Writing in opposition on purpose

It occurred to me the other night that Bush and the Republican Congress have one, clear, all-consuming motive:

To retain power.

All this wondering about whether Bush is really Christian or good or whatever is absolutely out the window.

Nothing is more important nor more valuable than being in power, not saving lives, not reducing the debt, not finding peace in the Middle East, not finding alternative fuels, not being ethical, not ANYTHING that's good for America.

My clear example, although there are many that fit this pattern once you think about it, is the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

Every single person in this country supports it.
Every Democrat supports it.

There's only one problem, how do you separate yourself from the opposition party when they agree with you?

You break the law.

So while the opposition party is spending it's time trying to argue that the program breaks the law and should be fixed, you can go around saying that the opposition opposes spying on terrorists.

That certainly bolsters the argument that one can't fix other people's messes. Why try?

Let's just let the Republicans run over American laws so that Democrats don't look like, and they can't claim that we're against their programs. Let's let the courts, what's left of them, do the Lord's work for us.

Everyone will be happy then.

By the way, if you wan't to find one fright and lie after another, just go to www.gop.com.

If they can't convince us that Democrats love terrorists, their backup is trying to convince people that Charlie Rangal is going to raise taxes even though he has said he won't.

GOP = Greed, Organized crime & Propaganda

Fox News negotiates with those who negotiate with terrorists

My husband and I were just going over the last few decades of Presidents and he brought up how Reagan's speeches were so much better than the reality of his social programs, how he ignored so many issues like AIDS, deconstructing our social programs and even arms for hostages.

I flashed back to watching Oliver North sitting before a congressional committee on TV day after day one summer when I was working at a gas station at Six Flags over Mid-America.

Oliver North was convicted of three felonies involved with his lying to Congress about negotiating and funding terrorists "guerillas, aka freedom fighters," something that Reagan said he'd never do and so do conservatives argue that position today. [BTW--the ACLU helped North overturn this conviction on a technicality, a difficult but happy lesson in how the ACLU is not a partisan organization!!!!]

How important is that principle to conservatives when instead of letting Oliver North fade into obscurity and humility over that nasty transgression against American values, Fox News employs Oliver North as a hero?

This adds up to a blatant disregard for the law, and at the very least an absolute lack of moral leadership by Fox News and others who continue to support Oliver North.

Abortion and South Dakota

I guess there's a movement afoot to outlaw abortion completely in South Dakota. It's getting press because the anti-choice activists are using a different tactic, they are arguing that abortion is used by society to keep women from being mothers.

Wow.

If that's not one of the most victim-oriented, paternalistic canards I've heard in awhile.

Sure, we all know that abortion is often VERY convenient for men, and to a lot of other family members who would rather their 16 year-old become a mother at 26 (I have vitriol for "pro-lifers" because I grew up with people who published their names in the paper in ads that sought to outlaw abortions after they had sought and received abortions for their own daughters), and women do sometimes regret having abortions.

But to hold "motherhood" out there as a right, and something so blessed and nurtured by our society (HA!!!) that women who have abortions are missing out on all this festivity, is false advertising.

Being a mother in the United States today is often a very solitary experience. There is little community support without monetary cost and family support is often fractured and distant, and in many places we really have an adult-oriented culture that is as far from PRO-CHILD as we could possibly be. There is constant pressure on parents and children to be more, do more, have more, go more.

Somehow I doubt that it's the woman with the family support, community support and child-centered culture that is seeking an abortion.

I had a conversation with two Democrats tonight that are helping foster children. One woman actually has a child she fosters part-time (she's an educational appointee) and her foster son is very difficult behaviorally. The other woman is on the board of a non-profit that is investing in foster care solutions. Why?

I need to check these stats but this is what I heard tonight: 60- 70% of foster children go to jail after foster homes. 70% of foster children live in L.A. and N.Y.

I met Jim Webb tonight

Jim Webb rocks! He is SO smart and down-to-earth and ready to problem solve this country back on track. If you know anyone in Virginia, please tell them to get out, check out and vote for this solid veteran!

Chris Matthews, weasil Republican mouthpiece, assumes, lies...

Oops, I hate calling people names, I'm sorry it has come to this

Terrorist Shooting in Seattle Barely Reported

Yes, this type of thing has happened in the past with racists and psychos, but how is it that a Muslim walks into a Jewish Center in Seattle, Washington last month, shoots six and kills one. and it hardly gets covered? There's no background story on the dead and wounded, no human interest stuff that we can all identify with. I found the story buried in Newsweek, with no hint of calling it terrorism. Here's a story Seattle Shooting

Isn't that a terrorist attack?

Isn't disinterest worse than hatred?

Update: Okay, I couldn't find anything about this on the ADL website, so maybe it was just a crazy Muslim/Christian psycho incident, not even a hate-group, but still, it was so unreported...

USA Today notes that there is little evidence of voter fraud to justify ID laws. Thanks for finding this, Schmog XX!!!

Conservatives disagree with yet another bipartisan commission report and have sat on it's release.

Typical--living in lies.

I heard Andrew Sullivan and a conservative movement founder who wrote a book that is is called something likeConservatives Betrayed by Bush on Al Franken's show today. They were both saying how Bush and Congress have abused power beyond belief. Why doesn't the media point this out?

Watching the reporters' faces, watched over by Karl Rove, during Bush's press conference yesterday I could tell that everyone of them was like, "Can you believe what a hole this President has dug us into with Korea, Iraq and our pork spending--and here he is telling us that 'balanced budget' Clinton's plan didn't work for Korea and that the Democrats are going to raise taxes if they are elected [okay, that last comment was the day before]?"

I don't think anyone believes Bush anymore, and I seriously think Korea has absolutely undermined his credibility and judgement on nearly everything, especially on the trails of Katrina and "Denial" in Iraq (speaking of that, in his recent comments he's called MIT's reports on Iraq's estimated deaths, "uncredible" and Hastert, "credible," our President is so ass-backwards it really is insane.)

Of note: When Claire McCaskill was debating Jim Talent on Meet the Press she didn't back down from her comment about Bush leaving poor blacks to die in New Orleans. She did say she could have phrased it better. My husband and I were thinking, hmmm, was Katrina, on the federal level, really malice or was it only incompetence? What can we compare it to? My husband remembered how Bush's agencies responded to the hurricanes near Miami recently--VERY DIFFERENTLY, VERY QUICKLY. What else are we to make of that comparison other than disinterest, disregard, distance? Malice is indifference, is it not?

Peace.