Right about now, the Senate should be voting on confirming Samuel Alito as the newest Supreme Court Justice. I don’t need to tell you what this means to the country. In much the same way that many Americans thought it was no big deal to vote for George W. Bush the first and second times (what’s the worst that could happen?), and are now finding out exactly what that vote meant for America, it will take some time before America realizes how serious the ramifications are of having this guy in the Supreme Court.

As a friend of mine pointed out, it is Bush’s right (as the semi-president) to nominate whomever he wishes to the position. The problem with this nominee is that he is not only Bush’s second choice — meant to appease the right-wing, which went on the attack after Harriet Miers was nominated first — but that his appointment swings the balance of the Supreme Court to positions which most Americans oppose.

This statement by Senator Ted Kennedy puts this nomination in perspective, both from a present-day standtpoint, as well as an historical one.

The Supreme Court has been the last refuge for many causes throughout the past several decades. It has been responsible for pushing the country forward toward equality and justice when America as a whole considered tradition more important that those two qualities. With the appointment of Samuel Alito, a justice who has shown a desire for chipping away at civil rights hard-earned through blood, America has entered a very dark era. The balance has shifted, most likely for the next twenty or thirty years. I’m going to try to keep an open mind, but as I look around at my co-workers and at the people simply going about their day, I wonder if they realize what has happened today? It might seem like only a pebble thrown into a pond right now… We’ll have to wait to see how large the waves become. My fear is that two decades from now we’ll look back and clearly see the beginnings of a tsunami that devastated what was once a shining symbol of justice and hope in the world.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

General | No Comments »

Here’s the problem with electing a guy who “you’d like to have a beer with.” Actually, there are a lot of problems with it, but the key one is that Bush evidently cannot read, or just doesn’t want to. Government agencies spend millions of dollars and lots of time generating these quick briefs for Bush to read (or have read to him), and it appears that every time some kind of imminent danger is approaching, he’s not paying attention. Anyone remember “Bin Laden Determined To Strike Within U.S.?”

The latest is this article in the New York Times that says Bush was alerted by the Department of Homeland Security that “[New Orleans] would probably soon be inundated with floodwater, forcing the long-term relocation of hundreds of thousands of people.”

Three days later Bush appeared in an interview with Diane Sawyer where he tried to answer for the complete and total inaction by government to help the citizens of New Orleans. He offered many excuses, among them, “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.” That was the key… No one anticipated this. Of course, later we heard all the stories about how the budget for finishing the levees had been pushed back and pushed back, amidst the cries of danger from the local representatives living there who knew that there would be serious consequences if a hurricane struck before the levees were finished.

Lies, lies, more lies, and endless coverups to erase the tracks behind the lies. I wonder if the south has finally had enough of Republicans, or at least of Neo-Cons dressed in Republican clothes. Hillary was right. This administration will go down as one of the most corrupt and worst administrations in US History.

So either Bush can’t read, or he doesn’t want to read, or he doesn’t want to be read to. How else can you explain this? That he’s just plain evil and didn’t care if 1300 people died in New Orleans? I can’t imagine that’s the answer. Perhaps it’s just pure incompetence. Bush fiddled while New Orleans drowned.

It didn’t have to be this way. 1300 more families have lost loved ones because some people thought it would be a good idea to have a guy in office who “you’d like to have a beer with.”

General | No Comments »

Each time we hear the phrase, “we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here,” we should remember that there are real people dying in Iraq. These are real people who had real lives and real families who did not need to die. We can not forgive those terrorists who are doing the killing, but we are as much responsible for starting something that we can not finish — for starting something that did not need to be started. Reading this today really brings this home. There are good people everywhere, just trying to live their lives. We have no business inflicting our world views and religions on others.

General | No Comments »

Air America has just launched a Premium Service where you can subscribe to Podcasts of any show, or stream them on demand. Very cool. I’m already a subscriber. Now, instead of listening to Randi Rhodes from 3-7, I can listen to the previous day’s Majority Report, Mike Malloy Show, or Air America Mornings.

General | No Comments »

Heard this on the Majority Report last night. In a day when we’re learning that the armor that our soldiers were given for the war in Iraq was substandard, and that 70% of fatalities could’ve been prevented, I hardly think this is appropriate… The pentagon is apparently all behind telling the families to just laugh off any stress they may be feeling when their family members are over in Iraq. If this is a joke, it’s not funny.

General | No Comments »

Strange that I should come across this article today about how someone wants the Washington Post to correct a piece that ran saying that Grand GOP Lobbying King, Jack Abramoff gave to Democrats as well as Republicans (apparently, he didn’t). Just the other day I was listening to Sean Hannity who was claiming that the Democrats were trying to make the Abramoff scandal into a purely-GOP scandal, even though Abramoff gave to Democrats as well as Republicans.

More lies from the Hannity. Why am I not surprised? Looks like he’s not happy with merely skewering the truth these days. I guess his thought is that when things look so bad for the GOP that there’s no escaping even by bending the truth, just lie. Just outright lie. Why am I not surprised?

General | No Comments »

I never took time out to say Happy New Year, so I just wanted to say that now. I was looking over the stats for this here site, and it looks like there are about 500 unique visitors that come here each month, and most of you spend more than 15 minutes each visit. I just wanted to thank you, even if you agree or don’t agree with what I’m saying here. And if I haven’t yet responded to your e-mail, I’m sorry, and I will get to it. I’ve just been really bogged down with work lately. So I really hope you all have a great 2006, and here’s to retaking the House & Senate!

General | No Comments »

I recently took a couple weeks off from everything to decompress a little. My work life has gotten much more hectic, with endless deadlines, and now I’m being asked to do some work for another department (over the weekend, of course — can’t let this interfere with my “stated” job, whatever that is). Over the holidays I really tuned out from all the political talk, with the exception of the McLaughlin Group, which is the only form of religiousness to which I subscribe on a weekly basis. Spent some time with family, something I hadn’t done nearly enough in the past year, and generally tried to set my mind straight to enter 2006 with a positive attitude. It was working for the most part until I started listening to the radio and started reading the news again.

Last year I purchased a copy of The Hunting Of The President, a film based upon a book of the same name. One of the bonus features was a taped recording of Bill Clinton giving a speech at the film’s debut. Perhaps the most encouraging thing that I’ve heard in the past few years was something he said about how, given a choice throughout the decades, when America has been confronted with a question of moving backwards or moving forwards toward progress and equality, America has always eventually moved forward.

Over the vacation, I started reading The Age Of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Haynes Johnson. I had no idea how many times throughout the history of the United States that forces had gathered to severely curtail rights guaranteed by the Constitution, to stir up paranoia of enemies in our midst, and to spread suspicion on and ruin the reputation of otherwise honorable men and women. People were deported simply because someone suspected them of being a communist. Ordinances were enacted that allowed capital punishment for speaking out against the government. The age of McCarthyism starts to look like a few years at Disneyland comparatively speaking. Needless to say, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. The lesson to be learned is that, like Bill Clinton said, America eventually comes to its senses. This is just one of those times that happens every fifty years or so where honorable people have to stand up to derision — if they’re calling us anti-American, we must be doing something right. It’s just strange how the same tactics work time and again. McCarthy holds up a piece of paper that he claims contains a list of known communists, a journalist reports the speech verbatim (asking no questions), and America becomes terrified and believes the stories simply because of events that took place in its recent past. The only difference today is that we have outlets like FOX News, the Weekly Standard, the Washington Times and NewsMax that are all too willing to function as amplifiers for the GOP talking points of the day. After that, it’s easy for almost any local news outlet to pick up on the “news” and report it as truth.

If you put together all the alleged crimes that have occurred with this administration and those in power right now, it’s just really staggering that they’re still in power. White House pays reporters to toe the line on faith-based initiatives and education vouchers. White House employee (Rove, Scooter, maybe Cheney & Bush) expose a CIA operative because her husband has the gall to write a column disputing the White House’s assertion that Iraq tried to buy enriched uranium from Niger. Paul Bremer reportedly keeps a $600 million slush fund for Iraq, and another $9 billion has gone missing according to a watchdog group that conducted an audit of Iraqi funds sent from the US. An expanding Halliburton probe reveals all the no bid contracts given to Bush contributors. Let’s not even talk about all the tax cuts given to the richest Americans and wealthiest corporations in the United States. The right-wing talking heads like to claim that they’re not for “redistributing wealth.” I guess that means they’re all for redistribution if it means more money in their pockets. As long as it doesn’t go toward college grants, programs for the poor, or the middle class, they’re all for it. Why aren’t tax cuts for the wealthy considered “wealth re-distribution?” Is it a matter of how much people get back from their paycheck? Seems to me that if a millionaire gets an extra hundred thousand dollars back from the government while a minimum-wage worker who only gets a couple hundred dollars back, there’s not a whole lot of redistribution to the working class going on there. And if the majority of the so-called “surplus” went back to the richest Americans in the form of tax cuts, don’t those same people now have a larger obligation than the rest of us to help pay off the deficit? I mean, you can consider that the present deficit was largely caused by the massive Bush tax cuts to “stimulate the economy,” as well as the elective war in Iraq, plus the huge ballooning expense of creating the largest government agency known to man — the Department of Homeland Security, the funding of which now also includes lots of extra spending on all kinds of covert activities like the “Presidential Spy Plan” which I’ve yet to talk about. With the richest Americans seeming to benefit the most from the war as well — gasoline companies, defense contractors, etc. — shouldn’t they contribute a greater share toward reducing the deficit? But I digress…

A couple days ago on Sean Hannity’s show, he was bragging how he “told you first about the left-wing and the ‘I’ word (Impeach).” He said that lefties have been looking to impeach the president [sic] for years now, and they’re looking at this Jack Abramoff scandal and to tie the president [sic] to it. Not so, Sean. First of all, there’s no brilliance in predicting that liberals want to impeach Bush. That’s like saying Cheney is pure evil incarnate. We all know it’s true. The thing is, Sean, there is FAR more out there for which Bush deserves to be impeached than merely any distant or close relationship he had with the King Lobbyist for GOP Misadventures. How about lying to the nation about enriched Uranium being sought by Saddam Hussein? How about trying to claim that Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were partners-in-crime as a reason to go to war? How is it possible that guys like Sean call the “lying into war” argument a farce? How many times has Bush’s reason for warmongering changed?

And now he’s responsible for the greatest domestic spying program since, well, since I have no idea when? With today’s technology, I’d gather it’s probably the greatest domestic spying program EVER. How about that for a call to impeach? And then Dick Cheney has the nerve to go in front of the Heritage Foundation and claim that “If we’d been able to do this before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.” Yeegads. Well, Dick, how about if you, Rummy and Condi had listened to Richard Clarke, 9/11 would never have happened? How about if you hadn’t stolen an election, there would’ve been no need for a transition team, and the Gore administration would’ve “shook the trees” when getting the news that “Osama determined to strike within the US,” as Clinton’s administration had done when dealing with the Millennium Bomb plot or Project Boijinka? Yeesh.

OK, I’ve been working on this article scatteringly for a couple days now. I guess it’s time to just post it.

Interestingly enough, while searching for a link to another subject, I found this right-wing site that features an ad claiming that “we predicted everything the liberals would do regarding Alito.” Strange how proud these Neo-Cons are of their accuracy in predicting what we do. What about predictions for millions new jobs and a robust economy if Congress passed Bush’s tax cuts? What about the prediction that we’d be “greeted with flowers and candy” by Iraqi civilians?

I guess one out of three ain’t bad, but I wouldn’t put any money on it.

General | No Comments »