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.
Just Don't
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:
