Let's Hope the GOP Bastards Are On the Run

I love the fact that the American people reacted with appropriate scorn to the proposal floated by Republicans that the government give people who are paying $70 dollars to fill up their gas tanks every few days, a $100 rebate to make up for the obscene profits of the oil industry at a time when the federal government is run by a couple of shills for the big oil. Does this say everything that needs to be said about Bill Frist (out of whose office this ridiculous proposal came)? How out of touch can you be to propose a $100 pay off? Even Rush Limbaugh scoffed at it and remarked something like: Who do they think we are? A bunch of whores?

I hope people are finally starting to wake up to just what this Bush/Cheney/Halliburton crowd is all about. Let's hope.

Oh, I finally had to call the office of the Georgia Democratic Party to find out, but there is somebody running in the 11th District of Georgia against Phil Gingrey. He has an acceptable website (the address for which I'll include later).

Let's hope the Bastards are on the run.

Rummy Should Be Indicted

In an article from Oneworld.net, Haider Rizvi argues that Rumsfeld should be indicted for his involvement in torture in Guantanamo. See the article:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041906A.shtml

John Nichols (of the Nation Magazine) argues that Rummy is not the point. The focus should be on Bush.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=78070

The Benefits of War in Iran for Republicans

For a good article about the advantages to the Republicans of starting a war with Iran, see:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041206F.shtml

I am in tax hell.

What the Bastards are Up To Today

What budget cuts are doing to the monitoring of rivers and streams.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/science/11stream.html?th&emc=th

Gonzalez "seemed to confirm" that Bush was spying on Americans talking to Americans domestically. What a shock.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/opinion/11tue2.html?th&emc=th

Go Ahead, Who Will Believe You? The Leak Story

To get behind the unhelpful corporate media coverage of the Plame leak relevations by Libby, see this report from Tom Paine.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/10/blowing_cheneys_cover.php

Interesting story on the attempt by the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton administration to silence climate researchers who want to talk about uncomfortable global warming.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040502150_pf.html

Monday Morning Cheer

The weekend news coverage has been full of the article by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. It is terrifying to think about this possibility, but has crossed my mind before. With the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton approval ratings so low, starting another war probably seems to be the perfect solution. After all, that’s what pumped their popularity before. I hate to say it, but they are just that crazy.

Reuters is reporting this morning that the U.S. military has been conducting a propaganda campaign to inflate the importance of al-Zarqawi in destabilizing Iraq. Raw Story is reporting that Monday’s front page of the Washington Post will carry a story citing intelligence officials who question the military’s use of Zarqawi for "propagandistic" purposes.

The Post article also, reportedly, notes a "selective leak" which was given to a New York Times reporter regarding the importance of Zarqawi in Iraq. But, true to form, the military is dutifully denying that they tried to manipulate the press. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt is quoted as saying: "We trusted (the reporter) to write an accurate story, and we gave him a good scoop."
For the Raw Story article, go to:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Some_military_intelligence_officials_question_propagandistic_0409.html

This campaign to control the media has been a priority of the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton administration. Manipulation in Iraq only matches the manipulation of ideology in the U.S. Oh, has anybody finally started calling it a "civil war" yet?

Due in part to the focus on Iraq and the Middle East, Latin America has gotten some breathing room and has been electing leftist governments. Reuters is reporting that Ollanta Humala, who "vowed a revolution to redistribute Peru’s wealth to the Andean poor" was doing well in the three-way race for president. Go Ollanta. See the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060410/ts_nm/peru_election_dc_16

In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez is threatening to throw out the U.S. ambassador.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4894478.stm

The immigration debate is still in the news this morning given the organization of various demonstrations all over the country. Grass roots organizing is grass roots organizing and demonstrations are demonstrations. It can’t, or shouldn’t make the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton crowd happy to see all this mobilization. People on the streets. My, my. Mobilizing begets mobilization.

The typical American "anti furriner" sentiment is on display this morning from callers to CSPAN.

One caller complained that when he went into Walmart, the employees wouldn’t speak English. "It sounds like a bunch of chickens chattering." He said.

Texas is "infested" with Mexicans, said another. This was from a Mexican-American. So, even self-described Mexican Americans are now anti furriner?

It is so much easier for people to focus their aggression and frustration on an identifiable group - the outsider - than it is to read and study and realize that the people who are f...... up their lives are in power.

Speaking of which...the current Bush/Cheney/Halliburton dodge about the Libby leak is that Bush authorized Libby to declassify information but did not authorize him to leak it to reporters. Right. Well, that satisfies me.

David Broder, columnist for the Washington Post, is on CSPAN this morning. He is making the point that because of redistricting, fewer and fewer Congresspeople have to worry about their voting records. As Mark Crispin Miller pointed out over the weekend, the Republicans have to cheat to win because their policies are so goddamn unpopular. With all this redistricting, they have the freedom to please the interests who are funding their campaigns. I, for one, am hoping that this mobilization will change some of that.

To the best of my knowledge, Phil Gingrey (read the bastard) is still running unopposed in the 11th district in Georgia. I have emailed the Democratic Party in Georgia to complain with no response. Where are they?

Well, I have to go do my taxes, figure out how much of my money is going to help rich people buy vacations and buy furniture for congressmen and fund an illegal war that I disagree with and help Halliburton make higher profits. I get so mad at tax time, my husband threatens every year in April to leave home. We do not make $500,000 a year and so didn't get any tax cuts from the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton criminal enterprise.

What's Up Today

Due to public pressure, FEMA has shifted some contracts to small firms and intends to award them through competitive bidding. This means that hugh engineering firms like Bechtel will not get each and every cent spent on rebuilding after Rita and Katrina. The reliance on the small firms, more experienced in the field, and competitive bidding should have been going on from the first. Anyone can look up the connections between companies like Bechtel and the Bush crowd. See the full article about this at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/washington/08fema.html?th&emc=th

71 killed in Iraq yesterday, but the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton administration says that everything is just grand.

By the way, I turned on the television yesterday to see George W. Bush standing at a podium holding a pair of black silk panties. What's that about?

I've Been Thinking of Running for Office

I’ve been thinking about running against Phil Gingrey. Ever since I found out he was running unopposed for the House seat in the eleventh district, I have been unable to think of anything else.

Unopposed. This guy, is running unopposed. The obscenity of that just astounds me. Phil Gingrey voted against requiring reports on U.S. secret prisons. He voted to suppress an inquiry on the Iraq war. He voted against investigating U.S. torture in Iraq and in the war on terror. He called the prison in Guantanamo a "model detention facility." Phil Gingrey accepted money from Jack Abramoff and says he has no plans to return them. He has called Tom DeLay a "great leader." That’s just what we know about him. God knows what else he’s done.

And they are going to allow him to run unopposed, like they are giving him a present of the 11th District, my district. I feel insulted.

Given the importance of the November elections, how can the Democratic Party allow any Republican anywhere to run unopposed?

I guess, the same democratic party that left Russ Feingold hanging out to dry last week in the Senate hearings on his resolution to censure Bush. What a bunch of weak sisters they can be.
Somebody ought to run against Gingrey if for no other reason, to make him stand up and defend his abysmal record and the record of the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton administration.
I would love to be the one to do it, but I can’t.

I can’t even write a few paragraphs without demonstrating why. First, in case you didn’t notice, I have opinions. In this culture the word "opinionated" is derogatory, especially when applied to women.

That’s the second reason why I can’t run. I’m a woman. And, this is a misogynistic culture. Just look how bent out of shape people are at the prospect that Hillary Clinton might run for president. The men, like Chris Matthews and Bill O’Reilly, can’t help holding their private parts every time they talk about it. And, there are a lot of women who hate women even more than men.

The third reason I can’t run for office is that I don’t believe in organized religion. I think a person’s character is demonstrated in the way he or she lives, not in where they are on a Sunday morning. For some reason, people seem to believe that going to church or using God’s name fourteen times in every political speech means you will behave like a Christian when every bit of empirical evidence indicates otherwise. Tom DeLay gave a speech in late March in which he implied that God, Jesus, the founding fathers and the bible were on his side. And we have seen how that turned out.

Fourth, I have had a life. I have not spent 55 years in a closet minding my manners and limiting my experience. I have traveled, experimented (and inhaled), explored and been married to several men. I don’t even think a man could get away with living a real life and running for public office and certainly not a woman. All these squeaky clean people that folks vote into office are only squeaky clean because they haven’t been caught yet. At least I’ve sewn my wild oats rather than storing them up so that they come spilling out once I get into office.
Fifth, I say what I think. You ask me what I think about something and I’ll tell you. I have been described as "suicidally honest," a real death knell for any politician in this day and time.

Sixth, I get mad. I am furious with the way the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton crowd has run this country into the ground in the past six years, the way they have lied and squandered our money, granted no-bid contracts to their buddies, among other things. I am outraged by their torture and wiretapping and I have nothing but contempt for people like Phil Gingrey who carry their water for them. It not be possible for me to stand around saying "my esteemed colleague Phil Gingrey" and the like. And, as you know, being "angry" is a seriously negative charge that has been leveled against Hillary Clinton already. If I were Hillary Clinton and some Republican accused me of being "angry" I would say "Hell yes, I’m angry. I’m livid." See what I mean?

Seventh, having lived in different parts of the world, I have respect for people outside this country. I don’t necessarily think that we have all the answers. There are other ways of organizing society and we should look at them.

For example, I do not think that the function of government is to be a management board for corporate interests, a mechanism for transferring public money to private use. I think government should work to maximize the opportunity, fulfillment, economic security and productivity of each and every person no matter how young or old, no matter what race, ethnic group, sexual orientation or social class. I do not believe that it is the function of government to help rich people get richer. I do not believe that government should use the tax money of the average Jo/e to subsidize corporate profits. I do not believe that making money is the end all and be all of life.

And that brings up the final reason why I can’t run for public office. I don’t have any money. The way we allow the private financing of campaigning for public office ensures that only the wealthy, representing the interests of the wealthy, need apply.

I hear people say that a candidate with money at least won’t be stealing it from the public, but everybody with sense knows better than that. People with money just want more money. And I have come to believe that people don’t go into government and then become corrupted. They are corrupt beforehand and they go into government because they know that’s where they will be in the position to maximize their take.

You might think that having no personal fortune would be a recommendation for public office. It would mean that you were not so concerned with material wealth that you spent your entire life accumulating it. It would also mean that you would have some affinity with the average person. But, in this country, money is the first qualification. People like Kathryn Harris can make it seem like they are doing something laudable by using their own personal fortune to buy themselves a public office they have already demonstrated themselves to be unworthy of.
But, I guess I’m just "reality based" another derogatory term when applied by the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton crowd.

So, I can’t run against Phil Gingrey even though it would give me great pleasure to beat the socks off him. It’s a shame though. I had even decided how I’d end every speech.

"I’m __________________. I can’t be bullied and I can’t be bought and I’m asking you for your vote."