Another Product of Republican Enlightment?

No comment from me could make this more edifying or satisfying!

Swift-boating Hagel

Crooks and Liars boldly predicted that Sunday's criticism of Our Naked Emperor by Senator Chuck Hagel would unleash the attack dogs of the Right Wing Radio and TV Yakkers. They were absolutely right. On the local AM station owned by a right wing kook, Laura Ingraham led off the day accusing Hagel of being an emotionally unstable publicity hound and spent her first hour "poking fun" and doing her best to deconstruct Hagel while carefully ignoring what the man actually said yesterday. Rush Limbaugh,conveniently forgetting Hagel's actual battlefield experience compared to his own actual avoidance of hands-on military experience, was especially vicious and ranted the entire time I listened about Hagel's hate for America and blind ambition. Such a patriot! Strangely, O'Reilly spared little vitriole for Hagel, still stewing and ranting over Cindy Sheehan. I leave it to others to report on the other yakkers.

Proof of the Danger of Mixing Politics and Religion

Presumably there are thousands who watch Pat Robertson and send him money and believe his pronouncements are inspired by God. How can one exaggerate the gall of a television preacher who thinks he know so much about international relations that he would call for the assassination of a foreign leader? How can you trust the honesty of a preacher who would claim that Chavez was elected, deposed by popular will, and then reinstated in defiance of popular will? Where is the slightest evidence that there is any "Muslim influence" in Venezuela? Hugo Chavez has his warts, but is a threat to the moneyed class of the United States only because he is a proponent of land reform, a populist, and an OPEC hawk. Being an OPEC hawk is in the highest tradition of capitalism because he is advocating the highest possible price for oil, like our buddy, Prince Bandar. You might expect the Republicans to be proposing him for the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Before anyone believes Wingnut Robertson on this topic, it would be a good idea to do a little research on Venezuela and Hugo Chavez. Wikipedia tells a similar story, so what possible motive can Reverend Robertson have other than to get rid of an oil hawk, punish anyone who is friendly with ogre Castro, and comfort the rich of Venezuela and their rich American friends at ExxonMobile. Scarey!

Casey Sheehan and George Bush

Casey Sheehan, former Eagle Scout and good Marine, is dead and that is a waste. His mother is mourning and being vilified for complaining about the cynical expenditure of his very being. He was raised with American values--loyalty to family and friends, patriotism, and standing for one's principles. And, because of his principles, he is dead.

Well, not entirely because of his principles. He was sacrificed by people who did not, judging by their actions, share his principles. His president obtained, through family and political connections, a place in the Texas Air National Guard and did not go into harm's way. Karl Rove did not go. Paul Wolfowitz did not go. Dick Cheney did not go. Donald Rumsfeld did not go. They are alive and sending other people's children into harm's way, but not their own. In fact, they and their friends are enjoying tax cuts and very nice capital gains, assuming they are invested in ExxonMobile and Halliburton.

Casey Sheehan will never tap his feet to rock and roll, vacation in Hawaii, walk through a graduation line, look into the face of a daughter, or walk into a voting booth. What a great loss for his family! We will never completely realize what we all have lost in the one thousand eight hundred and counting young lives we are spending in Iraq. Compared to what Casey Sheehan and each of those other one thousand eight hundred and counting Americans lost, our loss is nothing because each of them lost everything.

I am a fifty-eight year old white male who has lived almost forty years that Casey Sheehan will NEVER live, an old man who realizes and mourns the fact that Casey Sheehan has been robbed of his life for no good reason. His death was in vain, but it is important to note that it is a rationalization by the living to even make the "not in vain" claim. We need to set about the business of mourning for those who have lost every thing, and for those who have been maimed, and for the spiritual cost of the egotistical adventure that "shock and awe" has boiled down to. And, yes, by God, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition. We need to get the rest of our young people safely home as soon as possible and set about dealing with terrorism by aggressively minding our own business, aggressively finding sources of energy other than fossil fuels, and paying attention to growing democracy in this country.

George "Intelligent Design" Bush

Does reading about the buffoonery of the Bush-men make you want to drink liberally? Well, tonight is the night. The theme tonight is"

Bush Could Use a Lesson in Intelligent Design

Recently, Bush said schools should teach "intelligent design."

Since then, the GOP designed an energy bill
that doesn't give us energy independence,
reduce prices at the pump or promote conservation.

Events in Iraq have continued to demonstrate
that Bush's team designed an invasion
without enough troops & with no exit strategy.

And in the midst of it all,
Bush designed himself a nice long vacation.

Their intelligence has been bad; their designs worse.
Maybe teaching "intelligent design" is a good idea
...our own administration could use a lesson in it.

Escape the GOP's designs
and share intelligent imbibing
with like-minded, evolution-endorsing lefties
at our weekly liberal drinking club.

Getting closer to a hundred chapters every day...

Eloquence on Iraq, Taxes, and a Draft

This article by Mark Shields drives home the reality that the people who wanted this war, who cooked up a pretext and marketing program to sell it, and those who put them in power are neither fighting and dying in it nor paying for it. Just as it is now being fought by the children of those who work for a living, it will be paid for by the ones who survive and come home and work and pay taxes. Not a penny of estate, I mean DEATH, tax will go to pay for this war on behalf of the oil companies. The ironic thing is that dying in wars like this is the only DEATH TAX people who work for a living have to worry about. Thank God Bush saved Paris Hilton from worry about that other death tax.

A Government of Wolves

I ran across this quotation by Bertrand de Jouvenal while I was reading about Cindy Sheehan here:

A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.

Yes, it is the perfect metaphor for the preoccupation with self that allowed our government to embroil us in the intractible mess in Iraq. The problem is that it is the metaphor for the overall Bush phenomenon. His persona must be such that a majority (in 2004, unless you are skeptical) of Americans believe they can trust him to act in thir best interests, vote for him, and then don't watch him.

Announcement: Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls! The Wolves are in Charge!

How much proof do you need? Try these for a few. There are plenty more and you are certainly invited to cite a few in the comments section.

Wolf: Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, a former lawyer for logging and oil companies and no friend of our environment, judging by her career to date.

Wolf: Recess appointee John Bolton as United Nations ambassador.

Wolf: Samuel Bodman, Secretary of Energy, formerly of Cabot Corporation, one of the nations top five polluters. Sam was a Texas buddy of W who contributed thousands of dollars to Republican causes and thousands of tons to Texa's air pollution. See here.

Wolf at the door: Clear Skies Act amounts to a license to pollute more.

Wolf at the door: The new federal bankruptcy law will protect Visa and Mastercard from us shiftless consumers, while allowing banks to continue to be irresponsible about to whom they extend credit and to charge usurious interest rates by both Old and New Testament standards.

Wolf at the Door: Medicare legislation of 2003.

When Demogogues Confuse Science and Religion

That great intellect, George W(hat, ME worry?) Bush, has declared that schools should teach "intelligent design" as a scientific theory alongside evolution. Maybe we should just submit science to a new age of Inquisition and bring back witchcraft trials for scientists. Bush and his band of cynical billionaires have won millions of votes by pretending to share beliefs with religious fundamentalists. This particular statement is intended to remind fundamentalists that the W is on their side, whatever that is. Going back to the Scopes trial in 1925, religious people who could not square the theory of evolution with their own religious belief in the inerrancy of every word in the Bible have expected government to make scientific theorists and science teachers either shut up about evolution or teach their religious beliefs as competing science. Intelligent Design is an unscientific belief and therefore has no place in science classes. Modern science readily admits that it does not have all the answers, but rightly claims to attempt objectivity. The folks demanding "intelligent design" in the curriculum are attempting anything but objectivity.