Now Is the Time for All Good Men...

Okay.  I've been struggling for days about whether or not, how or not to talk about the decimated Republican Party.  Let's face it.  GW Bush destroyed his party.  It's not like he was new to destroying things... just look back at his career in business and sports.

The people spoke loudly in the election of 2008, and even 2004 (except the presidential race which I firmly believe was stolen).  No more Republican hypocrites.  No more war-mongering congresspersons firmly and fastly in the pockets of war profiteers.  No more lying us into wars or hiding anti-constitutional endeavors like spying on US citizens.

But enough is enough.

First of all, I value and cherish a good debate about fiscal policy, social grants, and taxes.  I listened with great appreciation to Ron Paul.  I agree with Ron Paul that it is NOT the province of our country to spread itself across the globe, militarily, to be saviours bearing "democratic" principles.  What right do we have to assassinate or decapitate in one way or another, the leaders of other countries!?  How dare we tell largely Muslim nations that they have to accept Christ as their saviour?  Where the hell do we get off saying if we don't like the policies your country adopts, we will invade you?

All that does is engender fear and hatred of us.  And then, that gives rise to massive defense spending and super fear-mongering on the part of certain agencies in our government.  And that, in turn, stimulates Blackwater and Halliburton and whoever else benefits from "defense" spending.

Now, back to the big, black-wrapped, bombastic, blowhard known as Rush Limbaugh.  He is only getting press now because the Republican party is wiped out.  Done for.  Decimated.

The Republican Party self-destructed because it (for some unknown reason) hitched its star to GW Bush.  Now that Bush is past tense, the Party has had no compunction in bashing him and his administration.  But they have no one to stand up instead.

My personal opinion as to why Steele got RNC leader?  Because no one else in their right minds would have wanted to scrape the walls and try to pull together a re-made party.

So, in the absence of any reasonable, true-to-principle leader, everyone kowtows to Rush.  Remember, Rush is a drug addict.  Rush is an uncontrollable mouth.  Rush is known to favor young boys.  Rush was caught with sex drugs as he crossed a border.  Rush is a blowhard, he is a babbitt who seems to think that corporations will ensure the success of middle and lower class individuals.  There is no evidence to support this notion.

Rush is misogynistic.  He is a racist.  He cares about his ratings, and to hell with you.

Maybe why this strikes a chord with me is that my own mother, now dead, was a ditto-head.  She had a small gas station / convenience store in her later life.  She put up hand-made signs in the store, welcoming ditto-heads.  When her husband died, we (my brother and I) moved her up to where we both lived.  After we found her a house to buy, she told my children not to darken her doorstep again ... even though I put her up in my own house for 5 months while she searched for her own place.  All because we leaned Democratic.

Now is the time for all good Republicans (I know you are out there!) to come to the aid of your (decimated) party.  Don't be shy and don't be put off by the engorged blowhard.  The times we face are serious.  The decisions we have to make are not a game -- this is NOT a football match.  This is a life-threatening, honest-to-god grave situation we face, whether you come at it from politics, environment, security, finances, or human decency.  Stand up please.  Tell Rush that he does NOT speak for you.  Tell Rush you will not bend over and grab your ankles so he can have his way with you.  Show some spine!!!

When Is Breaking the Law Legal?

Even though I doubt she'll ever read it, I think I write this blog as if I were talking to my sister. She's four years younger than I; we have different fathers; and our mother (who died a dyed-in-the-wool dittohead) favored her over me. We correspond by e-mail now and then, and in a recent message she suggested I should listen to Rush (as in Limbaugh) to get my head straight. Needless to say, we grew up to be very different in our world views and politics.

Anyway, the ongoing saga of extreme politicization at the DOJ brings us a new chapter this week. Former DAG James Comey's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee was so powerful that I fail to see how Congress can put off taking action on impeachment for one more day. Impeachment not only for Mr. Weaselwords Gonzales, but impeachment for those in the White House who tried to get an ailing AG "Let the Eagles Soar" Ashcroft to sign off on a super-secret program to spy on US citizens, and failing to gain DOJ authority, went ahead with the program anyway.

The law that created the FISA court has never been challenged. But this administration didn't want to have to go to the FISA court for some of its spying plans, so they simply ignored that law and carried on as if they had impunity from prosecution or accountability. And so far, those who are in a position to hold him accountable have so far let Bush act with impunity.

My sister says that Bush has a good soul and that he's made a few mistakes here and there but he means well and we really ought to stop being pinko traitors and just let him run the country the way he sees fit. Foreign policy disasters be damned, she knows those terrorists would be planting IEDs in her driveway if we left Iraq. Katrina victims should've listened to the warnings and fled before they drowned. And whose to say Bush broke the law anyway? Maybe it was a bad law. Maybe he needed to break it to protect us!

Maybe this administration has broken so many laws by now, using the same 9/11 excuse, that another one is meaningless. Let's think about this a minute.

• The folks at Bushco have brought us a war of aggression, clearly banned by international law.
  
• They've also sponsored in-house and outsourced torture, in Afghanistan and Iraqi prisons, at Guantanamo, and secret CIA outposts in other countries -- again, clearly banned by international treaty which is the same as the law of our land.
  
• They've instituted (and are still carrying out) illegal wiretapping on US citizens.
  
• They've failed to follow the laws that Congress has written requiring them to report on their activities and they've failed to respond to legal subpoenas to boot.
  
• They've changed the meaning of the laws Congress has written by adding "signing statements" claiming they read the laws but don't necessarily intend to follow or enforce them.
  
• They've tried to fix elections by using the DOJ as one of Karl Rove's personal political tools.
  
• There's simply not enough room to list all the intentional lies they told, from "the air in NYC (3 days after 9/11) is fine to breathe" to "there's disagreement about whether human activity is causing global warming" to "We know where they are(WMD)..."

One thing I'd like to ask my sister -- what about if a Hillary Clinton took any of these actions? Or a Ted Kennedy? Or a Harry Reid? Is it only Bush who should be immune from accountability? Or does this new impunity also apply to anyone who holds the title of President of the United States?

And I keep writing and calling members of Congress -- why aren't we impeaching them already?

The Man Who Doesn't Listen

I have to wonder of George W. Bush has ears at all. He certainly does not have ears to hear.

He says he listens to the "generals on the ground." But according to a general, an Iraq war general who led the troops on the ground, "You didn't listen." I'm talking about General John Batiste, but there's plenty more where he's coming from. General Shinseke was the first to be ignored. Sadly, I think General Batiste is not going to be the last. One can form the fairly safe opinion that Bush listens to "generals on the ground" only when those generals say what he wants to hear.

Colin Powel said we'd only be in Iraq as long as the [sic] sovereign Iraqi government wanted us to stay. But it seems as if a majority of the government wants us to leave! And, in fact, a majority of Iraq's civilian population wants us to leave too!

Then there's the walls we are constructing, separating Sunni neighborhoods from Shia and vice versa. Iraq's leader, Prime Minister Maliki, demanded (after a massive demonstration against the wall) that construction halt. But uhmmmm... no, construction continued and has morphed to other walls in Baghdad as well.

Bush never did say he listened to polls (even though we know that is a lie) so I suppose even when a large majority think our country is moving in the wrong direction, well, we can't very well expect Bush to listen.

Bush must have his headphones tuned in to another place. Let me guess, it's either Karl Rove or the Almighty. I've got $20 on Rove. For anyone who thinks God is talking directly to Dubya, I've got a nice rubber room and suit for you to wear.

Mister total-failure Bush must not realize that the better part of being a politician is listening to constituents, allies, one's military leaders, and even .. dare I say it, one's conscience. Although, once the greed gene has seated itself deeply, one's conscience loses a foothold. That's when a person is truly lost.

I know what torture is, Mr. Bush. I know what murder is, for economic gain. I know what Jesus would do. I doubt you do.

There is only one recourse. Our Congress must demand impeachment of Cheney and Bush.

Can We Impeach Them for Blowing the Job?

We've got Dick (aka Darth) Cheney on Sunday morning talk shows maintaining that Iraq had connections with Al Qaida (you're supposed to think about 9/11 again) and insisting that more troops killing more Iraqis will give us a victory in this (faux) War on Terror.

We've got George (aka would-be-king) Bush sucking up TV time by commiserating with (and creating photo-ops with) the bereaved fellow students, faculty, staff and family members of Virginia Tech as a result of a very odd shooting on that campus.

So many other blogs have detailed the abysmal record of Dick and George's administration, that I hardly feel it is worth repeating the record here. I recently heard a phrase, I think a suggestion for a bumper sticker, that said: "Can we impeach them for blowing the job?"

I am very dismayed that "impeachment is off the table." Why? For God's sake, why? How else do we demonstrate in deed that we do not approve of the lawbreaking, arrogant politicians who have the nerve to tell us that we have no say in what happens in our country?

Anyway, in keeping with my thought process that every word posted on the 'net adds to the sum total of the words that represent how we, the people, really feel, let me say it again. IMPEACH. IMPEACH GW BUSH, IMPEACH DICK CHENEY.

I've submitted impeachment papers to members of Congress. Dennis Kucinich is ready to begin impeachment proceedings but he needs to know we support that. Please let Dennis Kucinich know we do support that.

The D'vidus Touch

Back when George W. Bush was campaigning to be president he promised he'd be a uniter and not a divider. He wanted to change the tone in Washington. Work with Congress, no matter what political affiliation. Of course, he also promised he would not do nation-building. So where did the hate start?

My take is, cleverly disguised think tanks planted the seeds during the Bill Clinton presidency. Some people became real Clinton-haters. I remember thinking at the time, how rude and cruel and crazy the voices sounded -- calling Clinton a murderer and rapist, a thief and a fraud. Hillary called it a "vast right-wing conspiracy." But eight years ago the words liberal and conservative weren't dirty words. Right-wing and left-wing were both valid political stances. Neo-conservatives did not sit at the main table.

Fast forward to today. So many aspects of our lives are weighed and measured and judged based on whether one calls oneself a Democrat or a Republican. When you testify in a Congressional committee, some lawmaker just has to ask, "Are you a Democrat?" Nevermind that you honorably served a Republican Administration. If you question a GW Bush appointee, or oppose US foreign policy, you deserve to be discounted, swift-boated, and discredited. You get to be called a traitor who deserves public humiliation and there are even some who will call for your hanging.

The US is more divided today than I can ever remember. The right doesn't trust the left any more than the left trusts the right. If you aren't with "them" you're against "them." Evil vs. good. Black vs. white. Dirty liberal pinko-commie hippie weaklings who want peace which equals surrender, vs. strong gun-toting smoke-em-out or just nuke the crap out of 'em, real Amurikans who won't settle for anything but victory.

It is as if GW Bush has the hands of a neo-conservative version of Midas. Everything he touches splits into opposing camps. Here in the US, it's rich vs. poor, corporations vs. workers, right vs. left, business vs. the environment. Iraq used to be united, but now... We have Sunni vs. Shia, Shia vs. Shia, Kurdistan vs. the rest of Iraq, Iraqi people vs. the puppet government that is trying to privatize Iraqi treasure.

Divide and conquer. It works the same at home as it does abroad.

Meet George W. Bush: the man with the D'vidus Touch.