HOLD BUSH AND CHENEY ACCOUNTABLE
RIGHT WING WRECKAGE
It's ironic when you think about it. The traditional idea of conservatism is to conserve, to be cautious. What gets called "conservative" now is about destruction: destruction of the economy, destruction of the environment, destruction of civil liberties. It comes straight out of Orwell's 1984. The people who shout "freedom" are the destroyers of freedom.
Shakespeare described conservatives well when he wrote in A Midsummer's Night Dream: "The jaws of darkness do devour it up: So quick bright things come to confusion."
My prevailing mood these days is weariness. I have a job I absolutely loathe and can't leave because of the economic disaster left by the Bush administration. Hopes for universal health care, which this country desperately needs, appear to be dimming. The war in Afghanistan is actually escalating. News on the environmental front is constantly depressing. It seems the human race is determined to destroy our own planet. The "jaws of darkness" do indeed "devour it up."
Showing posts with label conservatives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservatives. Show all posts
Thursday, April 26, 2007
April 26, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
GUN DEATHS
It's really perverse that people like Newt Gingrich try to blame societal violence on liberals. I'm sure they try to claim it's the "liberal media" TV shows and movies depicting violence that inspire violence by others. It can't be the easy access to and general glorification of guns, can it? What Hollywood does, after all, is free market capitalism. Violence sells. If it didn't sell, we wouldn't see an endless parade of violent movies and television shows. The number of deaths due to gun violence are appalling. As Bob Herbert points out here, more people have died due to gun violence since 1968 than in all the combat deaths in all of our wars. The column is linked at www.welcome-to-pottersville.com:
I had coffee the other day with Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and she mentioned that since the murders of Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, well over a million Americans have been killed by firearms in the United States. That’s more than the combined U.S. combat deaths in all the wars in all of American history.
"We’re losing eight children and teenagers a day to gun violence," she said. "As far as young people are concerned, we lose the equivalent of the massacre at Virginia Tech about every four days."
The first step in overcoming an addiction is to acknowledge it. Americans are addicted to violence, specifically gun violence. We profess to be appalled at every gruesome outbreak of mass murder (it’s no big deal when just two, three or four people are killed at a time), but there’s no evidence that we have the will to pull the guns out of circulation, or even to register the weapons and properly screen and train their owners.
IN THE REPTILE HOUSE
I don't feel the need to hear "what the other side is saying." I don't feel compelled to listen to Limbaugh or Hannity or O'Reilly or the other neofascists who love war, guns, inequality, and global warming. I can get a fair sampling just reading the letters page of The Fresno Bee. But this writer sums up what you hear when you venture in the reptile house of right-wing nut jobs. This column by Jason Rothenberg is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
If you, like me, find yourself wondering who the hell makes up this mysterious 33% of the country that still thinks Bush is doing a heckuva job, then this is the place to find your answers. It's a bit like going to the reptile house at the zoo. All those nasty little lizards and snakes behind glass. Little signs next to the tanks explaining where they live, and what harm they could do. No real danger to you. It's here, in the world wide web's very own reptile house, that you'll see the White House/Fox News/Drudge Report nexis reaching it's loyal foot soldiers. They've got it all. Global warming is bull ****. Stem cell research is murder. Tom Delay is not a crook. Cheney isn't pure evil. Bush is still the man. I'm telling you. It's genius. Looking for the "good news stories" out of Iraq that the mainstream media is ignoring. Look no further than The Corner. On The Corner, the surge is working. On The Corner, the economy is so good that you'd have to be an idiot (or a liberal) not to feel it. On The Corner, the fact that 5 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices are Catholic isn't scary, it's just a start. On The Corner, speaking out against this president's war is treasonous, but taking us to war based on a lie is not. In fact, on The Corner, it wasn't a lie. Saddam did have those damn disappearing weapons, and those damn hard to prove ties to Osama. If you believe any of those things, then get yourself on down to The Corner. You won't be sorry.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
GUN DEATHS
It's really perverse that people like Newt Gingrich try to blame societal violence on liberals. I'm sure they try to claim it's the "liberal media" TV shows and movies depicting violence that inspire violence by others. It can't be the easy access to and general glorification of guns, can it? What Hollywood does, after all, is free market capitalism. Violence sells. If it didn't sell, we wouldn't see an endless parade of violent movies and television shows. The number of deaths due to gun violence are appalling. As Bob Herbert points out here, more people have died due to gun violence since 1968 than in all the combat deaths in all of our wars. The column is linked at www.welcome-to-pottersville.com:
I had coffee the other day with Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and she mentioned that since the murders of Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, well over a million Americans have been killed by firearms in the United States. That’s more than the combined U.S. combat deaths in all the wars in all of American history.
"We’re losing eight children and teenagers a day to gun violence," she said. "As far as young people are concerned, we lose the equivalent of the massacre at Virginia Tech about every four days."
The first step in overcoming an addiction is to acknowledge it. Americans are addicted to violence, specifically gun violence. We profess to be appalled at every gruesome outbreak of mass murder (it’s no big deal when just two, three or four people are killed at a time), but there’s no evidence that we have the will to pull the guns out of circulation, or even to register the weapons and properly screen and train their owners.
IN THE REPTILE HOUSE
I don't feel the need to hear "what the other side is saying." I don't feel compelled to listen to Limbaugh or Hannity or O'Reilly or the other neofascists who love war, guns, inequality, and global warming. I can get a fair sampling just reading the letters page of The Fresno Bee. But this writer sums up what you hear when you venture in the reptile house of right-wing nut jobs. This column by Jason Rothenberg is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
If you, like me, find yourself wondering who the hell makes up this mysterious 33% of the country that still thinks Bush is doing a heckuva job, then this is the place to find your answers. It's a bit like going to the reptile house at the zoo. All those nasty little lizards and snakes behind glass. Little signs next to the tanks explaining where they live, and what harm they could do. No real danger to you. It's here, in the world wide web's very own reptile house, that you'll see the White House/Fox News/Drudge Report nexis reaching it's loyal foot soldiers. They've got it all. Global warming is bull ****. Stem cell research is murder. Tom Delay is not a crook. Cheney isn't pure evil. Bush is still the man. I'm telling you. It's genius. Looking for the "good news stories" out of Iraq that the mainstream media is ignoring. Look no further than The Corner. On The Corner, the surge is working. On The Corner, the economy is so good that you'd have to be an idiot (or a liberal) not to feel it. On The Corner, the fact that 5 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices are Catholic isn't scary, it's just a start. On The Corner, speaking out against this president's war is treasonous, but taking us to war based on a lie is not. In fact, on The Corner, it wasn't a lie. Saddam did have those damn disappearing weapons, and those damn hard to prove ties to Osama. If you believe any of those things, then get yourself on down to The Corner. You won't be sorry.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
April 12, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE STRATEGY TO DRIVE DOWN WAGES
A good website called www.conceptualguerilla.com talks about "cheap labor conservatives." Conservatives like to maximize profits for the already well to do and if that means suppressing wages so be it. These days corporations are crying "labor shortage" as an excuse to bring in cheaper labor from outside the United States. This column by David Sirota is at www.workingforchange.com:
We are expected, for instance, to ignore academic studies published recently by the National Academy of Sciences showing that, in fact, there is no shortage of high-tech engineers here in America. We are expected to ignore the data showing that companies are using the H-1B program to drive down domestic workers' wages by forcing them into competition with imported workers from impoverished countries. We are expected, in short, to believe that layoffs, wage stagnation and pension/health care cutbacks have absolutely nothing to do with corporate executives trying to line their own pockets, and everything to do with workers themselves - and we are expected to believe all this at the very same time new government data shows that the share of national income going to wages is at a record low, and the share going to corporate profits is at a record high.
Yet a few paragraphs into the Businessweek article, the real story starts to trickle out:
"A global labor crunch, already being felt by some employers, appears to have intensified in recent months. That's in spite of widely publicized layoffs, including Citigroup's plans to shed as many as 15,000 staffers... Corporations are determined to keep labor costs under control, so they're reaching deeper into their bag of tricks...Some are lowering their standards for new hires or moving operations to virgin territories other outsourcers haven't discovered... Economists, of course, will tell you there's no such thing as a labor shortage. From a worker's viewpoint, many so-called shortages could quickly be solved if employers were to offer more money. And worldwide, millions of people still can't find jobs. The strongest evidence that there's no general shortage today is that overall worker pay has barely outpaced inflation."
There, finally, is the real story - the story that corporate executives and staid political pundits don't want anyone to talk about: The Great Labor Shortage Lie (related, of course, to the Great Education Myth - the one I've debunked before that claims all of working America's problems are due to a bad education system, and that if we just fixed our education system, everything would be great for workers). There's no labor shortage - there's a cheap labor shortage, because, as the free market fundamentalists all love to say, supply and demand rules everything. And if that's the case - then there's no way you can have a real labor supply shortage at the very same time wages (the monetized manifestation of employer demand for labor) continue to stagnate.
UNBELIEVABLE
Today there is a letter in The Fresno Bee from a guy claiming that global warming is God's work and that humans shouldn't "try to control the weather." It's simply amazing how some people don't bother to think at all. I don't believe there is a God. I don't think there is much evidence there is. But if there is some supernatural being that can be called God, I would have lots of questions.
If God is in such control, we have to assume that God has allowed thousands of years of cruelty and murder to proceed without interfering. We have to believe that God stood idly by and allowed the Nazi Holocaust. We have to believe that God allows all manner of tragedies from hurricanes to earthquakes that kill thousands and deprive others of their homes and livelihoods. We have to believe that God permits the ravages of cancer and AIDS and other hideous diseases. If such a being exists, he, she, or it doesn't deserve reverence.
CHENEY THE LIAR
Dick Cheney was on gasbag Limbaugh's show the other day still trying to claim a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. Those claims have been disproved over and over again. Cheney, Bush, and their cadre lied about the reasons for this war and they're lying still. It's going to take a very long time for the American government to have any credibility in the world again. This column by Carl Levin is at www.latimes.com:
It is incredible that more than four years after the invasion, the vice president is still trying to convince the public that Saddam Hussein's regime was connected to Al Qaeda and that Zarqawi's presence in Iraq was evidence of a connection.
While the vice president doesn't say directly that there was a tie between the two, his clear purpose is to blur the line between Al Qaeda — the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks — and the Iraqi dictator in order to justify the war in Iraq.
The problem is, that's simply not supported by the facts or by our intelligence community — and everyone except the vice president acknowledges it. In September, for example, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in a bipartisan report that Hussein was "distrustful of Al Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from Al Qaeda to provide material or operational support." And the CIA reported a year earlier, in October 2005, that the Iraqi regime "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates." As the Intelligence Committee report noted, the Iraqi intelligence service was actually trying to capture Zarqawi, who was in Baghdad under an alias. Is the vice president willfully ignoring what the rest of the government has concluded? Or does he have access to information he hasn't shared with us? If so, he should produce it.
The vice president has a clear, documented pattern of overstating and misstating information with regard to Iraq. He also, for instance, continued to claim that 9/11 terrorist Mohamed Atta may have met with an Iraqi agent in Prague — long after the intelligence community believed otherwise. Again, his obvious purpose is to link Hussein's regime with Sept. 11, even though the rest of the world has concluded that no such link exists.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE STRATEGY TO DRIVE DOWN WAGES
A good website called www.conceptualguerilla.com talks about "cheap labor conservatives." Conservatives like to maximize profits for the already well to do and if that means suppressing wages so be it. These days corporations are crying "labor shortage" as an excuse to bring in cheaper labor from outside the United States. This column by David Sirota is at www.workingforchange.com:
We are expected, for instance, to ignore academic studies published recently by the National Academy of Sciences showing that, in fact, there is no shortage of high-tech engineers here in America. We are expected to ignore the data showing that companies are using the H-1B program to drive down domestic workers' wages by forcing them into competition with imported workers from impoverished countries. We are expected, in short, to believe that layoffs, wage stagnation and pension/health care cutbacks have absolutely nothing to do with corporate executives trying to line their own pockets, and everything to do with workers themselves - and we are expected to believe all this at the very same time new government data shows that the share of national income going to wages is at a record low, and the share going to corporate profits is at a record high.
Yet a few paragraphs into the Businessweek article, the real story starts to trickle out:
"A global labor crunch, already being felt by some employers, appears to have intensified in recent months. That's in spite of widely publicized layoffs, including Citigroup's plans to shed as many as 15,000 staffers... Corporations are determined to keep labor costs under control, so they're reaching deeper into their bag of tricks...Some are lowering their standards for new hires or moving operations to virgin territories other outsourcers haven't discovered... Economists, of course, will tell you there's no such thing as a labor shortage. From a worker's viewpoint, many so-called shortages could quickly be solved if employers were to offer more money. And worldwide, millions of people still can't find jobs. The strongest evidence that there's no general shortage today is that overall worker pay has barely outpaced inflation."
There, finally, is the real story - the story that corporate executives and staid political pundits don't want anyone to talk about: The Great Labor Shortage Lie (related, of course, to the Great Education Myth - the one I've debunked before that claims all of working America's problems are due to a bad education system, and that if we just fixed our education system, everything would be great for workers). There's no labor shortage - there's a cheap labor shortage, because, as the free market fundamentalists all love to say, supply and demand rules everything. And if that's the case - then there's no way you can have a real labor supply shortage at the very same time wages (the monetized manifestation of employer demand for labor) continue to stagnate.
UNBELIEVABLE
Today there is a letter in The Fresno Bee from a guy claiming that global warming is God's work and that humans shouldn't "try to control the weather." It's simply amazing how some people don't bother to think at all. I don't believe there is a God. I don't think there is much evidence there is. But if there is some supernatural being that can be called God, I would have lots of questions.
If God is in such control, we have to assume that God has allowed thousands of years of cruelty and murder to proceed without interfering. We have to believe that God stood idly by and allowed the Nazi Holocaust. We have to believe that God allows all manner of tragedies from hurricanes to earthquakes that kill thousands and deprive others of their homes and livelihoods. We have to believe that God permits the ravages of cancer and AIDS and other hideous diseases. If such a being exists, he, she, or it doesn't deserve reverence.
CHENEY THE LIAR
Dick Cheney was on gasbag Limbaugh's show the other day still trying to claim a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. Those claims have been disproved over and over again. Cheney, Bush, and their cadre lied about the reasons for this war and they're lying still. It's going to take a very long time for the American government to have any credibility in the world again. This column by Carl Levin is at www.latimes.com:
It is incredible that more than four years after the invasion, the vice president is still trying to convince the public that Saddam Hussein's regime was connected to Al Qaeda and that Zarqawi's presence in Iraq was evidence of a connection.
While the vice president doesn't say directly that there was a tie between the two, his clear purpose is to blur the line between Al Qaeda — the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks — and the Iraqi dictator in order to justify the war in Iraq.
The problem is, that's simply not supported by the facts or by our intelligence community — and everyone except the vice president acknowledges it. In September, for example, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in a bipartisan report that Hussein was "distrustful of Al Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from Al Qaeda to provide material or operational support." And the CIA reported a year earlier, in October 2005, that the Iraqi regime "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates." As the Intelligence Committee report noted, the Iraqi intelligence service was actually trying to capture Zarqawi, who was in Baghdad under an alias. Is the vice president willfully ignoring what the rest of the government has concluded? Or does he have access to information he hasn't shared with us? If so, he should produce it.
The vice president has a clear, documented pattern of overstating and misstating information with regard to Iraq. He also, for instance, continued to claim that 9/11 terrorist Mohamed Atta may have met with an Iraqi agent in Prague — long after the intelligence community believed otherwise. Again, his obvious purpose is to link Hussein's regime with Sept. 11, even though the rest of the world has concluded that no such link exists.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
April 04, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
DENYING GLOBAL WARMING
There are a few traits that define conservatives. Callousness is one of those traits. Ignorance is another. Greed may be the most observable trait of all. And greed is a large part of the reason right-wingers don't acknowledge the reality of global warming. There's profit in those hydrocarbons, at least in the short term. Something, the Deity, or technology, will bail us out in a few years. In the meantime, pollute, emit, and be merry. This column by Jon Carroll is at www.sfgate.com:
One of the stranger things to happen in recent political discourse -- and this is a crowded field -- is the morphing of global warming into a left-wing plot, a conspiracy by godless scientists to ... well, it's not clear what benefit the scientists get from spreading lies about global warming. Maybe they just want research money to study this nonexistent warming thing.
I have a pretty good idea where that meme started. If you believe that global warming is man-made, then you believe that greenhouse gases are a bad thing. If you believe they're a bad thing, you believe they should be reduced. And reducing greenhouse gases would mean using less petroleum, in all its myriad forms. And since the current administration is dedicated to the protection of petroleum companies, it is only natural that it would try to convince its base that somehow global warming is being promoted by the same people who approve of gay marriage, abortion and secular schools.
The idea that global warming is a liberal plot is a lunatic notion, but it's surprising how closely it maps with public opinion. It's an extremely successful con job, and it's bought the oil companies at least a decade of profits and indolence. It's not clear why evangelical Christians -- or that portion of them that are die-hard supporters of George Bush -- should be so interested in the financial well-being of oil companies. It's not as if they're getting anything out of it.
AUTHORITARIAN CREATIONISTS
It's probably safe to say that most religions are authoritarian, and especially fundamentalist religions. They are the people who are absolutely certain they are God's chosen few. It's their way or no way at all. We see that in issues like abortion and we see it in the creation vs. evolution debate. If you look at the evidence, there's no denying the reality of evolution. Religious doctrine, on the other hand, can quickly be shot full of holes. This commentary by Philip Slater is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
Creationists don't believe in democracy--don't believe that a complex system can arise spontaneously, without a dictator. One wonders why they are so virulently anti-communist, since they share the same deep commitment to centralized power. Creationism says order cannot evolve from interaction among equals.
The great visionary Mary Parker Follett called democracy a form of self-creating coherence, and this tendency toward spontaneous integration by living things is fundamental in nature. It's also a deeply spiritual concept for many people, but anathema to most mainstream religions, which are, at their core, deeply authoritarian.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
DENYING GLOBAL WARMING
There are a few traits that define conservatives. Callousness is one of those traits. Ignorance is another. Greed may be the most observable trait of all. And greed is a large part of the reason right-wingers don't acknowledge the reality of global warming. There's profit in those hydrocarbons, at least in the short term. Something, the Deity, or technology, will bail us out in a few years. In the meantime, pollute, emit, and be merry. This column by Jon Carroll is at www.sfgate.com:
One of the stranger things to happen in recent political discourse -- and this is a crowded field -- is the morphing of global warming into a left-wing plot, a conspiracy by godless scientists to ... well, it's not clear what benefit the scientists get from spreading lies about global warming. Maybe they just want research money to study this nonexistent warming thing.
I have a pretty good idea where that meme started. If you believe that global warming is man-made, then you believe that greenhouse gases are a bad thing. If you believe they're a bad thing, you believe they should be reduced. And reducing greenhouse gases would mean using less petroleum, in all its myriad forms. And since the current administration is dedicated to the protection of petroleum companies, it is only natural that it would try to convince its base that somehow global warming is being promoted by the same people who approve of gay marriage, abortion and secular schools.
The idea that global warming is a liberal plot is a lunatic notion, but it's surprising how closely it maps with public opinion. It's an extremely successful con job, and it's bought the oil companies at least a decade of profits and indolence. It's not clear why evangelical Christians -- or that portion of them that are die-hard supporters of George Bush -- should be so interested in the financial well-being of oil companies. It's not as if they're getting anything out of it.
AUTHORITARIAN CREATIONISTS
It's probably safe to say that most religions are authoritarian, and especially fundamentalist religions. They are the people who are absolutely certain they are God's chosen few. It's their way or no way at all. We see that in issues like abortion and we see it in the creation vs. evolution debate. If you look at the evidence, there's no denying the reality of evolution. Religious doctrine, on the other hand, can quickly be shot full of holes. This commentary by Philip Slater is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
Creationists don't believe in democracy--don't believe that a complex system can arise spontaneously, without a dictator. One wonders why they are so virulently anti-communist, since they share the same deep commitment to centralized power. Creationism says order cannot evolve from interaction among equals.
The great visionary Mary Parker Follett called democracy a form of self-creating coherence, and this tendency toward spontaneous integration by living things is fundamental in nature. It's also a deeply spiritual concept for many people, but anathema to most mainstream religions, which are, at their core, deeply authoritarian.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
February 22, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
TOO MANY MORONS
The Central Valley can be a difficult place to live if you have an IQ above room temperature. Today is reactionary day in the letters page of The Fresno Bee. One idiot says he'll forgive the Dixie Chicks when the Vietnam veterans forgive Jane Fonda. One really over-the-top jerk refers to the "socialist" press and calls the Democrats who voted for a non-binding resolution in the House of Representatives cut and run defeatists. We get the usual blather about this giving aid and comfort to our enemies. The fact is our enemies love the United States military being bogged down in Iraq. They couldn't have gotten a bigger gift from George W. Bush than this so-called troop surge that bogs us down even more. I wonder how Mr. Foaming at the Mouth is reacting to the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. Are the British "cut and run defeatists" too?
WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP
The neocon philosophy that gained mainstream power with Ronald Reagan is like corrosive acid on the United States. Neocon "morality" believes in the forcible creation of "democracy. " It's a "democracy" that is compliant to the wishes of the United States political and corporate elites. Torture against Americans is an outrage, but torture of other people is perfectly legitimate. Neocons and their followers can talk casually of using nuclear weapons to kill millions of people. Neocons will lie and subvert science to fight efforts against global warming. Neocons will transfer most of the country's wealth to the few at the top. Neocons will ignore an American city like New Orleans and leave it to drown. Neocons will "protect" our freedom by destroying our civil liberties. This is a good commentary by Robert Parry about the war in Iraq that is already lost. The article is at www.truthout.org:
Despite the sacrifices in lives, treasure and liberties, the painful reality is that the United States is losing the "war on terror" - in large part because too many people in the Middle East and across the globe view George W. Bush as a bully and a hypocrite.
Bush has become the ugly face of America, mouthing pretty words about freedom and democracy while threatening other nations and bludgeoning those who get in his way. Perhaps even worse, Bush has shown himself to be an incompetent commander, especially for a conflict as complicated and nuanced as this one.
Indeed, it is hard to envision how the United States can win the crucial battles for the hearts and minds of key populations if Bush remains President. Arguably, Bush has become a "clear and present danger" to the interests of the American people - yet he still has almost two years left in his term.
This predicament - the desperate need for new U.S. leadership and the difficult fact of being stuck with Bush - was underscored by the Feb. 19 lead article in the New York Times describing the revival of al-Qaeda as a worldwide terror network operating out of new bases in remote sections of Pakistan.
"American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan," the Times reported.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
TOO MANY MORONS
The Central Valley can be a difficult place to live if you have an IQ above room temperature. Today is reactionary day in the letters page of The Fresno Bee. One idiot says he'll forgive the Dixie Chicks when the Vietnam veterans forgive Jane Fonda. One really over-the-top jerk refers to the "socialist" press and calls the Democrats who voted for a non-binding resolution in the House of Representatives cut and run defeatists. We get the usual blather about this giving aid and comfort to our enemies. The fact is our enemies love the United States military being bogged down in Iraq. They couldn't have gotten a bigger gift from George W. Bush than this so-called troop surge that bogs us down even more. I wonder how Mr. Foaming at the Mouth is reacting to the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. Are the British "cut and run defeatists" too?
WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP
The neocon philosophy that gained mainstream power with Ronald Reagan is like corrosive acid on the United States. Neocon "morality" believes in the forcible creation of "democracy. " It's a "democracy" that is compliant to the wishes of the United States political and corporate elites. Torture against Americans is an outrage, but torture of other people is perfectly legitimate. Neocons and their followers can talk casually of using nuclear weapons to kill millions of people. Neocons will lie and subvert science to fight efforts against global warming. Neocons will transfer most of the country's wealth to the few at the top. Neocons will ignore an American city like New Orleans and leave it to drown. Neocons will "protect" our freedom by destroying our civil liberties. This is a good commentary by Robert Parry about the war in Iraq that is already lost. The article is at www.truthout.org:
Despite the sacrifices in lives, treasure and liberties, the painful reality is that the United States is losing the "war on terror" - in large part because too many people in the Middle East and across the globe view George W. Bush as a bully and a hypocrite.
Bush has become the ugly face of America, mouthing pretty words about freedom and democracy while threatening other nations and bludgeoning those who get in his way. Perhaps even worse, Bush has shown himself to be an incompetent commander, especially for a conflict as complicated and nuanced as this one.
Indeed, it is hard to envision how the United States can win the crucial battles for the hearts and minds of key populations if Bush remains President. Arguably, Bush has become a "clear and present danger" to the interests of the American people - yet he still has almost two years left in his term.
This predicament - the desperate need for new U.S. leadership and the difficult fact of being stuck with Bush - was underscored by the Feb. 19 lead article in the New York Times describing the revival of al-Qaeda as a worldwide terror network operating out of new bases in remote sections of Pakistan.
"American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan," the Times reported.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
February 10, 2007
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
RIGHT-WING HATE
Today's Fresno Bee features a letter from a right-winger aggrieved about "liberal vitriol." The writer was praising a column by reactionary Victor Davis Hanson that criticized Senator John Kerry. Senator Kerry had the temerity to criticize U. S. foreign policy. We get the usual homilies from the writer about our being the greatest country, where you're free to pursue your dreams, yada, yada. When the United States lives up to its ideals and respects the Bill of Rights and human rights around the world it is the best country on earth.
But we can not pretend that the U. S. record on human rights is pristine. This was a country founded on slavery and on stealing the land of native Americans. We stole territory from Mexico. Our government has overthrown legitimate governments of other countries and interfered in their affairs.
It's better to face the truth than to adopt the old hear no evil, speak no evil, or see no evil mantra some right-wingers advocate. And, as for vitriol, conservatives have some nerve to criticize when they've constantly attacked people who are different to serve the agenda of right-wingers. Attack gays, attack feminists, attack anyone who doesn't believe in their version of God, attack the poor and working people. So, as the Scripture says, pull the straw from your own eye before you talk about the vitriol of others.
GROSS DISHONESTY
If George W. Bush and his administration are ever honest about anything, it might be a sign of the Apocalypse. This editorial in The Los Angeles Times points out how the administration disguises the true financial costs of the Iraq war. The administration uses "supplementals" to make it appear that the Pentagon budget is much smaller than it really is. If this war is so righteous, such an effort to save western civilization, why can't Bush be honest about the cost? This editorial by Veronique de Rugy is at www.latimes.com:
AT THE SAME TIME that President Bush requested more than $700 billion for the Pentagon budget this week, he managed to create the impression that he was asking for the much smaller amount of $481 billion. The trick he used — socking about $235 billion into two "emergency supplemental" funding requests for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — didn't fool the public for very long. But the longer the White House and Congress continue to treat "war-related" funding as a separate item from the budget for the Department of Defense, the harder it will be to control a ballooning federal budget.
Here's how the supplemental shell game works. The official defense budget for 2008 comes to $481 billion. That's a 10% increase over last year and a 62% increase over 2001. And it conveniently fails to include a supplemental request of $141.7 billion, which brings the 2008 defense total to $622.7 billion. On top of that, the president requested a 2007 supplemental in the amount of $93.4 billion, bringing this week's entire defense "budget authority request" to $716 billion (the figure of actual outlays is even higher because it includes billions already committed to the Pentagon).
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
RIGHT-WING HATE
Today's Fresno Bee features a letter from a right-winger aggrieved about "liberal vitriol." The writer was praising a column by reactionary Victor Davis Hanson that criticized Senator John Kerry. Senator Kerry had the temerity to criticize U. S. foreign policy. We get the usual homilies from the writer about our being the greatest country, where you're free to pursue your dreams, yada, yada. When the United States lives up to its ideals and respects the Bill of Rights and human rights around the world it is the best country on earth.
But we can not pretend that the U. S. record on human rights is pristine. This was a country founded on slavery and on stealing the land of native Americans. We stole territory from Mexico. Our government has overthrown legitimate governments of other countries and interfered in their affairs.
It's better to face the truth than to adopt the old hear no evil, speak no evil, or see no evil mantra some right-wingers advocate. And, as for vitriol, conservatives have some nerve to criticize when they've constantly attacked people who are different to serve the agenda of right-wingers. Attack gays, attack feminists, attack anyone who doesn't believe in their version of God, attack the poor and working people. So, as the Scripture says, pull the straw from your own eye before you talk about the vitriol of others.
GROSS DISHONESTY
If George W. Bush and his administration are ever honest about anything, it might be a sign of the Apocalypse. This editorial in The Los Angeles Times points out how the administration disguises the true financial costs of the Iraq war. The administration uses "supplementals" to make it appear that the Pentagon budget is much smaller than it really is. If this war is so righteous, such an effort to save western civilization, why can't Bush be honest about the cost? This editorial by Veronique de Rugy is at www.latimes.com:
AT THE SAME TIME that President Bush requested more than $700 billion for the Pentagon budget this week, he managed to create the impression that he was asking for the much smaller amount of $481 billion. The trick he used — socking about $235 billion into two "emergency supplemental" funding requests for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — didn't fool the public for very long. But the longer the White House and Congress continue to treat "war-related" funding as a separate item from the budget for the Department of Defense, the harder it will be to control a ballooning federal budget.
Here's how the supplemental shell game works. The official defense budget for 2008 comes to $481 billion. That's a 10% increase over last year and a 62% increase over 2001. And it conveniently fails to include a supplemental request of $141.7 billion, which brings the 2008 defense total to $622.7 billion. On top of that, the president requested a 2007 supplemental in the amount of $93.4 billion, bringing this week's entire defense "budget authority request" to $716 billion (the figure of actual outlays is even higher because it includes billions already committed to the Pentagon).
Friday, December 22, 2006
December 22, 2006
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
MONEY FOR WAR AND NOTHING ELSE
How long have we heard about how "fiscally conservative" conservatives are? Any money that would be spent on social programs is too expensive, according to right-wingers, but they have no problem with money for war. George W. Bush's unnecessary war in Iraq is bleeding the treasury dry. But I guess, according to right-wingers, that's perfectly fiscally sound. This commentary is at www.first-draft.com:
Overall, the war in Iraq has cost about $350 billion. Combined with the conflict in Afghanistan and operations against terrorism elsewhere, the cost has topped $500 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Keep this story in mind when Republicans tell you any and all proposed health care reforms will be too expensive.
Keep this story in mind when Republicans tell you it's useless to keep "throwing money" at failing public schools.
Keep this story in mind when Republicans talk about how hospitals can't afford to treat the uninsured, or immigrants, or children of immigrants, or the poor, and should be allowed to turn patients away because there's just not enough money, apparently, to go around in this country anymore.
Keep this story in mind when you read about the homeless, as you assuredly will, this being the season when local news does their one segment on homelessness, and people grumble about supporting the poor.
ZUGSWANG
"Zugswang" is a chess term that means that every possible move results in a worse position. Maybe George W. Bush should replace "Mission Accomplished" banners with a "Zugswang" banner. Bush and his neocons have created a mess in Iraq that may not be repairable. This article by ExecBranch4Dummies is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Now that conservatives and even neo-conservatives are scattering like rats when it comes to Iraq policy, it's interesting to see Kristol stick to his man Bush while admitting that nothing has gone as well as we had been told it would go. Kristol is not an idiot; he forms complete sentences and does not scream and whine when cornered usually, though he did a little Poor Pitiful Me act last night when Jon Stewart slapped him silly.
Here is the important part of the neocon true believer mentality. We CAN'T lose in Iraq. It CAN'T happen, because it means a terrible loss of American prestige and influence, and more to the point for them, it leaves the architects of this war open to criminal charges.
So we will waste billions of dollars, hundreds (or thousands) of more American lives and thousands (or tens of thousands) of more Iraqi lives trying to fix an unfixable mess. At least in Vietnam, when things got this bad we were actually having negotiations, but that's out of the question in Bush World.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
MONEY FOR WAR AND NOTHING ELSE
How long have we heard about how "fiscally conservative" conservatives are? Any money that would be spent on social programs is too expensive, according to right-wingers, but they have no problem with money for war. George W. Bush's unnecessary war in Iraq is bleeding the treasury dry. But I guess, according to right-wingers, that's perfectly fiscally sound. This commentary is at www.first-draft.com:
Overall, the war in Iraq has cost about $350 billion. Combined with the conflict in Afghanistan and operations against terrorism elsewhere, the cost has topped $500 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Keep this story in mind when Republicans tell you any and all proposed health care reforms will be too expensive.
Keep this story in mind when Republicans tell you it's useless to keep "throwing money" at failing public schools.
Keep this story in mind when Republicans talk about how hospitals can't afford to treat the uninsured, or immigrants, or children of immigrants, or the poor, and should be allowed to turn patients away because there's just not enough money, apparently, to go around in this country anymore.
Keep this story in mind when you read about the homeless, as you assuredly will, this being the season when local news does their one segment on homelessness, and people grumble about supporting the poor.
ZUGSWANG
"Zugswang" is a chess term that means that every possible move results in a worse position. Maybe George W. Bush should replace "Mission Accomplished" banners with a "Zugswang" banner. Bush and his neocons have created a mess in Iraq that may not be repairable. This article by ExecBranch4Dummies is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Now that conservatives and even neo-conservatives are scattering like rats when it comes to Iraq policy, it's interesting to see Kristol stick to his man Bush while admitting that nothing has gone as well as we had been told it would go. Kristol is not an idiot; he forms complete sentences and does not scream and whine when cornered usually, though he did a little Poor Pitiful Me act last night when Jon Stewart slapped him silly.
Here is the important part of the neocon true believer mentality. We CAN'T lose in Iraq. It CAN'T happen, because it means a terrible loss of American prestige and influence, and more to the point for them, it leaves the architects of this war open to criminal charges.
So we will waste billions of dollars, hundreds (or thousands) of more American lives and thousands (or tens of thousands) of more Iraqi lives trying to fix an unfixable mess. At least in Vietnam, when things got this bad we were actually having negotiations, but that's out of the question in Bush World.
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