Watch Bush Closely
June 28, 2008
June 28, 2008
This is a letter from Elizabeth Edwards. I have removed the requests for donations, only to leave the most important parts. Please read this with an open mind:
It's a question of our most deeply-held American values.
What does it say about us as a people when we can find the resources to build roads in Iraq, but not at home?
Or that tax breaks for oil companies take precedence over ensuring that every American child has health insurance?
Or that CEOs can receive lavish compensation in reward for sending American jobs overseas?
Senate Democrats have tried to fix these glaring injustices, but Republicans have responded by filibustering over seventy bills in a single year - a record of obstruction unmatched in American history.
I can understand why so many people have been so focused on the presidential race but come November, we're going to need more than a new president. We're going to need a strong Democratic Senate working tirelessly to undo the damage of the last eight years and to rebuild our nation and our national reputation.
No matter what the polls say now, this election will be hard fought. If history is any guide, individual Senate races could turn on as little as a few hundred votes. And whether those close calls tip in our favor will depend on who went the extra step. Races can be won or lost depending on what you do today.
This election, we can do more than just undo the damage of the Bush years. If we work hard enough, we can elect a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in the Senate that can make real the progress we've been talking about for forty years.
Universal health care. Affordable education. Energy independence.
We can do it - but only if we all do our part and we all work together.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Edwards
June 21, 2008
And now for something completely different:
We received this from a friend and, as it is so very important for everyone to see, thought we would simply cut and paste it from the email, into this site. Please, if you do not read anything else on this site ... read this AND take action. This is, after all, your country. To allow it to be hijacked by the Republicans and their repugnant Hit Squads, is simply ... well, it is simply un-American!
Black, White, Asian, Native American ... we can go on and on trying to enumerate the types of people on this Earth, most of whom are also represented by people living in the United States of America. The Great Melting Pot. Everyone comes to America for the same reasons - religious freedom, and other freedoms. The ability to pursue their own dreams and their own way of living, without being criticized, or bothered by other people.
The silly phrase from about a decade ago was truly on the money, "Can't we all get along?" Yet the Fox Network, in their news division, seems to be truly an arm of the Republican Smear Machine. A political wing of the Republican Party and their leaders, Bush, Cheney, and the others, who only want one thing: Money and the power it brings them.
The realistic fact that they are about to lose power, lose the White house, lose the majority in both Senate and House, is scaring them into acting this way in full force. Anything they can do to hold onto the power they will do.
Don't for a minute let McCain's "hero" status fool you. He is just another Bush in a different package. He long ago started to lie with the best of them. The things that he will say against Barack Obama should be viewed in a mirror, so that you can see that they are usually opposite to the truth. What things McCain accuses Obama of doing - like the campaign finance decision Obama has made - is nothing that will hurt the American Public, and the fact that Obama changed his mind about it is not anything about which to be upset.
The truth is that McCain wants you to think that Barack Obama is going against the American Public when, in truth, McCain is the one who has abandoned the American Way of Life, the "Truth, Justice, and Honor" he has sworn to protect.
So, come and look at these things with your eyes wide open, and seek out the truth. Then look carefully at how low down and dirty the Republican Party and their political smear tactic "news division," Fox News, handle the things that even the Republicans want to be able to keep at a distance.
Now, if you can handle the truth, read on:
http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=2177-570427Dear Friends,
Right now, Fox News is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They're trying to send Americans the message that our country's first viable Black candidate for President is not "one of us." I've joined on to ColorOfChange.org's campaign to push back on Fox, publicly demanding they stop their race-baiting and fear mongering.
If that doesn't work, then we'll go to their advertisers and the FCC. I wanted to invite you to sign on as well. It takes only a moment:
Here's what happened recently: After Senator Obama won the nomination, he and his wife gave each other a "pound" in front of the cameras. Fox anchor E.D. Hill called the act of celebration a "terrorist fist jab." Then last week, a Fox News on-screen graphic referred to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama"--slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man's child.
It was a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative cultural stereotypes about Black people, an insult not only to Michelle Obama but to women and Black people everywhere. After each of the incidents mentioned, Fox issued some form of weak apology. But what does it mean when you slap someone in the face, apologize the next day, then slap them again on the third? It means the apology is meaningless.
These aren't one-time incidents--they're part of a pattern that continues no matter how often Fox is forced to apologize. Fox has a clear record of attacking and undermining Black institutions, Black leaders, and Black people in general.
If we don't push back now, we will see more of the same from now until November. Please join me in helping to bring an end to Fox's behavior.
http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=2177-570427Thanks.
So when I got to this site, of course I wrote my own letter to Roger Ailes. I could have used their ready-made letter, but I thought I'd write my own - using some of their verbiage - and send that along. This version appears below. If you feel you want to take some of what I wrote, feel free to do so. After all, we're all trying to make this country better and I would be honored if other people thought my words worth using for themselves.
-a.
Dear Roger Ailes,
There was a time when your name, to me, meant integrity in reporting the news. What in the world has happened to you?
I cannot believe that you would associate yourself with such a morally repugnant operation as Fox News. Fox News seems to have become an arm of the Bush Republican Party, specifically as the mud-slinging, fear-mongering operation.
Fox News, to anyone with the courage to think for themselves, now represents all that is base and demeaning in politics.
Fox has developed a pattern of airing racially offensive attacks, then apologizing only after controversy erupts. Forced, half-hearted apologies do not demonstrate good faith when the larger pattern of offensive rhetoric continues. Fox has a serious problem with using race as a divisive tool. Your network must find a solution to address racial stereotyping and hate-mongering before it hits the airwaves.
I was outraged to learn about Fox News' aggressive use of irresponsible language and racist stereotypes in coverage of Senator Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama. From E.D Hill's "terrorist fist jab" comment to demeaning Mrs. Obama's role as wife and mother by demoting her to "Obama's baby mama," Fox continues to malign the progress, politics and personalities of Black America.
Throughout this election campaign, and beyond, I intend to hold you, your network, its advertisers and personalities accountable for any further attempts to undermine the Obamas, Black institutions and other Black Americans by preying on prejudice, ignorance and racial division.
==========
Now, it's up to you.
Please help out by telling Fox News that what they have done, and continue to do, is unacceptable, morally reprehensible, and cannot continue.
And, don't forget to go to the ImpeachBush site and sign up there, too.
June 5, 2008
A Brief Editorial from AlexH:
So now a Congressional Inquiry has determined that the Bush Administration lied to the Public about the reasons to go to war against Iraq; the reasons they used to invade Iraq. What a surprise. Gee, just think ... Bush lied ... that is so hard to believe, now isn't it? And what is the Bush Administration's response? That this is a partisan-based decision.
So folks, it's now even more clear: we have a president who is intellectually challenged, as well as veracity challenged. In plain language, he is simply a lying moron!
And what a surprise ... John McCain doesn't want debates with Obama, just town meetings. What could he possibly be concerned about in debating Barack Obama? That he'd come out looking like the second coming of Bush? Yep, folks, the Republican candidate for president is not only starting to show he too is intellectually challenged, he is also showing that he is veracity challenged.
Just know that John McCain does not have what it takes to be president. He's simply not smart enough, honest enough, or enough of what we need as a president.
May 7, 2008
Another Editorial from AlexH:
ENOUGH ALREADY!
Hillary and Barack continue to slug it out, and it looks like good political theater, now doesn't it? Go Barack Obama ... Beat Hillary Clinton.
Or ...
Go Hillary Clinton ... Beat Barack Obama!
Well, most of us Democrats out here are already saying "Enough is Enough." You are distracting the voters now, by giving them two separate paths to follow to get a Democrat into the White House.
And you know what? At the rate you are going, you will both lose, and we will end up with Bush #3 in the White House. Why is that? Because there are people out here who say that they hate one or the other, and rather than vote democrat, they are going to vote for McCain! Is that the stupidest thing you ever heard? Saying, "I dislike the Democrats so much, that I am going to elect yet another Republican who is going to continue killing our military in Iraq, going to start a new war in Iran. And going to continue to destroy the best hopes of our nation by destroying our future, just because I can't vote for Clinton or Obama! What complete stupidity!
That's right, we are going to end up with John McCain taking over for George - the Moron - Bush. And all the same policies and all the same idiotic methods and ways of addressing the problems around the world, in Iraq, in Iran, in Myanmar, you name it, it's going to happen; all of the same policies will be used to address the rest of this world. In the End, The Democrats will show the world of voters - those who would normally vote for Democratic principals and Democratic Methods, just how stupid Democrats can be, in defeating themselves, and allowing John McCain to win the White House after all.
Stop! Enough! End your silly games now!
Show the United States Voters how together the Democratic Party can actually be, and do it now, so that people can actually look at the Democrat Party and say, to themselves and to their friends, "We have got to vote for the Democrats now, so that they can get us out of the crap that Bush put us into. And do it now!
So, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton ... enough is more than enough.
A vote for a Democrat is a Vote for an honest White House. A Vote for a Democrat is a vote for an Honest Senate. A Vote for a Democrat is a Vote for an Honest Representative in the House of Representatives. And finally, a Vote for a Democrat means that the Supreme Court will not be loaded with narrow-minded Republicans who only want a majority, so that they can overturn the socially progressive steps made by the Supreme Court in the past thirty years. Hey African Americans! Do you rally want to step to the rear of the bush again, as your ancestors did back in the 20s and 30s? Do you really want to eat at different lunch counters than your white friends when you go to lunch? Do you truly think this cannot happen"? Think again, folks, because the Republicans are the mean spirited party and can only wait for their opportunity to present itself, to put you folks back at the end of the good stuff again. Think it won't happen? Think again, folks, because first chance the Republicans get, they will change this back to the way it used to be!
Get your shit together, Obama and Clinton, and stop squabbling. Create that Democratic Dream Team and put together a ticket that all of America will be proud of; proud to vote for; proud to elect to the White House; proud to say, "These are the leaders of the most powerful nation on the planet, and they are Compassionate, Honest, Courageous, and Caring! And, we are proud to have voted for them all!
No more misdirection; no more lies, no more freedoms at the hands of the Oil Companies, who have reaped incredible profits at the loss of our freedom, our realistic gas prices, and our food costs. Every time the price of gas goes up, food costs increase, furniture costs increase, all other costs related to freight increase, due to the oil companies making an incredible profit on the people, so that Bush and Chaney and his followers can make their incredible profits from fuel costs, and from the costs of gasoline which get us to our jobs.
Why this is not completely obvious to everyone on the planet, or at least everyone in the USA is beyond us. We can see it; you must see it too.
Chase Bush, Chaney and other minions of the White House right away but not too far, since we want to
impeach them for raping the land in which we all work, play, and live! Look it up: "
High crimes and misdemeanors" has a very specific definition and must be followed down the path to impeachment. None of these profiteers can
be allowed to get away ... ever!
April 29, 2008
John McCain - our Republican Candidate with Senile Dementia - wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years. He's said it, and it's on tape.
But his campaign hates that he was caught. They've viciously attacked anyone who reminded the American people that he said it, including me. They've said that those who reference the 100 years comments are "deliberately misleading voters."
So we've taken John McCain's own words -- video of him saying that 100 years would be "fine with me" -- and made a TV ad. There's no confusion, no distortion, no misleading -- it's John McCain, on tape, for voters to judge on their own.
It's one of the most powerful political ads I've ever seen. It's devastating -- and the McCain campaign will spend the rest of the election trying to fight it.
You can watch it here:
http://www.democrats.org/IraqAd100 years may be fine with him, but it's not with the rest of us.
Thanks for your support,
Howard Dean
April 25, 2008
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN
Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.
If you think that McCain will fight for you the way the people in the article, above, fought for you and your rights, you are sadly mistaken. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, while they are currently fighting it out to see which of them will represent the Democrats, will unite when it is necessary to do so. And presenting a United Front, the Democrats will fight for you and for your country like no Republican has ever done or ever will do. Republicans, if they had their way, would keep most Americans in the lower working classes, so that they have a ready-made class of workers, to support their millionaire supporters. Go ahead, vote for McCain. Then, when you're fighting to keep your homes, and your jobs, and anything else you've become accustomed to, in terms of rights to fairness in the workplace, and pensions, and the rest of it, remember that you had a chance to help strengthen the United States and your positions, or to let it all go down the tubes with yet another Republican who couldn't wait to give your rights away to the Big Oil companies and the like, who will stomp on your rights, like bugs.
And they say the Germans don't have a sense of humor!
Today's Editorial - April 8,
2008
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For all the coverage this week of Senator John McCain's background, there are some important things you won't learn about him from the TV networks. His carefully crafted positive image relies on people not knowing this stuff—and you might be surprised by some of it.
Please check out the list below, and then forward it to your friends, family, and coworkers. We can't rely on the media to tell folks about the real John McCain—but if we all pass this along, we can reach as many people as CNN Headline News does on a good night.
Click here to tell us how many people you can pass it on to—and to see our progress nationally:
10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10
John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be. Please help get the word out—forward this email to your personal network. And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn's work to get the truth out about John McCain, sign up here:
Thank you for all you do.
–Eli, Justin, Noah, Laura, and the
MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
Sources:
1. "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html
"McCain Facts,"
ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/
2. "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia,
China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us
"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress,
February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/
3. "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of
Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/
4. "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/
5. "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan
Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007
"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3,
2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/
6. "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80
"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March
25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home
7. "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16,
2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022
"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston
Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/
8. "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know
What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/
"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29,
2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251
9. "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam,"
Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html
"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?,"
ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/
"McCain 'Very
Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
10. "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club,
February 28, 2008
On the topic of the Foreclosures and the Senate, which is trying to make life easier for Americans who are losing their homes. Senate Democrats are trying to enact legislation to help this situation; Senate Republicans ... well, folks, they're Republicans after all ...
New York's Senior Senator, Chuck Schumer, wrote: "With millions of Americans losing their homes in the worst foreclosure crisis in memory, Senate Democrats are springing into action.
Republicans, on the other hand are starting another filibuster.
We have new legislation designed to rush federal assistance to people devastated by the mortgage crisis, but our opponents are once again standing in the way of progress."
Here, now, the editorial. Short and (bitter) Sweet:
Republicans, it seems, at least their political leaders, are the personification of evil. They call Democrats "tax and spend" but they don't mind taxing the middle and lower classes, to bail out the millionaires and the big oil companies too. How in the world can Exxon Mobile earn such incredible profits, when the American people are losing their homes? The Big Oil people say that the cost of oil and gas is out of their control - except when they earn record profits on that same commodity.
So it should come as no surprise that they are getting ready to stand in the way of Senate Democrats, who are trying to alleviate the situation for lower and middle income Americans, who are trying to not lose their homes.
Make sure you Democrats get your act together to win the Presidency this year, or we're all in bigger trouble than you can possibly imagine, if McCain gets into the White House.
Obama and Clinton: Please, fight nicely, but get it done and move on to solidify the Democratic Party. Do this well in advance of the Convention, and give yourselves enough time to beat the Republicans. Remember they are going to use all the dirty tricks in the book - and write new books - to keep you out of the White House. You cannot afford to be still fighting when McCain and his dirty fighters start working on you guys.
Beat the Republicans this year, or the US of A is going to be completely lost.
March 2008
DENNIS KUCINICH:
On issue after issue, Dennis Kucinich has demonstrated his courage and his leadership. In particular, when nobody else would raise their hand he stepped forward to call for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney.
February 20, 2008
An Editorial:
I admit that I have been a Democrat all of my adult life. Even as a child, I watched my parents discuss politics - as Democrats - so I learned to trust Democrats early on. Were my parents still alive, they would be happy to tell you that I did not take anyone's word for anything; I had to see things for myself; had to learn for myself; had to learn for myself, no matter how painful that might be ... the learning, that is. If I made a mistake, many times my parents would let me sit there and stew in my own mistaken juices, so to speak.
So, I grew up voting for almost every Democrat who ran for president.
I say almost, because in 1980, I voted for an Independent - John Anderson! Simply because he seemed to speak the truth, and seemed to make more sense - to me, that is - than either the Democrat or the Republican running in 1980.
So, I was able to say, when the dust settled, that I worked hard to find the right candidate; then worked even harder to make the biggest mistake I could, by voting for that candidate.
Now, before going into why and how I have come to make my decision for which Democrat I will support for President, I want to tell you how big a mistake I have already made. After watching George W. Bush cheat, lie, misdirect, and do everything he could to steal two elections, including how much he beat down John McCain ... by putting him in the same group as the Democrats and simply cheating McCain out of his rightful place as a Republican candidate. I thought that John McCain couldn't be nearly so dishonest, so without integrity, as George W. Bush is. Quite frankly, Bush cheated John McCain out of his chance to be an honest-to-God, real live candidate from the Republican Party who could run against Bush for President. For some reason, McCain did not fight back. Here is an honest-to-goodness Military Hero, a POW from Viet Nam who survived and returned to become a senator and eventually run for president. Here's a man who had more brains than Bush (okay, that's not so hard) and more guts, and more integrity and honesty. Bush, as we all know by now, doesn't even know what integrity means. He has an IQ that is barely above room temperature. If Cheney isn't somewhere nearby or available by wireless communications somehow, then Bush is truly a puppeteer's dummy. He has no clue how to answer questions that are more difficult than things like "What is your name?" or "Where were you born?" and so on.
As the old saying goes, "if brains were dynamite, Bush wouldn't have enough to blow his own nose!"
Okay. Enough of how I feel about Bush.
But McCain?
I have always felt that he had integrity and honesty, and was a decent human being, even if he allowed Bush to cheat him out of his rightful spot on the Republican Ticket in 2004. That was probably due to following the party line, and McCain is nothing if not loyal. To the Republicans, that is. It turns out that McCain is not loyal to the truth ... but we'll get to that later on.
So what is this all about? Over the past few days, I have heard McCain on the radio and on TV, speaking about his possible opponents, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And what has astonished me is that McCain has been saying things to the effect that the Democrats' position is such that they would practically hand over the USA to the Terrorists! Simply put, he says that they would just about waive the white flag and give the country over to the Terrorists. UBL (Usama Bin Laden) or anyone else in that group of Al Qaida groupies.
Now, this man - McCain - supposedly has integrity and ethics; supposedly has honesty and decency. This is not the way to prove to the voting public that he is a replacement for Bush, that he will be able to bring us out of the economic mess Bush put the country into. All of the things that McCain has been saying against the Democrats are words with no integrity, ethics, honesty, or decency in them. He has torn a page out of Bush's playbook and is using misdirection and lies to try and get an edge over his Democrat opponents.
Shame on McCain! He shows, by how much of a lead he has over the only Republican opponent he has left, that he is a candidate to be watched. That he can make it an interesting race. If, however, he keeps it clean and honest. If, however, he doesn't lie about his opponents. If he keeps it clean and straight.
Otherwise, the voting public will see just another Bush and this country has had more than enough of George W. Bush. More than seven (7) years too much of Bush. The Population of the United States of America learned, shortly after September 11, 2001, that the Bush we got was not the Bush we wanted; was not the Bush he said he was going to be. Quite the opposite.
No More Bush; No More Republicans; no more liars, cheats, misdirection, no more ... no more! And BTW, Mike ought to know that there is never going to be a president for this country with the name Huckabee! As the Elder Bush used to say ... "Not gonna happen; wouldn't be prudent!" With a name like that, he simply will never be elected. And on top of that, with his combination of Church and State, not separation, but combination, that is not going to happen, either. This country's populace is tired of having right-wing, religious people trying to run the government. The country was founded upon the rock of separation of Church and State. We're not going backwards. not now, not ever!
So, folks, the bottom line is simple ... Vote Democrat. Choose Barack Obama; choose Hillary Clinton; choose a Democrat who will deliver on the promises made during the months leading up to the election. Remember the last Democrat President we had gave us eight (8) years of peace and prosperity, and the largest surplus this country's economy ever saw. And Bush turned that whole thing around in two years, giving us the largest deficit we ever saw.
So, how do you like your apples? Rotten and sour, or Sweet and Rich? Vote Democrat and get those crazies out of the White House and the Congress, too! Let's have a peaceful, economically stable government again, and let's get people covered by health insurance too while we're at it.
Time to do it right for a change!
February 16, 2008
A mini-editorial
February 16, 2008
We are proud to be able to bring you this video from Keith Olbermann, in which he does what I - your editor - have done ... calls Bush a Liar and a Cheat and other justifiable terms. Bush would not know the truth if it jumped up and bit him on the nose. So, with that in mind, here now is Keith Olbermann, with our sincere thanks:
A Veto of the FISA Bill Endangers
Americans
By Keith Olbermann
MSNBC Countdown
Thursday 14 February 2008
A part of what I will say, was said here on Jan. 31. Unfortunately it is both sadder and truer now than it was then.
"Who's to blame?" Mr. Bush also said this afternoon, "Look, these folks in Congress passed a good bill late last summer.... The problem is, they let the bill expire. My attitude is: If the bill was good enough then, why not pass the bill again?"
Like the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Or Executive Order 90-66. Or The Alien and Sedition Acts. Or slavery.
Mr. Bush, you say that our ability to track terrorist threats will be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger. Yet you have weakened that ability!
You have subjected us, your citizens, to that greater danger! This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough for even you to understand.
For the moment, at least, thanks to some true patriots in the House, and your own stubbornness, you have tabled telecom immunity, and the FISA act.
You. By your own terms and your definitions, you have just sided with the terrorists. You've got to have this law, or we're all going to die. But, practically speaking, you vetoed this law.
It is bad enough, sir, that you were demanding an ex post facto law that could still clear the AT&Ts and the Verizons from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.
But when you demanded it again during the State of the Union address, you wouldn't even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared.
"The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America."
Believed? Don't you know? Don't you even have the guts Dick Cheney showed in admitting they did collaborate with you? Does this endless presidency of loopholes and fine print extend even here? If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business, come out and say it! There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.
You're a fascist - get them to print you a T-shirt with fascist on it! What else is this but fascism? Did you see Mark Klein on this newscast last November?
Mark Klein was the AT&T whistleblower who explained in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood IT desk how he personally attached all AT&T circuits, everything, carrying every one of your phone calls, every one of your e-mails, every bit of your Web browsing into a secure room, room No. 641-A at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.
Not some of it, not just the international part of it, certainly not just the stuff some spy, a spy both patriotic and telepathic, might be able to divine had been sent or spoken by or to a terrorist.
Everything! Every time you looked at a naked picture. Every time you bid on eBay. Every time you phoned in a donation to a Democrat. "My thought was," Mr. Klein told us last November, "George Orwell's ‘1984.' And here I am, forced to connect the Big Brother machine."
And if there's one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, it is that he is - you are - a liar.
"This Saturday at midnight," you said Thursday, "legislation authorizing intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications will expire. If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying and what they are planning will be compromised." You said that "the lives of countless Americans depend" on your getting your way.
This is crap. And you sling it with an audacity and a speed unrivaled by even the greatest political felons of our history.
Richard Clarke - you might remember him, sir: He was one of the counterterror pros you inherited from President Clinton, before you ran the professionals out of government in favor of your unreality-based reality - Richard Clarke wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
"Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire.
"If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year."
You are a liar, Mr. Bush. And after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar.
And your minions like John Boehner, your Republican congressional crash dummies who just happen to decide to walk out of Congress when a podium-full of microphones await them, they should just keep walking, out of Congress and, if possible, out of the country.
For they and you, sir, have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
The lot of you are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle managers of some banana republic to whom "freedom" is an ironic brand name, a word you reach for when you want to get away with its opposite.
Thus, Mr. Bush, your panoramic invasion of privacy is dressed up as "protecting America."
Thus, Mr. Bush, your indiscriminate domestic spying becomes the focused monitoring only of "terrorist communications."
Thus, Mr. Bush, what you and the telecom giants have done isn't unlawful; it's just the kind of perfectly legal, passionately patriotic thing for which you happen to need immunity!
Richard Clarke is on the money, as usual.
That the president was willing to veto this eavesdropping means there is no threat to the legitimate counterterror efforts under way.
As Sen. Edward Kennedy reminded us in December:
"The president has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA.
"But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity.
"No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the president at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies."
And that literally cannot be. Even Mr. Bush could not overtly take a step that actually aids the terrorists. I am not talking about ethics here. I am talking about blame. If the president seems to be throwing the baby out with the bath water, it means we can safely conclude there is no baby.
Because if there were, sir, now that you have vetoed an extension of this eavesdropping, if some terrorist attack were to follow, you would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists. You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people. You would not merely be guilty of stupidity. You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir.
You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.
And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again - it is that you are never responsible.
As recently ago as 2006, we spoke words like these with trepidation.
The idea that even the most cynical and untrustworthy of politicians in our history, George W. Bush, would use the literal form of terrorism against his own people was dangerous territory. It seemed to tempt fate, to heighten fear.
We will not fear any longer. We will not fear the international terrorists, and we will thwart them. We will not fear the recognition of the manipulation of our yearning for safety, and we will call it what it is: terrorism. We will not fear identifying the vulgar hypocrites in our government, and we will name them. And we will not fear George W. Bush. Nor will we fear because George W. Bush wants us to fear.
Time to Vote Contempt
The New York Times
Editorial
Thursday 14 February 2008
Alberto Gonzales may be out, but the country is still waiting for a full accounting of how he and his White House patrons cynically politicized the Justice Department. Congress is rightly asking questions about the actions of yet another United States attorney: New Jersey's Christopher J. Christie. The House also needs to stop procrastinating and vote to hold witnesses in contempt for refusing to testify in the wider scandal.
Federal prosecutors must be scrupulously nonpartisan. Mr. Christie, a Republican activist who got his job despite a lack of trial and criminal-law experience, has gone up to the line of acceptable behavior - and possibly crossed it.
He began an investigation of Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, late in a hard-fought election campaign. The charges now appear baseless, but at the time the news provided a big boost to Mr. Menendez's Republican opponent. Mr. Christie went against a long Justice Department presumption against opening investigations or bringing indictments right before an election, to avoid affecting the outcome.
There are also questions about Mr. Christie's decision to award, without competitive bidding, a lucrative contract to monitor a company accused of consumer fraud. The winner? Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, an influential Republican who was once Mr. Christie's boss. Senate and House leaders have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate.
Some of the people who likely know the most about the role politics has played in the Bush Justice Department have defied Congressional subpoenas to testify. Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, contend that they are protected from testifying by executive privilege. That is not enough. They have a legal obligation to appear before Congress and plead that privilege to specific questions.
The House Judiciary Committee voted in July to hold Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers in contempt. The House's Democratic leadership has been trying to figure out the pros and cons ever since. The public needs to hear the testimony of these officials (along with Karl Rove, who is also refusing to appear), and the full House should vote as quickly as possible to hold them in contempt.
The House should also approve a resolution authorizing the Judiciary Committee to go to court to enforce the contempt citations if the current attorney general, Michael Mukasey, as expected, refuses to do so.
The stakes are high. There are people in jail today, including a former governor of Alabama, who have raised credible charges that they were put there for political reasons. Congress's constitutionally guaranteed powers are also at risk. If Congress fails to enforce its own subpoenas, it would effectively be ceding its subpoena power. It would also be giving its tacit consent to the dangerous idea of an imperial president - above the law and beyond the reach of checks and balances.
The founders did not want that when they wrote the Constitution, and the voters who elected this Congress do not want it today.
February 3,2008
[Another rant from your editor ...]
So there we were, watching the interminable pre-game show for the Super Bowl, when the NFL did something unbelievable, something special. They read the words of the Declaration of Independence of these United States of America. This - the Declaration - has got to be one of the most incredible pieces of prose ever written, in any language.
We had tears in our eyes, as they drew near the end of the Declaration of Independence.
It is an incredibly beautiful piece of writing and, as it's result, it brought about the birth of a new nation on this earth. A nation the likes of which had never been seen anywhere before. And, as we sat there, we had tears rolling down our cheeks, and we were sniffling like little children, at the beauty of these words.
And we wondered.
We wondered, how is it that so far, no one has brought George W. Bush to task for violating the Declaration of Independence. Or the Constitution.
My God, how can it be that not a single person has had the guts to take Bush to task for turning the country's back on those words.
Why is it that the very few Representatives in our House of Representatives who have had the guts, the balls, to suggest that Bush be Impeached, have been turned away by others, who have no guts, who have not dedicated themselves to following the words of the Declaration of Independence?
Bush is going to finish out his second stolen term in the White House without a single challenge to his having broken the laws of the United States of America in so many ways. Having deceived the citizens of these United States in so many ways. Having profited from the oil prices having risen to unbelievable heights. To Halliburton and other companies having made such amazing profits from Bush's illegal war, and all the ancillary companies, like the security firms, the transportation firms, and all the rest, with no-bid contracts, making such incredible profits. Just from Bush having violated all the laws he possibly could, such that his cronies can turn unbelievable profits, and we know that he is making money from these companies, too.
And you ... you simply sit there and let it happen. You, who voted for him ... to get close enough to let his people do the rest and steal the elections. Twice!
You who are thinking about letting his Republican Thieves do it again. They are going to berate, belittle, discredit, and otherwise cheat this country out of having the best person rise to the level of President of the United States of America.
You who plan to vote Republican should first go to your local library, to your Encarta or other reference works on the Internet, and read the words of the Declaration of Independence, before even considering a vote for any Republican.
Republicans will lie to you; they will cheat and they will misrepresent, and basically do everything they can to scare you into voting for someone who will make a profit from being in office, but will never - not ever - help solve the problems of this nation
Go ahead - go back and read the promises Bush made before stealing the presidency. See what he promised to do to help this country. Then see exactly how he did the opposite of what he promised.
Then reconsider, and vote for someone who may actually help the Nation move forward and solve the problems we face now. The problems Bush brought us; that he got us into; that he swore would not happen with a Bush presidency.
Good luck.
Pray for us all now, as we are going to need all the help we can get to straighten out the problems that Bush brought our way.
January 20, 2008
In honor of January 20, 2009...
This person needs a job, and seeks an executive position. He will be available in January 2009, and is willing to relocate.