Fear and Loathing in the Right Wing

Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution makes a good point in his Oct. 18 blog entry: the GOP is indeed terrified of American voters.

The Republican Party thrives on fear. They want you afraid of Muslims and afraid of Arabs, afraid of immigrants and even Spanish-speaking Americans. They want you afraid of gays, afraid of the homeless, afraid of taxes, afraid of liberals, afraid of voter fraud. and afraid of Democrats. They especially want you afraid of Barack Obama.

But if there's one thing they're afraid of, it's American voters. Why else have they disenfranchised millions of legitimate voters? They know that if the people's will is expressed in 16 days, their reign of terror is over. Our national nightmare is, after all, their most cherished dream: permanent one-party rule.

So... what can I say? Piss off a Republican - vote!

A ridiculous man

This sums things up rather well:

I sincerely believe that the biggest difference between Bush and McCain is that Bush has sociopathic tendencies. He either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about what cost his actions may bring to others. In the middle of the current financial crisis, he claimed that he was glad he was at the helm when it occurred; never once considering the fact that he and his minions were largely responsible for it. If Alfred E. Neuman found Jesus, he’d be re-christened “Bush.”

I believe McCain knows what he’s doing. Maybe, he even regrets it. That makes him the sadder of the two and, also, the more dangerous. He has built a career on lies and exaggerations and, now, he somewhat believes them. Like most spoiled kids, he has lived in a bubble. Today, he’s not only battling his own demons but the new and ugly presence of reality.

With his Cryptkeeper’s grin and his total lack of empathy for the “regular folks” he champions, McCain has resorted to the kind of campaign ethics Karl Rove made famous – only he’s screwed it up.

- Ed Naha

The GOP plan to "Block the Vote"

If this effort succeeds in stealing the White House again, by disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters, there will be rioting in the streets.

In this light, you can see the ACORN flap for what it is: just one piece of a scheme to do anything and everything - ethics and constitutionality be damned - to keep Democrats from voting. Pathetic? Pathological.

McCain campaign incites terrorism

The DoD defines terrorism as:

The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.

The US code reads: 

the term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents;

Either definition easily applies to what is going on right now, provoked at least in part by the scurrilous lies being bandied about by the right concerning ACORN:

An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.

Attorneys for the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now were notifying the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division of the incidents, said Brian Kettenring, a Florida-based spokesman for the group.

Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, have verbally attacked the group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although they've provided little proof. It was disclosed Thursday that the FBI is examining whether thousands of fraudulent voter-registration applications submitted by some ACORN workers were part of a systematic effort or isolated incidents.

Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she "is going to have her life ended."

A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9," then uttered racial epithets, he said.

When is the McCain campaign going to realize that the sick, irresponsible attacks they are making on Obama, ACORN, and their political opponents in general, are fomenting hatred and violence? There is a breakdown in the moral fiber of our country underway, and McCain and Palin have become the leading cheerleaders for it. It's time for Americans to say "enough is enough."

Quote of the week

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president."
- Sen. John McCain

Two Minutes Hate

Was George Orwell a prophet, or is this really footage from a McCain-Palin rally?

BushCo vs. the planet - same old same old

One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite Texans goes like this:

There are three things you never want to see:

• Water coming out of your electrical sockets.
• Flames shooting out of your sock drawer.
• A press release coming out of the White House that begins: "The Bush administration today announced revised standards for..."

- Jim Hightower - Thieves In High Places

Jim is right, as usual. As proof, I offer this.

The stated purpose of the proposed rule "Amending the Formats of the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants" is to enhance the clarity of the lists of endangered and threatened species. However, the rule's title and its complicated legalese disguise the fact that it instead proposes regulatory changes would make significant changes in the way endangered species are listed and habitat is protected.

If in place at the time, this rule may have stopped the listing and protection of the bald eagle, Canada lynx, grizzly bear, brown pelican, the gray wolf and the jaguar. The proposed rule narrowly defines "the geographic area where the species is listed for purposes of the Act." This deceptively simple change could be interpreted to limit the area that endangered species will be protected only to their current range, which is usually drastically smaller than their historic range.

Of course it's hardly the first time Bush has quietly moved to undercut the law of the land by executive fiat. And between John McCain's silence on Bush's gutting of the ESA and his attempts to ridicule as wasteful a Montana Grizzly Bear study that is likely to save the government millions of dollars on the one hand, and Sarah Palin's attempts to block protection for Polar Bears on the other - not to mention their mutual obsession with promoting offshore drilling - there's ample evidence that under four more years of the Republican regime, things would be likely to continue going from bad to worse for the environment. Like McCain's ad says, Washington is broken and he knows it. He damned well ought to - he's participated in the breaking.

41 years later, King's words ring true

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

A Time To Break Silence

Martin Luther King, Jr.

April, 1967

Quote of the month

...or maybe of the year:

Now, when I heard George Bush was reading my emails, I probably had the same reaction you did: George Bush can read?! Yes, he can. And this administration has read your phone records, credit card statements, mail, Internet logs. I can't tell if they're fighting a war on terror or producing the next season of "Cheaters." I mail myself a copy of the Constitution every morning just on the hope they'll open it and see what it says.

- Bill Maher, "New Rules" (Real Time, 3/16/2007)