Name + Pandering - Experience = Republican Candidate

Sullivan asks

Why would we trust two men who have been completely unable even to articulate a policy on Iraq and whose views on Islamist terror are so crude and ill-informed (they both believe that the Shia and the Sunnis are interchangeable with respect to U.S. foreign policy) that we'd be running a huge risk in electing them.

The answer is sadly pretty simple. The average person, just like George Bush, doesn't do nuance. Why? Well there are several reasons least of which is the lack of critical thinking skills development in schools. People are told to believe what is, is and that their leaders will handle the details leaving the people to go about their daily lives in a near state of "ignorance is bliss".

This is why Paris Hilton is bigger news than the fact that the vice president has declared himself to be a seperate entity withing government. Whereas there were once a teaming crop of intellectuals on both sides of the fence many have disappeared either by throwing their hands up in disgust or succumbing to the general fog that most people walk around in. While others, such as the pundit class, are either blind or have actually joined in the hysteria such as The KrautHammer's and Podhoretz's. Each of these group have become wrapped up in their own bubble, their own group think.

Combined with a Media which reports word for word what someone says with very little investigation into what the words mean we are left with a stenographic sound-bite replay that most swallow whole without thinking twice about it. This has been going on for years, indeed before Bush became president, however it was this administration that has truly capitalized on it and a press that has surrendered to it all in the name of fear.

So when Romney or Giuliani say they'll get tough on terror the "but" that they have no experience in foreign policy is disregarded as noise. The sound-bite that will be replayed is the tough on terror because aside from those of us who read between the lines the rest is lost and seen as small stuff.

The fortunate thing is that it seems that Americans are starting to wake up from their media induced coma, however those that still watch the Fox Sound-bite err News Channel or listen to people on talk radio who hammer home the same sound-bites again and again are still hypnotized by it, sadly that is what the base of the republican party has become, hypnotized zombies that will not look at a candidate with a critical eye unless told to by the religious right and even then as long as the candidate has "swagger" and "machismo" they'll ignore them too. Giuliani and Romney may be total sleeze but they'll "protect us from terrists" and "bomb them there so they aren't bombing us here".

Cases in Point

Just finished reading this. Some interesting stuff and I definitely recommend the "Cases In Point" series.

Closing Gitmo....Not so much

Well, now that there was a buzz created about Commander Cod-piece closing gitmo the administration has nixxed those reports citing "legal decisions" that need to be made, it's obviously hard work. I am betting the reasoning is a lot more than it seems. If they were to close Gitmo, as the reports were saying, they would have to move the detainees somewhere. This would most likely involve our military bases outside the country since, as the news pointed out this morning, bringing them onto American soil might give them access to American courts and many of the detainees would be set free because, gasp, there is no evidence they have committed a crime. As it stands most of the detainees have been cleared even by the military but they have not been released.

Personally I have a feeling they will close gitmo only once the prison that is currently being built in Afghanistan is complete (I wish I had a link, I only heard about this, this morning on MSNBC as I was getting ready for work). Once that prison is complete they'd have the perfect place to move the detainees where there would be little to know "peeking" into what went on, after all it would be a US military prison in the middle of a, let's face it, failed state. A complete black site.

This is what we have become and as a REAL American I am ashamed.

Now this is funny

I am going to be up front about this, I don't like Hillary Clinton, I think she's fake and just as hard headed as Bush is. I am an Obama supporter personally. So that being said I found this Op-Ed in the LA Times right on target and pretty damn funny.

The Shell Game

Coutesy of TPM, it appearsthat the administration is going to shut down gitmo only to move the "detainees" to military prisons elsewhere. Before they even write the headlines about "shutting down gitmo" the press should be touting the fine print. They're closing down the symbol, but not addressing meaning. They are simply going to transfer these people to other military bases we have in other countries no more and no less.

Don't let them blow smoke up your ass people.

Rent Regulation...my idea of heaven is rent regulation

Ok so it's a twisted version of the line from Monty Python's life of Brian but it works. Why? I wish we had rent regulation, even a little bit where I am at in So Cal. Forget the race card played in the article Andrew links to (by the way I'm white so uh...high rent affects anyone renting). Let's focus on the nitty gritty of renting apartments. I pay nearly half my income to rent, I also pay for water, electricity, a car payment (public transportation here sucks) and in general everything else a renter pays for, add into that the fact that I am the bread winner due to my wife's disability and money is pretty much tight as can be. Each year my rent is raised and each year I have to deal with it. I don't have the government stepping in to control it, I am completely at the mercy of whatever the property company decides to do.

Oh and by the way, I don't get jack shit in return. The place looks the same as it did when I moved in a few years ago. So forgive me if I don't feel your pain on this one.

A Personal Story As to Why I support Gov't Healthcare

Recently my wife discovered she has sleep apnea. In fact it is quite severe (in a 4 hour period of a sleep study she stopped breathing over 360 times). Just for background she is disabled and on permanent disability (back issues). As a result she gets medicare/medicaid and it is our fallback since she is on the same insurance as I am that I get through work.

As I was saying my wife suffers from sleep apnea and it has been linked to strokes and heart attacks. In fact she had also had several heart palpitations while she was participating in the sleep study. As a result of this she needed what is called a C-Pap machine which keeps her airways open while she sleeps so she doesn't stop breathing.

Apparently my insurance was not going to cover it. Fortunately Medicare/Medicaid did otherwise I have no idea how much I'd be paying. This coupled with the small fortune I pay for our prescriptions and the fact that my wife is disabled and cannot work are just a few of the reasons why, although at one time I was against it, I am coming to believe more and more in the idea of the government running the healthcare system, after all when you're a for profit company you want to maintain that profit, treating sick people costs you that.

Really Sad

This is really sad, really really sad. It's bad enough when hatred and bigotry is directed against those of us who are adults, but when it's directed against kids it is just beyond the pale.

You learn something new every day

Well there's something I didn't know with regard to "Bears" at least those not in Southern California. In fact down here there are a lot of them and they happily identify as such, they are especially active in the Leather Community of which I'm a part.

Always good to learn some more history.

The Unitary Vice Executive

Everyone, by now knows that this Administration operates on the completely bogus theory of the "Unitary Executive". Apparently that is not the only "theory" this admin operates under. Indeed according to Raw Story (Link) the Vice Presidents office is a seperate entity even from the executive branch of government.

Now I remember learning all about our constitution even as far back as the third grade, last I knew we had three branches of government, the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. According to Cheney's office the Office of the Vice President is not a part of the executive so what exactly is it? Since we have only 3 branches of government it is only logical to conclude that Cheney operates the OVP as a sort of Shadow government, not suprising considering he has been known to run shadow intelligence operations going around the CIA and Pentagon.

If that weren't egregious enough, it appears that National Archives went so far as to refer this to the Attorney General and DOJ for an investigation. Of course we all know what that means...the investigation didn't go anywhere.

The problem with Christianity

Andrew Sullivan (yes I link to him a lot, I like what he has to say and I'm a liberal, deal with it), in response to a readers email makes the argument that the problem with christianity is that it has been used by both the left and the right to further earthly power. Specifically he mentions this in regard to socialism/liberalism and the belief that the state should aid its citizens. He argues that because of this people are robbed of their moral obligations and thus robbed of the resources to be charitable.

I would disagree for several reasons.

First off most churches, themselves, seek to interject their views into politics. While politicians may co-opt religion, specifically christianity, a fair amount of politics in this country has been co-opted by religious organizations and churches. These churches seek donations not to help the poor of this country (which they should be doing) but rather to garner more influence politically in many cases. Does anyone really think the mega-churches swimming in the cash really use all that money for anything but the most cynical and narrow purposes?

This is not to say all churches behave in this manner, but look at the Catholic church and how much money it raises that goes to building cathedrals (the one in L.A. is an eye sore) or, lately, to settling molestation lawsuits. Even the church I grew up in used money gathered in the collection plate, not to help the local poor, but to pay for the upkeep of the church building and cover the costs for things like the annual strawberry festival (note I have long since left christianity behind but was once, as a child, involved in the church).

Examining this even further, and taking into account history, the christian church in its myriad denominations has always sought to exert some manner of control over government. Our country, the U.S. was first colonized by people who were persecuted by their government in conjunction with the dominant "flavor" of the church in England. Upon arriving they, themselves established local governments which the church often had influence in and this continued in some form or another throughout the history of this country although it was, on several occasions, kept at bay by secularists and others. It was this same paradigm that led to the Seperation of Church and state. The fear was not so much the government co-opting the church as it was the church co-opting the government.

Most churches, indeed the churches that would be considered the ancestors of the baptist and evangelical churches were content with this remembering all too well what had happened under the Church in England. As time went by, however, the church fell back to its old habits. Most recently this came about in the form of the religious right. All they needed was someone friendly to them to open the door, they found that in the form and persons of Karl Rove and George Bush. If anything this relationship that they formed was symbiotic, yes Bush assumed the mantle of Christianity in order to court the religionists but the religionists eagerly obliged in the belief that they could control things, at least vicariously through George Bush and the Republican party in general.

This is not unlike the church playing King maker during the middle ages, a part of history we as Americans don't spend nearly enough time learning about. There you had the church co-opting the power of the state in order to control what happened and to whom, none of which was about "the greater good" as laid out in the bible but rather about the acquisition of earthly power by the church. Fast forward to now and it's still the same.

As a result politicians have danced with the devil as well. In fact the Republican party is so wedded to the religionists now that to detach will truly tear the party apart and already is. Sadly this has been monkey see monkey do on the part of the Democrats. Indeed it was rare to hear a democrat talk about faith or frame policy in "faith" because it wasn't necessary, we had a secular government and kept religion out of it. Now, having been forced by the right into talking about "faith" the left is acting like the beaten wife and talking about it. One thing I give people like Obama credit for is that when they speak about faith and frame policy around faith they at least are using it to bring out the best parts of the faith, not the worst which we have been subject to the past 6 years. Indeed it is quite fun to watch the "religion" card thrown right back into the faces of those who have clubbed us over the head with it for these past years.

I still believe the Dems (and any political party for that matter) need to take their mouths off the tit that is organized religion and come back down to earth where reality exists. Hopefully they will sooner, rather than later. One encouraging sign has been the general reflex disdain for religious affiliation after what has occurred over the past 6 years. Perhaps now we'll talk less about having more "religion in the public square" and more about having it back in the private home and the church where it belongs. After all it was the pharisee who most sought to express their faith publicly and if the bible is true we know how Jesus felt about that.

All of that being said, the Churches failure has not been because it has been co-opted by the state as much as it is the Church once again attempting to co-opt the state and the state reacting reflexively rather than reacting logically.

In "Other departments Used to Punish Non-Republicans"

Here's an interesting article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Of course we all remember back in '04 when the Admin sicced the IRS on a church in So California for giving a sermon not supporting the Christianist Champion of the Religious Reich George Bush. We remember that don't we?

Well according to the article it wasn't overly uncommon for the IRS to be investigating people for the most reprehensible sin, criticizing government at least not during this administrations tenure. Of course one has to wonder just how many Evangelical organizations were investigated, how many of the religious right were investigated for handing out campaign pamphlets disguised as "voter guides".

But no, nothing to see here, just go right back to sleep like a good little sheep. It is nice to see, however, that this just might bite the IRS and Administration in the Ass.

Well now here's something interesting...

According to a report in tha AP, via Yahoo most people who donate embryos to fertility clinics were open to the idea of having the embryo's used for stem cell research if they were not used to have a child.

To quote the Article:

Of 1,020 people who responded by saying they still had embryos in storage, 49 percent said they were likely to donate some or all of them for research. When asked specifically about stem cell research, the portion willing to donate embryos rose to 62 percent.

Now there's an idea. When we die we know we can donate our organs either for research purposes or for the organs themselves etc. Unused embryos should be treated the same way. If Woman A enters a fertility clinic and has some embryos stored in their freezers she should have the option of checking a box saying in effect that were she not to use said embryos they could be donated to stem cell research. Of course there would be a clause in there to say the fertility clinic would contact the woman and see if she wanted to use the embryos before donating them.

Quite honestly I approach this whole thing from a pragmatic stand point when it comes to "When does life begin". For me, a fetus is nothing more than a parasite, unable to survive without it's host while it gestates. Even before it becomes a "fetus" with any real shape it is nothing more than a clump of cells, aka stem cells. It has no shape, no feelings, and is best viewed under a microscope. To me life begins the moment the doctor smacks you on the butt to get you to take that first breath (if you haven't already). Until that time, you are, for all intents and purposes no different from the Alien embryo in the Aliens movies. Perhaps not the best reference, but you get the point.

Since mankind has long ago figured out just where babies come from and knows that there is no hocus pocus involved (well if you're doing it right there is a certain "magic") nor are there storks dropping bundles of joy down the chimney, mankind also needs to get over the idea that procreation, and the "miracle of life" is somehow "divine" and created by some supernatural omnipotent being. If that were the case you would suspect he would have come up with a far different manner of achieving the end result that didn't involve lots of grunting, sweat, and/or cramping (even if most of that is the fun part). In other words, humans "Do it like they do on the discovery channel".

To all those who somehow think we're messing with "gods miracle", go out, start shutting down fertility clinics that help people get pregnant, after all by your logic god made them sterile or somehow infertile to begin with.

Def...Def..Definitely the Osmonds

As I noted the other day, Tagg and company definitely remind me of the Osmonds. Apparently Mr. Sullivan agrees. Now all we need is to find out "who's a little bit country" and "who's a little bit rock'n'roll".

"Persons Of Interest"

With everything going on within this administration and this country, it's easy to overlook some of the small ways in which the abuses this administration has committed have trickled down to other agencies and local governments. Take for example "Persons of Interest".

After 9/11 the DOJ, notably AG John Ashcroft used this term regarding people the government was interested in detaining/questioning about potential terrorist activity. These people were not "suspects" there was no quantitative evidence that would make them "suspects" therefore a new term was coined, "Person of Interest".

Fast forward 6 years, within the past few days I have hear on at least 3 occasions police or officials being quoted as having "persons of interest" with regard to various crimes. Now having taken Criminal Justice courses and knowing a wee bit about the laws, we don't have "persons of interest" we have suspects, suspects who are either linked with a crime and arrested or are dropped as suspects.

This new "Person of Interest" category puts a large cloud of suspicion over anyone it touches. It puts this cloud over you and over me. Why? Because there is no legal definition for "person of interest". Therefore we all could be "persons of interest" just as this administration has tried to make the case that any citizen can be called an enemy combatant and detained without charge. In fact person of interest, when used, has been eerily similar to "enemy combatant" after all there have been reports where "persons of interest" have been detained for a given period of time without charge, only to be released.

This is what we have been reduced to, this is the real "trickle down" effect. Local authorities and agencies playing monkey see, monkey do with carelessly used phrases that have no meaning. Why? Because the government has allowed it, we the people have allowed it. To quote Susan Powter it's time to "Stop the Insanity".

Tagg Romney...the long lost Osmond

Andrew Sullivan has this lovely gem of a quote from a fund raising letter sent out by one of Mitt Romney's spawn. Reading the quote I can only shudder and think of Donnie And Marie Osmond and their pure vapidity (is that a word?) that they always seemed to give off. The fake smiles etc. They are all mormons after all...just sayin.

Ugh.

It's monday, it's early and I am still catching up on news I missed over the weekend. So I am gonna let Henry Rollins talk for me about Halliburton etc.

Preach it brother Rollins!

Hypocrites...complete utter hypocrites

This article speaks for itself. This administration has spent us into debt which will take a lifetime to pay off, it did so with a complicit congress. Now there's a threat to "veto runaway spending". What a bunch of horse shit.

Keep in mind this money pays for extra border patrol agents and implementing more of the 9/11 commission recommendations all left undone by the republicans and now threatened by them. Yes your republican party really wants to secure them borders and "protect America". Asshats.

Change in the description at the top

As time has past and as I started writing more on this blog, not just about the Bush Administration but on what passes for a Republican Party and/or conservative movement under the Bush administration as well as other affairs such as the creeping doom that is Christian Fanaticism that has crept into our national politics, I wanted to find something new for the Blog description something that better represents my attitude toward not only my country but those running it and those trying to tear it apart.

As such I chose the quote displayed at the top by Adlai Stevenson. It's one of those quotes that when you read it and think about it you have a sort of epiphany, if your honest with yourself, that our ability to be critical of our government, even our countrymen when we see them as being wrong is, indeed, the highest form of Patriotism.

To stand up and give voice to our concerns and not fear the retribution that doing so may bring is perhaps one of the highest forms of courage. It is not merely a benefit, or even merely a right but a duty in our society. If we have learned nothing the past 6 years we should have at least learned that.

So criticize me if you will for disagreeing. Slander me with idiotic insults, deride me all you like. However I am an American and a Patriot and I will not be silenced.

Rock 'n' Roll God Damn it and Yippe Kai-yay Motherfuckers.

"Your work here is done"

With little fan-fare last night Commander Cod-Piece signed the law I spoke of yesterday regarding the US Attorneys (Story here on Rawstory). However, as was reported yesterday Abu squeaked in one last "end run" appointment before the law was signed. Of course this has many lawmakers generally peeved and with any luck those appointments will be nullified or will have to come up before the senate.

The take away message here? AGAG's work was done, the appointment was made, one last loyal bushie installed before the law was signed. As Rawstory pointed out there hasn't been a signing statement accompanying this bill...yet. Does that mean there will be one or has Commander Cod-Piece learned his lesson? I doubt he's learned anything and I bet a signing statement will be slipped in, in the not too distant future. Don't hold me to that because I'm not there, nor am I inside the vast, cavernous area that passes for the brain of our half-wit president.

In more Justice department News, this time coutesy of TPM it's good to see that the Civil Rights division has devoted so much time to going after religious discrimination cases while at the same time continuing to push more "charges" of "voter fraud" down in the Carolinas. Of course the odd thing about at least one of the religious discrimination cases, that of the Salvation Army which receives federal funding, was to ALLOW THEM TO DISCRIMINATE. One has to wonder is the Civil Rights division here to protect our civil rights or dismantle them one at a time? Given the last 6-7 years I'd say...as depressing as it is...it's the latter. I have to give credit though, that Massachusetts case with the "candy cane" being J shaped to represent Jesus and the red stripe being his blood while the white his purity sure does give a new meaning to a plain old crooked peppermint stick. Some real imagination there.

Of course this is all par for the course. It's red meat for the base and looking at the hiring practices within the DOJ and the Civil Rights division in particular one can see just how these cases are coming to the forefront, meanwhile other civil rights cases such as discrimination based on race or civil rights abuses by police officers are being dismissed. Even more telling is that with these hirings the qualifications to work at the DOJ must have dropped dramatically. Where once you had top tier law school graduates who worked in prestigious firms you now have graduates of Regent University and other Religious, 4th tier law schools.

I ask you this, if you needed a defense attorney and had the choice between someone with a degree from Harvard and a resume of exceptional standing or a recent graduate of a 4th tier school like regent U who hasn't argued a single case and has no background in the area in which you need defending who would you pick? For that matter say you ran a law firm and the same two candidates came looking for a position in your firm who would you hire?

You would, if you were honest, hire the most qualified. You wouldn't hire the least, the one who's unproven. However that is just what our DOJ has been doing. Meanwhile the AGAG "slow bleed strategy" of replacing long-time carreer attorneys with people who have little to no experience continues. If this was the private sector and it was a business it would be in the toilet by those standards.

Like a Drunk on a bender Gonezo just can't help it.

Since Shrub has been too busy being adored by the Albanians (What About POLAND!!!) to sign the bill rescinding the Authority of the AG to do an end run around the Congress when appointing USA's good ol Abu is still on his bender according to Raw Story

Yes indeed folks our beloved AG is still appointing USA's without sending them up for confirmation. Since Bush has not signed the bill then it's technically not law but let's face it. Not signing or vetoing the bill in this case should be seen, quite simply, as defying Congress and the will of the people. The bill passed overwhelmingly and the fact that bush is slow walking it while his consigliere uses the power to appoint USA's is dancing on the border of the criminal.

Those who haven't realized it yet should get a clue. Bush thinks he is king, his appointments to positions are not based on competence but loyalty, dare I say fealty. It's time to wake up and realize it. If you want to wrap yourself in the flag and claim to be a Patriotic freedom loving American you'd be knocking on the gates of 1600 right now de-crowning the would be king.

But just keep dreaming, keep watching Fox News which has devoted more coverage to Britney Spears, ANC and Paris Hilton than any other network, keep attending the creation museum where you are told to "Don't think, just believe". Meanwhile your country and the ideals you believed it stood for are being dragged through the dirt and burned not unlike the flag you get indignant about when someone else is burning it.

The GOP, Party Of Projection

The saga of Lorita Doan continues only now it has taken another twist (Link via Rawstory). In a hearing held yesterday which reviewed an investigation into Doan the Republicans, ever the champions of civil rights and racial equality, used the Race card trying to claim that the investigation of Doan, and the OSC's report were used by the Democrats to target Doan because she was black and a women.

This coming from the same Party who has hijacked the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ is nothing more than projection, it's the same type of thing these idiots have done since day one of this administration, take their oppositions strengths and use them against them all the while projecting their own weaknesses on the opponent.

I guess I should be shocked by this but the reality is one can no longer be cynical enough when talking about the current state of our government and what passes for a Republican party these days.

Just unreal.