Republican Congressional Leadership Covered Up for Pedophile Foley

Disgusting.

Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

Yes, those wonderful conservatives. The guardians of the nation's morals, the darlings of the "Values Voters", the upholders of all that's good and decent.

What a river of puke.

Waterboarding Illustrated

This is an example of what Bush thinks our country should be doing.

I feel like part of me is dying, knowing that America is doing this.

(Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Right Wing Radical Theocrats Tearing Up Constitution

Don't believe me? Then read this and tell me what you think.

The radical right is trying to establish a theocracy in the United States, in blatant violation of the First Amendment. The objectives are terrifyingly simple: first, make it impossible for anyone to legally challenge them. Second, declare fundamentalist Protestant Christianity as America's "founding religion". Third, make non-Christians second class citizens. And ultimately, strip citizenship from any American who refuses to pledge allegiance to the official faith--the goal of so-called Christian Reconstructionism.

These phony, pseudo-Christians have America under attack. We need to shout about this and make our fellow citizens understand what's going on. This is one of my shouts.

And if I have to arm myself and join with others who think like me, maybe I'll have to do that someday as well. I hope not, but by God, no one is going to make me a second class citizen without a fight.

UPDATE: By the way, want to see this kind of radical right wing bigotry in action? Check here.

Twenty-One Devastating Questions About Iraq

From Tom Engelhardt, here. This is an absolutely outstanding list, one that puts the disaster in Iraq in stark relief. Some excerpts:

How many civilians are dying in the Iraqi capital, due to [the various] militias, numerous (often government-linked death squads), the Sunni insurgency, and al-Qaeda-in-Mesopotamia-style terrorism?

5,106 people in July and August, according to a recently released United Nations report. The previous, still staggering but significantly lower figure of 3,391 offered for those months relied on body counts only from the city morgue. The UN report also includes deaths at the city's overtaxed hospitals. With the Bush administration bringing thousands of extra U.S. and Iraqi soldiers into the capital in August, death tolls went down somewhat for a few weeks, but began rising again towards month's end. August figures on civilian wounded -- 4,309 -- rose 14% over July's figures and, by late September, suicide bombings were at their highest level since the invasion.

How many Iraqis are being tortured in Baghdad at present?

Precise numbers are obviously in short supply on this one, but large numbers of bodies are found in and around the capital every single day, a result of the roiling civil war already underway there. These bodies, as Oppel of the Times describes them, commonly display a variety of signs of torture including: "gouged-out eyeballs… wounds… in the head and genitals, broken bones of legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns… acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin… missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails." The UN's chief anti-torture expert, Manfred Nowak, believes that torture in Iraq is now not only "totally out of hand," but "worse" than under Saddam Hussein.

How many Iraqi civilians are being killed countrywide?

The UN Report offers figures on this: 1,493 dead, over and above the dead of Baghdad. However, these figures are surely undercounts. Oppel points out, for instance, that officials in al-Anbar Province, the heartland of the Sunni insurgency "and one of the deadliest regions in Iraq, reported no deaths in July." Meanwhile, in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, deaths not only seem to be on the rise, but higher than previously estimated. The intrepid British journalist Patrick Cockburn recently visited the province. It's not a place, he comments parenthetically, "to make a mistake in map reading." (Enter the wrong area or neighborhood and you're dead.) Diyala, he reports, is now largely under the control of Sunni insurgents who are "close to establishing a ‘Taliban republic' in the region." On casualties, he writes: "Going by the accounts of police and government officials in the province, the death toll outside Baghdad may be far higher than previously reported." The head of Diyala's Provincial Council (who has so far escaped two assassination attempts) told Cockburn that he believed "on average, 100 people are being killed in Diyala every week." ("Many of those who die disappear forever, thrown into the Diyala River or buried in date palm groves and fruit orchards.") Even at the death counts in the UN report, we're talking about close to 40,000 Iraqi deaths a year. We have no way of knowing how much higher the real figure is.

This is the fruit of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld's lies and incompetence. It is imperative that the Republican enablers of these sociopaths be voted from office and the Administration politically crippled.

The Bush-Abramoff Connection

ABC News has the story, via You Tube here.

The cesspool of corruption that is the modern Republican Party is truly something to behold, as is the relentless lying of the Bush White House, which acknowledged only two contacts with Abramoff. It's all part of the whole criminal organization that the far right of the Republican Party has morphed into.

Our Country is Dying

The House is ramming through legislation to legalize warrantless wiretapping.

Congress has approved a measure to let Bush arrest anyone he suspects of being "pro-terror". The measure allows such people to be tortured, denied legal protection, and held without charge indefinitely. It means that habeas corpus rights are disappearing.

The crushing of our Constitution looms.

Bush and Cheney are running secret prisons.

The Administration is sending suspected terrorists to countries that practice the most monstrous torments, whether those suspected "terrorists" actually did anything or not.

Most Democrats are afraid to speak up too loudly against these outrages for fear that our right wing media machine will label them as traitors, forgetting the machine will label them as traitors no matter what they do.

Iraq has descended into such a horrible nightmare of suffering that it's almost unbearable to read about it. Rival groups are routinely inflicting the most hideous tortures on each other in a demented wave of cruelty that makes A Clockwork Orange look like a children's book. Morgues in Baghdad are overflowing. Our soldiers and Marines are caught in the middle of this hell.

Religious radicals are screaming that anyone who opposes Bush should be tried for treason, including conservative Republicans who question him about anything. Children in "Jesus Camp" are being brainwashed to see Bush as a Christ figure.

The Republicans stand a reasonably good chance of retaining control of Congress. And most people won't even vote.

War with Iran, with all its dire consequences, is already being planned.

The economy is moving inexorably toward crisis, brought on by reckless spending and irresponsible tax cuts. Housing is already in crisis.

The America I knew is dying. And not many people seem to give a rat's ass.

So, I'll move my family off the mainland, to Hawaii, and we'll try to hide there. If worse comes to worst, maybe Australia or New Zealand will take us in.

But I wouldn't blame them if they didn't.

George Felix Macaca!

Stephen Colbert Strikes Again

Watch it here.

This guy is a national treasure.

Roskam: Right Wing Fanatic, Total Jackass

The repulsive Peter Roskam is the Republican candidate for the House in IL-6. Check out his "sterling" record, courtesy of MyDD back in March:

Meanwhile, the Republicans lined up their candidate. The chosen candidate is Illinois State Senator Peter Roskam (R). Roskam, a native of Elmhurst represents Illinois 48th Senate District. Roskam has served as an aide to Tom Delay and has raised over a million dollars through fundraising events sponsored by Dennis Hastert, Tom Delay, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney. Roskam has supported such far-right proposals as the destruction of public education in favor of private schools. It would be hard to cast a more representative poster-boy for the K Street, Abramoff, money driven, ideological purist of the far right than Peter Roskam. Roskam sits on both the State Senate's Insurance Committee and Environment & Energy Committee. Both committees are prime targets of anti-consumer special interests.

Not only a right wing nutcase, but a corrupt right wing nutcase, dirty all the way down to his toenails. His opponent? Democratic war hero Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs serving her country in Iraq. Here's what Roskam had to say to her tonight:

Two candidates vying for retiring GOP Rep. Henry Hyde's job squared off in a radio debate Friday, with Democrat Tammy Duckworth saying the U.S. needs to focus on getting its troops out of Iraq and Republican Peter Roskam contending that she was advocating a "cut-and-run" strategy.

Yes, that's right--he used that phrase on a legless war veteran, accusing her in effect of not being sufficiently brave and putting his "military expertise" over hers--as if the right wing Republican chickenhawk understood Iraq better than the Iraq veteran!!

Asshole. These Republican bastards sink lower and lower all the time because they get away with it. It's time to kick their asses up one side and down the other and stop the conservative smears against heroic Democratic war veterans. Screw Roskam.

TAMMY DUCKWORTH FOR THE U.S. HOUSE

Little Ricky Going Down the Tubes

Uh-oh, Ricky! It looks like your campaign's in trouble, and just six weeks until the election:

Democrat Bob Casey appears to have doubled his lead over Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania's Senate race, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Casey had a 14-point lead in the Quinnipiac University Poll, with 54 percent of likely voters saying they planned to vote for him compared to 40 percent for Santorum. One percent said they wouldn't vote and 6 percent said they didn't know. Casey had a seven point lead among likely voters in a match up between the two in the same poll on Aug. 15.

On Monday, a state judge said Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli would be removed from the ballot because the party did not have enough valid signatures in its nominating petitions — a move pundits said would help Casey.

There is no room for complacency, however. You need to continue helping Bob Casey out (as I have). Santorum is a vicious fighter and he will not go down easily. Let's finish the job!

BOB CASEY FOR THE U.S. SENATE

George Allen is One Sick Son of a Bitch

We already know he's a racist bastard and a pinheaded reactionary. But stuffing a f---ing severed deer head into a black family's mail box when he was in college? To put them in their place?? My God! That is some weirdass shit. We gotta get this psycho the hell out of the Senate!

Go hit it!

JIM WEBB FOR THE U.S. SENATE

The Keith Olbermann Comment You OWE It to Yourself to See

Remarkable. Just simply remarkable. A brilliant new commentary by the Edward R. Murrow of our era. He says everything that needs to be said, and says it with a passion, eloquence, intelligence, and controlled anger that has to be experienced to be appreciated.

Thank you, Mr. Olbermann.

Gary Hart on the Dangers of War With Iran

Former U.S. Senator Gary Hart has good reasons to be aggravated with George Bush. Bush ignored the recommendations and warnings of the Hart-Rudman Commission prior to 9/11 about the vulnerability of the U.S. to a terrorist strike. Hart gave a prescient warning about the dangers of an Iraq invasion. And now he sees the Bush Administration dragging our country into a war with Iran--and he is speaking out:

It should come as no surprise if the Bush Administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election.

Were these more normal times, this would be a stunning possibility, quickly dismissed by thoughtful people as dangerous, unprovoked, and out of keeping with our national character. But we do not live in normal times.

And we do not have a government much concerned with our national character. If anything, our current Administration is out to remake our national character into something it has never been.

**********

...the authors of the war on Iraq have "regime change" in mind in Iran. According to Colonel Sam Gardiner (author of "The End of the 'Summer of Diplomacy': Assessing U.S. Military Options in Iran," The Century Foundation, 2006) to have any hope of success, such a policy would require attacking at least 400 targets, including the Revolutionary Guard. But even this presumes the Iranian people will respond to a massive U.S. attack on their country by overthrowing their government. Only an Administration inspired by pre-Enlightenment fantasy could believe a notion such as this.

**********

The consequences? The sunny neoconservatives whose goal has been to become the neo-imperial Middle Eastern power all along will forcast few. But prudent leaders calculate all the risks, and they are historic.

These include: violent reaction throughout the Islamic world; a dramatic increase in jihadist attacks in European capitals and the U.S.; radicalization of Islamic youth behind a new generation of jihadist leaders; consolidation of support for Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and a rapidly spreading malignant network; escalating expansion of anti-American sentiment throughout the world, including the democratic world; and the formation of WWIII battle lines between the U.S. and the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Hart is a smart man and he knows what he's talking about. He points out that Bush imagines himself to be a modern day Winston Churchill (albeit without the ability to form a coherent sentence), someone who will be remembered as a great foe of tyranny. This, to me, is so absurd that it's like comparing a rusted out Chevy Nova to a Rolls Royce. Churchill not only had an incomparable skill at using the English language, he had a deep and profound understanding of history and world politics. Bush has none of the qualities Churchill had--none. It only shows the depths of Bush's delusion and arrogance that he imagines himself to be in the same category with the greatest western statesman of the twentieth century.

As I've been harping about ever since I started this tiny little blog, Bush is the most dangerous president in American history as well as the most dishonest and incompetent. If we don't stop this insane Iran venture, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to get our country back. Gary Hart is courageously leading the opposition to this madness. He deserves our support to the fullest degree.

Look, It's Really About This Simple

If you advocate or condone the use of torture against our enemies, you're not a real American. You're a traitor to everything this country is supposed to stand for.

You're also not a real Christian (or Jew or Muslim or any other believer in the divine). You're a rotten, filthy hypocrite who, if there is indeed a God, will be royally and truly screwed on Judgment Day.

You're not even a real human being. You're a shell of one walking around and functioning, but anything human in you has fled. You have no more understanding of the human experience than a concentration camp guard. In fact, you would have been right at home helping to run Auschwitz.

Do I make myself clear?

Please. If You've Read Nothing Else on My Blog, Read This

It's about the real history of the Bush family's relations with Iran, including the manipulation of the Iranian hostage crisis that drove Jimmy Carter from office. It is a story of Republican TREASON that has a crucial bearing on the impending war with Iran, a war that seems more ominously near every day. Please, I urge you, go read it. Excerpts wouldn't have the whole impact.

And then renew your determination to bring these bastards down.

YEAH! The Big Dog Tears Fox News a New One

Whew! Did Bill Clinton annihilate Fox News buffoon Chris Wallace, who tried pulling the same Fox News bullshit that this lying, dishonest "news" network pulls every G-d damned night. Wallace tried to pin 9/11 on Clinton; Clinton was having none of it:

WALLACE: …but the question is why didn’t you do more [to destroy Bin Laden] , connect the dots and put them out of business?

CLINTON: OK, let’s talk about it. I will answer all of those things on the merits but I want to talk about the context of which this arises. I’m being asked this on the FOX network…ABC just had a right wing conservative on the Path to 9/11 falsely claim that it was based on the 9/11 Commission report with three things asserted against me that are directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission report. I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say that I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neocons claimed that I was too obsessed with finding Bin Laden when they didn’t have a single meeting about Bin Laden for the nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say that I didn’t do enough said that I did too much. Same people.

**********

WALLACE: Do you think you did enough sir?

CLINTON: No, because I didn’t get him.

WALLACE: Right…

CLINTON: But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t…I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..

WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked: Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole? I want to know how many you asked: Why did you fire Dick Clarke? I want to know…

WALLACE: We asked…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?

CLINTON: I don’t believe you ask them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…

CLINTON: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth.

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: Tell the truth.

WALLACE: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that? You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch is going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on climate change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you’d spend half the time talking about…

WALLACE: [laughs]

CLINTON: You said you’d spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion dollars plus over three days from 215 different commitments. And you don’t care.

**********

CLINTON: What did I do? I worked hard to try and kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I never criticized President Bush and I don’t think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is 1/7 as important as Iraq. And you ask me about terror and Al Qaeda with that sort of dismissive theme when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like you’re so clever.

Chris, that feeling you have in your rear end is the new rectum that Clinton just tore out of it. Think Progress has the whole transcript, by the way.

Heh heh heh.

No War With Iran

With the Republican majority in Congress under serious threat, we are already hearing the rumblings of an "October Surprise" from Reichsfuhrer Rove. This October Surprise is rumored to be an attack, probably a massive air strike, on Iran. That the Bush junta may be considering an unprovoked attack on a sovereign foreign nation to boost Republican election chances is monstrous, if true. The Bush people are apparently willing to plunge this nation into a major war in order to cling to power, regardless of the potentially catastrophic consequences for the world, regardless of how many Iranians would be killed, regardless of whether this starts a war with the broader Islamic world, regardless of the danger it would pose to our men and women in Iraq, and regardless of the destabilization of the entire Middle East it would cause--and all without Congressional authorization. This has to be stopped at all costs.

There is this quaint document that governs this country called the Constitution. If I may quote from Article I, Section 8:

Section 8. The Congress shall have power...

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.

Now maybe it's just me, but that sounds pretty clear cut. Bush already holds our constitution in contempt. An unauthorized attack on Iran would be a particularly egregious violation of it. It would also be fully in character with Bush and Cheney's authoritarian personalities. Bush governs increasingly like a dictator. His recklessness requires an extraordinary response. We must just hope and pray that enough truly patriotic Americans are ready to give such a response. Because in a real sense, the life of our country is in the balance.

Bush the Torturer in Chief

Eugene Robinson speaks for me here in his eloquent denunciation of the human disgrace that is George W. Bush:

It's past time to stop mincing words. The Decider, or maybe we should now call him the Inquisitor, sticks to anodyne euphemisms. He speaks of "alternative" questioning techniques, and his umbrella term for the whole shop of horrors is "the program." Of course, he won't fully detail the methods that were used in the secret CIA prisons - and who knows where else? - but various sources have said they have included not just the infamous "waterboarding," which the administration apparently will reluctantly forswear, but also sleep deprivation, exposure to cold, bombardment with ear-splitting noise and other assaults that cause not just mental duress but physical agony. That is torture, and to call it anything else is a lie.

It is not possible for our elected representatives to hold any sort of honorable "debate" over torture. Bush says he is waging a "struggle for civilization," but civilized nations do not debate slavery or genocide, and they don't debate torture, either. This spectacle insults and dishonors every American.

It makes me almost physically ill that Bush is advocating and defending methods that were used by the Soviet secret police under Stalin. Some courageous Republican senators have denounced these policies, but remember: The Republicans in Congress are overwhelmingly in support of Bush and the Democrats in Congress are overwhelmingly opposed. Don't let a few decent Republicans stop you from doing what you need to do on November 7: vote the Republican bastards out and cripple this hideous program that violates every tenet of our heritage as a nation.

Help Put This Ad on the Air!!

Check it out on YouTube here.

And then donate to Bob Casey to help him put this ad on the air and on cable non-stop in Pennsylvania by clicking here.

And Who Does America Still Despise? Georgie Boy!

The Boy King continues to get his clock cleaned here, in the most current SUSA poll. He is REJECTED nationally 39% to 59%. And Illinois, I am PROUD to say, rejects him 31% to 65%. Only three states hate him more. God bless the Land of Lincoln.

Quick Hits

• Dubya's "bounce" is over; TPM has the story here.
• Halliburton's disgusting war profiteering is discussed here.
• Webb kicks George Felix Allen's ass in debate here.
• Bush making threats if Congress doesn't allow him to torture other human beings here.
• Ominous rumors of war with Iran here.

Good night and Good luck.

Jerry Weller's "Pro-Veteran" Record: 13%

Right wing sleazebag and current IL-11 Representative Jerry Weller has achieved another badge of "distinction" (in addition to being a shill for the oil industry, marrying into a Guatemalan crime family, and voting with Bush 92% of the time): one of the worst records in Congress when it comes to issues that affect disabled veterans: 13% support, or one positive vote out of eight different measures offered. In fact, if you check the site, you'll see an awful lot of Republicans with lousy records and a huge number of Democrats with 100% scorecards on disabled vets issues. In fact, every 100% pro-disabled veteran record belongs to a Democrat.

Which party is pro-veteran and pro-military again?

Har! Jon Stewart Brings the HAMMER Down on Fox

Especially its use of the question mark to shape its "news" stories. This is just freaking hilarious.

Hey, maybe I can do it too!

Fox News--Is it nothing more than total and absolute right wing bullshit?

Is Karl Rove a severely repressed homosexual?

Is George W. Bush a drugged, alcoholic sociopath?

Does Dick Cheney suck the blood out of babies before setting out on a night of serial necrophilia?

Is Ann Coulter an anorexic, cocaine snorting slut who's banged everything in Lower Manhattan, regardless of gender or species?

Wow, this is fun!

Chris Buckley: "Let's Quit While We're Behind"

A wonderful article by the conservative author on the myriad reasons the Republicans have so richly earned defeat this year. Some examples:

On Capitol Hill, a Republican Senate and House are now distinguished by—or perhaps even synonymous with—earmarks, the K Street Project, Randy Cunningham (bandit, 12 o’clock high!), Sen. Ted Stevens’s $250-million Bridge to Nowhere, Jack Abramoff (Who? Never heard of him), and a Senate Majority Leader who declared, after conducting his own medical evaluation via videotape, that he knew every bit as much about the medical condition of Terri Schiavo as her own doctors and husband. Who knew that conservatism means barging into someone’s hospital room like Dr. Frankenstein with defibrillator paddles? In what chapter of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom or Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind is that principle enunciated?

**********

Today one has no sense, aside from a slight lowering of the swagger-mometer, that the president or the Republican Congress is in the least bit chastened by their debacles. George Tenet’s WMD “slam-dunk,” Vice President Cheney’s “we will be greeted as liberators,” Don Rumsfeld’s avidity to promulgate a minimalist military doctrine, together with the tidy theories of a group who call themselves “neo-conservative” (not one of whom, to my knowledge, has ever worn a military uniform), have thus far: de-stabilized the Middle East; alienated the world community from the United States; empowered North Korea, Iran, and Syria; unleashed sectarian carnage in Iraq among tribes who have been cutting each others’ throats for over a thousand years; cost the lives of 2,600 Americans, and the limbs, eyes, organs, spinal cords of another 15,000—with no end in sight. But not to worry: Democracy is on the march in the Middle East. Just ask Hamas. And the neocons—bright people, all—are now clamoring, “On to Tehran!”

Hey, he says it better than me. Read Buckley's article--and then resolve, once again, to vote Democratic.

Republican John Danforth Attacks Republican Theocrats

This article from Raw Story is both welcome and sobering. Former Republican Senator John Danforth of Missouri, rumored to be W's second choice for VP in 2000, has come out swinging against the lunatic religious right that now runs the Republican Party. Excerpts:

In Faith and Politics, to be released Tuesday, Danforth blasts the alignment of the Republican Party with the Christian right, lays out his most aggressive pro-gay stance to date and attacks the handling of the Terri Schiavo case.

"Some people have asked me whether America is a Christian country. The answer must be no, for to call this a Christian country is to say that non-Christians are of some lesser order, not full fledged citizens of one nation." Danforth is himself an ordained Episcopal minister.

Danforth calls the Terri Schiavo case -- where Congress intervened to attempt to keep a severely brain-damaged woman from being taken off life support -- "Big Brotherism."

"That the federal government could intervene in the Schiavo case was a threat to all the families that had seen their loved ones suffer through terminal illness," he writes.

"It was a threat to people who were terrified that their own lives might someday be artificially extended in nightmarish circumstances. It was a threat to some of our most heartfelt values. It was Big Brotherism in the extreme, an exercise of the raw and awesome power of the federal government."

Well said, Mr. Danforth. Read the whole story and take heart that there are still sane and humane Republicans out there--and then reflect on the fact that these rational people aren't the ones calling the shots in the Republican Party.

Yeah, George Sure Has "Crushed" Al Qaeda

Read the accompanying article here.

Hey Pal, I Don't Expect a Damned Thing

This should be a golden year of victory for us. We have a radical, insanely right wing Republican president and vice president. These criminals have gotten us into a terrible, tragically unnecessary, utterly botched war that is taking the lives of our best young men and women. We have an economy that, thanks to Republican fiscal policies, is beginning to choke and stagger. We have (generally) strong candidates and strong issues. Our opponents often are loathsome, bigoted cretins. So I'm waiting for our big victory on 7 November right? No, I'm not. After the searing disappointments of 2000, 2002, and 2004, I've learned something the hard way: not to expect a G-d damned thing.

Anyone who thinks we've got the Republicans beaten is a fool, and I don't give a shit what polls you're reading and how many Americans think this country is off on the wrong track. The Republicans have one enormous advantage over us that we just can't seem to overcome:

THEY GET OFF THEIR FUCKING ASSES AND VOTE ON ELECTION DAY, AND TOO G-D DAMN MANY DEMOCRATS DON'T.

A harsh judgment? Sure, but look at the record. The Republicans always rally their troops, especially in the last 72 hours, where they simply embarrass us by their effectiveness. You say, "J. Miller, you're full of it, the polls say Democrats have more enthusiasm this year." Don't kid yourself. The right wingers HATE us and they would rather cut off their own left arms with pocket knives than miss a chance to vote against us. And what have we done to counter this?

--We've had two years to build up our microtargeting operations and we're still not ready to compete with the Republicans in this crucial area. They are far superior in identifying voters. Why?

--Howard Dean has, to his immense credit, started the 50 state strategy. But will it help us in 2006? It should have been started twenty freaking years ago. We're always behind the damned curve. Why?

--Republican fatcats have, as usual, poured huge amounts of money into GOP coffers. Why, after all this time in existence, is the Democratic Party always bringing up the fucking rear in fund raising (with some notable exceptions)? Why haven't we broadened our contributor base more? Why are we relying on party activists, rich liberals, and unions to do all the heavy lifting? We should have 20-30 MILLION ordinary people in this country giving us $1, $5, or $10 a month. Why don't we? The Republican base is accessed by immense mailing lists. Why are they so much ahead, G-d damn it??

--The Republicans still outgun us on message framing and the terrible simplicity of their themes. Why do we continue to get beat? Why?

The results will, I fear, be predictable. In Pennsylvania, our Senate candidate is being outspent by 2-1 by a right wing fanatic so terrifyingly authoritarian in nature that he shouldn't hold any public office. And yet our candidate is being pounded daily, and the Religious Right will be at the polls en masse in November to save "their" Ricky.

We have a MAGNIFICENT Senate candidate in Virginia who is opposed by a disgusting racist asshole so cretinous and vicious that I can't believe anyone listens to him. Yet the asshole has five to ten times the money our man has.

In California, a movie star Republican governor who should be dumped on his ass is burying us under deceitful propaganda, paid for by millions in corporate money.

In my own district, IL-11, the Republican congressman is a Bush-DeLay robot who votes with the GOP leadership 92% of the time. He's married to a woman who's part of a crime family/collection of mass murderers in Guatemala. He sucks up to the oil and gas industries and he's accepted tainted DeLay money. He's also going to raise TWO MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS and can therefore outspend the dynamic young Democrat, John Pavich, by about 4-1.

Over and over again, I see Republican money, Republican lies, and Republican GOTV operations killing us. And what have we REALLY accomplished to stop--

--Republican VOTE SUPPRESSION? I'll bet African-American precincts in Ohio and Missouri will STILL have lousy, broken down voting machines. I'll bet Republican pollwatchers/Klansmen will STILL be challenging and intimidating our voters with impunity. What the G-d damned hell are we doing to stop it??

--Republican VOTE STEALING? Have we really made much progress in stopping paperless voting? Have we really done the spadework necessary to stop crooks like Blackwell from simply throwing out Democratic ballots? Have we really acted to stop Republican campaign workers from stealing ballot boxes or electronically manipulating voting machines? What have we really accomplished?

Look, I know many in the media are our enemies. I know the GOP will always have money. But the people are on our side. Earlier this year an ABC poll showed the Democrats leading on every single issue. But will Democrats get out to vote? Not as much as Republicans will, and I'll bet my life on that. Too many of us just simply can't be bothered. Our lack of preparedness is tragic. Our country is dying here, folks. We know that. But too many others out there don't. And the Democratic political leadership is STILL GETTING BEATEN in the political nuts and bolts areas it takes to win.

So I expect nothing on 7 November. I know when the chips are down the right wingers will vote, and most of our voters won't. I fully expect, therefore, the death spiral of the United States to continue. I'm being too negative? Too bad. I'm being bad for morale? Screw that. I'm trying to protect myself from the terrible depression I suffered after 2 November 2004, when we let the Republicans beat us/cheat us/steal from us AGAIN.

So after the election, I fully expect Bush to again push for privatizing Social Security. I fully expect oil prices to rise. I fully expect the war drums against Iran to get louder. I fully expect that Bush will continue to aggrandize his own already monstrous executive power. And I have no faith any more that we'll be in a position to stop it. Not because of my (genuinely) beloved fellow Democrats who care. But because of the millions of lazy, unmotivated, indifferent Democrats who are WAITING for victory instead of WORKING for it.

In discussing the collapse of the Weimar Republic, William Shirer observed that the enemies of the republic won because they cared more than their opponents. The Republicans win because they care more than we do.

They do more leg work than we do.

They raise more money.

They network and microtarget better than we do.

They want to win more than we do.

So no, I don't expect a damned thing. My hope is waning and my bitterness is growing.
Flame me, ignore me, say I'm bringing everybody down. I don't care. Until my party shows me otherwise, I'll expect to be in exactly the same position I've been in before.

At the short end of the stick

Clinton's War on Terrorism

Contrary to the lying right wing propaganda put out by ABC, check out the record of a real anti-terrorist president--Bill Clinton. Excerpt:

-Bill Clinton sent legislation to Congress to allow for better tracking of terrorist funding. It was defeated by Republicans in the Senate because of opposition from banking interests.

· Bill Clinton sent legislation to Congress to add tagents to explosives, to allow for better tracking of explosives used by terrorists. It was defeated by the Republicans because of opposition from the NRA.

· Bill Clinton increased the military budget by an average of 14 per cent, reversing the trend under Bush I.

· Bill Clinton tripled the budget of the FBI for counterterrorism and doubled overall funding for counterterrorism.

· Bill Clinton detected and destroyed cells of Al Qaeda in over 20 countries.

· Bill Clinton created national stockpile of drugs and vaccines including 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine.

· Of Clinton's efforts says Robert Oakley, Reagan Ambassador for Counterterrorism: "Overall, I give them very high marks" and "The only major criticism I have is the obsession with Osama".

· Paul Bremer, current Civilian Administrator of Iraq disagrees slightly with Robert Oakley as he believed the Bill Clinton Administration had "correctly focused on bin Laden.

· Barton Gellman in the Washington Post put it best, "By any measure available, Bill Clinton left office having given greater priority to terrorism than any president before him" and was the "first administration to undertake a systematic anti-terrorist effort".

It's good to see that the lying conservative Republicans never let facts get in the way.

Is Katherine Harris Insane?

You'll wonder, too, after you see this Olbermann report. (Via Raw Story.)

Just. Freaking. Nuts.

Campaigning on the Corpses

For five years George Bush, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney have been conducting the most obscene political operation in American history. They have used the terrorist attack on the United States on 11 September 2001 not as a way to unify the American people and bring down the full measure of their righteous outrage on Bin Laden, but rather as a political weapon to be used against their domestic opponents. They have cynically and viciously used the 9/11 dead to intimidate the Democrats, to accuse them of cowardice, irresolution, even treason. The media allies of the Republican political establishment, Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly, Savage, Hannity, and the all the other right wing propaganda scum have called us traitors for daring to question the wisdom of "Dear Leader". Democratic war veterans have been savaged and smeared by Republican draft dodgers, cowards, and deserters. Terror alerts have been used, blatantly and brazenly, as a political device, as witnessed by the repeated fraudulent terror alerts during the 2004 election campaign. And through it all the Republicans have used fear as a way of ramming the agenda of the lunatic right down our throats, endangering our civil liberties, our country's financial future, and our standing in the world.

The so-called "morally upright" conservatives have shown themselves willing to excuse and support anything, no matter how brutal, in the name of "victory".

They have loudly supported the use of torture against our enemies, over the protests of the military leadership and key members of Congress.

They have called for the bombing and slaughter of not only Iraqis but Iranians and Syrians as well. Coulter, for example, advocated "carpet bombing" Iran. (Funny how a Republican can call for mass murder and be allowed to get away with it in this country.)

They have allowed Bush to ignore Congress more than 750 times.

They have supported the establishment of a virtual police state that has libertarians more alarmed and frightened than at any time in our modern history. Even a conservative former Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, has said that the United States may be headed for "dictatorship"--her word, not mine.

And at every stage of these abuses and depredations, they have used the dead of 9/11 as a bludgeon. They fully intend to do so this year, and have naturally already begun. They attack us as weak, even though it is they who failed to nail Bin Laden. They attack us as incompetent, even though they ignored countless warnings about 9/11. They accuse us of weakening the war against the terrorists, even though it was they who stripped our forces and intelligence services of manpower in Afghanistan and transferred them to Iraq. They have used 9/11 to wage a relentless fear campaign and to transfer enormous amounts of money to their political benefactors and supporters. And they have wrapped themselves in the flag all the while, proclaiming their of love for America while gutting our country of all those things which are best in it.

But no more.

We must strike first in the 2006 campaign. We need to define them, to accuse them, to indict them, to politically destroy them. We must no longer let these cowards and thugs use the dead of 9/11 as a shield, the way criminals use hostages as shields in standoffs. We need to call them on this once and for all.

We need the money, the guts, the fire, and the determination to win. Look at what we accomplished in 2005, beating back Bush's attempt to destroy Social Security. Look at what we did in getting Tim Kaine elected in Virginia. Look at what we did in just the past two weeks, raising holy hell about ABC's right wing 9/11 propaganda. We can win when we stand united and proudly call ourselves Democrats and PROUDLY DEMAND THAT THE TRUTH BE HEARD!

The time has come for the Republican radicals, extremists, and fanatics to get their asses handed to them. It is time for them to taste the bitter cup of defeat. It is time for them to be humiliated and called to account. It is time for their downfall, this year and in 2008. It's time to seize the moment.

And we're just the people to do it.

More than 2,600 of our best young men and women have died for the hubris and arrogance of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and low lifes like Bill Kristol. Enough is enough!

The Appalling Extent of Republican Failure

Courtesy of our friends at AlterNet, a depressing compendium of Bush and the Republican Party's incompetence, venality, and general buffoonery. Such a target rich environment, shall we say. Examples:

Emergency Management: They completely failed to manage the first large-scale emergency since 9/11. Despite all their big talk and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on homeland security over the past four years, this administration proved itself stunningly incompetent when faced with an actual emergency. (Katrina Relief Funds Squandered)

Fiscal Management: America is broke. No wait, we're worse than broke. In less than five years these borrow and spend-thrifts have nearly doubled our national debt, to a stunning $8.2 trillion. [Emphasis added.] These are not your father's Republicans who treated public dollars as though they were an endangered species. These Republicans waste money in ways and in quantities that make those old tax and spend liberals of yore look like tight-fisted Scots.

Medicare Drug Program: This $50 billion white elephant debuted by trampling many of those it was supposed to save. The mess forced states to step in and try to save its own citizens from being killed by the administration's poorly planned and executed attempt to privatize huge hunks of the federal health safety net.

Iraq: This ill-begotten war was supposed to only cost us $65 billion. It has now cost us over $300 billion and continues to suck $6 billion a month out of our children's futures. Meanwhile the three warring tribes Bush "liberated" are using our money and soldiers' lives to partition the country. The Shiites and Kurds are carving out the prime cuts while treating the once-dominant Sunnis the same way the Israelis treat the Palestinians, forcing them onto Iraq's version of Death Valley. Meanwhile Iran is increasingly calling the shots in the Shiite region as mullahs loyal to Iran take charge. (More)

Iran: The administration not only jinxed its Afghanistan operations by attacking Iraq, but also provided Iran both the rationale for and time to move toward nuclear weapons. The Bush administration's neocons' threats to attack Syria next only provided more support for religious conservatives within Iran who argued U.S. intentions in the Middle East were clear, and that only the deterrent that comes with nuclear weapons could protect them.

The Military: Overused and over-deployed.
Former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned in a 15-page report that the Army and Marine Corps cannot sustain the current operational tempo without "doing real damage to their forces." ... Speaking at a news conference to release the study, Albright said she is "very troubled" the military will not be able to meet demands abroad. Perry warned that the strain, "if not relieved, can have highly corrosive and long-term effects on the military. (More)

With military budgets gutted by the spiraling costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration has requested funding for fewer National Guard troops in fiscal 2007 -- 17,000 fewer. Which boggles the sane mind since, if it weren't for reserve/National Guard, the administration would not have had enough troops to rotate forces in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 40 percent of the troops sent to those two countries were from the reserve and National Guard.

The Environment: Here's a little pop quiz: What happens if all the coral in the world's oceans dies? Answer: Coral is the first rung on the food-chain ladder; so when it goes, everything else in the ocean dies. And if the oceans die, we die.

The coral in the world's oceans are dying (called "bleaching") at an alarming and accelerating rate. Global warming is the culprit. Nevertheless, this administration continues as the world's leading global warming denier. Why? Because they seem to feel it's more cost effective to be dead than to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. How stupid is that? And time is running out.

Consumers: Americans finally did it last year -- they achieved a negative savings rate. (Folks in China save 10 percent, for contrast.) If the government can spend more than it makes and just say "charge it" when it runs out, so can we. The average American now owes $9,000 to credit card companies. Imagine that.

Ah, we could go on and on. The 50,000,000+ without medical insurance. The highest medical costs in the world. Millions more in poverty since 2001. The use of torture against our enemies, in contravention of all our country's traditions. Halliburton feeding vampire-like on the U.S. budget and U.S. service personnel. The decline in median incomes. The general hatred of Bush (and by extension America) in much of the world. Vote suppression and vote stealing. Corruption that would embarrass a professional grifter. And lie after lie after lie after lie about all of it from the most dishonest, most criminal administration in American history.

Read it all. And then make sure ALL of your Democratic friends are registered to vote and fired up for 7 November.

What I'm Reading Tonight

I am particularly lazy tonight (this morning?) so I'm just going to link with what I'm paying attention to:

Consortium's discussion of World War III here.

DKos's exposure of the grotesque right wing frauds behind ABC's grotesque right wing fraud "The Path to 9/11" here.

Washington Monthly's exposure of Rumsfeld's shocking incompetence on Iraq here.

Via Raw Story, the DNC's new ad about Bush's election year hypocrisy vis a vis Bin Laden here.

Oh, and check out the charming way the Republicans refer to Hillary Clinton when they're talking to each other here.

Good Night.

Wes Clark Slaps Down Right Wing FOX Clown Cavuto

You can read the transcript and see the video here. My favorite part:

The attack on 9/11 occurred on the President's watch. He took us into a war with Iraq we didn't have to fight. It's been used to incentivize recruiting in Al Qaeda. The number of people who are affiliated with Al Qaeda worldwide has more than doubled since 2001. Our Armed Forces are bogged down in Iraq. We haven't been able to effectively engage with North Korea. We're hearing the tom-toms beating for war with Iran. I think the American people can judge. This administration's policy has been a mistake, and he's not made us safer. He's left us more vulnerable.

Ahh, 'twas a thing of beauty. Heh heh. Read or watch the whole thing if you enjoy seeing a Republican propaganda shill get his ass handed to him.

A Tribute to ABC's 9/11 Documentary

ABC's 9/11 "Docudrama" Filled With Lies

Richard Clarke nails a particularly vicious one here. It seems the right wingers who wrote and directed this mess are simply making things up to bolster their politicized account:

The first night of Path to 9/11 has a dramatic scene where former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger refuses to give the order to the CIA to take out bin Laden — even though CIA agents, along with the Northern Alliance, have his house surrounded. Rush Limbaugh, who refers to Nowrasteh as “a friend of mine,” reviews the action:

So the CIA, the Northern Alliance, surrounding a house where bin Laden is in Afghanistan, they’re on the verge of capturing, but they need final approval from the Clinton administration in order to proceed.

So they phoned Washington. They phoned the White House. Clinton and his senior staff refused to give authorization for the capture of bin Laden because they’re afraid of political fallout if the mission should go wrong, and if civilians were harmed…Now, the CIA agent in this is portrayed as being astonished. “Are you kidding?” He asked Berger over and over, “Is this really what you guys want?”

Berger then doesn’t answer after giving his first admonition, “You guys go in on your own. If you go in we’re not sanctioning this, we’re not approving this,” and Berger just hangs up on the agent after not answering any of his questions.

ThinkProgress has obtained a response to this scene from Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar for Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, and now counterterrorism adviser to ABC:

1. Contrary to the movie, no US military or CIA personnel were on the ground in Afghanistan and saw bin Laden.

2. Contrary to the movie, the head of the Northern Alliance, Masood, was no where near the alleged bin Laden camp and did not see UBL.

3. Contrary to the movie, the CIA Director actually said that he could not recommend a strike on the camp because the information was single sourced and we would have no way to know if bin Laden was in the target area by the time a cruise missile hit it.

Don't let ABC get away with this Republican propaganda bullshit. Fire away at them. (See my item below). Also, check out the diary I did on the subject at DKos and the many replies to it. You'll see plenty of contact numbers so you can hit:

--The ABC network
--The show's sponsors (key!)
--The network's local affiliates.

Take action!

Bill O'Reilly: Psychotic Republican Clown

Check the Bill Man on the videos at this site. They're great. He really is freaking delusional. The quotes are funny, too.

Ha ha ha. What an asshole.

What's Happened to Median Income in America Since Bush Became President?

Here's your answer, courtesy of The Detroit Free Press and Kevin Drum:



Right-wing economics strikes again!

The Republican War on Workers

For this Labor Day, some insightful thoughts from David Sirota:

U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige labeled one "a terrorist organization." Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called them "a clear and present danger to the security of the United States." And U.S. Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., claimed they employ "tyranny that Americans are fighting and dying to defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan" and are thus "enemies of freedom and democracy," who show "why we still need the Second Amendment" to defend ourselves with firearms.

Who are these supposed threats to America? No, not Osama bin Laden followers, but labor unions made up of millions of workers -- janitors, teachers, firefighters, police officers, you name it.

The hostility, while disgusting, is unsurprising. Unions wield power for workers, meaning they present an obstacle to Republican corporate donors, who want to put profit-making over other societal priorities.

**********

Unions also benefit nonunion workers. That's thanks to the "union threat effect" whereby anti-union companies meet higher standards in order to prevent workers from becoming angry and organizing. For instance, Princeton researchers found in industries that are 25 percent unionized, average nonunion workers get 7.5 percent more compensation specifically because of unionization's presence.

The flip side is obvious: The more corporations and politicians crush unions, the more all workers suffer. It is no coincidence that as union membership and power has declined under withering anti-union attacks, workers have seen their wages stagnate, pensions slashed, and share of national income hit a 60-year low. As Council on Foreign Relations scholars put it, the decline in unions "is correlated with the early and sharp widening of the U.S. wage gap."

The Republicans who run corporate America HATE labor unions. The Bush Administration and the Republican Congress HATE labor unions. They see the efforts of their fellow Americans to improve their lives as a threat. The anti-union right wing fanatics don't want an America composed of workers who have rights, dignity, and decent working conditions.

They want slaves and serfs who keep their mouths shut because they have no choice.

Again, Vote Democratic. For America.

Jerry Weller, Phone Sex Contributors, and Favors Done

A very interesting article in the Herald News, a suburban Chicago newspaper, has come to my attention. It seems that Republican rightwinger Jerry Weller, Representative from IL-11, has accepted money from a phone sex service owner--and may have returned the favor many times over:

U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller accepted a campaign contribution from the owner of a phone-sex operation, his election opponent's campaign reported Thursday.

A Weller spokesman acknowledged the donation, but downplayed its significance.

With just more than two months until the Nov. 7 general election, the 11th Congressional District race is heating up between six-term incumbent Weller, a Morris Republican, and former CIA intelligence officer John Pavich, a Beecher Democrat.

Pavich's office issued a press release stating Weller accepted contributions from Jeffrey Prosser, a "phone sex operator" in April 2005. The statement alleges Prosser paid Weller because Weller went to Belize and attempted to reverse the seizure of a Belizean telephone company Prosser owned. Weller's office says the trip was related to his work and was not personal.

"It now appears that Mr. Weller will accept cash from anyone and will pay it back tenfold," said Pavich's campaign manager, Matt Pavich. "I guess that if the voters of the 11th (District) want representation from this congressman, they better pay up first."

Prosser declared bankruptcy this month, Matt Pavich said.

Press the issue, John. We're going to make IL-11 competitive--and take a seat from the Republicans.

Watch Bush Lie Through His Teeth--Again

By way of YouTube, a video of interest. Yes, the Bush people did know that terrorists had contemplated using planes to attack buildings. The proof is plain for everyone to see.

Little Ricky Makes an Ass of Himself on "Meet the Press"

Declaring, among other things, that Bush is a "terrific" president. (Survey USA's latest poll of Pennsylvania voters indicates, by 40% to 59%, that Pennsylvanians don't agree.) Santorum generally comes off as a right wing toad, as you can see here, courtesy of AmericaBlog.

BTW, the DSCC's take on it:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, HERE'S THE QUICK & DIRTY: Santorum called George Bush a "terrific president," admitted to sleeping in Pennsylvania just one month a year, reiterated his support for privatizing Social Security, praised Bush's handling of Iraq and insisted there were WMD in Iraq even though the White House has acknowledged there weren't. Casey laid out a new direction, calling for the Iraqis to take the lead on their own security and detailing specific ways for enhancing the U.S. military. He outlined a plan to balance the budget and spoke about the need for Pennsylvania to have a Senator who will hold George Bush accountable for advancing an ineffective agenda.

Enjoy!

What the Republicans Were Saying When Clinton Was Attacking Terrorism

Courtesy of Glenn Greenwald. It's from last year. I think you should see all of the comments in full:


Rep. Dick Armey, GOP Majority Leader"The suspicion some people have about the president's motives in this attack [on Iraq] is itself a powerful argument for impeachment," Armey said in a statement. "After months of lies, the president has given millions of people around the world reason to doubt that he has sent Americans into battle for the right reasons."

Rep. Gerald Solomon (R - NY)"It is obvious that they're (the Clinton White House) doing everything they can to postpone the vote on this impeachment in order to try to get whatever kind of leverage they can, and the American people ought to be as outraged as I am about it," Solomon said in an interview with CNN. Asked if he was accusing Clinton of playing with American lives for political expediency, Solomon said, "Whether he knows it or not, that's exactly what he's doing."

Sen. Dan CoatsCoats, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, "While there is clearly much more we need to learn about this attack [on Osama bin Laden] and why it was ordered today, given the president's personal difficulties this week, it is legitimate to question the timing of this action."

Sen. Larry Craig, U.S. Senate Republican Policy CommitteeThe foregoing review of the Clinton Administration's prevarications on Kosovo would not be complete without a brief look at one other possible factor in the deepening morass. Consider the following fictional situation: A president embroiled in a sex scandal that threatens to bring down his administration. He sees the only way out in distracting the nation and the world with a foreign military adventure. So, he orders his spin-doctors and media wizards to get to work. They survey the options, push a few buttons, and decide upon a suitable locale: Albania. The foregoing, the premise of the recent film Wag the Dog, might once have seemed farfetched. Yet it can hardly escape comment that on the very day, August 17, that President Bill Clinton is scheduled to testify before a federal grand jury to explain his possibly criminal behavior, Commander-in-Chief Bill Clinton has ordered U.S. Marines and air crews to commence several days of ground and air exercises in, yes, Albania as a warning of possible NATO intervention in next-door Kosovo. . . .Not too many years ago, it would not have entered the mind of even the worst of cynics to speculate whether any American president, whatever his political difficulties, would even consider sending U.S. military personnel into harm's way to serve his own, personal needs. But in an era when pundits openly weigh the question of whether President Clinton will (or should) tell the truth under oath not because he has a simple obligation to do so but because of the possible impact on his political "viability" -- is it self-evident that military decisions are not affected by similar considerations? Under the circumstances, it is fair to ask to what extent the Clinton Administration has forfeited the benefit of the doubt as to the motives behind its actions.

GOP Activist Paul WeyrichPaul Weyrich, a leading conservative activist, said Clinton's decision to bomb on the eve of the impeachment vote "is more of an impeachable offense than anything he is being charged with in Congress."

Wall St. Journal Editorial Board"It is dangerous for an American president to launch a military strike, however justified, at a time when many will conclude he acted only out of narrow self-interest to forestall or postpone his own impeachment"

Sen. Trent Lott, GOP Majority Leader"I cannot support this military action in the Persian Gulf at this time," Lott said in a statement. "Both the timing and the policy are subject to question."

Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY)"Never underestimate a desperate president," said a furious House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.). "What option is left for getting impeachment off the front page and maybe even postponed? And how else to explain the sudden appearance of a backbone that has been invisible up to now?"

Rep. Tillie Folwer (R-Fla)"It [the bombing of Iraq] is certainly rather suspicious timing," said Rep. Tillie Fowler (R-Florida). "I think the president is shameless in what he would do to stay in office."

Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle ForumFirst, it [intervention in Kosovo] is a "wag the dog" public relations ploy to involve us in a war in order to divert attention from his personal scandals (only a few of which were addressed in the Senate trial). He is again following the scenario of the "life is truer than fiction" movie Wag the Dog. The very day after his acquittal, Clinton moved quickly to "move on" from the subject of impeachment by announcing threats to bomb and to send U.S. ground troops into the civil war in Kosovo between Serbian authorities and ethnic Albanians fighting for independence. He scheduled Americans to be part of a NATO force under non-American command.

Jim Hoagland, Washington Post"President Clinton has indelibly associated a justified military response ... with his own wrongdoing. ... Clinton has now injected the impeachment process against him into foreign policy, and vice versa"

Byron York, National ReviewInstead of striking a strong blow against terrorism, the action [launching cruise missles at bin Laden] set off a howling debate about Clinton's motives. The president ordered the action three days after appearing before the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair, and Clinton's critics accused him of using military action to change the subject from the sex-and-perjury scandal — the so-called "wag the dog" strategy.

Wall St. Journal editorial"Perceptions that the American president is less interested in the global consequences than in taking any action that will enable him to hold onto power [are] a further demonstration that he has dangerously compromised himself in conducting the nation's affairs, and should be impeached"

Yes, this is how Republicans "supported the president" when they were out of power. Makes me laugh when they criticize us for not supporting the Chimp in Chief.

Protest ABC's Pro-Bush Propaganda

ABC is planning a two night made for TV movie called The Path to 9/11.

It blames Bill Clinton for everything related to the attack and ignores all of Clinton's anti-terrorist efforts.

It presents Condi Rice and George ("All right, you've covered your ass.") Bush as effective, heroic leaders. It utterly ignores Bush's screw ups in the nine months he was in office prior to 9/11.

It is being praised by Rush Limbaugh and the right wing fanatics at Front Page.

Its director is a right winger.

This is pro-Republican, pro-Bush bullshit and it's being broadcast less than two months before the vitally important midterm elections. ABC needs to be hit where it counts--in the pocketbook. Let them know you intend to boycott their advertisers.

You can contact ABC here.

Let them hear you. Loud and clear.

UPDATE: You can find the REAL story of Clinton's efforts and Bush's lies and mistakes here, courtesy of William Rivers Pitt. Don't miss it.

The Washington Post Smears Joe Wilson

No newspaper has a more terrible track record on the Iraq War than The Washington Post. The Post basically became a propaganda outlet for Bush and Cheney's war drive in 2002 and 2003. The Post was suckered on everything. It reported every lie, every deception, every misdirection, every spin from the Administration with an uncritical attitude. Now that everything has begun collapsing in Iraq, and the lies have been made manifest, the Post is attacking...Joe Wilson! Consortium News has the story:

If future historians wonder how the United States could have blundered so catastrophically into Iraq under false pretenses and why so few establishment figures dared to speak out, the historians might read the sorry pattern of the Post’s editorial-page attacks on those who did dissent.

Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt, who fell for virtually every Iraq War deception that the Bush administration could dream up, is back assaulting former Ambassador Wilson, again, in a Sept. 1 editorial, falsely accusing Wilson of lying and concluding that “it’s unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.”

**********

While some Americans might still think that a major newspaper would want to know the truth, the Post’s hierarchy has behaved with petulance whenever evidence has emerged that reveals the depths of the Bush administration’s deceptions – and the extent of the Post’s gullibility.

For instance, in 2005, when secret documents were disclosed in Great Britain describing Bush’s efforts in 2002 to “fix” the Iraq WMD intelligence to justify the war, the Post first ignored the so-called “Downing Street Memo” and then disparaged those who considered this powerful evidence of Bush’s deceptions important.

On June 15, 2005, the Post’s lead editorial asserted that “the memos add not a single fact to what was previously known about the administration’s prewar deliberations. Not only that: They add nothing to what was publicly known in July 2002.”

But Hiatt’s assessment simply wasn’t correct. Looking back to 2002 and early 2003, it would be hard to find any “reputable” commentary in the mainstream U.S. press calling Bush’s actions fraudulent, which is what the “Downing Street Memo” and other British evidence have since revealed them to be.

The British documents prove that much of the pre-war debate inside the U.S. and British governments was how best to manipulate public opinion by playing games with the intelligence. If that reality “was publicly known” before the war, why hadn’t the Post reported it and why did its editorials continue to parrot the administration’s lies and distortions?

Yet despite this disturbing record of the Post’s credulity (if not outright dishonesty), Hiatt has published yet another editorial concentrating his ugliest attacks not against the administration for misleading the nation to war or against the failure of officials (like Powell) to express their misgivings in a timely fashion, but against Joe Wilson.

The Post's editorial board has become a loathsome cheerleader for a disastrous policy. Read the whole excellent Consortium expose--and learn who the enemies of the truth really are.