Saturday, August 30, 2008

Bridgers to Nowhere? Ted Stevens' Governor?


I read somewhere earlier this morning that the Republican Party knows a losing fight when it sees one. Rather than waste a lot of effort squandering whatever remains of a previously positive conservative reputation by making silly defenses of a silly candidate, they have conceded.

They are putting Sarah on the ticket to appease Social Conservatives ... or demonstrate/prove to those S.C.'s that an electoral base needs to be wider and more tolerant than the position where the religious right has McCain tethered.

The Dem convention was extremely powerful and effective. Given the gifted rhetorical abilities of all those prominent speakers who set the table and complemented Obama's special oratorical skill, this contest is a speechifying mismatch.

Make no mistake, the election won't be decided by we Internet intellects who can't get through the day without our own or someone else's analysis that is less than ten minutes old. It will be decided by blocks of voters prompted by rhetoric that capitalizes on outrage more than anger.

The Dem's have a tremendous opportunity with that national outrage just ripe for the picking while Repubs don't have much if anything to rile the nation against the Democrats.

No Republican of prominence can compete with any of the Democratic top-tier orators. Furthermore, Republicans do not have a single position that can be proclaimed and proven as a superior or better alternative to what Democrats are describing and promoting.

Going along with McCain's choice seems to be either an extraordinary demonstration of Republican strategic helplessness or worse.

Perhaps having been unable to field a more universally popular candidate able to combine all the varied conservative concerns, they have conceded. They are leaving all the principal decisions to McCain himself.

Or ... from the pool of stupidity where most available political consultants and spinners swim Republicans netted only from the shallowest end of that pool.

Regarding McCain ... about the second or third time he revealed his mysogynistic (sp?) tendencies combined with such silliness as "Bomb Bomb Iran" and his inability to communicate real humor, I realized that Johnny guns is nothing more than the bottom-tier type officer that most veterans knew at one time or another during their careers;

the kind of officer who thought his collar insignia made him a Patton by osmosis but in reality was not capable of remaining competent as a leader of men or squadrons once out of his cockpit and flight suit.

I've said before that conceding the POW time to Johnny Guns in no way concedes that such an experience alone makes him the equivalent of this country's actual military commanders who rose to the top mostly on their own merits.

From a Commander-in-Chief standpoint based on military background, experience in war, strategy, tactics and an appreciation of the value of diplomacy, McCain truthfully is closer to George Bush on the skill level than he is to Wesley Clark, Colin Powell, Tommy Franks or even those currently serving in the JCS.

I hope that with Obama and Biden talk is not cheap.

If he means what he says, he will voluntarily give back to the people what Cheney and the dumbest class of elected Republicans in Americs's history stole from the people.

He won't try to tell as that since he's wiser and more conscience-driven than the Republican thieves, he will know how best to use the new presidential power.

Right?

Thanks to Hoffmania for this excerpt from a 94-page PDF

We will pursue policies to undermine extremism, recognizing that this contest is also between two competing ideas and visions of the future. A crucial debate is occurring within Islam. The vast majority of Muslims believe in a future of peace, tolerance, development, and democratization. A small minority embrace a rigid and violent intolerance of personal liberty and the world at large. To empower forces of moderation, America must live up to our values, respect civil liberties, reject torture, and lead by example. We will make every effort to export hope and opportunity¿access to education, that opens minds to tolerance, not extremism; secure food and water supplies; and health care, trade, capital, and investment. We will provide steady support for political reformers, democratic institutions, and civil society that is necessary to uphold human rights and build respect for the rule of law.


We reject the use of national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. We reject the tracking of citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. We reject torture. We reject sweeping claims of ¿inherent¿ presidential power. We will revisit the Patriot Act and overturn unconstitutional executive decisions issued during the past eight years. We will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine duly enacted law. And we will ensure that law-abiding Americans of any origin, including Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans, do not become the scapegoats of national security fears.

We believe that our Constitution, our courts, our institutions, and our traditions work.

In its operations overseas, while claiming to spread freedom throughout the world, the current Administration has tragically helped give rise to a new generation of potential adversaries who threaten to make America less secure. We will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools to hunt down and take out terrorists without undermining our Constitution, our freedom, and our privacy.

To build a freer and safer world, we will lead in ways that reflect the decency and aspirations of the American people. We will not ship away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in faroff countries, or detain without trial or charge prisoners who can and should be brought to justice for their crimes, or maintain a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law. We will respect the time-honored principle of habeas corpus, the seven century-old right of individuals to challenge the terms of their own detention that was recently reaffirmed by our Supreme Court. We will close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, the location of so many of the worst constitutional abuses in recent years. With these necessary changes, the attention of the world will be directed where it belongs: on what terrorists have done to us, not on how we treat suspects.

"You're on your own" would be more accurate for Republican economic governance

Candidate Rossi has been running ads in the Pacific County papers declaring himself to be "A fresh voice for Pacific County."

That "fresh voice" deception is easy to see through even out here in the boondocks since there is nothing new in the current state Republican or Rossi's proposals that differs from what they've been offering for the last 20 years.

The transparency in the Rossi ad is its insulting assumption that voters this year are paying little attention to the economy and its financial impact in their individual lives. It also insults us in the same way Republicans ignored our inadequate health coverage two years ago and instead preferred to create a fairy tale about "frivolous lawsuits."

Rossi is also candidate of a national party that truly betrayed the American voter.

But of course no Republican is willing to defend the party's failure in Iraq with any kind of enthusiasm or catch phrase. That party's authorship of the tragic waste of humanity in Iraq and needless placing of our soldiers in harm's way will be remembered as a betrayal of America's core values for as long as there is an American History to be taught.

But I digress. Sticking to state politics, candidate Rossi however, keeps blithely tossing out shallow sentences totally absent specifics to back up his claims. He makes the kind of economic talk that might work in boardrooms but never where workers gather in their communities to examine their options.

To wit:

The incumbent raised taxes and increased spending by 33%, but taxpayers aren't seeing a return on their investment.

What party geniuses came up with that as a marketing plan?

On payday the question is whether or not the earnings will cover the expenses. The next thought is more likely anger at the employer - especially if that employer would rather contribute company profits to associations like the BIAW than consider a wage or benefit increase for workers.

When Washingtonian's pay tax on a new washing machine or set of tires, how many of them actually then stop to ponder whether or not that tax will be used wisely?

Furthermore, how many actually think the governor is the one doing the taxing? By his slogan Rossi would have you believe that the governor dictates to the legislature how they will vote regarding taxes.

Well, maybe Rossi is trying to fool us into thinking that as governor he could do that.

And in this county where Tim Eyeman vehicle licensing tax foolishness cost us adequate bus transportation, how many residents here actually think about increased government spending percentages?

Probably only those who remember the good old days when the buses ran more often on more routs. To restore the good old days would require increased spending for public transportation.

I don't think Dino the CEO who would run state government as a business would have such a memory for the good old days.

"You're on your own" would be more accurate for Republican economic governance.

The assumptions that drive Rossi and his party's strategy truly prove the false economic bubble that constitutes their theoretical world.

Otherwise, the truth revealed by a seemingly oblivious Republican candidate, party and financial support base is that they take Washington voters for suckers - thinking that we are shallow and too dumb to think critically.

The next part of the deceptive ad declares that

DSHS, Department of Ecology are run by Christine Gregoire's appointees. These agencies are unresponsive.

Immediate reaction is a question about appointees.

Is Rossi declaring that he would not appoint the head of those agencies? In Rossi's case that might be good since he has yet to appoint a good and truthful idea as something worth while to promise voters.

Worse for Rossi, during the winter storm that devastated much of SW Washington, while those agencies - particularly DSHS - were responding big time, where was Dino Rossi and what was he doing to help out?

I know first hand what DSHS and Governor Gregoire were doing. I doubled my working hours for 3 solid weeks helping victims in DSHS offices in Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties.

So how RESPONSIVE was candidate Rossi?

Well, I read that he had a visit with a friend - a storm victim in Lewis County - but other than that Dino seemed content to stay high and dry on the sidelines kibbitzing and taking pot shots at Governor Gregoire.

Meanwhile, Governor Gregoire was more than doubling her working hours including lots of time and effort trying to get George Bush (Rossi's Republican Role Model) off his dead ass and declare the counties as disaster areas.

Gregoire was also rallying the State's congressional members to help in the "wake-up-the-President" effort.

But to my knowledge Mr. Rossi did very little to come to the aid of his potential voters.

Talk is cheap. It was cheap last December and it's cheap currently in shallow and meaningless slogans.

"A governor who will make a difference?"

Give me a break. All talk, no substance and an insult to all of us.

That kind of makes of Rossi with his unproven assertions about DSHS and the administration of Chris Gregoire one Republican hypocrite willing to mislead local voters with false rhetoric and unproven declarations.

Finally, let's talk briefly about that puzzling timing of his most recent political ad - the one that aired immediatlely following Senator Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention.

Why did he run his ad at that moment?

The principal suggestion that comes to mind is that it was the only effective way for a Republican to speak to an attentive audience.

Apparently neither the State Republican Party nor its gubernatorial candidate could think of a better way to get the attention of voters.

So their solution was to ride Obama's coat tails.

Doesn't that say more about the weakness and lack of message of the Republican party and its candidate - needing a Democrat to attract voters so they could have an audience?

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

That wasn't religious fervor in his eyes last night. That was religious hypocrisy.

well ... at least until the babies he saves grow old enough to join up. Then all pro-life bets are off. John McCain has also declared that he will be a pro-death guy with a pro-death presidency in mind. His presiding premise is that war is the only foreign policy useful for spreading America's corporate-driven globalization. It's a premise of economic and imperial design masquerading as the perfect form of democracy and democratic freedoms.

Senator John McCain told the conservative evangelical audience Saturday night that if elected, he would be a "pro-life President and have pro-life policies"

Really?

That wasn't religious fervor in his eyes last night. That was religious hypocrisy.

If we are going to incorporate public demonstrations of religious self-righteousness based on literalist Biblical values, let us begin and end with a literalist reading of the Sermon on the Mount, The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan.

Those scriptural passages are all we need to know if we want to have a better society than what we have now.

What we have now is a parsing of spiritual values in the same manner as we have parsed America's "core values." We parse our core values in order to justify or look the other way when our country behaves as a self-interested take-no-prisoners global imperialist.

We can't spread love by spreading hate.

We can't spread tolerance by spreading intolerance.

We cannot consciously stop judging and condemning others by spreading judgmental thinking, condemnation and self-righteousness.

But we can transform ourselves by following the real teachings of Jesus and not the lies of morally bankrupt self-bloated hypocrites. You know of whom I speak. Loudly posturing bible-waving moral midgets like John Hagee and CUSI who would have you believe that Jesus applauds when innocent human beings are collaterally killed in order to further foreign-policy stupidity,

Do any of us believe that human beings can be destroyed righteously? Do American Christians in a technologically advanced military society actually assume that God is pleased that airborne bombers can fly in a formation resembling a cross as they kill innocent mothers, fathers and children?

Can we accept this form of global abortion and call it good?

Can we sit in our churches once a week and walk about with a pious smile pretending to be like Jesus?

If you think such brings a smile to the face of the Prince of Peace, you need to stop spending so much time in your churches and more time in the real world.

Where Jesus walked.

Desperate for Diversions

 

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