1) Universal health care that takes 5-10% of our GDP instead of 15-20 %(and rising every year).
A foreign car company recently looked at locating in the US. Even with huge tax breaks they opted to go to Canada because their universal health care was more valuable to the company than all the tax breaks. I know the right knee jerks universal health care but if they have an idea that will work better lets hear it. It sure isn't health savings accounts or trusting our money to the wonderful stock market. I'm not up for gaming my health care dollars.

2.) Take the tax bonuses away from the giant multinational corporations and give them to small or medium small businesses. Give this to them primarily and largely to assist them in giving pay raises. These are the people and the businesses that drive the economy and will encourage more local and regional businesses that are full U. S. businesses benefiting the people that live in the area instead of China or India or New York or LA.

3). Change the playing field in trade and give the advantages to wholly U. S. companies. Encourage revival of the manufacturing base of the country so we can provide for ourselves independently as a country. Manufacturing provides jobs for those who aren't college material or suited for white collar or service work. A job where they can work and earn a living for them and their family and take pride in what they do. . The manufacturing skills these people have may be vital to our country someday.

4.)Invest in alternative energy in a big way. A very big way. Set speed records on becoming energy independent. Patents on U.S. innovation is something that can bring money back to our country instead of sending it somewhere else. Manufacture of these technologies provides jobs and will save consumers money, clean the environment and excite young people about science and learning again.

There is a brief synopsis, not intended to be complete, on what we can do beyond rebate candy and tax cut bumper sticker campaigns. The mindless idiocy of our political dialog is infuriating to me. I blame Rush and Sean and little orphan Annie for much of our national stupidity. Some day I hope we have talk show hosts that will stimulate the mind instead treating it as some kind of rah, rah, no brain needed, sporting event. Some day I have hope we will have leaders in both parties that want to think and come up with real answers to the problems we face instead of acting just to look like they are doing something.. Right now they are hard to find on either side of the aisle.

Recession? It's All Because Of Those Lazy Welfare Bums!

2008-01-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Here is what the right is posting as serious problem solving..Short version, give the rich and business people more money and let the poor go to hell cuz we all know the reason they are poor is because they are lazy and just want to suck off the government teat. Yep, I bet they are the ones living the gooooood life. Obviously these people have no idea what it is like to be poor or how or why people get there.
Here's the post from the right wing web site:

Remember, this is a STIMULUS package...
So why is 30% of the "stimulus" package going to people who don't pay any taxes?
How is giving them 300 bucks going to help the economy?
How does taking from the people who pay all the taxes and giving it to people who make almost no money and pay no taxes help the economy?
Then you have Dems who want more food stamps and unemployment added in...
How does that help the economy?
I know, I know...you have to keep buy votes Dems, keep more and more people dependant on you...but for those who actually care about the betterment of this country and the SUCCESS of its people, giving more hand-outs does nothing...
They did give some tax cuts for business, yes, those evil souls who give people jobs.
If you really want to stimulate the economy, you make the Bush tax cuts permanent, cut taxes even more, and get more people less dependant on the federal government

Here is my response:
I was agreeing with you til the end. This plan is total bunkum, regardless of who's idea it is.
Bush tax cuts..ya how are those working out? Seems to me the economy is tanking. Yes, I know there are other factors but if your only idea is cut taxes then you have few ideas and have not thought this through at all. Cut taxes, over and over and over again is not a plan, it's a bumper sticker. ..

you want people off government assistance?
Give people,that are WILLING to work(I know many people and virtually none are opposed to working) jobs that pay people a decent wage. You know, reward them for their effort instead of asking them for everything and getting little in return. The redistribution of our wealth to the already wealthy must end if we are all to have a shot at the American dream. If one is willing to work then they ought to be able to make a decent living. There are fewer and fewer jobs that make it possible anymore. Two incomes are almost a necessity for a family. Thats not right. At one time(within my lifetime) if a girl got pregnant a guy could go to work at the gas station and support his family. Can't do that now.
It's not about the pittance the poor,or the lazy as you see them, get from the government that is the problem. It is the business climate that makes it impossible to work and make a decent living. It is all the low priced illegal low wage labor flooding into the country depressing the wage base. There are many factors here.
There is much to do and to just say tax cut is a total cop out used by people that are to shallow to think.

They Want To Kill Us All Damn It!

2008-01-11T00:08:00.000-07:00

I am quite despondent that not only have I lost my party but there is no intelligent loyal opposition left. I can't even count on them.

Entitled Death and the moonbat, here's another great example of how the radical right uses wedges to split people and set them against each other, be it pro, anti war, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, left or right. It's all a war with them. Divisions r us gop. I believe in God and have a strong spiritual base. I have little to do, or desire for religion though. It is a highly personal thing to me. If it makes you a better person I say go for it. I say this because I am not intentionally defending atheists in this posts. I just want you to look at how narrow minded these people are. (Winger in italics, my comments in standard). Click the headline for the original post.

....People who do not have a religion have no comforting philosophy about death, whether the philosophy is an immediate ascension to Heaven, resurrection on Judgment Day, or reincarnation. All they’ve got, when thinking of death, is plenty of nothing. For that reason, while it is human nature to fear dying (otherwise, how would the species survive?), the atheists among us have a particularly well-developed fear of death.

Or maybe they don't fear going to hell or it's equivalent like the religious do. Please go ahead with your particularly well developed fearful argument that they want to kill us all.

I think this fear of death has a significant impact on the war against Islamic terrorism.

Well of coouurse!

First, the atheists, who tend to the secular, anti-War Left, do not take the Islamists very seriously. They know, of course, that Islamists can and do kill, but they keep thinking that, if we in the West could just strike upon the magic formula of apology and empathy, the Islamists’ hostility will magically cease.

Either that or they think that if we left them alone to develop their own countries and governments. Countries that represented their people instead of ours, they would have so much to deal with that they wouldn't have time or the need to worry about what we are doing.

Part of this willful obtuseness is almost certainly the fact that, historical evidence to the contrary, atheists simply cannot understand a culture that is not only unafraid of death, but embraces it. They can’t wrap their minds around the fact that a few groveling apologies from an uninspiring middle aged woman parading in pink is nothing compared to the allure of luscious virgins draped around you in an eternal Paradise. Atheists, staring fearfully at their post-death nihilism, are incapable of grasping how strong a draw those nubile virgins are to men steeped in a culture that celebrates dying and the rewards of death.

Maybe historical evidence to the contrary they remember that Japan started running darned short of Kamikaze pilots at the end of the war. It wasn't because we killed them first. If you would like to justify insanity as a movement I guess that is your right but you might want to consider whether it is a movement or if something more juuust might be at play here.......Over here, please open your envelope. “obtuseness” and everything. I bet they learned that one from Bill O Riley.

Second, the secularists utterly fail to understand our military. Thankfully, our military is not a culture that is steeped in or embraces death. It is a religious culture, though, with the majority of military men and women embracing some form of Christian faith. Indeed, 40% of Americans in the military describe themselves as Evangelical.

“the secularists utterly fail to understand our military.”
I love how rightist always tell you how YOU think. Even if you explain yourself or deny it they know the truth is only as they see it. It truly is ALL in their head.
The military is a religious culture? We believe this? We want this? No cussing, drinking, sex, killing, coveting et al allowed if you are Evangelicals. How stupid does someone have to be to think like this wingnut? All talk and no action works for only a short time.

Christianity, of course, doesn’t encourage suicide, but it is a religion with a comprehensively realized theology about the afterlife. For those in the line of fire, that theology may not diminish the fear of dying, which is often an unpleasant process, but it must bring with it a more comforting view of death than the void atheists face. In other words — and feel free to correct me here — I’m supposing that, while our troops do not want to die, they have a philosophy that supports them as they contemplate the possibility.

Wait....... Wait!!!!!!!! So now you are moving to saying our military is filled with people who can die bravely because they are content with what awaits them???? Isn't that the whole argument you just moments ago made AGAINST the “Islamist” and why they should be greatly feared? Have you pasted the 8^th grade yet? Do you ever leave the envelope?

And just as the atheists on the Left cannot recognize how fiercely the Islamists embrace a martyr’s death, creating a complete willingness to die to achieve that Paradise, so too are they incapable of recognizing that many, if not most, of our troops are more sanguine about the inevitability of death than the average atheist. Indeed, it’s probably the fact that they are sanguine that helped them enlist in the first place. People who fear death too much wouldn’t expose themselves to the inevitably increased risk that goes with military service.

Actually you are willing to give you little argument that swims in cognitive dissonance in the very same paragraph! You've now twisted the logic so far that it no longer exists.

It’s this inability to bridge the gap between their own beliefs and the beliefs of others that leads our secular Leftists to don their silly pink clothes and try to save adult men and women from freely made choices that the pink-clad non-believers would never make for themselves. At one level, you have to appreciate the anti-War crowds’ kindness in trying to save others from that which they fear the most (assuming that they are indeed motivated by that goal); at the other level, you really have to worry about their complete inability to imagine the mind of the “other,” and to recognize that people guided by religious beliefs (or the absence thereof) make choices and get to abide by the consequences.

Well, one would have to agree that atheists feared death more than the religious to accept any of this as valid. Then you would have to believe that atheists make up a large percentage of the left. Only someone who could not bridge the gap between their own beliefs and the beliefs of other could make such an absolute statement, then build a separate argument about terrorism out of it. I think they call it “reaching” in the real world. Or maybe “straw man” would be more accurate. Create something for the express purpose of knocking it down.

Beyond that, what is in the above rightist paragraph is a mystery to me. I guess you need to speak wingnut better than even I do to translate it. I know the people on the left understand that the people killed in these conflicts are not the only ones effected. As a matter of fact it is likely harder for those that go on living without their loved ones. The people on the left also understand that applies to both sides, or all sides. I know the left understands lowering the bar to the level of those we despise is the undoing of humanity its self.

Osama Yer Mama

2007-12-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, Make of this what you want. Here is an interview David Frost did with Benazir Bhutto after the attack on her when she first returned to the country a few months ago.

If you watch about 6 minutes in you will hear her talk about the man that murdered Osama Bin Laden. Really, I'm not kidding. Even stranger, don't you think that remark begs for a follow up question? What the hell is that about ?! Yes I know it could be all kinds of things. I'm just sayin.

Right and Left Agree

2007-12-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog knows I would be a long way from a John Bircher. However ,if our goals should sometimes match I am more than happy to join them in a cause. Let's see what a consistant conservative says. Here

Warrantless Wiretapping

2007-12-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

Cowards are trying to destroy our country. It's time for the brave to stand up and stop them. Is it Impechment yet?

Warrantless Wiretapping
N.S.A. officials met with the Qwest executives in February 2001 and asked for more access to their phone system for surveillance operations, according to people familiar with the episode. The company declined, expressing concerns that the request was illegal without a court order.

While Qwest’s refusal was disclosed two months ago in court papers, the details of the N.S.A.’s request were not. The agency, those knowledgeable about the incident said, wanted to install monitoring equipment on Qwest’s “Class 5” switching facilities, which transmit the most localized calls. Limited international traffic also passes through the switches.

.....“What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”

....“Congress shouldn’t grant amnesty to companies that broke the law by conspiring to illegally spy on Americans” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington.

4th amendment to the US Constitution.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

For those of you that are saying..but, but, but.....

Warrantless ''National Security'' Electronic Surveillance .--In Katz v. United States,
.......The Government's duty to preserve the national security did not override the guarantee that before government could invade the privacy of its citizens it must present to a neutral magistrate evidence sufficient to support issuance of a warrant authorizing that invasion of privacy. 153 This protection was even more needed in ''national security cases'' than in cases of ''ordinary'' crime, the Justice continued, inasmuch as the tendency of government so often is to regard opponents of its policies as a threat and hence to tread in areas protected by the First Amendment as well as by the Fourth. 154 Rejected also was the argument that courts could not appreciate the intricacies of investigations in the area of national security nor preserve the secrecy which is required.
Whenever a telephone line is tapped, the privacy of the persons at both ends of the line is invaded and all conversations between them upon any subject . . . may be overheard.'' Id. At 475-76.

OK, What part of that is unclear to our Congress(Democrat and Republican) and the radical right who are so scared that they would give up our freedom.
I don't know about you but I am far more scared of losing our freedom from the inside than the outside. Terrorists will never take away our freedom. They can only scare some enough to push us to give it up ourselves. The cowards who support these acts should be ashamed to call themselves United States citizens.

If you are interested in how to lose, or perserve our democracy then you will be interested in this video presentation. It's about 45 minutes long. If you are in a hurry you can jump to 9 minutes in. If you are really in a hurry jump to about 40 minutes in.

More Radical Right Wingnuttery

2007-12-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

Remember that silly vote condemning Rush Limbaugh? The one that resulted from that silly vote to condemn Move On? Here we go again.

The Christmas measure was approved 372-9 on Tuesday night. ......"I think there's an anti-Christian bias," said Rep. Steve King, who sponsored the resolution. "I would not have thought that five or 10 years ago that we'd need to make a statement" affirming the importance of Christmas and Christianity.
King's resolution stated that Christianity was the predominant faith in the United States and contributed greatly to the development of the country and Western civilization.

What the hell!? First of all the congress should not be involved in our personal religious rituals at all. Be it Ramadan or Christianity or whatever. That said, to think the religion that, by majority , totally dominates our life and culture is a victim of somekind is just childish. Steve King is apparently is looking to build up brownie points or wants to be honored as an authoritarian hero or something. Well I won't be worshiping Steve King anytime soon. His guilt trip(which this measure obviously is) doesn't work on me. I will retain my right as an citizen of the United States to address people with happy holidays if I want. I will celebrate the season as Christmas or winter solstice or not at all as I choose. THAT is what Real America is about.

The authoritarians are turning to the ridiculous and are about to get a big slap down. It will be a shock to their chest thumping ego to realize that people see them as little more than a goof cult. It will be good for them though because they are much more comfortable in the minority. The entire last 25 years of conservative rule has been framed as some kind of minority struggle against the liberal media and all the other contrived enemies they can find. They have no idea how to act as a majority or a leader, even when they are in that position. They are always the victim of horrible forces that are trying to bring them down.

For his part, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) delivered a bemused but impassioned plea, stating "I really do not understand what we are doing today. I do not understand why we need to set up a straw man just to knock it down, to protect the symbols of Christmas as if they were under attack . Did something happen when I was not looking? Did somebody mug Santa Claus? Is somebody engaging in elf tossing?"
Ackerman"s more serious comments highlighted the hypocrisy underlying the "symbolic" Republican resolution saying that:
"If you wanted to protect the message of Christmas, come to the floor with real bills with substance. Where is your bill to house the homeless? Where is your bill to feed the needy? Where is your bill to clothe the naked? Where is your bill to protect senior citizens who will not be able to heat their homes this winter? Where is the substance? Why are we engaging, in this terrible time in which we are in, in symbolism? We can be doing something meaningful. Where is the bill for real health care? Where is the bill to educate the children that we really are leaving behind? We are not doing any of those things. I think we could be doing so much more instead of feeding the flames that divide us instead of bringing us together. . . .

Congressman Dingell (D-MI) expressed his with a poem excerpted here:

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the House, no bills were passed `bout which Fox News could grouse.
Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer so vacations in St. Barts soon should be near
Katrina kids were all nestled snug in motel beds while visions of school and home danced in their heads.
In Iraq, our soldiers need supplies and a plan,and nuclear weapons are being built in Iran.
Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell.Americans feared we were in a fast track to ..... well.
Wait, we need a distraction, something divisive and wily, a fabrication straight from the mouth of O'Reilly.
We will pretend Christmas is under attack,hold a vote to save it, then pat ourselves on the back. . . .
What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy when this is the season to unite us with joy.
At Christmastime, we're taught to unite.We don't need a made-up reason to fight.

Done Jumped The Shark, Them Republicans

2007-12-08T21:39:00.001-07:00

JUMP THE SHARK: The precise moment when you know a program, band, actor, politician, or other public figure has taken a turn for the worse, gone downhill, become irreversibly bad, is unredeemable, etc.; the moment you realize decay has set in.

The radical right in this country has finally completed jumping the shark in my own mind. By that I mean how much respect and deference I could give their ideas and positions. They are irreversibly bad, unredeemable.

I understand how important it is to recognize other viewpoints; from a practical view and from an intellectual level. It goes without saying that a loyal opposition is a necessary balance to any thriving democracy.

For those reasons I say with honest sadness that they have completely and totally alienated me. As much as I hope for it(loyal opposition) and even thrive on it in some ways, the loyal opposition is neither loyal nor anything I could take seriously as intellectual or informed opposition. As a matter of fact they have caused me to abhor them and their unrepentant hypocrisy , bullying and pulling the wool over ones eyes so far that it has become threadbare. They are now little more than cult.

As described thusly:

Three ideas seem essential to the concept of a cult. One is thinking in terms of us versus them with total alienation from "them." The second is the intense, though often subtle, indoctrination techniques used to recruit and hold members. The third is the charismatic cult leader. Cultism usually involves some sort of belief that outside the cult all is evil and threatening; inside the cult is the special path to salvation through the cult leader and his teachings. The indoctrination techniques include

Subjection to stress and fatigue
2) Social disruption, isolation and pressure
3) Self criticism and humiliation
4) Fear, anxiety, and paranoia
5) Control of information
6) Escalating commitment
7) Use of auto-hypnosis to induce "peak" experiences

Well, I'm not sure who the charismatic cult leader is and 6 and 7 are arguable but beyond that, here we are. And it's not just Bush and Cheney, watch a republican debate some night.

I'm not joining the cult. I just have no ability to take them seriously anymore. By take seriously I mean, tell me what they want to do and why they think it is the right thing to do. A little honesty would be nice but we must remember this is politics. Even with that caveat I can't take them seriously when they tell me what they want to do. The entire conservative movement has been reduced to a bunch of Rovian deflectors and dividers. Their secrecy is for your own good you know? Their reasons on why it is the right thing, whatever the issue, have been reduced to fear and guilt. In my mind their nonsense never evolved as the world did. By entertaining new ideas and thoughts they may have evolved their nonsense into something that was intellectually acceptable but as the evidence proves them wrong, or at least not the full answer they keep insisting on and on with the same old tired bullshit that most people walked through years ago.

The world is a different place than it was 10 years ago. That is not just because of 9/11 but just because the world is always a different place 10 years out. It's quite natural. Unfortunately,at any time, the most important thing for the authoritarians to have is huge threatening enemy. It gives the leaders an opportunity to play hero and and those that follow them to think they are following the hero, that they are among the chosen, be it spiritual or political. You are so lucky you aren't one of those liberals or communists or Islamists or Mexicans and on and on. Instead you are the only ones gifted with the true way as told by pastor Rush or Pastor Anne.

Now, the threats are everywhere, just like they have always been. We need to approach our problems with reason and with the attitude that will build the respect and admiration that we aspire to as a nation. Under those terms, which are admittedly my own, the radical republicans have turned the conservative ideal into a disgusting crime on the country and humanity in it's self.

I guess I should explain my understanding of the conservative ideal. Barry Goldwater. Today it would be far closer to Libertarian Ron Paul than it would nearly any Republican you can mention. I wouldn't vote for either one of them but I do respect them. At one time the Republicans supported Teddy Roosevelt. I would joyously vote for him before anyone on either side that is running.

We have actually lived through the radical rights plan and ideas and I think we are worse off for it. Far worse off. They had their chance and this is what they chose to do with it. Nope, not for me. I have no doubt. It's time to evolve ideas.

What is the last straw for me? Welcome to John(jumped the shark at birth) Bolton:

A few tasty tidbits:

U.S. intelligence services were seeking to influence political policy-making with their assessment Iran had halted its nuclear arms program in 2003, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said.

Ok, their purpose is to provide intelligence for political decision making, right? How much influence it has is pretty much up to the politicians. We pay a lot of people a lot of tax dollars to do it. I am sure of that. The President appoints most or all of the directors or leaders of those agencies so how good or bad it is is largely influenced by the President. I guess John thinks the Presidents appointments suck.

"This is politics disguised as intelligence," Bolton was quoted as saying

Whatever John agrees with is intelligence. The rest is politics. Nothing else is a factor for radical righters like John. This is how it always is for them. Of course they will tell you the stakes couldn't be higher if we are wrong and the rightists are correct. While that may be true the stakes are just as high if they are wrong. Experience tells us as much.

On issue after issue they breed division and hate for the unaligned. It's odd to me that the rightists would talk about their opponents having bds(bush derangement syndrome for you neophytes) when it is actually the way they think.

The left and many thinking people who are not left hate Bushes policies. If they speak of Bush they speak of him as it relates to his role as decider or commander in chief.

Those in the radical right hate the people and have little desire to discuss policy. I could list example after example of how they are everything they pretend to hate. Recently: We can't waste time on unending hearings but we really need one to see what is wrong with our intelligence. This from people who would have fought any investigation tooth and nail if it adhered to their desired scenario. A mirror would be the scariest thing they could see. They mask personality politics as intelligent discussion. They pay lip service to an issue only long enough to smear and deride an individual or group associated with it. Anyone who has listened to Rush or watched Fox knows their shtick well. In the world that says negative politics works they have turned it into their entire public policy.

I guess us regulars are just not sophisticated enough to understand all that policy stuff. I don't know how sophisticated I am but I know that the radical right bores me to tears. You know, health care has more involved in it than Hillary Clinton. Global warming is bigger that Al Gore. It's the principals (values) involved that are important. Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson were not those values. They are purely symbols that are used to divide us.

There has never been a lack of things to fear. Terrorism has been around far longer than 9/11/2001, even in the United States. Battles and wars have been fought within our shores a number of times.

We as a country for many years advanced and grew at a rate the envy of the all of those except the ones afraid of the future. It's our choice. We'll either accept the people that prefer dumbing it down to crayons and pictures of bad guys for all those simpletons they see out there, or insist on those that are accepting the challenges of thinking broadly enough to make a rational decision that works for the greater good.

Quotes

2007-12-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Senator John Edwards:"The new National Intelligence Estimate shows that George Bush and Dick Cheney's rush to war with Iran is, in fact, a rush to war.

Unknown: When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Resist Unconstitutional, Unrepresentitive Government

2007-10-28T14:02:00.000-06:00

In the post below this one I have admonished the Democratic Party as not being much of a party. I think the same is true of the Republicans. The problem to me is the Democrats have abandoned the Progressives and liberals and the Republicans have abandoned the Conservatives.

I know many of us have said for quite some time that the people in power are not conservatives. This article from Salon is the absolute best I have seen on the topic in some time. So elegantly put that it should absolutely be read in full context. It is rather long (2 web pages) but well worth the time. It's Here. For those that never click here is a condensed version:

Bush's presidency has made a shambles of real conservatism. Let's leave aside the issues on which liberals and conservatives can be expected to disagree, like his tax cuts for the rich, expansion of Medicare or his position on immigration, and focus solely on ones that should be above partisan rancor -- ones involving the Constitution and all-American values. On issue after Mom-and-apple-pie issue, from authorizing torture to approving illegal wiretapping to launching a self-destructive war, Bush has done incalculable damage to conservative principles -- far more, in fact, than any recent Democratic president. And he has been supported every step of the way by Republicans in Congress, who have voted in lockstep for his radical policies. None of the major Republican candidates running for office have repudiated any of Bush's policies. They simply promise to execute them better.

......How did the party of Lincoln end up marching under the banner of Tom DeLay and Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter?

...........the moral impulse of conservatism has from the outset been caught in a welter of self-contradiction. When the Judeo-Christian injunction to help the less fortunate collides with the "I've got mine, Jack" ethos of Ayn Rand individualism, selfishness inevitably triumphs. Crony capitalism, corruption and unchecked greed have been the inevitable result. As a result, conservative morality in practice has been squeezed into an ever smaller, ever more theocentric core. The fact that the Christian right claims to stand at the pinnacle of American virtue is grotesque, but it's the logical consequence of the shriveling of conservative morality.

........If it happened under Bush, Iran-Contra wouldn't even make Page A-18. Reagan covertly funded a guerrilla operation in an inconsequential Central American country. Bush covertly and duplicitously laid the groundwork for one of the longest and most expensive wars in American history. Bush declared that habeas corpus, a magnificent cornerstone of Western law, did not apply to those he designated, without judicial review, "enemy combatants." He claimed the right to lock those individuals up forever, without allowing them to bring their case before a jury. He made torture official U.S. policy, and was directly responsible for the American-run torture factory at Abu Ghraib. His approval of warrantless wiretapping constitutes perhaps the most serious frontal attack on the right of privacy enshrined in the Fourth Amendment in American history. He has made unprecedented use of "signing statements" to disobey laws he disagrees with, marginalizing Congress in the process. His radical theory of the "unitary executive" runs roughshod over the balance-of-powers doctrine that has guided American governance since the Founders.

........These Bush policies all represent a direct assault on the U.S. Constitution, long-established legal and political traditions, and accepted American values -- in short, on the heart and soul of American civic life. If American conservatism will not take its stand in defense of these things, what will it take a stand for? The answer, sadly, is nothing -- or rather, nothing except power. But power devoid of moral content is precisely what genuine conservatism should reject.

.......The fact that conservatives have given Bush a pass on his disastrous Iraq war, and on the radical domestic policies that have accompanied it, indicates that the shelf life of the toxic right-wing mythologies that led to McCarthyism has not expired -- even though the dusty vials containing those myths are now almost 50 years old. ......By attacking Iraq, Bush made up for all those decades of compromise and weakness, all that Neville Chamberlain-like appeasement, that groveling accommodation with evil. This time, we're nuking the bastards! .....In the age of Bush, even the conservatives' much-vaunted moral clarity does not always bear close inspection. A Pew poll taken in March found that only 18 percent of self-described conservative Republicans believed that torture was never justified. Who was it who said, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all ... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good"? It must be one of those damn liberals.*

.......Party loyalty is based on a willingness to support even a flawed leader and party in the interests of a higher goal. But there can be times when that leader and party are so injurious to one's deepest moral values and beliefs that it becomes irrelevant what banner they march under. At such moments, those who think for themselves, who are guided by principle and not mere expediency, who are true conservatives -- or liberals -- and not just partisan hacks, will break with their leaders. They will rebel.

Precisely...One of the best things I have heard in some time is that in many other countries it is the government who is afraid of the people and not the people afraid of the government.
The fact is if you are guided by principles I see no way you could be happy with either party now. I am not sure whose principles are guiding the party these days. I think it is the corporatocracy but that is admittedly me from the perspective of populism. What ever principles are guiding our leaders today we should all be rebelling. It's time to claim our country again. Regardless of party, Be the resistance, make them represent YOU.

Not terrorists or nearly any other thing you could mention could make me fear for the future of The United States as this.

Your Country? My Country? Our Country?

2007-10-28T14:00:00.000-06:00

The country is so divided right now there are a number of secessionist movements going on. You can read about it here. Their are a lot of people who are not happy. I think it is a good topic for conversation. Frankly if the policy is no habeus corpus, warrantless wiretaps, torture el al are going to be the policy I am ready to succeed. In view of that I have divided the country, respecting as much as possible political views and geographical unity:

People that want to live in George Bush, Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh world get:

Texas

Arkansas

Louisiana

Oklahoma

Kansas

Mississippi

Alabama

Tennessee

Kentucky

Florida

Georgia

N.Carolina

S.Carolina

West Virginia

Virginia

Utah

Wyoming

Montana

N.Dakota

S. Dakota

Nebraska

Indiana

Michigan

Ohio

Alaska

People that want to live in Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Keith Olberman, Randi Rhodes world would get:

Maryland

Delaware

Pennsylvania

New Jersey

Connecticut

Rhode Island

Massachusetts

New York

Vermont

New Hampshire

Maine

Washington

Idaho

Oregon

California

Arizona

Nevada

New Mexico

Colorado

Illinois

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Iowa

Missouri

Hawaii

This would give each sea and earth, rural and suburban.

Well, if this is what you want to do this is my proposal. Either that or we can have a national conversation on what this country is and what it should stand for. That is the root of our political dilemma.

I would suggest the latter but as I said if you want to do what is being done to our country now I want no part of it. I am that adamant.

Random Thoughts

2007-10-27T00:44:00.000-06:00

I'm way behind here. Seems like life keeps getting in the way.

Pete Stark was forced to apologize. That is sad. He said nothing that wasn't reasonably true. I guess the wingnuts were incensed most about the “getting their heads blown off for the Presidents pleasure” or some words to that effect. Gee, I remember back in the old days when the President attended the White House correspondents dinner. He was joking, with film and all, about “nope, no wmd here, nope no wmd there.” Even Barney went hunting. So he lies us into a war, or being overly fair, got us into a war where the rationale turned out to be wrong. Our young men and women were getting their heads blown off over it and he was making jokes about it. That would be his amusement to me. Not much of anything else Stark said was even debated. What Pete said was not out of line at all and I am wildly upset with the so called leadership for forcing him to recant. The fact that the Democrats let the reactionary conservatives stomp all over them over and over again makes me ashamed to call myself a Democrat. I have been promising to change my registration for some time now and if I could still vote in a primary I would do it tomorrow. I am sick of the weak kneed people in the Democratic party. That would be the entire leadership sans Howard Dean. They talk big and roll over damned near every time.

The SCHIP program continues to be debated. The best I can figure the plan from the right is: There is nothing in it for me so I am against it. ..Either that or ,every man (and child) for himself. This is honestly how they feel. I was talking about this with Dianne, my calmer half, the other day. She made the point that the “rugged individualism” is deeply ingrained in US culture. She is absolutely right. The problem, to me, is that this is not the wild west anymore. A family farmer can't grow his own food and support his life and family(monetarily) on the farm anymore. Corporations have taken over. You can't make a living as a hunter or trapper. You can't stake a claim on land and mine gold or other ores and make a living. Things are far different today and circumstances insist on a sense of community and working together to survive. Many will say that the liberals with all their laws and regulations are what “ruined” things. Yes it does sometimes get excessive. The fact is we would have never survived as a country minus much of it. Lazzie- Faire capitalism would have resulted in wage slaves(we are nearing that again) Monopolies(we are nearing that again) and dirty water and air with death and disease rampant. We would have an aristocracy ruling the surfs(we are nearing that again). The Constitution is meant to protect all the people and not just the ones with money. I believe in health care not just for kids but universal care for all. Every other major and some many minor countries have it. Many say people come here to get health care. The fact remains that the overwhelming majority in all these countries get their care in country. If you did a poll you would find they wouldn't trade their health care system for ours, ever. Mainly because they are just like most of us. They couldn't afford it. I have heard the cons make arguments that universal health care would be more expensive. Their arguments are wildly easy to dispute and hold water about as well as a screen door.

I saw a story the other day that said over a billion dollars was missing from the Dynacorp contract. This is far from the first billion that is unaccounted for. It has been my belief from the beginning that this is the primary reason for this war. Make a whole bunch of money turn up missing. I have said to people, some in the know some not, they are robbing you blind. And in so many ways. Some get it some don't. Some think the tin foil hat is on but the facts are out there for all to see. Follow the money. At least the money you can account for. Ask Republican Dwight Eisenhower about it. He could tell you what's up.

More from the war front. Bush wants tens of billions more. He says, in so many words, give me my money or you will all die. I am so tired of this fear and guilt mongering I could strangle somebody. I'm not afraid and I have absolutely no guilt about my position. I wish more democrats in power would think and act like that. The President has additionally said that the Turks should not invade Iraq. That is ironic on its face. Especially after the Turks were actually attacked by people living in Iraq. To say nothing of the fact that they share a border. I guess we are the only country that is right to invade other countries.

Finally, I am so tired of the line the right throws out that the congress is more unpopular than the President. They say it like they have no idea why. If the Democrats weren't doing exactly what the Republicans want them to do(in the final vote) they would be far more popular. That stat says nothing except the stance of Republicans, which the congress, democratic control or not, has voted for over and over again, is extremely unpopular.

Yes there is much more. Hopefully we will get to it soon. Keep fighting for the citizens of the United States.

Coffee Table

2007-10-19T08:34:00.000-06:00

Please consider signing this petition to stop the preemptive attack on our constitution. I know that all the writing and calling and petitions and marches have done nothing. I have pretty much given up on that tack myself but we really need to do SOMETHING to save our constitution. Go here

Please comment on what is important to you.

Living The American Dream

2007-10-14T15:59:00.000-06:00

Once again back to the land where all problems are someone elses fault and the solution is to do........nothing cuz I've got mine!

(from another blog) This is my response to:

You know what..I'm okay with this, almost.If congress was going to get rid of the AMT and therefore CUT about 200 million dollars a year of failed liberal social programs that create a permanent underclass of government dependant losers, I would say go for it.

-------------------------------

....this is the place where many of you burn my ass. You are SO HATEFUL of poor people. I know your knee will jerk and you will say I just don't understand what you are saying but you should look at your self again. After watching you and others here for sometime now I can no longer buy that. You would say you hate the liberals or the liberal principals that fail and cause this, right? Nope, your theory always includes them getting up off their ass or how they are lazy or cons or losers or criminals or minorities(immigration). For someone who inevitably works with them I would think you would know better. You find them a scourge not someone to be lifted. Yes, again, I know that you work with and try to help some of these people. Kudos, I do wonder if some of this comes from your personal frustration on the seeming lack of an answer to this problem.

There are things in nature that dominate over others. There are animals at the top of the chain and animals at the bottom. Some are more skilled than others and some are skilled at different things than other. These are inevitable facts of all living things. Nature, according to Darwin sorts this out with survival of the fittest. We humans are suppose to be a thinking higher order. In this lies the morality in which most liberals look at the poor people. To put a survival of the fittest mentality to the human race seems a bit less than civilized to most liberals. Social Darwinism is unacceptable. For our lives to have value we should care about others, have a sense of community and add to the stream of life. That is a liberal mindset. For a conservatives life to have value more is based on individual achievement being the key. There lies the crux of our differences. Yes, there are lazy people that suck off the teat of the government(us). There are also wealthy people that do the same thing.

The fact is that with differently skilled people we need to have a diverse economy. The end of the unions and industrial capability is not only a national security problem, it is a huge economic and social problem too. Many people who could do that work made a good living that was far preferable to the alternatives. It takes certain skills to do that work and it takes certain skills to be a Nasa rocket scientist. All of those people contribute to the capability and vibrantness of our nation. When we import low priced labor, bring down the wages of laborers and ship good, American Dream jobs, overseas. ..that is bad policy. It leaves the poorest among us few options toward a good life. A possible solution would be for us to take the lead in alternative energy and new technologies. Smart and mechanically skilled(all segments of the population) people would be necessary for the development and manufacture of the products.

I and, I am sure, nearly all liberals, agree that lazy people should get off their ass and go to work. As noted above a contribution to community in general is a liberal golden rule. To think one persons experience or life should match that of someone else is idiocy. We all need help in different areas of our lives. Is the way we are trying to solve the problem now the best way? Maybe not. I know some things that have happened(as noted above) will make it a harder problem to solve. We might want to start buy throwing away the shovel.

By the way, do you know what welfare programs and entitlements for the poor cost as a percentage of the budget? If you consider Social Security and Medicare/medicaid as a part then much of it. Take those two out though and it is 2%. About what we give to foreign countries in financial aid in a year. If you love our country you MUST care for the people in it because they are the country.

A Trip To The Alternate Universe

2007-10-13T13:20:00.000-06:00

Trying to force anything but name calling and snark out of so called adults is awfully hard to do these days. Thank Rush Limbaugh for turning this into what passes for serious debate these days. There may be no better issue to illustrate this than the global warming debate and resultant Al Gore debate. When framed outside of the right wing talking points few would take the challenge. Those that did still tried to fit it into their party approved talking points rather than expanding their frame of vision. Welcome to black and white...and on we traipse to the land of good and evil.......

Ron: I have a very basic question for the rightists. One I would guess they can't answer. What scares you about accepting global warming? Yes, I believe in reality and I would hope through it all we could find the truth. The question remains what would happen that would be so negative if we took action to fight global warming? I am amazed that this is never a part of the debate. What are you scared would happen? I don't get it. I'm willing to bet you on the right don't either. You knee jerked and you jumped on the bandwagon with your cut and paste facts and never looked back.

Rightist: What would happen? How about higher taxes, more government regulation and control. How about a really bad economy with lower productivity and higher prices.
Oh, I forgot, that would be a socialist paradice!! Never mind, that's what you are trying to achieve, isn't it?

Ron: And how do you come to these conclusions mark? I can theorize on your taxes and regulation remark. That is a point we could discuss later. I have no idea what you are talking about when you speak of bad economy, lower productivity and higher prices. As a matter of fact on these issues I see exactly the opposite. What picture do you see that makes these things likely?

Rightist: That is basically what will happen as a result of trying to regulate things which emit CO2. I for one don't trust the federal government with even half the power it has now. They horribly mismanage most of the things they do and are corrupted at every possible opportunity. I can see restrictions on CO2 emitters being strict and limiting for the average person and then totally disregarded fro groups like power companies, manufacturers, and automakers who are rich enough to buy political clout. It seems like a generally crippling and draining situation for the average person.

Another Rightist: If companies are forced by the government to cut back on "greenhouse gases" and pay higher taxes, it WILL cut productivity and raise prices. Companies always pass on taxes to the consumer. It's built into the price of everything we buy. Higher taxes on oil companies and gasoline will also slow the economy with higher prices.
Higher taxes always slow the economy. More revenue has come into the federal government since the Bush tax cuts than ever before. The real problem is trying to get these politicians from both parties to stop spending like drunken liberals.

Ron: Ok, but you say government horribly mismanages things. Do corporations do it any better? As a matter of fact aren't a lot of people in big business government people and aren't a lot of political people eventually CEOs, board of directors etc? Yes, some businesses are good and operate efficiently. Some suck and are run by idiots. Most are average. I feel less safe leaving everything to people I have no,even potential, control of. Pure lazzie-faire capitalism is as flawed as total government control. If we are forced to come up with things that emit less CO2 then people will have to be hired to do it. Yes that will cost business but it will also put money in peoples pockets. It will take money from wall street and give it to main street. You do want to reward work, right? Beyond that it is a salable product so it is not like it is a total loss to those that would employ themselves in this endeavor.As far as uneven applications of the law. That's certainly a problem that is likely and one we must continue to address as we go down the road.

New really wingnutty Rightist:

Accepting that the planet is getting warmer is easy. The Poles have been melting for SIX THOUSAND YEARS. We're better off that we were at this climate then, say, 200yrs. ago. There's more food now, less famine, because there's more sunlight.
The most ridiculous thing is trying to convince people that "Man" is causing this nice warming period. especially since all the other planets in the solar system are getting warmer at the same rate as Earth.
The bottom line? The Left rails against "Man-made" global warming why?
POWER
...& all that the word "POWER" implies.
If ELF=Terrorist, Environmentalist=FascistThe Environmental Elite=The Enemy of the poor.
In all seriousness, RONSPRI, I'd invite you to read Michael Crichton's STATE OF FEAR.
I'd also invite you to read the daily editorials from INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY
http://ibdeditorials.com/
Go here, too http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/environment/story.html?id=c6a32614-f906-4597-993d-f181196a6d71&k=0
You're seeing only one side of the argument. The Right sees all sides.
Watch all 11 parts of THE LITTLE ICE AGE from The History Channel on YouTube, then tell me we aren't a lot better off then we were just a few years ago.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aZdZSpkfKG0
"man-made" global warming is the biggest bunch of bullcrap that the counter-culture has ever tried to get over on the consumer.
(Great question -- Thanks for asking.)

Ron: So basically you are fighting the idea of global warming and the things we would do as a result because you think it would lead to inordinate power to be invested in some group you don't like or trust? OK.................Do you think we might get to a little deeper discussion. I see all sides and the point, please don't condescend. The point for me is not which scientist is right. The point, to me, is that we need new technologies and new industries of the future to even compete. We need alternative energy and we could find it very lucrative. Why not do this stuff? Cuz it would give some magical power to somebody you have been taught to hate and distrust? Maybe if we would all start acting like citizens of the same country we could use people power to make this a country that forces the government to be the commonwealth of the people instead of some outside irresistible force.

Update: John Edwards and John McCain have won a couple of environmental endorsements. Edwards from the Friends Of The Earth and McCain from Republicans for Environmental Protection.

Ya, I didn't know there were any either.

Here's what they had to say:

In Concord, the president of Republicans for Environmental Protection toured the New Hampshire Audubon Society with McCain before announcing the endorsement. Martha Marks said the Arizona senator was the only Republican candidate who understands the connection between conservative values and environmental stewardship.
"Senator McCain knows reducing our carbon pollution will improve our security, create jobs in profitable new industries, help farmers and clean up the air in our cities," she said. "More than any other Republican candidate, Senator McCain knows that the fight against climate change is a conservative cause."
McCain said he was honored to receive the endorsement and that he aspires to be as great a conservationist as his role model and fellow Republican, Theodore Roosevelt.
"We Republicans have to restore that reputation of being the lead party in conservation and preservation of our great national treasures," he said.
He said he has seen the effects of global warming firsthand in his travels to the Arctic circle and elsewhere.
"There's no doubt in my mind of the urgency of the issue of climate change," said McCain, who also supports a cap and trade system to lower emissions.

I have studied Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt is a hero of mine and John you are no Teddy Roosevelt.

That said, I have thought since the second debate or so if one of these guys have to win I would rather it be McCain. I still think he is the best possible among those that I wouldn't even think of voting for. Of course I must admit I thought the same thing about Bush. Giuliani and Thompson would be a continuation of our authoritarian nightmare. Romney is not a leader he is a sycophant or at best the dreaded wishy washy politician. Ron Paul is absolutely right on about half of it and absolutely wrong on the other half. Huckabee is a Christiban and doesn't even seem to believe in science. The rest are also rans.

At least the republicans offering the endorsement realise that we can all profit from progress.

The Dumbing Down Of America

2007-10-10T20:33:00.000-06:00

Here's a good look at the level of our discourse in the United States. Personal attacks are bad unless it's the right doing the personal attacking. Then it's investgative journalism. Maybe we should be debating the merits or faults of government vs private healthcare. Somehow we never seem to get to the real issues though. Lots of character examination of any and all people involved but no discussion of the real questions. Strawmen everywhere. I am pretty tired of being patient with personality politics. There is a far more important debate about the values and morals of the various methods of healthcare. Nope we will just talk about this guy and that gal and Joe Wilson and George Soros and Move on and Media Matters and on and on. Ok they all suck now can we talk about the pluses and minuses of various healthcare plans? No wonder this country is falling so far behind on damned near everything. It's time to quit acting stupid people.

I see I am not the only one feeling like this. Here is somebody noting pretty much the same thing.

Support The Troops

2007-10-07T12:58:00.000-06:00

Here is more proof that corporate interests are running our country instead of the people. You would expect this from an uncaring, totally profit driven corporation. Would you expect it from the people of the United States? Who is running the country?

When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge. Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.
Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.
"Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said.
That money would help him pay for his master's degree in public administration. It would help Anderson's fellow platoon leader, John Hobot, pay for a degree in law enforcement. Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730.

These are the gung-ho people that support the troops? These are the people that take such exception to any criticism of our war effort? Let's see, how could we support the troops beyond boisterously proclaiming it and putting a magnetic sticker made in China on our vehicle?

More Than One Kind Of Liberal

2007-10-06T16:13:00.000-06:00

Actually the question is why.

I listen to the podcasts of a number of talk shows. I was listening to Ed Schultz the other day. Ed ,if you aren't familiar with him, is I believe, the most widely circulated liberal show on the radio. He, at the point of this broadcast, is set to have Nancy Pelosi on so this may have been some of his motivation in framing it this way. I was somewhat bothered by what he said non the less.

He said he wasn't going to spend much time on the torture memos. Wait for it ...Because impeachment is off the table. His point was that no matter what Bush did or what memos came out, impeachment is off the table. Bush can do what ever he wants. He said we might as well talk about sports or something because nothing mattered. Impeachment is off the table.

I certainly understand and agree with his point...to a point. I must though admit to a lot of outrage about the way he talked about this. He totally missed the most essential point.

For me impeachment should be done. The main reason it should be done goes deeper though. We want to maintain law and order. We want to preserve a system of democracy that uses all three branches. We want to be seen as a moral and civilized leader. In other words because IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. That people in the rest of the world see that someone in this country stands up for what is right. That we mess up our country but when it goes wrong we fix it.

That would do more to regain our credibility in the world than anything. It would also give the people of the United States a position that we could be far more proud of than the one we currently have. It's about values and morals. While I appreciate what Ed is saying it is not what is most important to me. People absolutely understand the reasons this is being done. What is important to me is that we all understand the morals and values of what we are doing. Are we enhancing the life of citizens or diminishing it. I like people that frame it like that. Mike Malloy is my favorite. Mike regularly goes over the line gets a little nutso. The thing is, what is important to him are the values that are involved in what we are doing. In that fact we are true breathern.

Tom Hartmann has a little different approach but does a great job. A not real well known guy by the name of Peter Collins is pretty good too. Yes I listen to the right every now and then. For as long as I can stand being stupid. Mike is the only one that is everyday. Check him out sometime. He is here. His hours are 7 til 10 mountain time. That means you might miss Dancing With The Stars.

Robbing Us (while) Blind

2007-10-05T19:26:00.000-06:00

Well, I would bet you have seen this story. Combine this with the Blackwater deal this is starting to reveal the crooks for who they are. May the providence of comeupance be dealt to all deserving.

QUINCY - Ciara Durkin was home on leave last month and expressed a concern to her family in Quincy: If something happens to me in Afghanistan, don’t let it go without an investigation.Durkin, 30, a specialist with a Massachusetts National Guard finance battalion, was found dead last week near a church at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. She had been shot once in the head, the Army says.Fiona Canavan, Durkin’s older sister, said today that when her sister was home three weeks ago, she told family members that she had come across some things that concerned her and had raised objections to others at the base.‘‘She was in the finance unit and she said, ‘I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.’ Then she said, in her light-hearted way, ‘If anything happens to me, you guys make sure it gets investigated,’’’ Canavan said. ‘‘But at the time we thought it was said more as a joke.’’The family did not know what she was referring to, said Canavan, who lives in Quincy.Canavan said that her sister was openly gay, but that the family had no specific reasons to think that had anything to do with her death. Canavan vehemently denied a published report attributing to her a statement that the family was concerned that Durkin’s lesbianism was the reason for her death.When her sister told the family three weeks ago about her concerns over her safety at the base, due to whatever information she had found out, Canavan said, ‘‘we reported it to the Army.’’

Well, we certainly don't have all the facts yet but this is highly suspicious. I think a good portion of the population would not find it below this corporate cabal to kill to protect the fortune we are sending them. Ya know, it's just one more soldier. When the United States light bulb comes on I will be curious to see the few that are still left defending it. There are some true authoritarians out there that really believe in this stuff. I think most are just being bamboozled. I hope they wake up in time.

Rush, The Phony Solider(s) and Patriotism

2007-10-03T21:52:00.000-06:00

If one was to be rational about this, one might think that the soldiers might somewhat resemble the population as a whole. Certain restrictions keep out the worst of the worst. Other than that it is likely there are some excellent wonderful people in among the troops. Quite likely there are many that resemble what you might consider your average American, and yes even those that are probably less than respectable. Our soliders are us, good and bad. As a Liberal I respect the fact that they are willing to do a job that is a service to the community as a whole. I respect that it might involve death. That said, it is likely that there was more involved in their decision to join than that. The recruiters sure seem to think so.

My problem with the rightists comes from their desire, over the last several years especially, to use "support the troops" as a bludgen to attack my patriotism. To worship them as an unapproachable icon. To twist and spin things so sadly that I have been turned into an enemy of my country. To negate my opinion with spin and lies. I find it beyond the pail.

What is happening here is people trying to point out that patriotism or lack of it is not party selective....or even political philosophy selective. It's pretty much a judgement call for everyone. Unfortunately the rightists never get the hint. Never evolve. They are so self absorbed in how horrible the left is that they, to coin a term, miss the forest for the trees. Listen to Rush or Sean or any of them and you will clearly hear who the enemy is. It's about people not about ideas or solutions. It is non stop divison of this country using not ideas but people. It's easier for the slow ones to grasp. If the jahidist is mentioned at all it is almost always in connection with an American they don't like or an American group they don't like. We are using talk shows and blogs to snark. We are raising an entire generation that confuse this with political discourse. We are falling apart not coming together. We need to quit saying America so much and start saying the United States. Just maybe the reminder might help. I honestly feel we are in the most literal sense moving toward two countries instead of one.I've even had positive thoughts about that myself. It's likely not what should happen to a civilized society though.

Coffee Table

2007-09-30T14:31:00.001-06:00

Talk about what you want. I am working on some new ideas for the blog, hopefully to happen soon.

Stalinists In New Mexico

2007-09-23T17:27:00.000-06:00

Here is a letter to the editor in the Alamogordo Daily News.

An ordinance is being considered by the Otero County Commission that would invade our privacy, if adopted.The ordinance, presented at the Sept. 20 meeting, would require anyone talking or writing about a World Heritage application to give a full report to the county commission and to the public of what they said. Anyone who was caught not reporting could be subject to a $300 fine and 90 days in jail.
The county commission should protect our right to privacy by rejecting this ordinance.

It references a proposal to make White Sands National Monument a UN World Heritage site just like....

Carlsbad Caverns National Park - New Mexico
Chaco Culture - New Mexico
Everglades National Park - Florida
Grand Canyon National Park - Arizona
Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Tennessee and North Carolina
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park - Hawaii
Independence Hall - Pennsylvania
Redwood National Park - California
Statue of Liberty - New Jersey
Pueblo de Taos - New Mexico
Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming and extends into Montana and Idaho
Yosemite National Park - California

Of course since the letters UN are included the wingnut radical right Republics(obviously opposed) are putting on the tinfoil hats and looking for the black helicopters. It requires a post of it's own to fully flesh out. Maybe later.

Right now the issue is why do they even imagine they can propose something that would fine you for speech. You and I both know this violates the first amendment. If this is true, I am about to go to war with the county commission. I will speak about it..alot to everyone listening. I will not report to the county commission. I encourage them to arrest me. We can have it out in court. Please inform everyone you know what these people are trying to do and how radical and unamerican these wingnuts have become. I am spreading this information as far and wide as possible. Thanks for your help and support.

News Notes

2007-09-22T13:59:00.000-06:00

After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officials said.
If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war.U.S. war costs have continued to grow because of the additional combat forces sent to Iraq this year and because of efforts to quickly ramp up production of new technology, such as mine-resistant trucks designed to protect troops from roadside bombs. The new trucks can cost three to six times as much as an armored Humvee.

Ok, Better protecting our troops is a good use of money. But this pointless occupation is not! THAT is the crux of the issue. 200 billion would provide a lot of health care. It would replace lots of limbs lost in a pointless occupation. I would build many roads and bridges. Or if you insist, would provide all Americans with a decent tax break. All far better uses that would be of far more benefit to Americans than the pointless occupation.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

Of course the Iraqi government has insisted they leave and of course they haven't. This puts the lie to the idea that the Iraqis control their own country. Think maybe that may be among the things that are pissing them off and making them want to kill their “liberators”.
I would suggest reading up on Blackwater. These are the only people that have taken peoples guns away-or at least attempted to do so(New Orleans). This organization is another bunch of crooks that we are paying about 100 thousand per to rob us and ruin our name and our country. I guess better to have Blackwater fighting over there than to have to fight them over here, huh?

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.
The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.

Yes, I know it is all to keep us “safe”. What an unconscionable person who becomes(or is) president could do with this information is what is truly terrifying. Combine this with the Blackwater story above and maybe you will have a hint as to why I am so suspicious of what they are doing in their phony “war on terror”. Yes there are some bad people who would like to get us. How organized they are is in doubt to me. The fact remains that we face these “terrors” everyday and always have. Since settlers and indians lived on the plains and each feared for their lives to the nuclear threat of missiles pointed toward our cities during the cold war. The threat we face now is no more and probably far less great than any of that. Right here in the U.S. We have thieves and murderers and often they are organized into groups. We have always had these people. We, in the past, have delt with it without ruining the great democracy that we were once all so proud of. What they are doing now is, to put it mildly, shameful. The jhaidists will NOT take over America. Not with weapons anyway. How in the hell are they going to do it!? We have the most powerful military and best trained law enforcement in the world. Yes deaths from evil doing may occur. Again, it happens everyday. We fight them not by taking away Americas liberty. Dammit, that is why they do it in the first place. Anyone that gives into the tactics our government is using now is just aiding them in their goal. Quit being panty wastes and stand up for your liberty and freedom from government intrusion into even the most mundane aspects of your life!

In a complex set of transactions, Dubai is moving to acquire 19.9 percent of the Nasdaq in New York, placing the Arab government in an ownership position of the key U.S. stock exchange.

Welcome to one world government and the one way the Arabs can take over America. It's not the UN it's money and corporations stupid. Get off oil completely. Don't give them our money! We need national unity on this. A national effort combining citizens, private business and government to find alternatives. Other countries have done it. As a result we can too. When will America stand up and start fighting this the RIGHT way!?

Random Thoughts

2007-09-16T02:42:00.000-06:00

I've been on vacation and then once back, catching up from being on vacation!
It was really bizarre that I traveled through good portions of 6 states in short order(about a 24 hr day) and at 90% of the gas stations, no matter what the state, gas was the same price. It was 2.89 everywhere. These are states with differing taxes on fuel and certainly different distributors all pricing like it was all the same. Maybe it is. Coming home it was somewhat more varied but still about 70% the same.
I went to the labor day rally in Des Moines. It was interesting because these Democrats had a U.S. Flag displayed prominently. They started their meeting with the national anthem and some even put their hands over their hearts. Such strange behavior from people that many are calling traitors or America haters.
Speaking of that. I noticed that there were counter protesters at the DC demonstration this weekend. Again they proved that their war is primarily with the 'American liberal'. Everything else is just a ruse to get back to that. One sign the prominently displayed included (I don't remember the exact wording) the word traitors or treason in large bold print.
How dare they continue to spew such horseshit! Now if we were violating the Constitution like Bushco then I could understand it. Their premise is our position aids the enemy. Unfortunately for them the policy that they have and continue to support is without a doubt adding to the numbers of terrorists and terrorist acts at an amazing rate. These people are not interested in looking at the facts though. If the 'American liberal' likes it, they MUST hate it. These people are undoubtedly the ones dividing America. They call us traitors. That is a serious charge with serious penalties. It is more evidence to prove that it's not paranoia to say that these people are out to get us. What do they expect us to do, lay down and take it??? Sorry guys, our open minded ways end when we are directly threatened like that. Call me a socialist if you must, call me a communist if you get your jollys that way, call me most anything and we can debate it. Call me a traitor and an aider of the enemy and it is time to fight back..hard. There is no way I am going to let that meme enter the American conscious without a serious fight. Screw those boneheads. I am ready to be divided. Either those guys are seen by Americans as the morons they are or I am ready to leave. No, I don't love the country they are turning it into. They can have it because it will be worthless with them in control anyway. Just give me a visa and a job and I will gladly leave. I refuse to tolerate their assholiness. I could care less about anything they have to say anymore. They have been almost universally wrong on everything and continue to spew the same crap anyway. There is nothing new, just complete and total hate for their fellow citizens who refuse to play their game. I gave them years to make their point and have come to the conclusion that they have none except to oppose liberals. They have no core. The only goal is to smear, intimitate, bully and guilt trip anyone who doesn't agree with them. Bite Me! I am not intimidated nor do I feel any guilt whatsoever about my position on the issues. As a matter of fact I am quite proud of my positions. They are based on logical thought and not emotional appeals to guilt and fear. That makes me smarter than they are by quite a distance. They are freekin robotic rush bin limbaugh tape recorders just repeating what someone else tells them without any independent investigation that would go outside of their own comfort level of neocon smear.
General Betrayus? Not a good way to approach it. They could have made their point in a number of ways that would not have been this offensive. For the radical right to jump with phony rage at this though is laughable. These are the same people that have smeared the military service of anyone they ran against who had served. As a matter of fact they spent the entire last presidental election diminishing war medals and their signifigance. They even wore purple bandaids at their convention. Oh but watch them..”this is different”. No it's not. Bite Me. The radical right is the scum that makes the United States smell to the entire world.

The Power Of Nightmares

2007-08-26T15:34:00.000-06:00

Here's something that all should know about the radical right. They don't like liberty and they don't believe that individuality is a good thing for our society. Now many on the right may argue this. Unfortunately the longer they argue it instead of standing for what they REALLY believe in, the closer we get to the neocon goal.

From Digby:

Exclusive: Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy
Philip Atkinson

Author: Philip Atkinson
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: August 3, 2007

..............The wisest course would have been for President Bush to use his nuclear weapons to slaughter Iraqis until they complied with his demands, or until they were all dead. Then there would be little risk or expense and no American army would be left exposed. But if he did this, his cowardly electorate would have instantly ended his term of office, if not his freedom or his life...... .....Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world. If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies......... .......President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.

There you have it.

I encourage you to use the link to read the whole story. Also, those in comments on Digbys page have provided some more research and interesting information on this guy and his associates. Check them out too.

When you have time for viewing here is an interesting documentary from the BBC that kind of puts it all in perspective. I have studied this and I know 75% of this to be true through my own research. Because of this I have reason to believe the rest of it is largely accurate. I highly reccomend it. It is great for filling in the blanks. There are three segments. They are each an hour. The first is the must see. The other two are good but I would choose the 3rd over the 2nd if your time is limited. See it, research it, believe it. Fear no more.

Segment One

Segment Two

Segment Three

Don't Let The Experiment End

2007-08-19T15:16:00.000-06:00

Many Americans continue to ignore and sometimes even support the destruction of our country's form of government. A complete upheaval of our way of life is happening in plain sight and many don't care.
Actually I think they would care but, many are uninformed, many are brainwashed into lazy thinking and yes there are a few that are true believers in the authoritarian ideal. There are lastly and most sadly those that never pay it any mind and really could care less what is happening to their country or government. Unfortunately this is a rather large group. I would say it is between a third and a half. It will take something mighty serious happening and shouting it from the rooftops to get them to pay attention. The first part of that has happened. We have a corporate cabal overthrowing our government. Now we have to shout it from the roof tops and lay the insults to the people that try to pull the “liberal” or “tinfoil hat” thing.

Here's the news:

Privatizing(corporatising) America

The Defense Intelligence Agency is preparing to pay private contractors up to $1 billion to conduct core intelligence tasks of analysis and collection over the next five years, an amount that would set a record in the outsourcing of such functions by the Pentagon's top spying agency.
The proposed contracts, outlined in a recent early notice of the DIA's plans, reflect a continuing expansion of the Defense Department's intelligence-related work and fit a well-established pattern of Bush administration transfers of government work to private contractors.

That's right, they are wholesale moving the peoples business to the unelected, for profit corporations. I think it should be obvious to all at this point that if a corporation has to choose between profit and patriotism profit will win nearly every time. That is why they go overseas, have offshore bank accounts , or in the situation of Halliburton, have actually moved their entire corporate headquarters to Dubai.

These are the people we are entrusting much of our most important collective business(government) to.

The DIA's action comes a few months after CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, acting under pressure from Congress, announced a program to cut the agency's hiring of outside contractors by at least 10 percent. The CIA's effort was partly provoked by managers' frustration that officials with security clearances were frequently resigning to earn higher pay with government contractors while performing the same work -- a phenomenon that led lawmakers to complain that intelligence contract work was wasting money.

Yes folks their ideal would be to turn every activity in the country over to the for profit sector.

Let me note that I am not a communist. I believe that the private sector and small business in particular is an integral and necessary part of our way of life. When do things go to far though?
When you have time, here is a documentary that will put it all in focus for you.
Here.

Gonzales seen as politicizing Justice Dept

Daniel Metcalfe, who resigned in January after serving as head of the department's Office of Information and Privacy since 1981, said Gonzales, the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic official, has become an embarrassment.
"Gonzales has shattered the Justice Department's tradition of independence and has politicized its operations more than any other attorney general since the Watergate era," said Metcalfe, who began working at the agency in 1971.

Yes ladies and gentleman, the top legal agency in the nation. The one accountable for insuring the rule of law, equality and justice, has been turned into a partisan agency.

John Koppel, a civil appellate attorney at the department since 1981, said last month in The Denver Post that the agency and the government have been thoroughly politicized. He called it "a national disgrace of a magnitude unseen since the days of Watergate."
Koppel wrote, "It is especially unheard of for U.S. attorneys to be targeted and removed on the basis of pressure and complaints from political figures dissatisfied with their handling of politically sensitive investigations and their unwillingness to 'play ball'."

Interestingly enough even lawyers find their actions too disgusting to be a part of.

They said Gonzales is having difficulty finding replacements for a number of aides who have departed during the five months he has been under fire.

Commerce, Treasury funds helped boost GOP campaigns

I guess the Hatch act applies to everyone except radical right wingers.

In a separate investigation, the independent Office of Special Counsel concluded that GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan violated the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of government employees. Witnesses told investigators that Doan asked at the end of one political briefing in January 2007 what her agency could do to help GOP candidates. Doan has said she doesn't recall that remark.Violations of the Hatch Act are treated as administrative, not criminal, matters, and punishment for violations ranges from suspension to termination. The administration has not taken any action against Doan.In the months leading up to the 2002 election, then-Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Bush's former campaign-finance chairman, made eight appearances or announcements with Republican incumbents in districts deemed by White House aides either as competitive districts or battleground presidential states.During the stops, he doled out millions of dollars in grants, including in two public announcements with Rep. Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican in a competitive district.

The right doesn't even want to bring this stuff up. I looked over the right wing blogs and they are discussing drivel. How the media hates them seems to be the overriding theme, as it has always been. They love to chastise the victimization of America while living the role themselves.
One poster noted that Bill Moyers portrayed Karl Rove like this:

PBS’ Moyers Raps Rove as Agnostic Shakedown Artist
The Rove nemesis slams the exiting Bush aide as a fear-mongering manipulator.

Here is a link directly from the wingnut site to show you what they are so upset about.

Now, unsurprisingly if you watch it you will see that he did use the word agnostic when quoting Rove himself and did say the word manipulator. Other than that their descriptions are more interpretations of what he said rather than an exact accounting. Surprise, surprise.

As a matter of fact before he gave his opinion he showed quite a number of people praising Karl Rove. If only Fox could be as fair and balanced.

Let us assume he said just what they claim he said. How is that outside reality? I know name calling isn't considered tasteful but what else are you going to call him?

Check the book or video Bushs Brain if you are perplexed by the disdain shown toward Karl Rove.

Time for all good Americans to come to the aid of their country. Don't shrink from this, stand up boldly and proudly for what you believe in and what you represent. Don't let the bastards guilt you or fear monger you into giving up your principals. This country is in a critical place in history and it is up to YOU to help save it.

Coffee Table

2007-08-10T20:57:00.000-06:00

So many things happening, so few points left to be made. If you don't see what's going on by now you don't want to see it and nothing anybody says is going to change your mind. The position of the right is firmly established. With that in mind there are some basic understandings and truths we need to consider before the next election. First, it turns out that laissez-faire capitalism is anything but fair and reasonable. It is closer to anarchy than to equality.
As guessed, it also proves to be true that if you think government is only a problem and should be made so small you can drown it in the bathtub, then you probably aren't going to be a particularly good or dedicated administrator.

As another blogger said:

"The fundamental political philosophy that underlies the entire conservative movement is the belief that Government doesn't work. If you keep that in mind as you watch them attempt to govern, their inexplicable actions begin to make a little more sense."

Should It Be About Profits?

2007-07-15T16:59:00.000-06:00

Health care is at center stage with the movie 'Sicko'. As expected the pharms and radical righters are swiftboating the entire effort. This is a good post that makes a response to them. Read it here.

This is a portion of it.

Pharmaceutical industry profits climbed from $64.4 billion in 2002 to $94.8 billion in 2006. During the same period, insurance companies’ profits more than doubled from $20.8 billion to $57.5 billion.
Some hospitals, too, are blooming with fiscal health. Record aggregate profits reached $26.3 billion in 2004, thanks in part to the astronomical markups they charge patients. The top 40 hospitals added 2,319 percent on drugs, 5,090 percent on medical supplies, and 1,073 percent on operating room charges.
The 20 largest HMOs sucked in $10.8 billion in profits in 2004, with 19 percent for overhead verses 1 percent in the non-profit Canadian national health insurance program.
While these figures are enough to sicken anyone, the number that really scares the health care industry is the percent of Americans who prefer not just universal coverage, but a single-payer government-run system that cuts out private insurance. An ABC News/Washington Post poll put the figure at 62 percent.

The first predictable response of the radical right when it comes to Nationalized Health care is (all together now) SOCIALISM! For some reason they seem to prefer offering support to the for profit model of healthcare. I have heard all the arguments and if anyone would like to make them feel free. It doesn't work as a pure for profit business. The next argument you hear is that government can't do anything right hence we should leave it to private enterprise. Many things that work well are 'socialized'. Many private enterprises fail. And vis versa. That is a non argument.
Next you hear about how much it will cost in TAXES! A total red herring and in the long run this part is something the radical right should favor as friendly to business. Health care should be the shared responsibility of all of us and not up to business owners. Freeing this capitol for business owners would seem to be the cats meow to the radical righters yet they argue against it. What is it they believe in again?
Right now for insurance it costs from 300 dollars a person to over 1000 dollars a month for a smaller family. The taxes would be far less than that. We have systems all over the world to examine. There is no reason we couldn't choose the best and most economical pieces of each of them. The hard work is already done. I think we should keep the private insurance option open to any one that wants to opt for it or wants another choice.
These enormous profits are concentrating more and more of our wealth in one segment of our economy and, while I am far from an economist, I don't think that is good for our economy in the long run.

Is It Impeachment Yet?

2007-07-15T12:53:00.000-06:00

Bill Moyers featured conservative, former Reagan official Bruce Fein and a liberal journalist from The Nation on the subject of administrative malfeasance concerning the Constitution and the idea of impeachment.
I am happy to say I got several emails on this. I saw the end of it the other night and have since viewed the whole thing. It is a 45 minute program. If you have DSL the PBS site streams pretty well. Take some time to watch when you can.

Watch it here.

It is vital that we hold the President and Vice President accountable to their oath to faithfully execute the laws of the United States. Whether they like them or not. It is not their prerogative to change or adjust the laws they don't like. To allow this to happen sets presedence. To allow this to continue under any President or party is utterly unacceptable. The argument to hold on to these powers makes far more sense if Bush and Cheney are not held accountable. Those that argue for these powers for the current administration are also making the argument for the next administration. Bush and Cheney MUST be held accountable even if it concludes after they are out of office. We must PROVE we are a nation of laws and not a nation of men.

Are we subjects or are we citizens?

Saving The Planet? How About Just Saving America?

2007-07-08T20:33:00.000-06:00

As I am sure you know, Live Earth was this weekend. It amazes me how full of venom and the radical right is on this. I am sure as the sun rises that the talking points people are pushing the sheep to oppose anything that they didn't frame or that they can't take credit for. The idea that concern or belief in global warming is some kind of left of center thing is laughable on its face. How can these people act so stupid and how long will it take them to realize that the whole world is just shaking there head in amazement,regret or disgust every time they open their mouth. I went to checked on the righties at one of the few rightie that allows comments on blogs. They still don't have an idea that the world has passed them by on this issue and darned near every other one. They will insist that you are wearing the "tinfoil hat" if you point out that they have been reduced to a cult.
I'm guessing these must be the same people that believed the noted scientists and corporate shills that insisted smoking was not harmful after the evidence was in. I have no doubt whatsoever that they are the same ones that insisted (and many still insisting) that there were WMD in Iraq. Yes, they believe what there is no evidence for and diss something with mountains of evidence. This is a factual description of living in their own little fantasy world. Most rational people see that but you would be amazed if you got in a conversation with a radical republican. Not only do they think they are right, they still imagine that they and their views are still in the majority! They love to throw around the word "delusional". They should look it up sometime.

From Webster:

a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary.

As far as global warming goes, I have no way to know for sure but the arguments of the people that say there is make dozens of times more sense to me than "we are in a cycle" or whatever other hogwash they proffer.

Regardless it really doesn't matter whether there is global warming or not. The steps we need to take to fight it are the same steps we need to take on many other fronts from new technology to sustainable energy, to jobs and on and on. The rest of the world is moving forward while the radical republicans(the vast majority of republicans period) want us to do nothing or be laissez-faire and sit on our hands while the world leaves us in the dust. These people are harmful to our country and the rank and file radical right have no idea. They are in their Fox news, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Anne Coltergiest bubble that they apparently never venture out of. It is so much more fun if they can think of themselves as heros fighting the scourge of liberalism. THAT is the one and only mission of each and everyone of them, regardless of the truth or the consequences. That, according to aboved mentioned heros makes them a hero too. It turns my stomach.

Here is a great piece from the recent Live Earth.

See you at the barricades.

What Is It We Stand For Again?

2007-07-04T19:50:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone enjoyed our 4th of July. It seems kind of strange to me this year. There is so much political correctness over “patriotism” going on that I hardly understand it as the holiday that I revere.

I put together some things for the station that I called “American Moment”. What the exercise did was give me a 21st century American moment. I looked for famous peoples quotes about America and what it represents. I found many but it was interesting to me how many I was hesitant to use.

First let me note that I live in a community that abuts an important military installation. Not only is this an important base militarily and civilly but also it is vital to this community. I may be seeing things in a colored lens because of that. Maybe you can tell me if that is the case or not.

I respect what the military are there for and understand the necessity of it. I respect the service of those that came before them and what they have given. Here's my problem. Why must the 4th of July become a military holiday? Why is it that the only thing guaranteed to be 'politically correct' the focus on the military. I always thought that the 4th of July was focused on Liberty and Freedom and an independent Republic.

Unfortunately many quotes about liberty and freedom are upsetting to many these days. Suddenly under a so called conservative government we are asked , no demanded, to revere only the words and not the concepts. When it comes to action we are demanded, at risk of the labeling of treasonous, to only speak good of our ruler who has alternately termed himself, commander and chief, war president, decider, but rarely just 'President'. We must revere the military and his use of it. If not we are told we hate the troops. How can you support the troops if you don't support their mission? Maybe because we think a fool has them on a fools errand. We support them primarily because they come from our families and communities. They are our brothers, sons, sisters, cousins, friends and employees. Their families live in our cities and towns. How could we hate them and want them to fail! Such poppy cock is the insanity of the entire radical rights vomitous conclusions. Unfortunately it is those spewings from the right that are considered 'safe' and 'politically correct'. To sum it up, it was harder than I ever imagined to find quotes that weren't military that would not offend.

Here's a quote from James Bryce,

"Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong."

Well, pissing somebody off there.
What's wrong with our flag!? I like to wave it!
Righteous! Why, what is that, some kind of radical fundamentalist quote!
Or is that Righteous as in we don't torture, discriminate et al. Regardless, whatever your use of semantics somebody might be offended.
Now personally I say so what! That is America. Unfortunately it is not quite so.

Media in this country is privately owned. It is funded by advertisers. Enough offended advertisers or advertisers who have talked to their offended friends and the boss goes broke and you don't have a job. This is especially true in smaller cities, towns, areas. The pool is limited and best not be making a lot of enemies if you want to stay in business.

This is a microcosm of a much larger problem in this country. When you do the Paris Hilton, lost girl in Aruba stories nobody is getting mad enough to pull their money out. People are certainly interested in the lives of others so they tune in and bigger ratings just guarantees more. Certainly this is not the full explaination but it is a large part of the stupid media. It's done because it is safe.

This also has a bearing on why most talk radio is conservative. The business people are going to support the business people. Especially in the smaller areas. They are not going to look kindly on someone that puts the emphasis on workers and labor. Of course the fact that the big radical right talkers are pretty much locked in to the stations with the biggest and best signals plays a major factor too. If you are interested in the radio part of this there is a good short view here.

Yes there are some of us that are appalled by our President and Co president. We are appalled by their incompetence, their priorities, their methods, their disregard for Americas once good name, their cowardly fear mongering, and most of all by their denial of Constitutional principals.
I believe that the government should serve the people and not the other way around.
In the 19th and 20th centuries that wasn't treason and it wasn't politically incorrect. It was patriotism.

Dick Cheneys' America

2007-06-24T12:26:00.000-06:00

The priorities of the corporate media prove once again that the idea of a liberal media is, at least today, a fantasy in the mind of wacky radical right wingers. What is the most important thing that could possibly be reported on? How about one of our highest elected officials deciding he was outside the law? How about when he makes up what must surely be a fourth branch of government to give himself the leeway to have secrets about what he is doing in the peoples name? The constitution is the very foundation, cornerstone, of how we do things in America. Wouldn't it be a big story to ANY kind of media that was concerned about our country to make sure that all Americans knew what was happening and why?

Cheney's office _ over the objections of the National Archives _ has exempted itself from a presidential executive order that seeks to protect national security information generated by the government, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.Under the order, executive branch offices are required to give the Information Security Oversight Office at the archives data on how much material it has classified and declassified.Cheney's office provided the information in 2001 and 2002, then stopped. Henry Waxman, chairman of the committee, said Cheney's office claims it need not comply with the executive order because it is not an "entity within the executive branch.""Your decision to except your office from the president's order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk," Waxman wrote in a letter to Cheney on Thursday.

Exchange the name Dick Cheney with Al Gore and tell me how much the big media would be talking about this. There is quite a lot around on this, if only big media and big talk would pick up on it.
Immigration is a very important issue. I fear however, that as always when it comes to the radical right manipulators, it is being used as a red herring. It is an issue that, for reasons I won't go into here, is an obsession with the right. Don't get me wrong, it is important and I basically agree with much of what the right wants to do if not their reasons for doing them. However it is an issue that will control the marketplace of thought and ideas on the right clear through the election. Meanwhile all kinds of above stuff will be going on and they will have little care or concern because it is Dick Cheney and because they are preoccupied with immigration. The clear examples available of a cult mentality by those firmly planted in the right is legion at this point. This is just another one.
Pardon me for saying this but I think our country is in serious peril and about to fold as envisioned by its founding fathers. It is that basic of a priority that I will be paying attention to and voting on this year. Save our constitution, save our democracy, save our good name as a country, restore our reputation as the kind generous nation and not the evil imperialist nation. And on and on. It is sad that in well over 200 years we have to turn back to the basics but that is where I see us.

There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it." The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.

Links to understanding just what the hell is going on here:
Digby: Now they notice
Washington Post-A different understanding with the President.
Carpetbagger Report: The Not So Innocent bystander
Digby: MSM 1 Digby 0
JMM:Talking Points Memo

The Real Man

2007-06-15T16:42:00.000-06:00

In many cases this post could be considered an adjunct to the 'Lowering The Bar" post below. It's something that is easy to see but hard to describe. I call it chest puffery. Glenn Greenwald calls it maybe a bit more accurately:

Glen Reynolds ....-- has fretted: "Are we turning into a nation of wimps?" It is the identity of the "we" in that sentence where all the meaning lies. Perhaps if "we" torture enough bound and gagged prisoners and bomb enough countries, "we" can rid ourselves of that worry.

Republicans have long tried to exploit masculinity images and depict Democrats and liberals as effeminate and therefore weak. That is not new. But what is new is how explicit and upfront and unabashed this all is now. And what is most striking about it is that -- literally in almost every case -- the most vocal crusaders for Hard-Core Traditional Masculinity, the Virtues of Machismo, are the ones who so plainly lack those qualities on every level.

There are few things more disorienting than listening to Rush Limbaugh declare himself the icon of machismo and masculinity and mock others as "wimps." And if you look at those who have this obsession -- the Chris Matthews and Glenn Reynolds and Jonah Goldbergs and Victor Davis Hansons -- what one finds in almost every case is that those who want to convert our political process and especially our national policies into a means of proving one's "traditional masculine virtues" -- the physically courageous warriors unbound by effete conventions -- themselves could not be further removed from those attributes, and have lives which are entirely devoid of such "virtues."

.....In the 1990s, this mentality manifested as the relatively innocuous trend whereby middle-aged men left their wives at home to go dress up in military costumes and march around on the weekend play-acting as "militia" comrades or, relatedly, as not merely advocates of gun rights, but as worshippers of guns themselves. But now -- really, ever since the 9/11 attacks so frightened so many of them and made them feel, to use Rush's formulation, as though they were besieged by "The Emasculating of America" -- this mentality has come to dominate our political culture, as those who so plainly perceive themselves (understandably) to be lacking the traditional masculine virtues degrade and exploit our political system in order to satisfy those cravings.

And Digby/Walcott noted:

The curious thing is that so many of the rightward bloggers and Fox Newswers who are hailing the Brits for their quiet stoicism and pluck don't seem to realize they're issuing an implicit rebuke to themselves and their fellow Americans.

They're saying, in effect, "You've got to admire the Brits for showing calm and quiet perseverance after these explosions--they don't get all hysterical, over dramatic, and over reactive the way we Americans do." They don't seem to realize the example shown by Londoners might be a lesson to them, a model they might follow instead of playing laptop Pattons at full volume every time they feel a rousing post coming on, supporting the president and the entire power structure of the government is their only way of proving to themselves that they are warriors.

They are damaged by their own contradictory past and as a result they cannot see their way through the haze of emotional turmoil to seek out and find real solutions to the problem of terrorism. They lash out with trash talk and threats and constant references to their own resolve because they are afraid. They've always been afraid.

Click the links for some delicious insight.

They have decided they know what a 'real' man is. And by golly they know what a coward is too. That would be you darned "cut and runners". They boldly proclaim 'If you knew just how dangerous it is you would most certainly agree with me'. Directly implying that they have the 'seasoned' view and those that disagree are just naive. It is an overbearing, overpowering need to exhibit their machismo, be it man or woman. It is an essence that goes right to the core of who they are.
What does it mean to be 'a man". Does it necessarily imply a warrior? Who was the greatest man that lived? Most in Christianity would say Jesus. The radical right is always happy to point to Mohammad as a warrior prophet. They love telling you how bad and evil he is while exhibiting the same character flaws themselves.
There is no core to the confused mind they inhabit. There is little in the way of a manly sense of personal responsibility although they utter the words incessantly.
Resilience, integrity, and ingenuity would seem to be far more manly values than those they are expressing. Now if they would just shut up and listen for a minute....