Thank You, Mr President

After two long and difficult years of ups and downs, from the economic collapse and loss of 8 Million U.S. jobs, to the BP Oil Spill, rampant spraying of Corexit 95, specter of Whistle-Blower persecution, indefinite detention, loss of the Public Option and extension of the Paris Hilton Tax Cuts... many of us have doubted you.

But during this final month of your second year, you certain proved nearly all of your critics wrong.

I for one, never lost faith, never lost hope, and right now all I can say is - Thank you, Mr President for showing us that all our hopes were not misplaced.



My favorite portion of the Press Conference was this part in response to a question about the difficulty you've had in closing Guantanemo Bay. Rather than go "small ball" and reduce your goals in the light of the Republican Control of the House - you managed to double-down on ultimately implementing your agenda.

Obama: America is more than just it's economic & military might - we also must implement our Ideals even when it's difficult.

Doing the Right Thing isn't always doing the Easy Thing, or what might make one more popular.

And I especially appreciated this answer on the issue of Immigration.

Obama: My Admintration has done more on Border Security than *Any* other in resent years, but we still need the Dream Act!!

With Predator Drones for Surveillance, additional Border Guards and supporting National Guard Troops this is absolutely true. The number of illegal border crossings have dropped to a relative trickle, and the actually number of undocumented immigrants has gone down significantly for the first time in decades - a record that no Republican President can lay claim to.

(Sept. 2) -- With immigration as a hot-button issue ahead of this year's midterm elections, a new report shows that the number of illegal immigrants to the U.S. fell last year in its first and biggest drop in two decades.

There were 11.1 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally in March 2009, down from a peak of 12 million two years earlier, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a report issued Wednesday. From 2007 to 2009, the number of illegals entering the country shrank to about 300,000 per year, down by nearly two-thirds from the estimated 850,000 per year from March 2000 to March 2005.

"The decrease represents the first significant reversal in the growth of this population over the past two decades," the report said.

Republicans have no leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing you on Immigration issues.

Despite all the challenges you've faced, not the least of which being a recalcitrant, obstructive and surly Republican minority intent on derailing your Presidency rather than helping the American people - you've managed to accomplish all of this.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act


Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009


Cash For Clunkers Extension

Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009


Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act

Helping Families Save Their Homes Act

Haiti Economic Lift Program Act of 2010

Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act

Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009

Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act of 2004 Extension.

Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009

Jobs for Mainstreet Act, 2010

Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010

Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act of 2010

Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010

Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009

Serve America Act

Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009

Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act of 2009

Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2010

Fair Sentencing Act

Southwest Border Security Supplemental

Small Business Jobs Act of 2010

Nursing Home Care to Parents of Veterans Who Died While Serving in the Armed Forces

Reducing Over-Classification Act

Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2010

International Adoption Simplification Act

Help HAITI Act of 2010

Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010

FOR VETS Act of 2010

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.

Besides all this you salvaged the America Auto Industry, successfully Ratified the START Treaty to help control and contain Lose Nukes, have just this year generated as many if not more private sector jobs than George Bush produced during his entire 8 Year Administration, pushed BP to close and cap the Gulf Oil Spill weeks sooner than any other comparitive spill has ever been stopped while managing to get a $20 Billion commitment from them to compensate those impacted by the spill.

There's still much more to do, there's the Dream Act and Full Comprehensive Immigration Reform, a final resolution of the GITMO issue, maintaining the funding for and implementation of Wall Street Reform, Consumer Financial Protection, Health Care Reform. crafting a Comprehensive Green Enegy Plan, updating our Trade Policies, and the final resolutions of both the Irag and Afghanistan Wars while reforming and updating our overall Counter-Terrorism Strategies and Diplomacy Efforts in the Mid-East, but this week you showed us all that you are a Baller!

Of course, we should have known that by your response to the threat of the Somali Pirates in early 2009.

Even though we may disagree with some of the details of your style, and some compromises you may have made, even your Republican critics such as Charles Krauthammer have begun to sing your praises. Kinda.

Obama’s presidency has sparked “an extraordinary national debate over what kind of nation we are – who we are as a people, what we believe in,” Krauthammer said.

There is “something intrinsically healthy and clarifying” about this great debate, Krauthammer said. “It’s been a healthy debate, it’s been an important debate, it’s been a spontaneous debate” and one of the most significant in American history.

Obama “thinks very large in world historical terms,” Krauthammer said. He compared Obama to Ronald Reagan, adding: “Obama sees himself as the anti-Reagan….the man who will reverse Reagan” and take the nation “back to a new liberalism.”

Although I never lost my faith, now more than at any time in the last 2 years, I feel that my vote in November of 2008 was the correct one and I look forward with you to the challenges and battles of the future.

Good Job Mr. President, Good Job.

Vyan

Standing Up for Good, Effective Government

It takes a while to get to it in this extended discussion with Republican Eric Cantor, but gradually Jon Stewart breaks down all the GOP Rhetoric about Big Government Takeovers and Tyranny, "Defending Freedom ™" and truly gets to the heart of the issue - which is the that Good Government Matters.



All the screaming, all the shouting, all the BS we constantly see coming through our TV's doesn't really address the problems that we face day in and day out.

But not this time.

Stewart: It's seem like there's big talk on the right, about how this country is turning to the left, it's socials, we're moving towards Europe, but have we? The way I see it's Nixon couldn't be Republican anymore, Nixon would be considered a Liberal in this day and age.

...

Cantor: When you listen to the rhetoric, it's "Run Away Wall Street", it's run away with people who've been successful.

Stewart: Would you disagree that Wall Street has been a bit excessive?

Cantor: No, I would not.

Stewart: So you would suggest that they are also "Run Away"?

Cantor: I would not malign success.

Stewart: Are they maligning success or are the maligning rapaciousness? Like the Robber Barons, they were considered "successful", but rapacious

Yet again the truth is that Republicans have become the defenders of Corporate Freedom, but not personal and individual freedom. Democrats have attempted to reign in corporate malfeasance in order to protect the freedom of consumers and workers.

Stewart: Any income tax is redistributive. We've had that for 90 years, 100 years? So any of those policies, any thing that you implement - do we really have a "Free Market" Economy, because if you really do that the jobs will disappear to India and China faster than you can say "Where are the Jobs?

And yet we see candidate after candidate on the right arguing simultaneously that the Obama policies haven't brought enough jobs - while Republicans block the bill to revoke tax loopholes for companies that ship our jobs overseas. And still they claim to stand on "Principle".

Cantor: We talk about the fact that we believe in principles, and when you ridicule freedom....

Stewart: I don't ridicule Freedom, I ridicule the idea that it's a slogan and platitude and not a reality. That government is the only impingement on Freedom. Corpoorations can impinge freedom. One of the greatest expansion of freedom in this country are roads.

...

And those roads were built by Government. Government workers. I am not ridiculing Freedom, I am ridiculing the idea of Freedom as a slogan. A slogan to be used as a cudgel against anybody would disagree with a economic policy that they think is allowing too much corporate rapaciousness, not redistributing wealth for the sake of castigating those who are success - but not allowing those who can fix the system. Capitalism, you can not deny has a certain amount of collateral damage.

Somebody has to stand up for the working people. The corporations aren't going to do it, the government has a role in doing that, and that's what I'm saying.

Right there, Stewart gets to the heart of the government bashing that is driving this election cycle. SOMEBODY HAS TO DO. Somebody has to stand up for the people, or else they'll be crushed under the corporate heel.

Contrast Stewart's rational and reasonable questioning of Cantor with the usual Talking Point Crapfest we got from the likes of Face the Nation just this morning.



Everything Liz Cheney says is a lie, but a very well crafted lie.

The proof that the U.S. Chamber is taking Foreign Money and putting it into election campaigns is the fact that where they claim the money has come from, such as their AMCham's, isn't anywhere near the amount they've spent or plan to send. The numbers simply don't add up. Their planning to spend about $75 Million for ads, and they claim these are being paid for via AmCham's which have only raised about $100,000, meanwhile Thinkprogress found 85 Foreign Companies that have given at least $885,000 to the chamber, and that's only a small portion of various foreign companies that have contributed. The question is how much of that money is paying for these ads - which is certainly a fair question to ask since Rupert Murdock, an Australian, has had News Corp - whose 3rd Largest Stockholder is a Saudi Prince, give over $2.25 Million to Republicans this cycle.

Even Liz Cheney claims to want "Disclosure", but ignores the fact that Republicans blocked the Disclose Act which would have shed much needed light on this problem.

Here's another example from Tea Party Prince Rand Paul who argues that Democrats are wrong-headed to criticize the Chamber.

Paul: I see the Chamber as a group that fosters economic development in every community. ... In fact, we would encourage you to keep attacking the Chamber because the Chamber is probably more popular than any politician running for office. So please, your side, if you like this — keep on attacking the Chamber. It makes no sense whatsoever. And I think it’s a really, really poor political tactic and untrue.

This is where the Libertarian Free Market theory hits the FAIL of reality. People like Paul argue that corporations should be free to do what they want, even when it comes to practicing discrimination against their customers and employees, but that people should be able to Vote with their Dollars, but when it comes to asking corporations to Admit What their Doing they balk and begin to argue that this would put a "restraint on Free Speech".

Just like Cheney attacked Howard Dean for being supported by George Soros and Moveon.org (which he denies) - Paul attacks Conway for this Moveon Ad - while ignoring the key difference. We know whose funding the MoveOn ad - because they Disclose. Both Cheney and Paul can make those arguments because we know where the money's coming from with MoveOn, but we Don't Know with the Chamber.

How can people "Vote with their Dollars" within the Free Market, if the Market only operates in darkness? How can consumers make a choice about supporting Fox News and their advertisers if they didn't know they've given $2.25 Million to the Republican Governors Association and the Chamber?

How can people take a stand against bigotry and racism when the individuals and organizations who continue to implement it to this very day depend on Secrecy to get away with it? And then when their caught, LIE ABOUT IT, try to excuse and deflect it the way the leaders of the Tea Party has done?

Eventually it all breaks down into finger-pointing over and over again. Accusation, Denial, Counter-Accusation, but not truth, not facts.

Bickering and fact-spinning is what we've become accustomed to, but it's not the way it has to be as shown in Part 2 of the Cantor Interview: Do you really think Democrats want to Subvert the Country?



Here Cantor also argues for Disclosure as well, but not for what would really solve the problem - which is to take funding our elections completely out of the hands of corporations.

Stewart: The Government is not always a impingement on freedom. Sometimes it's the only thing standing between....

Cantor: Absolutely. I don't disagree with you...

Stewart: I know, you just disagree on where's it pressure should be applied (for Publicly Funded Wars, but not Publicly Funded Elections) and that's my whole point with the fallacy that limited Government is a principled stand of Conservatives, It's only Limited to the SHIT they Want to Do!

As Stewart points out the Integrity of our Electoral Process is at the core of our Democracy and it's a core National Security Issue particularly when were looking at the ability of Foreign Nationals, Foreign Companies and Foreign Governments to Capture Our Democracy for the purposes of steal our jobs and national resources for their own benefit.

Wouldn't it be better if we could discuss it the way Cantor and Stewart did, rather than the way Cheney and Dean do?

Vyan

Heartless Fracking Monsters!

You will know them by thier Votes...

I don't like to generalize and lump a wide swath of people into one big homogenous pile, but this week we've had two huge examples of exactly the kind of completely heathless self-aggrandizing inhuman monstrous Ass-Bandits that Republicans can be.

First we had the House Vote Against the 9-11 Responders


As if the fracking procedure really matters all that much when people who Risked their Lives to Save the Lives of Others are on the line.

It's just bloody Insane!.

Then after all of this posturing that "Tax Cuts Don't Have to be Paid For" - and blocking of Unemployment Benefits in the Senate, we have an updated Jobs Bill which is both Paid For and includes mostly Tax Cuts for Small Business and the Republican Filibuster IT!!!

Senate Republicans yesterday “rejected a bill to aid small businesses with expanded loan programs and tax breaks” even though several GOP lawmakers helped write it and it had been backed by conservative business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The procedural blockade underscores “how fiercely determined the party’s leaders are to deny Democrats any further legislative accomplishments.”

What. The. FRACK are these people ON??

And it's not like we didn't get a warning about this from Al Franken when he said "They Don't Want the Jobs to Improve before the Election".

Franken: And Republicans sort of take this stance that the best thing we can do is slow everything down so as little can happen as possible, so that we can both blame Democrats for not having stuff happen, like jobs bills and stuff like that. And so that, you know, I mean sometimes it’d be a legitimate difference of opinion on something, but sometimes it’s been ridiculous. But I do think that this whole approach of slowing everything down, in many ways I think it’s so that, they don’t want a jobs bill because they don’t want people to get jobs before the election. It’s a harsh thing to say, and I don’t want to impugn the motives of my colleagues, but I don’t get what they’re doing otherwise.

When he said this I thought he was going a little over the top, now I'm like...

That's exactly what it is - they don't want people to get jobs before the election so that Democrats will get the credit for it. They don't CARE how many people are out of work, need assistance and are losing their homes. The first stiumulus wasn't as large as it should have been, because of Republicans and their FETISH for Tax Cuts THEY DON'T CARE who it hurts, they just want the President to FAIL. They want the Democrats to FAIL. The want the Country to FAIL.


I can't believe we're seriously looking at losing seats to These People. Who the Hell can TRUST THEM?

Their entire mantra is "Government Sucks" - so why do they want to be part of something that Sucks, to make it Suck More?

They like to pretend that the Government Doing anything, particularly giving things away is such a horrible thing. Oh yeah? Well, what about the Homestead Act which gave away LAND!!!

You don't have to read History - just pay attention to Tom Cruise's Movie "Far and Away" and this scene which is "Land Race" where Settlers rush to the plot of land that will become their home, as provided by the Government!



Don't ever say the government didn't give white people something for nothing (after stealing it from Native Americans that is - talking about "Spreading the Wealth Around" this Land Race was preceded by the Horrific Trail of Tears).

It's not like Capilistic Ingenuity built the Interstate Highway System, or developed the technology that eventually became the Internet. That was Government! Our Government. But Republicans don't believe in America, they don't believe in the ability of American Government to help us lift ourselves up.

All you have to do is look at the Republcan "Battle Plan" - wherein they promise to...

Raise Taxes on the Poor and Middle Class by Eliminating nearly ALL Tax Deductions, Offsets and Credits.

Lower Taxes on the Rich by yet another 12-15%

Raise Social Security Taxes, while Decreasing Benefits for those under 55 by "Personalizing" up to 1/3rd of it on the Stock Market

Increase the Eligibility Age for Medicare to 69 and Cut Benefits

Replace Medicaid with Medical Savings Accounts

Completely Ignore Climate Change, Stall Green Energy Policies, Environmental Concerns, Safety and Health Regulations

This is America with Republicans in Control Again. One for All and All for Nobody but their Damn Self.

We can't let these crazy power-drunk people back behind the Wheel of Government - Not Again. We may have our problems with how Democrats have governed, we may be disappointed that they left out a provision here or the Public Option there - but Seriously - This. Can't. Happen.

It's past time to get up off the mat people, and start fighting BACK!

Vyan

Biden Blasts Barton

BIDEN: There’s an entire way of life in jeopardy. This is just not about jobs. This is just not about whether or not the waterfowl is polluted and you can’t — this is an entire way of life that’s in jeopardy. And to sit there and say that we’re being — in effect, as I understood the statement — that he was ashamed we’re being tough on an oil company who caused the problem — I mean, I — look, I just think that it’s pretty important to the people of Louisiana all the way through Florida and even in his home state of Texas that people disassociate themselves from that.
That’s not the role — there’s no shakedown. It’s insisting on responsible conduct and a responsible response to something they caused. And I find it outrageous to suggest that if, in fact, we insisted that BP demonstrate their preparedness, to put aside billions of dollars — in this case, $20 billion — to take care of the immediate needs of people who are drowning — these guys don’t have deep pockets. The guy who runs the local marina, the guy who has one shrimping boat, the guy who has one small business — he can’t afford to lose $10,000, $12,000, $15,000, $30,000 a month. [...]
What is wrong with that? How is that a shakedown? I mean, I just — I don’t know, I find it pretty astounding, the comment.

It may be astounding, but it really shouldn't be surprising - it was part of a Republican House Talking Point from the previous day that the agreement made between the White House and BP was a "Shakedown". The kind that the Bush Administration implemented between 85 and 97 Times when it choose to "Defer Prosecution" of a Corporation in lieu of cash settlement.

We have to realize that Joe Barton is a former Oil Executive, one who worked for Atlantic Richfield, which is now ARCO and owned by BP. Just like Barton is currently Owned by BP. Corporate Shills and Lackeys are what these people are. This is where they're leading the Tea Party, right over the cliff.

The GOP Doesn't want a Shakedown of BP, They Want a Shakedown of Tax-Payers - as pointed out by Mike Papantonio.

The Real Republicans of 2012

(Copied from Dailykos because it's just too damn Good!!!)

Keith Olbermann presents the newest reality show to hit the airwaves, following Mark, Sarah, Bobby, John, and the trials and tribulations of the GOP 2012 field:

Also on Daily Kos TV.

Transcript:

OLBERMANN: A secret rendezvous, including steamy e-mails, an illicit affair with a married co-worker, a vendetta waged against opposing factions, the crisis of the teenage daughter getting pregnant, engaged and disengaged, and the introduction of an important new character, who turned out to have the intellectual depth of Kenneth the Page.

Of course, I could be outlining the plot of any episode of the "Real Housewives of Orange County" or of Atlanta or of New York or especially of New Jersey. But in our number one story, unfortunately for the GOP, I`m talking about the recent history of its presidential hopefuls for 2012.

That list of course in order was Sanford, Ensign, Palin, Palin again and Jindal. Not even mentioning Newt Gingrich and the likelihood that his vote among Hispanics might be limited to three or four, not percent, three or four guys.

But even as the details involving the wild bull of a pompous, and his Maria, Maria, I`ve just met a girl named Maria, continue to unfold, there is a silver lining. What is bad news for this quartet of GOP front runners is good news for Willard.

Now we give you the next reality show on our sister network, Bravo, the Real Republican Candidates of 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: Previously on the Real Republican Candidates --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An odd story out of South Carolina. The unknown whereabouts of that state`s governor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His loved ones don`t know where he`s at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only sign of South Carolina`s governor was a cell phone picked up in Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail.

OLBERMANN: It was also National Hike Naked Day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re learning the governor wasn`t even in the country.

SANFORD: I`ve been unfaithful to my wife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does this do to his presidential ambitions in 2012?

SANFORD: It`s going to hurt. I`ve spent the last five days crying in Argentina.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These really graphic e-mails now exposed.

OLBERMANN: The erotic beauty of beholding yourself or two magnificent parts of yourself.

LIMBAUGH: Sanford could have been our JFK.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), ILLINOIS: Americans can --

OLBERMANN: Governor Jindal is set to deliver the Republican response.

JINDAL: As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad. Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in D.C.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He and his prayer group performed an actual exorcism on a girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every form of witchcraft.

GOV. SARAH PALIN (R), ALASKA: You don`t talk about my family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are thick as thieves and protect each other to the end.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is stepping up her fight.

PALIN: I don`t find it humorous.

DAVID LETTERMAN, "THE LATE SHOW": Well, they`re just jokes.

OLBERMANN: Last night, Letterman issuing his second apology.

PALIN: You know, you need a little levity in this job.

SEN. JOHN ENSIGN (R), NEVADA: If there was ever anything that I could take back in my life this would be it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously, there has to be something else.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Republican John Ensign of Nevada is admitting --

OLBERMANN: What happens in Vegas gets disclosed at a late afternoon news conference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pay attention, please.

ENSIGN: Last year, I had an affair. I violated the vows of my marriage. I`m truly sorry.

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: And the only questions that remain are which one of them turns over the table at the restaurant, which one of them once took a hostage, and which one of them will have to go to court to suppress a sex tape?

The Truth about Neo-Fascist Conservatism

Appearing on DL Hughley, former Right-Wing Evangelist and Huffington Post contributor Frank Schaeffer comes out swinging and leaves few bodies standing in the G.O.P.

Schaeffer: The Republican Party has become a hard-edged neo-fascist thing that has given us 8 years of a bad Presidency, a collapsed economy and two wars one of which we shouldn't have been in...

I'm sorry to say my father had a lot to do with it, along with (Falwell, Robertson and Dobsen) we put all this crap in place. If you approach God in a certain way - it will drive you crazy.

Schaeffer: We've moved from a period where Republicanism represented something you could either agree or disagree with (Goldwater) to period where you are either a fundamentalist Christian on one side, or a view of the world you are someone who sees anyone who is different, be that black, white, Arab, muslim, gay or foreign as the enemy. And there's nothing in between. When you look at a guy like Rush Limbaugh - it's like taking the lid off - the is the Raw, Naked Face of where Republicanism is (today).

That of course goes a long way toward explaining Michele The Demi Glas of Wingnuttia Bachman. Schaeffer doesn't pretend to know how much of The Crazy most Republican leaders are fully swallowing, but he does admit that they now have little choice in openly pandering to their wing-nut base. That's pretty much all they have left.

It's little surprise then when Limbaugh says something as completely off-the-rails as Every Republican is hoping the President's Policies Fail when were in the midst of a global economic crisis, most Republican leaders (particularly those who aren't holding office and can speak freely) essentially agree with him.

Including Jonah Goldberg. - Mike Pence - David Vitter - Rick Santorum - Tom Delay - and naturally Michelle Malkin.

Oh, sure there are some nay-sayers such as Newt Gingrich who tries to split the baby by claiming "No one rational wants the President to fail - we just want him to learn new policies."

Well, then Newty I guess your hoping to once again lead the party of the irrational. But then again after months of "Socialist", "Communist", "Terrorist" and "Baby-Killer" accusations isn't a little late for anyone to expect the hardcore Repubs to pull the head from their ANUS now?

We have to realize it's become perma-bonded in place.

When you lead you life based on blind-belief in either the unfallable "Free Markets" or the impending "Rapture" - you don't have much interest in facts, science or the resulting real-time suffering of your Americans, and fellow Humans, as the super-structure of their lives collapses around their feet.

Poe sang this years ago "You can't talk to a Psycho, like a Normal Human Being."

Schaeffer sums this up at the end of the interview beautifully.

Schaeffer: They Do Hate Him (Obama). Rush Limbaugh is telling the truth when he says he wants the President to Fail. These people are ideological enough that they rather see the whole country go down *the tubes), and be proved "Right" - rather than do the patriotic thing and support the President.

Hughley: Why are Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh so tremendously popular? It makes me feel as an American like this is how a large portion of the country feels.

Schaeffer: No, I don't think so. The Religous Right started with good intentions, and then was manipulated by very crass people for personal gain. Today you have about 20 Million people who buy all of Ann Coulter's books, watch Rush Limbaugh, send in the money to the Televangelists - it's all the same people. The fact of the matter is there's 300 Million of us - there's not 20 Million of us.

It's not a big percentage, it's just a LOUD percentage. This is the drunk on the end of the subway making all the trouble for the people on the car minding their own business - there's a hundred decent citizens and one ASS at the head of the train molesting women - That's the Republican Party Now!.

Amen!

Vyan

House GOP Dances and Fiddles while the Economy Burns

This just from Eric Cantor Useless Tool House Republican Whip.



Yes, they're serious.

Seriously deluded.

The House Bill was not "written in Secret" it went through the Rule Committe as detailed recently by Rep. Louise Slaughter.

The bill, as it came to the Rules Committee, the last stop before the floor vote, already incorporated 12 Republican amendments. The Rules Committee then added the 11 amendments: 6 Democratic and 5 Republican, in addition to a complete Republican substitute, and a motion to recommit. They were unable to muster the votes necessary and lost on bipartisan votes. House Republicans may have come together to vote against the final bill, but they split on their own amendments with 40 to 60 Republicans voting with Democrats. Some Republicans even voted against their party’s alternative bill, and it failed on the floor.

The Republican alternative didn’t have a final price tag, consisted entirely of tax cuts, and would actually raise taxes for 26 million American families. In two years, the Democratic bill would create 3.6 million jobs. The Republican substitute: 1.2 million – a third as many as the Democratic bill that passed the House.

There is no money for ACORN.

MSNBC's Shuster to GOP strategist: "There was no money for ACORN [in the stimulus bill], Doug. You guys know better than that."

The money to replenish the Federal Auto Fleet is to replace them with Fuel Efficient Cars, which will help with reducing our dependance on foreign oil, while creating an immediate demand and market for these cars with auto manufacturers - which in turn will help bring the price of these cars down for consumers. It's a three-way WIN!



Repubs claim the bill is "Pork Barrel", and say it should have more "Shovel-ready" projects - but then when you ask for specifics they actually support those projects because they involve building infrastructure. Someone should tell them - The Reason their weren't as many Infrastructure Projects - is BECAUSE THEY INCLUDED SO MANY TAX CUTS - which the Republicans claim to like also. It's fracking nuts!

I have a better Aerosmith Song for Cantor and all the corporate and Oil Lobbyists who are holding his leash.

EAT THE RICH - cuz they plump when you cook 'em.

Vyan

Hell - Fracking - YES, we CAN!

It's been a long time coming. President Barack Hussein Obama!

We've finally had our moment, it's like finally seeing Bobby Kennedy make it all the way - like seeing Malcolm and Martin's dream alive again.

But this isn't Black Thang, it's an America Thang. American finally has a chance, just a chance - to begin to fulfill it's promise of "We the People..."

But we're going to have to work for it, and work hard. We still have to LEAVE IT ALL ON THE ROAD - because this time we can't afford to fail or the dream will die and not return for another generation, if ever.

I'm probably going to be the first to say it - but we owe George W. Bush our thanks.

Thank You George W. Bush.

Thank you for being such a massive incredible fucktard that you made it blindingly obvious to so many Americans that we needed to go a completely different direction than we have during the last 14 years of Republican dominance in Washington.

Thank you Karl Rove, for teaching us how to stomp your sleazy smear campaign tactics into the ground. Thanks to Lorita Doan, Monica Goodling, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Randy "The Dukester" Cunningham, Mark Foley, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Tom Delay, Brownie, John Ashcroft and your Soaring Eagles, John Yoo and your torture memos, Jay Bybee, Scooter Libby, Alberto "Someone may prosecute us for War Crimes" Gonzales (Ya think!), Condoleeza "It was a historical document" Rice, David "Fourth Branch" Addington and the Prince of Darkness himself - Richard "The Dick" Cheney.

If America hadn't seen how much all of you completely, utterly suck duck butter they might have elected John McCain. You all did America a great service.

Oh, and also thanks John McCain for being such a complete crazy horse maverick nut ball. Thanks to Sarah Palin, just take your hockey-mom pumps witcha on the way back to your witch doctor in crazytown Alaska, also... You Betcha. And thanks, for making sure America knew better than to dive down another dead-end rat hole along with Joe the (Not A) Plumber - not zesty.

Ok - I had to say it - because it needed to be said. And it has to be remembered because we CAN NEVER LET THESE PEOPLE HAVE POWER IN AMERICA AGAIN!!!

EVER!

So sure, we've had our fun - we've had our shadenfreud. We've had our party. Now it's time to get to work and start cleaning up all the feces strains these people have left on the reputation of our country. Time to get a bucket, some water, soap and start doing the heavy lifting. We have to remember that republicans still have over 40 votes in the Senate to road block just about anything, particular after they doubled the all time record for filibusters in the last two years. It's going to take more than cheering crowds to get the job done.

Today is the first day in the future of America, and we better be ready for the fight of our lives - because this will be The Fight Of and FOR our Very Lives.

We have to remember that we're fighting for an responsible end to the mistaken misguided Iraq War. To finally capture and kill Bin Laden, to bring everyone affordable effective health care, to make our companies and corporations take as much care of their workers and customers as they do their shareholders, to have genuine energy independance, to rescue our economy, to make our government both efficient and effective - there when it's needed and out of the way when it isn't.

This time it'll be different, this time we can't afford to give in to cynicism or apathy. We can't afford to sit back now, we can't afford to become complacent and expect Barack to do everything - NO, he taught us we can be stronger together than we are seperately and we have to continue to blog, lobby congress, discuss, review the facts and fight for a better America.

This is our moment, this is our time. Let's make it count. Let's leave it ALL ON THE ROAD!



Amen, Brother Amen!

Vyan

The Big Soros Lie

Ever since the dull thud of Don Imus crashing down from the high media heavens back to earth began to reverberate through the punditosphere - all the little trained monkeys whirling the crank on the Right-Wing Werlitzer have been quaking in their boots and coming unglued.

Since these guys apparently love the Bruckheimer, they needed to find a villain to paint all their troubles upon. It wasn't long before they found a suitable scapegoat - thanks to the ever helpful Drudge - that patsy was of course...George Soros.

Just one small problem, all of their current troubles aren't Soros doing, but are simply their own damn fault!

Limbaugh has turned practically into a raving lunatic over the fact that David Brock's Media Matters has been quoting him accurately.

On the April 16 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called Media Matters for America "Stalinist" and part of the "Clinton machine agenda." He further falsely asserted that Media Matters receives funding from philanthropist George Soros and that he is "not demeaning people on this program in any way."

The Soros/Media Matters canard has been picked up by Micheal Savage.

On the April 13 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said of Media Matters for America: "They're people who attack me. It's run by a homosexual activist who hates anybody in the media who does not kowtow to the homosexual agenda."

"They've held themselves up as somehow above the fray, only looking for fair-mindedness in the media. It turns out that they are, in fact, funded by one of the most vile anti-American creatures in the world, George Soros."

And Tammy Bruce...

"In order to be able to even go after Republicans eventually, or conservatives, these far-left forces need to purge our own House of Democrats like myself who speak the truth and will confront them on what they are. That's why Imus had to be eliminated and that's why they went after him first. And now they'll proceed down their list."

And Melanie Morgan...

"I have lived on the other side of the gun barrel pointed by Media Matters for America for the better part of three years, and I know what it feels like when a bunch of crackpots with keyboards pull the trigger, backed by millions upon millions of dollars in funding from George Soros."

And Debbie Schlessel...

I suppose now that Don Imus is gone, (Media Matters has) assigned the vegan lesbian transsexual 'interspecies erotica' devotee they had monitoring the Imus show to monitor my site."

And Tom (Dead Crook Walking) Delay...

"George Soros, upset with the slight inroads conservatives have made recently, has funded an organization called Media Matters for America, led by liberal muckraker David Brock."

And of course, Bully O'Lielly who actually displayed an elaborate flow-chart of how Soros has allegedly used shell organizations to secretly funnel money into Media Matters for his "smear" operations.

It's not like Billy ever said that poor people were "irresponsible and lazy" - except that he did.

And it's not like he ever claimed that the Iraqi people were "Prehistoric". Except for when he did.

But here's the thing, even if Billo's Magic Flow-Chart-o-Doom is correct -- So Fucking What?!

It's not like Right-Wing crackpots like Sam Fox with truck loads of cash to burn on smearing Democrats like John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi would ever be rewarded with something like - being nominated as Ambassador to Belgium, Right?

It's not like a nutbag religious zealot like the Rev. Sun Myung Moon could ever buy a major american newspaper in the Nation's capital and use it's online edition to promote right-wing lies and propaganda about Democratic Candidates for President, eh?

And it's not like multi-billionarie Rupert Murdock would ever buy an entire Cable News Network, and install Karl Rove's former deputy Roger Ailes to operate and manage it by sending out daily marching orders on how the news will be spun that day, would they?

Oh, It's not like millionaire Richard Mellon-Scaife didn't fund a project designed specifically to destroy Bill Clinton through his magazine The American Spectator (Which ironically used to employ one David Brock!) did he?

Oh yeah, they all did!

The only problem with the Fox/Moon/Murdock/Scaife v Soros analogy is the teeny, tiny, infitesimal little fact that SOROS DOESN'T FUND MEDIA MATTERS either directly or through intermediate organizations. Even the Politico has had to admit it in a printed retraction to a Tom Delay Op-ed.

A column in Tuesday's Politico "How Good Is America's Campaign Coverage" by Tom Delay contained an error. George Soros ha s not funded the organization Media Matters for America.

Opps!!

As was shown so brilliantly by Bill Moyers last night on the PBS documentary "Buying the War" the need for journalist who actually Do Journalism is increasing everyday. The tendency to just be lazy and "go with the flow", the paralyzing fear that these people have to "go out on a limb" is crippling our Democracy.

Just look to the example of the false premise behind the very first question in last night's Democratic Debate.

Do you agree with Sen. Reid that the "Iraq War Is Lost"

The simple truth is that Reid didn't say just that, he also said...

"The (Iraq) war can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically, and the president needs to come to that realization," Reid said.

Reid said he did not think more U.S. troops could help. "I think (the President's Surge has) failed, I say that without any question," he said of the troop increase.

So the more accurate question would have been "Do you agree with Sen Reid that we can't win the Iraq War Militarily?"

And considering the fact that this is exactly what Henry Kissenger, Gen Petreaus and what the Iraq Study Group has said...

"The bipartisan Iraq Study Group has concluded that the President's Iraq policy has failed and must be changed. As the November elections clearly demonstrated, that is an assessment shared by the American people.

"If the President is serious about the need for change in Iraq, he will find Democrats ready to work with him in a bipartisan fashion to find a way to end the war as quickly as possible.

So, the answer should be a no-brainer.

Y'know - something pithy like "Hell YES!"

Outlets like Media Matters are vital at pointing out these repeated gross failures by the mainstream media to simply report the truth, whether Soros or his reported shadow puppeteer - the dastardly Hillary Rodham Clinton - are behind it all or not.

The fact that the wingnuts are having fits worrying about how stupid MMFA is going to make them look, after they say something ridiculously bigoted, vile and profane - yet again - is just icing on the cake.

Vyan

The True Failure of the Iraq Experiment

Oh - we most certainly think we know what that is don't we? Surely it is the fact that we entered a war with a country on utterly false pretenses? Surely it is the fact that we dismantled their military, destroyed their economy, fomented a civil war and are now planning a surge escalation of the violence as a means to end it?

No.

The true failure of the entire Iraq Campaign is the fact the we let Neo-Con Wing-nuts run everything - everything - miles into the ground while they themselves remained safely behind the walls of the Emerald City.

Musicial Accompaniment for the post by Devo - Beautiful World.

Front Paged On DU is a journal entry by Plaid Adder which discribes the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. His discription of the book is both chilling and extremely familiar in relation to how Neo-Cons have so frequently and repeatedly failed in America.

From behind the walls of the Green Zone, early members of the Coalition Provisional Authority were safe - living in their own world - their beautifil minds completely obviously to the world of real live Iraqis.

Step by step, Chandrasekaran walks the reader through all the rebuilding projects that were scuttled, abandoned, sabotaged, or fucked up beyond all repair by the special combination of behaviors that we have come to know and love from our own domestic encounters with the neocons' style of governance: adhering inflexibly to rigid and preconceived "conservative" principles, rejecting input from the "reality-based community," refusing to accept the help or utilize the expertise of anyone deemed politically "suspect," assuming that they are always right regardless of mounting evidence to the contrary, and the identifying loyalty to Bush and his circle as the primary and in many cases indeed the only job qualification required.

The Lack of A "Plan".

The general outline of this story was apparent to anyone who was paying attention to the news during the early years of the war. What gives Emerald City its horrifying fascination is the way Chandrasekaran uses his two years of reporting, research, and interviews to recreate with sickening immediacy and astonishing intimacy the disaster that we have been forced to witness from afar and through a glass darkly.

For instance, we have long been outraged by our sense that the Bush administration launched the invasion without a plan for dealing with the aftermath--beyond the now-infamous 'strategy' of miraculously being welcomed by the Iraqis bearing not only flowers but a complete blueprint for a new democratic government that had unanimous popular support. Well, Chandrasekaran's early chapters argue that, in fact, it wasn't so much that they didn't think to come up with a plan: in fact, they deliberately prevented Jay Garner, the guy Douglas Feith had tapped to be in charge of the postinvasion phase, from coming up with one. Why? Because, according to Chandrasekaran, they were afraid that if Garner was allowed to come up with a real plan, it might interfere with Rumsfeld, Cheney, Feith et al.'s plan, which was basically to turn the joint over to Achmed Chalabi as soon as possible. In partciular, they were very worried that he might talk to people at the State Department who knew something about Iraq--and who consequently felt that the administration's plans for Iraq were a load of horsehockey.

So, they didn't tell Garner that there was a two-year study called the Future of Iraq Project being run by the State Department that had already produced 2500 pages' worth of policy recommendations about what to do during the postwar phase of a "post-Saddam Iraq." When Garner, more or less by chance, met the guy who was in charge of the project, he hired him. A week later, Rumsfeld (acting, Garner says he was later told, on orders from Cheney), demanded that Garner fire him, thus cutting off Garner's access to the project's reports (which of course were classified)

So the lack of post-invasion planning wasn't really a total screw-up -- it was a deliberate screw-up.


Even their good ideas, typically turned out badly when it came to execution.

Two weeks , the ORHA ministers had worked up a list of sites in Baghdad that needed security. Atop the list was the Central Bank. Then came the National Museum. The Oil Ministry was at the bottom. Weeks later, ORHA personnel discovered that the military had failed to transmit the list to ground commanders in Baghdad.

Which explains, perhaps, why the only building that the soldiers did protect from looting was the Ministry of Oil.

Flowers and Chocolate?

Public discussion of Iraq has been so focused on Saddam himself that there is very little understanding here of the larger system that was in place when we invaded Iraq in 2003. Iraq before the invasion was a bloated, inefficient, Soviet-style socialist bureaucracy, complete with the kind of official corruption peculiar to that particular system. Because everyone on the CPA assumed that that kind of system was an unmitigated evil and that the birth of free-market capitalism from its ashes was a process a thousand times more natural than childbirth and requiring far less intervention, the CPA was unable to follow through on their dream of privatization.

It did not occur to them, for instance, that firing redundant personnel from government-run industries in order to make them more profitable might spark protests, riots, and deadly reprisals in a country where for two generations there had been guaranteed employment for large sections of the population. Not only did they get the people issues wrong, they even got the economic issues wrong.

Oops.

Time and time again this scenario is repeated, qualified and knowledgeble people are fired and replaced with no-nothing ideologues. More rejection of good personal and good ideas - for bad.

Searching through this banquet of outrage for one example that would really crystallize the fundamental dysfunction that made the 'rebuilding' effort doomed from before the beginning, I came up with this description of how the CPA approached rebuilding Iraq's health care system:

Once the Americans arrived, the job of rehabilitating Iraq's health-care system fell to Frederick M. Burkle, jr., a physicial with a master's degree in public health and postgraduate degrees from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and the University of California at Berkeley. Burkle was a naval reserve officer with two Bronze Stars and a deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he specialized in disaster-response issues. During the first Gulf War, he provided medical aid to Kurds in northern Iraq. A USAID colleague called him the "single most talented and experienced post-conflict health specialist working for the United States Government."

True to form, Burkle was fired and replaced by a fundamentalist hack.

Burkle's job was handed to James K. Haveman, Jr., a sixty-year-old social worker who was largely unknown among international health experts. He had no medical degree, but he had connections. He had been the community health director for the former Republican governor of Michigan, John Engler, who recommended him to Wolfowitz.

Prior to his stint in government, Haveman ran a large Christian adoption agency in Michigan that urged pregnant women not to have abortions.

And that works out about as well as you'd expect it to. Instead of trying to rehabilitate and refurnish the hospitals that are trying to cope with a constant influx of the horribly wounded without basic medical equipment or reliable electric power, Haveman decides his goal is to "refashion Iraq's socialist health-care system into one that looked more American, with co-payments and primary-care clinics." Not understanding, apparently, that the needs of a country with an ongoing guerilla war involving massive civilian casualties are different from the needs of, say, a large for-profit hospital system trying to cut down on Medicare and Medicaid costs.

Haveman didn't like the idea that medical care in Iraq was free. He figured Iraqis should pay a small fee every time they saw a doctor. He also decided to allocate almost all of the Health Ministry's $793 million share of U.S. reconstruction funds to renovating maternity hospitals and building new community medical clinics. His intention, he said, was "to shift the mind-set of the Iraqis that you don't get health care unless you go to a hospital."

But his decision meant there were no reconstruction funds set aside to rehabilitate the emergency rooms and operating theaters at Iraqi hospitals, even though injuries from insurgent attacks were the country's single largest public health challenge.

Whoops.

What is described here was previously excerpted by a Washington Post article (diaried by George10 in Sept) that talks about how Katie O'Beirne's husband was put in charge of hiring members of the Coalition Provisional Authority and exclusivly looked for those with the right ideological credentials only.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What they needed to be was a member of the Republican Party.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

And we wonder why $8.8 Billion dollars disappeared on the watch of the CPA in a puff of blue smoke? It's a wonder it wasn't $20 billion.

It's this type of ideologically bent illogic, like Paradigm Paralysis on Crack, that has been preventing geologist at the Grand Canyon from practicing geology. It's Bush's Narcissism run-amok, coupled with Cheney's distorted "vision" of reality.

[The] story is repeated over and over in every sector. Whether they're trying to create an Iraqi media network or retrain the Iraqi police force, it's the same fuck up for the same reasons as the same pattern repeats itself. Qualified people are rejected for top spots in favor of self-confident, autocratic, politically-connected idiots who don't know what they're doing and won't listen to people who do. Said politically-connected idiots propose sweeping, radical, shiny new policies which will use a lot of fancy technology and private capital to build a bigger, better, American-style version of whatever it is they're in charge of. These changes are never ultimately implemented, and whatever it was is left worse than when they began.

Hence not only have we broken Iraq's back in terms of security, we've also broken that nation in every way imaginable - financially, socially, medically - every essential service and element of their infrastructure has been severly compromised by right-wing political hackery.

And the truly sad part is those people who recognized the problems and really have been legitimately trying to make our grand Iraq Experiment work - like our troops - have been completely stymied and betrayed by that mind-less B.S. of their higher-ups -- and of course - Jim O'Beirne.

The stories of the few top people who did grasp what was happening and try to make a difference are that much more painful because it's so clear that they had so little power to impact the final outcome, despite their often quite heroic efforts to do their jobs right with what little they were given.

And that is the true failure of Iraq, It is the betrayal of the Iraqi people, the betrayal of those who fought hard and died, American and Iraqi alike, to help the Iraqi people build a better future for themselves.

We've done more than enough damage to this poor country, it's well past time we finally ended the experiment and let them out of the cage.

They deserve their freedom - from us.

Vyan

What Liberals Want...

Last week I wrote a four part series detailing the many reasons why George W. Bush (and various members of his administration) must be Impeached.

This post isn't about that.

It's about one response I received - from an obvious winger - that I feel deserves a full throated response.

How about a plan for the new administration?
you liberals can spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to impeach President Bush if you wish. I think your energies could be spent in a more constructive fashion by actually establishing some kind of plan after the current administration is gone in January 2009.

The plan is simple - undue all the shit that Bush has fucked up gross errors of the Bush Administration. That alone should keep us busy for nearly a decade.

What our right-leaning friend didn't seem to understand as I listed Count after Count against Bush including - Intelligence Fraud, Domestic Espionage, War Crimes and Torture and Criminal Negligence - clearly outlined a broad swath of consensus among liberals (and more than a few genuine conservatives) about how the direction of this country needs to be correct.

All you need to discover the "Liberal Plan" is to reverse everything that Bush has done during his Presidency - but not in the way that Conservatives and Karl Rove would like to project onto us with B.S. slogans such as "cut and run" or "appeasment", "stop listening to al-Qeada". No, there are far better ways to address this.

To Wit on the first count: Fraud.

• We need to restore the credibility of our intelligence services and the legitimacy of the word of the President.
• We need to rebuild our alliances with the UN, European Union and NATO - and begin to act as a much better neighbor and partner for peace than we have been.
• We need to relearn how to implement genuine Diplomacy, not just with our friends - but also with those we disagree with including Palestine, Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Count 2 : Domestic Espionage.

• We need to end Warrantless Domestic Spying and begin to abide by FISA and the Law while performing counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism against foreign threats.
• We need to restore Probable Cause and end the NSA Datamine program.
• We need to learn to better utilize resources, and better target suspect individuals without casting a net so wide that thousands of innocent persons become ensnared in the web.

Count 3 : War Crimes and Torture

• We need to abide by the Geneva Conventions, which as a treaty is considered part of our own law under the Constitution.
• We need to stop giving lip service and actually end all torture, and coercive (and ineffective) interrogation techniques as well as permenently close Gitmo and the Secret CIA prisons.
• We need to restore Habeas Corpus and repeal the Military Commissions Act.

Count 4 : Criminal Negligence

• We need to fight al-Qaeda effectively and directly, rather than let ourselves be diverted into side-isseus (such as Iraq or Iran).
• We need to end the War Profiteering, the outsourcing of our military with sweatheart deals to contractors.
• We need to solve the Iraq Issue, most likely by finally bringing the heads of the internal (Suni, Shia, Krud) and external factions (Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) in this conflict together in some sort of Reconciliation summit to resolve the key issues between them. Splitting the nation into semi-independant sectarian states with a weakened national government may be part of the solution (ala Biden & Bosnia), as might be Amnesty for Insurgents - but the issues should be resolved around a negotiating table, not in the streets of Baghdad or with the Blood of our soldiers. Either way, we're not fighting our way out of this - surge or not surge.
• We need to serously address Nuclear Proliferation, and bring greater international and direct diplomatic pressure onto North Korea and Iran to end their weapons programs.
• We need to repair the Gulf Coast, and end the fraud and curruption which has already wasted and lost a $1 Billion with few results.

Other issues off the top of my head which currently fall below the levels of "High Crimes" but are still vital and I strongly suspect have a high-consensus among liberals and many conservatives alike.

• We need to End the Birth Tax - (aka Fix the Deficit by reversing Bush's out of control spending and tax cut mania - yet retaining credits and tax breaks for individuals and companies that take responsible action to aid national priorities)
• We need to teach Science in to Science class - not pseudo-Scientific creationism (People are free to go to Sunday School or Comparitive Religion Class for that)
• We need to teach our kids Real Sex Ed - not lie to them about Condoms and Abstinance.
• We need to create a 21st Century Apollo Program to fight the rise of CO2 emissions, develop and implement effective low-emissions technologies - not just to save the Polar Bears, but to save us all.
• We need to dramatically raise the minimum wage so that working families do not continue to fall behind as the economy grows.
• We need to tell companies like Wal-Mart to get off the public dole and providing affordable for the healthcare for their workers.
• We need the government to stop spreading propaganda through the media, and restore the fairness doctrine.

The arguments that "Liberals Don't have an agenda" is just plain ridiculous.

Also isn't it interesting that many people who like to claim this tripe (O'Leilly) simultaneously claim that the we do have a "secular progressive stealth agenda?" Self-contradiction much?

They know we have an agenda that goes far beyond just Impeaching and Removing George W. Bush, in fact, that's exactly what they're most afraid of. Tossing out Bush and Co will, if and when it occurs, will only be showing the tip of the spear.

I'm sure most of you have your own list of examples...

Vyan

Abu Gonzales : Upholding the Constitution is "Grave Threat" to U.S.

Amazing how far through the looking glass we've actually come...

Expecting the executive branch to obey the law and respect civil rights is "shortsighted,"

Those Who Want to Uphold the Constitution present a "grave threat" to U.S. security.

Gonzales Blasts Surveillance Critics
Nov 18, 3:47 PM (ET)
By CHASE SQUIRES

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales contended Saturday that some critics of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program were defining freedom in a way that poses a "grave threat" to U.S. security.

Gonzales was the second administration official in two days to attack a federal judge's ruling last August that the program was unconstitutional. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday called the ruling "an indefensible act of judicial overreaching."

Gonzales told about 400 cadets from the Air Force Academy's political science and law classes that some see the program as on the verge of stifling freedom rather that protecting the country.

"But this view is shortsighted," he said. "Its definition of freedom - one utterly divorced from civic responsibility - is superficial and is itself a grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people."

On August 17 a Federal Court judge in Detroit ruled that the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" which had been revealed by the New York Times in December was Unconstitution a ruled that it should be immediately terminated.

The ACLU who had filed the original suit had this statement:

Today’s ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor agreed with the ACLU that the NSA program violates Americans’ rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, and runs counter to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) passed by Congress. Judge Taylor also rejected the government’s argument that the case could not proceed because of state secrets, saying that facts about NSA wiretapping have already been conceded by the government.

"By holding that even the president is not above the law, the court has done its duty under our Constitution to serve as a check on executive power," said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson, who argued the case before Judge Taylor. "Throwing out the Constitution will not make Americans any safer."

In her ruling, Judge Taylor dismisses the government’s argument that the president "has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself."

Obviously Gonzales wasn't paying attention based on his statement today.

At a news conference, Gonzales would not speculate how the administration would react if Congress did not authorize warrantless surveillance.

"We're optimistic because of the importance of this program, the success of the program, the stated commitment of the Democratic leadership to work with us in protection of America, and that we're going to have a good discussion and dialogue about the program," he said.

"We believe the president has the authority under the authorization of military force and inherent authority of the constitution to engage in this sort of program, but we want to supplement that authority," he said.

Part of what Gonzales is claiming here involving "inherent powers" is based on an argument that failed in the Hamdi case. In that situation the DOJ argue that Hamdi, who is a U.S. Citizen could be held and detained as an "Enemy Combatant" without judicial review under the Authorization to use Military Force in Afghanistan. The Supreme's found otherwise.

JUSTICE O ’CONNOR,joined by THE CHIEF JUSTICE,JUSTICE KENNEDY,and JUSTICE BREYER,concluded that although Congress authorized the detention of combatants in the narrow circumstances alleged in this case, due process demands that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decisionmaker.Pp.14 –15.

JUSTICE SOUTER,joined by JUSTICE GINSBURG,concluded that Hamdi ’ s detention is unauthorized,but joined with the plurality to conclude that on remand Hamdi should have a meaningful opportunity to offer evidence that he is not an enemy combatant.

In short, Hamdi should have the right to a judicial hearing - a process which is quite similar to that required by FISA - a warrant. How exactly Alberto ("Tortue Memos") Gonzales - the so-called Top Law Enforcement Official in the Country - and Vice President Dick ("Shooter") Cheney get from losing the Hamdi case to claiming that their Warrantless eavesdropping on tens of millions of phone calls and email information is somehow "Constitution" is a shocking and frankly sickening situation.

Both of these men took an solemn oath to "Uphold the Constitution", yet both seem hell-bent on violating it's very tenets.

Abu presents a false hobsons choice between the possible loss of "liberty" due to a devestating terrorist attack - which even in the worst case scenario is less likely to be as deadly and damaging as Hurricane Katrina - against the very real fact of lost liberty happening right now as a result of the Bush administrations Imperialist actions.

They claim this type of surveillance has been "highly succesful", yet the FBI considers the thousands of false leads and dead-ends they've generated so far to be "a waste" of time and resources. Resources which could and should be better spent on credible leads gained through legal means.

There is also the problem that evidence gathered against real terrorists who are actually captured using extra-legal means - is inadmissable under the fruits of the poison tree doctrine. (Of course this may be exactly why Bush has pushed so hard for the use of Military Commisions, which may use coerced and classifed evidence -"to protect sources and methods" - while simultaneously abandoning Habeas Corpus)

Newly empowered Congressional Democrats have already found that the Bush Administration has been regularly violating at least 26 Federal Laws - including FISA.

But it has to be said that this type of nonsensical counter-factual politicing by appointed Civil Servants is dangerous to the foundations of our Democracy itself. It is a far greater danger in the estimatation of many legal and constitutional scholars - than anything Al Qaeda has done, or will ever do.

The deepest cuts to liberty are those which are often self-inflicted.

Vyan

Hey GOP - Welcome to the New Permanent Republican Minority

Congrats to House Speaker Pelosi - and god willing and the crick don't rise - Senate Majority Leader Reid.

People we just did what they said - repeatedly - we couldn't do. We have just crushed the Gingrich Revolution into dust. What I'm thinking right now is Permanent Republican Minority, because lets be honest - people didn't vote the Democrats in - they voted the Republcans out. They took out moderate anti-War Republicans like Chaffee and Dewine just to make sure they lost power. Period.

After $500 Billion being tossed out like the morning trash in Iraq, after Katrina and practically no hearings, after Downing Street, after NSAT&T, after Terri Schiavo, Gitmo, Habaes Corpus and Due Process on a stick, the nation finally screamed -- ENOUGH!

And it was a beautiful sound to hear.
What we've learned over the last six years, and particularly the last two - is that these bastard's can't be trusted.

I for one do not believe that it is simply in the nature of holding power that corruption festers. It's also in the nature of ones character, and in the natura of ones worldview.

We saw the character of the Gingrichians when they nearly caused the country to default on it's loans by refusing to raise the debt ceiling in 1995. If President Clinton's then Treasury Secretary hadn't done some fast and furious money shifting THIS COUNTRY WOULD HAVE GONE INTO DEFAULT simply to satify their rabid lust for tax cuts.

It was clear then that their primary desire was to generate tax kickbacks to their pals, cronies, buddies and donors. The Hiltons. The Lays. The Skillings. The Trumps. The Blue Blooded American Aristocrat Money Whore Dilitants were and are the only true masters of the Republican Party.

Oh sure, they provided plenty of lip service and red meat to the Christian "Wackos" (via Mike Scanlon and David Kuo), siddling up to people like Randal Terry, they exploited every young female blonde in jeapardy ™, baited every gay-basher they could find, played the Deliverance Card all through the south, but they were simply using all of them to service one thing - their own greed.

It was all about greed. Greed, Power and self-gratification. It's a story that ran through Abramoff, Cunningham, Ney, Safavian, (ex White House Domestic Policy Head Claude) Allen, Gannon/Guckert, Haggard, Foley, Reynolds, Hastert and Tom DeLay.

Now Those Days are Over. America wanted them out! They're toast.

In the last days of the election there were definate signs that every rat in the elephant boat was looking for their own personal dingy. The outcome was truly never in doubt (and I'm proud to say I predicted a 30-seat pickup in the house over 3 weeks ago)

From Vanity Fair you had the neo-con Architects of the Iraq War ready to fire the Contractors - Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney - for building a broken house.

As he looks into my eyes, speaking slowly and with obvious deliberation, Perle is unrecognizable as the confident hawk who, as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, had invited the exiled Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi to its first meeting after 9/11. "The levels of brutality that we've seen are truly horrifying, and I have to say, I underestimated the depravity," Perle says now, adding that total defeat--an American withdrawal that leaves Iraq as an anarchic "failed state"--is not yet inevitable but is becoming more likely. "And then," says Perle, "you'll get all the mayhem that the world is capable of creating."

According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.... At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.... I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."

To people like Pearle and Frum, it wasn't that the idea of invading an unarmed nation was fucking stupid thing to do - it was a problem with "execution". Er right. How 'bout admitting that there was problem with Both, eh sparky?

Not likely.

The American Conservative Magazine, run by that xenophobic nutbag Pat Buchanan, actually endorsed the Democrats.

They lost the fiscal conservatives with their run-away spending. They lost the social conservatives with their blatant hypocrasy. They lost the Christian Right with their closeted gay self-loathing. They lost the War Hawks with their total combat command incompetence.

There were hundreds of reasons to toss this Congress under the bus, back up and hit 'em again.

And you can't say that Republicans didn't fight back. Hard.

They pulled every trick in the book, then went and got a few new books. You had Radio Host Laura Ingraham endorsing the phone jamming of a voter protection hotline. Massive Robo-calling by the NRCC all over the country (which eerily targeted vulnerable Republican Districts). Phony Voter ID requirements in Georgia. Voter intimidation in Virginia.

We fought back - with a massive Election Protection campaign, and organizations such as Video the Vote. (Who actually interviewed me in my capacity as a Poll Worker over the issue of housing Voting Machines in my home for over a week).

This time we were ready for their B.S.

Still some of these efforts were effective. We saw great candidates like Tammy Duckworth and Harold Ford Jr. (whose concession speach was truly inspiring) taken down.

But on the other hand seeing Rick "Man on Dog/Yeah sure we found WMD's" Sanitorium hitting the mat for a 10 count was more than worth the price of admission.

Does it sound like I'm gloating? Damn straight. I'm doing the Snoopy Dance on the grave of Bush/Gingrich's Legacy. Cue Linus. Time to boogey down.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us dismantling and fixing all of Bush and the Gopers massive fuck-ups. The Minimum Wage, Health Care, Alternative Energy Developement, Gulf Coast Recovery, The Deficit and Social Security Solvency - not to mention the Wars on Iraq, Terror and American Liberty which still need to be fought and each - Won.

Time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We may not always be happy with the results, but two things are for sure...

Dems couldn't possibly do a worse job than the GOP has for the past 6 years - and we can't EVER let them get back into Power again.

Vyan

Vote Vets Ad for Tennesee

Featuring former NATO Supreme Commander and FOX News Consultant Gen Wesley Clark:

Republicans Don't Support the Troops

As the election draws newer various Neo-Con Operatives from Second Lady Lynn Cheney to Rep Duncan Hunter and Bill O'Reilly have challenged Administration critics of the Iraq War - "Do you want us to win?"

Typically Stupified by the Ridiculousness of the Question most targets have stammered through their answer. Wolf Blitzer had to wait until the follow day to recompose his thoughts and eventually whine they Cheney dared to "Snip at his Patriotism"

All of them failed to give the proper response - "Considering the Policies you expouse, ignoring valid intelligence, ignoring safe troop levels, ignoring the insurgency for a year and your failure to support our troops with proper equipment and healthcare - Do YOU Want us to win Iraq or simply let this conflict grind on forever with our troops in harms way?"

According to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Themselves - Republicans Do Not Support Our Troops.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America, a PAC formed of current and former memers of our Military in during our ongoing conflicts have produced a scorecard of how well House and Senate members have done at Voting for the Troops Best Interest (Specifically highlighting issues such as National Defense Authorization, the DOD Appropriations Bill, Support for TRICARE (Heathcare) For Reservists, Helmet Injury Studies and Opposition to the Military Commissions Act)

How well did the leaders in the House and Senate do on their Scorecard? See for yourself.

Republicans

House Speaker Dennis Hastert - F
House Majority Leader John Boehner - C

Democrats

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - B+

In the Senate the Contrast is similarly stark:

Republicans

Senate President Pro Tem Ted Stevens - D
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - D

Democrats

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid - A-

At the 2004 Republican National Convention Ex-Democrat Zell Miller claimed that John Kerry would want to "Lob spit balls" at our enemies. His claims were echoed on that stage by Rudolph Guiliani.

At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, "Thank God George Bush is our President." I've been saying that every day since.

We needed George Bush then; we need him now; and we need him for four more years!

President Bush is making certain that we are combating terrorism at the source, beyond our shores, so we can reduce the risk of having to confront it in our streets at home.

John Kerry's record of inconsistent positions on combating terrorism gives us no confidence he'll pursue such a determined course.

How do the actual Vets Rate John Kerry? They gave him a B.

What about other prominent Democrats like that aging grey lefty Ted Kennedy? He got a B+.

John "Cut And Run" Murtha? - B.

How's that compared that the various GOP Stalwarts in the Senate?

John ("We can torture if we want to") McCain - D
John Warner - D+
Lindsey Graham - D-

Call me silly, but I think I'm starting to notice a trend. But to prove that theory we would need to see a general trend among more members of the House and Senate yes? Perhaps if we look at some of tighter races as identified by CQPolitics.

In the House:

Democratic Seats - Currently Leaning Democratic (8 Total).


Ga. 8 -- Marshall - B+
Ga. 12 -- Barrow - B-
Iowa 3 -- Boswell - B+
Ill. 8 -- Bean - B+
La. 3 -- Melancon - B+
Vt. AL -- Sanders* - B

Upgraded to "Leans" to "Democrat Favored" compared to last week)

Colo. 3 -- Salazar- B+
Ill. 17 -- Evans* - A

Zero Democratic seats show "No clear winner". Zero are "Leaning Republican". All others are either Leaning Democratic or Safe Democratic.

Republican seat where a Democrat is currently favored:

Ariz. 8 -- Kolbe* - C

Republican seats that Lean Democratic (5 Total)



Ind. 8 -- Hostettler - C+
N.Y. 26 -- Reynolds - C
Pa. 7 -- Weldon - B-

Colo. 7 -- Beauprez* - C (Was "No Clear Favorite" Last week)

Two other seats (Texas 22 and Fla. 16) are current vacant and Leaning Democratic.

Republican seats No Clear Favorite (19 Total).

Conn. 4 -- Shays - B
Fla. 22 -- Shaw - C+
Ill. 6 -- Hyde* - C+
Iowa 1 -- Nussle* - C
Ind. 2 -- Chocola - C-
Ind. 9 -- Sodrel - D
Minn. 6 -- Kennedy* - C+
N.C. 11 -- Taylor - C
N.M. 1 -- Wilson - B-
N.Y. 20 -- Sweeney - C+
N.Y. 24 -- Boehlert* - C+
Ohio 15 -- Pryce - C+
Ohio 18 -- Ney* - C+
Pa. 6 -- Gerlach - B-
Pa. 8 -- Fitzpatrick - C-
Pa. 10 -- Sherwood - C
Wash. 8 -- Reichert - D+
Wis. 8 -- Green* - C+

In the Senate:

Democratic seats merely leaning Democratic.
Md. -- Sarbanes* - B+
Neb. -- Nelson - B-
Wash. -- Cantwell - A-

Democratic Seats with "No Clear Favorite"

NJ- Menendez - B.

No Democratic held Seat currently Leans Republican, all the rest are "Democrat Favored" or "Safe".

Republican Senate Seats Leaning Democratic.

Mont. -- Burns - D+
Ohio -- DeWine - D+
Pa. -- Santorum- D-
R.I. -- Chafee - C

Republican Senate Seats with No Clear Favorite

Mo. -- Talent -D+
Tenn. -- Frist* - D

Republican Senate Seats Leaning Republican.

Va. -- Allen - D+

It seems to me the choice is clear. With the exception of Republicans such as Chris Shays, Kurt Weldon and a handful of others - and contrary to their constant claims of Uber-Patriotism - If you wish to Truly Support The Troops, then the clear choice, according to the Our Boys Themselves is to vote and support Democratic Candidates.

It's a "No Brainer".

Vyan