Month: August 2007

Something hot to celebrate the end of summer.

Ready for the school year?

As long as all of the chips are down, or at least $147 billion of them plus another $50 billion of them are, let’s just put it out there. This is the choice we are facing with respect to Iraq. Either Congress gets serious about timelines, cutting off funding and planning on getting our troops out and choosing a “very bad” option as opposed to “much worse” option down the road.

There are a few facts which make this an already impossible situation to have any potential favorable resolution – in any measurable or meaningful way – and these facts give us two options. Those two are simple: make plans to leave Iraq in relatively short order or stay there for ten, twenty, thirty or more years with an overstretched military, hundreds of billions of dollars wasted, hundreds of thousands or millions of lives ruined, and more violence and destruction than anyone can fathom.

I’ll say it again, that is the choice we are facing with respect to Iraq, and it is time that these two options are put out there as the choices we are staring at.

Consider the following two positions taken by General Petraeus over the past few months. For starters, he says that this is a “decades long” struggle. And a few months earlier, he said that there is no military solution in Iraq. So right there, we have a decades long struggle that our own military commander indicated will not be able to be solved with his military.

More recently, the NIE released earlier this week indicated the dire political process in Iraq. Nobody, NOBODY in their right minds believes that the United States can positively influence the political process in Iraq – certainly not in the short to mid term. Besides, if the “purple fingers” meant anything at all, then it is really none of our business to stick our noses in where they don’t belong (hear that, Senators Levin and Clinton?).

Violence is out of control. This is the most violent summer yet. More casualties per attack, more lethal attacks, more sophisticated attacks. Borderline ethnic cleansing. Rampant unemployment. Little to no electricity or clean water. The government MIA. Hundreds of thousands of US weapons “missing” (read: lost to or stolen by those who are attacking us and each other). Hundreds of billions of dollars gone.

And now another $200 billion more? For WHAT???? If it isn’t for getting us the hell out of dodge, then it shouldn’t even go any further than that. More of the same is just that – more of the same. No timeline now means what? If not now, then when the hell is it the “right time” to talk about a withdrawal or a real exit strategy?

The GAO report giving the unvarnished truth about how dire the situation is in Iraq is being whitehoused, er, whitewashed and will clearly be more rosy than the truth. As will the Petraeus White House report on Iraq.

And that is the thing, which I will say very clearly – this administration and its supporters lie through their teeth about Iraq. They are using our troops as pawns as they chest thump about something that will never ever ever happen. Wishing and clapping hard doesn’t make anything happen. These are lives at stake – not pieces in a game of Risk™.

You would think that the news that a plane carrying US Congressmen (three out of four who are republicans) was shot at in Iraq would send a dose of reality through these people and jolt the discussion back from the land of make believe. You would think that the steady stream of reports indicating how far out of control things are EVERYWHERE would at least have this outrageous $200 billion demand from Bush be laughed out of the discussion.

Yet here we are, on the eve of Congress coming back into session, and there is not only a risk that this $200 billion request will be granted but that a certain core group of traitors will hijack the debate into a third war with Iran to go along with the other two that we are getting our asses handed to us in.

It comes down to a simple question for those in Congress who are trying to tap dance around the elephant in the room. That includes all Presidential candidates who are in Congress and have a voice, because this will define your presidency as well.

Do you have the courage to act now and make a significant move towards ending the disaster in Iraq and turning this country around? Or do you want to stay in Iraq for decades, sinking hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of troops into it? Do you want a rebuilt military and the National Guard here doing what it should? Or do you want to continue bankrupting this country and destroying the military as well as what little bit may be left of our reputation around the world?

Do you want to address all of the very important and major problems facing this country? Or do you want to have a draft in order to support another 10 – 15 years of military occupation in Iraq that will only have more disastrous results?

That is the choice. Out now or not for decades. Your actions over the next few weeks will determine what your choice is. And there can be no excuses – you can’t say that you didn’t know this was coming.

Longshot presidential contender Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) has an interesting way of pandering to Gulf Coast voters.

GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) said Friday it is “time the taxpayer gravy train left the New Orleans station” and urged an end to the federal aid to the region that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina two years ago.

“The amount of money that has been wasted on these so-called ‘recovery’ efforts has been mind-boggling,” said Tancredo, who is running a long-shot presidential campaign. “Enough is enough.”

I don’t disagree that the level of waste has been disgraceful, but where’s the love?

“At some point, state and local officials and individuals have got to step up to the plate and take some initiative,” said Tancredo. “The mentality that people can wait around indefinitely for the federal taxpayer to solve all their worldly problems has got to come to an end.”

I can only imagine how well FEMA would perform in a President Tancredo administration.

Howie Klein has a disturbing potential scoop about a potential murder-suicide, gay prostitution, Ralph Reed, and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Don’t know if there is any there there, but it could make Larry Craig look like an asterisk on the ass of the GOP elephant.

Sen. John Warner has announced his retirement. He won’t be seeking reelection in 2008. You can watch his announcement here. This sets up a grueling Republican primary, or possibly a caucus (more on that later), between Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA-11) and Fmr. Gov. Jim Gilmore.

Warner’s retirement would radically alter the 2008 political landscape nationally and in Northern Virginia. An open Senate seat would establish Virginia as a battleground in the GOP’s fight for the Senate. Democratic Party leaders are promoting former governor Mark R. Warner as a likely candidate. Warner (not related to the senator) lost a 1996 challenge to the incumbent by five percentage points.

On the Republican side, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.) has long coveted Warner’s seat and has worked assiduously to position himself for a run. A moderate, Davis would probably have serious competition from conservatives, possibly from former governor James S. Gilmore III.

A Davis candidacy would have a domino effect in Fairfax County. Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), who has refused to commit to finishing his term if reelected in November, has made no secret of his interest in succeeding Davis in the 11th District, where Democrats are gaining strength. Former representative Leslie Byrne has been mentioned as another possible contender.

Connolly’s departure would set off a rush at the local level for the chairman’s job, with a number of possible aspirants, including supervisor and Metro board member T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee), who is not seeking reelection, and Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock).

Today is Karl Rove’s last day at the White House. This made him cry.

Meanwhile, as rumored, Tony Snow called it quits today.

And Sen. Larry Craig is probably headed out the door.

Is that enough Republican decimation for one day? No?

Here’s a good retrospective on one of the lesser known of the purged prosecutors.

You must first see the matrix before you have any chance of defeating it.

But are you willing to see it, populist leftists, labor leftists, fairleftists? There’s a test for you below. Some of you will be found unwilling, and you’ll be of (at the very best) limited use to the true left.

The U.S. Power Matrix© is the mainstream media, giant corporations and the wealthy, and their Wall Street Party with its Republican and Democratic wings. The Republican wing plays the religious right chumps into voting for Wall Street Republicans or staying home. The Democrats play populist & labor leftists into ‘no alternative’ voting for Wall Street Democrats or staying home. The Wall Street Party also brings ‘inside’ and compensates the elites of the two biggest minority groups, for playing their constituencies into voting for the Wall Street Democrats or staying home. The mainstream media hysterically enforces political correctness, trivial pursuits and if necessary TINA fatalism. The giant corporations fund the political system, own the media, and even make it tough for anyone to get a middle-class job who doesn’t parrot DemoRepublism or TINA fatalism.

This is full-spectrum dominance, it is a fucking Beast. But it is also exactly what the authentic left must face and fight in any real mass movement for a humane, peaceful, social democratic society and world, or even to successfully resist our world’s forced march in the opposite direction.

A first preliminary victory is simply to know the U.S. Power Matrix© and get others to recognize it too.

A second prelim win is to understand the implications the power matrix for resistance strategies, and for understanding the fake ‘resistance’ that is in fact a support movement for a subset of the power matrix.

And that leads to the immigration test.

Okay, here’s the immigration test, inspired by this little piece of d3n4l1’s latest:

How about something like Immigration. I actually have a feeling that most of us really aren’t sure what to do about our greatest humanitarian issue in the US. It’s an extremely complex issue, and I just haven’t gotten my mind around any truly likeable solution.

No, immigration is not an extremely complex issue, that’s a typical ‘good liberal’ avoidance strategy for taking a position on an issue where the politically incorrect but left position is obvious. Here ya go: the income levels of the working poor are going down, in part because they compete unsuccessfully with very large numbers of immigrants for semi-skilled and non-skill jobs. Greatly reducing legal and illegal immigration will help our working poor brothers and sisters, and some of us a little better of than them too.

As, of course, Cesar Chavez recognized long ago. But those were different days, when private-sector unions were politically powerful in their own right and an important part of a real Democratic Party. Yes, private-sector unions were once at least powerful enough to restrict immigration competition against their members and potential members.

So immigration is not tough to figure out, it’s just tough to openly state the leftist position. We all know it is politically taboo within the larger ‘Democratic Party’ (wing of the Wall Street Party) that most of us still kind of need to ‘officially’ belong to. Especially when we are not anonymous (like me?) on the web.

So, are you with the authentic left or against us? Do you stand with your working poor fellow citizens (but with humanity toward illegal immigrants as well)? I’ll understand if you’re a ‘fraidy cat, and we can still hang out together here and have a few laughs watching our values and country go down the toilet bowl.

You must first see the matrix before you have any chance of defeating it.

I wonder what the hell this is all about?

Appearing at The Jaundiced Eye, My Left Wing, and the Independent Bloggers’ Alliance.

This week the General Accountability Office slipped an  advance copy of its progress report on Iraq to the Washington Post. Their report was “strikingly negative.” The GAO thinks that Iraq has failed to meet all but 3 of its 18 mandated benchmarks. But that’s because the GAO is a bunch of girlie-men. Don’t they know that we are all supposed to — say it with me now — “Wait to hear what General Petraeus has to say!”

Well General Petraeus is speaking, to The Australian, and guess what: The Surge Is Working!

“We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress and we believe al-Qa’ida is off balance at the very least,” he said.

At the “very least,” he says. Pshaw. I think the thing I love most about General Petraeus is his modesty. Let’s face it. He is kicking insurgent ass, over there.

Here are a few things the terrorists didn’t know about General Petraeus when they provoked his wrath:

But Curmudgette, you are saying, aren’t these just warmed over Chuck Norris and Vin Diesel jokes? Yeah. What are you gonna do about it?

EVERYTHING is better with General Petraeus in it. The following video, for instance, is only good, if you close your eyes and imagine he’s singing about General David Petraeus.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

This an entry in a series of blogs to keep people informed on current election reform and voting rights issues in the news.
Featured Stories of the Week:

Embattled Attorney General Resigns – New York Times

Opinion: A Rigged Report on U.S. Voting? – Washington Post

Head of civil rights division resigns from Justice Department – The National Law Journal, Associated Press

I’d given up on Gonzales leaving, Bogden says: Ousted U.S. attorney reveals more, tells of losing faith in Justice – Las Vegas Sun

Even some Republicans happy about Gonzales resignation – CNN

Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation as U.S. attorney general Monday. Effective Sept. 17, his departure follows numerous resignations in recent weeks, further fueling demands for more answers surrounding the politicization of the Justice Department and the quest for a “nonpolitical successor.”

“Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job,” said Senator Harry Reid, D-Nevada in this New York Times report. “He lacked independence, he lacked judgment and he lacked the spine to say ‘no’ to Karl Rove.”

Rove, who recently stepped down from being President Bush’s political adviser, was subpoenaed by the U.S. Senate in July as part of an investigation on the controversial firings of eight federal prosecutors. However, he was ordered by President Bush not to testify due to “executive privilege.” Rove is known to be a driving force behind prosecutions of election law violations, namely voter fraud, which purportedly played a role in the attorney dismissals.

Tova Wang, one of two authors hired to write a report on voter fraud and intimidation for the Election Assistance Commission, was recently released from a gag order to speak about her findings in this Washington Post opinion piece. The EAC released a product that “completely stood our own work on its head,” by calling voter fraud a matter of “considerable debate” rather than a “greatly exaggerated” issue, which Wang and her Republican co-author Joe Serebrov found.

“We also raised questions about the way the Justice Department was handling complaints of fraud and intimidations. The commission excised all references to the department that might be construed as critical – or that Justice officials later took issue with.”

Moreover, Wang pointed out that “during the time the commission was holding our draft, claims about voter fraud and efforts to advance the cause of strict voter identification laws were at a fever pitch in Congress and the states. And it has been reported that some U.S. attorneys were being fired because they failed to pursue weakly supported voter fraud cases without sufficient zeal.”

“’Too many questions have remained unanswered, too many civil rights laws have not been enforced and too many officials have resigned to evade the accountability that is to come for the disastrously flawed policies of this administration,’” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding another DOJ resignation in this Associated Press/National Law Journal article Monday.

The article focused on the August 23 resignation of Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim, who quickly followed the resignation of former voting rights chief, Bradley Schlozman. “In June, Kim testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the transfer of three minority female lawyers from his office’s voting rights sections,” a move directed by Schlozman. During his testimony, Kim expressed concern about the move “and said remarks by Schlozman that appeared to question the women’s patriotism ‘were intemperate and inopportune.’” These descriptions closely resemble the recent handling of dismissals in the Justice Department, where loyalty is rewarded “over all else,” said former voting section chief, Joe Rich in March.

“Revelations about the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys who were seen by the administration as insufficiently political in their investigations and prosecutions opened up an investigation that has begun to confirm a broad scheme to politicize the Justice Department’s work in the area of voting rights – a scheme apparently designed by Rove to suppress turnout by minorities and other who might vote Democratic,” blogged John Nichols for the Nation.

Gonzales, who said he “’served at the pleasure of the president,’ made it his business as White House Counsel and Attorney General to do just that,” Nichols wrote. “The important thing now is to make sure that the administration does not succeed in using high-profile departures to shut down – or, at the very least, to diminish the seriousness and the extent of – those inquires.”

Presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York offer similar comments that the next attorney general should serve the people, not the president as Gonzales has shown, according to this CNN report. Across the country, several papers ran editorials along the same [head]lines this week: “Cronyism bows out at Justice,” by the Boston Globe; “Restore integrity to Justice Dept: Bush must choose a nonpolitical successor” by the Fresno Bee; “Gonzales failed Americans” by the Merced Sun Star; and “Give Justice a lawyer, not a Bush surrogate” by the Palm Beach Post, to name a few.

In response to Gonzales’ resignation, President Bush said it was “’sad’” and that the attorney general’s name had been “’dragged through the mud for political reasons,’” according to the New York Times. This was something that he did not do when the eight U.S. attorneys were fired last year, despite “glowing performance appraisals,” said former U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in this Las Vegas Sun report. After being given contradictory explanations for his firing and hearing of Justice officials “using political litmus tests in hiring,” Bogden realized that “’I didn’t want to work under the leadership.’”

With the presidential primaries around the corner, it is imperative that Americans are aware of their voting rights and how those rights have been manipulated by a politicized Justice Department. Above all, restoration of the Justice Department and American confidence in elections is crucial to a fair democracy. We’ve provided links below on Gonzales and related voting issues.

Quick Links:

“Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales Announcing His Resignation.” DOJ. August 27, 2007.

“Alberto Gonzales: A timeline of events.” USA Today. August 27, 2007.

“The Politics of Voter Fraud.” Project Vote. March 2007.

In Other News:

Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement to register and vote has been ruled constitutional, despite claims that the law is, in effect, an illegal poll tax that discriminates against minority groups. Read more in the Arizona Daily Star and at Project Vote’s website.

In other Arizona news, Solicitor General Mary O’Grady is defending the state’s rigorous felon disenfranchisement law, which the ACLU contends to be improper. The state requires one-time felons to complete their sentence and pay a restitution to regain voting rights. Those who are convicted of at least two felonies are automatically. About 4.3% of the state is disenfranchised as a result of Arizona law. Read more in the Arizona Daily Sun.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote’s Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).

During the Texas Democratic Party’s recent Town Hall Tour, I traveled nearly 10,000 miles and visited with thousands of Democrats.  And I am proud to report that Texas Democrats are unified, energized and eager to win in 2008!  

Like most Americans, Democrats from Texarkana to El Paso are tired of George Bush’s failure and ready for a change in the White House.  That’s why I am very pleased to announce that the Texas Democratic Party is holding our first-ever ePrimary Poll, a weeklong online event that will give Texas Democrats a chance to support their favorite candidate for President.  

Starting today, Democrats across the Lone Star State have the opportunity to cast their vote for any of our outstanding presidential candidates at the TDP website.  After Republican leaders weakened the influence of Texas voters by failing to move up our state’s primary election, the TDP is doing everything we can to ensure Texas Democrats have a say in determining the next president of the United States.  Now is the time to make your voice heard!

If you’re still deciding which of our potential nominees to support, I encourage you to take a few minutes and check out the TDP website, where you’ll find a profile of each candidate, as well as their personal message to Texas Democrats.  

Voting for the ePrimary Poll lasts until 11:59pm on Friday, September 7th, and we’ll announce the winner on September 10th.  But if you want to know how your favorite Democrat is doing, check our website for the latest vote tallies, which will updated daily beginning Tuesday.

It’s no secret that Texas has produced some of America’s greatest Democratic political heroes, and Texas voters have always played a significant role in our nation’s politics.

The Lone Star State is one of the largest and most populous states in the country – and one of the most diverse.  From the woods of East Texas to the Rio Grande Valley, the widespread cultural and geographical differences among Texas voters are a reflection of the diversity of the country as a whole.  To win in Texas, a presidential candidate must appeal to urban, suburban and rural voters alike and earn support from Texans of every race, creed, and color.

As usual, while Texas Democrats are encouraging voter participation, those Republican politicians in Austin refused to listen to voters who want to have a say in the next presidential election.  Because of the Republican Legislature’s inability to see beyond their own partisan agendas, Texas could potentially be left behind as both political parties choose their candidate for president.  But the ePrimary Poll will give Texas Democrats a chance to weigh in on the presidential nomination process and ensure our voices are heard.

After seven long years of George Bush’s arrogance and incompetence, voters are ready for a President who will chart a new course for America.  Voters are ready for a change, and our Democratic candidates are qualified and ready to lead with new ideas.
Make your voice heard and tell the country which Democrat you want see take back the White House in 2008. Vote NOW!

Your friend and fellow Democrat,

Boyd L. Richie

I hope we never forget why we celebrate Labor Day. Although the number of Union workers has fallen off sharply over the years and the influence of the working American has become much weaker vis a vis our government, we can see why the labor vote is still necessary to preserve the country.

For some reason, especially since Reagan, American workers have been misled into thinking that the things Republicans have done in breaking up unions, putting more control into the hands of international corporations, changing the tax code to favor the wealthy, turning health care into a profit-making enterprise, and so many other atrocities, are favorable to labor. All along they have been losing their middle-class status, have seen their expenses rise, and now face a world where their children will not do better than they did.

This must change and change radically. Unfortunately, the average American suffers from a sort of political Attention Deficit Disorder… their attention span is short and their response to 25 years of propaganda has made them blind to the things that liberals have tried to bring to their favor.  I consider it a function of the expanding blogosphere to bring this change about, competing openly with the Limbaugh world.

The continued corruption of Republicans has brought a new sensitivity to this need for change which we must take advantage of… not by pushing out our own misleading propaganda, but by continuing to speak truth to the lies of corporations, lobbyists, Bushies and the rest of the right.

Have a nice Labor Day and don’t forget to express your views to the politicians soliciting your votes and support at local parades and events.

Under the LobsterScope

My father, who lived through World War Two, always thought Hogan’s Heroes was disrespectful and frivolous. It didn’t take the war seriously. But I have always had a soft spot for literature and film that makes light of war. Whether it was M*A*S*H, Dr. Strangelove, or Catch-22, I like to see war portrayed as absurd. Even when it is justified, it is absurd. Many Vietnam movies tackle the issue, none more poignantly than Apocalypse Now. I think we have a real life example that speaks volumes in today’s Washington Post. This could be straight out of Joseph Heller. It relates an incident that occurred during a congressional delegation consisting of Reps. Ellen Tauscher of California, Jim Moran of Virginia, and Jon Porter of Nevada.

At one point, the three were trying to discuss the state of Iraqi security forces with Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, but the large, flat-panel television set facing the official proved to be a distraction. Rubaie was watching children’s cartoons.

When Moran asked him to turn it off, Rubaie protested with a laugh and said, “But this is my favorite television show,” Moran recalled.

Porter confirmed the incident, although he tried to paint the scene in the best light, noting that at least they had electricity.

“I don’t disagree it was an odd moment, but I did take a deep breath and say, ‘Wait a minute, at least they are using the latest technology, and they are monitoring the world,’ ” Porter said. “But, yes, it was pretty annoying.”

Yesterday, I wrote about Porter’s assertion that a withdrawal from Iraq will cause $9/gallon gas. Rep. Porter seems intent on making a total fool out of himself. In fact, he’s quickly becoming as ridiculous as Major Major.