Bereft of Solutions and Ideas, The GOP Gins Up Controversy

The GOP obviously has little of substance to offer to the voters because the Republicans are far more focused on fanning the flames of controversy than they are with crafting solutions to repair our busted economy and create new jobs.

Republican politicians must have absolutely no constructive ideas or rationally based proposals for meeting the challenges of our financial miseries and woes. The sound of silence coming from the GOP campaign in this regard has been deafening for some time.

The Republican Party has refused to participate in crafting constructive legislation on any level, no matter what has been placed on the table.

Health care reform.

Texas Republicans crawled on their knees, groveled and begged BP for forgiveness.
We love you, Big Sugar Daddy.

So, what is a Groveling Minority Party of No Solutions, No Substance, No Ideas to do during an election cycle?

The Party's puppet masters, spin doctors and ventriloquists have crafted a plan and it is so typically Republican that it would be laughable, were it not so very potentially dangerous on both a domestic and foreign policy level.

A plan that only the desperate and self-serving could construct: Unleash McCarthyism at its very worse.

Gin up conflict. Throw barrels of gasoline on a wedge issue that pulls at folk's emotional hot buttons. Distract and terrify the masses with manufactured issues that have little basis in reality. Pit people against one another. Divide and conquer. This is part of the GOP strategy and has been for some time. What else has the GOP to offer voters? Tax cuts for the rich? Endless oil wars with the Middle East? The enabling of Wall St. to behave more as gambling casinos than banks and investment firms? More BP catastrophic oil spills in the Gulf?

Eventually the GOP's ineptitude and hate baiting has got to come back and smack it between the eyes. It has already alienated many African Americans especially during the right wing's ruthless witch hunt after ACORN and later the character assassination of Shirley Sherrod. Now it is on a crusade to demonize Hispanics with the Republican's disgusting rhetoric about repealing the 14th Amendment. And most recently the GOP has just lumped all Muslims into one category, i.e. all are terrorists. Next the GOP will declare another ideological warfare on Asians for God knows why.

The latest ginned up GOP hoopla of distraction is based on the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan near Ground Zero, the scene of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.



The author of the article cited above, Pamela K. Taylor, is co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values, former director of the Islamic Writers Alliance and strong supporter of the woman imam movement.

Below is an excerpt from Ms. Taylor's article in the Washington Post.

As for the Christians who have been attacking not only this mosque, but ones planned in Tennessee, California, Wisconsin, and Michigan, or the existing one in Bridgeport, CT which has had to deal with Christian picketers shouting at people as they go in for congregational prayers... it is time for you to learn that Islam is not going away. You will not be successful in converting the entire Muslim world, not to mention the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Sikh, etc worlds, or even the rest of the Christian world to your theology.

It would be a far better use of your time and energy to learn to respect these other traditions and to work together with us to make the world a better place, rather than picketing and yelling ugly slogans at innocent people. If nothing else, you might do better at converting us if you followed my mom's advice that you attract more bees with honey than vinegar. Telling us that Islam is from the devil, teaches violence, and hates women, dogs, singing, etc, etc, etc is just so blatantly misinformed, hateful and unwelcoming that you aren't likely to attract many people, whether it be Muslims, or folks from other faiths who might be considering embracing Islam.

Similarly blind are the Republicans who have jumped on the Muslims-are-the-seat-of-all-evil bandwagon. It may buy them some votes in the short run, but in the long run bigotry and hatred are not values upon which to build a sound base. McCarthy who once had so much power is now repudiated as a manipulative, fear-mongering, reckless demagogue who should have been shut down much sooner than he was. Republicans who are currently resorting to the same sort of frantic, baseless, mudslinging and demagoguery should look to the past to see where it is going to get them. It would also behoove them to study the history of those whose lives were destroyed by McCarthy -- do you really want to be responsible for destroying the civil and human rights of millions of innocent Muslim American citizens?

Both of these groups are also playing into the hands of Muslim extremists. Even if the mosque/cultural center is eventually built on the site near Ground Zero, irreparable damage has been done. Newspapers all over the Muslim world, and of course the internet, are abuzz with horrific quotes about Islam or Muslims from some of the top leaders in our country, starting with Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. It is almost like their speeches are calculated to start a war between Muslims and the West. When America abandons her traditional values of pluralism and freedom of religion, that is when she cultivates enemies. When she abandons them with such vitriol and hatred as we've seen coming from certain segments of the Republican party and the Christian right, she's going to make a lot of enemies.

Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich should be called out for their reckless and irresponsible rhetoric. Yesterday, Gingrich compared Muslims to Nazis. Seriously. But don't expect Fox "News" and other GOP water carriers in the media to step up to the plate. All have too much to gain by throwing yet more gasoline on the fires of fear. This should be crystal clear given the fact that the parent corporation of Fox "News" recently donated $1 million bucks to Republican gubernatorial candidates. Fox "News" is no longer "news" and never has been. We can now safely call it the official propaganda arm for the Republican Party.

We have already had one clueless and insensitive President in the area of foreign affairs. He appointed neocon hawks as his Vice President and Secretary of Defense. These are the goons that lied us into an unnecessary war with Iraq. We continue to live with the consequences of George W. Bush's appalling and treacherous bullying cowboy "diplomacy." The ginned up war has all but broken our backs, killed and maimed thousands upon thousands and has busted our economy.

This is one typical heckofajob for the GOP. This is what the party does. They hate the government to the point that as soon as Republicans are elected they cut their wrecking crews loose on day 1.

The very last thing this country needs is another re-run of the horror show called the Bush Administration. This is especially true when the leading stars are far right wing extremists Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich.

The GOP is for nothing that would repair our economy and create jobs. It is against everything that provides a safety net and security for the vast majority of the American people.

The GOP has become the party of no with no ideas, no solutions and one that lacks an ethical backbone. It has become morally bankrupt to the point that it thrives on manufactured fear mongering, race baiting and whose only purpose is to serve themselves and a fraction of the population. In its present form the Republican Party is not fit to govern.

Palin Pick: Going to the Mattresses

Is the shoot out over? Have the assault weapons been locked up? Is it safe to come outside to play?

Wow. After watching Palin’s performance last night in which she went to the mats straightaway without wasting a moment, I have to say she did a damned good job at delivering a speech written by one of Rove’s minions. You go girl. You are tough indeed and you did what you were called to do. With Rove’s guidance, you are now the future of the Republican Party. What a new and bright future lies ahead for your Party.

In the middle of it all, one of my nieces who is visiting us asked “Why is she so mean?” My niece is a typically apolitical but engaged college student. I replied “Because it is all about
her."

Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

And she is trying to change the subject to hide this:

John McCain's presidential campaign is threatening a lawsuit against the National Enquirer over a print edition story the tabloid ran today alleging that Gov. Sarah Palin has had an extramarital affair with her husband's business partner.

The allegation would normally be dismissed by political observers as the random musings of a supermarket tabloid -- indeed, the McCain campaign said as much in its statements on Wednesday -- except that the paper has built up a reservoir of legitimacy following its earlier reporting on the John Edwards affair.

And other troubling stuff..

The founder of the Alaska Independence Party -- a group that has been courted over the years by Sarah Palin, and one her husband was a member of for roughly seven years -- once professed his "hatred for the American government" and cursed the American flag as a "damn flag."

The AIP founder, Joe Vogler, made the comments in 1991, in an interview that's now housed at the Oral History Program in the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government," Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.

"And I won't be buried under their damn flag," Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. "I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."

And apparently there is another bridge to nowhere right in Palin's own backyard.

There are many more charges to which, like it or not, Palin must respond, bur for now enough has been said.

And boy oh boy. Did Rudy work up the tired and weary base or what? All of those mostly old and rich white boys and girls actually danced in the aisles. I thought rich Republicans were far too uptight to dance but alas I was wrong.

They dance when they are happy and they are happy when someone who is not like them is shredded. Rudy told the base what they wanted to hear: McCain/Palin would serve a Bush third term. Don’t worry about that Obama. We’ll take care of him, Rudy smugly snarked. But people like me and you know all about the real Rudy.

Rudy and W. have made quite a living by exploiting the tragedy and horror of 9/11 for their own political purposes. Hey Rudy and W., how does the war in Iraq factor in to your fear mongering about 9/11?



Meanwhile, back in the media boxes, the pundits feasted merrily on the red meat they’ve been lusting for. But they also bristled at the bloody attacks flying from the speech makers who blamed them for everything in the kitchen sink. Everything is the media’s fault! Everything we did over the eight years is made up by the evil doing media!

These Republican boys and girls made Tricky Dick Nixon seem like a nice guy when he tried to eat the media alive. This is so typical and predictable. Lousy, corrupt and incompetent politicians will always try to steer the conversation away from their records of shame by attacking someone or something else.

At home, folks like hubby and me watched the show alternating between feelings of humor, contempt and sheer horror. Admittedly I had to be restrained from smashing the TV screen at times. (Hubby wouldn’t have it b/c he needs the TV for sports.)

At one point hubby said “Rudy would make a good Hitler. He’s good at fomenting fear and hate. And he’s quite in love with himself.”

We anxiously waited to hear how the GOP would address the issues like the economy, the war in Iraq and long term solutions for both the broken economy and foreign policy. I had my laptop primed to take notes.

But obviously the GOP didn’t have it within it to discuss anything of substance. It was merely a carnival of gun slinging and wild, relentless shooting. If the blindly shooting gunslingers thought their little gun fest would drum up some happiness, so far it has done squat

Nor are all working class women impressed by Palin either.

The McCain campaign made it clear, too, that it will use Karl Rove's play book, at least where personal attacks and fear mongering are concerned.




What a sad and pathetic Party of rather mean and nasty clowns.

The GOP has become a party of myths and fairy tales. It is fine to give tax cuts to the fat cats during war time. Deficits don’t matter. There are WMD in Iraq and links to Al-Qaeda there. The oil in Iraq will pay for the war. It is OK that over 4,000 of our military have died for a lie. Deregulation is fine. Let loan sharks prey upon misinformed folks who want to buy a home. If we complain about the poor economy we are told we are making it up. We’re whiners who are living in a mental recession. Abstinence programs solve the teen age pregnancy problem. Our government’s piggy bank can be squeezed by the profiteers within the military/industrial complex. Federal agencies like the Justice Department can stop serving justice and become political arms for the RNC. Agencies like FEMA can be gutted so folks in disasters zones can die. Medicare benefits should be slashed so the sick elderly can die miserable early deaths. Social security should be outsourced so the Kenny boys of the financial world can squander it.

After listening to the two hours of a circus of raw meat rhetoric and personal bashing, my question is:

did anyone at the GOP convention actually realize that they’ve been in charge the last 8 years? Has it occurred to the Party and its faithful that IT created all the horrible stuff it wants to reform?

As Homer would say:

.

After the blood bath called a GOP "Convention" I sure could use a reuptake on the jewel of a concept called hope and its promising alternatives for the American people:




And how about a little uplift and reality check and photo journal about the blessings of community service.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/4/105623/5197/586/586233

And Barack Obama.



Finally, let's have a little fun with with Jon Stewart who brilliantly outs the hypocrites.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card