The Heartland Progressive

Let's go shopping?

2006-12-20T17:55:00.000-05:00

"And so my fellow Americans...Ask not what your country can do for you...ask what you can do for your country" President John F. Kennedy (1961)

"I encourage you all to go shopping" President? George W. Bush (2006)
I'm not making this stuff up, folks...George W. Bush, the idiot in chief, said that, today.

Welcome Senator Edwards

2006-12-18T12:16:00.000-05:00

I would like to take the opportunity to welcome John Edwards to the Presidential race. The Republican Administration and Congress have severely neglected America over the past decade. We have an enormous national debt, a historically high trade deficit, tens of millions of Americans and their children living in poverty. Tens of millions of Americans have no health insurance.

While the rich corporatists have been in control of our country, their wealth has grown, exponentially, while middle and working class America has struggled to just stay even. The middle class is declining in number and wealth at levels never before seen in our history.

John Edwards represents a refreshing voice for us. John Edwards believes in the people of this country and I think it is high time that our government returns to the values that made America great… middle class, mainstream, progressive values… Jobs, a living wage, universal healthcare, and affordable public education.

Four years ago Sen. Edwards made an impassioned speech to America, dubbed the “Two America’s speech”, the Senator enlightened the nation to the fact that there are two America’s, one for the rich and one for everybody else. Senator Edwards believes that it is time that America becomes one again and I wholeheartedly agree with him. I hope you do as well.

So, welcome Senator Edwards, you have my support.

Dear Laura

2006-12-14T16:32:00.000-05:00

Dear Laura,

I'm sure that at your high society Texas tea parties, things must be just marvelous darling! But in the real world things are not marvelous at all. Nearly 3,000 US Soldiers, Marines, Seamen and Airmen have been violently and brutally killed in Iraq. Your husband doesn't like to count dead Iraqi's but we all know that that number exceeds half a million.

The media didn't kill these people; your husband's immoral and illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq killed them. This morning on MSNBC you had the audacity to suggest that the reason your husband's poll numbers were so low is because the media only reports the bad news and never covers the good news. First of all, that talking point is really getting moldy, time to get a new one, and secondly, it simply is not true.

Iraq is an absoloute and disgraceful example of the worst that humanity has to offer. Of course, there is a lot of media coverage of the devastation and slaughter that is going on there, but that is because it is NEWS!

The most recent poll puts your hubby's approval rate for his handling of the war at 19%, I don't know who those 19 percent are, I can't believe that there are 19% of Americans that still believe in his policy, whatever it might be, but I'm certain that you do. A word of advice, honey... get away from them as fast as you can...

Christianistas

2006-12-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

I should begin my post with a disclaimer; I have no problem whatsoever with the Christian religion or with any person who holds that faith as sacred. My issue lies solely with those who would use their political power to impose those beliefs on a society that may or may not accept the tenets of that religion. I am not anti-christian and any who would describe me as such would be guilty of slander. That said, let me begin to take Tom Delay apart.

The radical right wing "Christianistas" apparently have a new leader, the criminally indicted, disgraced, and resigned former Conressman, Tom Delay. Yesterday, Delay launched a new weblog, designed to compete with the Huffington Post, and I might add, this site as well.

Delay's Christianistas believe that the government is not a secular institution, despite the admonitions of the U.S. Constitution. If Tom Delay can keep himself out of jail he will attempt to build a grass roots organization, much like moveon.org, to raise money for evangelical candidates who will use their political power to undermine Constitutional safeguards guaranteeing seperation of church and state.

Delay and his cohorts would use their Congressional votes to stack the Federal Judiciary with like minded jurists who would overturn the rights of the citizenry to make decisions for themselves. They would impeach judges who did not agree with them and they would criminalize behaviors that they find personally offensive.

We have examples all throughout history of the disastorous results of religion based Government, the Crusades of Medieval times, the Salem Witch Trials and if you need a modern example of Theocracy, I would refer your attention to the government of Iran. Tom Delay's thinking is disordered, that is why he is under criminal indictment in Texas.

We must all do what we can to renounce his tacticts and his message.

Morning in America

2006-12-09T08:07:00.000-05:00

After 12 years in the darkness the sun will rise once more in America and the dark days of Republican rule will come to an end. Today is the final day of the Republican Congress. Ushered in by Newt Gingrich in 1994 the Republicans have proven that the age-old adage of "power corrupts and absolute power, corrupts, absolutely" still holds true. We have much to be thankful for on this day, but the hard work of repairing the damage is just beginning.

It will be a daunting task and a true test of courage for our newly elected Democrats. I am optimistic that positive changes will occur but wary of the many obstacles that lie along the path. The narcissistic and messiahanic criminal, George W. Bush, still controls the Executive Branch along with his corporatist, dark warlord, sidekick, Dickey C.

Rumsfeld is gone but the carnage that he and his cohorts have wrought, continues, unabated. Pat Roberts and Pete Hoekstra have been stripped of any real power. John Boehner, Roy Blunt, and Trent Lott have emerged as the leaders of the minority Republicans. These dinosaurs have seen the meteor that foretells their extinction but have yet to realize its full import.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have taken up the gauntlet and are marching forward, but many, myself included, wonder if they will be equal to the task. I, of course, will back them in their quest to reform a government that has shown no compassion for the people that they purport to represent. At the same time, however, I will be vigilant for signs that the temptation to compromise on matters of importance to the people will be denied.

Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House, has stated publicly that she has no intentions of beginning impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush. In my opinion this is a grave error. How will we ever have a government that represents us if we do not hold the criminals within, responsible for their crimes?

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)

2006-12-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

Even some Republicans in Congress have had enough of this stupidly concieved and prosecuted war; Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon is the latest member to wake up and take off the "rose-colored glasses"

"I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal," declared Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), a 10-year veteran of the Senate, in a speech last night.

Read the whole thing at TPM Muckraker

Senator Jim Webb

2006-11-29T13:46:00.000-05:00

The newly elected Democratic Senator just may become my new hero! Like Senator Webb I also respect the Office of the President of the United States but I most certainly do not respect the man who now holds that office. I think it is well past time that we stop giving George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt about the disastorous policy in Iraq and tell it to him in no uncertain terms, just like Jim Webb did.

The following exchange between Senator Webb and the President was reported in the Washington Post by Michael D. Shear.

Well done Senator!

At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall.
But it wasn't long before Bush found him. "How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq."I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme. "That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?" "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

John Kerry...Mission accomplished

2006-11-28T18:40:00.000-05:00

The “Swift-boating” of John Kerry is now complete. A poll released today finds that John Kerry has plummeted to the bottom of a list of 20 politicians rated on their likeability. Only 39% of respondents had favorable feelings about John Kerry. Amy Robach of Fox News affiliate MSNBC put it this way; “...Wait till you see where John Kerry finished...”

I bring this up to remind us all that the echo chamber is a very effective tool in the fight for political power in this country. Despite devastating losses in the 2006 mid term elections these right wing zealots still control the media. The decorated war hero who could have saved the lives of so many in Iraq is less popular than the man who’s narcissistic, and messiahanic crusade has claimed the lives of untold tens of thousands of people and destabilized the Middle East for probable generations.

I worked on the Kerry Campaign in 2004 and now I wouldn’t support John Kerry either, not because I consider him any less honest or dedicated but rather because I feel that he can no longer win. He has been so badly beaten up by the right that he no longer has any credibility. It is an absolute outrage what these people are capable of...

Al Gore is another example of their power. In my opinion Al Gore was elected President in 2000, but these people used their power to overturn the will of the people and gave the job to Bush. George W. Bush is not one tenth the man that Al Gore was and is. If you have not seen An Inconvenient Truth I encourage you to rent it,

Watching the movie I was struck by the image of a man who actually thinks about things that are important to the world and to the people of the world. I tried to think of George W. Bush actually putting realistic thought, or humanity, or compassion, into any issue that has confronted him over the past six years and could not think of any.

According to news reports, Bush has engaged on a campaign to raise $500,000,000.00 dollars for his Presidential Library to be located on the campus of SMU along with a “think tank” the “Center for Democracies”... God help us all...

"W"'s Legacy

2006-11-22T10:39:00.000-05:00

The Worst President in History

I don't believe that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will ever be held fully accountable for the crimes that they have perptrated on the American people nor for the war crimes they have committed throughout the world. There is however no doubt that George W. Bush will go down in history as the worst of all 43 American Presidents, and it will be a title that he richly deserves. Tens of thousands of people have died as a result of his war mongering and war profiteering. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have engineered the greatest robbery in the annuls of american and world history. It is way past time that we stop giving them the benefit of the doubt. These guys are not "good people" whose policies just didn't work out.

These people who have run our country for the past six years are cold, calculating criminals who have robbed the treasury of the United States and left the country bankrupt.

MSNBC or FOX NEWS

2006-11-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

IS MSNBC BECOMMING THE NEW FOX NEWS

As a long time political junkie, I keep all three top cable news channels on my TV all the time, have for years. It seems that lately the degree of biased reporting has been on the increase at MSNBC. Lester Holt, Norah O'Donnell, and Chris Jansing seem to be the biggest offenders.

During the evening broadcasts MSNBC programs popular shows whose hosts clearly have a political ideology and that's fine, those shows are commentary. Chris Matthews, Kieth Olbermann, Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, Rita Crosby all have shows and except for Matthews we all know what side of the aisle they are on and we watch their shows knowing this.

It is the morning "news" shows that are not represented as partisan commentary that has been changing. Chris Jansing reports mostly negative Democratic stories and positive Republican stories with the underlying subtext that Democrats are bad and Republicans are good.

It seems that whenever the Republicans put out their talking points that Jansing, Holt, and O'Donnel fall in lock step. When I have finished my research I will post specific instances of this bias. In the meantime remember that MSNBC is owned by General Electric and that they are a prime Defense Contractor that is making tons of money from the Iraq war.

Dinosaurs, Boehner and Blunt

2006-11-17T13:45:00.000-05:00

The dinosaurs are strongly in control of the Republican House as evidenced by today's election of John Boehner as the House Minority Leader and Roy Blunt as his Minority Whip. Is there no hope at all for the Republican Party?

John Boehner is so closely tied to the "K" street lobbyists, that he had to have his office suite remodeled and enlarged to accomodate several offices for these people to operate from. This is the same John Boehner that was passing out checks from the tobacco lobby, on the floor of the House, to Congressman who were voting on legislation, concerning the tobacco industry. A recent article was posted in the Washington Post, entitled, "Swimming in Loot" and in it they chronicled some of the lobbying interests that Boehner was in bed with, and how that had indeed increased the money flowing into the coffers of the Republican leadership.

Roy Blunt, the new Minority Whip, was Tom Delay's right hand man for many years. Delay was indicted and Blunt hasn't been yet. The Republican Party has learned nothing from the recent elections; they continue as the Party of Corruption. Perhaps in the next election there won't be enough of them left to even have a party.

DINOSAURS

2006-11-16T13:23:00.000-05:00

With the election this week of Trent Lott as the number two Republican in the Senate, the GOP has once again proved that it is unwilling to move into the 21st century. Lott, the authoritarian, white, christian, male epitomises the mid 20th century mindset of the segregationist south.

The Republican Party has failed to get the message of the recent election cycle; America is moving forward. The conservative agenda is no longer operative, and yet, the Republican Party clings to it. They are deeply mired in an ideology that no longer reflects our country.

When Karl Rove engineered a takeover of the federal government in 2000 they made a huge miscalculation. They started to believe that the unreal numbers they had generated were in fact real. They were not, they never were, America was never that conservative. What the Republicans had done was to suppress the vote, demonize Al Gore, corrupt the count and use their political hacks on the Supreme Court to make it appear as though George W. Bush had won the election. George W. Bush then ran out and claimed a mandate.

Bush never had a mandate, he had extremely talented political operatives who managed to keep him and the Republicans in power for the past 6 years, that's all. Now in 2006 we see the results of the failed Bush Administration. The people have registered a mandate to the Democrats. Get rid of the Republican agenda that has put our lives, our security, our freedoms and our prosperity at grave risk.

The Republican's answer to this mandate given to the Democrats is to revert to form. Appoint the argueably racist, Trent Lott to the Senate minority leadership. That is why I have taken it upon myself to develop a new logo for the GOP; a dinosaur...

God willing the dysfunctional Republican Party of the mid 20th century will soon be as extinct as is their new, unsolicited, mascot. But there is hope for the Republicans, as we all know, decaying dinosaur fossils generates oil and Republicans just love oil.

MI-02 Changes for Hoekstra

2006-11-11T09:24:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday Pete Hoekstra was re-elected to Congress from the 2nd district of Michigan. This will be Hoekstra's 8th term in Congress, even though, he promised the people of west Michigan that he would not serve more than six terms.

Pete Hoekstra promised the people of west Michigan that he would not take PAC money for his campaigns but he lied about that too. The Federal Elections Commission reports that Hoekstra accepted Hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs during this and previous election cycles.

Rep. Hoekstra has been serving as the Chairman of The House Select Committee on Intelligence during his past term, but this is comming to an end in January when the Democrats will assume all committee chairs and herein lies the problem for Rep. Hoekstra; how is he going to continue the cover-up of administration and committee wrongdoing as a minority member of the committee? answer; he can't.

The Heartland Progressive will begin publishing two additional blogs beginning soon. The first will be The Michigan Progressive which will address Michigan politics exclusively and the second will be called Shadow Pete where we will expose issues of corruption related to Rep. Peter Hoekstra. The local media in west Michigan has done a disservice to the constiuents of the 2nd district by refusing to investigate and publish stories related to Pete Hoekstra's alledged corruption. The two biggest offenders are The Holland Sentinel and the Muskegon Chronicle. The Michigan Progressive and Shadow Pete will remind these newspapers of their responsibilities.

Repercussions

2006-11-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

Exclusive to Time Magazine:
ADAM ZAGORIN

Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and GitmoBay.

We may not be fond of foreign governments prosecuting American officials but in the case of the extremely illegal prosecution of this war it seems fully justifiable to me. Beyond that I think the newly elected Democratic Congress has a mandate to hold hearings, investigate and hold accountable all officials in the Bush administration , including, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush who violated the U.S. Constitution, federal law and international treaties. We must send a strong message to anyone in the future who holds the Ofiice of President of the United States that they are not above the law. George W. Bush should be Impeached, removed from office and prosecuted for his crimes.

"The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor's previous inaction no longer hold up.

Whatever the legal merits of the case, it is the latest example of efforts in Western Europe by critics of U.S. tactics in the war on terror to call those involved to account in court. In Germany, investigations are under way in parliament concerning cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence on rendition — the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and their removal to third countries for interrogation. Other legal inquiries involving rendition are under way in both Italy and Spain.

Time to get back to work

2006-11-08T10:50:00.000-05:00

The election is over. The Democrats have returned to power. While this does not mean that the Democrats will immediately make substantial changes to our government it does mean that the Republican agenda is stopped dead in its tracks. This is a good thing.

Our Constitution, our rights and freedoms, and the middle class values that are the foundation of our way of life have been under assault. Last night the people spoke and they and we said; "NO MORE".

I have been on a sabatical from this blog during the campaign season. I was the Communications Director for Kimon Kotos. Kimon was the progressive Democrat running in the 2nd district of Michigan against Pete Hoekstra. Pete Hoekstra was re-elected to his seat and that is disturbing to all of us at Kotos for Congress, and at the Heartland Progressive. However one of the good things about last nights Democratic Tsunami is that Pete Hoekstra has lost his job as Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. He has been rendered impotent.

I will be returning to my publishing and writing here at the Heartland Progressive now that the election is over, because the fight goes on.

Bob Shrum

2006-10-24T10:33:00.000-05:00

Bob Shrum, Democratic strategist has posted a great analysis of the uphill battle that the Republicans are facing in this volitile election cycle.

The die is cast and the "tsunami" is comming, but that does not ensure us victory on Nov. 7th. We need to do our part. It is absolutely essential that each and every one of us goes to the polls and casts our ballot for change.

There couldn't be more at stake, jobs, the war in Iraq, healthcare, middle class values, government secrecy and the very core of our foundation the assault on the Constitution of the United States are all part of this election. If we want to live in a free society with a governnment that respects the rights of the people and adheres to "the rule of law" then we to vote for those things. I encourage you to read Bob Shrums article at "hardblogger.

There's no way to spin a tsunami except in advance. Karl Rove is busy trying to convince people that it's not coming or that retread arguments like terrorism and taxes are a seawall that will protect Republicans against it in the midterm elections. But come November 8th, I believe the Republican majorities in the House, and even the Senate, are likely to be under water. The domestic political equivalent of Cheney's absurd claim that we're making progress in Iraq -- the pretense that nothing fundamental has changed in Washington -- would only carry the White House from defeat to derision.

Criminal Republican

2006-10-18T20:39:00.000-05:00

There are not too many politicos in Washington these days. Most all of the Members of Congress have returned to their home districts to campaign for re-election. This is not true however of one Republican Congressman who haunts the mostly empty Rayburn House office building. Behind the closed doors of Room 2438, Rep Bob Ney (R-OH) works.

Of course the reason that this is something that might be surprising to us all is that this Republican Congressman is a convicted criminal. Now Bob Ney is not an ex-con trying to rebuild his life, no, Bob Ney has never spent a day in prison. As if a morbid metaphor for the "culture of corruption", Bob Ney continues to work in the very Congressional office that he has been a denizen of for 12 years. The same office where he committed the nefarious acts that caused his downfall. The very same office that he sold out.

The Republican Party, being the criminal organization that they are, actually has a convicted criminal who is a full-fledged U.S. Representative, with all the privledges and benefits that ensue from that position. When you go to work tomorrow the federal government will withhold a portion of your hard earned salary to pay an overinflated salary for this criminal.

Most convicted officials slink off to a hole somewhere when they are publicly disgraced, like Tom Foley who is holed up in a Alcohol Rehabilitation resort, thinking up a Catholic Priest he can blame for his lapses. But not Bob Ney. Bob Ney doesn't care what you or I think about him. Bob Ney doesn't have the intelligence to be ashamed or contrite. Bob Ney's attitude is F___ You, I want my check.

But what's even worse than this is that there seems to be no public outcry at the audacity of a Congressman convicted in federal court of corruption and sentenced to prison, continuing to work as a Congressman. What is really crazy is that even the Republican Party seems perfectly content to allow him to stay in office and collect his pay even though he has admitted that he is a criminal.

This does not shame the Republicans because the Republicans have no shame. There attitude seems to be "there but for the grace of God go I". If there was ever a reason for the American People to rise up and cast these Republicans from our midst, this surely has to be it.

Another criminal !

2006-10-16T15:54:00.000-05:00

Breaking News...This just in...

USA Today reports that another Bush Administration Official is a criminal...

FDA chief Lester Crawford will plead guilty for failing to disclose a financial interest in companies his agency regulated, his lawyer said Monday...Crawford "is going to plead guilty to two misdemeanors tomorrow afternoon and he is going to admit his financial disclosures had errors and omissions, mostly with his wife's continued ownership of stocks," said Crawford's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder.

"At the end of the day, he owned these stocks, and he will admit he owned them while he was at the FDA and he will take responsibility for that," Van Gelder said.

The Justice Department's fraud and public corruption section filed an information in the case Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Anyone who thought that Nancy Pelosi's charge, that the Republican Party is immersed in a "culture of corruption", was too harsh, owes her an apology.

Party of shame

2006-10-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

The Republican Hall of Shame

Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH)
Convicted Criminal

Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA)
Convicted Criminal

Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX)
Under Criminal Indictment-Forced to resign

Jim Ellis, Warren RoBold and John Colyandro
Tom Delay aides--Under Criminal Indictment

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-OH)
Under federal investigation

Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)
Under federal investigation

Rep. Denny Hastert (R.IL)
Alledgedly Under Federal Investigation

Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL)
Under federal/state investigation-Forced to resign

Rep. Thomas Davis III (R-VA)
Under federal investigation

Rep. Bill Janklow (R-SD)
Convicted Criminal

Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)
Under federal investigation

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Under federal investigation

Gov. Don Siegleman(R-Al)
Convicted Criminal

Gov. George Ryan (R-IL)
Convicted Criminal

Gov. Bob Taft (R-OH)
Convicted Criminal

Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R-KY)
Under Criminal Indictment

Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Republican Chief of Staff to Dick Cheney--Deputy Chief of Staff George W. Bush--Under Criminal Indictment--Forced to resign

Jack Abramoff
Republican lobbyist--Convicted Criminal

Eric Safavian
Republican White House Procurement officer-Convicted Criminal

Susan Ralston
Aide to Karl Rove--Under federal investigation--Forced to resign

...and the list goes on...
is this the party of moral leadership and family values we have heard so much about?

The Death of America

2006-09-28T22:17:00.000-05:00

Tonight on the floor of the House of Representatives we saw the death of the Constitution. The Constitution is the only thing that we have that validates America as the greatest example of Democracy in the known history of our world. This man on the right, Pete Hoekstra, was the House manager for passage of the Terrorist Surveillance Act, a fancy title to cover up its true intent.

The bill passed, about a dozen Democratic Congressmen sold out their country and only about 8 or 9 Republicans defended theirs. The Congress of the United States just authorized George W. Bush to violate the 4th Amendment. The reason that sounds so strange is that there is no clause in the Constitution that allows the Legislative Branch to authorize the Executive Branch to violate The Constitution. The 4th amendment guarantees the people that the government may not search you (wiretap) without a warrant. The House just told Bush..."well nevermind that, just go ahead and do it anyway". What type of a country will we leave to our progeny if we do not stop this trip down the road to fascism?

I'm begging everyone to go to the polls and toss these criminals out on their asses on Nov 7, while we still have a country!

Tom Kean Jr.

2006-09-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

Perhaps the best chance that the Republicans had of picking up a Democratic seat in the U S Senate just went up in flames. Thomas Kean Jr. (R-NJ) son of the former Governor alledgedly accepted campaign contributions from executives and family members of a corporation with pending legislation. The same day that Kean, currently a state senator in New Jersey, cast a favorable vote on a budget bill regarding tax exemptions for the Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance company, Kean recieved $13,300.00 in campaing contributions from executives and family members of that same company, including $4,100.00 from the companies CEO. It seems that Republicans just can't help themselves they are addicted to money.

Kean is currently involved in a very tight race to unseat the incumbent Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who was appointed by Governor John Corzine when Corzine was elected Governor and resigned his Senate seat. It was starting to look like Kean could possibly prevail over the Democrat in the Democratic state but it seems that this is now unlikely in the light of these serious allegations.

Hoekstra... again!

2006-09-14T09:57:00.000-05:00

A firestorm has erupted in Washington over a report issued by The House Select Commitee on Intelligence. The committee, chaired by, Pete Hoekstra (R-Mi) issued a report in August on Iran's nuclear capabilities. In a letter sent today to Chairman Hoekstra by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Chief of the agency Mohammad ElBaredei blasts the Committee report as being "outrageous and dishonest".

ElBaredei angrily complained to the White House and to Chairman Hoekstra that the report contained numerous, "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated statements." Further the IAEA supplied proof to back up their claims.

The principal author of the report was Frederick Fleitz, a former CIA officer who had been a special assistant to John R. Bolton, the administration's former point man on Iran at the State Department. Bolton had been highly influential in the crafting of a tough policy that rejected talks with Tehran.

The administration is beating the drums of war with Iran in an attempt to scare the public into voting Republican and once again, as we have seen in the buildup to the war with Iraq, the Bush administration, aided by Congressional rubber stamps, like Hoekstra, are distorting the facts in order to facilitate the Bush doctrine.

The whole story is in The Washington Post.

This is just another of many reasons that we need to remove Pete Hoekstra from his office, we the people have a choice, we do not have to let these things go, we have the power... ON Nov. 7th hold this administration accountable, register and vote. Kimon Kotos is the Democratic candidate to replace Hoekstra, please visit his website here and do what you can to help get our government back.

Conservatism is dead!

2006-09-13T10:19:00.000-05:00

The victory last night of Lincoln Chafee in the Rhode Island Republican Primary is not the victory for the GOP that the media is spinning. It is instead an indication that the recent wave of ultra conservatism in our political system is dead. The Republican Party was forced, once again, to spend massive amounts of money to shore up the candidacy of an anti-Bush liberal against a Conservative who everyone knows they would much rather have had in that seat, Steve Laffey (R-Ri).

Like the battle between Ned Lamont (D-Ct) against Joe Lieberman (D-Ct) and the Republican candidate Schlessinger in Connecticut, the GOP pumped massive amounts of money and political support into the incumbent DEMOCRAT, abandoning totally their own Republican Candidate. These are indeed strange times in American politics, as well as a clear indication of how much trouble the Republican Party is in. Now, even if the Republicans hold a narrow margine in the Senate, there will be enough moderate Republicans seated in the Republican Caucus that the right wing extremists will not be able to get their un-American and Un-Constitutional legislation passed. It will also make it much harder for George W. Bush to continue stacking the Federal Courts with his own personal rubber stamps!

Boycott Disney

2006-09-10T20:41:00.000-05:00

Walt Disney (pictured right) must surely be turning over in his grave this evening. His name and the entertainment empire that he built has been hijacked by the right wing politicos in an attempt to use the horrible, national tragedy of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City 5 years ago for political gain.

I met Walt Disney in Palm Springs, California in the mid 1960's. We were at a spring training game for the Angels baseball team. I remember him being a friendly and kind man who more than tolerated all of us kids clammoring around him for some attention. He was kind enough to sign a baseball for me.

I cannot bring myself to believe that this man who has brought so much joy to the world would ever approve of the scurrilous actions of the people who control his company in 2006. And so it is with some sadness that I would use my political voice to call for a boycott of all things Disney.

I know that boycotts very seldom have much effect but I believe that we have to let these corporations know when we do not approve of their actions, and it seems that the only language that they speak is money and the only way to express outrage is to deny them their life's blood, money.

In airing tonights "docu-drama" The path to 9-11, The Walt Disney Company and the ABC Television Network have violated the public trust. They have presented to the American people a right wing propoganda video and pretended that it was the truth. Even though they know that parts of the script are out and out lies that contradict the transcripts of the 9-11 commission report, which the producers of this propoganda point to as the basis of the script.

In comitting this fraud they have put their political agenda above their primary responsibility to inform and entertain the public. ABC television and each of it's affiliates operate under license from the FCC. That license does not grant them the right to distort the truth in an attempt to aid any political party trying to improve its standing with the voters. When the mainstream media acts in congress with the government to mislead the people, then nothing less then the very core of our Democracy is held in the balance.

And so I encourage all who read this to tell Disney and ABC that they were profoundly wrong to have aired this propoganda. Tell them in their own language. Turn off ABC, The Family Channel, The Disney Channel. Do not take your children to Walt Disney World or Disneyland until The corporation apologizes for their actions and makes ammends.

American Facism (part II)

2006-09-09T11:33:00.000-05:00

Continued from the post directly below this one.

The people who control our government at this moment in time are elitests. These people believe that they have superior intellect, and information and divine guidance that puts them in a better position to see the world as it really is and that we the people are ignorant of what they know. This is not new, dictators and empires have used this justification all through world history. Lennin, Mussolini, Pinochet, Hitler, The Roman Empire, The Ottoman Empire, The English Empire all have believed that they were above the people. Such beliefs by the ruling classes inevitably lead to facism.

America is on the road to facism, we are not totally there yet, but we have journeyed a great distance down that road. An example of American Facism is the NSA wiretap issue. The issue is misrepresented by the right wing. The issue is not shouldn't the President use his authority to track terrorists by tapping their phones.

The issue is shouldn't the President obey the rule of law in obtaining a warrant to tap the phones of terrorists. In 1978 the congress passed The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That law was passed for a very Constitutional reason. The NSA needed to go after our enemies and we needed to have our rights protected, so the Congress set up a secret court, where the administration could go to obtain a warrant in secret, to protect intelligence sources.

The law further stated that if you need to tap a line right now and don't have time to go to court, go ahead and do it just so you advise the court afterwards that you've done it. But George W. Bush does not want permission from any court. George W. Bush is above all that mundane, democracy stuff, George W. Bush is a power unto himself and so, George W. Bush under his own percieved authority decides to ignore the law and to ignore the Constitution and tap any phone he damn well wants to and to take any other action he wants and in so doing creates a Constitutional crisis.

Well I'm sorry, Mr. Bush but we ARE a Democracy. Several years ago in a moment of candid lucidity George said it himself "I wish I were a dictator, it would make things a lot easier" or words to that effect, I don't have the quote in front of me just now. This is the road to Facism.

Who is ultimately responsible for this lawlessness by George W. Bush? I would submit that it is the men and women who make up our current Congress. The Republican majority in the House and Senate who refuse to hold this President accountable to the Constitution and the rule of law. Who is ultimately responsible for them? We the People are responsible for them.

On Nov. 7th we have a chance to excercise our Constitutional duty. On Nov 7th we can hold George W. Bush accountable. We can return OUR government to the rule of law. We just have to do it. We must register and vote to throw the men and women who refuse to do their duty out of office and replace them with people who will use the power that we give them to prosecute, impeach , remove from office and encarcerate those elected officials, including Bush, Cheney, Rove and the rest who refuse to obey the law.

American Facism (part I)

2006-09-05T19:48:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry... I never wanted to use this blog to express radical left wing rhetorical hyperboli, but I am so angry about the unbelievable rhetoric that is comming from this White House that I literally cannot contain myself.

Under the tutelidge of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, George W. Bush is deeply involved in the business of turning our government into a facist police state; replacing our Democratic Republic with a right wing dictatorship. I promise you that I do not make these charges without some regard as to the implications of such words.

The NSA is becoming the KGB, George W. Bush's own, personal secret police. Fox News (Pravda) has become the Ministry of Propoganda and with the appointment of Tony Snow as the White House Press Seceratary, Bush has shown his utter contempt for anyone who disagrees with any ideology that Bush espouses. Tony Snow is not now, nor has he ever been, anything more than a radical right wing commentator. His partisain views are well known, as he has been with Fox News for many years.

In theory, the President of the United States, represents all of the people of the country, Republicans, Independents and Democrats; for most of his time at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. it has been clear that Bush only represents Republicans and even beyond that, he represents only certain Republicans. But more and more, lately, it appears that George W. Bush does not represent any of the people... he represents himself.

Bush's doctrine of the "Unitary Executive" is evidence of this, so too are the more than 700 signing statements attatched to legislation he has signed into law, stipulating that the Executive Branch is not subject to the law that he has signed. Refusal to get a warrant to conduct surveillance as required by the 4th amendment to the Constitution and the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. George W. Bush is involved in a behind the scenes effort to classify documents associated with past and present administrations at an unprecedented rate, including mundane documents that have been declassified for years or decades and which content is already widely available.

The Bush administration is doing everything in it's power to discredit the media, any media, any opportunity for the citizens to get news related to the illegal or immoral behavior of any and all administration members or friends. Threatening to prosecute journalists who print information that has been supplied to them by conscienious whistleblowers.

The Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, is nothing more than a rubber stamp for the doctrine of the Unitary Executive. According to The Constitution of The United States our form of Government is a representitive democracy. We the people elect our Representatives to House of Representatives and to the Senate. We elect delegates to the Electoral College, who then cast their votes for the Presidency. And the Executive branch appoints Federal Judges to the various Federal Courts with the advice and consent of the Congress.

This form of government has served us well for more than 200 years. The framers of the Constitution did a great job of protecting us from ourselves. They wrote into the founding document of our country the seperation of powers; three branches of government, each co-equal with the others... The Executive, The Legislative and The Judiciary. A system of checks and balances reaching right back to the people. Those who govern us, govern through "the consent of the governed".

Bush's doctrine of the Unitary Executive is completly extra-constitutional, it is in fact un-constitutional and it is in fact illegal. But the system is broken, we the people have lost our representation, the ruling party has figured out how to manipulate the system so well that they have been able to subvert the will of the people and with no checks and balances functioning in our government, George W. Bush has been allowed to violate the rule of law and the Constitution with reckless abandon.

The representation by Bush, Cheney and the rest, as to why we are in Iraq, is a lie; a complete and total fabrication, a fraud. George W. Bush has taken this country into Iraq for his own personal, ideological, economic and political reasons. The reasons are oil and world domination. The Bush administration is constructing the largest, most expensive and high tech embassay ever constructed in any country by any government in the history of mankind... why? The Bush administration has constructed 14 permanent military bases in Iraq... why? If the purpose of the invasion of Iraq was to relieve the Iraqi people of a tyrant, Saddam Hussein, and to build a democracy in the Middle East and return the country to it's own democratically elected government than why do we need to build these facilities as if we were going to occupy Iraq for some time to come?

Consider this the first half of this post, I will post the second half tomorrow.

Olbermann blasts Rummy

2006-09-01T20:06:00.000-05:00

Kieth Olbermann is hands down, the best Commentator on cable news. Yesterday, Kieth took Seceratary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to task for outrageous comments Rumsfeld made on Wednesday to the American Legion. You may link to a video of Kieths' remarkable commentary, posted on my blog, the Un-Republican Video Vault; it is well worth seeing. I will let Kieth speak for himself as he is far more eloquent than I.

Desperation!

2006-09-01T08:04:00.000-05:00

There is a new political reality afoot in America; Neo-Conservatism is dead. It isn't terrorism that scares the White House, it is the mood of an American public that is sick to death of the Bush Administration's lies and rhetoric designed to scare people into voting Republican; the politics of fear.

And yet, even as that political strategy is failing miserably; Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are taking their show on the road, ratcheting up the rhetoric to hyperbolic highs. Joe Lieberman was the first casualty but he will not be the last. In the next 90 days many conservatives will suffer the slings and arrows of an angry nation.

All across this great nation the electorate is waking, like a dragon rising from a long slumber, shaking off the haze of a sleep induced trance and realizing for the first time that it was just a dream. Waking to the reality that the world is not better for the conservative leadership of this nation. Far from being better they are waking to the reality that the world is far worse than they ever thought possible.

Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and George W. Bush are working late in the lab trying to concoct a new potion to once again induce a trance in the American people. Svengali has been summoned from the dark netherworld to cast a spell... "Fear"! Be afraid, be very afraid... If we cast the Republicans from office, then the terrorists will come for us.

"If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities" George W. Bush, speaking to the American Legion in Salt Lake City, yesterday.

translation..."Be afraid...Be very afraid".

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday the world faces "a new type of fascism" and likened critics of the Bush administration's war strategy to those who tried to appease the Nazis in the 1930s. Translation... "Be afraid... Be very afraid".

Some Americans say we should appease the terrorists so they don't hit us again. Dick Cheney two days ago; ..."Be afraid... Be very afraid". Terrorists are everywhere and if we toss the Republicans out on their fat wallets, Bin Laden will open a branch office on Park Ave.

I mean let's face it Democrats don't care about terrorism. No Democrats died on 9-11, that was a Republican event. Democrats don't support our troops, no Democrat ever served in the Armed Forces. Really now, peace is not achieved by not going to War when you don't need to, peace is only achieved by being in a state of perpetual war.

On Nov.7th we will tell them what we think of this gelatinous goo that they call foreign policy. On Nov. 7th we will Dump the Republicans!

GOP the party of bigotry?

2006-08-27T08:46:00.000-05:00

Is the Republican Party the party of bigotry or is there something about the ideology of the party that attracts large numbers of bigots into their tent? Whether the subject of the bigotry is race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or any other criteria you choose, many members of the GOP seem to think that they are morally superior to others.

Left to right:

Stephen Laffey- Currently the Mayor of Cranston, RI is seeking the Republican nomination in the Rhode Island primary to replace Sen. Lincoln Chaffee.
Mel Gibson- Writer, director and movie star.
Trent Lott- Long time Republican Senator from Mississippi and former Senate Majority Leader.
George Allen- Currently the Republican Senator from Virginia and running for President in 2008.
Conrad Burns- Currently the Republican Senator from Montana.
Rick Santorum- Currently the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania.
Katherine Harris- Currently a congresswoman from Florida and running for Senate in Florida. As the Seceratary of State in Florida during the 2000 election she was a key player in the theft of the 2000 election by George W. Bush.

All of these people and many other Republicans not included on this short list have made bigotted remarks lately that make a lot of us scratch our heads in dismay...

Eleanor Clift

2006-08-25T19:00:00.000-05:00

Eleanor Clift wrote a great article this week in Newsweek about how Bush uses fear to get his way.

[If you think things are bad now, they will be worse if we leave. That's the essence of President Bush's argument for staying the course in Iraq. Bush is doing what he always does-shamelessly ramping up the fear factor. He says if U.S. troops leave Iraq, the terrorists will be right behind them, bringing Baghdad to America. He's brought ruin to Iraq and his policies are helping create our worst nightmare, a nuclear Iran. How much worse can it get?]*

Read the whole column here. *[excerpt from Newsweek]

It's Time for Bush to go

2006-08-21T18:34:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen George W. Bush's press conference today you should. This guy is out of touch with reality and into a dangerous , I don't care what anybody thinks or says I know and I'm going to do whatever I choose to do. I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist but I believe I saw some psychological imbalance in his speech today. Paranoid Schizophrenia; again I'm not qualified to make a diagnosis but I have been on the planet more than 50 years and in my unqualified judgment that's what it looked like to me. You'll have to judge for yourself, see the news conference.

I'm looking for a link to a video of the conference and when I find it I'll post a link here. Scary stuff...

Some Observations:

Bush Approval rating has been mired in the mid 30's for quite a while now;
Iraq is a nightmare an absolute disaster;
A Federal Judge has just ruled that Bush violated the law and the Constitution;
The polls seem to suggest that The Republicans could lose one or both houses of congress;
The American people are unifying against the War in Iraq;
Tony Blair has let leak that he is very disappointed in Bush;
Condoleeza Rice has let leak that she is not happy with the direction of foreign policy;
Not just Democrats but old time Republicans are losing faith by the bushel barrel;
Bush is becomming more and more isolated as Congressman and Senators try to distance themselves from Bush policies
Administration officials are less willing to face reporters and try to defend Bush policy and so he is doing it himself;
Bush appears to be spiralling down into a deep dark depression and when you parse some of his public comments, they seem to suggest paranoia (my unqualified opinion)

All of these things and many more would create a huge amount of stress on any psyche and I believe they are taking a big toll on Bush. In my opinion he is on the verge of a meltdown and I sure don't think he should be in the White House if or when it does happen.

Pete Hoekstra - Out of touch

2006-08-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

Pete Hoekstra (R-Mi) is the Chairman of The House Select Committee on Intelligence. Instead of using that power to fulfill his oath of office "to protect and defend The Constitution of The United States" he more often uses it to protect the Bush Administration from being held accountable to The Constitution.

Just a couple of months ago he and Sen Rick Santorum (R-Pa) ran to the microphones and proclaimed that the weapons of mass destruction (WMD's) had indeed been found in Iraq. Unfortunately for Santorum and Hoekstra, nothing could be further from the truth, even the Bush Pentagon said in its report that "... these are not the Weapons of Mass Destruction..." (that we used as a pretext for invading Iraq). What the Iraq survey group had found in Iraq were a few dilapidated and degraded chemical munitions that Saddam had stashed around the country prior to the first Gulf War in 1991. These munitions were old, unusable, forgotten and abandoned long ago and they posed absolutely zero threat to the world. But like Chicken Little, Hoekstra and Santorum went running around proclaiming the sky to be falling.

Hoekstra went on many right wing media outlets and attested that this was proof that Bush was not a liar... there were WMD's in Iraq. After a couple days the story faded away because no credible authority could be found to back up Hoekstra and Santorum's assertions.

The next media blitz from Hoekstra came as a result of the leak of a letter that Hoekstra had sent to Bush railling against the White House for not notifying his committee of certain intelligence operations being conducted by the White House. Bush then notified Hoekstra of some of the details of some of the programs and once again the matter was dropped.

If you think about this incident in terms of the Constitutional responsibility of Bush to advise congress, then you can see what the problem with Hoekstra is... A Federal District Court Judge, last week, in an opinion on the Secret NSA warentless wiretapping of American citizens, wrote that "there are no powers that do not derive from the Constitution". Bush uses his doctrine of a "Unitary Executive" to violate the law and the Constitution and Hoekstra uses his position to protect Bush from being held accountable for the abuse of his Constitutional Powers.

An example; Hoekstra had heard from the Intelligence Community that the White House was involved in certain covert operations, which Hoekstra declined to enumerate, without having notified his committee or congress of them. The President is prohibited by The Constitution from engaging in such covert operations without "the advise and consent of Congress" and Hoekstra sends him a letter. Hoekstra has caught George W. Bush in a crime, a constitutional abuse of power and he sends him a letter. He does not hold hearings, he does not investigate, he does not prepare Articles of Impeachment, he sends him a letter and then once again the whole matter is dropped.

Now we have the story that a Federal District Court Judge in Detroit has ruled against Bush in a Federal case brought against him concerning the NSA warrentless wiretapping of American citizens. The Court ruled that Bush had violated the 1st Amendment, the 4th Amendment, The constitutional "Seperation of Powers" and the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

This doctrine of a "Unitary Executive" is something that has been made up by the Bush administration under the tutelidge of the Neo-Con radicals that control foreign policy within the Administration. Our form of government as defined by The Constitution is a seperation of powers between three co-equal branches. The Executive, The Legislative, and The Judiciary, they are co-equal none of the branches is more than the others. The un-constitutional doctrine of the "Unitary" Executive holds that the Executive branch (Bush) has certain inherint powers not specified in law or the Constitution to do anything that he (Bush) feels is necessary without regard to the law or the Constitution in his exercise of National Defense.

The Congress of the United States and the Federal Judiciary are charged in The Constitution with the responsibility and duty to "protect and defend The Constitution of the United States" A Federal Judge in Detroit has fulfilled that oath; Pete Hoekstra has ignored it. We need to have our Congressman put away their partisan mindset and fulfill that oath for the sake of our Republic and if they will not protect the integrity of the very Constitution that gives them that power and responsibility then it is our responsibility to remove them from office and replace them with someone who will... fortunately on Nov 7th we will have the opportunity to remove Pete Hoekstra from the Congress. On Nov 7th we can vote for Kimon Kotos who is challenging Hoekstra. We can replace a man who is ignoring the Constitution and his oath of office with a man who is dedicated to the Constitution and will take his oath very seriously. It is all a matter of the will of the people; if we have the will, if we register, if we vote, then we can take control of our government and insure that the future history of this Democratic Republic continues and that it does not lapse into a facist dictatorship.

A profile of Kimon Kotos is available on this blogsite on our Progressive Profiles blog.

Bush is insulting

2006-08-19T11:52:00.000-05:00

At a news conference from Camp David yesterday, George W. Bush, in his usual style, suggested that anyone who refuses to allow him to do anything he wants to do without regard to the law or the Constitution is ignorant. In his remarks to the press Bush said "Those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live,".

Bush, who was reponding to a question from a reporter about yesterdays ruling from a Federal District Judge that held that the secret NSA program to wiretap telephones of American citizens without a warrant violates the 1st and 4th ammendments to the Constitution and the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Bush seems to believe that he and he alone is blessed with devine information that the rest of us just don't get. He further seems to believe that he and he alone has the authority to act on this divine guidance any way he sees fit. George W. Bush does not seem to care about the rule of law nor does he care about the U S Constitution... he believes that he is a power unto himself. We have had other Presidents who believed this as well but none of them has taken this doctrine of the "Unitary Executive" to the extremes that this President has. Most notably was Richard M. Nixon who said in 1974 to David Frost "If the Preident does it...then it is legal" as you recall shortly thereafter facing impeachment and removal from office Nixon resigned.

These self serving and insulting remarks by George W. Bush are very troubling and very Nixonian. To quote from a very obscure source "When the police break the law, then there is no law, just a struggle for survival" (Billy Jack). I ask you if Bush and the Republican power structure continue to tear down the laws and the Constitution, if they continue to breed disrespect for our institutions, our courts, our seperation of powers. If all people who disagree with him simply don't understand and are therefore releggated to irrelevence, then what kind of government will we have left?... A Democratic Republic or a fascist dictatorship?

We showed Richard Nixon the door...It's time to show W. the door also.

Joe Biden - A plan for Iraq

2006-08-14T17:36:00.000-05:00

Last week Sen. Joe Biden (D-De) wrote an op-ed in the New York Times with a viable soloution to the Iraq debacle. Sen. Biden suggested that the soloution may be to split Iraq into 3 autonomous religious, social and economic regions with a central government in Bahgdad. This is a plan the Bush administration refuses to consider because of its implications for the vast oil reserves that lie beneath Iraq. The war in Iraq has deteriorated into a bloody civil war between the three dominant groups in Iraq, the Shiites, the Kurds and the Sunni.

Senator Biden writes "A decade ago, Bosnia was torn apart by ethnic cleansing and facing its demise as a single country. After much hesitation, the United States stepped in decisively with the Dayton Accords,which kept the country whole by, paradoxically, dividing it into ethnic federations, even allowing Muslims, Croats and Serbs to retain separate armies. With the help of American and other forces, Bosnians have lived a decade in relative peace and are now slowly strengthening their common central government, including disbanding those separate armies last year."*

The Republicans continue to offer us false choices, either we stay the course or we cut and run. They only see things in black or white, there is no other way. They continually go on TV and blast the Democratic Party as having no ideas insinuating that the liberals in the Democratic Party do not care about our security and are soft on terrorism. Nothing could be further from the truth, and when a Democrat puts forth a well thought, logical proposal to solve a complex matter they barely pay it lip service. It is unfortunate that the current administration has ulterior motives in Iraq. I don't believe that they really want to solve the problem of Iraq.

George W. Bush and his Neo-Con advisors want Iraq set up the way they want it set up, with a puppet government that they control, because the truth of the matter is as it has always been, "it's the oil stupid".

*Excerpt reprinted from the New York Times please read the entire editorial.

All terrorism all the time

2006-08-14T12:32:00.000-05:00

Okay it's official. Karl Rove and Dick Cheney have proclaimed it to be so and the cable news networks have fallen into lock step with them as per usual. But what's this a new voice from the whacko right... why it's Joe Lieberman, sounding an awful (and I do mean awful) lot like Dick Cheney. After Joe's embarrassing loss to Ned Lamont, Joe proclaims "If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."

Ned Lamont
(D-Ct.)

You see just because Ned Lamont and apparently a majority of Connecticut Democrats have a different opinion on the Iraq debacle, that makes him, and presumably all who voted for him, terrorists. Chuck Roberts, anchor at CNN Headline news seems to agree;he said on air in an interview "How does this factor into the Lieberman/Lamont contest? And might some argue, as some have, that Lamont is the al Qaeda candidate?" The Al Qaeda candidate?

Dick Cheney (no relation to Joe Lieberman) (that we know of) (well we really don't know) (well maybe) seems to agree with Lieberman and Roberts, here's what he had to say about the matter. Cheney said the Democrats’ embracing of Lamont and his position on Iraq after he won the primary showed that the party had become isolationist and unconcerned about terrorism.
"And when we see the Democratic Party reject one of its own, a man they selected to be their vice presidential nominee just a few short years ago," Cheney said, "it would seem to say a lot about the state the party is in today if that’s becoming the dominant view of the Democratic Party." "The basic, fundamental notion that somehow we can retreat behind our oceans and not be actively engaged in this conflict and be safe here at home, which clearly we know we won't—we can't be," he said.

Be afraid, be very afraid and always remember that the big spending, warmongering Republicans will keep you safe. Liberals are just a bunch of whiney, limp-wristed, weak kneed cowards who secretly want the terrorists to win. They won't protect you, hell they'll probably invite Bin Laden to come speak at a great liberal university or something...

People we have got to push back against this kind of right wing drivvle. Register and vote Nov 7th and throw these people out of our government and Joe, grow up, you lost , suck it up and move on.

Chuck Roberts, Headline News

2006-08-12T21:29:00.000-05:00

Chuck Roberts of CNN Headline News needs to get some mail, a lot of mail, for his totally outrageous comments while discussing the impact of the foiled British terror plot with Hotline senior editor John Mercurio. Roberts asked Mercurio, "How does this factor into the Lieberman/Lamont contest? And might some argue, as some have, that Lamont is the al Qaeda candidate?"

Can anyone tell me why the so-called liberal media immediately starts reading from the Republican playbook everytime something happens in this country? Robert's question was scurrilous and disgraceful. We have come to a point in this country that even questioning a war makes one a terrorist.

Ned Lamont is an American running for the U S Senate in the proud tradition of hundreds of other men and women who have sought that office since the founding of our country. Ned Lamont does not represent Al Qaeda. Ned Lamont represents the hopes of 10's of thousands of Connecticut citizens who voted for him, hoping that he would bring a voice of reason to the debate in the Congress over the feasibility of leaving our troops in the middle of a bloody civil war in Iraq.

I am totally disgusted with the Corporate media, CNN and Chuck Roberts for their total lack of any semblence of integrity or fairness. Their Fox-like way of asking a question in such a manner as to suggest a conclusion is not journalism. Go to http://www.cnn.com/feedback/ and tell him what you think about it.

Albert R. Gore

2006-08-11T14:38:00.000-05:00

I've got to tell you all up front that it makes me sick the way the Republican sleeze machine can ruin the reputation of honorable men and women who serve their country with honor and distinction. This machine and echo chamber where they repeat the same nonsense over and over again. Talk radio, Fox news, The washington times, Joe Scarborough, Sean Hannity, Karl Rove and Ken Melman are just a few parts of the machine.

I heard someone say the other day, when confronted with the misdeeds of George W. Bush, "well at least he's better than Al Gore"."what do you mean by that?" I asked "what's so bad about Al Gore?" "You know" "NO I DON"T KNOW!" I replied "what did Al Gore ever do that was so bad" no response.

This person was a retired career military senior NCO and he is tough on National Defense and serving the country. I said to him "When the vietnam war was going on Al Gore was there, George Bush wasn't. Dick Cheney wasn't. Donald Rumsfeld wasn't." I asked him if he could give me one reason why Al Gore would not have made a good President and he could not... Just some nonsense about Clinton's libido. I reminded him that that was Clinton's failing, not Al Gore's. Bottom line is you cannot convince some people of anything once they have been immersed in the echo chamber. Millions of people in this country hate Al Gore and they can't even cite an example of why they hate him. "He's a liberal".

The danger to our society when this type of political strategy is employed is evident in the result of this attack. We got George W. Bush and we can all see now what that's gotten us. So I would like to say to Al Gore thank you for your service to our country. When you were in the jungles of Vietnam and when you sat in the Senate and as Vice President of the United States. Thank you Al Gore for trying your damndest to get us to pay attention to the environment and your efforts to get the government to be more responsible in matters related to global warming.

Lastly, I believe a terrible wrong was committed by Bush and his allies in Nov 2000 regarding the Presidential election and the counting of the Florida ballots. I hope that all who read this will understand that whether you believe Bush won or Gore won we all lost because the will of the people was never determined with accuracy because of the actions of the Bush machine. All the votes were never counted, no official investigation was ever launched and now George W. Bush controls all the mechanisms that could right the wrong that was done. His brother is Governor of Florida, he's not going to do it. The attorney general is Alberto Gonzales, a long time friend and counselor to Bush, he's not going to do it. The Republican congress, they're sure not going to do it. The only hope we have is that some day when one of these people who was involved wants to clear his concience, perhaps on his deathbed, will tell the story of how they did it.

Until that day we will not know what really happened, and so in the meantime please take a moment and thank Al Gore for his service. You can contact him here.

See the trailer for "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore's documentary on global warming here!

Dick Cheney

2006-08-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

In my view this is the most callous and vicious politician of our time. Dick Cheney, the current Vice-President is no stranger to Washington. A former Chief of staff to Gerald Ford he got his start as a congressman from Wyoming and was a staffer in the Nixon White House. I'd tell you about his brilliant military career but the only brilliant part about it is his tenacity at avoiding the draft.

Mar 20, 1963- July 23,1963-Oct 14, 1964-Nov 1, 1965 and Jan 1967... These are the dates that Cheney recieved his five deferrments from the draft. You see, Dick Cheney doesn't mind making you sacrifice your life for your country, but he is certainly not going to put his butt on the line to do it. Cheney is often described as a "Chicken-Hawk" and this is the reason why.

Political power and money is what motivates this man. He has been described as the most powerful Vice-President in the history of our country. Dick Cheney will do anything to hold his power; he is rutheless, he will lie, cheat and steal to get what he wants.

Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton, he has made a fortune from profits to that company from government contracts and the Texas oil bidness. Many would argue that U S foreign policy is based on oil opportunities throughout the mideast region. Many believe and I do too that Cheney was very hawkish about the War in Iraq because he wanted the vast oil reserves beneath the Iraqui sands. Not to mention the billions of dollars that Halliburton and it's subsidiaries have made from no-bid government contracts, given freely , by the Bush administration.

Dick Cheney ipitomizes the type of men who are running our government. Do not think for a moment that they would not do anything in their power to keep that power. Start a war, hype terrorism, hack into voting machines and underhanded political strategies along the lines of the disgraceful attack on John Kerry by the swift boat veterans.

If we are foing to keep our democracy, then men like this need to be removed from office, and the only way to accomplish that is to remove the completely corrupt Republican Party from their offices. On Nov 7th, register and vote to Dump the Republicans!

Is Joe Lieberman a Republican?

2006-08-10T20:16:00.000-05:00

I never had a real problem with Joe Leiberman (D-Ct.). When he was running with Al Gore in 2000 he seemed like a loyal Democratic Senator, a good guy, and genuinely interested in the well being of the people he served. But lately Joe seems to be becomming more and more like a Republican and I'm sad to say that I can no longer support him.

There are reports that he and Karl Rove were chatting it up during the Connecticut primary on Tuesday. According to reports Rove told him that Bush was willing to help him beat Lamont. After the primary votes were counted and Ned Lamont had defeated Joe, Joe goes out and announces that he's running anyway, as an independent, against the Democratic candidate Ned Lamont. Then Ken Melmann, Chairman of the Republican National Committee goes on Hardball and publicly encourages Connecticut Republicans to forget about the Republican candidate, Schlesinger, and support Lieberman. The job of the RNC is to elect Republicans, not Democrats or Independents, this is very unusual.

Now we hear reports today, that in the light of the British bust up of a terrorist plot, that Bush has known about the operation since Sunday, two days before the Connecticut primary and Karl Rove's chat with Joe. What does that mean? I don't know but I do not believe in coincidences.

The Republican machine is already using the busted terrorist plot for political gain, they are involved in a number of dirty tricks in other states and today Dick Cheney told reporters that he thinks Nov. 7th will be a good day for Republicans and he didn't feel that way a couple of months ago.

Joe is in denial and he needs to get over it fast. I don't know if he is collaborating with the Republicans or not, but like I said, I don't believe in coincidences. Joe lieberman needs to learn what all elected officials need to learn and that is that if you represent people in the House or the Senate what you want and what you believe does not come first. If you do not listen to your constituents, then the voters will throw you out and if you keep messin' with the Republicans you will have no credibility left at all and your entire career will have been for not.