In Support of the DNC

So Dean is trying to build a 50 state Democratic infrastructure. I feel this is very farsighted. I've often felt that no one ever learns anything when things are going fairly smoothly. Education truly begins when "we've always done it that way" is demonstrated as a path to apathy.

During the late 80's and early 90's, here in Oklahoma, we had a Democrat and a Republican as U.S. Senators. I was working as an advertising executive for a widely circulated and well-received (circulation appx 50K) community newspaper in a strong Democratic area of OKC. This area of OKC, is geographically referred to as South OKC, since it is located on the southside of the Canadian river, and was deemed by many "Northsiders" or "Silkshirts" as we referred to them, as being negative for voting down many bond issues and such.

I met several local politicians and became fairly politically active myself. A city self-improvement project, called the Metropolitan Area Project, (MAPs) came up in '93. It was a grand plan that would require a huge investment by passing a countywide one cent sales tax for five years with a vote of the people. It would fail without the support of the southside. Our publication endorsed the project and published a special edition spelling out all the details.

I was relentless in obtaining advertising revenues for the support and distribution of this message. Face it, there is nothing free about the press. I was the top five revenue providers for that publication. At the watch party, I was next to Tom Keilhorn, a local political polling god when the results came in from the south. He was incredulous as he looked up at me from his chair and speechlessly shook my hand. Governor Ron Norick did the same.

It was not a blowout. Only about 52% in favor countywide, which was about the same as the southside. Soon after that, I had a career change, Senator Boren retired and Oklahoma fell firmly into the Red State column with Inhofe and Coburn for Senators.

If a solid infrastructure, like the one Dean is trying to put together now, was in place back then, perhaps I could have been urged by someone on the lookout to further aid the Democratic party. There can be no doubt that it is needed. Full-time paid political operatives constantly looking for new recruits. Isn't that what being a democrat is all about? Just wanting to help someone needing help?

War On Iran

Apparently it has already started. No windy congressional debates, no podium pounding speeches from our politicians televised and hashed out by the talking heads of the corporate media. We already have boots on the ground in Iran, and have for quite some time, according to retired Colonel Sam Gardiner who taught at the National War College, the Air War College and the Naval Warfare College. He is somewhat of an authority in Bushco truthiness as he uncovered the urine soaked liar sheets of the bogeyman scare machine that brought us Iraq. As he said recently on CNN.

GARDINER: And let me say this -- I'm saying this carefully. First of all, Sy Hersh said in that article which was...

CLANCY: Yes, but that's one unnamed source.

GARDINER: Let me check that. Not unnamed source as not being valid.

The way "The New Yorker" does it, if somebody tells Sy Hersh something, somebody else in the magazine calls them and says, "Did you tell Sy Hersh that?" That's one point.

The secretary point is, the Iranians have been saying American military troops are in there, have been saying it for almost a year. I was in Berlin two weeks ago, sat next to the ambassador, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA. And I said, "Hey, I hear you're accusing Americans of being in there operating with some of the units that have shot up revolution guard units."

He said, quite frankly, "Yes, we know they are. We've captured some of the units, and they've confessed to working with the Americans."

The evidence is mounting that that decision has already been made, and I don't know that the other part of that has been completed, that there has been any congressional approval to do this.

My view of the plan is, there is this period in which some kinds of ground troops will operate inside Iran, and then what we're talking about is the second part, which is this air strike.

And we have the ex-speaker Newt, who is still Newt and still speaking, saying crap like this:

The United States, Europe and Israel face massive destruction by a nuclear attack, Gingrich told University of South Dakota students and faculty. "This is one of the great deciding points of history," Gingrich said, opening a question-and-answer session at Farber Hall.

Folks, we cannot allow this to happen. These guys are absolutely nuts to even be considering a nuclear strike against another country. First, another word for pre-emptive war, is war. This is totally up is down Orwellian crazy talk. Prevent a war by dropping bombs on another country, maybe even nuclear bombs? How's this for sanity? To prevent war, don't start one.

It's clear that Bush has already thrown congress on the heap of irrelevance, what with his signing statements basically saying how cute he thinks their little laws are, but he's gonna do whatever he wants to do and they can't stop him. He don't need no stinking warrant! But just maybe his little Republican buddies might need a little boost in an October Surprise move so the bedwetters will scamper to the polls for protection against the screaming brown meenies.

If you don't think Georgie would start a war just to get a few votes then you haven't been paying attention. That's as far as his planning goes. Any plans for an actual war would likely bring up those pesky details like uniting Iraqi Shia with Iranian Shia and the wholesale slaughter of our forces currently in Iraq that would be sitting ducks. And the instantaneous worldwide outrage of America becoming a rogue nation, using nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear state. All our debt Bush has run up that is now in the hands of foreign countries? Whaddya think the next day is gonna look like? If George Bush, Darth Cheney and Ronald Dumsfeld drop nuclear bombs on Iran, they will become instant war criminals.

People, these guys have got to go. Generals are rebuking them. They are internationally hated and nationally not so popular either. And yet the feeling is another impending march to doom. They need to be impeached, jailed or both. Democrat led, Republican led, I really don't care. I don't even care for what reason they are impeached, the reasons are numerous, just pick one or use a dozen and make it a multiple guess kind of thing.

We are being hijacked by a leader described as having a "messianic complex" who feels he only has two years left to save the world. Rummy has consolidated American international intelligence under his own complete command and control with virtually all congressional oversight removed.

Not that that's all that important since the "Rubber Stamp Republicans" oversite is actually overlook, and congress will only be in session for like 12 days this year. Make no mistake, the situation here is totally fucked. We really need to run these guys out of town. Seriously.

Gingrich Not Welcome In Whoville

Newt wants to be welcomed into the rising ranks of war critics after having said this:

"I think it's quite clear as you point out, Sean [Hannity], that from this tape, that bin Laden and his lieutenants are monitoring the American news media, they're monitoring public opinion polling, and I suspect they take a great deal of comfort when they see people attacking United States policies."

One should be highly suspicious of newly arrived war critics who attempted to stifle any Bush aggression policy critics of treason. Remember the parable of the frog and the scorpion.

Unable to cross the river, the scorpion asked the frog for aid. The frog refused, saying the scorpion would sting and kill him. The scorpion pointed out, that since he couldn't swim, it would be folly to do so. The frog relented and midway across the river, sure enough, the scorpion stung the frog, because, as the scorpion pointed out, "that's just the kind of son-of-a-bitch I am."

Newt, as well as many other "recent converts" should not be trusted. As Billmon points out:

I don't think Newt is criticizing or second-guessing the administration's policy in Iraq so much as he is front-running it – probably in an effort to polish his credentials as a foreign policy heavyweight (“See, I suggested we should drawn down our forces in Iraq, and they listened to me.”)

[...]

If IÂ’m right, we should hear more about it fairly soon, as the semi-official media begins to shift from the old to the new party line, which may be something along the lines of: Those ungrateful Iraqis had their chance at democracy, but now itÂ’s time for us to go, and the first step is to consolidate all our troops in a few key bases. Or maybe it will be: Even if there isnÂ’t a government, the Iraqi Army is in great shape, and we can start bringing home the troops. Or maybe it will just be: Mission accomplished. On to Tehran.

With Newt leading the way – rhetorically, I mean.

And sure enough, low and behold, the ex-speaker never learned the art of silence. Newt, leading the way:

The United States, Europe and Israel face massive destruction by a nuclear attack, Gingrich told University of South Dakota students and faculty. "This is one of the great deciding points of history," Gingrich said, opening a question-and-answer session at Farber Hall. The situation is heightened, Gingrich said, by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's promise to "defeat the Anglo-Saxons and wipe Israel off the face of the earth."

"How is that deterred, where your religion tells you that dying in Armageddon is cool? Where you have suicide bombers with atomic weapons?" Gingrich asked. "You have to take them out. You have to change the regime. Just to take out the (nuclear) facilities is a loser game. When they develop atomic weapons, they will sell them to somebody, and that will be dangerous."

It sounds like he just wants to move the battlefield and break out the big guns. No, we should not welcome people like Newt into the reality based community when they are clearly batshit insane.

Iraq Answer Lives In Omaha

As I have repeatedly said about Iraq, we will not be able to force them to live together, but we probably can help to separate them:

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- In a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Legislature voted Thursday to divide the Omaha school system into three districts - one mostly black, one predominantly white and one largely Hispanic.

Supporters said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters.

Apparently they ended the forced busing, and to deal with the minority districts being financially shortchanged, the Omaha legislature and Republican Governor, punted. This shining example of bigotry should be held up as an example for the Iraq quagmire, as well as a demonstration of Americas own overt and still alive racism.

Hateful Bigots

Me thinks the wingnuts cannot help themselves. Recently, Hugh Hewitt, part of the rightwing noise machine educated Wolfe Blitzer on the well behaved right compared to the fever swamp left. Moonbat left wing bloggers have since been scouring the wingnut sites to expose the hideous bigoted underbelly of the "morally superior" bigotsphere. I'll not foul this blog with their quotes. I only question how are people like this created? How can so much hate be so rampant in one party against such a diverse group? They must start when they're very young and reinforce it over and over. I have come up with a mock dialogue to assume how this could happen. It takes place between a stay-at-home mother and her eight-year-old son in an affluent neighborhood. I'll call the son Sean H.

"Sean, it's time to get up. You don't want to grow up to be a Democrat, now do you?" Little Sean sits up, wiping the sleepy from his eyes with one hand and grooming his cowlick with the other. "What's a Democrat?" he asks. "Why Sean, It's people who want to come in here and take all our nice things, that we have worked so very hard for, and give it to layabout minorities."

I remember no such conversations in my house. Certainly I was exposed to numerous racial epitaphs, but that in itself shouldn't cause the degree of hate that exists with wingnuts. Our worldview is just so much different. I had occasion to visit Baltimore Maryland on a bolt hunt (don't ask). The only place that carried them was located in what would be called "the projects." Miles and miles of hideous multi unit dwellings. I got ill. How can any child being raised in those conditions stand a 10 percent chance of doing any good at all? I can only imagine what a winger would say seeing the same sight. "See, They're animals. That's your welfare working for you right there!" Such compassion.

Is the superiority they feel genetic? The old nature, nurture question. An early memory I have is seeing a little girl, on our way to school, giving pieces of silver, her lunch money in fact, to some boys so they would quit frying ants with a magnifying glass. That was my first experience with love at first sight.

The Republic Is Wounded

Folks are pretty busy. They don't have the time to look over the minutiae of every bill proffered, seek out consultants and experts and such. So we vote somebody else to do that for us. Unfortunately, our representatives tend to become beholden to lobbyists who finance the ability to campaign for reelection. Rates for media buys for politicians tend to be somewhat different than for regular businesses. By that I mean higher. This is how they can afford the overpriced newsreaders who trade reporting the truth for the safer and easier path of 'he said she said'. So the fourth estate is beholden to revenue streams, as are our representatives. The disconnect from the voters is being filled nicely by the netroots. Surely, not everyone has access to the internet, and most who do do not read blogs. However, blogs can have an impact on the corporate media and elected officials alike. Bloggers are not separate from the electorate, merely a concentrated slice of it. We tend to be more informed and feel it is our civic duty to shine the light of careful analysis on current events. Being voracious readers of the corporate media, as well as other blogs, some of us tend to get close to the truth of various issues. Lightening fast feedback to sloppy reporting is no doubt irksome to lazy reporters and sloppy editors, not to mention extremely uncomfortable to the Delays in congress. But if the Republic wasn't wounded, their would be no need for us. So don't worry, we're only here to help.

Guest Worker Program

We need to watch this one. I'm afraid it could end up being the 21st century version of slavery. Will the 'guests' have any rights whatsoever? And if so, what protections will be afforded to some 'uppity messicans'? Is this the introduction to a revolving door of indentured servitude serfdom of guests? Legislation that authorizes exploitation with provisions for 'use "em and lose 'em" is patently inhumane and un-American. We have grown past slavery and torture, woops. Any legislation must include a path to citizenship. The numbers must be controlled by punishing the exploiters. Fences and walls will not stop those in desperate need nor those willing to prey on them. Criminalizing those who set forth, with hope as the only means they have in abundance, to a new land, has already happened here before. The debate needs to be how many immigrants do we need each year, and then absolutely control that number. Each immigrant that legally enters our country should be provided with a path to citizenship. Those found exploiting undocumented workers must be fined an exorbitant amount. If we need to employ displaced union workers to root these bastards out, so be it. No one else seems to have the gonads to do it.

It's The Trust, Stupid

Corruption and cronyism has virtually bankrupted our country. Gone are the days of surplus budget into the days of ancient history. To find such a time, one must travel back to the beginning of this century, 2000 BB (before Bush).

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of $122.7 billion.

[...]

This represents, Clinton said, "the largest one-year debt reduction in the history of the United States."

[...]

In June, the administration predicted the surplus would be $211 billion, and would increase by as much as $1 trillion over the next 10 years.

And now, after five years of Bush the Republican controlled Congress has had to boost the Treasury Departments credit line four times for a total of $3 trillion. That now puts our debt ceiling at nearly $9 trillion. To spend $1 trillion, one would have to spend a million dollars a day for a million days, or 2,739 years. Multiply that by nine times.

Apologists for the Republican looting of our National Treasury will blame 9/11 and the war on "Terra" in Iraq. I just love the nifty way they link the two in the same breath/sentence and later deny they ever intended any linkage.

Certainly 9/11 and the unrelated and illegal war provided ample opportunity for Republicans to demonstrate their mettle. The only surprise that should exist is the scale of thievery. Slowly, this crap will percolate up and people will become aware that this criminal band of brothers, aka Republicans, are not moral and godly people. The religious right was hoodwinked into believing they had anointed godly men to positions of power. The reality is the Jesus pimps went on a mission of sacking our country for their own worldly gains. And people died in the process. Delay now cries "Uncle" and wants to further fleece the flocks for Republican support.

Democrats wanting to restore credibility to Congress must do so by being credible. After writing laws for 225 years it is dubious that any new such laws can stop this kind of activity. As the Danny DeVito character "Larry the Liquidator" said in Other Peoples Money, "Pass all the laws you want. Guys like me don't go away, we adapt." Honest stewardship of the peoples trust. That is the key first and foremost. Certainly new laws might be appropriate after all is rooted out and methods are exposed. But bottom line, It's the Trust, Stupid.