On Gays In The Military

General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disapproves of homos:

"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts...," Pace said, while also calling it immoral for military members to commit adultery with another service member's spouse. "I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is okay to be immoral in anyway."

Peter...Pace yourself, or you will get your staff out of joint.

We remember when Big Dog split the baby and came up with this compromise of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" some fourteen years ago. Yeah, it was pretty limp, but with rightards running around with erect gherkins shrieking about the military not being a "social experiment" Big Dawg figured it was the best he could hope for.

I've always been fascinated by the foot dragging and reluctance of this issue. Every single officer has studied the history of war and battles. There is one group and one battle, that the mere mention of, humbles the mightiest of our warriors. The battle of Thermopylae which pitted 300 hundred Spartans against one million Persians.

They fought like hell, killed a shitload of Persians, lost the battle but won the war.

And The Spartans Were Gay.

One queer warrior worth over three thousand enemies in a battle that took place two thousand four hundred and eighty seven years ago.

Modern day soldiers are still today in awe of this battle, as are any who know of it.

Why are we debating this?

Trial Begins

Five felony charges are staring I. "Scooter" Libby in the face as his trial begins involving false statement he allegedly gave to Federal investigators and a Grand Jury. Much of the pre-trial brouha-ha has surrounded efforts by the defense that Scooter was real busy on important stuff so he couldn't possibly be expected to remember who he told what about the identity of classified agent Valerie Plame.

So, that's it? Are they seriously shitting me? The Chief of Staff of the most powerful Vice President in history of the most powerful country on the planet--his defense is that he's a fukkin lamebrain?

Ay Caramba!

Artwork by On the Fritz!

The Lie Heard Round The World

I keep coming back to why we are in Iraq, what are we doing there, only because everything we have been told was wrong. The Administration bristles at the thought put forth that America was misled into war, but the recently deposed Republican congress refused to look into the matter. Well, they pretty much refused to do any damn thing. Now this story pops up, via AP:

WASHINGTON - A firedCIA employee, who collected prewar intelligence that Iraq was not developing weapons of mass destruction, can continue with a lawsuit challenging his dismissal, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler decided on technical grounds that the lawsuit could not be dismissed. But she did not rule on the covert agent's contention that he was fired because he refused to alter intelligence that contradicted Bush administration policies.

Kessler said in the ruling Friday that the covert agent, identified only as Doe, had the right to argue his firing was based on allegedly false information placed in his personnel file.

The agent said he collected intelligence from several countries in the Near East. "Obviously, Iraq was one of them," said the plaintiff's Washington attorney, Roy Krieger. The lawsuit does not name any of the countries.

[...]

Now the story filed by the AP contends that Bush was never briefed about this agents findings, which apparently contradicted the contention that Iraq had WMD's, effectively shielding President Bush from misleading the country. This is also known as plausible deniability.

But the thing is, I haven't heard of anybody getting fired for the massive intelligence flub, except for this guy, who may have got it right. This brings up a couple of points.

1) The CIA has been punked over this whole deal and have kept pretty mum about it. No defense in their behalf has been offered.

2) This has made the President look pretty foolish yet he has not extracted a pound of flesh from the CIA. In fact, he gave George Tenet a big ol' fat medal for the debacle.

And the cost to America and Iraq has been extraordinary.

The Cheney/Bush team just go full-steam ahead with their "New Way Forward 2.0" (Now with Iranian flavor added)

It looks like the Bush Administration will go out the same way it came in--through the courts.

Thank You President Bush

Sincerely. Before you took office, I was consumed by my own short-sighted personal interests and left political activism to others. After all, in the grand scheme of things, my vote and voice meant very little, and besides, I had to put food on the family. But in the 2000 election the vote was too close to call. Less than 400 votes separated Gore and Bush in Florida and with several voting irregularities. Election night came and went, and in the morning, still we had no answer.

Days turned to weeks and the two candidates turned to the courts. David Boies argued for Gore and won a string of successes in Florida, causing the Bush camp attorney, Ted Olson to refer to Mr. Boies as a "T-Rex of an attorney."

Politics definitely had my attention, and I started feeling guilty for not voting. Ultimately Bush the lesser would win by a single vote. His attorney, Mr. Olson successfully argued before the SCOTUS to stop the Florida recount and in a 5-4 decision installed by selection instead of election the President who would ignore the threats of terrorists allowing them to use airplanes to attack America. The one that slammed into the Pentagon was carrying Mr. Olson's wife.

Thank you President Bush, for showing me the power of one vote.

After seven minutes of stunned silence, you grabbed your bullhorn in the nick of time telling America your number one job is to keep us safe. Somehow, wondering around in the wreckage of your ignorance and arrogance did not seem like leadership, but hey, I guess all that Presidentin' is hard work. You round up a posse and search for a tall tree and a short rope but can't seem to find the guy whodunnit. No sense in lettin' a good posse go to waste, so you shake and bake a bunch of undercooked intel and invade Iraq. You will never be found guilty of diplomacy, one only need to look at how you treat our diplomats.

Thank you President Bush, for showing me how important it is who I vote for.

Now your occupation of Iraq is going badly. Whodathunkit? Certainly not your rubber-stamp congress (recently replaced btw). You continuously poked purple fingers into the eyes of your critics as evidence Iraqi's want to throw off tyranny and replace it with freedom and democracy. We point to America's vote of November 7th as evidence of the same. Terms like "congressional oversight" and "separation of powers" and "judicial oversight" had no real world meaning to me, until they were non-existent. And the constitution, which I thought was a bloodless document, is no such thing. When it is damaged, America herself is wounded.

Thank you President Bush for the civics lesson.

The Federal Government limits my employment to 70 hours in eight days, and I frequently bump this ceiling. Nevertheless, prior to the recent mid-terms found me pestering my neighbors to vote. I was dispatched 700 miles from my polling place on election day and threatened to quit. If both of my knees were shattered, I would have drug my unemployed ass across broken glass to cast my vote.

Thank you President Bush for giving me a passion for my country.

Fortunately, I did not have to do that by taking advantage of early voting. On November 7th as I was driving to New Mexico, I called my neighbors and urged them to the polls. My goal was to vote and add three more. The final result was nine. I plan on making them Lieutenants with orders to recruit three more new voters apiece.

Thank you President Bush for doing the impossible; you damn near organized the Democratic party.

Truly I don't think my education and motivation needed to be so costly for America. Curiously you took your one vote mandate (and questionable re-election), lassoed the stalled Gingrich revolution pendulum, pointed your wagon toward the neocon vanishing point and commenced to mash that gas and tote that ass and brought down your own house. You spent all of our money, our kids money and even their kid's kids money. We got no street cred worldwide, our military is sucking wind, our spies are gun shy from shooterface guy and the whole world is heating up. And that's just the short list.

Thank you President Bush for being the poster child of why politics matter.

I've turned the corner towards '08 and set my sights on the blatant homophobe and science denier, Senator James "Baghdad Bob" Inhofe. With any luck, my nine Lieutenants, or hero's (inside joke) will throw in and we can get him bounced. The nightmarish beginning of this century and all the horrors that have occurred since has been due to one man and one vote.

Bring a friend.

What has Bush taught you?

Escalate For Oil

Looks like Big Oil is getting close to getting their greasy paws on Iraqi oil. Via The Independent:

Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's most precious commodity

The 'IoS' today reveals a draft for a new law that would give Western oil companies a massive share in the third largest reserves in the world. To the victors, the oil? That is how some experts view this unprecedented arrangement with a major Middle East oil producer that guarantees investors huge profits for the next 30 years

[...]

Now, the cliff notes on this story revolve around "production sharing agreements" or PSA's. Usually a company that has the expertise in developing reserves retains a share of the profits for their work.

Nothing wrong with that. But these agreements nearly double the standard amount developers keep, both in the initial investment phase and in the later, easy money phase. Also these agreements are reportedly for thirty years in length, and all disputes would be settled by international law.

It raises the question of corporations taking advantage of Iraq's weakened state, and flies in the face, once again, of rightwing talking points:

[...]

"Oil revenues, which people falsely claim that we want to seize, should be put in a trust fund for the Iraqi people"

Tony Blair; Moving motion for war with Iraq, 18 March 2003

"Oil belongs to the Iraqi people; the government has... to be good stewards of that valuable asset "

George Bush; Press conference, 14 June 2006

"The oil of the Iraqi people... is their wealth. We did not [invade Iraq] for oil "

Colin Powell; Press briefing, 10 July 2003

"Oil revenues of Iraq could bring between $50bn and $100bn in two or three years... [Iraq] can finance its reconstruction"

Paul Wolfowitz; Deputy Defense Secretary, March 2003

"By 2010 we will need [a further] 50 million barrels a day. The Middle East, with two-thirds of the oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize lies"

Dick Cheney; US Vice-President, 1999

Okay, so shooterfaceguy was actually shooting straight. But while they try to exploit the oil we did not fight for in Iraq, what is the plan for oil coming out of Iran? From Kim Murphy at the LA Times:

[...]
The efforts by the United States and its allies over the last few months to persuade international banks and oil companies to pull out of Iran threaten dozens of projects, including development of Iran's two massive new oil fields that could expand output by 800,000 barrels a day over the next four years.

"Many European banks which had accepted financing some oil industries projects have recently canceled them," Nejad-Hosseinian said.
[...]

American Imperialism at work. Dollar Diplomacy has come a long ways.

(h/t to DPD)

ExxonMobile Contributes To Massive Hoax

Senator Inhofe, R-OK, aka "Baghdad Bob," has claimed global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

ExxonMobile disagrees. (h/t huffpo) From Jerry Adler at Newsweek:

[...]
A report this week by the Union of Concerned Scientists finds a parallel between the efforts to whitewash tobacco and “greenwash” oil—and points the finger of responsibility at the world’s largest corporation, ExxonMobil.
[...]
For its part, ExxonMobil—after promulgating, and then withdrawing 20 minutes later, a statement that called the report an “attempt to smear our name and confuse the discussion”—wants you to know that it now accepts some responsibility for global warming. Specifically, and in boldface, it admitted that “It is clear today that greenhouse gas emissions are one of the factors that contribute to climate change, and that the use of fossil fuels is a major source of these emissions.”
[...]

Baghdad Bob's shilling for Big Oil, instead of being an honest steward of the commons, y'know shit like air for example, is just another example of the extremists of the right protecting huge profits at the expense of the voters who elected him.

We can all die gagging and choking breathing his sponsors profits, but at least we can be comforted that Inhofe is a blatant homophobe.

Downing Street Memo; Side B

The recent reshuffling of the deck chairs on the mid-termed renamed Administration vessel, the SS Minnow, telegraphs the much vaunted and delayed Best Plan Evah for Success in Iraq.

Or as has been said before, the intelligence is being fixed around the policy.

Since most of America lives in a Democracy and the Executive Branch floats in a sea of authoritarian fascism, they understand the importance of talking points.

There never was any doubt what this administrations shiny new plan would entail. The "listening tour" and the Baker plan was nothing more than finding the arguments they would need to address.

Bush is a war President.

The Republican party and neocons are very adept at messaging. By way of evidence, note the bowl of potato(e) salad they installed as President. American troop escalation in Iraq has less popular support than nearly every social disease, and yet, this is the dessert they serve after turning our noses up at the potato(e) salad.

This delay in announcing his new plan is to provide time to carefully craft the talking points to support it. Critics will be obliquely attacked as staining the memories of those who have fallen, and we must defeat the terrists. 9/11 will be mentioned a record 47 times in 22 seconds.

Rightards always know what they want. It is just a matter of a sales job to the American people. Now, the selling points may bear no actual resemblance to what they are actually trying to accomplish, you know, like:

[...]
today the wealthiest 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent...The CEOs of large corporations today earn more than 500 times what their employees are making...the Nation's 13,000 wealthiest families, which constitute 1/100th of 1 percent of the population, receive almost as much income as the bottom 20 million families in the United States.
[...]

We can scrub the face of our country clean of the middle class just as long as homo's can't be getting married and wimmens don't control their not-man parts and we unrelentingly kick some serious brown ass, both here and abroad.

Yes, the rightards have an agenda, and it has nothing to do with the well being of the 300 million people living in America. They use the fundies and their rightardlets peopling the media and the rightwing bigotsphere to get votes, just like a station wagon is used to get groceries. Just a useful tool to enact their greedy ambitions of self-enrichment, the seed wrapped in a foul wrapping of hate, bigotry and hypocritical moral relativism.

Of course the real agenda of this escalation is not the vanquishing of Iraq, but to fortify our position for the military engaging of Iran. I could be wrong. In fact, I hope I am way wrong.

Congressional Investigations

Seems there is a lot of talk about congressional investigations accompanying the 110th congress. Now, to me, an investigations usually accompanies a crime. It is usually what occurs once it is determined a crime has been committed.

Don't get me wrong, I believe the crimes against our country and humanity have been wide and rampantly inflicted on us and the world by the Bush crime family and his Republican enablers/co-conspirators.

The replacement of overlook with oversight is the first step, and since the backlog is so huge, it takes the appearance of an investigation.

What I hope for is responsible and honest stewardship of the peoples business.

The Democratic controlled congress is going to have a huge task before them. They will have to conduct present and future business in a judicious and thoughtful manner, while reviewing the previous six years that did not have that benefit.

Certain items like war profiteering and Iraq pre-war intelligence manipulation demand investigation from the outset. But oversight does not merit the description of an investigation.

The mighty right-wing wurlitzer and the corporate media will be wearing the public down on the word "investigations" making it appear the Democrats are only after retribution and political gain.

But these neocons have looted our treasury, spent our military, ruined our street cred and caused massive death, torture and maimings.

Some folks would like to know how they did that, and maybe even prosecute some of them.

This is not called investigation. It is called honest stewardship of the peoples trust.

Word Twisters

Here they come. Conservatives dressed in sheep's clothing trying to capture words of the new political movement as their own. Words like progressive and here in Oklahoma, trying to piggyback the success of the MAPs project to further the ends of enriching the rich.

Enter Vince Orza. Now Vince, for those of you who don't know him, is a former newsreader reformed to restaurant chain tycoon and in his spare time nourishes young minds as a teacher at a local University. He just published this editorial in a local progressive newspaper.

In the article, Vince encourages Oklahoma to be progressive by endorsing his vision of a world-class civilization created here in Oklahoma. His first big ol' "progressive idea" is to create a massive aide to dependant corporations by overhauling the tax code.

Somehow, shifting the tax-burden onto those who work here and away from the shiny new task-master fat-cats that must be bribed to come here, doesn't seem very progressive.

Also, he trots out the usual whipping boy; school consolidation. Many small towns use their local schools as identity, and consolidation (read--elimination) would be a death sentence for many small towns. Note to Vince--authoritarianism is not a progressive idea.

He does, to his credit, link our high incarceration rate to our low funding of education. Should we invest more in schools to allow our citizens to prosper, or failing that, build more prisons to catch them on the back end? An easy decision, really, but one which we have failed on miserably.

Vince touches on using our oil and gas prosperity and encouraging our Indian community to aide in his quest for creating an "American resort and convention mecca..."

One would imagine our Native American community would be more willing to be a cooperative partner if our government would pay its bills.

When banker Elouise Cobell added up the Indian trust money lost, looted, and mismanaged by the U.S. government, the tab came to $176 billion. Now she's here to collect.
[...]
While generations of non-Indians have become rich harvesting the abundant resources of private Indian lands -- which once included virtually all the oil fields of Oklahoma -- Indian landowners have been paid only erratically, and far less than their due. Consequently, even landowning Indians remain among the nation's poorest citizens, joining the 23 percent of Indians in America living in poverty, and the nearly 40 percent who are unemployed. Some tribes fare even worse, and the Blackfeet suffer a 34 percent poverty rate and a 70 percent unemployment rate. Overall, Indians are more than twice as poor as the average American.
[...]

I would be rather reluctant to sign any more treatise if I were them. The lawsuit has been dragging on now for more than a decade. Gale Norton, the head of the Department of Interior named as a defendant has resigned and is now a shill for Shell oil. Hmmm.

But what really got my attention on Vince's article, was his hanging the acronym "MAPs" on it. Every pregnant idea that comes down the pike these days tries to capitalize on the success of MAPs, as though the mindless drones of Oklahoma will hit the yes button in the voting booth because MAPs is somehow a magic word.

I am very proud of the small role I played in passing the original MAPs vote, and deeply resent the wholesale bastardization of the term. You see, Vince, it is a question of value.

I am not an economic whiz kid like Vince, however, I know it takes "X" amount of dollars to run a state. When you give aide to dependant corporations these funds are made up on the backs of working stiffs like me.

New industry means new money, right? It also means very real infrastructure costs like water, sewer, power, transportation, etc.

No, Vince, I cannot endorse a massive corporate welfare program, dressed up like a spoonful of sugar. This merely increases the economic divide and reduces those true engines of Oklahoma progressivism, the middle class.

MAPs for the rich makes No Sense Vince.

New Year

The New Year breaks with fire and ash. Folks, we ain't seen nuthin' yet.

Clinton Taps Lady Di's Phone; Rightards Heads Explode

News reports indicate the CIA was wiretapping Princess Dianna's phones up until the night of her untimely death.

This would have occurred during the Clinton Administration, and apparently, they didn't have a warrant. Gasp.

Wingnuts across America are coming all unhinged at the blatant hypocrisy of the left for not crucifying Bill Clinton like we have Dubya for his warrantless eavesdropping.

You see, we on the left are hypocrites for opposing Bush and remaining silent on Clinton for warrantless wiretapping. Clinton is a Democrat and Bush is a Republican, this is the only difference they see.

They fail to see one was legal and the other is clearly illegal.

The applicable law governing wiretaps is FISA, which is limited to U.S. citizens in the United States. Princess Di was neither.

Bush broke the law on this issue, whereas Bill Clinton did not. However, Clinton was crucified for breaking the law (perjury) during the Lewinsky matter. At that time, Republicans demanded the law be upheld as the highest obligation for lawmakers.

I find Republicans to be shallow and wishy-washy hypocrites, only applying their deeply held convictions when it is convenient and politically advantageous to do so.

Inhofe Swan Song

James "Baghdad Bob" Inhofe, R-OK, used his final opportunity as chair of the environmental committee to defend his statement about global warming as "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

He tried this remarkable feat by gathering the like-minded amen section of fossil fuel apologists together for a hearing--a clearing of the air--so to speak, of the pollution spewed by unscientific liberal hacks posing as journalism. It's nice work, if you can get it.

Like David Deming, a geophysicist and a tenured University of Oklahoma geology professor. Now what could a geology professor from the state of Oklahoma, who packs his class with those eager to work for the richest companies in the world, have to offer to Inhofe's swan song?

Especially since Deming has no class:

[...]

Deming is a tenured University of Oklahoma geology professor who has sued in order to regain his place in his department. The lawsuit stems from a December 2003 decision to remove Deming from the School of Geology and Geophysics, where he was an associate professor. In his new position, he could continue to do research, but had to gain permission to teach classes—and the classes he taught would not be listed as geology classes, but as geoscience classes. This change has significantly reduced enrollment in his classes. “I’m a geologist and geophysicist,” he says. “I don’t do geoscience.”

School officials also forced him to move to a new office, a former laboratory in a windowless basement room, the only basement office assigned to a faculty member, according to Deming.
[...]

And when I said he has no class, I meant it:

[...]

On February 18, 2000, Professor David Deming picked up The University of Oklahoma's daily newspaper. That day's edition showcased a syndicated article by gun control advocate Joni Kletter, written in a matter that immediately chafed with Deming. Current gun laws, wrote Kletter, allowed "criminals, youth, and the mentally disabled to quickly and easily kill as many random people as they want."

Deming dashed off a letter in response that was printed three days later. "I just want to point out," he wrote, "that Kletter's 'easy access' to a vagina enables her to 'quickly and easily' have sex with 'as many random people' as she wants." The professor tought his satire was clear enough, but that was before he came close to losing his job.

[...]

(emphasis added). The anvil sharp wit of the professor is breathtaking. Nothing could be more terrifying than serial vaginalists. Especially shilling for companies that take a pole and poke a hole deep into the womb of Mother Earth.

And shill he does. From a commentary he penned for The Washington Times:

[...]
The largest mistake would be to start to move away from petroleum, a proven and economic energy source, to more speculative and expensive sources.
[...]

A geologist, an environmentalist and an economist. Sort of a one-stop-shop for an Inhofe apologist. David Deming is also a member of the E-team of National Center for Policy Analysis, an organizer of conservative groups to impact public policy. The E-team focuses on environmental issues and legislation that may have a detrimental effect toward business interests.

The NCPA has received $390,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.

Slowly the steely grip of corporatists and their enablers are being pried off of the steering wheel of this country.

Inhofe is up for re-election in 2008. The oil and gas business is a very powerful constituency in his home state of Oklahoma, and he has defended their practices tooth and nail. If he does decide to run again, he will be a very formidable incumbent in a conservative state.

All the same, I'd like to see him go.

The Young Turks

One of my highlights of Kommander Kos' Las Vegas soiree at Yearly Kos, an annual lefty blogger convention, was meeting, in person, The Young Turks. Now I realize this post is like, way late, but there is a reason that I post this now, which I will get into momentarily.

I was just standing there, next to the media table when this absolutely stunning young lady came up to get her credentials.

"Jill Pike," she said.

Now, I had seen her picture on The Young Turks website, and had heard many people comment on the radio about how attractive she was, but they all fell far short of the mark.

She was the ten most attractive ladies at the convention.

I introduced myself and she graciously invited me back to meet "the boys", Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankiewicz, her co-hosts.

Cenk, in particular, can really cut loose a tirade on the radio. He can make a Pentecostal preacher seem like a Methodist. And I'm not kidding.

He also writes some too. That is the subject of this post, Cenk's latest rift on NBC calling the War in Iraq a civil war. It goes something like this:

NBC Says Sky is Blue

11/28/2006 01:30:42 PM EST

By Cenk

Although the US government and Iraqi authorities have been insisting that the sky is red for months, NBC after much deliberation has decided to call the sky blue. Other news outlets have not come to the same conclusion yet.

When the Washington Post was asked why they are still calling the sky red, they said they knew the sky was blue but they didn't feel comfortable calling it blue when Iraqi government officials were still calling it red.

Tony Snow vociferously objected to NBC's biased coverage of the sky. He said calling the sky blue would only encourage it to be more blue. Snow added that if NBC persists in calling the sky blue, the terrorists would win.

The administration pointed out that if we call the sky something it demonstrably is not, then we will attain victory. When asked what "victory" means, Snow pointed behind the reporters and shouted, "Look, al-Qaeda!"

NBC is currently mulling over the idea of declaring that 2+2=4. NBC is concerned about making this announcement because Dick Cheney has declared forcefully that when you put 2 and 2 together, you get 6 -- and that anyone who doesn't is cutting and running from math. The neo-cons inside the White House say that only a defeatist would get 4 when adding 2 and 2. Bush added that the only way you could get 4 from putting 2 and 2 together is if you stopped counting.

He then smirked as if he had something very clever. Everyone in the room nodded, agreeing that clever words make reality less real.

I think this has something to do with being part of the "reality-based community", but I'm not sure.

And Ben, if you read this, I still say you sound like Christian Slater. Ben is okay with that, because, as he puts it, "Chicks dig Christian Slater."

That's Gonna Leave A Mark

Somebody woke up over at the steno crew, aka the fourth estate

From Dick Meyers over at CBS News:

This is a story I should have written 12 years ago when the "Contract with America" Republicans captured the House in 1994. I apologize.

Welcome to the party, Dick, been wonderin' where you yahoos have been.

Really, it's just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do.

Not supposed to do. I just made a funny noise and got a Scooby Dooby Do neck twist.

The iconic figures of this era were Newt Gingrich, Richard Armey and Tom Delay. They were zealous advocates of free markets, low taxes and the pursuit of wealth; they were hawks and often bellicose; they were brutal critics of big government.
Yeah yeah, get to it before I go to a porn site.
Yet none of these guys had success in capitalism. None made any real money before coming to Congress. None of them spent a day in uniform. And they all spent the bulk of their adult careers getting paychecks from the big government they claimed to despise. Two resigned in disgrace.

Oooh, take 'em to the woodshed.

Having these guys in charge of a radical conservative agenda was like, well, putting Mark Foley in charge of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus. Indeed, Foley was elected in the Class of '94 and is not an inappropriate symbol of their regime.

More than the others, Newton Leroy Gingrich lived out a very special hypocrisy. In addition to the above biographical dissonance, Gingrich was one of the most sharp-tongued, articulate and persuasive attack dogs in modern politics. His favorite target was the supposed immorality and corruption of the Democratic Party. With soaring rhetoric, he condemned his opponents as anti-American and dangerous to our country's family values — "grotesque" was a favorite word.

Yet this was a man who was divorced twice — the first time when his wife was hospitalized for cancer treatment, the second time after an affair was revealed.

Oh, hell yeah. Dick broke out the big wood and splintered it right off.
Dick, tell your friends we need more of this watchdog type of reporting, y'know, instead of the steno type he said she said, while chuckling at the zany politicians. There exists, in the political world such things as objective facts.

Good job, keep it up.

Hit the link above and go read the whole article.

Post Election Analysis

Shit. I almost forgot to do this. Okay, after running all available data, polls, surveys, polisci Dr. Phil drive-by psych 101 vulcan mind melds through my oil filter (now with flavor crystals!) I am ready to announce my post mortem facts:

The Republicans lost because they are a bunch of corrupt, greedy fuckers carrying water for big oil, big pharma and vultures getting fat off of the war. Their policies suck only slightly less harder than they do. They have been taking money out of our back pockets, selling our jobs off to multinational corporations in the downward leveling termed "free trade", and financing their lying assed campaigns from funders getting rich from misery; war profiteers and big pharma. Conservatism is exposed for the authoritarian cult that it really is. They enjoy torture, and the elimination of privacy and human rights for individuals. They admit by their policies that free-trade and raw capitalism is the inherent right for corporations to follow the path of least regulation; exploit the powerless, pollute the unregulated and shelter where taxes don't exist.

Down this path is an America reduced to flabby shoppers who produce nothing except servants for the upper crust and quickly vanishing middle class. Make no mistake, this is a battle of epic proportions. The rich are serious about being rich, and power to them. I still hope to be rich myself one day. But populism is on the upswing, and those anti-American fascists are on their way out.

James "Baghdad Bob" Inhofe Changes Environment

Reality challenged shill for Big Oil, and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator James Inhofe R-OK, will be replaced by Barbara Boxer D-CA, due to recent control of the Senate going to the Democrats. Senator John Warner R-VA, intends to become the ranking member for the Republicans when the 110th congress convenes. According to the Washington Post:

[...]
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) announced his intention to become the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, now headed by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has said that global warming is a hoax. Warner has called for action against climate change, and his ascension to a leadership post would accelerate significant changes already underway.
[...]
"That could drastically change the way that committee operates," said Karen Steuer, government affairs chief at the National Environmental Trust. "We might see, on a number of issues, bipartisan legislation coming out of that committee, and that would be a huge step forward. . . . In one fell swoop, it's gone from the Dark Ages to the Space Age."
[...]

The Senator from Oklahoma lives in the Dark Ages

First, however, GOP senators must decide whether Warner's seniority on the committee grants him the right to be the ranking Republican. Inhofe issued a statement saying that he thinks Warner "has misunderstood the rules" and that "I intend to retain my leadership position in the 110th Congress, returning as the Ranking Member" of the environment committee.

Warner responded in a statement: "I carefully reviewed the rules in consultation with the Secretary of the Majority, who assures me that my seniority on the Committee forms a clear basis, under longstanding precedent" for claiming the top Republican spot. Warner will surrender the Armed Services Committee chairmanship and assert his party leadership claim on the environmental panel.

[...]

If the Republicans bounce Inhofe from his leadership post on this committee, it will be because he is an embarrassment and an outright danger to the health and well-being of the world.

In Oklahoma, we need to be sure Inhofe is not re-elected to the Senate. Some village is missing an idiot.

Houston, I Think You Have A Problem

Janitors for Chevron in Houston are on strike. Seems $20 a day with no health care is unreasonable. So they trample the peaceful protesters with police horses, throw 44 of them in jail where they are further mistreated and bail is set at $888,888.00 cash each.

Don't guess Houston and Big Oil got the message. We ain't takin' this shit any more. Freedom of assembly and all that. And as far as reasonable bail, Matt Stoller has more:

The combined $39.1 million bond for the workers and their supporters is far and above the normal amount of bail set for people accused of even violent crimes in Harris County. While each of the non-violent protesters is being held on $888,888 bail ...

* For a woman charged with beating her granddaughter to death with a
sledgehammer, bail was set at $100,000;

* For a woman accused of disconnecting her quadriplegic mother's breathing
machine, bail was set at $30,000;

* For a man charged with murder for stabbing another man to death in a bar
brawl, bail was set at $30,000;

* For janitors and protesters charged with Class B misdemeanors for past
non-violent protests, standard bail has been set at $500 each.

More than 5,300 Houston janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages and benefits of any workers in America.

He also points out that this has already garnered the attention of Henry Waxman.

So Houston, I think you have a problem.

Growing Pains Of The New Democratic Party

So I see the ragin' Cajin getting all unhinged and stuff on the teevee the other day, calling for Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, to be replaced. Seems the wins by the Democrats were not large enough, and he blames Dean for not handing over contributors money from the DNC to finance the punditry and consultant DC class operating out of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee under the direction of Rahm Emanuel.

You see folks, it's always about the money.

This was all spelled out in Crashing The Gate; Netroots, Grassroots And The Rise Of People Powered Politics, a chewy little book penned by The Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas and MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong. They set out to discover why Democrats keep losing elections. What they found were consultants, pollsters and pundits that were all chummy with the DC heads of the Democratic party resulting in placing themselves as a conduit between local candidates and large donors controlled by the DC power structure. As a result, the money came with a team of folks to tell the local candidates how to spend the money, usually on them.

The loyalty of these consultants lay with their paymasters and the continuation of the gravy train, not the winning of campaigns. They would urge candidates to not take strong positions, in fear of being labelled "extremists." It makes it sorta tough to get excited about a candidate who is excited about nothing. When the candidate lost, the consultants would go back to DC and wait for the next poor ideological sap they could shape into their mold.

To be fair, these pundits don't like us bloggers either. From DownWithTyranny:

The thing all these successful candidates share in common is backing by the same dirty-necked bloggers and netroots activists that pundits have been calling the political kiss of death.

(emphasis added) I wonder whose death it is they're talking about?

Of course, their were many other reasons Dems would lose, but this is main one.

Now, back to Dean, Rahm and James.

In an article in the New York Times, Ad Nag says this:

Mr. Emanuel warred with Mr. Dean over his refusal to provide as much money as Mr. Emanuel said he needed.

He said Wednesday that a favored candidate, Tammy Duckworth, the severely injured Iraq war veteran running for an open Republican seat in Illinois, had lost because the Republicans had spent $1 million on negative advertisements against her in the final weekend and that he did not have the money to respond.

Now Tammy Duckworth served our country in Iraq, and left both of her legs over there. She was also for a stay-the-course policy in Iraq, and Rahm continually counseled his picks to not talk about the war. See what I'm sayin'? Rahm broke the rules by getting involved in the primary to support Duckworth, winning the primary by like 200 votes or something. Overall, Rahm spent $3 million dollars to lose this race.

And now they're whining that Dean didn't give them a couple million more to waste.

I get emails from the DNC, the DCCC, and the DSCC (Chuck Schumers committee) all asking for contributions as do legions of other people as well. Those who donated to Dean could have chosen to donate to Rahm so he could flush it down the shitter of yesterday. If Dean would have given donations that he received to enrich the beltway consultant class of running milquetoast campaigns, the system would be difficult to repair.

Dean is trying to build a national party. For too long, the Dems in control have focused on the coasts and Chicago. Those days are in the past, and those of us in the netroots are determined to throw this country on our shoulders and drag it forward.

As far as the rajin Cajin is concerned, I find it interesting that, being close to Hillary and all, he is outraged at the influence Dean holds at the local and state level. These are the people who will nominate the Democratic candidate for President. Sorta makes you wonder, huh.

Articles of Impeachment

So what happens when some investigation turns up serious criminal activity from a Republican member of congress? Or several? I can see a situation where the incumbency protection racket kicks in (if you want to know what this is, ask Ned Lamont) and a deal is struck for impeachment brought by Republicans. The Democrats would remain unstained, and Republicans have serious issues with Bushco right now. Would we be left with "full steam ahead" Darth Cheney? Could they get them both? President Pelosi?

I think Bush has more to fear from Republicans right now than subpoena wielding Democrats. The mantra of "Conservatism cannot fail, people can only fail conservatism," is being heralded far and wide. Run this through my oil filter and it sounds like "failures cannot be conservatives." Look for Bush to continue to plummet in the polls as his last, die hard thirty per centers continue to bail. It might be better not to impeach him. All the dirty laundry is fixing to come out--a jacket of many colors should be fashioned for him to wear--he is the albatross of the Republican party--their titular head and the embodiment of all that is conservative.

Let us never forget.

A Thumpin'

The Democratic party, in spite of DSCC head Chuck Schumer and DCCC head Rahm Emanuel, gained the majority in both houses of congress. Chuck and Rahm are afflicted with the Corporatist mindset and an affinity for all it entails. Fortunately, a groundswell of populism, fueled in large part by lefty bloggers, was able to overcome wussy-assed Republican-lite candidates hand picked and financed by Chuck and Rahm to at least provide a voice in congress to the middle-class.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives gained 29 seats, some are being re-counted. Rahm picked 22 seats he thought he could win. He won eight. Nearly all of his picks were pro-war. In my book, this makes him a phenomenal loser, wasting huge amounts of money on candidates that did not stand on the right side of a bright line, so clearly visible to everyone else. Who would vote to merely swap one warmongering K-Street buddy for another one? Nevertheless, Rahm quickly jumped out front and made it look like he was leading the parade. John Walsh has the blow-by-blow of Rahms failures at counterpunch.

Chuck Schumer fares just as bad, forcing Hackett out, cautioning Dems against talking about the war, treating the netroots with contempt and remaining so cozy with his Wall Street donors. For more about the problems with Chuck, Pach has a great post up at FDL.

Clearly the American people are tired of fatcats making deals assuming we'll be content with the scraps that fall from their plates. The trickle on policy of Reaganomics have been exposed for the scam that they are; namely, give tax breaks and deregulate corporations, prop up the economy through massive borrowing and pass the burdens of their good times onto the children of America.

Chuck and Rahm seek to just move some nameplates around to get their turn at perks and fondling the swells. The corruption and the disastrous occupation of Iraq has delivered them the power to change our policies and the linear thought process of the Bush junta. Both of these guys hate the netroots, or people powered politics because we will force them to act like Democrats and look out for the middle class. It's what the people want.