Family values, GOP-style

"Marriage is the most important social institution in human history. . . "

David Vitter, Alliance for Marriage Press Conference

Nice talk. But wait.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case.
. . .
The service's proprietor, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 51, faces federal charges of racketeering for allegedly running a prostitution ring out of homes and hotel rooms in the Washington area.
. . .
During his Senate campaign, Vitter was accused by a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee of carrying on a lengthy affair with a prostitute in New Orleans' French Quarter.

In a radio interview, Vitter then called the allegation "absolutely and completely untrue" and dismissed it as "just crass Louisiana politics."

Senator's Number on 'Madam' phone list

I'm having a hard time figuring out if Vitter is more of a serial adulter than he is a pathological liar.

The neocon mindset

Glenn Greenwald is, with Billmon inactive, far and away the best blogger on the internet.

His missive about the neocon mindset is must-read material for anybody that wants to know about the reason the political discussion in America is so dysfunctional.

There's an old saying, "Never argue with an utter fool, people might not be able to tell the difference."

The reasoning of the far right is beyond idiotic. And the most infuriating part about them is that there is no amount of reality that will crack the delusion. They make the "know-nothing party" look well informed. It's that bad.

'Bout damn time

As I sit and blog the U.S. Senate is in all-night session due to a republican filibuster against the Levin-Reed amendment, and an up-or-down vote on troop levels in the Iraq war. Harry Reid has forced the GOP hand and made them stay in session all night for debate.

It's about damn time the Democrats made the republicans put their mouths with their money is.

The facts:

• The American people want congress to do something;
• The House of Representatives has passed legislation the American people want;
• The Senate majority wants to respond to the will of the people;
• The GOP minority is denying the will of the people through guerrilla political prodecure.

The Republicans, in my opinion, are asking for electoral extinction by going "all-in" for Bush's Iraq debacle.

The Democrats need to be as aggressive as possible informing the general public that it is the republicans that are keeping their will from being enacted. If they succeed the GOP will soon lack the votes to sustain a filibuster.

Email observation

From my email box:

"The usual determinants of election results are which candidate is hated the most or which candidate is the most distrusted."

There is a shred of truth to this. It explains why there is so much money and effort spent on negative advertising and smear campaigning.

George H.W. Bush was very successful at this in 1988 with Willie Horton. And the Swiftboat Liars succeeded with the smear in 2004.

Unfortunately, many of the same people that decry partisan rancor and the poison political atmosphere are the same hypocrites that acknowledge and practice the smears and negativity.

The truth about the Democratic congress

Steve Soto says it:

And to our troll critics who sat on their asses and supported their do-nothing GOP Congress for six years, please note that Pelosi has tackled and passed every one of her "100 Hours" agenda items in her first six months, including today's vote on an Iraq withdrawal. The only thing stopping enactment of most of these popular measures is the obstructionist do-nothing GOP caucus in the Senate, and a president with a 26% approval rating who is stalling for January 2009.

Pelosi Gets April Withdrawal Bill Passed

This is a message that should get out, far and wide. The Dem grass roots need to pound this point from now until election day 2008: "We get it done, they still do nothing."

Laffingstock

Read the whole post, it's very good. But the end is so succinct it bears repeating:

A junior high school geometry student would be embarrassed to produce work like this. But not the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Or the American Enterprise Institute, which created it in the first place. They apparently think their readers are too dumb to see what they're doing. Why their readership puts up with this obvious contempt for their intelligence is a question for another day.

I've been saying the Journal's degenerated from a leading news outlet to shameful right wing shill for years. Kevin Drum wrapped up my thinking exactly.

Damn liberal spooks

The spooks say:

Counterterrorism analysts produced the document, titled "Al-Qaida better positioned to strike the West." The document pays special heed to the terror group's safe haven in Pakistan and makes a range of observations about the threat posed to the United States and its allies, officials said.

Al-Qaida is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," the official said, paraphrasing the report's conclusions.

al-Qaida Has Rebuilt, U.S. Intel Warns

The Decider says:

"There is a perception in the coverage that Al Qaeda may be as strong today as they were prior to September the 11th. That's just simply not the case.

Bush Rejects Claim Al Qaeda Is as Strong as It Was Prior to 9/11

Bush is doing two things here that should be noted:

1. He is trying to blame the media (the liberal media, no doubt) for the report. Truth is, the report is very even-handed saying it's the spooks making the claim regarding the current state of al Qaeda. Bush's duplicity should surprise nobody, given that republicans have been blaming "the media" for everything they don't like since Truman.
2. He's directly calling the intelligence officers liars. This is the kind of thing that should cause both Bush and the CIA to put up. Somebody is lying, either Bush or the counterterrorism analyists. The liar(s) should be held accountable.

Today's best call for impeachment

From Steve Clemons:

Democracy has become a term derided in much of the world today because for many beleaguered peoples it has come to mean Western duplicity, uneven standards between the mighty and the weak, an excuse for invasion and occupation, a code word for regime change, or obsessive focus on ballots rather than healthy civil society institutions like courts and a free media that help to keep power accountable.

If 'Democracy' is ever going to shed its bad name, accountability must be one of its fundamental pillars in any genuine system of checks and balances. There should be a price paid for serious errors by national leaders -- and an even higher price paid by those who wield power with impunity and who lie to their publics in so-called democracies.

I could have fumed for days thinking about this, knowing there MUST be a way to say what I felt needed saying. Clemons did it, and I'm sure it didn't take hours. He's that good.

Protection

The vote in the Senate on the Webb amendment could not make any more clear the objective each party has as it's top priority:

• Democrats protect the troops
• Republicans protect the president

It's that simple. Raising Kaine pretty much nails it.

The never-ending blindness

Delusional freeper Cliff May:

Contrary to what you’ve read in the newspapers, we are not debating whether to “change course” in Iraq. We are debating whether to accept defeat in Iraq.

Contrary to what you’ve seen on television, there is no way for us to “end the war.” If we retreat from Iraq, the war will not just continue but expand. The only difference is that a battlefield on which we are now killing our enemies will be transformed into a base from which our enemies can safely plan to kill us.

May's just wrong. Our continued presence in Iraq has nothing to do with winning or losing, except in the neocons' minds. They so very much hoped Iraq would be the victory that would wipe away the legacy of defeat that has stayed with them from Vietnam. Iraq was to be the place the Vietnam score would be settled.

But Paul Hackett has been right. There is nothing to accomplish by staying. There are no military objectives. By staying we sustain what is, to the area, a destabilizing presence while putting American soldiers into the crossfire of a civil war between ethnic factions.

Only the neocons think America's global reputation is on the line. The rest of the world already knows we have the capability to do extensive damage with our military firepower, and it despises the misuse of that power. Our international reputation is no longer on the line.

May's second paragraph is nothing more than a tired recitation of the sophistic "Flypaper Theory," and is not worthy of further debunking. The righties have been using this one since they decided to tool up for the Iraq war, and it makes no more sense now than it did then.

It's time to re-enter the fray

The immortal blogger Billmon, just before shutting down his blog, recalled Thoreau's famous question to Ralph Waldo Emerson after the former had been jailed for refusing to pay the poll tax as a protest against slavery:

Emerson: What are you doing in there, Henry?

Thoreau: No, Waldo, the question is: What are you doing out there?

Well, the time has come to re-enter the discussion. The time has come for the concerned citizens to defend the constitution that the current administration so flippantly ignores and treads. The time has come for all who can to raise a clamor against the sophistry of the right wing noise machine and show all those that are willing to approach the situation with an open mind what hypocritical liars inhabit the GOP side of the aisle. And if the Democrats in office are unwilling to pursue the matters at hand, it's time to expose them for the gutless cowards they are.

And if anybody knows what happened to Billmon, please lleave a comment.

King George W subverts Senate advice

Seems George W. Bush can't be bothered with the constraints imposed by the constitution he pledged to "preserve, protect and defend."

His 17 recess appointments announced Wednesday are further evidence of his determination to institutionalize cronyism and incompetence in the Federal government.

Several of these appointees weren't even scheduled for Senate confirmation hearings. Bush seems to have learned one thing: His unqualified political hack appointees will no longer pass Senate muster.

In comparison to Bush's stampede of the 4th Amendment by his illegal spying on Americans, this seems to be a minor issue. But it's further evidence that he must be impeached to save the constitution.

Spying on Americans

The right has sought to justify warrantless (illegal) spying on Americans by the NSA/FBI since the New York Times broke the story (after sitting on it for more than a year!).

The justification seems to be that it's okay to toss out the fourth amendment of the constitution to spy on American citizens that might be terrorists (or catholics with communistic leanings, or vegans or animal rights activists).

My take: IT IS NEVER JUSTIFIED FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO BYPASS THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!!

George W. Bush has admitted consenting to these illegal searches. He has, in fact, admitted to impeachable crimes and must be held accountable by congress.

If he is not, cowardice and paranoia will have won out.