Bush Not Responsible

President* Bush stepped in front of the cameras yesterday to address the continuing economic crisis facing America. He bravely blamed congress 16 times in his opening statement alone.

This is rather odd, since he has spent his entire Presidency claiming the congress is virtually irrelevant. Only since his rubber-stampers were shown the door in the 2006 elections have the Republicans decided their new tactic, congressional constipation, is the way to go, so to speak.

In this era of the Bush Economic miracle, where we are reaping the benefits of his agenda and policies, the fault lies, according to him, with the congress.

I would encourage a member of congress to come forth and say they will admit being responsible if Bush will admit being irresponsible.

The neocon vision of unregulated capitalism and the denunciation of anything like universal health care and collective bargaining as socialism has been tried before.

In Europe, awhile back.

It is referred to as "The Dark Ages."

A dark ideology indeed.

McCain's 100 Year War with Iraq

Seems the hot headed John McCain, along with the Republican National Committee are outraged that the Democratic National Party would put the "straight talkers'" very own words in a commercial.

The primary defense of McCain and the RNC is his words are taken out of context, and lack the necessary Vulcan mind-meld required to divine his thinking, saying it is the casualties American soldiers suffer that, if eliminated, would allow American's to support a 100 year American presence in Iraq. The RNC and McCain point to the Korean model, Japan and Germany as evidence of such long-term American presence being endorsed by the American people.

So, now into our sixth year, is the McCain plan to continue an occupation where American soldiers are being killed until American casualties are eliminated? If that does not happen, do we stay until it does, and then begin with the Korean model?

If McCain becomes President, more Americans will die. He will Stay The Corpse.

Broder Unplugged

Broder, third from right on evolutionary chart shown here, wants to know what Timmeh had for breakfast.


The Dean of the Washington Press Village, David S. Broder, cast his pearls of wisdom before the swine of ignorance:

[...]
In an age of deep cynicism about politicians of both parties, McCain is the rare exception who is not assumed to be willing to sacrifice personal credibility to prevail in any contest.
[...]

This, more clearly than anything else, represents the truest obstacle to the Democrats regaining the White House. Here is the Dean Broder himself telling both Obama and Clinton, if they want the White House, they will have to go through the entire corporate political press machinations, along with what they filter as credible and worthy. The noisy and smelly and wussyfied dirty fucking hippies shall not sully the good name of St. John McCain.

The Dean doesn't want Democrats coming in and "trashing the place, because it is not their place."

This is what he famously wrote during the Monica/Clenis period of the last Democrat elected to the White House. Bill was elected. He was wildly popular and the unelected Dean was disturbed by these "aromatic" Democrats trashing his place.

Now he is losing any and all remaining vestiges of credibility by pretending John McCain is a, "rare exception" who won't " sacrifice personal credibility" to blah, blah blah. Blather rinse, repeat.

Remember, Dean is a leading stenographer for Rove, Dubya, and Corporate America. He is also the current President of the Village Voice--all political corespondents look to Broder to see how to act.

Broder is clearly off the reservation and entered the realm of advocacy. No one has ever flipped and flopped more and quicker than John McCain. For Broder to refuse to see this deems his commentary myopic and more than a little biased.

I shit on him from a great height.

If the corporate media insist on shilling for republicans and roadblocking for democrats, requiring us in the lefty blogosphere to point out how consistently stupid they are, well, we can do that. It will hurt when we do, assholes.

artwork from 2 millionth weblog. great stuff!

Chicks Dig McCain

...at least according to a "poll" cited by Scott Carter, a political reporter for the Moore American and the Norman Transcript. He does an adequate job of allowing Oklahoma City based Democratic political consultant Don Hoover to call bullshit:

“Those kinds of Web surveys don’t count for much,” he said. “People are doing them because they are motivated one way or another. There’s not a chance of a random possibility.”

One wonders if those who favor McCain in Mr.Carter's "poll", especially the women, are aware Senator McCain has called his wife a "trollop" and a "cunt" in front of a bunch of people?

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

If they were aware of it, would they be more likely, or less likely to elect such a seriously disturbed misogynist for President?

Cliff Schecter, a veteran campaign strategist and political commentator describes this incident, along with many other temper outbursts in his book, The Real McCain. In short, McCain has anger management issues and anyone that twitchy is far too dangerous to sit in the big chair.

Polls are somewhat important, but meaningless ones, not at all, as is bowling scores, cackling and cleavage. The mental stability of the Republican nominee for President is a very real concern. Is he getting help for his problem, medically or otherwise? If not, why not? Should reporters be asking these questions, or be steno graphing worthless "If you love me, check here" webpolls?

A Media Constructed Reality

A media constructed reality is an actual term taught in colleges across the nation to those seeking credits in a particular field of study. So, those journalists who actively participate in the practice of a constructed mediated reality know exactly what they are doing. But to the average hardworking American, who rely on journalists to be just as diligent in their jobs, may not be aware of this practice.

To explain how this occurs I go back to 360 BC to Plato's Allegory of the cave:

Imagine prisoners, who have been chained since their childhood deep inside a cave: not only are their limbs immobilized by the chains; their heads are chained in one direction as well so that their gaze is fixed on a wall.Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway, along which puppets of various animals, plants, and other things are moved along. The puppets cast shadows on the wall, and the prisoners watch these shadows. When one of the puppet-carriers speaks, an echo against the wall causes the prisoners to believe that the words come from the shadows. The prisoners engage in what appears to us to be a game: naming the shapes as they come by. This, however, is the only reality that they know, even though they are seeing merely shadows of objects. They are thus conditioned to judge the quality of one another by their skill in quickly naming the shapes and dislike those who play poorly.

This drawing is highly simplified and should only be used as an aid for grasping the picture the allegory creates; it does not represent the entire allegory.

For my point, the "cave" is our own livingroom, and the media constructed reality are the shadows cast on the television set, by order of the media. The sounds coming from those shadows are carefully selected, in order to create the desired reality.

Case in point is John McCain. Two things have been tattooed into our national psyche about the Senator; he is a "Maverick" and a "Straight Talker."

Who decided this? It is one thing for a Howard Stern, an entertainer and radio bigmouth, to declare himself "The King Of All Media" long enough and frequent enough for the media to simply shrug their shoulders and declare it a part of his motto, but it is entirely different for a public servant to get such deferential treatment.

Sometimes, one who is outside the cave, sneaks in to ask a question with hilarious results:

John McCain's history is rife with flip-flops and outright pandering. Without a doubt, no Democratic contender could get away with changing positions as many times as John McCain. His primary credentials seem to be his "war record" during our time of war. He crashed up five planes and logged less than eleven hours over Vietnam before inevitably getting shot down, breaking his arms and leg while ejecting. This somehow gives him the moral authority to persuade Americans to fight in Iraq for another hundred years.

He said it would be easy. Then gently suggested to Americans it was not and chided the naysayers in congress who didn't understand what they were voting for by authorizing the war. Certainly people can change their minds, given time and information, but John McCain can do it in eleven minutes.

This is not "straight talk" but double talk, so much so John McCain needs five sets of teeth. No matter what you believe in, Senator McCain agrees with you, or has at some time in the last couple of years.

But, as dangerous as a politician is, who will say and do absolutely anything to win, it pales in comparison to a meek and compliant cheerleading press corps. who are unwilling to point this out. Not only that, they are the ones who are constructing this false reality of St. John McCain.

Jane Sends Dear John Letter

updated below
Jane Hamsher files FEC complaint against John McCain, and explains it all in the video, well most of it anyway. See, the Federal Election Commission cannot function to give permission to McCain and his alleged illegal campaign financing, spending $4 million over the limit after accepting public financing, due to vacancies.

An easy fix, right? Just appoint some folks and get to it. Well, not so fast. The Bush administration tried to "bundle" seriously chronic and flagrant vote suppressor, Hans Von Spakovsky, with a group of lesser-known lapdog lickspittle corporate reactionaries onto the FEC. Van Spakovsky was so heinous (read a little about his fevered schemes for a "permanent Republican majority" here) the administration installed the little "vote fixer" as a recess appointment. When it came time to formally clear congress, the Democrats amazingly found a spine and rejected him, causing Miss McConnell, R-Kentucky, the minority leader for the Senate, to throw a hissy fit and leave the posts unfilled.

So here is John McCain, hoist by his own petard, accepting public financing when he was sucking hind tit on the campaign trail, thinking he can just say he was teasing now that he is the presumptive nominee.

Since Campaign finance reform is a centerpiece of his identity, his apparent circumvention of the law in the area of campaign finance should call into question his integrity as a "straight talker."

We doubt his base will even notice, so take a minute and sign the petition that asks McCain to obey the law he helped write.

Update:

CNN just picked up on the story:



Credit where credit is due: Good on CNN for at least bringing up the subject. Hopefully they will do a follow-up and force the other media outlets to look at McCains apparently illegal campaign financing.

Four Thousand

Mosaic by Nico Pitney at Huffington Post:

In remembrance of the 4,000 brave men and women who sacrificed everything for us -- and the two men who would continue this great tragedy, despite the cost to our soldiers, our military, and our nation.

Click here to enlarge image.

Why We Are Red

Another example of how our media ejaculates a story all over the grateful faces of folks here in the heartland. OPUBCO, stands for the Oklahoma Publishing Company, part of the Gaylord family entertainment and self-delusional enterprise, owns the Daily Oklahoman, our only state-wide newspaper. They are nothing but a huge fucking vacuum cleaner of money, sucking advertising dollars from local businesses (rates among the highest in the nation, circulation among the lowest) bank in Dallas and spend their money in Tennessee. They are not the friends of Oklahomans.

But that is not the point of this post. The sins they have perpetrated against Oklahoma are both wide and varied, the latest of which is labeling that which is bad and evil and rooted in and founded upon religious doctrine by zealots and fanatics, in short, the base of the religious right, and turned that to represent mainstream Americans who oppose the war.

The story is about Westboro Baptist Church, which is famous for its lunacy, and a Marine that took exception to one of the WBC members sticking an American flag down her britches. He charged the hill and was arrested. Protesters and counter-protesters and police were there. The marine was cuffed and stuffed and jailed for his troubles.

The whole problem with the story was Westboro Baptist Church being identified as a war protester, thereby staining all war-protesters as flag-hating anti-American.

The "reporter" on this story is named Ann Kelley, and I do not know if the editing process lopped off all the heinous background of this religious right hate-group, or if she intentionally conspired to mislead readers into believing they were left-leaning anti-war protesters. The result is the same, a skewed and downright dishonest portrayal of who the crackpots are and are not.

Okie Funk has more.

Five Long Years

The center for the Global War In Error, Iraq, is now five years old. I have read many of the war cheerleaders posts across the blogosphere's lame-assed "How I Got It Wrong" posts, and see the thread of similarity. Nearly all of them point to error-riddled applications to our Iraqi-quagmire.

Nearly all pro-war pundits still believe, even today, the war was a good idea, but just badly managed. It is in effect, the competence defense. Which begs the question of what would a perfectly executed war plan look like if the war was doomed from the outset?

They all miss the point, and the point is, they do not understand the idea of America, or what it takes to be an American.

A group of neocons, along with multiple accomplices in the media hijacked American horror and anger over 9/11 and used it for their own benefit. A lot of people are now dead, many more are wounded, and a few are very rich.

Part of the American way is freedom, and we hold this so precious, we have enshrined it into law. An American can defend his life if the threat is "imminent", and can in some cases use deadly force. I cannot take a flamethrower to my office building because I think a co-worker will perhaps, someday in the future, punch me in the nose.

Iraq did not threaten us.

Iraq did not attack us.

Iraq had no weapons of WMD's.

Iraq had no connection to 9/11.

Now all these "serious people" who were wrong about everything want all of us to forget how completely wrong they were and the horrible consequences that resulted from their insane rantings, only to listen to them now about "The Way Forward."

And our Corporate Media meekly comply by giving the Kagans and the Kliens and the Kristols a place on our teevee to smear their street cred with the effectiveness of butt-scoot stank.

We rarely get to see war-critics on the panel talk shows, you know, the ones that were right about Iraq.

The same pundits who were Wrong About Everything warn of disasters Worse Than Ten Hitlers! if we pull out of Iraq.

Sorry, but you have lost your credibility card with me. Pull out our troops. If a bunch of bad stuff happens, maybe you can have some street cred back by saying "I told you so", until then, just STFU. Mmmmmkay?

MAPs For Gaylord

On March 4, Mayor Mick Cornett is asking the citizens of Oklahoma City to approve a one-cent sales tax to expand the Ford Center, a new indoor arena built as part of the MAPs project I wrote about here.

I am very proud to have been a supporter of and active campaigner for the very successful MAPs project, however, I can not be more agnostic about this current proposal. To begin with, the good citizens of Oklahoma urged our leaders to build facilities able to house professional franchises, only to be mildly rebuked. Oklahoma City, we were told, did not have the population to sustain a professional team.

I suppose our guest-hosting of the New Orleans Hornets have proved otherwise. Clay Bennett, a local businessman and spouse to the Gaylord Media and Entertainment Empire (publishers of The Oklahoman) headed up an organization that purchased the Seattle SuperSonics on July 18, 2006 for $350 million.

Seattle, it seems, is unwilling to upgrade its facilities. The previous ownership group claims over $60 million in losses for the previous five years, and Mr. Bennett is working feverishly to bust the contract that ties the SuperSonics to Seattle through 2010. A minor partner of Bennett's new ownership group, Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy, was quoted in an interview that the SuperSonics were not purchased to keep in Seattle, and that they hoped to bring the team out to Oklahoma City. The NBA fined McClendon a quarter of a million dollars for the comment.

In short, it is no secret the vote on March 4 is to create snazzy new digs for the Sonics. However, nowhere is this disclosed in any of the campaign materials. Very limited information is available about what our tax dollars will buy. Since I see no disclosures of super swanky and private skyboxes that will benefit no one other than the Gaylord swells, would it be safe to assume none will be built using public funds?

It would be fair to disclose The Oklahoman's editorial endorsement of using public funds to subsidize BassPro shop installing a store in Bricktown, while the Gaylord Entertainment was a large shareholder of Bass Pro private stock.

Truthfully, most professional team owners need private skysuites to make a profit, and the system is rigged for taxpayers to build them. Under our current system, corporate welfare is needed so they can entertain us.

I do not know how I'll vote on Tuesday. If I vote no, I am voting against getting a professional franchise in Oklahoma City and if I vote yes I am voting to give public funds to a hard right-wing family and publishers of the "Worst Newspaper In America."

Tough choice.

Failing Upwards

Former Chief of staff for Dan Quayle, labeled "Quayle's Brain" (talk about setting the bar low!) William Kristol has landed a cushy gig writing his opinions in the paper of record, The New York Times.

The Times has been whining a lot lately about the amount of invective directed at it for making such a heinous decision, declaring critics want to stifle speech.

Mr. Kristol can stand on any streetcorner on a soapbox and bark at the rain all he wants. It appears to me however, that the critics of this decision place a higher value on the product The New York Times produces than those who produce it.

One would hope the paper of record would not have a philosophy of hiring op-ed columnists on the basis of being wrong about their opinions. The Times should aspire to be a collection of the most astute and reasoned journalists and pundits our country has to offer. They have chosen to dip their quill into the cesspool of vile partisan hacks for the sake of controversy over integrity.

Mr. Kristol's has been an unflinching proponent of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and published a recent op-ed in the NYT about the troop surge, kicking sand in the face of Democratic Presidential candidates:

[...]
When President Bush announced the surge of troops in support of a new counterinsurgency strategy a year ago, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Democratic Congressional leaders predicted failure. Obama, for example, told Larry King that he didn’t believe additional U.S. troops would “make a significant dent in the sectarian violence that’s taking place there.” Then in April, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, asserted that “this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything.” In September, Clinton told Gen. David Petraeus that his claims of progress in Iraq required a “willing suspension of disbelief.”

The Democrats were wrong in their assessments of the surge. Attacks per week on American troops are now down about 60 percent from June. Civilian deaths are down approximately 75 percent from a year ago. December 2007 saw the second-lowest number of U.S. troops killed in action since March 2003. And according to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, last month’s overall number of deaths, which includes Iraqi security forces and civilian casualties as well as U.S. and coalition losses, may well have been the lowest since the war began.
Do Obama and Clinton and Reid now acknowledge that they were wrong? Are they willing to say the surge worked?

[...]

Compared to what? The previous four years? How many lives and Billions of dollars and gallons of blood is required to sate the neocon learning curve?

Mr. Kristol tries to make another point:

[...]
But Sunni tribes in Anbar announced in September 2006 that they would join to fight Al Qaeda. That was two months before the Democrats won control of Congress. The Sunni tribes turned not primarily because of fear of the Shiites, but because of their horror at Al Qaeda’s atrocities in Anbar.
[...]

Well...a little money helps:

AMERICAN forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The tactic has boosted the efforts of American forces to restore some order to war-torn provinces around Baghdad in the run-up to a report by General David Petraeus, the US commander, to Congress tomorrow.

...

Seems he left out the part about undermining the duly and Democratically elected Iraqi government by funding it's chief opponents. Sunni's, like Saudi's, are the people of Bin Laden and the terrorists that attacked America. How proud Mr. Kristol must be that they are firmly attached to the tit of the American taxpayer.

We are not surprised at Mr. Kristol's scribblings, just disappointed the NYT chooses to publish them. He is not only wrong most of the time, but wrong with disastrous consequences. For example, on the first anniversary of 9/11, when the invade Iraq sales pitch was going full tilt, Billy chimed in, conflating Iraq with 9/11 saying, "we cannot afford to let Saddam Hussein inflict a worse 9/11 on us in the future."

It goes on:

On September 15, 2002, he claimed that inspection and containment could not work with Saddam: "No one believes the inspections can work." Actually, UN inspectors believed they could work. So, too, did about half of congressional Democrats. They were right.

On September 18, 2002, Kristol opined that a war in Iraq "could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East."

On September 19, 2002, he once again pooh-poohed inspections: "We should not fool ourselves by believing that inspections could make any difference at all." During a debate with me on Fox News Channel, after I noted that the goal of inspections was to prevent Saddam from reaching "the finish line" in developing nuclear weapons, Kristol exclaimed, "He's past that finish line. He's past the finish line."

On November 21, 2002, he maintained, "we can remove Saddam because that could start a chain reaction in the Arab world that would be very healthy."

On February 2, 2003, he claimed that Secretary of State Colin Powell at an upcoming UN speech would "show that there are loaded guns throughout Iraq" regarding weapons of mass destruction. As it turned out, everything in Powell's speech was wrong. Kristol was uncritically echoing misleading information handed him by friends and allies within the Bush administration.

On February 20, 2003, he summed up the argument for war against Saddam: "He's got weapons of mass destruction. At some point he will use them or give them to a terrorist group to use...Look, if we free the people of Iraq we will be respected in the Arab world....France and Germany don't have the courage to face up to the situation. That's too bad. Most of Europe is with us. And I think we will be respected around the world for helping the people of Iraq to be liberated."

On March 1, 2003, Kristol dismissed concerns that sectarian conflict might arise following a US invasion of Iraq: "We talk here about Shiites and Sunnis as if they've never lived together. Most Arab countries have Shiites and Sunnis, and a lot of them live perfectly well together." He also said, "Very few wars in American history were prepared better or more thoroughly than this one by this president." And he maintained that the war would be a bargain at $100 to $200 billion. The running tab is now nearing half a trillion dollars.

On March 5, 2003, Kristol said, "I think we'll be vindicated when we discover the weapons of mass destruction and when we liberate the people of Iraq."

[...]

We are not amused by Mr. Kristol stamping his feet demanding someone else admit being wrong when he was a chief cheerleader for death and destruction that was never right. Indeed, few people in modern history have been more wrong about more things of more importance than William Kristol.

Democratic Presidential Contenders

Then there were three. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. As Democrats wind through the primary process to select our champion, each of these candidates needs a good hard look. After all, our current President* has amply demonstrated that it really matters who sits in the oval office.

A chummy yet arrogant Rexall Ranger tin star cowboy we would like to have a beer with just won't cut it this time.

This is my analysis of the top three Democratic contenders. We start with Hillary Clinton.

As our Sith Lord Cheney has informed us, all we need to enact an agenda is 50 percent plus one vote. Bi-partisanship, according to some Republicans, is a lot like date-rape. Fair, or unfair, this is what we will get with Hillary getting the nomination. Republican leadership has bled out America, so the probability is the Democratic nominee will win.

Many on the right who people the mighty right-wing Wurlitzer like Fix News and hate-spew rightard radio and newspaper columnists have an irrational hatred of the Clintons. This bled over into the corporate media. David Broder, the Dean Of The Washington Press Corps. famously wrote about the Clintons, "They came in and trashed the place, and it's not there place."

President Clinton was not a liberal--he was a moderate, just ask any liberal. Also see NAFTA and the Federal Telecommunications Act. Still "the Clintons" (get two for the price of one) served up as national tackling dummies for the right and got nuked for eight solid fucking years. Every week a new gate was built. Haircuts on the runway, travel agents getting fired, whitewater, Monica, anything to diminish and divide the overwhelming popularity of President Clinton.

And now Senator Clinton wants her turn at bat in a country that is far more divided than before. Entire careers were built by bashing her husband, so her nomination would be money in the bank for many. No matter what she does, or how well she does it, there exists a built-in sizable group genetically predisposed to hating Clinton. It really irritates true progressives when Senator Clinton strikes a moderate position on anything because they know when she puts her hand out to the right, she'll only get back a bloody stump, which is then poked in the eye of the left.

Senator Clinton would probably make an excellent President. The right will never accept her and the left thinks she's a fool for trying. She may do 50 percent plus one vote, but the victory for Democrats will taste like ashes. After all, she campaigned for Lieberman.

Obama has the wow factor. He is new and shiny and different and speaks of hope and unity and the American dream. Many have questioned his experience in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, but being from Chicago, one would guess he knows how to throw an elbow. Still, I have the gnawing feeling that he has not been adequately vetted by our venerable press corps. What with Senator Clintons cleavage and Senator Edwards hair, who really has the time to deconstruct Senator Obama? The Republicans will during the general election.

Get set for the nastiest, bloodiest general election in history as the richest one percent in the country pour huge amounts of money into opposition research and all sorts of made-up shit to protect their precious tax cuts. Senator Obama has made the same mistake as Senator Clinton, only openly and repeatedly, reaching out to independents and Republicans during the Democratic Primary. To the far right fringe, who happen to be very noisy, are unconcerned with the truth and devoted racists, it won't matter.

Sing kumbaya all you want to, Senator, if you walk on water they will say you can't swim.

Finally to Senator John Edwards. Every time I hear him speak I think of the final scene in "Scarface" (Say hello to my little friend). Americans have been trickled on by Reaganomics, enjoyed the thousand points of blight by Bush the Adult and seen thousands of Americans die, lose their jobs, homes and national treasure under the askew glance of the compassionate conservative junior. In these times we can not afford a triangulating policy wonk or a handwringing "can't we all just get along?" (because we can't) group hug Dr. Philgood.

Americans need a champion. That man is John Edwards.

Changes

Welcome to another day under the command and control of The New World Order!

Lo! Do not chafe under the yoke; be gleeful that your overlords are pleased with nearly 500 times your worth, lest they be bored and seek greener lands elsewhere.

Indeed, relish in thine labours. Seek not communion amongst your peers for betterment, for it is only in this fashion that more yokes may come forth to harness your pitiful whelps. Overlords may band together to form corporations and wield great economic power but dwellers of the yoke cannot.

Corporations dictate.

Unions vote and collectively bargain.

Which of these two options is more American?

Which of these two options is anti-American?

A vote is coming to a place near you. If you want change, you have to vote for a change.

Comity

The Dean of the Washington Press Corps, David Broder, has an article up at WaPoo outlining a meeting of very serious and mostly retired moderates from both parties that will take place in my state Just prior to the Iowa caucuses. The meeting will be hosted by David Boren, the Rocky Marciano of politics, having retired from politics undefeated. He is now President of The University of Oklahoma, where the meeting will take place.

Seems he sent out invitations to many of his old retired political chums, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who many view as running a potential bid for President in a third-party independent run. Mayor Bloomberg was a Republican who changed to independent this last summer, leading many to speculate on his eventual indie run. Since he is a Billionaire many times over he could very well make a respectable bid to purchase the White House.

Apparently, David Boren feels our government is "badly bent and some are concluding it is broken..."

Further fueling his and his concerned allies is the failure of both parties Presidential contenders to share their fainting sofa with them decrying the hyper partisan atmosphere in Washington during the primaries. Boren and his buddies will craft a missive at the meeting demanding leaders from both parties design a plan to unite America.

Good luck with that, Dave.

One wonders why the concern he obviously so deeply holds manifests itself now? Did he feel our government was bent, or twisted or perverted when Ted Olsen argued before the Supreme Court if they continued counting votes in Florida in 2000, his client would be irreparably harmed?

Or when the Vice-President declared he was not part of the executive branch?

Or when the Administration outed a CIA agent working on WMD's in the middle east? Or was it when the first responders to St Bernard Parrish after Katrina were Canadian Mounties?

Torture? Abu-Grahib? Renditions? Hey, let's face it, it is a target rich environment, but this maladministration is in it's twilight. In its wake exists an acutely aware electorate that associates Republican with Bush. Things are not looking so good for the GOP.

Even since the spectacular defeat of the GOP in 2006, the Republicans continue to reject any type of bipartisanship. This last session, Republican Senators set a world-record for obstructing the will of the people.

I have seen no evidence of Republicans being the slightest bit interested in compromise. Even on no-brainer stuff like helping sick children. Veto sustained. The rhetoric that emanates from the right includes phrases like "giving aide and comfort to the enemy" and "troop haters" when someone questions the wisdom of Dear Leader.

The only way one can compromise and reach unity with such people is to become one of them.

You will be assimilated...resistance is futile. Complete and total capitulation is the only compromise recognized by the modern Republican party.

Comity?

Welcome to The United Fiefdoms Of America Incorporated.

Name Change

Seems I spend an inordinate amount of time explaining the name of my blog, so an early New Year's resolution is a name change. The URL will remain the same, since I'm too friggin stoopid to figure out how to change it. I don't know if I like this new name or not. At least it's not right.

The Perfect Christmas Present

In light of the lead plague infesting toys this year, I have decided to do my part and share something I came across years ago and provide a home-made gift idea that is 100 percent guaranteed to put glee into the face of nearly anyone who receives it. Not to mention stunned amazement. What you will need:

An ordinary shoe box

Rubber cement

A jar

A pencil

Scissors

Six or eight ordinary houseflies (must be alive and unharmed)

A freezer

Place flies into jar and place jar in freezer. Take the pencil and draw the outlines of a balsa-wood style airplane, about half scale. Use scissors to cut out the airplane and assemble. Place small dots of rubber cement on the wings and tail sections where you will place the motors (flies). By now, the flies in the freezer should be stunned but not dead. Carefully place flies legs onto the rubber cement, gently blowing on them will revive them.

Merry Christmas.

Paul Jacob In Oklahoma

Carpetbagger and convicted violator of the Selective Services Act (draft dodger?) Paul Jacob and his Libertarian minions descended on Oklahoma to amend our constitution as they saw fit. Libertarians are just Republicans who want to smoke dope and get laid (legalize drugs and prostitution, among other things far worse).

This machine of locusts plague states with petitions to term limit legislators, but violently oppose any form of campaign finance reform, thereby effectively replacing highly popular legislators with corporate whores capable of purchasing a legislative office, de-regulating everything and the elimination of the middle class.

Their latest venture, the Orwellian-named "Taxpayers Bill Of Rights" or TABOR, sought to cap government spending. This is a noble gesture, and no one can deny our Government spends way too much. Especially in Iraq, or corporate welfare, or abstinence only education.

This is why, in Oklahoma anyway, taxes cannot be raised without a vote of the people, and we cannot spend more than we take in.

These issues are already addressed in Oklahoma. Putting further downward budgetary pressures on our states budget would only realistically hurt our public education system.

But the Oklahoma Attorney General busted Jacobs ass and two of his partners for violating election law. We have a residency requirement for circulators of petitions, and perhaps a room at the Super 8 for the Jacob minions does not fulfill that requirement.

I am not being fair. Jacobs claimed he checked the law on residency and tried to comply but nevertheless he is charged with violations of the law, and is staring at a boatload of legal fees, not to mentions fines and jail time if convicted.

Now, the Jacob camp is referring to him and his two partners as the "Oklahoma 3". Heh. A convicted Libertarian carpetbagger from Virginia, some lady from Michigan and a guy from Tulsa. Poor downtrodden local folks.

Their chief tormentor, Drew Edmondson, is called "Ayatollah Edmondson" along with junior-high artwork of a turban-swathed depiction of our state attorney general. Real classy.

So, enough petitions for TABOR were thrown out to deny it being placed on the ballot and the convict and his minions were led away in chains.

I still have not cut my way through the spin whether Jacobs was led into an ambush or not. I am opposed to everything Jacobs stands for and believes in and feel our Oklahoma constitution must be protected from outside agitators being paid by the signature on initiative petitions.

These guys hate lawyers, but they always have plenty of them. One would think this would have been thoroughly examined. If the law is unclear it should be addressed by our legislature.

Or we could have an initiative petition.

Pro-Life Wingnuts

UPDATED BELOW
Far right-wing reactionary authoritarian cultists insist on choosing leaders who vow to place title of a woman's uterus into the hands of old white men. Other issues are of import, no doubt, but to lead the reichtard party, women simply must be constrained to forced childbirth, her choices of her body in the reproductive process is eliminated. To seek entrance as significantly authoritarian enough, Republican office seekers must seek title to the womb to cater to the rabid base they have founded their party upon.

Anti-abortion extremists claim abortion is murder. Yet none of them have ever tried to back legislation to prosecute women who have abortions. If abortion is indeed murder, then not advocating murder charges shows the hypocrisy of the argument. Clearly, they cannot even answer the question.

Allowing exceptions in the case of rape or incest means anti-abortion ideologues allow the murder of innocent fetus's only when they are victims of a crime.

Not allowing such exceptions forces young ladies to give birth to their brother, or wives to give birth to the murderer of their husbands.


To get the full benefit of the crushing weight of gravity forcing ideology into the concrete of legislation, watch this video of the world fanatical far-right authoritarian cultist loons want to re-create here in America.

We have been here before.

H/T Digby for the video.

UPDATE: A local insignificant blogger who attempts to bring traffic to his site by naming it in a bastardization of another site (how pathetic is that) took exception to my post. Yes, he is one of the many I named as "the rabid base they (republicans) have founded their party on."

This blastocyst worshipper insists on using the term "baby killer" and indeed advocates prosecuting the mother for "1st degree prenatal homicide" but quickly dashes behind the skirts of a judges robe for doling out sentences, but quickly dashes out to announce he "would treat it just like any other murder or manslaughter case."

Such "coat hanger law advocates" surely realize to investigate such cases would require forensic gynecologists armed with warrants to collect evidence. Does Red S. Tater really want us to be like El Salvador? They have a complete ban on abortion with prison sentences for women who get them illegally. Just like Red wants, no exceptions for abortion.

"In practice what is happening is a government death penalty imposed on women," said Pizarro, a gynaecologist. (sic)

Blastocyst worshippers entering a room on fire occupied with an unconscious woman and a petri dish full of blastocysts, by their words claim the petri dish is more worthy of saving, clearly the unconscious state of the woman is due to some moral failing, most likely drug or alcohol related.

Red quotes me:

"Allowing exceptions in the case of rape or incest means anti-abortion ideologues allow the murder of innocent fetus's only when they are victims of a crime.
Not allowing such exceptions forces young ladies to give birth to their brother, or wives to give birth to the murderer of their husband".

Red responds:

If he would have actually read the link to my blog that he used in his post, he would have noticed that Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter has called for a ban on all abortions- period and has introduced legislation every year for the past 10+ years on it. He is my candidate of choice for president.
No inconsistency here. (emphasis added)

Raped by your dad? Too bad, you will give birth to your brother. Raped by your husbands murderer? Too bad, the state forces you to give birth to a rapist. The pregnancy will kill you? Gee, that's tough.

Authoritarian cultists like Red hate freedom. Choices do not fit into their worldview. A cop on every street corner and a warrant for every womb would make America better how, exactly?

To take Red's argument to its logical conclusion:

Today we have more forms of birth control than we do ways to have sex. It is available for free and it is available for use even up to 24 hrs AFTER having sex.

Yet approximately 1.5 million unborn children are murdered by their mothers in this country every single year to the cheers of children hating white men like Kittenstomper.

Women are simply irresponsibly having unprotected sex. If they are raped, they should be flogged like they do in Saudi Arabia. One wonders how many potential "children" Red has doomed to reckless abandonment in his fevered masturbatory emissions.

The Oklahoma Migratory Patterns

Proud principle author of Oklahoma's new racist immigration law, Randy Terrill, R-Moore, wants to relocate all people of questionable pigmentation and citizenship from Oklahoma to south of the Rio Grande river. Mr. Terrill denies he is a racist, as does staunch xenophobe Lou Dobbs, but advocating for his bill he simply could not refrain from using tinted language like disease, drugs and crime. Oh yes, terrorism was part of his hyperbolic rhetoric as well.

The good people of Oklahoma have seen the face of a terrorist and witnessed the actions of terrorism up close and personal. I don't remember them being very brown at all.

Our state is celebrating its 100th anniversary by creating legislation deputizing hordes of vigilante racists working under color of law.

A $1000.00 fine and/or a year in prison is imposed on anyone helping someone of questionable pigmentation. Well, actually, it specifies illegal immigrants, but why take a chance? Landlords, employers seem to be the primary focus, but I guess it includes bus drivers and cabbies as well, due to the "transporting" language in the law.

Perhaps Mr. Terrill is not a racist, but his law allows racism to flourish in broad daylight under the color of law, and in a state named "Red Man" and was the tail end of the Trail of Tears, it is a sad way to begin our second century with history repeating itself.

People are frustrated with the immigration issue, but the state level is not where you deal with immigration. This is a bad law born out of frustration that will result in overt racism. People who cater to that particular base will find it slowly shrinking.

Senator Rice

Andrew Rice, currently a state senator, is seeking a promotion in an attempt to unseat Jim Inhofe. Oklahomans will have a clear choice before them--to be a part of the solution to the many problems plaguing our nation, or do we continue to ride in the back of the bus and throw spitballs.

Problems like Iraq, our national debt, health care, environmental issues, torture, rendition, elimination of Habeus Corpus, warrantless wiretapping, immigration, etc. require solutions, not the partisan obstructionist machine that Inhofe is in lock-step with.

Mr. Rice got into politics shortly after losing his brother in the attacks on September 11, 2001. He opposed the invasion of Iraq and wants us out as safely as possible. He won a landslide victory as a state senator and is now campaigning to take Inhofe's job.

Mr. Rice has the backing of the netroots, a group of progressive bloggers created to fill the void of progressive politics. We have done quite well, as opposed to the conservative side of the blogosphere. Andrew Rice currently has 500 netroot supporters, kicking in $32,322. Inhofe, on the other hand, has one supporter who donated a dollar.

It was interesting to learn that Chuck Schumer, the Senator from New York and head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has been in communication with Mr. Rice. Chuck is not famous for backing progressive candidates. Indeed, in the 2006 campaign he insisted on backing only those candidates that were not to the left of the candidate running in the reddest of states. He would choose, or at a minimum, approve of the campaign director.

Fundage allocated from the DSCC came with strings held in the hands of DC insider consultants. A recent article in the Oklahoma Gazette held forth that perhaps Chuck would be reluctant to dole out millions of dollars in light of the drubbing Brad Carlson took by Tom Coburn in the 2004 campaign. The DSCC kicked in 2.3 million dollars and lost by 12 points.

The reporter, Grant Slater concludes Chuck may feel Oklahoma to be beyond the reach of the Democratic party, and sending money would be like "kicking a dead donkey." Brad Carson tried to hire a very effective advertising agency who hailed from the corporate world, Milwaukee-based Steve Eichenbaum. One of his clients was Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold who took the seat in an improbable bid in 1992.

Russ won again in 1998 against withering Republican assaults. He vowed to spend no more than $1 per voter in his campaign, about $4 million total, while his opponent spent $11 million. But when the DSCC heard Brad Carson was thinking of hiring Eichenbaum they reigned him in, pressuring him to hire the inside-the-beltway DC firm of Murphy Putnam Media. Brad quickly realized that these consultants were above him in the food chain. He had to negotiate what he put in his commercials and if he did not do as they said, they would call the money men in DC.

These consultants are beholden only to themselves and there position in the DC elite Village. They can lose and lose and lose, in fact they have for years, yet their positions are never in jeopardy and candidates are required to use them. Hopefully Mr. Rice has done his homework and talked with Brad Carson about these things.

The race will be tough enough fighting with Inhofe without having to fight the National party as well. We have a candidate in Andrew Rice. He is a very bright, articulate, passionate and charming representative, not an angry old obstructionist partisan idealogue. Mr. Rice needs all of our active support. We cannot leave this to others to do. Go to the Andrew Rice Website here and read about him and volunteer. Donate to his campaign here.