Democrats, Don't Knuckle Under to Bush! America Hates Him!

Right Wing Radicals Demand Death Penalty for Anyone Criticizing Dear Leader

Glenn Greenwald nails it beautifully here. Key quotes:

Frank Gaffney, one of the country's most influential and well-connected neoconservatives, has a column in today's Washington Times in which he argues that the debate taking place in Congress over the war in Iraq constitutes treason. Gaffney specifically argues that the condemnations of Douglas Feith from Sen. Levin "really should be a hanging offense."

*****

Not only is none of this new for neoconservatives and the hardest-core Bush supporters, it is not isolated either. Countless other examples of similarly radical and freedom-hating incidents have passed more or less unnoticed.

After Howard Dean, in November, 2005, pointed out the obvious -- that the U.S. would not be able to "win" in Iraq (a fact which William Buckley, among others, repeated a few months later) -- Ronald Reagan's son and frequent Fox News guest host Michael Reagan said this: "Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!"

Ben Shapiro, writing on Townhall, urged that Dean, Al Gore and John Kerry -- just as a start -- be criminally prosecuted for sedition. And none of this should be the slightest bit surprising since the "Father of Neoconservatism," Irving Kristol, has long expressed disdain for America's most basic freedoms, as illustrated by this belief: "I don't think the advocacy of homosexuality really falls under the First Amendment any more than the advocacy or publication of pornography does."

This is what modern conservatism has become--ranting, hate-filled, authoritarian, vicious beyond belief, and scathingly contemptuous of the sacred liberties upon which this country was founded. I've said it recently and I'll say it again, in a typeface big enough for anyone to understand:

THE NEOCONSERVATIVES REPRESENT AS DEADLY A THREAT TO AMERICA AS THE RADICAL ISLAMISTS. BOTH OF THEM HATE FREEDOM AS PASSIONATELY AS THE OTHER. BOTH REPRESENT A MORTAL DANGER TO AMERICA'S SURVIVAL AS A NATION.

Have I made myself clear?

(You really owe it to yourself to read the whole Greenwald column, by the way.)

Nailing McCain's Double Talk BS

See it here.

And to think I used to admire this phony.

Where in the Hell Did $12 Billion of YOUR Money GO??

Jack Cafferty wants to know.

Stop the Impending Iran War

It all has a sickeningly familiar feeling to it, doesn't it? The hyped up stories of enemies threatening Americans, the blustering words from the Administration, the Greek chorus of neocons such as Bill Kristol baying for blood, the Republicans challenging the loyalty of all who have doubts. But this time the target isn't Iraq. It's Iran, an attack on which is a much more serious proposition. I don't know how many times I've emphasized it on my tiny little capillary of a blog but an attack on Iran would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. It would unleash hellishly complicated and unpredictable consequences, especially if carried out with low yield nuclear weapons. The Bush thugs are ramping up the verbal attacks on and accusations against Iran even as I write this. The Los Angeles Times has acted responsibly in debunking many of these trumped up charges. Relevant quote from a recent article:

For all [its] aggressive rhetoric, however, the Bush administration has provided scant evidence to support these claims [of Iranian complicity in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq]. Nor have reporters traveling with U.S. troops seen extensive signs of Iranian involvement. During a recent sweep through a stronghold of Sunni insurgents here, a single Iranian machine gun turned up among dozens of arms caches U.S. troops uncovered. British officials have similarly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, but say they have not found Iranian-made weapons in areas they patrol.

The lack of publicly disclosed evidence has led to questions about whether the administration is overstating its case. Some suggest Bush and his aides are pointing to Iran to deflect blame for U.S. setbacks in Iraq. Others suggest they are laying the foundation for a military strike against Iran.

Terrifying stories continue to circulate of Bush and Cheney's determination to strike Iran in the spring, despite their repeated denials. (Who in their right mind believes these lying bastards any more?) If Bush strikes Iran without congressional authorization, there is only one alternative: the Democratic House must initiate impeachment proceedings against both Bush and Cheney. Although getting convictions in the Senate would be hard, at least such proceedings would force the Administration into the white hot glare of public scrutiny, especially the mole-like Cheney, who has become dangerously unbalanced and arrogant in his conduct. Actions must have consequences; if Bush acts unconstitutionally to launch war without congressional approval, he must be removed from office--or at least be exposed as the corrupt little dictator he is.

Why I Hate Dick Cheney's Guts

And I don't mean that figuratively. I hate him in the basic sense of that word. Here's one of the many reasons why.






Thank you, buhdydharma on Daily Kos.

Thoughts on NewsMax and Dick Morris

Right wing smear sheet NewsMax recently ran an article reveling in the fact that former White House aide and general walking hemorrhoid Dick Morris is planning a major anti-Hillary "documentary" to help Swift Boat her candidacy. I received news of this via e-mail. I replied as follows:

1. It's NewsMax, your #1 Scaife funded "news" source on the paranoid-delusional right. If these idiots told me my own name, I'd still look at my license to double check. About 90% of NewsMax is straightup lying bullshit. The other 10% is simply insane.

2. Dick Morris has a pathological hatred for Hillary. Guess he needs to spend more time sucking the toes of hookers to assuage his anger. Then again, with him in a cathouse room, it would be hard to tell which person was the bigger whore.

3. A whopping 29% of a recent national sample wants to see a Republican elected in 2008. Oh my. That's not very many, is it?

4. Really, when you think about it, what shit can the rightwingers throw at Hillary that they haven't already? Calling her "Hitlery"? (Go ahead and Google the term.) Accusing her of having Vince Foster killed? The Whitewater "Scandal"? Being an international drug kingpin via the Mena, Arkansas airport? They've thrown everything at her. There's nothing left. I think a lot of rightwingers really hate her because they're scared of her--she beats the hell out of Republicans on election day, she knows how to fight dirty, and she's got a whole shitload of money. She can win--and they know it. And they've got nothing left to stop her with!

5. By the way, I'm supporting General Clark. But seeing Hillary as president would be so very VERY satisfying on some levels.

--It would finally push Bill O'Reilly over the edge on which he has been so dangerously teetering. They'd have to take him out in a straight jacket.

--Sean Hannity would chew off his own hands, thus destroying his sex life.

--Rush Limbaugh would be back on the Hillbilly Heroin.

--and best of all, Ann Coulter would finally overdose. Nobody would be able to tell the difference.

See yez later.

Must See: The Power of Nightmares

Yes, I'm disappointed that my beloved Bears lost the Superbowl, but there are much more important things to think about. One of them is the 2004 documentary from the BBC called The Power of Nightmares. It is the story of the rise of two dangerously misguided movements: radical, violent Islamism in the Middle East and the neoconservatives in the United States. These two movements have both used irrational fears and mythology to gain power and influence. The series is so filled with shocking revelations that I think you'll be as floored as I was. No short summary on my part can do justice to this three hour epic, now available on Google Video.

Part One is here.

Part Two is here.

Part Three is here.

If you want a solid explanation of how we got into the current mess, and the true nature of the enemies we face, watch all three parts. And by the way, the Islamists and the neocons share one common feature: they both hate and fear human freedom and regard the whole liberal tradition as a threat. In a perverse sort of way, they were made for each other.

And both of them have to be defeated, for the sake of our survival.

I Love K. O.

Keith does it again right here. The smackdown of Limbaugh in here, btw, is priceless.

(Hat tip: Al Rodgers)

In Memory of Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins was one of the great voices of humane progressivism. She died yesterday at the age of 62. (See HuffPo's article here.) She was always insightful, always funny, always right on the money, and always terrific in her writing. She mocked George Bush and his friends more effectively than almost anyone I can think of. What a contrast she was to the wretched, vicious harpy who calls herself Ann Coulter. It is inconceivable to imagine Molly having joked about wishing her opponents dead or spitting out accusations of treason against those who disagreed with her. That wasn't her style at all. She was an intellectual and spiritual universe away from someone like Coulter, and she had more class in her little finger than Coulter has in her entire anorexic body. She was the best, and we'll miss her.

And courtesy of The Chicago Tribune, here's her last column. Excerpt:

This Iraq war is being prosecuted in our names, with our money, with our blood, against our will. Polls consistently show that less than 30 percent of the people want to maintain current troop levels. It is obscene and wrong for the president to go against the people in this fashion, and it's doubly wrong for him to send 20,0000 more soldiers into this hellhole, as he reportedly will announce next week.

What happened to the nation that never tortured? The nation that wasn't supposed to start wars of choice? The nation that respected human rights and life? A nation that from the beginning was against tyranny? Where have we gone? How did we let these people take us there? How did we let them fool us?

It's a monstrous idea to put people in prison and keep them there. This administration has done away with rights first enshrined in the Magna Carta nearly 800 years ago, and we've let them do it.

God bless you, Molly. You genuinely spoke truth to power.

How to Fight Back Against Anti-Clinton BS from the Net

Awhile back I received a forward from some ultra right wing source. It was an amazingly dishonest compendium of every conceivable lie and false accusation ever made against the Clintons as people and the Clinton presidency itself, including the absurd falsehood that Clinton "cut the military in half" during his administration. The particulars of this typical Republican fraud are unimportant. But I liked the answer I sent back, most of which I'd like to reproduce here. In my humble opinion, THIS is how you nail the anti-Clinton bullshit that circulates around the Internet:

Not sure why conservatives keep circulating this drivel. But I'd just like to point out--

1. That it wasn't Clinton's family that made money by collaborating with the Nazis before and during World War II--it was Bush's.

2. It wasn't Clinton that arranged to sell the Iranians weapons in return for not releasing the embassy hostages, and it wasn't Clinton that armed Saddam to the teeth--it was Reagan and Bush

3. It wasn't Clinton who utterly failed at every business venture he ever tried and got bailed out by his family--it was Bush.

4. It wasn't Clinton who was a drunk for most of his adult life and was stuffing cocaine up his nose while John McCain was being tortured in Vietnam--it was Bush.

5. It wasn't Clinton that insisted on exposing all of his sexual sins in detail in public--it was right wing fanatics that insisted on that. Embarrassing TV? Blame it on the Republican sex perverts who aired it.

6. It wasn't Clinton that cut funding for anti-terrorist operations prior to 9/11, ignored warnings about Bin Laden, and had a report labeled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S." dumped in his lap and ignored it, going on vacation for 5 weeks--it was Bush. (Bush to person giving the Bin Laden report: "OK, you've covered your ass.")

7. Every time Clinton tried to strike at terrorists in the 90s, right wing idiots would scream "Wag the Dog", saying he was just trying to deflect criticism from himself.

8. But you know, the Republicans are right--the record economic growth (which happened AFTER Clinton raised taxes in '93, despite right wing predictions that it would cause recession), the eight years of peace and prosperity, the huge reduction in the national debt, the balanced budgets, the big surplus, the secure Social Security system, the high international prestige enjoyed by the United States--wow, those were terrible days. It's so much better now that we're embroiled in a useless war that's slaughtered 2700 of our best young people and wounded 15,000 others, that the U.S. is despised worldwide, that we've added $3 TRILLION in debt in five years, and the country is now more torn apart than it's been since Vietnam. Thank God the long Clinton nightmare is over!

9. By the way, which administration had more indictments, Clinton or Reagan? If you guessed Clinton, you're wrong. Which president left office with a higher approval rating, Clinton or Reagan? If you said Reagan, you're wrong.

10. And lest we forget, 80% of the Marine casualties in Iraq could have been avoided by adequate body armor. Oh well. I guess Bush and Rumsfeld were too busy to see to it. (That accusation, by the way, was made by the late David Hackworth's site--where the posters are ALL military men. It was supported by abundant evidence.)

Conservatives and libertarians, it's not us Democrats that are trying to turn this country into a theocracy, it's the Republicans. We're not the ones trying to outlaw birth control, imprison homosexuals, ban "non procreative sex", and censor books, it's the Republicans.We're not the ones who screamed about the rights of a braindead woman, Terri Schiavo, the Republicans did. We're not the ones who've utterly fucked up Iraq. We're not the ones pressing for a catastrophic new war in Iran. We're not the ones bankrupting the United States. We didn't fuck up the Katrina relief effort. We're not the ones giving no-bid contracts to Republican fatcats (Halliburton stock is up 235% since 2001 by the way). We're not the ones who are trying to CUT the Veterans Administration. We're not the ones that have this country in a deathspin--it's the Republicans. And the worst ones--Santorum, Brownback, DeLay, Dobson, Falwell, Robertson and company--are the most conservative ones.

If I sound angry to you, I am. This kind of anti-Clinton dogshit has been fouling the internet for years. And why is it that 30% of the actual citizens wanted Clinton impeached and it was done, to the detriment of America, while close to 50% want Bush impeached if it can be shown that he lied about Iraq--which he did--and nothing happens? Strange, isn't it. Read the survey results--when asked who was or is the better president, Bush or Clinton, ordinary Americans say Clinton by a margin of better than 2-1.

The Republican politicians and media propagandists are killing America. They're killing my country. They lie relentlessly, 24/7, through their network of hate radio, Fox "News", the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, and all of the other media outlets they control in the "liberal" (ha!) media. They are pushing this country into a possible world war and stealing with an impunity that defies belief. They are ignoring the greatest environmental crisis in human history as well for the sake of the Republican oil executives who pour money into right wing campaigns. I'm going to fight back because I love this country and I hate seeing what's happening to it. I'm not going to let the lunatic right destroy America without one hell of a fight.

Yes, Bush may have the blood of thousands of our soldiers on his hands, but Clinton was far worse.

After all, he lied about getting a blowjob.

Joe Miller

The Cornered Animal Heading Into Nixon Territory

The "Decider" can't be happy about this. A new Newsweek poll has him at 30% approval. (CBS has him at a wretched 28%.) And this must be particularly galling:

The president’s approval ratings are at their lowest point in the poll’s history—30 percent—and more than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans. Half (49 percent) of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008, compared to just 28 percent who’d prefer the GOP to remain in the White House.

Oooh, that's GOTTA hurt when nearly 3 out of every 5 of your fellow citizens want you out NOW. And that generic Democratic advantage in 2008 can't be good news for the party of war, hate, bigotry, corruption, and lies. (Splitting the undecideds would give the Democrats a 61-39 advantage in the generic presidential race--Johnson over Goldwater territory.)

The barking right wing fanatics from National Review, FrontPage, and all the other wingnut idiot publications can't deny it--Bush is rapidly heading into Nixon approval ratings. Of course, Bush will react like any other cornered animal. He is more dangerous than ever in such a situation, and will therefore lash out in desperation. Watch out Iran--Bush is willing to kill hundreds of thousands of your citizens to save his miserable pride. And more death and dismemberment await our brave soldiers because of Bush's need to feel like a real by-God hero.

Stop the son of a bitch. Stop him now. The cornered animal has to be neutralized before he takes any more victims with him. The American people want him out. Let's at least stop him before he kills more.

Watch and Learn

It really is simple.

(Hat tip: Sully)

No, We Won't Be Quiet--We're Going to Shout EVEN LOUDER

If there is a more despicable neocon fanatic than Bill Kristol, I have yet to come across him. He was one of the principal advocates of our Iraq catastrophe. He has recently come out in support of attacking Syria. He is fervently demanding massive air attacks on Iran. He is, in short, a borderline lunatic who seems determined to drag this country into a third world war. Now he is demanding that the opponents of Bush's obscene "surge" (aka, escalation of the war) sit down and shut up:

[Kristol]: It’s so irresponsible that they [war opponents] can’t be quiet for six or nine months and say the president has made a decision, we’re not going to change that decision, we’re not going to cut off funds and insist on the troops coming back, so let’s give it a chance to work. You really wonder, do they want it to work or not? I really wonder that. I hate to say this about the Democrats. They’re people I know personally and I respect some of them. Do they want it to succeed or not?

Yes, the "Decider" has made his decision, so let's all just be quiet and let him piss away the lives of a few thousand more of our best and bravest young people. Well, to hell with that. Kristol has been proven wrong or just plain dishonest on every single point related to the war. He has gotten everything wrong. He has lied through his teeth about everything. Now we, the ones who have come to realize that the war was a tragic, unnecessary blunder are supposed to keep silent while madmen oversee the butchering of our soldiers and marines? NO. We will turn the volume up higher. We will be more adamant in our insistence that our forces be withdrawn from Iraq as early as is practicable and in a way consistent with the safety of our men and women. We will unconditionally oppose a widening of the war to include attacks on Syria and Iran. We will, in short, stand for sanity and the best interests of America. We will stop the Bill Kristols of the world from plunging our nation into further tragedy.

Isn't it something how generous chickenhawks like Kristol are when it comes to the lives of other people's children?