Blue Collar Politics

At 5:30 AM this morning, my wife and I sat and watched the final half hour of a film we had rented, Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight. If you've not seen it, you really should. If you have viewed it, you'll never forget how the Bush Administration, through deception and control of the US media, took a retired NYC Police Sargent (Viet-vet) who lost his son in the Towers on 9/11, and led him on a multi year journey from big Iraq War booster to where he's become a depressed and disillusioned questioner of "America" and our goals. The man had been so strong in his backing of Bush's Baghdad Blunder that he petitioned the powers-that-be to have his son's name stenciled onto one of the bombs dropped in our Shock and Awe production of war crime horror. Today, he puffs up with rage while tearing up when he watches Bush's later admission that "We have no evidence Saddam was connected to 9/11." In today's What Is the Latest Thing to Be Discouraged About? The Rise of Pessimism - New York Times , Adam Cohen relates how recent American disappointments have caused a "Rise of Pessimism". Mr. Cohen ends with:

Part of Mr. Bush’s legacy may well be that he robbed America of its optimism — a force that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other presidents, like Ronald Reagan, used to rally the country when it was deeply challenged. The next generation of leaders will have to resell discouraged Americans on the very idea of optimism, and convince them again that their goal should not be to live with their ailments, but to cure them.

While the loss of optimism is important, the loss of faith, not religious faith, but faith in "America", is the most serious problem facing our country's future. Losing optimism is worrisome. Growing skepticism can be fatal to a representative democracy on the brink of becoming a dictatorship, a theocracy or some weird Super-Sized combo of them both. At the end of Why We Fight, I told Barb how the Bush years had altered my feelings. 27 years ago, I voluntarily dropped a rock solid deferment, as I thought it was time I "did my duty." That sounds so corny that through the years, when asked "why", I've tried out a dozen different rationals for putting my ass in front of bullets. "Wanted to learn about war", "Wanted to see for myself if the 'protesters' or the 'patriots' were right.", or that "I wanted to 'find' myself." But those were dodges, meant to get me away from the sicky-sweet, Norman Rockwell type that would actually feel they had a "duty" to risk all for an ideal. So, I was stupid, corny, ill informed, but, in my slothful ignorance, trying to do the right thing. Today, I'd laugh at anyone using the term "ideal" in conjunction with ANYTHING that is in ANYWAY connected with authority figures, be they US President or the local school crossing guard. If I were 22 today, I'd be marching in protests and, if a draft were coming, my ass would be sitting on a plane out of here. Today, if one of my kids mentioned joining the military, in any job/title that held any possibility of having them face combat, I might be found holding that child in a basement room/prison until the war ends. If a nuclear weapon exploded on American soil, it would take an awful lot of evidence to get me to believe that whatever country our President blames might, in fact, be the country behind the bombing. And don't think I'm exaggerating. Look into your own soul. If next month, a passenger plane flying from London to NYC, blows up, would you quickly agree if the Bushies told you it was al Qaeda. How about if they said it was Iran. Or the local Democrat running for an important House seat? Or, take this one step further. After all the lies and self-serving media stories you've been fed since 9/11, have you not, at least once, thought "I hope they don't commit some horror before the election" . . . and realized it was NOT Osama you were referring to as "they?" This is what the current crop of neo-con war criminals have left America as their legacy. Skepticism AND pessimism. May God forgive them. =====

[BREAK] If you're a fan of the pithy, you'd be hard put to find a few paragraphs of minimal mainstream media verbiage that can so succinctly describe the fundamentally flawed ethos of an entire administration as well as the 5 paras from today's NY Times below!

- - - SNIP Mr. Bush, his presidency still marred one year later by the slow government response to the storm, spent the afternoon demonstrating his empathy and optimism in meetings with residents and officials along the storm-wracked coast. The trip marked an attempt by Mr. Bush to recast the legacy of the year before, when he lingered on the other side of the country before cutting short his vacation to deal with the crisis. Mr. Bush acknowledged that, for some, rebuilding may have been so gradual as to seem non-existent. But, Mr. Bush said: “For a fellow who was here and now a year later comes back, things have changed.” “I feel a quiet sense of determination that’s going to shape the future of Mississippi,” he continued. And then, in comments that could have been as applicable to the other main challenge of his administration — Iraq — Mr. Bush said: “As this part of the world flourishes, and businesses grow, people will find work and have the wherewithal to rebuild their lives.” Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass. - - End of SNIPPET

In almost everything this regime of bumbling war criminals and failed businessmen has touched, from Iraq through Katrina, from Social Security through the handling of security post 9/11, the US can fairly be portrayed as a Marx Brother's comedy . . . with sub-par performances by the third string buffoons filling in for the genius brothers. Unfortunately, the cast change has been accompanied by a total change in genre. Instead of a comedy piece, this real life production has become a very sad drama, bordering on the edge of horror. The same man who held a plastic turkey for his Thanksgiving photo op in Iraq now stands before a another prop, a few new buildings hiding the overall shame and ruin. I give the Times some credit here. It isn't often that the mainstream media strays from reporting just what the White House press office hands out in the press packet. By allowing the readers to get even the briefest peek behind the Bush administrations propaganda curtain, reporters Anne E. Kornblut and David Stout have gone where few of their peers dare to tread. They have, we can only hope, opened a few eyes to a fact many of us have known for a long time. Where perception is paramount, the Bushies perform swimmingly. But where progress is the prime parameter, Bushie BS fails to float. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] As anyone with even the most rudimentary acquaintance with the word "fascism" can tell you, having a column on the use of the word that does NOT contain any mention of government bowing to corporate interests is akin to writing a piece on the Pope and failing to mention the Catholic Church! But the Repugnants are hoping that, as they did with Saddam and 9/11, they can cojoin Islam and Fascist and their supplicants in the mainstream media will help keep the citizens ignorant of the true facts. It worked with Bush's Baghdad Blunder in 2003, so why not now? That's why even Rumsfeld is throwing the F word at Liberals, claiming they aid the Fascists. Of course, should one give the subject a little thought, a malodorous fascist scent can be discerned in our "War on Terror." Corporate power, corrupt contracting, a growing disparity between classes, Patriot Act outrages, "Total Information Awareness", torture and war crimes are all reminiscent of what we heard of the fascist regimes in WWII. But, they sure don't want you going there!!! ===== [/BREAK]

Republicans Target 'Islamic Fascism' - Los Angeles Times Republicans Target 'Islamic Fascism' By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer 4:23 AM PDT, August 30, 2006 WASHINGTON -- President Bush in recent days has recast the global war on terror into a "war against Islamic fascism." Fascism, in fact, seems to be the new buzz word for Republicans in an election season dominated by an unpopular war in Iraq. Bush used the term earlier this month in talking about the arrest of suspected terrorists in Britain, and spoke of "Islamic fascists" in a later speech in Green Bay, Wis. Spokesman Tony Snow has used variations on the phrase at White House press briefings. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in a tough re-election fight, drew parallels on Monday between World War II and the current war against "Islamic fascism," saying they both require fighting a common foe in multiple countries. It's a phrase Santorum has been using for months. And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday took it a step further in a speech to an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City, accusing critics of the administration's Iraq and anti-terrorism policies of trying to appease "a new type of fascism." White House aides and outside Republican strategists said the new description is an attempt to more clearly identify the ideology that motivates many organized terrorist groups, representing a shift in emphasis from the general to the specific. More Here

[BREAK] Barb and I watched Keith Olbermann deliver this chilling piece. For those of you who read beyond the mainstream media, he adds nothing truly new. But he used prose that strikes a group of chords that could lead to a truly patriotic harmony. And his passionate but reasoned delivery emphasizes how close we are to it being TOO LATE to stop the true fascist juggernaut that is mightily churning through the homes in America, while the right-wing noise machine is kept at a volume that deafens many to the Repugnant juggernaut's explosive razing of all that's good about our country while it raises the country's once minor faults to where it is all that others, even in many country's that once were considered friends, can now see. If the American people don't forcibly take back the juggernaut's controls, either in the upcoming elections, or, assuming that the "fix" is in, by taking to the streets in protest, within but months we'll be at war with Iraq/Islam and the blood of our kids, their kids and kids unconnected to any of the machinations will forever stain the pages of our history. But not for long. Because, even with a school system in which students hear nothing of true history, civics or even get to use the critical thought process produced by a reading of simple geography, the history texts that are now available at the college level will be so sanitized that future generations in Amerika will be reading of the commie ideas of George Washington (democracy), Thomas Jefferson (public schooling, democracy), Abraham Lincoln (strong unions), Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (health care), Franklin D. Roosevelt (EVERYTHING!), Dwight D. Eisenhower (Corporatocracy warnings), John F. Kennedy (Peace Corps), Lyndon B. Johnson (Civil Rights), Richard M. Nixon (EPA) and Jimmy Carter (human rights and honest government), while being treated to stories of the heroism, intellect and military mastery of the Bush/Cheney (AWOL/Draft Dodgers, war crimes, Patriot Act horrors, Katrina, 9/11) dynasty. Wake up, sheeple!!! (And pass the link below on to every Republican in your address book . . . AFTER you pass it to everyone else!) ===== [/BREAK]

Crooks and Liars � Keith Olbermann Delivers One Hell Of a Commentary on Rumsfeld - - - SNIP The confusion we — as its citizens - must now address, is stark and forbidding. But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note - with hope in your heart - that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light… and we can, too. The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this Administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought. And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a "new type of fascism." As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that — though probably not in the way he thought he meant it. - - - End of SNIPPET

[BREAK] Following a sunny blue sky horrific day in September, 2001, the Repugnants have, with much help from a manipulated mainstream media, heaped irrational fear onto the citizenry of the US, and tossed, or inspired to be tossed/placed by others, bomb loads of VERY RATIONAL fear onto countries far and wide. Now, as November looms large in their sights, fear has decided to take residence in the empty, dark recesses of the Repugnants themselves. This year, they fear those they once frightened, the American voters! How delicious is that bowl of irony! ===== [/BREAK]

GOP kisses up to liberal Chafee | Salon News Chances for a Democratic takeover of the Senate may hinge on whether Republican maverick Lincoln Chafee survives the Rhode Island primary. By Walter Shapiro Sept. 1, 2006 | PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- One of the nastier attack ads currently being aired anywhere in the country is being aired here, and is sponsored by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official arm of the GOP majority. The 30-second spot employs all the traditional techniques of political fear-mongering: a voice-of-doom narrator, grainy photographs, purported FBI warnings, menacing footage of a Willie Horton-like villain (a Hispanic illegal immigrant) and the stark closing question about the challenger, "Will he put our security at risk in the Senate?" The factual basis for the commercial is flimsy. The mayor of Cranston agreed in 2005 to accept Mexican-government-issued matricula cards as a valid form of identification, a position so radical that it is shared by the U.S. Treasury Department. But that justification is enough to allow the NRSC to tar the mayor, who is now running for the Senate, as a permissive advocate of open borders who is seemingly eager for every resident of a Mexican barrio to move into the mansions of Newport. What makes this GOP smear attack so unusual is that the target of this venom, Mayor Steve Laffey, is a Republican. And he is the only Rhode Island Senate candidate who voted for George W. Bush in 2004, supports the Iraq war and believes in the magic elixir of Miracle-Gro tax cuts. Laffey's unforgivable sin in the eyes of the national Republican establishment is that he has an even-money chance of defeating antiwar incumbent GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee in the traditionally low-turnout Sept. 12 party primary. More Here

[BREAK]
Karl Rove sycophant Bob Novak first released Valerie Plame's status as a CIA operative, and then exposed her cover company, Brewster, Jennings & Associates, as being a CIA front. By doing so, Novak and his sources assured that not only would Plame's career be ruined, everyone who had any contact with Brewster Jennings would now be in danger. As we now know that Plame was the head of a large group that was gathering intelligence on any WMD program in Iraq, you could safely guess that any Iraqis known to have spoken with anyone associated with Brewster Jennings, as well as all those CIA assets who worked under that cover company, were placed in jeopardy by Novak and his hydra of traitorous sources!

[BREAK] For many people, being a "witness to history" is a goal. Being present when important events go down, events that shape the future and will be recorded in our texts/videos, is an exciting thing. Well citizens of River City, I'm here to tell you that, as the Chinese say, you live in interesting times. You are "witnesses to history . . . being revised." The Disney/ABC 9/11 movie is just one of many recent attempts to rewrite our past in order to shape thought in the future. (And Disney claims it avoids partisan outlooks???) As FAIR points out, it ain't just a slowly dying broadcast TV Network that is putting it's integrity in jeopardy in order to shape a national debate. The once prestigious NY Times recently gave us a half-hearted apology for allowing Mata Hari Miller (Judy) to manipulate their readers into supporting a push to war. But, as luck would have it, most readers of the Times are also familiar with other sources of news, and had realized that, based on the length the lie kept running, the front page placement of many chapters of the lie AND the financial costs and human anguish caused by the lie, the Times/Judy needed to give a much more sincere, open and moving apology. As luck would have it, once again,the NY Times saw that we are in an astrological period wherein the planet Reality is being rocked by the exaggerated "spinning" of its moon, Corporatocracy. In Astrology, they refer to the phenomenon as "The Spin." In this scenario, Corporatocracy will allow "The Spin" to take reality wherever Corporatocracy wishes. Hence, while the paper must apologize if it led folks to believe Saddam HAD WMD, it doesn't need to give any "Sorry's" to the unwashed masses if the people can be made to believe we only said:

"The possibility that Saddam Hussein might develop "weapons of mass destruction" and pass them to terrorists was the prime reason Mr. Bush gave in 2003 for ordering the invasion of Iraq."

You see, when referring to the reasons we attacked, invaded and occupied Iraq, putting in cavernous wide caveats like "possibility" and that Saddam might "develop" WMD's and might "pass them to terrorists" can make folk forget Judy's "THEY HAVE NUKES, BUBONIC PLAGUE and KLINGON LIGHT SABERS THAT BEHEAD ANY CHRISTIANS (INCLUDING CUTE WHITE CHRISTIAN BABIES) WITHOUT ANYBODY HOLDING THEM!" (A bit of poetic license, that. But, with the fear running around the town square back then, [and continuing through today]it could be said to be an accurate representation of Judy's stories effect.) So, the Times need not apologize IF the reasons Bush gave for an illegal war were factual. And, if we get to rewrite the reasons 3 years later, why wouldn't they now be reasons we could defend? And, with Bush well into "attack Iran" mode, we just have to grant him some credibility in his last push to war, even if that leaves poor reality-based History raped, bleeding and gasping with last breath in the alley of fraud. So, now we can wait for the anniversary of that September day in 2001 that Hitler attacked America, Liberals lined the streets cheering the terrorists in the planes and watching entranced as their fellow Americans jumped from the upper floors of the Twin Towers. The same times that GW Bush saved the US Constitution by protecting it with the Patriot Act and TIA program, and finally gave the tools (cattle prods, iron ladies, water-boarding kits, etc.) to our Justice system that it had long needed, and that we found, in recently discovered diaries, our founding fathers had originally written into the Constitution . . . but was deleted by a nefarious and (you guessed it) stinkin' LIBERAL printer! What's that? Oh, I see. Sorry 'bout that, Chief. My mistake!
That movie doesn't come out until September 2007! [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Once again, the NY Times proves that its new motto should be "All the news that's fit to print, unless it reflects poorly on an administration run by war criminals seeking to render the Constitution, and America's soul, into crap they can wipe from their boots!" A failed land deal, in which a powerful local politician lost money (Whitewater)? The Times' will run it to death, while peppering the front page with baseless allegations and unconfirmed rumor. A politician (Gore) has a meet and greet in a Buddhist temple . . . the Times will turn it into the story of the year. Don't even get me started on a stained blue dress from the Gap. The Times, and the Republican Congress, could not have given more prominence to an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. But when it becomes clear that America is using torture, even to the death of captives, the Times figures that anyone searching for a small bra ad from Macy's on page 14 is worthy of hearing that tale. There is much going on in today's Amerika that I wouldn't have fathomed just 6 short years ago. But one thing I find the most telling of our current situation. If you're in NYC and you're looking for unbiased coverage of the Washington political scene, I'd recommend you bring your laptop, as the newspapers aren't what they once were so you'll want to visit news on the Internet. But should you be stuck without a vehicle to drive onto the info superhighway, I'd recommend the NY Post over the NY Times. For whatever reason, the NY Post has been covering the real stories of our ride down the moral roller-coaster on the journey to the section of Hell for citizens that allowed their country to go bad, while the Times has been spraying hot grease on the rails! ===== [/BREAK]

Columbia Journalism Review: Failures of Imagination (9–10/06) by Eric Umansky Media Views New York Times Afghanistan reporter Carlotta Gall overcame her initial reaction to learning the 2002 death of a Bagram Air Base prisoner named Dilawar was a homicide and not simply due to heart attack, as originally claimed by the U.S. military—"I remember gasping and saying, ‘Oh, my God, they killed him.' I hadn’t really been thinking that before.” But Howell Raines and other Times editors found the idea "just hard to get their mind around," despite then-Times foreign editor Roger Cohen having "pitched it, I don’t know, four times at page-one meetings, with increasing urgency and frustration.... My single greatest frustration as foreign editor was my inability to get that story on page one.” More Here

[BREAK] IF you think you're reading too much in the blogosphere about the "Path To 9/11", you're not paying attention. Remember, Bush has suddenly requested a live 15-20 minute interruption of the film's final hour (Eastern Time) to give a speech to the nation. The Repugnants are really scared . . . scared that voters will come out against them in numbers that may be hard to overcome just by corrupting the ballot count in certain areas. Well, if you don't realize how your neighbor can still be swayed by irrational fear, Karl Rove does. So, they have a movie that blames Dems come out, sans commercials, just prior to primaries across the nation and weeks before a big election. Blaming Dems for letting attacks take place (during Bush's presidency?) helps make that neighbor fill a Republican ballot. He'd rather live under a trult fascist regime, rather than chance death defending the Constitution under a Democrat who seems to be in the party at fault for the 9/11 ataacks. Sounds crazy, I know. But with the country divided, just a few confused voters can bring the Repugs close enough to steal another election. Remember, the Dems need a real landslide if they want to be sure of winning; the Repugs are well satisfied with a fairly close [but easily turned] loss. Which brings us to how that same fear can lead to the granting of powers, powers that make the Constitution moot, to someone who promises to keep the bogeyman out of your closet. Let's hope we're rid of our own bogeyman, and get back our country, real soon!! As this writer for the UK Independant reports, we started on a fear/revenge road to America's ruin just a week after 9/11. His whole piece, portions of which I cut into the "Continue reading" part of this entry (below), is well worth a read. While it points to the mess we Americans have managed to make of the planet in the last 6 years, his final paragraph highlights what, to me, is the hope and dream of every patriotic American - to be rid of a President who puts the Constitution in the drawer while he allows America's power to be misused around the globe and her troops to be abused in order to maintain corporate profits of his buds!

- - - - - - - - SNIP Were the Democrats to gain control of the House of Representatives and/or the Senate in the November mid-term elections (not very likely but certainly possible), that would at least restore the separation of powers, allowing a Democratic legislative branch to check and balance the Republican executive. Unless and until that happens, the Bush administration is likely to go on using the images and memories of September 11 to reinforce and justify the enormous boost of power it received on September 18. What further discord this turbocharged presidency may engineer here and in the larger world between now and January 2009 is the stuff of international bad dreams. - - - - - - - - End of SNIPPET

Of course, it's rather bittersweet, reading what you've known to be sad but true
. . . and then finding that only the foreign mainstream media publishes/gets it!

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[BREAK] I've liked to think that by keeping myself "aware," by keeping well informed, by reading voraciously, I and a large portion of the beings on this great nation with me have kept ourselves way above the fawning wackos who so eagerly fell for the Anti-Christ, Rapture and Second Coming crowd of fear mongers. We aware ones had no need to even acknowledge, let alone confront, those who so yearned for strict moral leadership that even sanctimonious evil (albeit evil that is poorly camouflaged by a covering cloak manufactured from a hodgepodge of misused religious phraseology and symbols) commanded their adoration and sacrifice. The fact that instead of debating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, these priests of evil debate how much torture the masses would allow and pretended to care about the Constitution and Geneva Convention protections for detainees. We aware ones just shook our heads while observing how pseudo-moralistic fascist's who spout anti-fascist and oxymoronic rhetoric (Islamo-Fascists!, the Bushies cry) were allowed to confidently order the waste the lives of their most ardent worshiper's sons and daughters by using them as cannon fodder for artificially conceived wars, as the modern day corporate-government sock puppets knew colorful yellow-ribbons, red meat speeches and material carrying a red,white and blue pattern would suffice as reason for the ill informed worshipers. Today's Washington Post story, Corruption That Shook Capitol Isn't Rattling Elections, shows that we forget/forgive so quickly, it's a wonder more politicians don't cross the line. And, yes. Corporatist's have infiltrated both sides of the political spectrum, but there's still some difference between the Repugnants and the Dems.) That miraculous anxiety-numbing salve, of arrogant super-ego mixed with a dollop of disinterested sophistication, that kept many of us sated has been steadily and progressively weakened in the past few years, as more and more people fell under the spell of the war criminals who currently lead much of the Earth's human population. The ability to see right through the smoke and mirrors that Karl Rove and his ilk used to stupefy the masses no longer brings any relief or comfort, as the US is losing two wars, suffering the deaths of thousands of young troops, causing the deaths of a multitude of innocents and making preparations to add a third country to George Bush's death march to a bankrupt Empire. Now that we have placed war, war anytime/anywhere/anyone, above all other priorities, we can not handle any domestic crisis. Ask a homeless Katrina victim, an uninsured sick child, a veteran from Afghanistan/Iraq needing treatment or a 9/11 Ground Zero rescue worker who can't get medical care for his/her scorched lungs or decrepit kidney. Domestic security is in shambles, from poor port security, through flawed flight security to failed programs to protect us from bio-terrorism. And, while America is certainly leading the civilized world in deconstructing back to a more primitive state, it ain't just us yanks going crazy. While some sociopaths use their own warped interpretation on the Koran to try and justify mass murder, we have a Pope who decided to pick at scabs covering centuries of wounds from Christian and Muslim battles, then offended many Jews with his belated apology to the Muslim faithful. In England, our partner in crime and an exhausted ally in Iraq/Afghanistan, the now centrist Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, is holding on by its fingertips, while the Conservatives are salivating over polls that show them taking over Britain. In Germany, neo-Nazism is on the rise, to the point that swastikas are near to becoming a common fashion accessory. In France, escalating discrimination has led to bloody riots. In Darfur, where tens of thousands have died and over 200,000 have fled their country, and in other Hell-On-Earth spots that dot the globe, killing on a scale that could make Hitler envious is proceeding on a daily basis. And the march of right-wing governments are increasing as if contagious. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] You can be certain, were evidence of hundreds of such meetings had been with Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi, the Wash Post would have also only allocated minimal (5 paragraphs) coverage way back on page A-11 of the newspaper. Right? ===== [/BREAK]

Abramoff Associates, Bush Aides Met Often - washingtonpost.com Associated Press Thursday, September 21, 2006; Page A11 Former associates of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had dozens of appointments with Bush administration staff members, according to Secret Service visitor logs the White House released yesterday to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group. Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, political allies of President Bush and longtime Abramoff associates, totaled more than 100 visits to the Bush White House. Abramoff, a former GOP lobbyist, has pleaded guilty to fraud and is cooperating with prosecutors in an influence-peddling investigation. White House officials said they believe all their meetings that included Bush were group events, such as Christmas parties or policy briefings for GOP supporters. Among others who visited White House staff members are two former Abramoff lobbying associates who have also pleaded guilty in the ongoing lobbying probe. Neil Volz, an aide to Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) before joining Abramoff's lobbying team, had 18 appointments with White House aides. Tony Rudy, an aide to then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), visited the Bush White House 13 times. Former Abramoff lobbying associate Kevin Ring, a former aide to Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), had 21, and lobbyist Shawn Vasell had 18 -- two this year. White House officials said Norquist, who runs the nonprofit Americans for Tax Reform, was cleared for 97 visits to the White House complex from 2001 to this year, half a dozen including Bush. Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia this year, got 18 meetings, including two events with Bush.

[BREAK] Max Blumenthal has a great article on the battle going on at the Mega-Moonie, extremist loving, Washington Times. [/BREAK]

Hell of a 'Times' These are edgy times at the Washington Times. Still one of the most important right-wing organs in the nation, the paper has a circulation base of around 100,000. According to a source close to senior management, in the past two decades it has burned through far more than the $1.7 billion previously reported. During that time its editorial stance has consistently leaned to the hard right, as its favorite targets have ranged from liberal comsymps to President Bill Clinton to, most recently, "illegal aliens" and their allies in the "open borders lobby." Throughout, the Times has served as a major key on the conservative movement's Mighty Wurlitzer. A nasty succession battle is now heating up at the paper, punctuated by allegations of racism, sexism and unprofessional conduct, that has implications far beyond its fractious newsroom. According to several reliable inside sources, Preston Moon, the youngest son of Korean Unification Church leader and Times financier Sun Myung Moon, has initiated a search committee to find a replacement for editor in chief Wesley Pruden--a replacement who is not Pruden's handpicked successor, managing editor Francis Coombs. - - - SNIP Since its founding in 1982 by eccentric cult leader and self-proclaimed Messiah Sun Myung Moon, the Times has been a favorite outlet for the right. President Ronald Reagan granted Times reporters special access to the White House, and he publicly called it his favorite paper--pointedly not the Washington Post. During the Clinton era, the Times helped push media coverage of Ken Starr's ultimately fruitless Whitewater land-deal investigation. It has long served as a nest for fledgling conservative talent like its former editorial page editor Tony Snow, now White House press secretary and a key link between the paper and the Bush Administration. National Review's O'Sullivan told The Nation, "The Times is an extremely important paper for conservatives because it's in Washington and it has great influence with the Administration." In January 2005 Bush hosted Coombs, Pruden and a handful of Times principals for an exclusive interview and tour of the Oval Office. Two months later Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was queried about her presidential ambitions by Pruden, Coombs and several Times reporters at the paper's offices. (Among Rice's revelations was that "shopping is fun.") - - - End of SNIPPET More Here.

[BREAK] Glenn Greenwald gives a brief analysis that, I believe, grants the answer to the cry of "HOW!" that may be uttered by all of us Liberal/Progressives/Democrats on the morning after the Presidential election in '08, if not asked after an earlier election, just a few weeks from now. Of course, I'm one of those who believes the fix may be in already, with tamper-easy voting machines on the march into precincts/districts/parishes near you. But, I also held the hope that were enough voters to decide that our Constitution, Bill of Rights and the epiphany in human affairs that was the idea of America held a place of importance in their souls that the sheer number of "NO!" voters to the current regime of Repugnants that hold our ideals hostage, that "fixing" the election through those machines would be too daunting a task. The problem with that prayer is that in order for the people to come out in large numbers you need to give them an alternative to vote for. Instead, we give them the psychotic high school bully [Repugnants] or their meek, weak sycophants who stands by, not quite cheering the carnage, but obsequiously holding the bully's coat and books as the bully does the damage. Senator Russ Feingold tried to get other Senators, hopefully a large group with a good showing by fellow Democratic Senators, to agree just walk away when the bully looked for his coat holder (by simply agreeing to a statement saying nobody is above the law in these United States, but found the coat holders weren't up to such a blatant provocation to the bellowing bully. So, we're left with a choice of voting for the bully King of the prom, or voting for his cheering section, and hoping that they'll get a backbone and change the status quo. You can bet the ranch that, in almost every case, nobody gets out of bed early, or wastes precious time from a busy day, to help empower the bully's weak buds. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] In one of his pieces on Salon (War Room - Salon.com), Glenn Greenwald elaborates on just one of the myriad of reasons that many Liberals, or to be au courant - and use verbal camouflage- Progressives will find it hard to pull a lever.press the screen under/adjacent to a Clinton, Warner or even Obama name in 2008, and may have thoughts of skipping the polling places just a few weeks from now. The beginning of Greenwald's War Room piece:

- - - SNIP The willingness of Senate Democrats to vote for the torture bill appears substantial, at least if one listens to their leader, Sen. Harry Reid. From the New York Times this morning: "Democrats, who have found themselves on the losing end of the national security debate the past two national elections, said the changes to the bill had not yet reached a level that would cause them to try to block it altogether. To underscore the point, Reid said this about the bill: "We want to do this. And we want to do it in compliance with the direction from the Supreme Court. We want to do it in compliance with the Constitution." - - - End of SNIPPET

I realize I'm entering dangerous territory here. Back in 2004, I got a straight out ass chewing by one of the then, and still now, stars in the blogosphere's celestial backdrop. I had the temerity to point out that, when you used super-blogger's own much written criteria for a suitable candidate, Howard Dean, whom he loudly supported, was a bit of a disappointment. Not, mind you, that Governor Dean wasn't a far superior choice to Bush, or even Kerry, General Clark or some others (Joementum???). By simply sing the blogger's own wish list, I showed that Denis Kucinich should have been his pick for the primary. I was eventually hit with the "We must pick the candidate who looks to have the best chance of being elected" bullet. When I wrote that, according to the then polls, he should support GW, he called me an idiot and we ceased our corresponding. So, I know that basing support on a list of criteria one believes essential to keeping America strong, healthy and somewhat recognizable (in ongoing principle) to those brave souls who risked all to give birth to this fragile democracy is NOT an all popular strategy. But (and you knew that "But" would appear right after my throwing of the Founding Father's into the mix), allowing electibility to trump principle places one on a path to electoral Hell. Choosing Republican Lite over true Republican, or over the group of traitorous bastards that hold America hostage in some dark cave where she is forced to condone torture while she witnesses the shredding of human and civil rights both at home and in countries where we hide prisoners around the globe, is NOT a strategy that helps get her back and standing tall. It only allows a creeping crud of fascism to gain ground and/or a dose political amnesia that makes our citizens forget what once was and lose hope for what could have been. The DLC will not go quietly into that dark night of failed domestic/corporate coups. If we, the voters who are sickened by how a Republican party capitulated to the worst of its members and became the Repugnant Party, don't retaliate by choosing a candidate who won't just slow the Ship Of State as she heads for the whirlpool of Corporatism so close by but one who will grab the wheel and arc us back 180 degrees to where Jefferson's dreams became FDR's agenda. They showed integrity! They held tight to certain principles, and helped our country advance! Where a power-hungry, corrupt southern bigot who, when the Presidency was abruptly handed him through a tragedy on the streets of Dallas, became a champion of civil rights, even though Johnson knew it would bring great harm on his party and his democratic peers in the south. He showed integrity! He held tight to certain principles, and helped our country advance! More from Greenwald's War Room piece:

- - - SNIP Sen. Lindsey Graham even claims that an amendment to provide habeas corpus rights to detainees -- a provision that could alleviate some of the bill's most tyrannical aspects -- "will be defeated, I think, in a bipartisan fashion, with a solid vote." Whether or not Graham is right about Democratic opposition even to habeas corpus rights, it appears certain that not only will Senate Democrats fail to impede enactment, but at least some (perhaps even the majority of) Democrats will vote for the bill and enthusiastically praise it. Their Senate leader is already doing so. - - - End of SNIPPET

Greenwald points out that to be a happy Democrat today, one has to smile at the end of habeas corpus, giggle at torture and care little about one's fellow human. While he only names one of the Democratics (Harry Reid) who will be helping turn the screws on innocent, as well as guilty, torture victims, you'll read that the Republicans have Democrats on board for this tragedy. More from Greenwald's War Room piece:

- - - SNIP Yale law professor Jack Balkin, whose rhetoric is typically restrained and mild, put it this way this morning: "The Democrats may think that if they let this pass, they are guaranteed to pick up more seats in the House and Senate. But they will actually win less seats this way. For they will have proved to the American people that they are spineless and opportunistic -- that, when faced with a genuine choice and a genuine challenge, they can keep neither our country nor our values safe." - - - End of SNIPPET

Well, those Dems who support/suborn torture won't get my vote. Not this year, and not in '08. And, if enough of us rally behind that sentiment, and NOT just look on the choice of America's stewardship as if it were only a matter of being a winner, like your vote were just a turn of a card or drop of a roulette ball that, if you wanted, you could choose to be a winner, the DLC and Republican Lite candidates WILL disappear, or change. (See the recent attempt at metamorphosis by Hillary, including chastising Rumsfeld and backing Bill's in-your-face with Chris Wallace.) But, if they see that after all your bitching and griping about Bush, you're still willing to back a candidate who cares little about torture and/or wants more troops in Iraq and/or thinks bankruptcy should only be a trump card for mega-corporations but not help families decimated by a health crisis, then you'll never find a Kucinich or Russ Feingold taken seriously by the party, the media OR certain conflicted super bloggers. [BREAK] More Here Democrats may come to regret not opposing Bush on torture While it is almost certain that Congress will fail to enact a warrantless eavesdropping bill prior to Friday's adjournment, it appears equally certain that both houses of Congress will enact the president's torture and detention bill. On that issue, there seem to be only two unresolved questions at this point: 1) Exactly how draconian will the president's powers be under this bill (more on that later)? 2) How much Democratic support will this bill attract?

Wonder where the Democrats went to, after 9/11/01? Do certain bloggers and supposed "Liberal" media commentators/hosts confuse you with their sudden change into a cheering squad for Democrats who seemingly support Bush's Baghdad Blunder, or the bankruptcy bill that puts a boot on the throat of middle-class families suffering through major medical crisis?

Read this, (Antiterrorism Bill on Detainees, Geneva Conventions - Rushing Off a Cliff - New York Times), this (House Approves Bill on Detainees - washingtonpost.com), this (Don't Suspend Habeas Corpus - Los Angeles Times) and this!

Then think about where we're headed and what you need to do to change our course!
(My view was expressed here.)

[BREAK] Go read BuzzFlash here!

UPDATE:

Go Here to see how the Bushies are already starting to put a full court press on the Federal Judiciary. You see, we don't need no stinkin' judges in the new Bush/Cheney Amerika! (I'm guessing that were a judge to rule against Bush in one of the cases, he'd instantly have proved he "supported terrorism", and he'd be secretly kidnapped, incarcerated under the new rules and never be heard of again!)

END OF UPDATE!

We now return you to your regular program. ===== Now, for those idiot Repugnants (not true Republicans, but those who hijacked their party and turned into an echo of . . . here it comes . . . a certain party in the Germany of the 1930's) who want to throw "traitor" and "unpatriotic" around, here's my BS. Viet-vet, (volunteer) Combat Infantryman's Badge, Bronze Star, 2 Air Medals and a bunch of other pretty ribbons. Married 36 years, 2 grown kids. Never charged with taking bribes, pedophilia, shooting a friend and have had no affairs with interns (male or female). And I was coherent enough to march with other combat veterans on February 15, 2003 against Bush's Baghdad Blunder! In brief, it is obvious that I can't be a Repugnant Party member. Until yesterday, I had been a Democrat for 41 years. And, for almost all of those years I was a proud Democrat. I'll be switching my registration to Independent If I am forced to associate myself with a political party, it won't be one that capitulates with the torture of America's ideals while pretending to stand for those very ideals. Why associate with the Dems if they won't even filibuster a bill that will make legal the arrest of someone, many of whom will be innocents (based on the release of hundreds of detainees from Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere) WITH NO RIGHT TO BE CHARGED OR RIGHT TO GO BEFORE A JUDGE, will make legal the torture of an innocent AND would them deny that innocent the right to go to court and sue the torturer. Of course, some will say, "If we don't stay with the Democrats, the Republicans will do whatever they want." Wake the fuck up! The Republicans ARE doing whatever the Hell they want. You are just satisfying yourself with some psychic pacifier, sucking at the Democratic teat while your mom, America, is being beaten, raped and left to lie in a pool of her own blood. If it isn't time for a non-violent revolution in this country (general strike?), then we should officially declare those dumb rebelling bastards in powdered wigs of the late 18th Century with being sociopathic terrorists who led this country astray with an evil Constitution. Those men risked their fortunes, their lives, their families lives in order to grant us, their heirs, a right to have a judge approve of our detention, to force our accusers to step forward and face us, IN THAT COURT, to have a right to council and a right to be treated as a human being! Yesterday, the Democrats played with themselves while those rights were shredded and burned. They played pocket pool while the rape of a detainee, innocent or guilty, by the US personnel holding them became something less than torture. While the Geneva Conventions were reinterpreted to become a document whose meaning is solely decided by the Bush/Cheney Torture Team. As Bush signs this horrific assault on America, please recall one very important fact. The House and Senate of the United States, with the tacit applause of the majority of their fearful voting constituents, have surrendered America and her venerated Constitution to 19 young maniacs who brought some cheap box cutters on to 4 US passenger airliners. After fighting the mightiest militaries on the planet, in the late 1770's on up to the early 1940's, 19 young fanatics found America's soft underbelly just when America's population had lost the will to fight against an enemy they feared . . . albeit the smallest enemy every to defeat a world power. We now have, in the reality based world, no Constitutional protections. The only "persons" in America whose protections, from Constitutional ones to those bankruptcy protections, are still in effect are the mega-Corporations. Oh, and a fetus. The rights of an American are sacrosanct to the Repugnants, UNTIL BIRTH! Individual American citizens CAN be "disappeared" from our streets, if Bush thinks their statements provided support for any of his supposed "enemies". They CAN be jailed and tortured FOREVER, without EVER getting to see a judge or speak with a lawyer. AND THE WEAK-KNEED DEMOCRATS NOT ONLY FAILED TO FILIBUSTER, HARRY REID REFUSED TO EVEN ATTEMPT ONE. Of course, calling for a filibuster would have exposed the names of every one of the Democrats who now remain hidden behind a wall of "no filibuster was called for." Finally, the removal of legal rights was not the ONLY thing this bill accomplishes. It granted some startling new rights . . . to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Bill Frist and Halliburton. They are now granted immunity from any past war crimes they, or their employees may have committed. I'M NOT PROUD OF AN AMERICA WHEREIN OUR LEADERS NEEDED RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY FROM WAR CRIMES??? I'M NOT PROUD OF A POLITICAL PARTY THAT REFUSES TO FILIBUSTER SUCH A BILL BECAUSE SOME OF THEIR MEMBERS CONDONE SUCH A BILL? That's not my America. That's NOT a political party to which I want to be associated. ===== Go here to see how your Senator and Member of Congress voted on torture:
Senate here!
House here! [/BREAK]

On Friday, September 29, It's Mourning in America | BuzzFlash A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL Just as it is hard to fully comprehend the grief of a beloved friend or relative killed needlessly in an accident, it is excruciatingly painful to try to come to terms with the pernicious betrayal of our Constitution and liberty that occurred in the Senate on Thursday, September 28. In the past week alone, we have seen factual evidence that belies the need for the power play/pre-election attack on our Constitution. In fact, these developments indicate that giving Bush even more unprecedented power is not only unconscionable; it puts the national security of the United States of America in peril: Bush’s newly "revamped" top 16 intelligence agencies reached the conclusion that the Iraq War had become a primary cause in the growth of terrorists and the increased threat of terrorism to the United States. Bush called the report of his own top intelligent agencies "naïve." Meanwhile, a second U.N. report came to the same conclusion as the American spy agencies. The U.N. also reported that more Iraqis may now be being tortured under U.S. occupation than were tortured under Saddam Hussein. - - - SNIP Today, tears would flow down the olive robe of the Statue of Liberty if she were human. But she is just an inanimate symbol. We are the ones who have to cope with the pain of a democracy destroyed in a political play for power and permanent one-party rule, which is not a Constitutional form of government. That is called a dictatorship. And the one thing in common with dictators through history, whether Communist or fascist, is their state-sanctioned ability to torture people at will. Beyond the overwhelming facts this week that Bush has endangered the national security of the United States of America with his failed and costly fanatic ignorance, we are left with this sad fact. With the law passed on September 28th by Congress, we have become the Republic of torture. We not only have lost our claim to be a civilizing force among nations and abandoned our Constitution, we have appeased the terrorists by doing so. Because isn’t it Bush who keeps telling us that the "terrorists hate us for our freedoms"? So, to appease those same enemies of America, the White House and the Republicans have abandoned civilized standards of behavior and taken freedoms away. We are only beginning to grieve for the great beacon of democracy and justice that we lost yesterday. - - - End of SNIPPET

Read the whole BuzzFlash Editorial here!

[BREAK] The title of this blog means something to me. I wasn't always sitting at a computer while on disability. I'm proud of the work I did, and of the people I had the privilege of working for, with and/or over. When people found that I was a hard hat who was once the Treasurer of NYC Mensa, they often ask "How was it working with the people in the construction trades?" And, while I always found the question offensive, I always answered honestly. "I found more intelligent people in construction than I did at Mensa meetings." That's true! That's why I was horrified as I've watched, in shanties on high rise building construction in Manhattan, on oil refinery platforms in Canada, in nuclear plants in Ohio and New York, in paper mills in Maine and rocket fuel refineries in Baltimore, the morphing of once strongly Democratic blue collar, union workers into Republican cheerleaders. The reasons are, of course, many. Some are reasons for the switch do the Democratic Party proud. (i.e.: Anger at job losses due to desegregation of construction unions lost some Dem workers to the GOP.) But what seems to be a big reason is the "wimp factor." The men and women toil with their muscle, in outdoor conditions that make the complaints of office workers about how cold the walk from the heated parking lot to their heated office seem a bit shrill. There is little time for in depth conversation when welding steel on a parapet 90 feet above a cement floor, or while humping heavy pipe into place within confined spaces. So, these folk speak rather plainly. Nuance is not a constant companion. As the work is often dangerous, a blunt and factual intercourse is most appreciated. Long winded conversations are saved for lunch of after work at a local gin mill. The Republicans, while screwing these folks through the tax codes, loose pension regulation and anti-union legislation, did one smart thing. They stayed on message; they came up with easily understood points and fought for them even when they knew they would lose. Democrats tried to be all things to all people, and wound up being ill defined and seemingly weak. In just a few sentences, a newly minted Republican blue collar worker could give you a synopsis of the Republican Party that, while it might appeal to the lower, more base, prejudices and feelings of his/her audience, they made the listeners think that they'd be a part of a powerful movement. When was the last time a Democrat felt that she/he was part of anything powerful? For me, it goes back to JFK's inaugural speech . . . a time before most Americans were born. And, lately, the feeling of weakness is overwhelming. So, as I mentioned on this blog yesterday, it's time to change. While many of the Liberal mega-blogs, and many of the hosts on Air America, are frantically attempting to hide the fact that the Democratic Party could have stopped this heinous bill from being passed, thankfully, some see through the BS, including The Nation takes a stand and tells it like it is.

Did John McCain and his GOP colleagues cave? Yes. In particular, they betrayed the courageous military officers and Pentagon lawyers who for months fought for the rule of law. But the refusal of many Democrats to confront this constitutional crisis is more scandalous. For weeks Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders enjoyed the luxury of sitting on their hands while McCain and other Republicans publicly bucked the White House. But when vigorous Democratic opposition might have slowed the bill until a saner, less politicized moment after the election-season recess, a tepid Senator Reid refused to stand in its way: "We want to do this. And we want to do it in compliance with the direction from the Supreme Court. We want to do it in compliance with the Constitution." Never mind that the whole bill is out of compliance. As more than 300 law professors wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders, the enemy-combatants debate is "an urgent test of our nation's constitutional and democratic values." Democrats as well as Republicans have failed the test.

The Founding Fathers would not believe that, while America rolls back the clock to where a Monarchy again rules this land, and detention, torture and lack of legal redress once again soil America's skirts, Briton Cites 'Divergence' With U.S., with her top legal official taking pains to differentiate her justice with America's willingness "to do things beyond the law." It is a shame that blogs and organizations that gained trust by speaking honestly and directly about problems in America are now so tied into the Democratic Party that they have become a new DLC - The Democratic Liberal Chorus, instead of an independent voice. There is no hiding the fact that Harry Reid cut deals that failed the American people, Liberals and the standing of America in history. It is time for a Move-On, KOS, or Atrios to speak up for what is right, not what is politically convenient. It's time for Air America hosts to stop toeing the DLC line, and quit telling us "Democrats do speak up. Just turn on CSPAN3 and you'll hear them." While there is certainly a right-wing bias in the media, and Dems get much less face time on political talk TV, the Dem leaders DO get some time. And, they use it to again echo the GOP lines, but with a little sad violin accompaniment. Sure, you'll get a Russ Feingold or Carl Levin occasionally. But the vast majority of air time afforded Dems goes to the likes of Harry Reid and (once a firebrand, now a tumbleweed) Nancy Pelosi. And they both use the time poorly. So poorly, that things like Legislating Violations of the Constitutiongo virtually unnoticed by the majority of Americans. Sadly, it seems that the more popular the TV show, the less likely a Democratic leader will say anything that would distinguish her/him from a moderate Republican. (With that in mind, I was shaking my head as Lincoln Chaffee, a Republican, voted AGAINST an awful Republican bill on torture and detainment, but a bill on which the Democrats couldn't even muster a filibuster.) Things have gotten so bad, I wouldn't be surprised if Democrats somehow turned the new Woodward tome into a plus for Bush. By parroting the "We must put winning the 2006 election" above all of our important principles, we only play an electoral version of "Leave No Democratic Politician Behind", which may someday garner a political win, but you'll hardly recognize the candidate/party you've won with. The knee-jerk "Must Win" process allowed Clinton to bend over on flawed and vindictive Welfare Reform, instead of a bill providing training, child care and hope for those trapped in poverty. Of course, as this was pre-Katrina, many Democrats had fallen for the con from Republican (and Democratic Repug-Lite politicians) that there were only a few lazy "Welfare Queens driving their Caddies (Lexus's?) to pick up Welfare Checks" that would be effected by the bill. Clinton also signed the disastrous telecommunications bill, that left us with hate radio on so many stations across America, where now there are more different faces of right-wing talk radio than there are different (local) news broadcasts. Now, an operation like Clear Channel can produce a single radio news spot that will be run in hundreds of cities and towns, providing only that news that a huge media outfit would like their customers to hear. Now let me be clear, Clinton held back the fascist tied for 8 years, and accomplished much when faced with external forces and internal havoc. But he knew how far he could go without having his feet held to the fire by his left-wing. And that IS a problem. Both during and since the Clinton years, we (in the Democratic Party sense) have been gaining momentum in a slide to the bottom. While the worst, and most unappetizing group of fascist/theocratic thugs are riding roughshod over the true Republicans who still remain in that party, we seem to have mastered losing the unloseable elections. While Clinton was peaking in popularity, we lost the House. We needed to turn a Republican Senator, just to bring that body into a tie between Dems and Repugnants. And we then lost the Senate, giving the coming little coward an America who was hogtied and unable to resist the torture the little psychopath was looking to inflict. We ran a sitting vice-President (who had viced under an unbelievably popular, yet fully viced himself, President) against a cowardly pip-squeak who had trouble stringing two syllables together and would need help finding America on a map. We lost. Our candidate, many say, did the gentlemanly thing by not contesting the fraudulent election process, and standing by as a rogue Supreme Court decided that it, and not the voters, should decide Presidential elections. Should Gore have tried a coup? Maybe not. But shooting off a few paragraphs of fact and passion at the eulogy to democratic elections in America might have been appropriate. Gore could have, legally, been that single Senator that members of the Black Caucus so desperately needed in order to force a look into that fatally flawed election. But, we are the well-behaved Democrats in a school full of bullying sociopath Repugnants, and we wouldn't think of raising a fuss. Would we? We ran disabled war veterans (Max Cleland) against ugly, racist thugs, and lost. In 2004, all those mega-blogs told us we could NOT lose! We had a hot-damn honest-to-God war hero we'd run against the Howdy Doody on steroids playing landscaper in an ass-ugly, weed-covered farm in Crawford, Texas. Of course, our hero had to play the same game that Harry Reid and the Accessories played on this torture bill. He'd have to get so close to Republican positions that, were both sides in the foxholes one should expect in a political battle for the life blood of our country, if one sneezed the other would be wiping snot from their face. Kerry took that plan and ran with it. He played Repug-lite on Iraq. More troops? Sure! More money? Of course! Say anything about a totally illegal invasion? Nope! Criticize the tactics of fear? Not so much! Tell the flat out truth to the followers who so wanted a true leader? ARE YOU CRAZY! That's not how you play politics. So, after another miserable day of losing poll numbers, we were left to whine about "Election Fraud!", as if that was a brand new happening in American politics. For Christ's sake, I'll bet there was some finagling back during the early Greek democracy. Instead of whining for the passed 2 years, someone should have taken the entire membership of the Dem party, sat them down and screamed "You don't win elections by showing your people how closely you can follow every asinine thing your opponent does. You win elections by showing folks true leadership qualities. And, for a political party to inspire people, the party must stand for something. And NOT by standing up for something as meek as sitting on its hands when the country is imperiled! Do you really expect busy, overworked, underpaid Americans to look forward to standing in a line at a polling place in order to elect people who will, when America is about to be assaulted, cut deals that prevent the members of that party to try and stop the assault? Sure there's election fraud. But Democrats outnumber Republicans nationwide, and if you would only show that by electing Democrats our country would/could change, there would be such an outpouring of support that it would be near impossible to switch enough votes to turn the election with impunity. Instead, we get told "Forget what you just saw happen." If you'll only hold together and vote Democratic, after winning the election we Dem politicians will run into the nearest phone booth and switch to our Super Hero tights. Well, phone booths are hard to find, and after watching the Democrats, tine after time, capitulate and/or enable atrocity after atrocity to be enacted upon our Constitution and our ideals (from Patriot Act through Bankruptcy Bill, from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib), many of us don't believe the Dems would know what to do with such powers. They'd likely ask the Repugnants for advice. So, as I said in yesterday's post, I'm switching registration. Green or Independent, I'm not yet sure. That certainly doesn't mean that I'll vote for a candidate from my new party who might have little or no chance of winning. But, if I'm only offered a Repugnant against a Dem-Lite, that yes I'll vote for neither. And the Democratic Party will change, or more and more Democrats will help form a party that actually follows the principles that made the Democratic Party great, and, for too short of a time, helped make America great! For now, I'll vote for anyone, from whatever party, who sincerely wants to get us back on track AND isn't afraid to stand up for what is decent and just . . . without looking to cut deals that lead to naught but Pyrrhic victories and leaving America hoist on a Republican-lite/Democratic petard. =====

Accessories to Torture These are grim days for the Constitution. The House and the Senate have passed the catastrophic "compromise" negotiated by senators McCain & Co. to the President's "enemy combatants" bill. The only thing compromised is the rule of law; the bill still strips detainees of the right to appeal, broadens the President's unilateral powers to decide who is an enemy and which interrogation methods violate the Geneva Conventions, and fatally undermines the War Crimes Act. The bill was rushed to passage just days after the Canadian government exonerated Maher Arar, "rendered" by the United States to Syria, imprisoned and tortured for nearly a year. Go here for the whole article!