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

Meet the Real John McCain

He is no Maverick.

Let's take a look at his long standing relationships with lobbyists.

McCain has claimed he is a reformer who is committed to diminishing the influence of lobbyists in Washington, and yet 59 lobbyists have or are donating to his campaign. More troubling is the fact that some of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists are directly advising or managing his campaign.



Folks may recall that Charlie Black had to resign from his role when the mainstream media disclosed that he was a key player in McCain's campaign. Take a look at a brief overview of Black’s sleazy resume. Black, by the way, did deals with Jack Abramoff when both represented the murderous butcher in Africa known as Jonas Savimbi.



John McCain has chosen super global lobbyist Randy Scheunemann to serve as his campaign’s foreign policy advisor.

Pat Buchanan, of all people, recently wrote a blistering and highly disturbing expose on Randy Scheunemann. In the World Net Daily he wrote:

Who is Randy Scheunemann?

He is the principal foreign policy adviser to John McCain and potential successor to Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security adviser to the president of the United States.

But Randy Scheunemann has another identity, another role.
He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man.

From January 2007 to March 2008, the McCain campaign paid Scheunemann $70,000 – pocket change compared to the $290,000 his Orion Strategies banked in those same 15 months from the Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili.

What were Mikheil's marching orders to Tbilisi's man in Washington? Get Georgia a NATO war guarantee. Get America committed to fight Russia, if necessary, on behalf of Georgia.

Scheunemann came close to succeeding.

Buchanan concludes:

Now Scheunemann is the neocon agent in place in McCain's camp.
The neocons got their war with Iraq. They are pushing for war on Iran. And they are now baiting the Russian Bear.

Is this what McCain has on offer? Endless war?

Why would McCain seek foreign policy counsel from the same discredited crowd that has all but destroyed the presidency of George Bush?

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence ... a free people ought to be constantly awake," Washington warned in his Farewell Address. Our Founding Father was warning against the Randy Scheunemanns among us, agents hired by foreign powers to deceive Americans into fighting their wars. And none dare call it treason.

Another unsavory neoconservative character and blast from the past, Jack Abramoff’s former side kick, Ralph Reed, is raising money for John McCain’s campaign.



McCain’s ties to lobbyists are disturbingly deep and far reaching.

In an article posted on The Huffington Post on August 13, McCain’s lobbyists raked in $1 Billion for U.S. Clients.

The Huffington Post’s Seth Colter Wall reports that according to a non-partisan group Campaign Money Watch:

"The McCain campaign relies on big money lobbyists, and they'll rely on him," said David Donnelly, director of Campaign Money Watch. "In the 'you-scratch-my-back, I'll-scratch-yours' world of Washington, $931 million gets the special interests the best government money can buy. But just think of the payday these lobbyists might expect in a McCain Administration."

The director of Campaign Money Watch has posted a web site:
McCain’s Lobbyists Website

And yet John McCain pretends that he is a “reformer.”



John McCain the Family Man:



John McCain on the economy:



McCain dodges a question about the economy and talks about Islamic terrorism instead. He also defaults to his experience as a POW.



John McCain the Homeowner:



John McCain: Continuing W.’s legacy: Fewer jobs, lost homes, lost jobs, whining home owners and more wars.



John McCain’s Secretary of Treasury Choice:




John McCain is no Maverick. Pat Buchanan said it all.



Change is possible. Hope is alive.

John McCain Supports a Military Draft

I guess he has no choice. As with W. McCain has always believed war and force are major and viable options to face down an enemy, any enemy, really, whether real or imagined. Indeed, Pat Buchanan of all people said Dick Cheney seems like Ghandi when compared to where McCain stands on the use of force. This is a rather horrifying notion. Certainly the last thing the United States needs is another war monger President and reckless, perilous and irresponsible cowboy diplomacy.

Check out the chilling clip where Pat Buchanan made his alarming observation.



Endless wars will most certainly require a military draft.

According to a piece in Raw Story.com

An audience member at a McCain town hall meeting in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Wednesday indicted the VA's treatment of veterans and expressed worry that unless the draft was reinstituted, the United States wouldn't have the manpower to "chase bin Laden right to the gates of Hell and push him in."

The woman then went on to describe the deplorable conditions for veterans at the VA Hospital in Albuquerque, a four hour one way drive from Las Cruces. (Remember how Republican lawmakers just love to grandstand about how they support our troops.)

McCain’s response:

"Ma'am," the Senator responded, "let me say that I don't disagree with anything you said. Thank you, and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans."

I wonder what Senator John Cornyn, the Yes Man-in-Chief for Neocon ideologues has to say about a military draft. Let’s hear it from big John.

McCain's Huge Whoppers on Energy

According to a diary written by blogger Jerome á Paris on Daily Kos
today that includes data provided by the Sierra Club, John McBush has told more than a few tall ones on his voting record on energy bills. In a recent interview Walter Issacson asked John McCain to respond to Thomas Friedman’s charge that the Senator did not support an extension of tax cuts for wind and solar energy companies.

Jerome’s Diary can be found here.

WALTER ISAACSON: [...] Tom Friedman's column mentioned that you haven't been there supporting the tax breaks that need to be extended for wind and solar. Do you support those breaks, and will you keep pushing for--will you push for it at some point?

JOHN MCCAIN: Yes, and I have, and I have a long record of that support of alternate energy. [...] I've always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote. But my citizens in Arizona know that when I'm running for the President of the United States I have to be out campaigning. But I of course I am for renewable energy.

McCain talks a good talk but his talk is trash talking lies.
How McCain voted, or failed to show up.

McCain said he never missed a vote when in fact he missed every one of the votes on the 2007 energy bill. And between 1999 and 2006 he voted eight times against renewable electricity standards and clean energy. Nor has McCain supported tax incentives needed for wind, solar, geothermal, efficient appliances.

And the outcome of McCain’s failure to vote on extending wind and solar energy tax cuts? Hint: 116,000 hard working Americans in these industries will lose their jobs.

The incentives have yet to pass, despite more than a dozen votes in the House and Senate.

Projects are already being canceled as a result of these credits not being extended. An independent study estimates that failing to renew them will cost 116,000 hardoworking Americans in the wind and solar industries alone their jobs and we will forgo at least $19 billion in economic activity.

Full and gory details on McCain's voting (or lack thereof) patterns are found in Jerome a Paris’s diary
right here

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, McBush continues to recite his latest litany of lies.

Drill, drill, drill, drill, drill Texas
Drill drill, drill, drill, drill Louisiana
Drill, drill, drill, drill California
Drill, drill, drill, drill, drill right here under my feet no matter where I am.
Drill, drill, drill, drill, drill b/c there is no environmental destruction.
Drill, drill, drill, drill, drill everywhere b/c it will lower gas prices a few pennies in ten years.
Drill, drill, drill, drill, drill so people believe drilling will save them from the oil devil.

McBush, like his soul mate W., obviously doesn't get the Internets and You Tube. The lies the lying liars tell have a way of leaking out to voters.

Are You Ready for A Bush Third Term?

No? Well, don't be duped into voting for John McCain because you think he is a "Maverick." He isn't.



Republicans in Congress who voted with W. most of the time are also yearning for a Bush third term. Think about it.

John McCain says Nations don't invade other Nations

I guess Iraq wasn't a nation.

Military Contractors Charge U.S. Taxpayers $85 Billion

According to a piece written in The Huffington Post military contractors in Iraq have charged the American taxpayers $85. billion for their services.

It should come as no surprise to any informed person that these outsourced services were not less expensive than if they had been provided by our own military.

Worse, these military contractors are responsible for the accidental deaths and shootings of some of our U.S. military. Are these people typically incompetent Republican heckofajobs and buddies or are they just outright criminals? It is hard to tell the difference between the two under W. rule.

The Congressional Budget Office report comes on the heels of increased scrutiny of contractors in the last year, some of whom have been investigated in connection with shooting deaths of Iraqis and the accidental electrocutions of U.S. troops.

The United States has relied more heavily on contractors in Iraq than in any other war to provide services ranging from food service to guarding diplomats. About 20 percent of funding for operations in Iraq has gone to contractors, the report said.

According to a separate article in the New York Times written by James Risen:

The Pentagon's reliance on outside contractors in Iraq is proportionately far larger than in any previous conflict, and it has fueled charges that this outsourcing has led to overbilling, fraud and shoddy and unsafe work that has endangered and even killed American troops. The role of armed security contractors has also raised new legal and political questions about whether the United States has become too dependent on private armed forces on the 21st-century battlefield.

Fraud, shoddy and unsafe work, overbilling, the killing of American troops. What typical Republican criminal ineptitude.

I understand that some of my tax dollars are needed for our national security. I don’t have a problem with that. But I do have a problem when my tax dollars are paying the military at the same time the contractors are raiding our nation’s piggy bank, in the form of tax cuts and fraudulent overbillings.

According to the Huffington Post piece:

Currently, there are at least 190,000 contractors in Iraq and neighboring countries, a ratio of about one contractor per U.S. service member, the report says.

The study does not include monetary figures for 2008, so the total paid to contractors for work in the Iraq theater since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is probably much higher. If spending for contractors continues at about the same rate, by the end of the year, an estimated $100 billion will have been paid to military contractors for operations in Iraq.

James Risen of the New York Times article writes:

Contractors in Iraq now employ at least 180,000 people in the country, forming what amounts to a second, private, army, larger than the United States military force, and one whose roles and missions and even casualties among its work force have largely been hidden from public view. The widespread use of these employees as bodyguards, translators, drivers, construction workers and cooks and bottle washers has allowed the administration to hold down the number of military personnel sent to Iraq, helping to avoid a draft.

…casualties among its work force have largely been hidden from public view…… How typical.

This is why McCain and the other Republican hawks are threatening the planet with their cowboy diplomacy and bullying force. They can intimidate the planet with endless wars because McCain & Co. as with W. & Co., can hire soldiers at will, thus ensuring their own private army.

What we are witnessing here, folks, is the Republican’s full throated use of the military/industrial machinery at its worse. A perpetual state of war that will guarantee perpetual profits for the corporate fat cats.




Mr. Risen continues:

In addition, the dependence on private companies to support the war effort has led to questions about whether political favoritism has played a role in the awarding of multibillion-dollar contracts. When the war began, for example, Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company run by Dick Cheney before he was vice president, became the largest Pentagon contractor in Iraq. After years of criticism and scrutiny for its role in Iraq, Halliburton sold the unit, which is still the largest defense contractor in the war, and has 40,000 employees in Iraq.

The Huffington Post continues:

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Budget Committee, which requested the CBO review, said the Bush administration's reliance on military contractors has set a dangerous precedent.

The use of contractors "restricts accountability and oversight; opens the door to corruption and abuse; and, in some instances, may significantly increase the cost to American taxpayers," Conrad said in a statement.

The death of a Green Beret from Pittsburgh, Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who was electrocuted in January while showering in Iraq, prompted a House committee oversight hearing last month into whether contractor KBR Inc. has properly handled the electrical work at bases it is tasked with maintaining. The military has also said that five other deaths were due to improperly installed or maintained electrical devices, according to a congressional report.

More on the heckajobs from the Huffington Post:

In a separate matter, a federal grand jury is investigating whether Blackwater Worldwide guards acted illegally when they opened fire in a busy Baghdad intersection last September. Seventeen Iraqis died and the shooting strained US-Iraqi relations.

With no accountability, apparently.

The CBO estimated Tuesday that $6 billion to $10 billion has been spent on security work, and that the prices paid are comparable to a U.S. military unit doing that work. It estimated that about 25,000-30,000 employees of security firms were in Iraq as of early 2008.

The report said the legal status of contractor personnel is uncertain, particularly for those who are armed. It also noted that military commanders have less direct authority over the actions of contractors than they would a subordinate because the contract is managed by a government contracting officer and not a military commander.

That's because that's how the government designed the relationship, said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council, which represents government contractors.

"There is accountability through the contract and to the contracting officer," Chvotkin said.

We know that this “accountability through the contract and to the contracting officer” means no accountability in W. world.

Those of us who earn less than $250K per year have shouldered the biggest tax burden to pay for this Republican fat cat stealing fest while the high rollers at Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater have not only received the lion’s share of W.s tax cuts, but they have reaped obscene profits by overbilling and fleecing our national piggy bank, too.

Back in the 1950’s, following WW2, President Eisenhower warned the American people about the clear and present dangers of a U.S. military/industrial complex. It seems we are living through the nightmare envisioned by President Eisenhower today. The military/industrial complex has obviously come to its full fruition during the W. years. McCain and his Republican hawks and soul mates fully intend to keep the machine humming along. According to Pat Buchanan, of all people, McCain’s goals for global war and U.S. hegemony make Cheney’s look like those of a middle school playground bully. Heaven help us all.

“Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.” (Sir) Peter Ustinov.

Republican Rule

Suit up dudes and dudettes, because McCain will be looking for you to serve in his wars.

The Animal House in Washington Has Got to Go

I am sure everyone has heard the economic adviser for Senator John McCain and former Texas U.S. Senator Phil Gramm’s words of wisdom last week. Apparently Mr. Gramm is impatient with the American people and he graciously volunteered to serve as our personal life coach and economic counselor for the day.

It sure is nice when one of our former U.S. Senators decides to descend from the bubbly stratosphere of wealth where 1% of the nation’s people reside. Those of us below should feel blessed when a resident of this realm decides to pay us a social call. And we should feel especially grateful when the bubble dweller decides to give us a little pep talk and reassure us about our financial well-being.

According to former Senator Phil Gramm, the media covers only the negative news about the economy. Gramm insists the economic news is nothing more than fabricated doom and gloom. According to him, the economy is fine, it is humming along splendidly and therefore we should all be very happy. Any pain we think we might experience at the pump or at the checkout lanes of the supermarket does not exist. It is all in our heads. You see we are in the state of a “mental recession” according to the former U.S. Senator. We are becoming a nation of whiners, Gramm admonished.

I suppose that us the unformed serfs, I mean, Americans should be happy to pay over $4.00 a gallon for gas and at least $50.00 more each week for groceries for our families. You see we are not really paying over $4.00 for gas or at least $50. more per week for food. We’re making it up. It’s all in our heads. Stop complaining!

Next time I go to the gas station I will tell the attendant the pump must be broken because it charged me $40.00 instead of $20.00 to fill my tank. And I will tell the cashier at the supermarket that $50.00 of the total due is absolutely impossible. The scanner must be screwed up.

I guess we are supposed to be happy, too, that our jobs could be outsourced to a third world country without a moment’s notice and forty-seven million Americans do not have health care insurance.

We should be happy that we’re hooked on oil and we are going to stay hooked on oil as long as greedy, self-serving oilmen have carte blanche to do whatever, whenever they want at any time. We should also be happy that we suffer the environmental and health related costs of unregulated industry. But, as long as it’s good for bidness, it’s good for us because all of the benefits will trickle on down to us whiners. Be happy folks!

We should be happy that there is very little or absolutely no government oversight or regulation of the banking industry, or any industry for that matter. And it is AOK for lending firms to do sales hit jobs on gullible and uninformed Americans who merely dream to own a home of their own. If a family has to foreclose and move they aren’t really losing their home. They’re just bellyaching about a bunch of silly nothing.

Yes indeed, it sure is comforting when one our former Senators comes on out of his bubble to give us a little old pep talk.

Everyone in Texas knows, of course, that Senator Gramm and his wife Wendy profited enormously from their relationship with and role in Enron. I suppose others at Enron who were not so lucky, especially those whose life’s savings went poof, should be as happy as the Gramms. Don’t whine about lost life’s savings. It didn’t happen.

These Republican politicians who have enjoyed cozy relationships with business and lobbyists have done quite well for themselves over the years. In fact, lawmakers did such a great job in looking out for their own self-interests that all of them forgot about the needs of their constituents, i.e. us the whiners.

Case in point: Our self-appointed personal life coach and financial advisor for the day, Phil Gramm, played no small role in the current sub-prime debacle.

According to a piece in Mother Jones last week:
http://www.motherjones.com/

It was Gramm who used a sly legislative maneuver in late 2000, when he chaired the Senate banking committee, to pass the Commodity Futures Modernization Act--to which practically no one but financial industry lobbyists were paying attention in Washington. This bill prohibited federal agencies from regulating financial products called swaps, which have been used to back up the mortgaged-based securities that caused the sub prime crisis. Michael Greenberger, who directed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's division of trading and markets in the 1990s, says these unregulated swaps have been at "the heart of the sub prime meltdown." He and others point to Gramm as being chiefly culpable for their deregulation.

Wow. What a track record. Now we learn Gramm, McCain’s economic advisor and former profiteer of a criminally broken Enron, has also played no small role in ushering in the sub-prime fiasco. Like most out of touch politicians Senator John McCain sure lacks sound judgment when choosing competent advisors who are not ethically challenged.

Now that the former Senator has admonished us for whining and suggests we’re all supposed to be as happy as clams all of the time because everything is just peachy, one may wonder why the American people are being encouraged to drink the happiness Kool-Aid.

I think the Era of Happiness, at least for the bubble dwellers, started when former cockroach killer, and hot tub dude Tom Delay became The Hammer in the House. In this role he subjugated, bullied and threatened any colleague who dared to disagree with him. Next he threw open the doors to our Congress and its lawmaking process and swept in the corporate raiders, loan sharks, Wall St.’s high rolling gamblers, fat cats, the oil boys and all of their lobbyists, including Jack Abramoff. Anyone capable making big money at anything was invited to join the party. “Let’s have a party!” declared the former bug killer. “Don’t worry! You won’t have to pick up the tab. The taxpayers will!” All clapped and cheered as the champagne flowed freely.

And what a party it would be. Our Republican lawmakers and their new soul mates were itching to tear down more walls in their newly anointed Animal House because they wanted to throw bigger and better parties. President Clinton held the party animals off for a spell, but real trouble started for the American people when Clinton left Washington. Once W., the party-boy-extraordinaire, arrived on the scene in D.C. the walls were quickly demolished, one by one. Let the bigger and better parties with more and more invited fat cats begin! The good times are gonna roll!

With W. and Cheney securely installed by the Supreme Court, the Animal House could rock with raucous abandonment 24/7. And it did. The lawmakers and their new friends became drunker and drunker on greed tonics. In fact, they grew so addicted to the greed tonics that they couldn’t get enough of them. Jack Abramoff had to find additional caterers to bring in fresh batches. Wild orgies rocked with tax cuts for the wealthy, tax cuts for big business and the gutting of government regulatory agencies. Other independent agencies within our government, i.e. The Justice Department, joined the party and started drinking the greed tonics too. Law books were taken from the shelves and used to clean up the spilled greed tonics. Oil boy Dick Cheney invited his dearest and closest friends including Kenny Boy Lay to his private office in the Animal House’s Veep Tower to write national energy policy. The boys needed more money for themselves. They just could not get enough of it. Dick and his oil boys have had enough of the tonics, by the way. They prefer the real serious hard stuff. It is called crack crude and once hooked on it, addition can last for generations.

Meanwhile, outside the gates of the Animal House, after picking up a few tossed crumbs of cake, the American people headed off to fight terrorists in Afghanistan after 9/11 and then to Iraq to fight W./Cheney’s oil war. The Iraq war ushered in the beginning of a dream Cheney has had for decades: a fully operational, locked and loaded military/industrial complex. And Hot Damn! Halliburton would get most of the no bid contracts. Cheney and Co. couldn’t stop salivating as they dragged Rummy away from the crack crude table. They were anxious to cook up a really splendid shock and awe event. All that fuel burning, pricy high-tech bombs exploding, cool new killer missiles, faster fighter jets. Oh man. What a Cheney dream come true.

And meanwhile back at corporate headquarters in Houston, the fat cats decided it was OK for our military in Iraq to shower in sewage

While Cheney plotted and schemed to pull off more shock and awe events, and the party continued to rock inside the Animal House, Americans continued to lose jobs. Too many of us have difficulty holding on to our homes. Worse, the sub-prime debacle threw thousands of Americans into foreclosure, destroying their financial security, hopes and dreams. Gas and food prices continue to rise. We have become a debtor nation because The Animal House crew broke the nation’s piggy bank to pay for Iraq. They’ve also bankrupted the economic futures for too many Americans.

Fortunately the 2006 Election wasted some of these party animals. And the electorate is far more informed since it finally dawned on us that we are the ones who are paying the price for six years of the Animal House’s drunken brawls and oil orgies

As with his soul mates inside the Animal House, Senator Gramm has been drinking too many of those greed tonics and ingesting a tad too much of crack crude. Our doctors tell us that moderation is the key to staying healthy, both physically and mentally. But it appears as if our poor Mr. Gramm and most of his colleagues have indulged in excesses of everything.

Obviously he and the GOP are evidently completely unaware of the plight of many if not most of the American people.

Mr. Gramm, with all due disrespect, you are the one who is whining. What is your problem? Haven’t you accumulated enough wealth in your lifetime already? Or do you need more, can’t get it and so it’s our fault? Do you have an addiction problem?

It is you, sir, who should stop the whining Senator. Crawl out of your bubble in Fantasy Land. Feel real pain and suffering. Let your credit card max out while you are buying groceries to feed your family or purchasing gas to get to work. Pack up and move because you cannot afford to keep your home. Borrow money to pay your light bill. Go to the doctor, find out you have a chronic disease that requires medication costing $200.00 per month. And you do not have health care insurance. And this is only the tip of an iceberg of suffering. Come on Phil, come out a do a bit slumming with we the real people.

The stark reality is, Senator, that you and yours need immediate psychiatric intervention for Severe Narcissistic and Delusional Disorder. I hate to be the first in the world outside of your bubble to break it to you, sir, but you and Party members are not kings, queens, princes, princesses, dukes, duchesses, barons, baronesses or lord nor ladies. The American people are not your subjects.

We know now that your happiness Kool-Aid is toxic.

There is an election in November at which time the American people will pay your Republican colleagues in office a social call.

Your Animal House is coming down.

Not convinced? Check out a little Animal House event
right here You probably will not see this story covered in the MSM, by the way, so I urge you to click on the link.

Someone Call a Doctor, Please! The GOP Has Gone Wacko

From an overdose of its very own sleaze.

Republican madness became more severe last week when it came up with its ridculous and desperate narrative to paint Senator Barack Obama as an arrogant clone of George W. Bush. According to Maureen Dowd in her editorial in The New York Times More Phony Myths last week, Karl Rove said:

“Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.”

Dowd saw right through Rove:

Actually, that sounds more like W.

Sigmund Freud must be rolling in his grave. The party is outing itself. Freud would call such a wacko statement “projection.” Anyone who studied Psych 101 will remember what projection means. If it has been as long for you as it has been for me since you took the course, below is a quick refresher from Wikipedia.

In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions to others. Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them. The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud, and for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "Freudian Projection"

Republicans must be suffering from acute, severe and desperate projection b/c they have actually expressed and have done some pretty unacceptable things. And their conscious minds have given free expression to more than a little pathology that may have lurked in their subconscious.

It must really, really tough to be a Republican these days. It is an election year and the party, after 8 years of the worst U.S. Presidential Administration in recent history, is obviously in dire straits. Now that little over 20% of Americans approve of George W. Bush and his Administration, it is no wonder the party has become so desperate and is therefore trying to pin its sins, crimes, corruption and incompetence on Democratic candidates.

The Texas Republican Party is obviously taking its orders from Rove because the state’s party chair recently sent a rather deranged letter to party members. Indeed, the Texas GOP is attempting to protect the W. rubber-stamping, boot licking, do-nothing for Texans Senator John Cornyn by scaring the living daylights out of its membership. The loony letter depicted Rick Noriega as a liberal evil doer who will do everything that is just horrible if he is elected.

Noriega is a liberal’s liberal who believes the federal government knows best, that all decisions should be made from command central in Washington, D.C.

Translation: John Cornyn has been a rubber stamp for George W. Bush for over 7 years and his lack of integrity and courage is one of the reason’s things have gone so horribly wrong for the U.S. and Texas. John Cornyn has supported W. at least 97% of the time. Cornyn, a Vietnam War draft evader, does not have what it takes to stand up to a bullying President who prefers a dictatorship to democracy.

Drunk with power and as arrogant as it can be, the Democrats are convinced that the federal government knows how to spend your money better than you do.

Translation: Senator Cornyn has stood by W. while he has all but bankrupted the U.S. with his and his Party’s horrendous and catastrophic debacle called Iraq. The economy is in sewer and there are 47 uninsured Americans in this country because, thanks to job outsourcing, lost homes and a bad economy, they cannot afford to pay for health care insurance. Senator Cornyn did not lift a finger to ease the burden of his constituents.

It is going to take a rapid response truth team and roving massive Truth Squad to counteract Liberal Democratic Lies with our Conservative Republican Truth.

This is projection gone mad.

It will take a massive media blitz on our part to contradict the ugly lies perpetuated by the shameless, hypocritical and power-crazed Democrats.

Translation: The Conservative Republican Truth Squad is the Lying Squad. Conservative Truth has been Conservative Mendacity. Liberal Democratic lies are Republican lies. The media blitz under way is a Republican one whose sole objective is to scare the living daylights out of the American people. When not fear mongering, the GOP will trot out its character smearing hit men to demonize Democratic candidates.

John Cornyn is a pathetic hypocrite when he says he supports our troops, our children, that he has compassion for elderly and less fortunate residents because he voted against the GI Bill, SCHIP and most recently against Medicare. The Texas Medical Association did not withdraw its endorsement of John Cornyn without good reason.
According to an article in the Houston Chronicle on Saturday:

The Texas Medical Association political committee on Friday withdrew its support for the re-election of Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn because he voted against a bill to stop a planned 10.6 percent cut in doctors' Medicare payments.

Medical association officials said the cut, which is set to take effect July 1, will force them to choose between their finances and their elderly patients.

Cornyn said he voted against the measure because it was a partisan ploy and "election-year grandstanding" by Democrats rather than a real effort to solve the problem.

The physicians group began the day criticizing both Cornyn and senior U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for their votes against the bill on Thursday.

Association President Dr. Josie R. Williams of Paris said they "chose to protect insurance companies profits instead of protecting our patients' health."

By the end of the day, the association's political committee, TEXPAC, had withdrawn its backing of Cornyn, saying its board was "outraged."

I am glad Texas physicians have learned something about John Cornyn that his constituents have known for some time.

A complete break with rationality occurred when the Chair insisted the Democratic candidates will play according to Karl Rove's personal political political play book. This is where the Chair truly outed her own party.

Shadowy 527 groups, sinister PACs and sleazy committees are beginning to hatch dastardly plans. They don’t care what they say, who they ruin or how they win in their quest unchallenged power. Their hateful ads will be so bitter, cynical, desperate and hysterical, they make your skin crawl.

The Texas Republican Party’s Chair letter reminds me of Shakespeare’s Lady MacBeth who could not wash the blood from her hands no matter how hard she tried.

The GOP is terrified of its overall record, Cornyn's abysmal voting history and his cozy relationships with corporate interests. It fears Rick Noriega because he is a man of integrity, honesty and substance. Rick Noriega has walked the walk and this scares the Cornyn groupies the most.

As far as creepiness is concerned nothing could make anyone’s skin crawl more than the crimes of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. Nothing could be more dastardly and hateful than lying to the American people about Iraq. The lie is responsible for the deaths of over 4,000 soldiers, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, including children and thousands of maimed soldiers.

Nothing could be more dastardly and hateful than letting hundreds of Hurricane Katrina victims drown.

Nothing could be more hateful and dastardly than attempts to slash or deny benefits of those who are fighting Bush’s wars.

Nothing could be more hysterical than the GOP’s former and ridiculous color coded fear alerts. As far as ruining people, the GOP did just that to an undercover CIA Agent, Valerie Plame because her husband knew Bush was lying about Iraq. In fact nothing could be more hysterical and desperate than the Republicans themselves.

Chris Bowers of Open Left pretty much nailed what the Party has become.

It must be really scary to be a conservative. To be one, you must live in constant fear of terrorists nuking the United States, of gay people on the verge of convincing you that you really enjoy sodomy, of Spanish becoming the official language of the United States next week, of every African-American voting seven or eight times in the next election, of radical Islam suddenly becoming the latest hip thing among kids across the country, of perpetual lesbian orgies in girls bathrooms in high schools across America, of liberals forcing everyone to become a vegan, of Christians being rounded up into concentration camps, and of Democrats outlawing private property if they were to ever take power again.

The Republican Party has gone over the cliff.

The long and painful tragedy is ending. The curtains are closing. The lights are getting brighter.

You can wake up now if you have been dosing.

We can go home soon and back to the America we once knew.

Hope is in sight but the fight is far from over yet.

Son of Late Religious Right Minister Defends Reverend Wright.

I read the most extraordinary article yesterday on The Huffington Post written by Frank Schaeffer who is the son of the late Reverend Frances Schaeffer. Essentially Mr. Schaeffer (the son) insists Reverend Wright is being demonized for remarks that are not too unlike those expressed by his father in earlier years. The difference of course is that Reverend Schaeffer’s remarks were considered heroic by the Republican Party of Reagan, Bush I and Ford at the time while today had the same words been spoken by Reverend Wright they would be considered treasonous.

Mr. Schaeffer points to the obvious double-standard for Reverend Wright.

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr..

Mr. Schaeffer goes on to cite incendiary samples of his father's writings on civil disobedience from his book The Christian Manifesto. This book, according to the son is an “American-bashing” book.

There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate... A true Christian in Hitler's Germany and in the occupied countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state. This brings us to a current issue that is crucial for the future of the church in the United States, the issue of abortion... It is time we consciously realize that when any office commands what is contrary to God's law it abrogates it's authority. And our loyalty to the God who gave this law then requires that we make the appropriate response in that situation...

Mr. Schaeffer exposes the anti-American message preached by the Christian Right in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Take Dad's words and put them in the mouth of Obama's preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason. Yet when we of the white Religious Right denounced America white conservative Americans and top political leaders, called our words "godly" and "prophetic" and a "call to repentance."

We Republican agitators of the mid 1970s to the late 1980s were genuinely anti-American in the same spirit that later Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (both followers of my father) were anti-American when they said God had removed his blessing from America on 9/11, because America accepted gays. Falwell and Robertson recanted but we never did.

My dad's books denouncing America and comparing the USA to Hitler are still best sellers in the "respectable" evangelical community and he's still hailed as a prophet by many Republican leaders. When Mike Huckabee was recently asked by Katie Couric to name one book he'd take with him to a desert island, besides the Bible, he named Dad's Whatever Happened to the Human Race? a book where Dad also compared America to Hitler's Germany.

He then points to the blatant hypocrisy of the Christian Right.

The hypocrisy of the right denouncing Obama, because of his minister's words, is staggering. They are the same people who argue for the right to "bear arms" as "insurance" to limit government power. They are the same people that (in the early 1980s roared and cheered when I called down damnation on America as "fallen away from God" at their national meetings where I was keynote speaker, including the annual meeting of the ultraconservative Southern Baptist convention, and the religious broadcasters that I addressed.

The entire article can be read below.
”Obama’s Minister Committed ‘Treason’ But When My Father Said the Same Thing He was a Republican Hero

Texas Vietnam War Dodger Cornyn Demands Decorated Veteran Noriega’s Military Records.

Now why would our distinguished junior Senator from the great state of Texas want to examine the military records of the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Lt. Col. Rick Noriega?

For what purpose?

I think we all can guess at the reason. Let’s put it this way. Cornyn dodged the Vietnam War when he could have served in the military, but he instead actively sought a way out. Lt. Col. Noriega, on the other hand, enlisted in the National Guard in the 1980’s in response to the Iranian hostage crisis. He later served in Afghanistan as a result of 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror.

But this is an election year and it obviously has dawned on Cornyn that he had chosen to shirk his walk while Lt. Col. Noriega has walked his. And so now we have a threatened and scared Republican Senator who will fabricate smear for the sole purpose of saving his own scared and sorry derriere.

I don’t think any of us will ever forget the relentless and unconscionable swift boating of John Kerry in 2004, who unlike Bush, did serve in Vietnam. And Bush supporters smeared Kerry mercilessly for it. Yes, folks, this is the sick, twisted and toxic manner in which Republicans and their supporters thrive. The pathetic cowards will smear and demonize decorated war heroes. GOP smear mongers have no honor. They don’t even know its meaning.

Like W., Texas U.S. Senator Cornyn did not serve in the Vietnam War. Both men were of military age at the time and as we know, both are right wing war hawks today. And yet neither was willing to fight in a war themselves when they had every opportunity to do so. While W. his behind his Daddy’s clout and buddies to dodge Vietnam, Cornyn bailed out by using a loophole in the law.

Clueless about the hard and real consequences of warfare, an inept Mr. Bush distracted us from the real war on terror by fabricating an unnecessary debacle called Iraq. His equally oblivious and war dodging soul mate, Mr. Cornyn has blindly and routinely supported W. in his irresponsible quest that has undermined our military as well as our national security. 70% of Americans believe Iraq is a mistake and not worth the price. So much for putting chicken hawks in high positions of power that involve decision making about warfare, our military or our national security. Not to mention the inconvenient truth about our now busted and seriously overdrawn national piggy bank.

It is apparently so easy for swaggering war dodging chickens to send others off into the killing and maiming fields and squander our national treasure while the chickens roost safely at home completely insulated by bastions of personal financial protection and fortresses of political power.

A couple of months ago progressive bloggers, Vince Leibowitz, Hal Heitman, and I put our keyboards together to do a little research on Cornyn’s military history, or rather, the lack thereof. We knew given Cornyn’s age that it is likely he had to have participated in the mandatory Vietnam War draft lotteries of the 1970’s During the time in which so many men Cornyn’s age were drafted into military service we wanted to know why the Senator was neither drafted nor did he enlist.

Vince had discovered an article written in the San Antonio Express News on October 20, 2002 (Section A, page 12) that revealed Cornyn avoided the Vietnam War draft by obtaining a student deferment in 1970.

In 1970, Cornyn requested and received a student deferment from the draft, which was abolished shortly before he graduated in 1973.

"There was a lot of soul-searching going on and a lot of questions about our nation's role in the world," he said. "Ultimately, I turned out to be pretty much a chip off the old block."

I’d say there was a lot of soul searching all right. Cornyn chose to shirk the walk. Chip off the old block? How so? According to Senator Cornyn’s web site his father is a former B17 pilot in WWII and he served in the Air Force for 31 years.

Actually, the fact that Cornyn received a deferment in 1970 is kind of odd given that student deferments were supposed to have come to a screeching halt in 1970. The entire rationale for the draft lottery was to even the playing field for those being called into service. Prior to the lottery student deferments were possible for those enrolled full-time in four year colleges/universities who maintained average/passing GPAs.

Our interest in this issue peaked when strangely, as Vince had discovered, the statement in the San Antonio Express conflicted with one written in the December 14, 2007 issue of the Texas Observer by Jan Reid. In the article about Mr. Noriega’s military service (“Boots on the Ground”) the author had stated Mr. Cornyn was too young to have served during the Vietnam War.

Too young? Vince, Hal and I knew better. Hal, like Cornyn, was of military age at the time and he had to participate in the Vietnam War draft lottery himself.

I am also a baby boomer whose own brother, born the year before Cornyn and one of my brothers-in-law, born a year after Cornyn, also had to go through the draft lotteries.

So, what is Cornyn’s story?

Hal dug through the Selective Service archives and learned that Cornyn did indeed go through the draft lottery system in 1971 and he drew number 28, which is a very low one. You see, those with numbers 0-95 were to have been called into service.

Why did Cornyn go through the draft lottery in 1971 if he received a supposed deferment in 1970?

The fact of the matter is, back in the Vietnam War days deferments were next to impossible to obtain for the young men who followed their fathers into the trades, or for those who did not have the financial resources at the time to attend school. These are the groups that bore the brunt of the draft and most were shipped to Vietnam immediately after basic training. Far too many returned home in body bags.

Fortunately there are times in America when people cry out for justice and fairness for all. During those turbulent Vietnam War times the public grew outraged because so many of the working class and poor citizens were shipped off to the killing fields while the wealthier young men could escape that fate by enrolling and remaining in a university or college. Many of our lawmakers at the time had served in the military themselves and they understood the public’s rage and frustration. And so after enormous public pressure, the draft lottery evolved in an effort to add a degree of fairness to the draft. Here is a snippet on its mission and how the lottery was supposed to have worked.

To make the lottery as fair as possible, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed a unique random calendar and number selection program for Selective Service. Using this random selection method for birthdays, each day of the year is selected by computer in a random manner, and that date is placed in a capsule. The capsules are then loaded in a large drum on a random basis. By the same method, numbers from 1 to 365 (366 for men born in a leap year) are also selected in a random fashion, placed in capsules, and the capsules are placed into a second drum. The process, repeated a second time, results in two sets of drums. Official observers certify that the capsule-filling and drum-loading were conducted according to established procedures. This certification is secured to each drum; they are sealed and placed in secure storage. Should a lottery be conducted, one of the first actions would be an inspection of these stored drums and the selection of a set to be used in the lottery.

So much for the NIST’s mission of fairness where Cornyn is concerned.

Because Mr. Number 28 Cornyn avoided the draft.

Last night while writing this diary, I received an email from Hal. As a result of his persistent research efforts he finally discovered how Senator Cornyn had ducked the draft.

According to Hal:

Even though the lottery was instituted in 1969, and meant to level the playing field and deny young men the opportunity to avoid military service by going to college, people were still allowed to apply for and were granted education deferments, aka 2-S deferments, up until September 1971. These deferments did not vaporize, they were held in force after 1971. This is how Cornyn was able to maintain his student deferment while others in his age group went to Vietnam.

So, a man who cowered behind a 2-S deferment has the arrogance to demand the military records of decorated veteran Rick Noriega?

I am convinced that Vietnam War dodging Senator John Cornyn fully intends to swift boat Lt. Col. Noriega and his service in Afghanistan.

If the junior Senator from the great state of Texas thinks that we Texas Democrats are going to let him, Rove and members of the GOP smear a Texas war veteran and demean his military service, these boys and girls have another thing coming.

Texas Democrats don’t let Texas Republican Chicken Hawks smear Texas war heroes.

Texas Democrats, and any revolted and sickened Republican who may be reading this blog, I urge you to go to Lt. Col. Noriega’s website to sign the petition against Senator Cornyn’s swift boat attacks. Let us put a final end to the Republican hate machine that is fueled by personal smear, sleaze and slime. This machine is hostile to us as a people and only serves to hurt. Hate cannot engender anything good, positive, uplifting or worthwhile.

A special note of thanks to Vince Leibowitz and Hal Heitman who contributed research materials for this diary, and to Randy Erb, for his input and for his service and contributions as a Vietnam War Veteran and former draft counselor. And a big thank you and hugs to my brother and one of my brothers-in-law who went through the draft lotteries as full-time college students in excellent academic standing, with no deferments available to them at the time.

Another person whom I don’t even know also inspired me to write this piece. He or she deserves a rather extraordinary applause for his or her heroism, integrity and bravery. Let all of us in the Democratic Party give our deepest and most heartfelt thanks to real hero who donated a portion of his or her re-enlistment bonus to support Rick Noriega.

From a comment posted by a real American hero Daily Kos on February 15, 2008.

just made it a nice round $28,100.

People who never served don't get to swiftboat my brothers and sisters.

I've got about $500 left from my re-enlistment bonus. I was going to save up to build a new PC, but getting Democratic Veterans into office is more important right now. by soonergrunt on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 04:58:35 PM PST

There was a time, not so very long ago, when Americans used to be more like “Soonergrunt” and less like Cornyn, Bush, Rove and Co.

Senator Cornyn Stands by His Man on FISA Bill

G.W. Bush may be at a 34% or lower approval rating and yet our U.S. Senator John Cornyn continues to stand by the loser man time after time. W. has been under a 50% rating now for longer than any U.S. President including Richard Nixon, but oh well, why would clueless Cornyn care? And now our Senator is serving once again as a rubber stamp for W. in supporting the illegal warrantless wiretapping bill.

As is typical with the Republican Party, Cornyn plays the fear card on Islamic terrorists in order to justify his fascistic stand on FISA. You know, Senator, Rudy Boy spent millions of dollars and a boatload of weeks in Florida trying to scare the devil out of retired voters there about Islamic terrorism.

The Senator may be unaware of the fact that Rudy Boy was run out of Florida on a rail with his tail tucked tightly between his legs. Now the cowardly fool is clinging like a leach to McCain’s coattails. I guess he scared himself. No one is buying the fear mongering anymore, dudes. Not even those you think you can scare the most. It would be far more compassionate and productive for you bullies to use your millions to support the healthcare benefits for poor children rather than terrify the elderly and retirees.

Earlier this week,Vince Leibowitz of Capitol Annex
mentioned an article written on Texas Insider in which Senator Cornyn made clear his stand on FISA.

America’s elected leaders have a duty to keep the American people safe. We know that the ability to obtain the right information at the right time is critically important in our struggle against radical Islamic terrorists...."

Yeah right.

With all due respect, Mr. Cornyn, it is also the duty of our elected leaders to serve the people whom they represent and to protect our Constitutional rights. The warrantless wiretapping of American citizens is not only unconstitutional, it is also a mechanism only a police state would use. We elect Presidents in this great nation thank you. We do not install dictators or crown kings.

Mr. Cornyn, as our elected U.S. Senator, is obligated to serve his constituents, not to serve as the rubber stamp for one of the worst Presidents elected in recent history. While 77% of Americans believe that this country is headed in the wrong direction, Mr. Cornyn continues to serve Mr. Bush and his policies. Wake up Texans. Our Senator is not and will not serve us. If re-elected he’ll block all legislation that is not supportive of special interest groups, lobbyists and big oil, insurance and his donors. He does not care about us. He will erect a wall against universal health care just like he voted against the SCHIP program. He will fight increased taxes for the upper 1% with every fiber of his being. Cornyn will do his best to undermine any legislation that attempts to regulate our irresponsible banking and financial institutions. Nor will he lift a finger to put the brakes on the shocking rates of home foreclosures. Cornyn will say global warming does not exist. Worse, we can look forward to wars for the next 100 years merely to keep the Republican’s industrial/military complex humming along.

I've quite frankly had enough with the Republican Party’s war hawk fear spinning 24/7, thank you. Look where these war hawks and their fear spewing machinery got us in Iraq. Talk about one hell of a mess. I won’t even mention our crippling federal deficit. Speaking of which, does China own us yet?

Senator, we are tough and we are brave and we will not be terrified by our leaders who rarely tell us the truth and who obviously refuse to serve us. We are also not as stupid as you would like to believe, Sir. Your party has called those of us who dared to disagree with the President’s hair brained scheme in Iraq traitors. And now, Sir, I am telling you and your Republican Party of Rubber Stamps that you have unconscionably and unforgivably betrayed the American people. It is you who are the Republican Party of Traitors.

Yes, it is a very sad time in America, thanks to the Bush Administration.

But we should not despair despite the likes of our traitors in power.

We do have choices thanks to a process called an election.

This year brings Texans, especially, significant hope and an escape route out of our hole in Republican hell because Democrats have a jewel of a candidate to offer who will represent all of the people of Texas. We should thank our lucky stars that Mr. (and Lt. Col.) Rick Noriega is willing to step up. Let all of us pull together to put an end to the lies, the fear, the smear mongering. Let us unite as ordinary and everyday people to get our state and country back where it should be. Let us also not allow ourselves be manipulated by the GOP vicious attacks and smear campaigns against our candidates. The only way to fight bullies is to beat them back, for bullies are cowards at heart. I don’t know about you, but it sure is easy for me to beat up on traitors and cowards. It can also be a boatload of fun.

Republicans to Pump $250 Million into Smear Assault Machine to Attack Democratic Candidates

(This is a synthesis of comments I posted previously on the Burnt Orange Report. The piece is also cross posted on Texas Kaos)

We Democrats are going to have to work very hard to win in 2008, despite the promising opinion poll results for our party and the Republican's abysmal record of failure on each and every level the party has touched. Remember how W. has turned to shit everything he touched when he was in the private sector? Well, now W. and his did the same thing to our very way of life.

To briefly summarize, for those who may have forgotten a fact or two about W.'s terrible legacy, let me provide a crash refresher.

Everyone on the planet on knows that W., enabled by rubber stamps such as our Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, managed to get us into the worst foreign policy debacle, (Iraq, of course), in recent history. We recently learned that it is Pakistan, not Iraq or Iran, that is the most dangerous place in the world and yet we remain mired down in a war that didn't have to be fought in the first place.

77% of Americans believe our country is headed in the wrong direction now and 64% of us believe we should not have gone to war with Iraq. W. Is at 34% approval - worse than Tricky Dick Nixon.

The economy is a train wreck lurching at rocket speed into a recession, and, thanks to no grown up supervision on the part of our nation's leaders, the banking industry is crashing. Our able leaders did not take notice until their good buddies in the financial markets started hemorrhaging cash; some of it likely belonging to our leaders. Tragically, Americans continue to lose their homes due to the sub-prime fiasco, another result of the appalling absence of government oversight. W.'s global and national credibility is non-existent and so his "stimulus package" failed to convince investors that it would do the trick. The global stock markets continued is downward dive bomb today. We'll see about the U.S. ones tomorrow morning.

We are losing in Afghanistan, thanks to the incompetence of the Bush White House and more of our nation's jobs have been outsourced than ever before. We have no viable immigration policy, no border or national security, either, for that matter thanks to a do-nothing money grubbing Congress 2000-2006. Our nation's infrastructure is falling apart at the seams. Remember New Orleans? It still looks like a war zone thanks to a Bush Administration that obviously despises poor people.

Because of its abysmal failures, the Republicans do not want to loosen their grip on power. This is due to a number of factors, financial outcomes likely loom large, but I suspect the GOP's worst fear is transparency. You see, when the Democratic Party wins a solid majority, the American people will learn the truth about and the far-reaching consequences of the GOP's dirty, sneaky crimes and lies. I'd venture to guess a large number of upstanding Republicans could end up in federal criminal courts. Some may even be tried for war crimes against humanity. Some may get busted for treason. Yes, indeed, the stakes are really high for the crooks in power.

The stakes are so very high that fear must be driving the Republicans to the brink of collective hysteria if not insanity.

What do Republicans do when they are afraid? We know well what they do. The GOP bullies will launch vicious personal attacks based on lies, smear and fear against all who threaten them, namely Democrats.

And so, true to form, some high rollin' Republicans will pump $250. million into their smear attack machine to take down Democratic candidates in state and local elections.

Here is a snippet about the assault machine's players: (The link to the source is below.)

To review the White House connections: the group is headed by Bradley Blakeman, a former Bush White House official, Mel Sembler, a millionaire former Bush admbassador to Italy, and Ari Fleischer, who serves as the group's spokesman. Much of its support so far has come from Sembler and casino magnate and billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the sixth richest person in the world. (The group intends to "broaden its base" as time goes on, Fleischer says.) The group got off the ground with a $15 million effort to support the president's surge strategy in August, but it's sticking around for the long haul.

You see, the GOP is trying to build a protective wall of gridlock within our federal government. With gridlock, it will be tougher to bust the criminals. It will be a fight to roll back the tax cuts to the richest of the rich; end the fraudulent war in Iraq (Halliburton has too much to lose); and implement national health care for all Americans.

This group of high rolling rich and powerful Republicans make the Swift Boaters look like pre-school boys throwing sand in the schoolyard sandbox.

Folks, if you are not involved with the Democratic Party on any level, now is the time to do something. Not tomorrow, not in an hour. NOW. Our local and state elections are going to be crucial this year.

If we do not stand up and fight the thugs in power with all we have, we will deserve whatever the future brings our way. We may not have millions or even hundreds of dollars to donate like high rolling Republicans do. But we do have principles and core values that are far superior to those of the Party of Lying Crooks. More people identify with our values than Republican ones. We are the party with the big tent that truly embraces diversity and altruism.

Our democratic principles are certainly worth the fight, aren't they?

Please help us extinguish the power of the crooks. Let's toss the lot of them out of our districts, our cities, states and nation's Capitol. They don't like us, they don't represent us and they despise the American way of life as we know it. Roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to win.

GOP to Pump $250. into Assault Machine to Attack Democrats

Why Texans Should Fire U.S. Senator Cornyn

As I mentioned in my diaries Texas War Hawk Senator Cornyn a Draft Dodger? and Why Texans Deserve Far Better than John Cornyn, Part I, I asserted that rubber stamp for W. and war hawk Cornyn shirked military service during the Vietnam War when he had every opportunity to serve. While a college student, he had drawn a very low draft lottery number and yet he somehow managed to hide behind a student deferment when such were not supposed to be available at the time. Senator Cornyn likes to talk big and tall about a global war on terror as long as he and his don’t do the fighting.

Part II discloses information on draft dodging Cornyn’s rather interesting rise to political power in Texas. The way I see it, Cornyn’s candidacies were essentially both enabled and purchased by a group of the Texas GOP rich, politically connected and very powerful people.


I am presently reading a book written by Mr. Jack Huberman about the GOP that has reawakened my understanding of Cornyn’s rise to power here. I am glad I discovered this book because I frequently find myself wondering how on earth did we get stuck with such a poor excuse for a U.S. Senator? The guy does not care to represent us nor does he make any attempt to even hide the fact that he is obviously the go-to guy for his corporate buddies, donors and special interest supporters. He talks out of both sides of his mouth on just about every issue ranging from benefits for our military (Cornyn says he supports our military but he votes to slash funding for benefits), to the border wall (no border wall in south Texas, he declared, and yet Cornyn turned around and voted for a border wall). I guess the Senator’s arrogance and contempt for most of his constituents leads him to believe the majority of us are as dumb as doornails that are too powerless and too poor to challenge him.

I suggest Mr. Cornyn may wish to revisit his view of his poor and powerless ‘constituents.”

Yes, folks, Mr. Huberman’s book chapter on John Cornyn is a very interesting one indeed.

(The GOP Haters Handbook: 378 Reasons Never to Vote for the Party of Reagan, Nixon and Bush Again)

Though the title of the book is rather provocative and blatantly forthcoming in its political leaning, the author’s research is solid, certainly as much or more so than a conservative author. I also believe Huberman’s research is more factually revealing than that done by many of our GOP loving and suck up journalists and political writer hacks in Texas.

Huberman’s book chapter on Cornyn reminded me that it was Rove who actually made Cornyn. Rove ran Cornyn’s campaign for Texas Supreme Court in 1996. Later, Rove also convinced Cornyn to run for Texas Attorney General. Cornyn acquiesced and found himself elected, in both cases, thanks to Rove’s campaign tactics and “abilities.” After two successful wins, Rove decided to install Cornyn as the junior Senator from Texas in the U.S. Senate. Cornyn won again. According to Mr. Huberman, Rove did what Rove does to clear the GOP path to run Cornyn for the U.S. Senate. I think we all appreciate what this means in Texas. The Bush family, including George H.W., Barbara, W. and Laura stepped up and raised millions for Cornyn’s campaign for U.S. Senate. So did Karen Hughes, another member of the Texas GOP of rich, powerful and politically joined at the hip with W. folks.

I strongly believe that were it not for the criminal incompetence of the Bush Administration, completely enabled by Alberto Gonzales’ blind support and loyalty to Bush that drove his role as the U.S. Attorney General, and had not Rove purged millions of official emails, the Turd Blossom would most assuredly and deservedly be occupying a cell in a federal prison right now. Under a lawful Administration, Rove would, at the very least, be very tied up in criminal court and not off peddling his book extolling the “virtues” of language distortion and alternative realities in an effort to bamboozle and mislead the American people.

I don’t know about you, folks, but I think we deserve far, far better than a Senator who is the minion and fabrication of a treasonous liar who has demonstrated a ruthless contempt for democratic principles.

Cornyn has a demonstrated problem with democracy, too. This will not surprise anyone who has received one of his insulting and arrogant letters-of-lecture, should a constituent dare to question the Senator about anything. I myself have more than just a few of Cornyn’s dictatorial responses to my questions about issues ranging from the rationale for going to war with Iraq, hideous TORTURE, the Abramoff corruption scandal, the U.S. Attorney firings to the firing of a Texas teacher for merely having sent an email that mentioned evolution. Cornyn’s responses are always the same memorized GOP talking point kool-aid laced poison. I may as well be writing to a pre-programmed robot that essentially spews” I don’t care what you think about anything. You do not matter.”

Who needs this kind of non-existent “representation” in a so called democratic republic?

My suspicions about Cornyn’s thinly veiled fascistic and dictatorial tendencies is confirmed by Huberman who wrote that the junior Senator from Texas, when asked in 2006 about GOP disunity on immigration in the middle of an election year, Cornyn replied

“Well, you know, that’s the problem in America, We are always having elections.” (Page 98 under “Democracy.”)

There you have it, folks, Cornyn stands on record as being as anti-democratic as a politician can get. He doesn’t like elections in a democratic republic. The Texas GOP caging machinery is probably working 24/7 in order to suppress as many legitimate voters as it can in a desperate attempt to cling to power in 2008. The GOP did it in Florida in 2000, which is well known and documented, and it is openly engaged in caging right now in Kansas. The GOP chairman there boasted about the illegal caging of voters in an email that he, uh oh, forgot to purge.

DUH. If the GOP did it in Florida and is openly caging voters in Kansas, it is a no brainer that it is happening in Texas, too.

But this is only part of an overwhelming and predictable pattern of GOP corruption that is fueled by its collective and relentless insatiable will to power, as far as we in Texas are concerned.

Cornyn’s rather unsavory past dealings and cozy relationships with lobbyists, some of whom are now convicted felons, make the Senator appear more like a Mafioso go-to-guy-to-pull-off-a-job than one deserving of a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Huberman’s work reminded me of the time when Cornyn, while serving as the Texas Attorney General, led a successful effort to shut down the Texas Tigua Indian tribe’s casino. Cornyn did this in close cooperation with crooks Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon (scumbag Delay’s former spewer of lies), and another sanctimonious, self-serving GOP hypocrite, Ralph Reed.

After Cornyn shut down the Tigua’s casino efforts, Abramoff and Reed turned around and charged the tribe $4.2 million to lobby lawmakers to reopen their casino.

Cornyn denied any contact with the crooks on the issue, and yet emails from Reed to Abramoff, according to Huberman, indicate Cornyn was not a clueless or innocent bystander when this shenanigan took place.

In an email from Reed to Abramoff (Page 98 “The Abramoff-GOP Corruption Cesspool.”) ‘I’m scheduled to talk to Cornyn today’ “and” ‘I think we should budget for an ataboy for cornyn’.”

True to a right wing conservative’s intrinsic hypocritical nature, our Texas Republican, so-called God fearing and anti-gambling U.S. Senator Cornyn received campaign contributions from the now convicted felon Abramoff and Las Vegas casino interests.

Do I need to provide links to printer friendly barf bags at this point?

Since we are not as dumb and stupid as the Texas GOP would like to think, I personally believe no informed person in Texas is in the least bit surprised by these gentle little reminders of the historical and political facts surrounding the junior Senator’s rise to power in Texas.

Some of you may also recall that our junior Senator, while serving as Attorney General here, acted as a tacit yet complicit supporter of Halliburton’s successful attempts to disenfranchise its employees of their legal rights to due process. Sound painfully familiar? Check out the article written by Stephanie Mencimer for Mother Jones.com entitled ”Cheney Justice?”

Excerpts:

So the commission contacted the sheriff and had him serve Cheney with a subpoena for the documents. Rather than turn over the documents, however, Halliburton shredded them. (Wall eventually deposed the woman who did the shredding,.) In a traditional civil lawsuit, judges have wide latitude to impose sanctions against a defendant for destroying evidence. They can tell a jury to assume that the information was extremely damaging to the defense. They can impose fines. They can find for the plaintiff and toss out the rest of the case to punish the other side, regardless of how strong the case was.

But when Pennington later went before the Halliburton arbitrator, the arbitrator dismissed his case, saying he had failed to produce sufficient evidence to support his claims, which, of course, was difficult to do after Halliburton had shredded part of his personnel file. The arbitrator made no mention of the evidence destruction. Wall protested the evidence destruction to the Texas Attorney General, Republican John Cornyn, who is now a U.S. senator, but Wall says Cornyn's office never investigated and no one was ever held accountable for it.

According to this article, it seems that the legal outcome for the multiple rape victim, Ms. Jamie Leigh Jones, is not a very promising one for this criminally and heinously abused young woman.

The GOP obviously knows no shame. It has no moral compass whatsoever, though most of its members, especially in Texas, will proclaim that they are “Christian” who embrace “Christian” and ‘family” values.

Tell that to the constituents of certain GOP leaders who hang out in men’s public restrooms. These are the goons who demonize gay people while indulging in gay sex themselves, thank you. The pattern of behavior here is very typical and can be applied to just about any political stand upheld by the GOP, like draft dodging hawks will worship hot and bloody wars, as long as they don’t have to fight in them. They embrace torture but would not subject themselves to even a harmless experiment where the teeniest tad of a jolt of anything is employed. No, folks, these people are heartless and yellow livered cowards.

Most GOP members are also blatant and unabashed racists, apparently, as we witnessed during the TV news clips of real time events that occurred during and in the aftermath of Katrina. The GOP was caught with its proverbial pants down here and the American people learned the truth about the party’s love for our poor and disadvantaged.

And the so called law abiding and enforcement loving GOP, including those in Texas who lovingly embrace the ultimate punishment – the death penalty - another form of torture - will be caught with its collective pants down, once again, with its criminal voter caging efforts.

This un-American and morally bankrupted party has visited upon our nation an image and collective psyche that is completely devoid of even an iota of a value or principle remotely envisioned by our forefathers.

The people will speak in 2008.

Note: George B. Chamberlain contributed research materials for this diary.

The Texas Taliban Party, a.k.a. The Texas GOP

Now that some of the Texas Taliban in DC, specifically Rove and Delay, got their slimy butts kicked out of DC, consequently and most unfortunately for Texans, the GOP Taliban are back at home in Texas to raid our Constitutional rights, freedoms and resources. I am telling you folks, these people are a national disease. They are desperados who realize their national gravy train has gone over the cliff and now they are fleeing back to their nesting place in order to find new venues to satisfy their addiction to money, power and greed. There is never enough money to satisfy these vultures’ lust for cash, power and control.

The American voters got it and tossed the GOP majority out of our Congress in 2006. The corrupted and incompetent GOP have racked up close to a trillion bucks in the unnecessary and immoral human calamity called Iraq. Yesterday we learned that W. and Cheney have been lying about and misleading us on Iran’s nuclear weapon program, knowing all along that Iran scrapped its weapons program years ago. And under the Bush Administration’s brilliant leadership our national debt now grows at $1 million per minute. As Dennis Kucinich has recently observed "We're borrowing money from China to finance the war in Iraq."

So much for W.’s Harvard MBA and Wolfie’s Yale Ph.D. I suppose that the best graduate education money can buy doesn’t make a lick of difference when we have greed mongering ideologues running the country who love to fight wars as long as they don’t have to do the fighting themselves.

Fortunately, the American voters got it and threw the bums out. But there are still far too many left in our Congress, including our own Texas lawmakers who have been sucking up to and enabling the worst President in recent U.S. history who is a pathological liar to boot.

We need to purge the Republican Party of Evil Crooks from our states’ offices in 2008. Of course, this will be a real challenge here b/c our state has been gerrymandered to smithereens and the GOP assumes that it owns Texas and can do whatever/whenever it wants anytime. There is little oversight and few questions are ever publicly posed about accountability. And when they are, the party bosses will bully and squelch all who dare to question anything remotely critical of the ruling party of thugs and thieves.

It is time to stand up to the bullies, folks. We know for certain that most of them are corrupt, inept and they have been lying and misleading us for years.

We deserve far, far better than this.

Our state’s newspapers, in many cases, are tacitly complicit and complacent enablers of the Texas GOP Taliban Party. How many letters will our state’s newspapers’ opinion editors publish that are written by readers who are critical of any GOP in office? I myself have written at least a hundred to my local paper, and only one has been published. But the paragraph critical of her royal majesty Senator Kay Rubber Stamping Bailey Hutchison was NOT included in the letter published, supposedly by me. I therefore don’t even bother to take the time to read the paper any more. Why would I waste my time if the paper is merely serving as a propaganda arm for the Texas GOP Taliban? Nope, I’ve fled to the Internet where one can read news from a vast number of resources and can state one’s opinion freely and openly, like I am doing right now.

It is simply amazing what one can learn on the Internet. And what I read each day just reinforces my suspicion that our local papers and media are joined at the hip with the Texas GOP Taliban Party.

If we do not stand up, folks, we will become another little Mexico or other form of banana republic where the wealth is concentrated among very few while the rest of the population has to scratch and claw to earn a living. Part-time jobs at the local Wal-Mart will become the high end and envied positions du jour if we are not careful.

Will Texans become the next generation of despised illegal migrants who must sneak el norte to Canada or back to the countries from which our ancestors immigrated? We won’t be eligible for jobs in all of the other states except for Mississippi because our schools are ranked 2nd to last in the U.S., thanks to the Texas Taliban who care so deeply about our children’s futures.

Think about it before you let yourselves be duped by anything coming from the mouth of a member of the Texas GOP Taliban.

Here are a couple of small snippets of what the Texas GOP Taliban does here and they get away with it thanks to no oversight whatsoever.

A science teacher was canned by a bushie for even mentioning “evolution.”

Teacher in Texas Canned for Mentioning Evolution

This little tidbit about our Dark Ages practices made it to the editorial section of the New York Times yesterday, too. Texans should be so proud.

The New York Times on Fired Texas Teacher

And uh oh, get ready for some real down and dirty criminal activity because the Texas GOP Taliban are apparently scared to the point of needing freighter sized loads of Depends over the prospect of losing elections, even here in the Banana GOP Republic of Texas.

I learned on the Internet (for such would never get published in Texas) that there is a scheme underway by the Texas GOP Taliban to disenfranchise thousands upon thousands of legitimate voters here. Yep, that’s right, folks. They are going to purge and scrub American citizens who are alive and not DEAD from the rolls and guess who these folks might be?

Texas GOP Will Deny Texans the Right to Vote

Do we need Jimmy Carter and the UN to oversee our elections here?

Enough is enough folks. It is time to take a stand and fight back. I wrote letters of outrage to our elected officials yesterday about both of the issues above. We need to hammer them with inconvenient truths and realities until they 1. Either have to act upon our demands or 2. Resign from office. After all, these elected officials supposedly work for us. Perhaps they need a brutal reminder of this little fact.

Finally, when you go to the voting poll, if your name has not been scrubbed, don’t for crying out loud vote for a Texas Taliban. To do so is voting against your own self-interest and preservation. If your name has been scrubbed, contact Voters Rights advocacy groups immediately. Write to our elected officials in Texas and D.C. and scream bloody murder. Call the media and demand an interview. File a lawsuit against the Texas GOP Taliban Party and sue the crap out of them. They hate parting from their loot more than anything else.

Finally, to reinforce the notion that the bushies have been willfully lying to and misleading us for years, below is Seymour Hersch's revelation on how W. and Cheney have known about the NIE findings on Iran's nuclear weapons program for a very long time.

I would say all rubber stamps for W. and Cheney on Iran, no matter their party affiliation, should be fired in 2008. It’s time for a sweeping and deep removal followed by an army of buckets, mops and vats of bacteria killing detergent to purge all of the filth from the halls of law, justice and honor where legislation should be written and passed for the people by the people.

Hersch Reveals Truth about W. and Cheney on Iran