Just Don't

This has gotten completely out of hand



And this, from a writer at Pam’s House Blend, is no better.

Let me be clear, because I know that I have readers leaning in this direction.

Don’t.

Once upon a time, I voted third party. Barry Commoner, 1980, when Ronald Reagan first ran against Carter’s re-election. I was a Ralph Nader apostle at that time, incensed by the nuclear energy issue, and was so disgusted by the two party system that I minimized the outcome I was contributing to.

I was wrong. I did not believe that the American people would elect this second-rate actor as President, and I failed to imagine what a disaster the Reagan presidency would be, or how long lasting its impact.

And in 2000, when Nader himself ran against Gore, I defended those who chose to vote for him. I didn’t myself (having learned at least SOMETHING from my earlier mistake), but I was mad at Gore for running to the right and felt that those who chose to exercise their franchise that way were perfectly justified in doing so.

Not this time.

My vote in 1980 helped give our country to Reagan. Nader’s voters in 2000 (with help from a partisan Supreme Court) helped transfer it to Bush – who expanded the Reagan tradition of lying to the American people. Except that this time it wasn’t a covert and illegal war in Nicaragua, it was an open and never-ending war in Iraq. And Bush/Cheney have built on Reagan’s go-it-alone Executive Power in ways we could never have imagined.

How can anyone seriously consider doing this again?

The Supreme Court is at stake here people. My reproductive rights, among other incidental things, like voting rights, the reasonable ability for women and others to fight blatant discrimination, and the planet. Do we really need more evidence to understand what another right-wing appointee will do to this Court?

War with Iran is at stake. Not only does McCain seem committed to the same disasterous policy in Iraq, but he also appears cavalier about expanding the war into Iran. The blood of more U.S. soldiers, not to mention countless civilians in the middle east, is on your hands if this man is elected. How can any sane person even consider it?

Let no one misunderstand me, I have LOTS of issues with how this campaign season has played out. Obama has won this nomination largely on the pledged delegates from caucus states that will NEVER vote democratic in the general election (in a deeply flawed and undemocratic system,) and all his supporters who are crowing now would be well advised to take a clear-headed look at the electoral map prospects, since we – as a people – declined to take on THAT undemocratic system after the last two debacles.

But if I believe the system to be flawed, and if I believe that it needs to be changed, then it is my responsibility to work to change it. Registering a “protest” vote is not only cheap and easy, but – this time – the consequence Can be imagined.

A Right to Crow

McClatchy has finally been tipped over the edge by the rest of the MSM's self-justifying response to McClellan's assessment, and engages in a little self-promotion. As one of the few media outlets to consistently continue to perform their journalistic function throughout this administration, they have the right.

The American Conscience

... is not dead. Via McClatchy:

Twenty former U.S. attorneys, both Republicans and Democrats, urged a federal judge Thursday to intervene in a constitutional battle over whether two White House officials should be forced to testify before Congress about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

The politicization of the Justice Department was just among the most important of many administrative departments used and abused by this administration, which viewed everything through a political lense.

But even many of those who owed their jobs to this administration saw the implications. From the brief:

"This congressional inquiry involves the possible subversion of principles at the core of Constitutional government," they wrote. "It is a matter of the utmost importance for Congress to conduct a complete investigation to determine whether White House officials have injected, or attempted to inject, partisan considerations into a process that must be rigorously insulated from such considerations."

Score one for the Constitution.

A Secret Weapon

Readers know that I have been very anxious about this fall. Phoenix Woman at FDL gives me some comfort. Perhaps this is Obama's secret weapon.

Shakespearean Drama

So what to make of Scott McClellan’s new tell-all? At some base level he’s just another Republican hack trying to wash the blood off his hands after the fact. Why is he being given so much credence? He never was the sharpest knife in the drawer, and became almost a caricature of himself with his obstinate idiocy by the end of his tenure. TPM is collecting suggestions for your own favorite display of good ol’ Texas stupidity ala Scottie boy if you want to participate.

The MSM are having a field day, of course, and I should just delight in seeing the beasts turned against this administration and let it go.

But the psychologist in me just can’t turn away from this little Shakespearean drama unfolding before us.

Scottie. The slow one. Not exactly deficient, if you know what ah mean, just a little slow. Bushie adopts him, takes him under his wing, gives him a place. He’s the stupid son. The one who gets the job he can’t do because Daddy makes sure there’s a place for him. Bushie has a lot of sympathy for stupid sons, since his entire career owes its debt to the tradition.

But the stupid son actually takes himself seriously. What a concept! He actually feels hurt when he finds out that he has been used as nothing more than a marketing hack, a mouthpiece to go on camera and recite the script for the commercial. Because he is a stupid boy, he doesn’t really “get” that this was his entire purpose from the beginning. He feels tricked, so now he is lashing out. What a stupid, stupid, boy.

And Daddy feels hurt, because he can’t believe that the stupid boy would betray him after everything he did for him. Doesn’t the stupid boy understand that he would never have risen so far without Daddy behind him? So Bushie will turn his head away and wipe a tear while his enforcers proceed to tear the man apart. It breaks Daddy’s heart to have to do it, you understand, but the boy has left him no choice.

How utterly Shakespearean.

To follow: The most disturbing revelation from Scottie’s tantrum, and why it matters to the upcoming November campaign.

WATB Alert

I was trolling around tonight checking out unfamiliar (to me) blogs, and would like to turn you on to one, in particular. Group News Blog has been around for a long time, actually, but had never really hooked me enough to mark it until now. They are primarily male (with one woman) techies with silicon background resumes and a lot of combined military experience, and the tone can be pretty profane. Though far be it from me to decry profanity!

In the process of rooting around there I ran across a February post from Jesse Wendel that pretty much sums up MY main concern for the fall campaign: The WATB Syndrome (Whiney-Ass-Titty-Baby to those not familiar with Lord Atrios.)

If you feel you and people you know or whose blogs you read, want to walk away
from the Democratic Party because it won't nominate your preferred candidate,
well, with no respect at all, you're an idiot. The Republicans will eat your lunch.

And mine in the process.

While they continue to take over the Supreme Court and shred the Constitution.

The post was written before Super Tuesday, when the WATBs were mostly Obama supporters. At this point, it’s Clinton’s most fervent believers that make up the core. I have just three things to say, then I will let Jesse take over.

1. The press has been astounding sexist, but that is not Obama’s fault.

2. His campaign has certainly manipulated the many opportunities Hillary and her ill-spoken supporters have given them but – hey – that’s politics. And in the words of a woman for whom I still have much respect “If you can’t take the heat….”

3. While it may be true that Clinton would make a stronger candidate in the fall (which I still believe), it is also true that she is unlikely to win the nomination under the existing system.

And any Clinton supporter who threatens to take their ball and go home is just an idiot.

I’ve snipped ruthlessly, because the post is long and much of it is irrelevant now. But he makes important points that are worth revisiting. This is not a “game” or a “contest”, this is a fight for the future of our country.

If you don't know all the different things the Office of the President controls, I'm not going to take the time to educate you in full. But we don't elect a President just because of Supreme Court nominations, to control the military, veto appropriations bills, or to represent us to other countries. That's the glitz, the Paris Hilton of being President. Small cheese compared to every-day impacts the Presidency has on YOUR life through the Executive Branch. And I do mean, on your life, personally, no matter your ethnic group, your sexual preference, your economic class.

Let me pick a few examples, not at random.

Ronald Reagan is responsible for the death of easily 1 million gay men in the United States, simply for his refusal to allow the CDC to act. The CDC knew what needed to be done. Reagan, the fuck, didn't mention AIDS, refused to allow warning or action. It would have hurt him politically.

[snip]

One could make what I think is a valid argument, that everything this administration has done at a political level -- including wars, ecological moves, economic strategy, and so on -- has been about increasing the stock prices and profitability of the major oil companies, as well as their long term competitiveness in world markets. All this has direct impact on food prices, plastic prices, the computer industry, airplane travel, interest rates and thus your retirement plans and home loan, and of course, gasoline and your utility bill. And it falls directly into the hands of the President and the people he appoints through a number of agencies.

Continuing. Literally there are hundreds of thousands of examples from hot buttons such as abortion to approval of drugs, to federal land policy for everything from grazing rights to timber use to national park funding and creation (or not), to designation of endangered species (or not), to declaration of emergencies, to spying on your telephone calls and internet sessions. Right now, the NSA almost certainly has copies of some of your phone calls and much of your internet traffic.

All this happened by order of the President and his agents.

[snip]

You can walk away, taking your ball and your bat if you want. I'm not walking
away so long as I have a breath left in my body.

That's the difference between someone who has balls, and a coward.

Cowards take their balls and bat and go home, if they don't get their way, if the game gets hard or if they get offended. Democrats put their union with the team before everyone, even if they don't like all the players. Even if they don't like the team captain. Even if they're sick of the game or think it's hopeless.

Because the game is going to be played, no matter what. Unlike baseball, winning matters.

A professional shows up to play, no matter who is on the team, fair weather or foul, because they're playing for the long-haul future of the franchise, for history, and how they feel about one player is so unimportant as to almost not matter.

Politics is a team sport. And the team which matters is the Democratic team, which currently is being taken over from the inside, by the netroots. With or without spoiled brat crybaby whining children who don't understand what it is to show up every day to play. Who threaten to take their friends, their ball and bat and go home if they don't get their way.

[snip]

No one is fooling around here. All of the pros working for Clinton and Obama,
the day after the nomination fight is over, 75%+ of them will be working for the
other person, full out. Just like being traded to another team.

And any Democrat who doesn't throw their full support behind the nominee, whoever he or she may be, is a fucking traitor to the Democratic Party, and can kiss my ass.

Ditto.

Here’s the link to the original post.

Coming Back

I feel like I am "coming to" after a long away, stepping back into the blog with shy feet, not quite knowing what I want to do with it right now.

Too young, I have lost my father, my friend, my moral compass. And the saying of goodbye has forced a different perspective on priorities.

Hoping to get back into a groove as things settle down. Until then you will have to content yourself with this. One for the activists and another for the ponderers:

Government for sale?

This, for memorial day, comes in two parts:

Part 1



Part 2:

Democratic Glee and a Quote from the Preznit

We all know I hate Chris Matthews. But since he has decided to run for Senate and needs to feather his own nest with Democrats to lay a foundation for that, now he is all about Obama.

But that is another post.

Take a look at our opposition in Novemeber. We Democrats will really have to put in some effort if we want to screw this one up.

Wonderful smackdown and exposure of Republican ignorance.








I really have nothing more to say about our chances in November than to say, "watch this."

An explanation and a laugh

I have not used this as a personal blog. From the early email "postings" until now, I have blogged about the political, not the personal. I don't really expect that to change.

But I am moving through another transition period in my life, as my father's health continues to fail, and whether or not he manages to recover from this latest crisis, it is still true that we are all, those that love him, trying to be there for him during this last transition in his life.

So my posting here is affected, both in its frequency and perhaps, ultimately, in its content.

I needed a laugh tonight, so you get one, too.

Please Care about FISA

With his brilliant sarcasm, Hunter at DKos explains better than I ever can why you should care about FISA. This is worth excerpting in full.

The You've Got Nothing To Hide Act of 2008
by Hunter

Thu May 08, 2008 at 07:00:25
PM PDT

To: U.S. Representative Steny H. Hoyer U.S.
Senator John D. Rockefeller

Honorable Gentlemen --
I see from the news that the telecom industry efforts to receive blanket immunity for violation of this nation's domestic surveillance laws are still quite active. Their campaign to place pressure on the Congress via the placement of industry funded, faux-grassroots ads, their willingness to draft proposals for how, exactly, their own immunity should be phrased, the continuing refusal to actually describe what it is they are asking immunity for -- all impressive efforts. And they have what can only be described as a true champion in the Bush Administration, which has acted nobly to protect the interests of these fine companies. So it seems only natural that right-thinking legislators such as yourselves would want to go along, so as to not rock the boat.

It seems, then, we are at a bit of an impasse. You want to provide the industry immunity for still-unknown years of illegal surveillance, immunity the industry is adamantly demanding. But at the moment, you cannot rouse sufficient support for the act because it would make you all look like cheap, easily bought corporatophiles in the pocket of some of the highest paid lobbyists in the land -- mere legislative hacks who can be bought off with trinkets, or threatened with bullying advertisements, or who believe laws are negotiable things, depending on how much money you have or how powerful your friends are. This isbecause he public, against all expectations, is actually paying attention.

Fear not: I have a bargain to strike. I would like to announce that we, the slovenly and ignorant public, would be willing to drop our unreasonable outrage over corporations in this nation being given blanket retroactive immunity for violating both federal law and our own personal privacy... for a price of our own. A quid pro quo, if you will -- and certainly, I expect you are well familiar with such arrangements. We simply want a little payback, in order to make sure that you in Congress are asked to live according to the same rules as the rest of us.

Here is my proposal. We, the public, should be allowed to spy on you, and all those you come in contact with, with similar promisees of amnesty. For each member of Congress, I propose we set up a collective internet site. This site will allow interested members of the public to, in realtime, monitor your every activity to assure ourselves that none of you are committing illegal or terrorist-enabling acts at any given moment of the day. The primary feature will be the ability to listen in to any conversation you may be having, whether it be on your work phone, your home phone, your cell phone, text messages, email -- whatever. These conversations will be streamed to the internet, so that they may be monitored by responsible members of the public. The contact information of whoever it is you are talking to at that moment at time will also be displayed and tracked -- whether it be your wife or husband, child, doctor, secret mistress, whoever -- so that we can monitor them as well. You know, just to be safe.

You can trust us, as members of the public, to be discreet. We will only listen and watch, and will not abuse the information. After all, what could any of you possibly have to hide? Only someone intent on criminal acts objects to being monitored proactively. On the contrary, you should be grateful to us: by listening to your every phone call and reading your every communication, we can only help you to prove that you have nothing to hide. I am unfamiliar with the vagaries of American law these days, but my understanding is that this ongoing surveillance will make you even more innocent than you were before. Perhaps you will even be twice as innocent as before, or four times as innocent -- what patriot could resist?

This, though, is still not quite the proper balance between your privacy and our needs as citizens. We need more of a total information awareness into your doings -- you know, just to be sure you are not terrorists, or at the very least secretly drug dealers or ethnic or something. You will therefore have all your personal bills posted to the same website: credit card bills, mortgage statements, monthly electricity usage, bank statements, etc. You need not worry, of course, about doing this yourself: there are companies already tracking all of this information, and government projects dedicated to sweeping it up to look for suspicious patterns.

Again, there is nothing you could possibly have to hide... unless, perhaps, you have taken any trips abroad lately? That could cause some problems. Or if you have eaten at the same restaurants as other people being investigated... or have an unusual pattern of travel within the country... or have moved, recently. Oh -- or have bought more than one bottle of cough syrup in the last few months, or have acquaintances withsuspicious-sounding names, or own your own business. Aside from that, you should be in the clear.

I admit, this at first sounds intrusive. Consider this, though: what if one of your fellow Congressmen turned out to be -- and I pause, here, for dramatic effect -- a terrorist sympathizer? Sure, you consider the possibility unlikely, but if there was even the slightest, slightest chance that someone surrounding you was a secret Jihadist, would you not be willing to give up any amount of privacy, in order to prove your own innocence and help the authorities (in this case, we watchful members of the public) narrow down the list of subjects by conducting surveillance upon each of you, one by one, to ensure you are not planning something criminal?

There is, of course, one small detail that ruins all of this. Surveillance of American citizens without due process or cause is, sadly, illegal. In order for us to do it, then, you will have to grant us, your own constituents, the same immunities that you have been struggling so valiantly to provide to the telecommunications industry. I am sorry to report we have no lobbyists. We have few people willing to type up the laws for you, in order to deliver them onto your desks. We do, however, have the advantage of being voters -- one of the few remaining perks of being a citizen of this nation that is not yet shared by corporations -- and so one can certainly presume that we would look favorably upon any grant of immunity for our own illegal acts, come your next election. And I cannot help but point out that while the Bush administration and telecommunications companies conspired to do something illegal, then demand immunity after the fact, we mere citizens are following a much more responsible path of asking you up front to let us do the deed. Surely, that shows far more respect for the laws of this great nation than either Bush or his compatriots have deigned, does it not?

So, what say you? Can we citizens be granted these extra-legal powers that the telecommunications companies have been demanding, lest they have to face civil suits for violating the laws of the nation? Can we be granted the same illegal powers of espionage that the Bush administration has squeezed from you with barely a squeak, on your parts? Can we violate your privacy with abandon, ignore the laws and the courts, listen in on your most personal phone calls, thumb through your monthly purchases, follow your movements, spy on those that contact you, and if ever caught doing anything that does violate existing law, simply receive immunity from all unfortunate laws that might apply?

You are looking for a deal to be struck in order to condone the violation our privacy and make the illegal legal.

Fine; these are our terms. Unless you are terrorists, I think you will find our requests not only fair, but truly patriotic.

There is another matter that needs addressing, which is that it may be necessary at some point to torture one or two of you, just to make very, very certain that you do not know something about terrorists that you perhaps might be hiding. No need to worry about that now; we can address that in separate legislation.

Your humble citizen,

To all my lazy activists

Please, please, PLEASE act on FISA. I really don't think I am being histrionic to suggest that we are smack dab in the middle of a constitutional crisis that most people are refusing to see with this administration. That's what this is really about. The repubs try to frame it as a trial lawyer issue, because of course cash is the only currency they have. But this is about bringing the light of day to just exactly what happened at the hands of this administration, and the only way to do that is through the courts.

Credo/Working Assets is helping you out on FISA. Just click here, and they do all the work for you! Just sign on and use the letter they have composed or do your own.

They were a little too polite for my taste, so I wrote my own.

FISA -- It's Not Over Yet

FDL and Glenzilla are on it. The Blue Dogs are at it again, trying to work out something for those telecom dollars that have poured out.

And I don’t even care that my current readership don’t seem to want to get active. This assault on our constitution is one of the big reasons I began blogging.

Voting Against Sexism

I have quit debating people about Hillary Clinton, and you will note that my blogging on the subject has also diminished. For most of us here in the Midwest, the entire argument is only academic anyway (since both Missouri and Illinois have already held their primaries) and, regardless of how they may feel today, I assume that most people with whom I converse are going to support whomever the Democratic nominee turns out to be, since McCain is a complete WHACKJOB!

I’m tired of feeling like I have to apologize or explain why I support the person I feel to be more qualified – in both experience and temperament – to lead this country. And it has been particularly upsetting to hear some of the most sexist, double-standard comments coming from people I care alot about.

But if I didn’t support Hillary for any other reason, Digby provides a nice panoramic view of the latest wave in the media’s sexist tantrum. As Robin Morgan said: “I don’t support Hillary because she is a woman; I support her because I am a woman.”

And just to finish things off, here’s a little section of the longest, most drawn out insult to Clinton supporters I have yet to read, from the New York Magazine:

Yet the flip side of all this is why Clinton’s demographically determined
constituencies haven’t felt the Obama magic, why for them he’s an acquired
taste, like espresso. It’s not only that the people who create and run the
media—and who love Obama—occupy the social and cultural upper rungs. The world
depicted in “the media,” broadly construed—not just straight journalism but
everything we watch and read and hear—is overwhelmingly a bright, shiny,
upscale, youngish world. Uneducated white people, residents of the so-called C
and D counties, and the elderly—in other words, Hillary Clinton voters—are
seldom allowed into the mass-media foreground, and when they appear it’s usually
as bathetic figures, victims or losers. (And working-class black pop culture is
considered part of the sexy mainstream in a way that working-class white pop
culture is not.) The shocking eclipse of Hillary (an eight-figure net worth,
maybe, but at least she’s got a normal American name and a Wal-Mart shopper’s
bad hair and big bum) by this fashionable (black!) media darling is one more
slap in the face for the people chronically excluded from the pretty mediascape
version of America, one more damn new new thing that they don’t really get. It
makes them … bitter, and the bitterness makes them cling to the Clintons.

So Clinton supporters are only the “uneducated white people and… elderly”, who are nothing but “victims and losers”, and he can’t stop himself from the sexist judgment that Hillary has “a Wal-Mart shoppers bad hair and big bum”, which would explain why we are, of course, “bitter”.

There can be no reason other than racism for any MAN to support Clinton, though it’s obvious why we bitter, older women with big asses and bad hair do so.

If Obama wants to understand better why he can’t connect with certain groups of supporters, perhaps he should check out his own bandwagon. It explains a lot.

Unaccountable

The MSM is the most influential institution in the US that is accountable to no one but themselves (other than the Bush administration, but that's another post.) They dominate broadcast and print media, and they are completely out of self-control.

After allowing themselves to be baited into complicity with conservative administrations since the 1980s, they completely failed to serve their institutional function in the lead up to the Iraq War. I don’t think I even need to provide links to document my case on that subject.

Two weeks ago, they were exposed to be vulnerable (or worse, complicit) with a straight-up government propaganda effort, which I posted here.

Shockingly, none of the networks has seen fit to cover their own incompetent failures.

From the blatant sexism expressed almost routinely against Hillary, to the circus sideshow they have made of Wright’s assault on Obama, they have disgraced themselves and committed the cardinal sin of journalism: they have become the story.